“So did it work?” Jihae demands as soon as she sees Suyeon and Mirae the next day.

“Definitely,” Mirae grins. “We tutored 40 people in an hour yesterday night. Even those rich kids from Daegu were blown away. Especially a certain blond-haired boy,” she adds, wriggling her eyebrows at Suyeon.

“What are you talking about?” Suyeon scoffs.

Jihae gasps. “Oh my god, Suyeon, does he like you? Date him. He’ll buy you all the lingerie you’ll ever want.”

“As tempting as that sounds, no.” Suyeon crosses her arms. “And are you referring to Sehun? He doesn’t like me. He hates both of us.”

“Uhm, hello? Did you see the way he was looking at you yesterday?” A sly look appears on Mirae’s face. “He was eyeing you like you were a pastry, like he wanted to gobble you up.”

“Ooh la la!” Jihae giggles, slapping Suyeon’s arm scandalously. “Someone has a cruuuush!”

“He does not like me!” Suyeon groans.

“Well, that’s a relief,” a deep voice behind the girls chuckles. Suyeon’s face turns bright red as she whirls around to face Hoseok. He is grinning at her, his hands tucked in his baggy black basketball shorts. When he winks at Suyeon she can feel her insides doing the macarena.

“Hey, Hoseok,” Jihae smiles. “What’s up? Did basketball practice finish early or something?”

Hoseok nods. “Yup. Coach let us off 20 minutes early because he has to go to a faculty meeting.”

“Cool.”

The tall boy turns to Suyeon. “So, we heard you and Mirae have a competition going on with two guys from Daegu?”

Suyeon nods, attempting to look cool. “Yeah. We’re trying to see who can tutor the most students in a week.”

“Really? That’s great. Actually, the guys and I are totally up for helping you girls out.”

“Whoa, really?” Suyeon grins. “That’s so nice!”

“Wait, do you mean, like, tutoring people?” Mirae cuts in. “Uh, that’s a really nice offer. But no offense, you guys aren’t-,”

“Oh, no way.” Hoseok breaks into laughter. “I’m really not smart enough for that. But the guys and I are willing to hire you to tutor us. Hopefully that’ll help you out in the competition.”

“Sure!” Suyeon squeaks in such a shrill voice that Mirae, Hoseok, and Jihae involuntarily wince. “I mean, sure. Yeah. That would be cool.”

“Those Daegu brats,” Hoseok grumbles, shaking his head. “They need someone to stick it to them. Mirae and Suyeon, you two are heroes. Make us proud, hm?”

“Definitely.” Mirae punches Suyeon on the arm. “Our goal is to crush them to the ground.”

“It’ll totally work,” Jihae interjects. “You should see these two while they’re tutoring. They’re really cute. Suyeon totally looks your type. She’s really hot.”

“Really? Hm, I’ll be looking forward to that.” Hoseok flashes Suyeon a wink. “See you around.”

After he leaves, Suyeon turns to Jihae incredulously. “How did you know that I like him?” she whispers.

Jihae rolls her eyes. “Please. If you were any more obvious, you would be shouting it from the top of the school.”

Jongin does not want to be here.

He could be tutoring students for the competition, he could be on a date, he could be doing his freaking homework. More importantly, he could be trying to identify the owner of the OCD medication he found. The orange plastic of that medicine bottle was so awfully familiar to him, the clink! of pills as he picked up the canister.

A shudder coasted through his body as he pocketed the pills. Jongin understood that he could be holding someone’s lifeline in his hands, that these circular red white tablets could very well be the barrier preventing an OCD patient from descending into insanity.

I will find the owner of this medicine, Jongin swears to himself.

But instead, he is seated next to his mother and father at Cosa de Bella, a 5-star Italian dining house. Soft jazz music croons through the restaurant as patrons dressed in designer dresses and stiff suits feast on Strangozzi al Tartufo and Tagliolini al Porcini. Jongin snorts at the word “feast”. The portion sizes are here so small, he doubts his poodle would be full after eating one.

The gentle laughter that rings through the air provides a stark contrast to the Kim family’s table right now.

“This is nice, isn’t it?” Mrs. Kim smiles, rubbing her husband’s hand. “We haven’t had any family bonding time in a while.”

“You’re right, sweetie. This is a nice chance for all of us to talk. Also, I heard the bruschetta here is great.” Mr. Kim tentatively turns to Jongin. “What do you think, Jongin?”

He shrugs, not looking at his father. “Sure.”

“Jongin, tell your dad about how you won your last basketball game,” Mrs. Kim trills, attempting to diffuse the awkward atmosphere. “You made 16 points, right?”

“Yeah,” Jongin shrugs. “It was okay.”

“Okay? That’s great!” Mr. Kim grins. “Wow, whenever I play basketball, I can’t even make 2 points. Once I hit myself in the head with the ball. I don’t know where you got these wonderful basketball player genes from.”

Mrs. Kim playfully slaps her husband’s bicep. “Hey, they’re from my side of the family.”

“Oh, of course.” Mr. Kim pecks his wife on the cheek, smiling. The corners of her eyes crinkle in pleasure.

Jongin views his parents with unrest. How are they able to interact with each other so normally? How can his mother stand the actions of her husband, when she knows what he is capable of?

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Jongin announces, throwing down his napkin. He storms off towards the back of the restaurant, his parents staring after him in concern.

“Is he okay?” Mrs. Kim murmurs in a worried tone. “I-,”

“Don’t worry, honey. I’ll get him.” Mr. Kim makes his way after Jongin.

When he enters the bathroom, he sees his son hovering over a sink, frantically splashing water on his face. The entire front of his white tshirt is drenched, completely transparent. Jongin vigorously rubs his face.

“Jongin,” Mr. Kim says softly. His son freezes.

“I’m fine,” Jongin answers robotically. “Go back. I’ll come.”

Mr. Kim hesitates for a moment, then makes his way towards his son.

“Don’t be so restless around me,” he murmurs. “There’s no need.”

Jongin is silent.

“I’m getting better. I've gotten help, Jongin, and we can all work through this together. I... I’m not the person I used to be. That day was a horrible mistake and I-,”

Jongin glares at his father with furious eyes. Mr. Kim steps back in apprehension.

“Get out,” Jongin growls. His breath catches; his eyes soften. “Just leave. Please.”

Hurt, desperation, and frustration flood Mr. Kim’s eyes as he slowly nods, turns away.

Jongin watches his father leave, his eyes wide. Self-loathing fills his insides.

“Damn it,” he swears, slamming the wall.

    Sehun is pretty satisfied with himself right now.

He only regrets that Jongin isn’t here to witness this. Unfortunately, Jongin searched out Sehun right after school ended today, apologetically informing him that his mother had scheduled a mandatory “Family Night” for the Kim household. Sehun resisted the urge to snap at his friend. Family Night? In the middle of the bet? Seriously?

However, he held his tongue; Jongin looked quite agitated himself (anything family-related got Jongin nervous, really). So Sehun let it go.

    And it’s okay, really. Because the rest of the Daewon Preparatory basketball team is here, working for the Sunset Tutoring Group.

Luhan, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Chen, and Kris are positioned around Caffe Java, wearing t-shirts that read Sunset Tutoring. Designed to attract more people to their tutoring business. And it works like a charm. Sehun thinks that this is the first time that Caffe Java has seen so many customers. The entire establishment is jam-packed with girls and boys of all ages, swarming around Sehun.

Some of the people waiting for him aren’t even students; they’re middle-aged women trying to hitch some private time with him.

The icing on the cake was seeing Suyeon’s irritated expression.

When the guys see her and Mirae, they nearly themselves.

“You didn’t tell me the Daegu tutors were hot,” Kris rasps in Sehun’s ear.

“Look at that chick,” Chen whispers, not-so-subtly pointing towards Mirae. He watches her in awe as she giggles, playing with the tips of her pigtails. “She’s... she’s adorable. And she looks so sweet.”

“Forget her.” Baekhyun focuses onto Suyeon, his lips. “Look at the figure on this one.”

Chanyeol punches his buddy, blatantly gaping at Suyeon. “She’s hot. Really hot-,”

“I’m not paying you guys to stare at the Daegu girls,” Sehun states coldly.

Mirae sees Sehun standing with his friends and saunters over to him. “Well, well, Tweedledee. I see you brought some of your friends. Where’s Tweedledum?”

“He had other engagements,” Sehun respondscoolly. Suddenly, he is knocked aside by Kris.

“Hi.” Kris flashes Mirae a winning grin. “I’m Kris. But you can call me Wufan. Or Yifan. Or Kevin. Or at 542-1918.”

Mirae tilts her head. “542-1918? Funny, 542 is the number of casualties there were in the 18th regiment during the Battle of Peleliu. And 1918 was the year World War I ended.” She gives Kris a look as sugary as sweetened venom. “Get the picture?”

Sehun can't help but grin as his friends hoot, “Re-jec-ted!” Kris turns red in a combination of embarrassment and indignation. That was pretty good. Even Sehun has to admit. Well played, Mirae.

"What do you think you're doing?" Suyeon demands, stomping up to the boys. Sehun notes with satisfaction that her cool, y facade has crumbled, allowing her true dorky nature to shine through. "This isn't legal in the terms of our bet-,"

Sehun chuckles. "You never said anything about recruiting others to help our tutoring groups."

"But-,"

"I don't have time to talk to you. " Sehun gives the girls a look that makes their skin itch. "We have customers to take care of."

Win for the Sunset Tutors.

    Mirae and Suyeon spend Wednesday night attempting to learn how to make voodoo dolls of Sehun and Jongin.

A/N: Sorry for not updating in a while o: I was grounded again OTL. Also, if you're wondering why Mirae isn't completely freaking out because she lost her OCD medication, it's because she hasn't realized it yet, and it takes a while for the shock to kick in (forgoing medication for one day is alright, but after a couple of days you start to notice the effects)

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