Stalling

An Inventor's Mistake

"So X=-6," Yoomi explained. "Do you get it now?"

Myungsoo nodded his head. "It makes so much more sense now," he replied. 

Yoomi smiled. "Good, then try this one," she said while pointing at a problem with her pencil. 

Myungsoo quickly started on the problem. When he was done, he showed the answer to her. "Is it right?" he asked.

"Yeah, it is. Wow, you're already getting the hang of it," she praised.

"Of course, math is easy when you understand the steps to do it," Myungsoo said with a smug smile.

"Alright, since we're done with math now..." She flipped through the packet to another section. "We're going to study English."

Myungsoo frowned. "No, not English. I don't like English," he whined. 

"I know you don't like it, but we still have to study it," Yoomi said.

"Can't we just go back to math or even science," Myungsoo suggested. "We can study English another day."

Yoomi shook her head. "No, we're studying it right now," she said. "I have a feeling that if we postpone it now, you might make up excuses to postpone it later."

Myungsoo got caught red-handed. "How did you know that I was going to do that?" he asked.

"It's because you already did that before," she replied. "Don't you remember when you cheated on our bet? You already screamed exactly 6 times, but I let you get away with it."

Myungsoo knew what she was talking about and realized something. "Wait, don't I still have my wish?" he asked.

"Yeah, you didn't use it yet," Yoomi answered. She then started to regret saying that since she knew what he was up to. "Don't tell me that you're going to use it now."

Myungsoo had on a victorious smile. "But yes, I will," he said. 

Yoomi sighed. "Fine, have it your way," she said. She put her pencil down and got up. "I'll just go work on my machine now that we're done studying."

Myungsoo's smile instantly fell. "No, wait!" he yelled, stopping her in her tracks. "I change my mind, let's study." 

Yoomi had on a confused look. "Why did you change your mind so fast?" she asked.

"I actually always wanted to travel to New York or even England," he lied. "It's best if I know how to speak English first before I actually go there."

Yoomi walked back to her seat and sat down next to him again. "Good, keep that in mind so that you'll have motivation to learn the language," she said as she started to flip through the packet.

*Good, she's not working on her machine for now. Kim Myungsoo, you have to keep stalling,* he thought. 

"Okay, let's begin," Yoomi said. "Now I'll just ask some questions in English and you have to answer back in English alright?" Myungsoo nodded his head. "Okay, first question. Hello, how was your day?" she asked in English.

"Good," Myungsoo replied back in English.

"How was your vacation, was it nice?" she asked.

"Good," Myungsoo replied.

"Myungsoo," Yoomi said back in Korean. "You have to say more."

"But I don't know anymore," he said. 

"Didn't you study the vocabulary list?" she asked. 

Myungsoo shook his head. "It was too long. The only thing that I remembered was how to say I don't know in English," he answered.

"But just knowing how to say I don't know won't help much with answering the questions," she said.

"But it does. You can answer I don't know for almost every question out there," he retorted. "Just ask me a question, I can answer it."

"Okay then, let's see if it's true or not," Yoomi said. "How old are you?" she asked in English.

"I don't know," Myungsoo replied back in English.

"Where are you from?" 

"I don't know." 

"Where do you live?" 

"I don't know," 

"Wow, I guess it really can answer almost everything," Yoomi said in Korean.

"See, I told you," Myungsoo said. 

"But this can't do, the teachers won't like it if you answer I don't know for every question," she said. "It's best if we start learning the vocabulary."

Myungsoo groaned. "But do we have to?" he asked.

"Yes, if you want to past this exam then you do," she replied.

They then got started on learning the vocabulary. It consisted of Yoomi reading it out loud and Myungsoo having to repeat it. She also showed him all kinds of methods to help him memorize it. A few hours later, Myungsoo's eyes started to get droopy. 

"Myungsoo, if you want to stop now then we can stop," Yoomi said. 

Myungsoo quickly shook his head. "No, let's continue," he said. *I must keep stalling. I must keep stalling. I must...* he thought before his head already laid down on the table and his eyes completely closed. 

"I told him that we should've stopped," Yoomi quietly said. She got up and went to get a blanket before draping it over him. "Aigoo, I didn't know that he wanted to past this exam so much," she said. She then laid her head down next to him and stared at his peaceful sleeping face. *Now that I think about it, Myungsoo is the first friend that I've ever made by myself,* she thought. She felt a warm feeling in her heart and it made her smile before she also closed her eyes.


 

Myungsoo woke up to a loud noise. Bang, bang, bang. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the rays of sunlight coming through the window. He then sat up and looked around. Bang, bang, bang. "What's that noise?" he asked himself. "And where's Yoomi?"

He searched the room for her, but didn't see her anywhere. "Where could she be?" Bang, bang, bang. Myungsoo's eyes suddenly widened when he figured out what the noise was. "No, it can't be," he said before standing up. The blanket around him fell to the ground as he dashed over to Yoomi's room. 

When he got to the front of her room, he saw a sign hanging on her door. "Do not disturb. A process of inventing, fixing, or manipulating machines is taking place. Consequences of entering may include, but are not limited to: burns, nausea, foreign object in the eye, possible lost of a limb, and even death. Enter at your own risk," he read out loud. 

"What in the world is this?" he asked himself as he stared at the sign. He decided to ignore the sign and started to bang on the door. "Yoomi, open up!" he yelled.

There was no response except for the loud sound of a screwdriver coming from inside. "Yoomi!" he yelled even louder. "Open up!" He continued banging on the door until it finally opened. 

When the door opened, Yoomi stepped out wearing a welding helmet and holding a blowtorch. "What is it?" she asked as she pushed the helmet up to reveal her face. 

Myungsoo looked at the object in her hand. "What are you doing with that?" he asked as he pointed at it.

"Oh, this," she said while holding it up. "I'm just welding." 

Myungsoo looked at her weirdly. "And why are you doing that?" he asked. 

"I'm working on my machine," she answered. 

Myungsoo felt the world crashing on him as he found out that he failed his mission. "You were working on your machine?" he asked in disbelief.

Yoomi nodded. "Yeah, since I woke up early today, I decided to work on it," she replied. 

"But you can't work on it!" he blurted out.

Yoomi looked at him confused. "Why not?" she asked. 

"Uh..." he said. *Shoot, I don't know how to reply. I've got to think of something fast,* he thought. "Um... because you didn't pay me back yet."

Yoomi thought about it. "Oh right, I forgot about that," she said. 

Myungsoo smiled knowing that he said the right thing. "Yup, and let me just tell you that it's a lot," he said with a smirk. "I can't believe you're so forgetful, you even forgot your own debt to me."

Yoomi pouted. "It's not my fault when my brain forgets to remind me of it," she said. "Anyways, I'm nearly half-way done with my machine. If you can just give me a few more weeks to finish it then I'll go back to the future and get the money for you."

"No," Myungsoo answered without skipping a beat. "How do I know that you're not lying. What if you just go back to the future and never come back here to pay your debt." He crossed his arms with a triumphant smile on his face. *Let's see how you find your way around this, Song Yoomi.*

Yoomi tried to think of a way around it, but nothing came up. "You're right," she said with a sigh. "I guess that I'll have to work on this another time." She took her helmet off and went back into her room.

Myungsoo followed her and saw the mess that it was in. There were bolts and screws everywhere and tools were lying around in random places. There was even a screwdriver sticking through one of the ceiling fan's blade. "What did you do to this place," he said with wide eyes.

"It's nothing, this usually happens when I'm working on something this big," she said as she patted her time machine. 

"So you completely messed up this room because of that thing?" he said while pointing at it. 

"Hey, his name is Tim; it's short for time" she said. "And besides, I'll clean this up later."

"You'd better or I'll add this onto the list of debt that you owe me," he said. 

"Don't worry, I promise that this room would look just like before by tomorrow," Yoomi reassured. She put her helmet and blowtorch down and stood in front of the sign. "And why did you disturb me anyway? I clearly put this sign up for a reason."

"I was worried that you might have destroyed my room when I woke up to banging sounds," Myungsoo said. 

"Oh, was it actually that loud?" she asked surprised. Myungsoo nodded. "Oh, then sorry for waking you up," she apologized. 

"It's okay, I'm just glad that this room is still in place," he replied. "And let's go, you still have to tutor me." 

"Wow, you must really want to past that exam," Yoomi said. 

"Yup, I don't want my parents to fly back from a different country just to lecture me about my grades again," he said. "Come on, let's go." He walked out the door and towards his room. 

"Hey, wait for me!" Yoomi said as she tried to catch up to him. 


 

A month later, it was finally time for the exam. 

"Myungsoo, good luck," Yoomi said before class started.

"You too," he replied. 

"Myungsoo-ah~," Heajung said as she entered the classroom. She walked up to him with a bright smile on her face. "Good luck on the exam, I hope you all the luck in the world."

Myungsoo felt like gagging, but just replied with an emotionless thanks. 

"And you too Heajung, I hope that you also do well," Yoomi said with a friendly smile.

Heajung scowled at her. "And you, what did you do to my packet?" she said.

Yoomi furrowed her eyebrows with a confused look on her face. "What did I do?" she asked.

"You don't remember?" Heajung asked with disbelief written all over her face. "Just look at this!" She took out her packet from her backpack and showed it to Yoomi. 

"I don't see anything wrong with it," Yoomi said, looking at the page. 

"Nothing wrong with it? Look at it! You left notes on the bottom!" she said while angrily pointing at the words at the bottom of the page. 

Yoomi saw what she was pointing at. "Oh, that," she said. "I just wanted to encourage you to study hard."

Heajung scoffed. "This girl seriously," she said with an irritated expression.

Myungsoo looked at the both of them with a confused look on his face. "Wait, what did Yoomi do?" he asked.

Heajung showed him the packet and pouted. "Myungsoo-ah, look at this. Look at what she wrote," she said while showing him the page. 

Myungsoo looked at the bottom of the page and saw Yoomi's handwritting in pen. "Heajung, hwaiting! I hope that you study well! ^-^" he read. 

Myungsoo furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't see anything wrong with it. It's just an encouraging message," he said. 

"But it's not just this page. She wrote one on the bottom of every single page in this packet!" Heajung said. She flipped through each page showing him all of the notes. 

"Heajung, you're half-way there! Go, go~" one of them said. 

"The one on the top was the one that you said was hard, but don't worry. I tried to explain it as best as I could. :)" another one said. 

Myungsoo smiled as he read each one of the notes. He thought it was so cute how she wrote motivational notes on each page. "Hey Heajung, is it okay if I keep this? You won't need this after taking the exam today anyway," he said, still reading the notes. 

"Why do you want to keep it?" Heajung asked, confused.

"Just because," Myungsoo said, his eyes never straying from the packet.

"Alright then, you can keep it," Heajung said while smiling. *I can't believe that he just asked me for my packet!* she happily thought as she went to her seat.

"Why are you keeping her packet?" Yoomi asked. 

"I was just thinking of starting a packet collection, that's all," Myungsoo said while putting the packet away. 

Yoomi looked at him with a weird look on her face. "And you said that I was weird," she said before turning to the front.

"Okay class, it's exam day!" Mr.Yong excitedly said as he walked in. He passed out the exam to everybody and could feel the nervousness of the students. "It's alright class, as long as you studied the packet then everything will be fine." Once he was done passing the exam out, the test begun. 

Myungsoo opened the packet with nervous hands, but once he laid eyes on the first question, he felt the nervousness being washed away by relief. *This was what I studied before with Yoomi* he thought. He answered the first question without any problems and moved onto the next question. 

Throughout the exam, he could answer 90% of the questions confidently and had an excited smile on his face. *I can't believe that I actually know the answers!* he happily thought. 

After 2 hours, everybody finished and the exams were collected. "Alright class," Mr.Yong said as he stacked all of the exams into one pile. "That concludes your first exam this year." The whole class all had on happy smiles and relieved sighs. The lunch bell then rang and they all got up and rushed to the cafeteria. 

Yoomi stood up and walked over to Myungsoo's desk. "So, how did it go?" she asked.

Myungsoo frowned. "I'm not sure," he said while sighing. 

"Why did it go wrong?" she asked. Myungsoo shook his head. "Then what is it?"

Myungsoo sighed again. "I'm not sure if the teacher will suspect me of cheating or something since I did so well," he said. 

A smile grew on Yoomi's face. "Then it went well?" she asked.

"Of course it did," Myungsoo replied with a smug smile. 

"Then that's great!" Yoomi said happily. "Maybe we can go celebrate."

"But the results aren't out yet," Myungsoo said. "Let's go celebrate after we're completely sure that I did well on it."

Yoomi thought about it. "Okay, we'll wait until then," she said agreeing with him. "But what should we do to celebrate?"

"Hmm," Myungsoo said while brainstorming for ideas. *What should we do to celebrate?* he asked himself. An idea suddenly popped into his head. "How about we go on a date?"

Yoomi was taken aback by his idea. "Date?" she asked with wide eyes. "Like a date between lovers?" There was a surprised look on her face as she asked the question.

"No silly, a date between friends," he said. "But why? Do you actually want to be more than friends with me?" he teased. 

Yoomi blushed a bright red. "W-what, no," she stuttered. 

"You're stuttering," Myungsoo said as he pointed at her. "Stuttering means yes." He had on a playful smile and was enjoying teasing her. 

"W-what? Stuttering doesn't mean yes, it means that I was caught off guard," Yoomi said, defending herself. 

"But if you were caught off guard then it means that you were actually thinking it," he said. 

Yoomi was speechless by his statement. Myungsoo, seeing that she wouldn't say anything, started to smirk. "Then you really want to be more than friends with me right?" he said as he leaned in closer. 

Yoomi was surprised and took a step away from him. "No," she denied. "I wasn't thinking that!" 

"Then why are you blushing?" he asked while advancing towards her. 

Yoomi felt her face heat up from embarrassment and decided to run away. She ran out of the door, but then came back and poked her head inside. "This doesn't mean that I was thinking that," she said before running away again. 

Myungsoo chuckled. "Aigoo, Song Yoomi," he said while smiling. "Why are you so cute?" He stood there for a moment before walking to the cafeteria. 


 

Hey guys! I would like to thank mel0dy_inspir1t for upvoting so thank you for upvoting! :D  Also I'm reading all of your comments and it really makes me happy to read them. I'm trying my best to reply to you guys, but I'm not very creative when it comes to replying. But either way, thank you for showing your support for this story! I hope that you guys have an amazing weekend! 

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BaconerSehunnie
#1
Chapter 27: The more i read this, the crazier i become bc too cute jdjdjdjdjdjdjfd (T▽T)
BaconerSehunnie
#2
Chapter 11: i laughed so hard when he was running away from tge spider (●>v<●)
BaconerSehunnie
#3
Chapter 7: Ohhh that was cuteeeee (๑¯∀¯๑) hahhahhha
feb1902 #4
Chapter 48: OMG I LOVE YOU AUTHOR-NIM! XD i didn't expecting the end will be like this! xD
feb1902 #5
Chapter 18: wow wow wow so myungsoo have a feelings for her~~ nice xD
feb1902 #6
Chapter 11: OMG I CAN'T STOP SMILING LIKE AN IDIOT WHEN I READ THIS XD
feb1902 #7
Chapter 3: nice story uwaaaa xD

i love the storyline.. that's very unique & new for me. keep it up author-nim!
ohjijin #8
Chapter 46: Ahhh i'm crying author-nim ): i hate it when u have no other choice but to leave ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ *heart broken *
S3cr3TwhISp3R #9
Chapter 48: Woaaaahhhhhh IT WAZZZZZ DAMNNN AWSUMMMMM ....REALLY,AUTHOR-NIM!, u shud make it into a book or something n publish it,....reallllly.....this story should be known....every chapter was really described by the given title.....really after reading this story i wamna say UR DA GENIUS...even ur other F.Fic."C.A.I.L" is awsum.....2 tell u da truth....people(if they're wandering minds like me)would really like to find ONLY THESE KINDS OF FANFIC.S....please keep on making us occupied with ur stories cuz theyre out of this world!!!,Annihow awsum work,AUTHOR-NIM!!!♡♡♡
Overdose_Kpopers
#10
Whaaaa.woah. She graduated college at 10 years old?? Woahh that was awesome lol. Ok time to read Chapter 1. So excited!!!