After all the students had left, Baekhyun got up from his seat and slowly went up to the teacher assistant's desk. The teacher was busy organizing the test papers that he had just collected, and so Baekhyun stood there, nervously fiddling with the ends of his uniform jacket, while dreading the reprimand that was about to come. Finally, the teacher assistant finished stacking the papers in a nice stack and looked up at Baekhyun.

"You know, before Mrs. Do left for her maternity leave, I was told by her that there was one student in particular in her class that I should have high expectations of. She gushed and gushed about how dedicated this student was, how impressive his analytical skills were, and how interested he was in classical literature.

Do you know which student that was?”

Baekhyun gulped, not quite sure what to answer. The teacher assistant continued without changing his expression.

“That student was you, Baekhyun.”

If silence could kill, then Baekhyun would be ripped to shreds.

"But for the past two weeks I've been teaching in this class, I have yet seemed to meet this formidable student that Mrs. Do had been telling me about. I wonder why?"

Although the teacher assistant had neither raised his voice nor changed his tone or expression, the disappointment was apparent. Baekhyun’s face reddened and felt an overwhelming sense of guilt wash over him. He knew he had been slacking for the past four weeks, but Mrs. Do had been too occupied by her moving stomach to really notice anything. But once the Mrs. Do went on maternity leave and the new handsome but strict teacher assistant took over, Baekhyun’s luck ran out. Large quantities of homework were assigned, long lectures were given, and Baekhyun’s halfassed efforts were becoming visible. He had barely gotten anything done and all his quizzes were in the low 20%. It wasn't that he didn't care or that he didn't put in any effort, it's just that all the effort he put into concentrating on Othello always slowly went over into thinking about a blond, beautiful Chinese boy. It's a wonder Baekhyun hasn't failed all his other classes yet.

"And now this." The teacher assistant pulled out Baekhyun's test from the stack of papers. "I hope you're aware that the midterm exam is worth 50% of your whole grade, right?"

"Yes, Mr. Wu."

"And you left it completely blank."

He looked intently at Bakehyun’s paper--at the spot that Baekhyun had been vigorously erasing too see if he had actually written anything.

! Don’t look at that! Baekhyun internally panicked and flushed. It’s enough that he completely embarrassed himself by leaving his midterm exam blank; he didn’t want to explain to his teacher why he had almost written “ Luhan” on the test.

DISTRACT HIM BAEKHYUN DISTRACT HIM 

“Yes, Mr. Wu! I-I apologize. I wasn’t prepared enough!”

“You have a current grade of 68%, and with the midterm exam, you’ll have a meager 20%. Do you know what that means?”

Mr. Wu was still looking at the test paper and didn’t see Baekhyun’s changing facial color from red to blue as realization finally dawned on him. Baekhyun couldn’t respond. He was having a mild seizure inside his head: the seriousness of the situation was finally hitting him. Although math wasn't his strongest suit, he knew that, combined with his recent quiz scores, he could kiss a passing grade in the class good bye. No matter what he did in the remaining quarter, there’s no way he would be able to get a passing grade. Baekhyun was already on the verge of crying. Would he have to repeat this class? Did he have to stay behind in high school? His family wouldn’t be able to afford the tuition; the only reason he went to this school was because he got a full 4-years scholarship based on his literature achievements. He’d have to move out, get a part-time job, and start making money. And what about his reputation? There’s no way Luhan would even acknowledge his existence if it was known that he had failed a class.

Still without noticing Baekhyun’s unnatural facial color, the teacher assistant mercilessly announced, with a deadpan expression on his face:

 “There’s no way you can get a passing grade in this class.”

Chirp, chirp, the birds outside twittered. Chirp, chirp.

Mr. Wu finally looked up and stared at Baekhyun. Baekhyun stared back, the soul lost in his eyes.

McDonald. Wait, Burger King’s uniform looks better than that of McDonald’s. Or maybe Pizza Hut? The bubble tea store next to school doesn’t seem too awful to work at. I heard Luhan visits it often.

 “There’s no way you can get a passing grade in this class,” Mr. Wu repeated slowly, “if we take into account the grades you received from me during my teaching period.”

Bubble tea store is nice, but does it pay enough for renting an apartment? Maybe I can split with Sehun? He’s rich … but I can’t depend on his lending me money for free. What other jobs pay a lot? Heavy construction?  I can barely lift a baby. Popular idol? Takes too long. Stripper club?

“But looking at the fact that you had an extraordinary record of incredible achievements in literature, which I’ve heard from Mrs. Do - five national writing awards (Mr. Wu his eyebrows in astonishment); 2 of our school’s Academic Awards; 1^st place in 7 writing competitions; full academic scholarship; the only student to receive a hundred in every final literature exam up until now; Mrs. Do’s highly praising you and not to mention you had 120% in class before I started teaching - I have no doubt in your talent for the subject.” The teacher assistant rambled on. Baekhyun, still standing motionless and expressionless, only listened to the ramblings with half an ear. His mind was wandering everywhere, thinking of ways to earn enough money to support himself when he becomes a high school dropout. 

Maybe I should just sleep with Sehun for money or something. Is he even gay?

“So I thought, there’s no reason for such a high-achieving student like you to fail my class on purpose. It’s not like he only failed certain tests, but all of them. All of the homework too. And he does seem to pay attention in class; in fact, he always stares at me when I hold a lecture, like he’s totally immersed. Maybe I’m making it too hard for them to understand? The other students do seem to be struggling as well. Especially Tao, but I thought he was just plain stupid …”  Mr. Wu was no longer talking to Baekhyun but murmuring to himself, unaware of the dilemma that’s going on in Baekhyun’s head.

How do I even suggest to my best friend to become my sugar daddy? “Hey Sehun, uh, if you ever want , you can, ugh, borrow my for cash?”

“…so I’ve come to the conclusion that you haven’t been able to do well due to my teaching.” Mr. Wu finally comes to a final verdict from his ramblings. “So I’m willing to erase all the grades you’ve gotten from me and bump your grade up to its original 120%.”

Baekhyun’s ears jerked up. What?

“Of course, Hwang High School is known for its reputation of producing high academic achieving students, and it’d be a shame to downgrade an excellent student due to misunderstandings.” Mr. Wu continues, stressing on the last word. “Since my method of teaching doesn’t seem to, hmm, go well with you, I’ll have one of the upperclassmen tutor you instead. For the remaining of the semester, you’ll finish an assignment each week, and in exchange of approved assignments, you don’t need to do any class work.”

Baekhyun was speechless. In the span of the half minute the speech was given, Mr. Wu went through the quick transformation from a cold, tyrant -faced Demon with a big D from hell to a sympathetic, glorious incarnation of perfection, who, Baekhyun is dead set on believing, is descended from heaven. Of course, despite the befitting situation, the term “angel” is reserved to Luhan, and Luhan only. Baekhyun had no idea how Mr. Wu came to the conclusion that his teaching because all they did in class was read and translate Othello. Nonetheless, Baekhyun wasn’t going to question Mr. Wu’s analytical abilities, or lack of thereof.

“You’ll meet the student in the library every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after school. This arrangement will start tomorrow. Is that understood?” 

“…Y-yes … Yes, sir! Thank you so much, Mr. Wu!” Baekhyun almost screeched, having a hard time containing the wave of relief and gratefulness that washed through him. I don’t need to sell my after all.

“Alright then. You’re dismissed, Baekhyun.”

Within seconds, Bakehyun had bowed three times in gratitude and exited the classroom and rushed to the library where he spotted Sehun, who was sitting on their usual place: at a table on the corner of the room. It was study hall for both of them and they spent every day chatting on the table, occasionally getting some homework done, usually not.

Sehun was leaning on the chair against the wall, staring with an expressionless face on his phone. He looked like he was bored to death. On the corner of his eyes, Baekhyun noticed that Luhan was sitting straight across the room from Sehun, reading a book and surrounded by heaps of girls like always. However, because the library assistant, who is somewhere around her hundred and fifties, was really strict about the noise level in the library and because Luhan apparently reminded her of her long dead husband, she made sure none of the girls bothered Luhan though they always surrounded him by sitting on nearby tables and giggle to themselves.

Sehun looked up from his phone upon seeing Baekhyun seating himself next to him and stared at him with his usual deadpan expression.

Although Baekhyun didn't want to admit it, Sehun is quite a looker. Standing 182 cm tall, Sehun is one of the most eligible bachelors of Hwang High School. He has short light blonde hair and a handsome face that he does not know how to utilize. Whenever discussion of looks come up, Sehun is always mentioned among the other popular guys, like Lay and most recently, Luhan. However, Sehun was born with an expressionless face that made him, when he's not smiling, look like he either he's sick of life or bored to death-which, Baekhyun knows, truly reflects his inner thoughts most of the time anyway-and as the result, he's never ranked first.

Baekhyun first met Sehun in elementary school when Sehun accidentally thought Baekhyun was a girl and kept throwing sand on him, telling him to get away because he didn’t want to get “cooties," until Baekhyun got fed up and pulled off own pants in the middle of the playground. That act resulted in a lot of screaming and ruckus, particularly among the adults, but the important part is that the sight of Baekhyun's bonded Sehun and Baekhyun together and they’ve been best friends since then.  

“You’re late.”

“The literature teacher held me back. Why, you miss me?” Baekhyun grinned.

Sehun snorted. “Yeah, totally missed your . You have food?”

Baekhyun turned around and dug into his bag, then he pulled forth a lollipop and a bag of cookies that he threw it to Sehun. He then busied himself with taking the wrap off the lollipop, trying to not make it evident that his heart almost stopped when he heard Sehun mention the word “,” as it made him recall his absurd and corrupted thoughts earlier. Baekhyun looked at the wrap to determine today's lollipop's flavor. Banana. How fitting.

“Thanks, Baek!” Sehun’s expression took a 180 turn as he giggled like a little child, happily digging out a cookie. “We fould go and get a fuffle fea lafer. I haven’f haf one in forevef.” He said with his mouth full of cookie dough.

“Close your mouth when you eat, Sehun. And you just had one yesterday.”

Sehun swallowed and then pouted.  “Yea, but that was yesterday.”

"You drink bubble tea every day!"

"Well, you eat lollipop every day." Sehun defended himself.

“You’re seriously a bubble tea addict. Why don’t you just buy the bubble tea company?” Baekhyun joked, taking out a few tissue papers from his pocket to wipe the crumbs from Sehun’s face, quickly stealing a glimpse of Luhan at the same time.  

“Thanks. Actually, since you always tell me to do that, I asked my parents about it yesterday and they thought it was time for me to start investing in business anyway, so now I’m now the official owner of the bubble tea company.”

Baekhyun stared at Sehun. The lollipop still untouched in his hand. Seconds went by in silence consisting of Baekhyun watching Sehun’s depleting two cookies at once. After the cookie crumbs off his fingers, Sehun finally notices the silence and lifted his head just to stare into Baekhyun’s deadpan expression.

“… What?”

“You bought a bubble tea company.”

“Yea, why?”

“You bought a bubble tea company!”

“Huh? Yea, why? What’s wrong with that?”

“You bought a bubble tea company!”

“You know, repeating that doesn’t make me any smarter." Sehun stopped chewing.

“THAT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE STUPID TO BEGIN WITH! WHEN I TOLD YOU TO BUY THE BUBBLE TEA STORE, I DIDN’T LITERALLY MEAN THAT YOU SHOULD GO AND BUY THE BUBBLE TEA STORE! DID YOU  PEE OUT YOUR BRAIN ALONG WITH THE TEA OR SOMETHING?!”

The thing with Sehun's family that Baekhyun has really hard time wrapping his head around, is the fact of how incredibly wealthy they are .. and what a bubblehead their son is. Sehun's family runs the Oh Corporation which expands not only over the whole Korea but also internationally to 12 other countries. The net worth of the corporation is around a few trillion or something around there and Sehun is the only heir. Yet, Sehun never brags about his wealth, never does or buys anything that one’d expect rich children to do, and spends the majority of his time either in school, at Baekhyun’s place, or at the bubble tea store. The only thing that keeps reminding Baekhyun about Sehun’s extraordinary background is when Sehun bursts out random statement like

“Oh, by the way Baek, we just bought the movie theater next to our school. Let’s go check it out tomorrow!”

“My parents took me on a spaceship yesterday. I almost threw up.”

“Hm. Obama is smaller in person than I thought he were. I greeted him yesterday and he’s around the same height as I.”

as if they were the most casual statements in the world.

And now it seems like the Oh Corporation has added a bubble tea company to their business monopoly.

“Oh.“ To be quite honest, Sehun didn’t get any smarter from Baekhyun’s outburst but asking Baekhyun to elaborate didn’t seem like good idea at the moment so instead he just resumed chewing and stuffed another cookie into his mouth. “Well, anyfway. If jusf occurref fo me fesferday fhaf if’s a fretty food ifea anyway.” He swallowed. “If I were to own something, may as well be something I like and spend lots of money on, right? That way I save money as well.”

“Sehun.” Baekhyun felt exhausted already. “A bubble tea costs $3.”

“Yea but now I’m getting it for free.” Sehun smiled happily but then meeting Baekhyun’s unchanged expression, his smile stiffened and he quickly continued. “And I made them make another flavor! I call it “Blaek Sea”! You know, for Baek and Sehun!” He exclaimed, a bit too excitedly, hoping to distract Baekhyun from making whatever sharp retort he was about to spew out. Baekhyun had never been very fond of Sehun’s good ideas.

“Sehu...”

“Remember when we combined your vanilla strawberry bubble tea and my choco bubble tea? Since I own the company now, I told them to make it. They’re going to start sell it today!”

Baekhyun couldn’t help but find himself a bit moved by Sehun’s thoughtful gesture and smiled internally.  To think that Sehun made a drink after the both of them! That’s so sweet! No pun intended. But he was still upset at Sehun’s spontaneously taking his business advices seriously. It’s true that Baekhyun had been thinking of ing himself to Sehun - which is considering taking advantage of Sehun’s wealth - just a moment ago, but that was a borderline joke and also Baekhyun would make sure he gave Sehun a reasonable price, if not a bargain, for his services. 

While Baekhyun seemed distracted by (what he assumed was) the thought of his own bubble tea, Sehun took the chance to quickly changed topic. “Oh, and why did you literature teacher hold you back?

“Oh, that.” Baekhyun bit his lips before popping the lollipop into his mouth. Sehun had succeeded in distracting him. The memory of his almost failing literature class ten minutes ago still felt surreal to him, and he didn’t really want to tell anyone, but Sehun was his best friend so he decided to just tell him. Or at least bits of it.

“I made an arrangement with my teacher. Somehow he came out with the conclusion that his teaching and that I’ll be receiving a private tutor in school instead.”

“The new teacher assistant did? Wait, just you?”

Baekhyun nods but doesn’t go into further explanation. He looks at Luhan again, who was still reading. Baekhyun isn’t sure, but it seems like the tables of the girls next to him are located 2 meters closer to Luhan’s than they did last time he saw them. 

“Hm. Do you know who your teacher will be?”

“No, I heard it’ll be a senior though. Do you know …. what the, YOU ATE ALL MY COOKIES?”

Baekhyun hadn’t been paying attention while they were talking, and Sehun had taken that opportunity to devour one cookie after another nonstop. Sehun had now finished all the cookies and curled the cookie bag into a small ball.

 I can’t believe he ate all my cookies, Baekhyun thought. That brat.

Sehun nervously chuckled. . Baekhyun needed to be distracted again.

“Uhh … yea, I’ll… I’ll buy you a bubble tea though! Today! After school!” Sehun said quickly and looked around for inspiration to how to calm down Baekhyun’s wrath.

“SEHU...”

“Aaa .. and speaking of seniors, Luhan’s staring at you.”

That successfully shuts Baekhyun up. “W-what?” He almost spat out his lollipop.

“He’s still looking.” Slowly, Baekhyun follows Sehun’s stare and looks at the table across the room behind him. His heart pretty much stopped at the sight. Two large beautiful eyes were staring at him.

There, across the library, still surrounded by girls who tried to get his attention, Luhan was looking at him. In the matter of the few seconds Baekhyun was distracted, some of the girls had moved to the seats next to Luhan and tried to talk to him, but while he curtly responded to them, his stare didn’t waver from Baekhyun’s.

Baekhyun couldn’t blink. He felt the heat spread in his body and a tingling feeling appear in his stomach.

Luhan was strikingly beautiful. Those golden locks; that soft gaze; those handsome features. When Luhan first transferred to his school, Baekhyun had sworn not to pay any attention to the ruckus about the new transfer student because he hated everything popular. When something is popular, people create fake rumors and expectations that don’t meet reality, which Baekhyun hates. Like the current senior Lay, who used to be the most popular before Luhan’s arrival. Lay was rumored to be incredibly kind-hearted, nice, quiet and considerate, but after meeting him, Baekhyun figured out that Lay was simply dozing out half of the time and not giving a about most things. Like whenever he walks slowly across a hallway, people claim that he’s doing so because he’s respectful toward the other upperclassmen and their hectic schedule and that he’s considerate of his underclassmen and their hectic schedule. Baekhyun thinks Lay walks slowly simply because he walks slowly. Furthermore, lookwise, Lay doesn’t live up to the hype he’s under. Baekhyun agrees that Lay’s dimple is cute, but the students worship it as if it was a dent made by God. So when the rumors about Luhan first swept over the whole school, Baekhyun paid them no attention. He had only been able to catch a glimpse of the blond hair once in a while, but ran away whenever it got close.  Now Baekhyun would die to be able to touch it.

Baekhyun's life-changing encounter with Luhan happened by complete accident. Baekhyun was walking by the school’s soccer field with Sehun one day on their way home when a ball came rolling toward him. He thus picked up the ball and was about to kick it when suddenly Luhan ran toward him, apologizing and reaching out his hand for the ball. With his hair sticking to his forehead and sweat running down his cheeks, Luhan was a hot mess and if it was anyone else, Baekhyun would be disgusted. But upon seeing Luhan up close for the first time, Baekhyun felt like as if time stopped. He had never seen anyone more handsome. Luhan looked so feminine and masculine at the same time, like a prince who has jumped out of a fairytale. It was not until Sehun nudged him that he woke up from his frozen state and was able to give Luhan, who was awkwardly waiting, the ball (with his fingers trembling of course). Baekhyun hadn’t been able to stop trying to catch glimpses of Luhan since then.

But why was Luhan now the one staring at him? 

“He’s always so popular, huh?”

Baekhyun tore his gaze from Luhan and came to his senses again. He turned around quickly toward Sehun, who was still looking at Luhan, and coughed while feeling the blush creep up his cheeks. “Y-yea, I guess. He’s always been popular.” Baekhyun wanted to say something mean like he’d always do whenever they talked about Luhan, but wasn’t able to bring up anything. In the corner of his eyes, he could sense that Luhan was still staring.

”I heard that he’s really good in literature.” Sehun commented in a bored tone and turned his attention back to Baekhyun. ”Apparently he’s one of the top ones in his class.”

”I…I…I dunno. I don’t know him very well….I… Wait, how did you know?”

“I have the same chemistry class as him. One of my classmates knows him.”    

”Chemistry? I thought he took humanities?” At Hwang High School, the classes are divided into two giant curriculums: sciences and humanities. The first two years were used to focus on general courses, but in the last two years all the students were place into one of the two curriculums. Those who majored in sciences spent the majority of their time taking advanced physical science and mathematical classes while those who studied humanities focused on social science classes like literature and psychology.

 ”Yea, he's actually double majoring in literature and psychology, but apparently he already has so many credits that he was exempted from most of the subjects in the senior humanities curriculum and had to fill his schedule with classes from the scientific department. They say he attends this school with full scholarship as well. Just like you.”

Baekhyun looked impressed at Sehun. ”, are you serious? I didn’t know that.” He knew Luhan was smart, but not that smart.

”So he takes classes with the juniors in the scientific department?” Baekhyun suddenly wished he hadn’t chosen humanities after all.

”Yea, he’s the only senior there, but he blends in pretty well.” Sehun shrugged. "He’s pretty lowkey when there aren’t a bunch of crazy girls around him.”

Even though Sehun looks like a useless slacker (which he is most of the time), he is, to Baekhyun’s amazement, a genius when it comes to sciences. Sehun has never really put much time and effort into academic works even though he’s absolutely capable of doing so. In all his quizzes and tests, he always receives an A but he never cares about doing the homework. Consequently, his lazy attitude ends up in his grades cancelling each other out and his receiving average results. The only reason that he receives B is because the teachers think he’s super adorable and bumps his grades up from a middle C to a B, which has caused Baekhyun to nickname him “Wanna B”. But the teachers are also aware of his academic talents and put him in advanced science classes, in which there are mostly boys. And apparently Luhan was also smart enough to be placed in a junior but advanced class.  

”Ugh, I’m hungry, is there more foo…” Sehun quickly shut his mouth after realizing his mistake and glances carefully at Baekhyun, scared that he’d resume his cookie rant. "Uhh, I mean, uhh the library lady looks lovesick.”

Baekhyun, however, was too busy in his own thoughts regarding the newly acquired information to notice Sehun’s poor attempt to switch topic. If Sehun goes to the same class as Luhan, perhaps I can get information about him from Sehun?

”Have you guys talked before?”

”Huh? Me and the library lady?" Sehun was caught off guard by the sudden question. "Well, we did once .. she suddenly asked me if I was a S or a M. Since my name is Sehun, I said S and she started giggling all weirdly and stuff. She's kind of weird so I've avoided her since then ..” Sehun started rambling.

Rolling his eyes, Baekhyun corrected him. ”No, I’m talking about you and Luhan.”

”Oh! Uhhh, no, not really. Not that I can remember. We sit on the opposite side of the class room.”

”Oh, ok.”

“Why? I thought you disliked popular guys?” Sehun looked back at Luhan again. ”I guess he’s pretty. I’ll give him that. He looks like one of those princes that pop up on Disney films. Or princesses, whichever works.“ He chuckled. “And apparently he’s ing polite and nice too. I heard from Chen, who has met him a couple times, that he never gets mad even when he’s surrounded by those crazy girls 24/7. God, I would hate to live his life.”

”I just wondered if he’s my tutor, that’s all.” Baekhyun replied quickly and with a final , stuffed the lollipop into its wrap and discarded it into the trash can by his table. Better take out the lollipop before he asks more Luhan questions and I end up choking on it and dying. He decided not to tell Sehun that he would probably be in the same situation if not for his deadpan look, which made him seem like he hated the world 80 percent of the time. Everyone knew Baekhyun legitimately hated the world 80 percent of the time, so nobody got close to him either.

Suddenly the bell rang and Sehun hurried up to pack his stuff and head to his next period.  Baekhyun remained in his seat. He had lunch next period.

”Alright, see you later then.”

”Yep.” Baekhyun followed Sehun with his eyes as he strolled across the library toward the door with his bag hanging on one of his shoulders.  A bunch of girls—those who had been surrounding Luhan—stood in a cluster by the door, blocking the exit. Reluctant to leave to their next class, the girls moved at a snail pace while frequently cast glances toward Luhan’s table. At the same time, newly arrived students tried to get into the library, creating a large traffic jam. Sehun simply stood there, unable to get anywhere.

“Move, out, out! I know you guys don’t have free period this class, so shoo!” The library lady fumed at the girls. “I said move, girls!” 

Baekhyun was too busy being amused by Sehun and laughing inwardly at his struggle to notice that someone had gotten up from his seat, walked across the library and was now standing in front of his table, awkwardly trying to get Baekhyun’s attention.

“Excuse me..”

Baekhyun turned around quickly at the sound and met two large beautiful eyes. In front of him stood Luhan, smiling shyly at him.

“Could you be Baekhyun, by any chance?”

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