I arrived at the house of my fathers old friend. It wasn’t a surprise that the house was twice the size of my childhood home considering the position my fathers friend held in the business world. As I looked at the house, rays of sunshine bounced off of the windows of the house and seemed to make the morning dew of their perfectly green lawn glissen. Having grown up the way that I did, I knew what having money looked like, but something gave me the impression that this girl didn’t just have money, she had an endless supply of it, all supplied by her father. I wasn’t going to complain about it though, after all, that was why I took the job. To some extent I did know that this family was going to be rich. It may sound greedy, but I’m glad that this is the kind of job I’m getting myself into.

I pulled the key out of the ignition and got out of the car, my eyes unable to leave the sight of the house in front of me. I managed to walk to my trunk and sling the bookbag over my shoulder that contained the necessary tutoring equipment for our very first tutoring session. With a final sigh, I began to walk towards the gigantic estate. As I arrived at the door, I softly knocked on it only to be greeted by a tall man in a business suit. At first, I was given the impression that they had their own butler, and the two of us just stared blankly at each other for a moment until the tall man finally smiled and took my hand in his own, giving me a firm handshake.

“You’ve finally made it, Jiyong! For a minute I wasn’t sure that you’d come at all.” the man said in a rather deep and intimidating voice.

My brows furrowed at his greeting, I didn’t realize I was late, in fact, I thought I was rather early. Nevertheless I walked inside the huge doorway when he motioned for me to go inside. He looked much different now than back when I was in high school, almost like a complete stranger. I guess time does that to people. Once Mr. Lee and I were both in the main hallway and my shoes were removed, I bowed at a 90 degree angle. Mr. Lee tilted his head a bit before letting out a harsh chuckle.

“Why are you bowing, Jiyong? No need to be that formal, a simple head nod would have sufficed if you wanted to bow.” Mr. Lee gave me a hard pat on the back that I could already feel bruising.  

“Why don’t you head upstairs? Chaerin is trying to study material for her high school classes, and I’m sure that she could use the help even if she won’t admit it.” I nodded at the man and without another word made my way up the stairs. While walking up the stairs, I couldn’t help but notice the little decorations the family kept. A fish tank full of colorful fish was at the top of the steps surrounded by little knickknacks and picture frames, some hanging up and some on the table beside the fish tank. It was almost like a little worship center. Maybe those weren’t the best words to use to describe what I was seeing. To avoid looking lost, I was only able to get a glimpse of some of those photographs. From what I could see, they were just family memories. I was almost jealous. From what it looked like, Chaerin and I both shared a similar family surrounding yet her life was playing out completely different than mine had. The people in the photos actually appeared to be happy. With a slight shrug of my shoulders, I knocked on a door that I presumed was Chaerin’s considering there was a poster of some K-Pop idol plastered on the door.  I couldn’t help but chuckle, just another sign pointing to how youthful Chaerin actually was in comparison to the woman that are in my life now.

After knocking on the closed door a few times and getting no response, I decided to peek my head in. The site I saw made me burst into a heat of laughter. Chaerin was sprawled out on her bed in pajamas with her headphones in, singing along to the song playing in her ears. I peered over at her desk which showed no indication of her ever having looked at any of her school work. She sure had an odd way of studying for her high school classes, I thought. I slowly pushed the door open and slipped inside her room before closing the door behind me, she was still oblivious to the fact that I was even there. If I was a killer, she’d be dead by now. I took a few steps and stood next to her bed, her eyes were closed and she looked-- gorgeous despite how wrong that might sound for me to say. With a light tap on her arm, Chaerin jumped, letting out a small squeal. She ripped her headphones from her ears and glared in my direction. I wasn’t moved by her intense stare one bit, instead I looked right back at her. I had a younger sister, so at this point, I was immune to the death glares girls could shoot.

With a loud huff she finally spoke, “Why didn’t you knock? Don’t you know how creepy it is walking in on someone! What are you doing here anyway?!”  

I decided to answer the easiest question first. “I’m here to help you study for your high school classes, you know, so that you’ll be prepared for college entrance exams and have a life.”

Chaerin just stared at me, her face not changing. This was the first time I got to see her this close up. When I first saw her during my time in high school, she was only about ten, but I never noticed just how pretty each of her facial features were. Her eyes were absolutely stunning despite their simplistic brown color and her lips were just the perfect shape and size. When I noticed just what I was thinking, I blinked rapidly a few times before making a 360 degree turn back to her desk while clearing my throat. What was I thinking? I knew better than this. I heard the weight of the bed shift which I presumed was Chaerin getting off of her bed. I pulled up a chair to her desk and turned back to look at the girl who was at her untouched bookbag.

“What do you need the most help on right now?” I asked.

“I guess we could start on the math, I don’t understand anything the teacher tells me.” Chaerin replied while pulling out what looked like her notebook and a mathematics book.

Math wasn’t necessarily my strongest subject, but I had still passed the class with an A. Chaerin flopped into the chair next to me and opened up her notebook to what looked like the last set of notes she took. Pre-calculus. Definitely one of my favorite parts of math.

“Pre-calculus  was my favorite part of math, this is a breeze for me.” I said, feeling slightly proud of myself.  

She looked at me in a way that almost made me fear for my life. “I’m glad that you finished high school and learned this, but I’m the one who needs to know it so I don’t care how easy it is for you.”

Ouch, she was definitely the vicious type. I flashed her a crooked grin and crossed my arms over my chest. "Then I suggest you actually give me the chance to explain some of this to you, alright?"

She narrowed her eyes at me, something I found to be the slightest bit cute. "You're not the boss of me."

"That is true, but I’m your best shot at learning all this stuff in the short amount of time you have."

The glare she shot in my direction didn't budge from her expression. Finally, she averted her eyes down to her notebook. "Alright then.."