It's not that he's bad at studying altogether. He just happens to really, really in Algebra to the point that his chance to debut as a kpop idol is being jeopardized (turns out that a lot can happen when you allow your teacher to talk to your parents at school) so now he has until finals to prove to his parents that dancing is not a distraction or a hinder for him to march in a cap.   He really needs someone to tutor him in Math and so he asks another trainee, Jung Soojung, for help. It sounded like a pretty normal leap in the dark at the time because well, Soojung attends the same high school with him and they see each other after class for their training sessions. It would be more convenient to ask for help from someone whom you see almost all day right?   Not right. Or at least Jongin's friends think it's not.   "Dude," Baekhyun snickers showing his canine teeth when he tells them.   "What?" Jongin asks, truly confused as Chanyeol laughs beside him. "What?"   "You asked Soojung to tutor you?" Sehun pricks from the side.   "Yes."   "And she said yes?" he presses.   "Yes." it bothers Jongin why his friends question his ability to make people do things for him. He's basically a delight. Of course Soojung would say yes.   He could still remember how Soojung's eyes widened when he asked her yesterday after her last session, him waiting outside the practice room. He remembers how she nibbled her lips in thought before she flashes him that beautiful smile that Jongin never forgets. He has seen so much of that smile that he spends his nights falling asleep while thinking about how her lips turn up and how her eyes disappear when she does. Jongin smiles back as she tells him that she's available during lunch breaks which the boy immediately answered with a resounding perfect, a beat over the chill-o-meter.   Soojung still smiles though, so everything is good.   "I can't believe she agreed to go a lunch date with you." Chanyeol says, that teasing hilt still on his deep voice.   "It's not a date."   "You are both going out for lunch. Together. Just the two of you. Alone." the giant adds. "I know what a date is when I see it."   "I'm just asking her to help me with my algebra alright? No funny business." his patience wearing thin. "I'm just a student who wants to graduate high school so my parents would allow me to dance my brains out and apparently get half of the female population to want to get in my pants." It's inevitable. He's a total god in the dance floor and he knows it.   "You could have asked Junmyeon hyung. He's not a model student for nothing." Baekhyun says.   "It's been decades since Junmyeon hyung graduated high school."   "Chanyeol is pretty good in math. He may not look like it but he was a math wiz during high school." Baekhyun points at the wide eyed giant in which Chanyeol replied with a slightly offended hey before he returns to teasing Jongin with his stare.   "He doesn't go to my school."   "Sehun does."   "Come on, Sehun doesn't even know what algebra is." Jongin snaps.   "Does so!" Sehun counters. "It's that subject with numbers and letters." he says before squinting his eyes. "It is that subject with numbers and letters right?" he adds, suddenly not that sure himself. Chanyeol pets him in the head and whispers a quiet yes, yes it is in which the youngest smiled in success and mumbled I knew it.   "Why won't you just admit that you like her?" Baekhyun asks and Jongin's eyes widen because where the hell did that come from?   He does not like Soojung—okay maybe he kinda does, but not like like. It was more of the I kinda like the way you smile like. Or the hey, I sometimes kind of want to hold your hand kind of like. Sure he always searches her face among the crowd and most of the time he finds himself staring at her during breaks or just whenever he sees her in the hallway. Maybe her laugh makes him smile so hard his cheeks hurt and maybe he thinks she looks beautiful even without make-up. He may or may not have wanted to punch Taemin in the throat when he saw him trying to make moves on her and—   Jongin's mind blows up in sudden realization.   "I don't." the words came out weak, even Jongin isn't convinced.   "Okay, keep telling yourself that." Baekhyun says but the smile the puppy eyed boy has on his face tells him that he knows, and Jongin slowly curls himself in a box because if Baekhyun knows and Chanyeol knows and hell, even Sehun knows and that boy is oblivious to almost everything then how can he assure himself that Soojung doesn't?   "Just know that Taemin is really very interested in Soojung. So if you're gonna move, then move fast kiddo." Chanyeol tells him. Ah, yes. Taemin. Soojung. The punch in the throat. "You only know what you have when it's gone." he adds.   Silence followed after his words, Jongin taking his time absorbing what those words imply.   "Oh yeah, that was deep." Chanyeol adds again while he high fives Baekhyun who accepts it with a nod of approval.   Jongin shakes his head but chose not to say anything. Putting the fact that Chanyeol is a smug aside, he is right. If he really does like Soojung, then he can't afford sitting around just waiting for something to happen. Soojung is very popular in school and even inside the SM Entertainment. Taemin is only one of the people who have their eyes set on the girl (most recently, the name Kim Jongin was added to the list too) who unlike him, actually knows what to do and how to make the girl notice them.   Jongin only has his little tutor sessions.   Ah, now the main objective of the sessions had been officially changed. With a nod of determination, he vowed himself to get to know the girl better through their meet-ups. He only has little time and he plans to make the most of it.   "So..." Jongin turns his head towards Sehun who has his head propped on his hands while he lay on the bed looking at Jongin like he's the kid in class who just got caught staring at his crush. "When is the date?" he sing-songs and Jongin searches the room for the nearest hard, blunt object he could bump the youngest's head with.   He didn't find any, so he throws a pillow on his face instead.                     The next day, he came to pick Soojung up for their lunch date—err, I mean their tutor session but when he knocked on their dorm, he was met by Sulli and sharp stare.   "Err, hi?" he hesitantly says but Sulli just looked at him, arms folded. The girl can be scary when she wants to.   "What are you doing?"   "Tryi