Minyoung chewed on her lip as science teacher Mr. Kang droned on to class 3-1 about cellular respiration in his usual monotone voice.

The girl couldn’t help but feel anxious at the thought of tutoring the Choi Seungcheol. Everyone in SVT High knew Seungcheol — even someone like Minyoung who pretty much lived under a rock when it came to school events. It was hard to not know about him; the oh-so-famous basketball team led by the boy and the tenth consecutive championship title was the topic of everyone’s conversations.

Not to mention, the school adored Seungcheol, especially the girls. His popularity was no joke. Minyoung heard stories from other seniors about how Seungcheol received numerous confessions every week. Several students who happened to be in the same classes as him swore that his desk and locker were stuffed with chocolates during Valentine’s Day to the point that Jeonghan and Jisoo had to help him carry them home. He also had a fanclub that was always present to cheer him on during basketball games (according to Iseul and her cousin who’s a fan of the team).

Minyoung didn’t know if she was nervous because of the following reasons. One, she barely had any sleep and was mostly on caffeine. Two, the fact that she was going to be tutoring the most popular boy in school. Or three, the potential outrage of Seungcheol's dedicated fanclub (she could almost hear them yelling "Stay away from oppa!"). Nevertheless, she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole as she glanced at the clock on the wall.

There was less than an hour until dismissal.  

—

Once the school clocks struck 3:30 in the afternoon, the bell rang to signal the end of the school day. Students in class 3-1 packed their belongings as they chatted with their one another about various topics, such as how boring Mr. Kang’s lesson was (as usual) or whether Café Chocolat by the train station had better cheesecakes compared to La Boulangerie Douce, which was a few blocks down the road. Minyoung finished stuffing her books into her backpack and zipped it up as Iseul walked up to her with her own bag in tow.

“Are you ready to tutor the school prince?” Iseul asked teasingly as they descended down the stairs to the first floor study room they held their meeting in during lunch.

Minyoung pouted. “Quiet, Lee Iseul.”  

While Minyoung was nervous, Iseul was absolutely thrilled that Minyoung was assigned to work with Seungcheol. She was all smiles when the two of them had resumed eating their lunch after Coach Kim and Miss Hwang dismissed the group at the end of the meeting.

“The studious girl studying with the school prince!” Iseul had grinned giddily, batting her eyelashes in a dramatic manner. “This is like a drama!”

Minyoung had hit Iseul on the forearm for that comment while Iseul cackled in glee.

After the two seniors reached their destination, Minyoung slid open the door to the study room. Tutors Kang Hyemi and Ahn Jiae had already arrived and selected their spots – Hyemi formed a T with three tables and chairs at the back of the room while Jiae chose two tables at the rightmost part of the classroom. Iseul walked over to a spot right in the middle of the room and Minyoung chose a desk beside the window.

Minyoung set her bag on the desk and flinched when the door opened with a bang. The girls turned their heads to the direction of the noise as the boys entered the room.

“You guys! Don’t break the door.” Choi Seungcheol scolded as he carefully closed it. The boys let out apologies in response as they started to get settled down. After quickly scanning the room, Seungcheol’s eyes found Minyoung and he walked over towards her.

“Hey,” he grinned, eyes transforming into crescents as he extended a hand towards her. “I’m Seungcheol.”

Oh…he’s really nice looking, she thought but shoved it away as she shook his hand in response.

“I’m Minyoung,” the girl gave him a tiny smile. When the introductions ended, Minyoung sat down as Seungcheol brought a chair up. “

So….” he started. “Should I sit across or...?”

“Umm…I think it’s better if you sit here.” Minyoung paused. “To the right, I guess? So we can both see the book?”

Seungcheol sat down at the rightmost side of the desk and they took out their notebooks and pencil cases.

“So you’re Jung Minyoung,” Seungcheol mused and Minyoung turned her head towards him. The boy smiled. “I’ve heard a lot of things about you.”

“Really?” The girl raised her brows. She pretty much lived under the radar since first year and the fact that Seungcheol of all people had heard of her was quite a surprise. “I hope they were nice things.”

“A few little birds told me that you’re really smart,” Seungcheol’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “And that you’re really pretty.”

She blinked as Seungcheol grinned. Ah, I can’t believe this cheese ball! she thought as she cleared .

“So,” Minyoung began as she opened her pencil case and took out her favorite mechanical pencil. “How did exams go?”

Seungcheol pouted. “Bad enough to land us in tutoring.”

The girl tapped her pencil, thinking about how to start the tutoring session. “Hm….out of all of the lessons today, which one didn’t make any sense to you? We’ll start with that for now.”

“Ah!” Seungcheol’s eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Math.” The boy quickly took out his textbook from his backpack and set it between the two of them.

“You guys are also on circular functions, right?” Minyoung asked as she watched Seungcheol flip through the textbook to find the appropriate chapter.

“Yeah, we are but your homeroom teacher – Mrs. Jeon – she’s really confusing.” Seungcheol ran his free hand through his hair. “It’s this one right here.”

Minyoung’s eyes quickly scanned the page. It was on double angle identities, a part of the circular functions unit. The particular unit itself wasn't too bad but required a lot of work and one had to be careful to not miss any steps when solving questions.

“Ah, this one.” The girl pushed up her sleeves. “This one’s going to take some time, so be prepared.”

“That’s fine,” Seungcheol’s eyes formed crescents as he smiled at her. “I hope you’ll go easy on me, teacher.”

Minyoung playfully stuck out her tongue at him. “You wish.”

—

The next hour was dedicated to reviewing double angle identities. To Minyoung’s surprise, Seungcheol was focused throughout the entire time and occasionally asked questions. When they reached end of the section on double angle identities, there were questions to practice the concepts taught.

“Okay, why don’t you give these three questions a try?” Minyoung circled numbers 2, 4, and 6 of the practice questions with a pencil.

Seungcheol nodded and flipped his notebook to a new page as he started to solve them.

Minyoung took out her water bottle from her bag and took a sip, throat dry after talking nonstop for quite some time. The review on double angle identities went pretty well enough; he mostly grasped the concepts but Seungcheol had her re-explain a few that didn’t make sense to him. Mrs. Jeon taught in a fast pace so Minyoung tried to explain those parts in a way that was understandable. She was worried that she might have made it even more confusing, but to her relief Seungcheol understood and the pieces started falling into place for him.

Minyoung watched Seungcheol furrow his brows as he worked on answering the questions with great concentration. She had to admit that she kind of saw why the girls found him good looking – he had well defined features, long lashes, clear skin, and the way his lips formed a pout as he focused on the math questions was somewhat cute. Minyoung couldn’t help but feel envious at how long his lashes were; hers were short and mascara couldn’t even help her when she had to put on makeup for special events.

Minyoung didn’t realize she was staring at him, nor did she know for how long, until he poked her cheek, snapping her out of her trance.

Seungcheol grinned teasingly. “Enjoying the view?”

"What? No." The girl shook her head but her cheeks turned a light shade of pink. She gave a tiny cough. "Anyways, are you done?”

The boy winked. “I don’t charge if you stare.”

The girl rolled her eyes as he chuckled, passing his notebook over to her. Minyoung shook her head at him as she took out a red pen. She started to check his work carefully, making sure that he showed the process to get to the final answers. Mrs. Jeon always gave partial marks even if the answers were wrong as long as the students showed their work and she could point out the errors. Seungcheol let out a sigh of relief when Minyoung circled all three questions, which meant that he got them correct.

“Well done!” Minyoung gave him a smile as she handed his notebook back to him. “Does it make sense now?”

Seungcheol nodded, his eyes twinkling. “Yeah, thanks. I think it makes sense now because I have a lovely tutor.”

She rolled her eyes again but this time, she couldn’t help but crack a light smile as she checked her watch. “Is there anything else you wanted me to go over before we have to leave?”

“Mmm…I don’t think so. I think we got everything today.” The boy nodded. "We're meeting on Wednesday anyways so I can always ask on that day."

“Then I guess we can go home.” The two quietly packed up their belongings to not disturb the other students studying, sneakily made their way across the room, and slid the door shut quietly behind them.  

As they emerged into the empty hallway, Seungcheol cleared his throat. “So…”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks again,” Seungcheol rubbed the back of his neck. “I know you’re probably busy with studying but you agreed to do the tutoring anyways.”

Minyoung gave him a friendly smile.

“It’s nothing. It’s a win-win situation for both sides so why not? And teaching to people is a great way to retain information.”

“But still…you guys are a big help. We’re really thankful that you guys agreed to this." The boy paused for a moment. "So...let’s work hard together from now on.”

Minyoung couldn’t help but feel warm at his words and she nodded in agreement.

Seungcheol held out his fist to her and they bumped their fists, exchanging smiles.

“So do I get a reward for my hard work?” The boy then grinned cheekily.

“A reward?”

“You know,” Seungcheol hummed innocently. “A little something.”

Minyoung stared at him blankly and an idea popped into her mind. “Ah! I’ll be right back. Don’t move, okay?”

Before Seungcheol could reply, Minyoung ran to the direction of the school cafeteria, which was still open and served dinner in the evenings for the students staying late to study. She pushed the door open and headed to the fridges that had cold drinks. The girl carefully selected two cartons of milk, one chocolate and one strawberry, and headed towards the cashier. After paying for the drinks, she ran back to Seungcheol, who was preoccupied with his phone.

“Here,” Minyoung held out the chocolate milk towards him. “It’s for you.”

Seungcheol raised his brows as he pocketed his phone and took the drink in his hands. “For me?”

Minyoung nodded. “This is your reward for doing really well today. I’ll see you next time, bye-bye!”

The girl her heel, heading towards the front doors to go home as she pierced the indicated area of the carton with the included straw. She hummed as she took a sip of the strawberry milk, a smile forming on her lips.  

Maybe this tutoring thing wasn’t so bad after all.

Apologies for the delay;;;; School got really busy because of midterms and I didn’t know how to write this chapter so it's kind of rough. BTW I haven't taken pre-calculus since I graduated so I might be wrong about some things. This chapter is unbeta’d at the moment so there might be some errors. Lastly, thank you for the subs and thank you for reading!