He was forced to fit in with the messed up society. It was as if it was the only way to be successful. But he doubted that.

He had seen these people fall and never did stand up again, because they just give up.

He was different from them, he didn’t need to be just like the society, he just needed to be himself.

And he also needed to get out of high school.

“Another F, Im Changkyun?”

He groaned, pushing his best friend’s face away from his. “Shut up, Jooheon” He hissed, crumpling the test paper into a ball.

“It was just a test anyway” He tried to reason, but inside he was cursing. Jooheon chuckled, bringing himself to sit at his seat that was behind Changkyun’s.

“You know, I can always tutor you” Jooheon suggested. Changkyun shook his head, annoyed once again.

His best friend, Jooheon, was the same as him, with the exception of his genius brain. Changkyun gets straight F’s, Jooheon gets straight A’s. He didn’t really bother about the difference in grades between him and Jooheon, as long as they had the same passion.

“Have you finished the rap?” He asked, as he turned around to face Jooheon.

“I was busy studying yesterday, I’ll continue later” He answered, gaining a sigh from Changkyun.

“Dude, you’re a genius, you don’t have to study”

Jooheon shrugged, picking up his pen. “I just like studying, that’s all” He said, smiling with his eyes. Changkyun turned away, after giving up talking with his best friend.

 

 

“What?”

Changkyun looked at his teacher that had called him after class. He was trying to not get mad again, especially to the same teacher. But his fist clenched tightly at the back.

“I said, you will get tutor from one of my student” His teacher repeated calmly.

“I don’t need one”

He received an intense look from his teacher, before he slowly nodded. “Who is it?”

The teacher smiled, knowing Changkyun would agree eventually. “Her name is Oh Seunghee”

The unfamiliar name made he paused, especially when the name meant his tutor was a female. He suddenly regretted not taking Jooheon’s offer to tutor him.

He silently cursed inside his head, as he nodded once again.

“I asked her to meet you tomorrow after school so you better don’t forget” His teacher warned him, before she excused him to leave.

Changkyun let out a deep breath the moment he was out of the office; his head was getting dizzy thinking that he was going to force himself to study for the first time ever.

It was late already, and everyone seemed to have gone home already as he saw an empty hall.

He pulled out his headset and plug into his ears, letting the rap music into them.

“Finally” He felt at ease, after such a long tiring day. All he wanted to do was going home and sleep, to get away from this stress.

That was until he felt someone tapping his arm. He quickly turned around, only to see a female. Her lips were mouthing something as he plug out his headset.

“What?” His cold tone made the female flinched. “Um can I borrow your phone?” She asked, but her voice sounded unaffected by his mood.

“Where’s yours?”

“I left it at home” She reasoned, her eyes left his. “You’re the only left so…” She continued, looking down on the floor.

He sighed, shoving his hand into his pocket before giving his phone. It was rare for him to lend his phone to someone, especially a stranger but she looked desperate for it.

“Thank you” She said, typing some message immediately on his phone.

He looked at her, observing her. His eyes wandered from her hair, eyes, nose and lips. Cute…

His eyes widened unconsciously, as he felt himself a rush of embarrassment that he actually find a female cute.

“Here” She interrupted his thoughts, giving back his phone as she smiled widely.

And for the first time ever, his heart was beating hard.

“O-Okay” He took his phone back, clumsily putting it into his pocket. The female was still there, now looking at him. He cleared his throat, trying to look away.

He didn’t know why he was still standing there; it was like as if his feet were glued on the floor.

“What’s your name?”

He had always hated saying his real name to other people, to someone that he didn’t trust at all. He looked at her, again, trying to bring back his cold expression.

“I.M”

“Nice to meet you, I.M” She said, her smile never left. He knew she was that type of girl. The princess of the household, the one who got everything, but  he also knew she was different.

“What’s yours?” He blurted out what was inside his head, making his heart dropped.

“Kim Haneul” She introduced herself brightly, before checking her watch. Her eyes widened after looking at it.

“I have to go, I.M, I’ll see you around?” She paused, it was as if she wanted to see him again but she needed his agreement.

He slowly nodded, seeing her smile again. They gave each other one last final look before she dashed out of the hall, going back home.

He wasn’t to lie that all that time he was holding his breath, it was suffocating, it was the first time. He looked at the hall, it wasn’t just empty anymore; it was now filled with a memory.

 

 

When the sun welcomed Changkyun the next day, he groaned lazily on his bed. A loud yell from his mother from downstairs made him sat on his bed.

“I’m awake, mom!” He yelled back, making the place quiet again.

His feet brought him to the bathroom to get ready for another boring day at school. He fixed his hair as he looked at himself on the mirror. The longer he took, the longer his mind went off to her.

“Kim Haneul…” It felt right by his lips, as he kept saying her name.

 

“I’m going now” Changkyun said, taking his shoes near the entrance door. He heard his mother’s another yell, his nose smelled his mother’s homemade pancake.

“Come and eat first” Her mother said. She was standing at the kitchen door, her eyes showed concern.

Changkyun shook his head, putting on his shoes. “I’m not hungry –”

“Im Changkyun” Her mother said firmly, she was used to his son being stubborn but he was getting too much.

“I said I’m not hungry” He said coldly, grabbing his bag and sling on his shoulder.

“Let him go, honey, just like how you let him do some rap crap” His father appeared on the stairs, his arms were crossed like a boss.

Changkyun glared at him, he didn’t like his father ever since he disapproved of Changkyun doing rap. It was killing him whenever his father destroys his passion every day.

“This is why I said I’m not hungry” Changkyun hissed angrily, slamming the door loudly before stomping away from his house.

 

 

“I’d like to help you to get out of this, dude, but you really do need a tutor” Jooheon said, as he munched on his biscuit. Changkyun sighed loudly, his eyes were looking at the full crowd in the cafeteria before they moved to Jooheon’s face.

“You can tutor me, Jooheon, you even offered it to me yesterday” He reasoned.

“We’ll end up playing games if I tutor you” Jooheon replied back. His answers were always short but right, something Changkyun couldn’t do.

“Besides, it’s a female, maybe she’s pretty” His best friend tried to comfort him, in any way, but it doesn’t matter if she was pretty or not, he still had to study. And he had another female that was still in his mind.

“You’ll survive” Jooheon patted Changkyun’s back after receiving nothing from him.

“Right”

Changkyun’s eyes went back to the crowd, suddenly spotted a familiar female.

“Kim Haneul…”

“Huh?” Jooheon’s voice made his spoon fell from his grip. He didn’t expect himself blurting out his thoughts again.

“N-Nothing”

“I heard you said a name” Jooheon eyed him suspiciously, trying to search where he looked. Changkyun immediately picked up his spoon, shoving his food into his mouth.

“It’s nuhtheng” He said, his mouth was exposed to Jooheon as his best friend gave a disgusted face.”Ew, don’t talk while eating” Jooheon mentioned, throwing his unused tissue to Changkyun’s face.

“Your mouth is dirty, gosh, wipe it off” He continued, making Changkyun chuckled as he took the tissue.

Just as he was about to wipe his mouth, his eyes looked front, only to see her staring back at him.

“” He cursed under his breath, wiping his mouth quickly, feeling his cheeks burn in embarrassment.

Haneul’s eyes looked down, but she giggled before turning around to catch up with her friends.

“She saw me” He mumbled, gulping down his food. Jooheon stared at his friend, still with his disgusted face, as he shook his head.

“You’re getting weirder each day, Changkyun”

“Just shut up” He groaned, embarrassed at what had happened. Jooheon ignored his friend’s moodswing as he start blabbering about his mother’s homemade biscuit.

 

 

Changkyun was going to escape the meeting, but when he was about to leave the class, his teacher had called him again.

“Be nice to her, Changkyun” His teacher said strictly, after she gave a short lecture of escaping. He nodded in silence, heading to where he was supposed to meet his tutor.

The teacher had mentioned that his tutor would be waiting at the library.

But how was he supposed to find her when he didn’t know how she looked like. He sighed as he entered the library, his eyes scanned the area.

He spotted a female sitting alone at the corner, she was studying and had a cold expression. It reminded of himself, except that he didn’t actually study.

He calmly approached her, his fingers were tapping his pants.

“Oh Seunghee?” He said, standing beside the table.

The female looked up, seeing him for the first time. “Are you the one I am going to tutor?”

“Probably” He was already tired of talking to her. It was rude of him, but he just wanted to go home.

Her hands arranged quickly her books that was scattering on the table, too serious about cleanliness. She threw away all the crumpled papers that she had made before looking at him again.

“You should sit” She said, smiling slightly, as she patted the chair beside her.

Changkyun looked at it boringly, his feet move to the chair across hers.

“There is fine too” She quickly said, her smile was still there. A little too forceful.

Changkyun kept quiet, the least he could do was take out his notebook and pen to make her not bother him much.

“What’s your name?” She asked curiously.

His mind went back to yesterday when Haneul asked him the same thing. It was the same, but both females gave him different feelings.

Now, he felt empty.

“I.M” The same tone, the same expression, different heart.

“So it’s just I AM?”

He nodded once, uninterested with the female’s presence. Her chuckle echoed in the room brought him to look at her again, finally.

“As in ‘I am hungry’ that I AM?” She asked again, her eyes blinked curiously. He stared at her and shook his head lazily.

“No, it’s the alphabet I and M together” His bored tone towards her never changed as his head turned back to look at his empty notebook.

“That’s rare for a real name”

A loud sigh came out from his lips.

“It’s a nickname”

“Then what’s your real name?” He closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath to stay calm. He needed to shut her up.

“Changkyun”

“Huh?”

He rolled his eyes, repeating it. “That’s my real name”

The girl’s face brightened, her smile became wider.

“I like Changkyun better than I.M” She said, suddenly taking his notebook at the speed of light. His head snapped to look at her again, as he saw her fingers taking his pen away from his palm.

His eyes focused on the words she wrote on his notebook, slowly and delicately. A year –

“So, Changkyun” His eyes went back to the girl, and somehow he couldn’t reply her but she seemed like she didn’t mind as she came closer to him.

 “Are you ready to spend a year with me?” 

“Not really” He coldly answered, taking back his pen from her. Her head looked down, as she quietly took a deep breath.

“Well, you need to because you’re going to stick with me for a year” She explained, looking at him with another forceful smile.

“Good luck doing that” He spoke, shoving his notebook and pen into his bag as he left her alone at the library, again.

 

---

I finally updated this! I'm so sorry it took so long but I hoped you guys liked it!!

Thank you for subscribing this and please comment on your thoughts about this chapter!