Chapter 4:

“Next customer, please.”

Jiho and Yoobin walked up to the cash register to place their order and spotted a familiar face. It was Jungkook.

“Oh. It’s you guys. What happened to your leg?” he asked.

“Where did you go today after bringing me halfway to the nurse? Everyone said you never went back to class and you weren’t with me either,” Jiho said.

“Why is that even your business? It’s not like we’re BFFs or anything. Anyways, what would you like to order? I need to do my job, here.”

“We’ll have two slices of the double chocolate cake, one slice of rainbow cake, four cream puffs, two canolis, and a variety of 12 donuts,” Binnie ordered.

“Wow. Okay, that’ll be 12,500 won. Your order will come out on the other side.” Yoobin and Jiho both handed over the asked amount, and after giving them their receipt, Jungkook then went to the back to deliver the paper saying what they ordered.

“YAH! Why did you order so much stuff? He’ll think we’re total gluttons!”

“Relax, when did we even care about what that kid thinks? Besides, I’m probably eating 75 percent of it because of your new ‘diet’.”

“Don’t you dare! I payed for half of that even though it’s way too much. I’m eating my half.”

Yoobin sighed. “Why are you complaining if you’re just gonna eat it anyways?”

The other worker called them over and gave them their order. Yoobin and Jiho sat down at one of the tables and started eating. After they finished their feast, Yoobin threw out their garbage and needed to use the bathroom.

“Jiho, I’m gonna go use the bathroom. Don’t go anywhere and don’t move that leg of yours!” She turned around and ran in the direction of the restroom. After waiting for two or three minutes, Jiho realized that Yoobin forgot to throw out her empty water bottle and the napkins she used to wipe off her face.

“Ugh, my Binnie is so dirty,” she muttered to herself while sighing. 'The garbage can isn’t that far. I can hop there and back without falling', she thought. Jiho grabbed the garbage and started making her way towards the garbage can, which was on the other side of the tables near the employee only kitchen entrance door. Instead of using her crutches, she hopped on the leg that didn’t hurt. Jiho hopped until she was just one step away from the bin. She hopped one last time, but instead of landing securely on the ground, she tripped over the chair leg next to her and started falling forward.

Suddenly, she felt an arm latch onto her upper arm. Whoever it was stopped her fall and pulled her up and then pushed her onto a chair. Jiho looked up only to be shocked.

It was Jungkook.

“Go around more carefully.”

“O-oh. Thanks,” she said softly. Jungkook’s eyes had a glint of concern, making Jiho swoon. He picked up the water bottle and some of the dirty tissues off the floor, and grabbed the other few from Jiho’s hands. He then threw them out and walked back behind the counter. Yoobin came out of the bathroom to see Jiho on a random chair in the middle of the bakery, just sitting there and staring at the counter. Binnie ran over to her.

“How’d you get over here?? I told you not to move! Next thing you know, your leg is gonna fall off!” said Binnie. Jiho didn’t respond. She continued to stare at the counter. “Kim Jiho! Earth to Kim Jiho! ARE YOU ALIVE?” Binnie yelled.

“Oh- huh?” Jiho said.

“What’s wrong with you, girl? What world are you in?”

“I’m on Cloud 9”, Jiho said with a grin.

---
 

“Class, I have an announcement to make.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the homeroom teacher. “We’re not that far in the year, but already, there are students who are not performing so well. As you all know, this is a very elite high school and we must keep our reputation clean. On that note, we have decided that students who received under an 85 on the last two exams in each class will receive tutoring in that class until their grade on at least 3 consecutive exams in that subject is above 85. However, it will not be professional tutors, which our school could afford, but your own peers tutoring you because we thought that would be more effective. Tutors will receive community service hours that will count towards the 200 community service hours you will need to graduate. I will call out the names of the students who will receive tutoring right now by subject. You may need tutoring in more than one subject. Okay, let’s begin. Kim Sena, Park Sejin, Ahn Eunjin, Lee Sungmin, Han Jinho, Lee Bitna, Jung Serim, Kim Sooho, Jeon Jungkook. Come up to see which subject, or subjects.”

All of the students called up sighed and everyone who was not called up sighed in relief. All of them went up one by one and found out which subjects they were performing low in.

“And now, it’s time to decide the tutors. We need 4 tutors in math, 3 in Korean literature, 3 in English, and 6 in biology. You can tutor up to two people in each subject, in all of the subjects. Okay, so who wants to tutor. . .” The teacher went name by name and hands went up volunteering for each person. Community service hours were something that SNS specially required so that graduates could be one step above graduates from other elite high schools, which often did not require community service hours. Because most students took studying really seriously, it was often hard to find the time to do community service and this was the perfect chance to get them.

When the teacher said Jungkook’s name, who needed tutoring in math and English, Jiho’s hand shot up.

“Me, me, me! I’ll tutor him in both subjects!” she exclaimed. Jungkook stared at her weirdly, like all people would if someone was so excited for a tutoring job. Chaeyeon eyed Jiho and raised her hand just to piss Jiho off.

“Teacher, I’d like to tutor Jungkook as well.” Everyone was awkwardly silent. It was well known that Jiho and Chaeyeon had some bad blood between them. Right then, Jungkook started talking.

“Teacher, can one of them just tutor me in both subjects? I don’t have the time to frolic around town to meet both of them. I’d rather just get it all done in one place.”
 

“Erm- okay. Jiho, you’ll be tutoring him since Chaeyeon is already tutoring Eunjin and Jinho.”

Chaeyeon gave Jiho a death glare and Jiho tried to hide her happiness. Jungkook just looked really done; he wasn’t a fan of this whole tutoring thing, but he promised his parents that we would at least try to do somewhat well in school si