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Yongsun drags her feet over to her usual table in the school cafeteria. Paying no attention to whomever was already sitting there (she assumed it was one of her friends), she slumps down onto the seat beside the person and sets her tray down onto the table with much more force than she had intended which caused the whole table to shake. This in turn led to Namjoon's soda spilling over his fries, much to his annoyance. 

"Hello to you too." 

Yongsun gives him a dismissive wave and buries her head into both her arms and lets out a long dramatic sigh. 

"What's up, buttercup?" He asks as he pops a soggy fry into his mouth and immediately he regrets the action. Making a disgusted face, he spits it back out and pushes his tray aside. His lunch that he had looked forward to since the school day started, was ruined. He shoots Yongsun a glare.

"Namjoon, I'm hopeless. No matter how hard I try I just can't understand the concept of integration."

His gaze softens, "I take it your test didn't go as planned?"

She ignores his question and continues on with her rant, "I mean, it was already hard enough as it is with all that algebra bull and now I have to worry about sin, cos and tan?!" She sits up swiftly, her action causes Namjoon to jolt a bit. She looks him straight in the eyes and says, "Let's get drunk tonight." 

Namjoon couldn't help but let out a laugh. It was such a typical thing for Yongsun to say yet he could never get use to it no matter how many times he's heard her say it. Although he enjoyed drinking with her and going to parties with her, a huge part of him did not particularly enjoy worrying about her falling all over the place.  "I can't believe I'm saying this but maybe we should stick to good ol' water tonight? I'll bring pizza." He says, "How's that sound, hm?"

She tsked and flicks his forehead, "No. I want alcohol."

"Wow, did the word 'alcohol' just come out of Yongsun's mouth?" Hyejin teases as she settles down onto one of the vacant seats at the table, "What happened to Yongsun the hermit?" 

"Oh yeah, you told me you were staying away from all things that are "detrimental" to your grades." Namjoon agrees as he helps himself to one of Hyejin's fries. 

"You guys. I've realised that I'm detrimental to my grades. So logically speaking, me drinking alcohol and going to parties isn't really going to change anything. They'll still be no matter what I do." She says sadly. 

"Damn, Yongsun you are so dramatic." 

"Exactly what I was going to say."

The rest of their 45 minute lunch break went by in a breeze. She didn't think it were possible but the two of them had managed to have her laughing for most of it, making her almost forget about the meeting she had to go to about her test score after lunch. It had been a while since it was just the three of them talking about whatever nonsense they could think of. It made her think of happier times, back to the early years of high school when she needn't have to worry much about her grades since it didn't matter. But now everyone was frantic, studying non stop all for a stupid letter on a piece of paper and using that to get into university all to suffer all over again for another four years. She was envious at all her friends, they seemed so relaxed about it all. They were able to juggle their studies as well as a social life and enjoy the perks of being a senior. However for Yongsun, it felt like she could only enjoy one of those three things. Well, that was her mindset at the start of the semester. In hindsight, it was a stupid decision. Now, after much deliberation, she has made the decision to enjoy the remaining months she had left with her best friends. 

"Hey guys...I'm sorry if I seemed a bit flaky this past month." Yongsun says after their conversation about whether or not pineapple was considered a pizza topping, died down. 

The both of them stare at her, a bit taken aback at her sudden sincerity. "We get it, don't worry. I'm just glad to have you back." Hyejin says with a smile, "I've missed my partying buddy."

"What am I, invisible?" Namjoon mutters at Hyejin's comment, "Anyway, speaking of parties. I'm throwing one on Friday."

"Wait, so does that mean you're okay with me finding you potential love interests?" Hyejin asks with glee, wriggling her eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

Yongsun ponders on the question for a moment before giving a half hearted shrug, "Sure why not."

"Aaaaand that's my cue to leave." Namjoon promptly leaves before the girls could ask him to invite his "good looking" friends to his party. 

"Hey! Remember you're buying the pizza tonight!" Yongsun shouts after him.

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Yongsun could feel her nerves start to kick in as she waited patiently for her teacher to arrive. She made sure to turn up an extra ten minutes early just so she didn't give her math teacher another reason to hate her. Well, hate was a strong word. More like dislike? After all, even she would admit that if someone ignored her advice for the hundredth time, she'd be pretty annoyed as well. She'd probably even swear at them. It was then and there that Yongsun decides that she wasn't cut out to be a teacher. At that precise moment, her teacher, Mr Barnes enters the classroom with the look of despair at the sight of her. Poor guy, she thinks to herself, he too must wonder if he was a good enough teacher. He had been her teacher for the past two years, she remembered the very first day she met him. His eyes were filled with hope and determination (he was one of the new teachers back then) and looking at him now was a bit sorrowful to say the least. His hair had become noticeably more grey, the bags under his eyes were more prominent than ever. Even his sense of fashion had gone down the drain these past two years. Back then he would always wear nice and crisp shirts, each day was a different colour. Now? Well, now he wears the same shirt during a week for as long as possible until the coffee stains become a bit too much for him to handle.

This, of course wasn't all due to Yongsun. No, she was merely a cataylst in the making. Rumour has it that his first love had gotten married over the summer and worst of all, she had married his brother. Ouch. Having one of his students continuously score below average in every weekly test is just another dagger to the heart to be honest.

"Did you have a good summer?" He says as he makes his way over to his desk, carefully trying not to spill his large mug of coffee all over himself. 

She nods timidly, her eyes glancing up at him but then quickly settling back to her clasped hands. 

"Right." 

She hears him sit down and rummage through his draws muttering to himself about having to be more organised. She couldn't help but think that he was the male version of her probably in ten years time. What a horrid thought indeed. No actually, that's a bit mean she thinks to herself. Mr B. had good qualities, but it was hard to look past all the ruggedness. You may be thinking, what are you talking about? Rugged men are attractive! But the thing is, he's taken it to a whole new level. Maybe if he gave his beard a trim and his hair as well while we're on the topic. Because right now he just looked like a civilised Big Foot. 

"Aha!" He lifts out the dreaded test from his cabinet in triumph and places it neatly in between the both of them. "So, what happened Yongsun? You told me you found this test okay."

"I..I don't know." It was such a generic response but it was the only response she had. Because she really didn't know what the hell happened. She had been so sure of herself when she walked into the classroom that day, she was full of confidence as Mr B. handed out the tests but as soon as she opened it and looked at the first question, all that dissipated in a blink of an eye and she was left with only two thoughts in mind: "I'm so going to fire Yejin for this." and " this ."  The latter was her mantra as she worked her way through each question of that test paper. 

Mr B. his beard in thought and slides the test over to her, "Tell me what you're struggling with." 

She peers closely at the paper and looks back up at him, "Everything." She says.

"Yongsun." He sighs, "We've gone over and over this countless times in class." 

She remains silent because she had no words, she felt guilty and an inconvenience to him but above all, she felt hopeless. 

"Listen, I know we've discussed this before and you said no last time but I think this will really help you." He says.

If she was being honest, she had no idea what he was referring to, they've had so many meetings  the past two years to discuss her test scores that at one point they all started to blur together. "Oh yeah..I think so too." She replies. Yongsun didn't want him to feel disappointed in her any more than he already was. She also didn't want him to feel as if she didn't pay attention in their meetings (Okay that's partly true but that's besides the point) so she went along with whatever he was saying.

"Good. I'm glad you agree." He's a bit surprised at first but settles back into his chair, "So then I will arrange for someone from the advanced class to tutor you after school." 

Yongsun lifts her head up so quickly, she feels her neck crack in protest, "Wait what?"

Mr. B takes out a list of names and using his pen skims through them all and finally taps on one name in particular, "There's a free slot here." 

She feels herself go a bit red, she didn't want any of her peers to tutor her. Especially now since that the advanced class was merged with hers, it made things even more awkward. Her reasoning was this: If even Hyejin couldn't tutor her then what makes anyone else able to? It was okay with Hyejin since they're friends but having a person she barely knew from her own class at that, tutor her was embarassing. She was afraid of what her peers would say about her behind her back. Surely they'd laugh about how stupid she was behind her back. 

"You seem a bit reluctant." He observes.

That was an understatement. 

When she doesn't say a word he continues, "Try it for a month and if that doesn't work we'll figure out something." 

Okay, that seems reasonable. With that, she nods. 

"Okay good. I'll speak to Eric after class tomorrow about it."

Yongsun widens her eyes. Wait what?!

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author's note: I know this is a slow story (sorry) but I want to be able to establish each character's struggles before diving into the good stuff. Hopefully it'll all come together in the end. Okay hope you enjoy this chapter, please comment it'll make me happy if you do. Hope you're having a nice day ~