»»---¤---««

Moonbyul could feel herself growing more and more irritated by the second. It was two hours away from her next class and she had two free periods to do whatever she wanted, and naturally she chose to get a head start on her homeworks that were due next week. It was all going fine, she was whizzing through each chapter of her textbook like a pro but all that motivation seemed to falter bit by bit when Yongsun walked into the library accompanied by Eric. 

Moonbyul had noticed Yongsun's uneasiness back in math class, an hour ago. She had thanked the heavens for allowing her class to be merged with Irene's. Now not only did she see her in Biology but also in her favourite subject too. But her happiness was short lived and had slowly transitioned into annoyance. This was due to the fact that for the whole duration of that class, Yongsun did nothing but fidget in her seat and occasionally threw nervous glances over to the far side of the classroom - to Eric, Moonbyul now realises. At first, she assumed it was because Yongsun had some sort of crush on the guy but judging by her facial expressions and overall body langauge now in the library, this couldn't be further from the truth. 

Moonbyul was sitting just two tables down from the both of them so she had a pretty clear view on what was going on. And now, peering over the top of her textbook to observe them, she too could feel the uncomfortableness that was radiating from Yongsun. He was sitting dangerously close to her, all parameters of any personal space had been breached by him and if it were just the two of them in an empty classroom, Moonbyul had no doubt in her mind that Eric would try and make a move on her, and this thought made her skin crawl. 

But then again, maybe Moonbyul was being paranoid...after all she did have the tendancy to exaggerate things from time to time. Like that one time she went cycling with Wheein. It was embarassing to admit but it had taken her a while to get use to the bike since it had been years since she sat on one - annoyingly she had forgotten how to adjust the seat properly and so spent the first few hours in an uncomfortable position but on the bright side, Moonbyul was able make comments on how short Wheein was from time to time so all in all it was a win win. Wait, where was this story going? Oh yes. Moonbyul was cycling along in the cyclist's lane on the road but stupidly she cycled far far too close to the side of the pavement - she didn't realise this until after a car sped by past her. Even though, the car was not even at arms length beside her, the sound of the engine made her turn abruptly and this led to the side of the tyre of the bike to come in contact with the side of the pavement. This then made the whole bike flip to one side towards the pavement - and she ended up with a few bruises as a momento. When Wheein had caught up with her, she had asked what had happened. To which Moonbyul replied, "Oh my goodness, that car was driving ridiculously close to me and nudged me to the side as it passed. Too bad he drove off too quickly for me to memorise his number plate otherwise I would sue his ." 

Moonbyul tilts her head slightly and inhales sharply - her gut feeling was telling her that she wasn't overracting and that the poor girl needed someone to intervene. The guy had rested his arm on the back of Yongsun's chair so this allowed him to inch even closer to her. Moonbyul internally groans, you idiot! Why aren't you saying anything? Tell him to off. Do something. But to her disappointment Yongsun just sat frozen stiff and was staring at the opened textbooks in front of her. 

With an exasperated sigh, she stands up and makes her way over to their table. She does her best to surpress her smirk when Eric scowls at her arrival and finally puts some distance in between them. She could see Yongsun visibly let out a exhale in relief.

"What'd you want?" Eric says making no effort to hide his contempt towards her arrival and to her in general. You see, Eric viewed her as an academic rival - in math especially. Moonbyul would always score top of her class and Eric would always come in second no matter what and Moonbyul reckons that over the past two years, this had slowly begun to chip away at his fragile masculinity piece by piece. As for Moonbyul? She couldn't give two s about who comes first and who comes second. As long as she was passing every test with enough marks then that was good enough for her. 

She smiles sweetly at him, while making herself comfortable at their table, "Oh nothing just nice to see a couple of familar faces in the library. I was so lonely studying by myself back there." She points at her abandoned table. 

Eric scoffs, "Bull. You never study with other people."

"Oh? And how would you know that?" Moonbyul raises her eyebrows in a quizzical manner and leans forward with a smirk, "My my, have you been stalking me?" 

It was hard not to just get up and go back to her table after that because she had already made it clear to the spluttering idiot (he was still trying to come up with a comeback) that she was watching him like a hawk, but once Moonbyul locked eyes with Yongsun, she was reminded about why she was there in the first place. 

Yongsun gives her a small smile and mouths "thank you" to her and Moonbyul can't help but smile back. 

»»---¤---««

The sound of frantic shuffling of textbooks and notebooks into backpacks echoed through the library as soon as the final bell rang for the next period. Moonbyul had stuck at that table for the past 90 minutes, having high hopes that Eric would see how unwelcome he was at the table and crawl back under the rock he came from. But no matter how many times Moonbyul would make snide comments at him or roll her eyes at his attempt to brush his hand "accidentally" against Yongsun's, he made no effort to move which annoyed her even more. At least he kept his distance from Yongsun, it wasn't much as he was still an inch or two away from invading her personal space but it was something.

"What class do you have now, Yongsun?" Eric asks

"Biology."

"Great, I'll walk you there."

Yongsun shifts uncomfortably on the balls of her feet, "Uh.."

"I'm sure she can manage the perilous journey across campus just fine, Columbus." Moonbyul interjects as she crosses her arms in a defiant manner with the look on her face that invited him to challenge her if he dared to. Before he can retort back, she quickly adds, "Besides, I'm walking to the same class. I'll be sure to fight off any slimy creeps along the way. They look like you right?" She asks innocently.

Moonbyul fights back the smile that was threatening to break out on her face because she could feel Yongsun vibrating with laughter beside her. But unfortunately, Eric failed to see the humourous side and so with a glower, he finally gets the hint and stalks off to class.

Yongsun looks at her with nothing but utmost awe, "Thanks." She says giving her the brightest smile Moonbyul has ever seen. It takes a moment or two for her to gather her thoughts, and when she does, she looks at her with a frown, "Are you an idiot?" 

"Huh?"

Moonbyul turns away in frustration, she had just insulted Irene's friend yet again. This was definitely not how she wanted to be noticed by Irene. "You should've said something earlier. Why didn't you?"

Yongsun bites her lower lip and looks down at her feet, "Because I need all the help I can get." She mumbles.

"What?"

She shakes her head, "Never mind, it doesn't matter." A pause and another smile, "Let's get to class." 

»»---¤---««

Moonbyul brings her hand to the door in front of her, but she hesitates in actually knocking on said door. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe she should mind her own business. But no matter how many times she told herself this, a part of her worried for the damn girl. Eric was a creep and this was an objective opinion. Moonbyul can recall overhearing stories about him groping girls at parties but it was always brushed off because he was "drunk". But that library incident made it very clear that with or without the influence of alcohol, Eric was trash either way. After hearing Yongsun tell Irene about her "unofficial" first lesson with Eric, further validated her opinion.

"He told me we needed to meet in the library during our free period just so he can see what areas I needed help with." Yongsun said, "But when I told him that it was unecessary to do so considering I needed help in everything, he got a bit angry and demanded that I meet him otherwise he wouldn't tutor me." 

Moonbyul had turned away in disgust, she didn't want to listen any more. Of course he'd manipulate her for his own personal gain - the little bastard. 

And so this was why Moonbyul was now currently standing outside the math staff room - she needed to do something. It felt wrong to sit around and let things escalate any further, with that thought in mind, she knocks.

Mr B. answers the door thankfully, otherwise she'd have to make awkward small talk with other teachers and if there's one thing she hates, it was small talk. 

"Hey Mr B."

His eyebrows shoots up in surprise, finally putting some life into that face of his. Poor guy, Moonbyul thinks to himself. She had heard about the rumours and although she tried her hardest not to, she gave him a sympathetic look. 

"Moonbyul, is it?" He scratches the back of his neck, unsure about himself, "Sorry I know it's almost been a month but I've always been bad at remembering names of new students." 

"That's okay." You have enough to worry about, Moonbyul thinks to herself, you should start with that huge coffee stain on your shirt. 

"So what can I help you with?" 

"Oh. I'd like to become a tutor." 

"Really? Not that I'm not thrilled, but I recall that you told your former teacher last year that you had better things to do than 'waste time on slackers' " 

Moonbyul feels herself go red, "Yeah but I apologised straight after." Still seeing that she wasn't doing a good job at convincing how sincere she was, she adds, "Besides my buddy Eric was saying to me earlier how he doesn't have time for a social life considering he's tutoring half of the football team and now he's got another new student.."

"Oh I see. Yes, I didn't really give him a choice to decline, did I?" He says more so to himself than her. 

"So being the great friend that I am, I told him that I'd gladly join the tutoring team and tutor that girl. Besides, it is more advantageous for her to be tutored by me don't you think? I am top of the class afterall." She says proudly 

He nods.

Wow that was easy.

"Okay, sure. I appreciate you taking the initiative. I'll notify Eric tomorrow and you can start your lessons with her tomorrow after school."

»»---¤---««

author's note: I'd just like to make it clear that the way I describe Eric in this story is purely fictional. I'm in no way implying that he's like that in real life, I know people can get sensitive about that which is fair enough especially if you're a fan of his. But to make it clear, it's only for the purpose of the story. Hope you enjoy this and tell me your thoughts. :)