Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump. That’s how fast my heart was beating right now. I mean the boy I was in love with was lying on top of me. I could even feel the blood rush to my cheeks. Kai looked at me and I felt butterflies inside my stomach. His face was so close to mine that if I did a wrong move our lips would have touched.

“I finally caught you didn’t I?” He asked. His breath tickled on my skin and I could smell his perfume. He smelled like strawberries. “Give me the picture.”

”No”, I  managed to refuse.

”Are you sure it’s wise to be stubborn right now?” He asked. “I mean you’re under me.” His dark eyes were almost twinkling as they went up and down from my head to my chest. ”I could just look through your pockets and you wouldn’t be able to do a thing.” I clenched my teeth as panic ran through my body and thought of something quick. What was the one thing I needed that Kai could give me?

“Fine”, I said. “But on one condition.”

“What?”

”You have to help me study for the second test”, I said. Kai took a deep breath and buried his head into my shoulder. Kai actually buried his head into MY SHOULDER!

“You planned this from the beginning didn’t you?” I could now feel his breath on neck as he took breaths. All I could was nervously hold myself together. After my long silence Kai finally lift his head up to look me in the eyes. “Fine. I’ll do it. Just give me the picture.”

”Another thing”, I said. ”Cancel my punishment.”

“Yeah whatever”, he said. “You don’t have to continue your punishment. Everybody in the school has it recorded anyways.” He stood up, gave me his hand which I quickly grabbed and pulled me up. “Now give me my picture.”

“I forgot to tell you”, I said as I made sure there was enough space between Kai and me.

“I’ll give you back the picture after I pass the test.” I quickly ran away full speed.

“YA!” Kai yelled behind me. ”GO JI EUN! GET BACK HERE!”

“It was nice doing business with you Jong In Ah”, I yelled back and kept running. I finally arrived in front of the school where my friends were waiting for me.

“What in the world were you guys doing?” Tao asked. I happily laughed at how brilliantly my plan had worked.

“I’m finally getting back at Kai”, I hugged Tao. “I gave him a taste of his own medicine.”

“Are you sure?” Se Hun asked. ”Because from this angle it looked like something different.”

“Se Hun”, I smiled. ”If I pass the test I’m going to take you to my dad’s restaurant. You like my father’s spicy noodle, right?” Se Hun’s face lit up. I felt so good nothing could ruin my day.

Well that’s what I thought until he knocked on my bedroom door later that night and barged inside.

”Let’s study,” he demanded. I didn’t know what I was expecting when I’d blackmailed him with his picture into helping me study but I definitely didn’t think it would start this soon. Nor did I think he would comply so easily.

”Welcome in,” I greeted and closed the door. Meanwhile he sat down at my desk and started going though my schoolbooks. 

”We’re starting with math.” He decided. When I didn’t answer he looked at me with icy eyes. ”Sit.” I immediately did as I was told.

Just like that a few hours had passed. Kai and I had been studying for so long it was already midnight. Time had flown by fast and although it had only been a few hours it felt like a week had passed. Studying with Kai was not what I expected it to be. Based on my interactions with him, I’d always seen Kai as being cold, to the point, extremely harsh and mean so I was expecting this studying thing to be a nightmare. I was expecting him to be yelling or cursing at me for not understanding anything but instead he had been extremely calm, patient and pedagogic. It almost felt like I was siting next to another person.

“3(-5x-10) - (x-10)”, he said. Unfortunately it went over my head. I was confused. So confused and tired I only heard the 5x part. Why did people have to mix letters and numbers together? It only made everything much more difficult than it already was.

“Wake up!” Kai called. I unwillingly looked at him. My head felt heavy and empty.

“I don’t understand a thing”, I said. “Literally nada.”

“We already went through this a few equations before ”, Kai complained.

“I know.”

“Fine”, Kai sighed and closed the math book. “I think maybe we’ve overdone it with maths. Let’s…” He grabbed the history book, looked through it and stopped at a page ”Do you know anything about the Joseon era?”

“Does knowing that Kim Soo Hyun acted in a Joseon era drama count?” I asked. Kai closed his eyes and for a few seconds I thought he was going to snap but he simply took a deep breath. He got up from the chair and I looked as he lied down on my bed as if it was his own.

“Uh,  what are you doing?”

“I’m going to sleep.” Kai closed his eyes. “By the time I wake up, I except you to have read the chapters 1-10 of the book.”

“What?” I asked.

“We have about 8 hours left until the next school day”, he said. “Which gives you plenty of time to read it all. When I wake up tomorrow morning I’m going to give you a test.”

“Seriously?” I had mixed up feelings about this. ”I’m not going to sleep?”

“It’s not like you do anything in class anyway”, Kai yawned. “You can just sleep there. Your teacher won’t mind.” I faced my desk and looked at the thick history book. The cover was yelling ”defeat” at me. 

Next morning

I was against Kai’s orders at first, but somehow I found myself reading the history book throughout the night up until chapter 15 and I didn’t fall asleep once... Okay, fine! I did sleep for a few times but only for a couple of minutes. I even had time to take a shower around 6 am and change into my uniform. I had no idea where that energy had come from but I had found that history book really interesting. It was just as interesting as watching a Kim Soo Hyun drama.

“Shall we start our test?” Kai stretched his arms and I couldn’t help but look at him. His face looked fresh as if he’d just come out of the shower and his hair although messed had its strands fall in the right places. He looked perfect although he had just woken.

“You look good with messed up hair”, I commented.

“I know”, he said instead of thank you.

“You’re welcome”, I answered. Kai got up from bed and started doing some morning exercises as he asked me questions related to the book. I answered all of his questions as well as I could but it didn’t turn out so well.

“You will have to reread the book tonight, if you keep going like this.” He said after finishing his morning exercise. I simply nodded and took the book.

I was behaving so unlike myself at school that day. I was listening and paying attention to everything the teachers were saying and during the breaks I was reading the history book. I even skipped lunch because I was too determined. Lu Han even touched my forehead during an afternoon break.

“Are you sick Ji Eun?” He asked.

”I’m fine!” I answered and switched places to not get disturbed.

”She seems angry today”, Alice said.

“I would leave her be if I was you”, Tao said. “She said she’s finally getting back at Kai. Maybe this is what she means by it.”

“Then I will study too”, Lu Han said. He took a science book and sat down next to me. “You guys should join too.” Nobody moved. Lu Han glared at them. ”Aren’t you going to study too?” Se Hun took a science book and joined us. Lime grabbed a random book and sat next to him. I looked at Tao with a puppy face.

“Do I have to?” He asked. I nodded. He sighed and took a Korean textbook. Alice naturally joined us.

Three weeks passed by and studying was becoming an everyday thing for me. I was more used and relaxed to studying than I was before. That must be because I had Kai as my tutor, but it was still an amazing improvement for someone like me. I was also more used and at ease in the vicinity of Kai’s presence. He and I hadn’t exactly become best buds, we were not even buds or anything. Our only conversation subject was literally school, studying, more school and more studying. 

I entered the house around 6pm but found it empty which was strange for the time it was. I found a note in the living room from Mrs Kim saying that they were at my father’s restaurant and that they were going to watch a movie afterwards. Kai wasn’t going to come until 7 o’clock which meant I had the entire house to myself for an hour. I hurried upstairs for a quick shower and changed into comfortable clothing. Then I went to the kitchen and looked around for food but realized Mrs. Kim hadn’t cooked dinner which meant I could take this as an opportunity to improve my cooking skills and cook a meal for my favourite tutor as a thank you for all the time he’s been putting on me with the studying.

I wasn’t the best cook in the world, but thinking I was cooking for Kai made me work twice as hard. As for the recipe I decided to cook my favourite dish, bibimbap. Time flew quickly by because it didn’t take long into cooking the rice and cutting the carrots that I heard Kai enter the front door. I looked at the rice and worried I might have put too little water in  when Kai walked past by the kitchen before he returned.

“Where did everyone go?” He entered the kitchen and looked around.

”Having dinner at my dad’s”, I answered.

”And what are you doing?” He approached me as I put the sliced carrot in plate.

”Making bibimbap”, I smiled. Kai opened the lid on the rice pot.

”That’s a lot of water,” he commented. I looked inside the pot, the water was almost reaching the top.

”Really?” I grimaced. ”I was worried that it was maybe too little. I was about to to use a bigger pot.” Kai looked at me with a stunned expression I had never seen before. He seemed loss for words and for those seconds we looked at each other I saw laughter creep up on his face and eventually he bursted out laughing. I felt my face turn red knowing he was laughing at me.

”It’s not funny”, I whined. He squinted at me with a nodding head disagreeing with me and continued. ”Kai, stop.” He pursed his lips and stopped. ”Thank you.” I continued cutting the carrots.

”Need help?” He asked. ”You know what, don’t answer that. You definitely need help.” He put down his bag somewhere in the room and began removing water form the pot. And just like that we began working together. Kai was literally a pro with kitchen knife. He was slicing and cutting as fast as my father did.

”How come you know how to cook?” I asked.

”Years of helping my mom”, he answered. ”And also it’s in my DNA.”

”By that statement I should be good at cooking too”, I said. ”And clearly I’m not.”

”That’s just because you haven’t triggered that part of your DNA yet”, he grabbed two eggs from the fridge. 

”Sure, that’s exactly why.”, I said sarcastically. ”No, but seriously how are you so perfect at everything y-” I was interrupted by my vibrating phone. ”Sorry.” Tao’s picture was shown on my phone and I quickly answered but had to put it on speakers since my hands where sticky and dirty from mixing the sauce. 

”Hi!” 

”Well, you sound happy.” I could hear he was smiling in his voice. ”Did hearing my voice put you in a good mood?”

”Always, oppa.”, I laughed. ”What’s going on?”

”There’s an exclusive invite only party at the german guy’s house, Chris from class 4a to celebrate the end of the big test ,” he said. ”He saw our latest picture on my instagram and I guess he wants some of that magic you got so this is a direct invitation. I’m not allowed to come if you don’t go.”

”Are you pimping me out to people so you can go to parties?” I asked.

”When you put it like that it sounds bad,” He admitted. ”But come on, Ji Eun. You have been M.I.A for weeks. I need my partner in crime back. Lu Han doesn’t have wingman skills like you do.” I couldn’t help but laugh. I was embarrassed to admit it but I did have fantastic wingman skills. I also did miss partying and also I did think Chris was attractive, but Kai was the one I was interested in. Speaking of him, he was actually standing there cooking and pretending like he couldn’t hear the conversation I was having.

”Ji Eun,” Tao called. ”Come on.” I continued mixing the sauce and thought further. I had been studying extra hard. The final parts of the big test was next week, maybe I did need to celebrate no matter the results. 

”Fine,” I said. ”I’ll come.”

”Wonderful,” he cheered. 

”Are the others coming too?” 

”Like I said”, Tao sighed. ”Exclusive invitations only. I gotta go, but talk to you later.”

When he hung up, I turned towards Kai. I didn’t know whether to continue our conversion or just be quiet since I felt a weird vibe.

”Sorry about that”, I apologised. When he didn’t answer but continued with the cooking I simply let it be.

We decided to sit outside to enjoy the food in the summer weather with each our glass of ice tea. The food was incredibly delicious.

“How is it)?” I asked. Kai gulped down the ice tea before answering.

”It’s good”, he said. ”But that’s just cause I helped. If things where left in your hands it would have been a different story.

“I’m actually offended”, I said. “I’m not that bad.”

”The rice I saw earlier says otherwise,” he took a spoonful of rice. I couldn’t but stare at him. Kai and I had actually cooked together and now here we were eating dinner together and talking like friends. Was this even real life? ”By the way, I got an algebra beginner’s book. I thought it would do good to start from 0 with you. Since we have one-two weeks left I think it’s enough time to get in the basics.” 

”Cool”, I said with 0 passion. I was not ready to go through equations again. ”Can’t wait!”

”Wow”, he looked at me. ”You could have at least tried to sound enthusiastic.”

”I’m sorry”, I laughed.

After we finished our meal and cleaning the kitchen, we went to the my bedroom to continue or studying session. After weeks of studying other things because my math skills were so low, it was back to the basics. For some reason time always went by quickly when I with Kai. It was already 2 in the morning and Kai had fallen asleep, head leaning on the table. He looked so tired but also so handsome I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I gently touched his hair, putting in place before leaning my head on the table close to him. Our faces were facing each other’s and I felt tingling sensations in my stomach and all the way down to my feet. Naturally my hand went to his forehead and his thick eyebrow hair that felt smooth to the touch.

“Kai”, I whispered.

“Mhm?” He asked surprising me. I quickly removed my hand from his face. I thought he was asleep but apparently not.

“Goodnight”, I said right before my eyes closed.