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Opposites Attract
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You are mentally screaming. Miss Jung has just asked the class to put away their books and to only leave the stationery. It only means one thing: a pop quiz.

 

The thought of having a Maths quiz didn’t even cross your mind the whole day. Sure, Miss Jung had let you know the previous day that she was going to test Junmyeon, but you never expected her to test the whole class while she was at it, and the very next day too. You and him had spent quite some time in the library the previous day, but the tutoring only happened for an hour. The rest of the time was gone as the two of you talked.

 

Groaning, you realise that you aren’t exactly fully prepared to prove Miss Jung wrong. There is barely enough time for any last-minute drilling.

 

“You may flip the paper over,” the teacher’s voice resounds through the room. “You have one hour, and your time starts now.”

 

You look over all the questions and let out a sigh of relief. It is mostly from the earlier chapters, and you have the confidence that Junmyeon will be able to do this well. With your mind at ease, you are capable of taking the test like you normally do. The hour passes by fairly quickly and you manage to check over a few questions before the time is up.

 

As the papers are being collected, Seungwan grins at you from your right. You give her two thumbs up in return. The test was rather easy, save for some formulas you needed a moment to recall because you learnt them so long ago.

 

The next person you look for is Junmyeon. He merely smirks and leans back into his seat when you raise your eyebrows at him. You can only hope this is a good sign.

 

“Don’t worry. I’m sure he did fine. You said he was making an effort, right?” Seungwan says and you nod. “Then that’s all that matters.”

 

She instantly makes you feel better. “Yeah, we both tried our bests. That should be enough.”

 

Then, papers are being passed around again. Miss Jung announces to the class, “Now, I’ll give each of you your friend’s papers at random to mark. We’ll go over it together and remember to make corrections in red ink.”

 

As usual, after every pop quiz, you would have to mark someone else’s paper. You are slightly let down to see that Junmyeon’s isn’t on your table. You whip out your red pen and focus your attention to the whiteboard.

 

Seungwan discreetly calls for your attention, and when you turn to look at her, she is grinning. She holds up the paper that the teacher passed to her. On the very top of the sheet, the words ‘Kim Junmyeon’ are written in messy handwriting.

 

There is a total of eight questions, and Miss Jung goes through each one of them, step-by-step on the whiteboard. The paper which you are marking is has been done rather well and there isn’t much need for any corrections. As you go over the questions and answers, you note that you have made about two mistakes in total. You wonder how Junmyeon has done.

 

All the papers are collected again for Miss Jung to record the marks. Before you can ask Seungwan about Junmyeon’s test, she is already looking at you. She can sense your anticipation and is very happy to quench your curiosity.

 

However, the teacher calls for silence as she fills in her record book. She is frankly a scary teacher, and everyone knows that, so they do as they’re told. You silently turn to Seungwan, and she shoots you a smirk, strangely similar to Junmyeon’s. Easing back into your seat, you let a smile of your own show. You knew he could do it, and you wonder what the look on Ms Jung’s face would be like.

 

The class is left to their own work as she records the test scores and you can’t help but glance up at her every few moments to catch a glimpse of her reaction. However, she has a very strong poker face, as most teachers do. She manages to keep her expression neutral throughout the entire process.

 

After a few moments, Miss Jung gets up from her seat to return the papers. She mutters something to Junmyeon as she puts his paper on his desk, and you try your best to seem like you’re not straining to listen. You can see that he is struggling to hide a smirk as he readily answers. Shutting your eyes, you are itching to know his score, oddly not caring so much about your own.

 

“He got a ninety-five!”

 

Your eyes immediately fly open at Seungwan’s words. Whipping your head towards Junmyeon, a big fat ‘95’ is written in red ink on the top of his paper. Satisfaction fills you up instantaneously, even as he waggles the paper in your direction with a smug look on his face.

 

You give him two thumbs up, unable to hide your smile. It seems like he can’t either, with his smirk stretching into a crescent-eyed grin.

 

Miss Jung appears in front of you as the bell rings. Students start to clear out to head to the lab as she hands you the test paper. Somehow, the satisfaction from your full score doesn’t quite measure up to how you felt earlier.

 

“I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised. It seems that Junmyeon is putting quite a bit of effort into this,” she says to you. “Of course, you are putting in a lot of effort too.”

 

“Yes, thank you.” Somehow or rather, this satisfaction is even more fulfilling; you had managed to prove her wrong about Junmyeon.

 

“You two may continue as usual. After our mid-term examinations, we will see if Junmyeon still needs a tutor or not. If he manages to pass my expectations, he may have the choice of having a tutor, which in my opinion, seems to be unlikely.”

 

There is a ghost of a smile on your face as you nod at her words. You should be happy that he has managed to come this far with your help, and that he should be able to go tutor-free in a couple of weeks.

 

But that is exactly the problem. If he is tutor-free, (you have to agree with Miss Jung on the fact that he would never pass up an opportunity to stop the tutoring altogether) there wouldn’t be any reason for you two to see each other anymore. Of course, you could greet each other and engage in polite conversation, but there wouldn’t be any deep conversations or him laughing at you anymore. There wouldn’t be this thing you two had anymore.

 

“Alright, you are dismissed,” she says to you, packing her own things. The classroom is empty. “Run along, I don’t want you to be late for lab.”

 

You hurriedly keep your things and rush out the door. Today was supposed to be an experiment on identifying cations and the Chemistry teacher had mentioned that it was going to be graded. You can’t be late for that.

 

However, it seems like somebody else can.

 

Junmyeon is leaning against the wall with his bag slung over his shoulder. You ignore him and hurry along towards the lab.

 

“Hey!” He goes after you and stops you with a hand on your shoulder. “Aren’t you going to tell me what Miss Jung told you?”

 

You raise a brow at him. “Didn’t you already listen to the conversation from outside?”

 

He shrugs. “Both of you speak really softly.”

 

“We talked about your grades,” you answer honestly. However, when you want to tell him about his reward for acing the midterms, the words won’t leave your mouth.

 

“Is that it?” he prods. “Are you sure?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“I expected you to be prouder of me,” he laments, trailing after you as you begin to walk again. “What did she say to you to make you so upset? If it’s something about me again, then you shouldn’t get too worked up about it. We proved her wrong, didn’t we?”

 

You try to muster a grin. “I’m not upset.”

 

He gives you an incredulous look. Luckily, he chooses not to say anything more and hurries alongside you to the lab. The silence enveloping the both of you begins to get awkward, and you quicken your pace in hopes of escaping it as soon as possible.

 

Junmyeon says nothing up until you two reach the lab, in which he utters a soft see you later, and heads to his usual place at the back. You sigh, not knowing what to say or do anymore. It is like you want to get every opportunity to get closer to him and spend time with him without a care in the world, but something is holding you back. Is it the fact that the both of you are on two ends of the spectrum? Was it that he wasn’t pertaining to your ideals; a nice boy with good grades and outstanding talents?

 

Who are you kidding? Junmyeon is definitely a nice boy, with good grades to come and outstanding talents you had yet to see. You are just too insecure about yourself. You can’t possibly imagine a guy like him with a girl who is constantly studying and has hardly made use of her youth. You are total opposites; you would clash, have differing opinions, and things would not end well.

 

“Sit according to alphabetical order! I want only two students per table!” the Chemistry teacher barks out suddenly, snapping you out of your thoughts. “Didn’t I say this was going to be graded? I want all of you to treat this as a test!”

 

All of you scurry to your respective seats, and as if the heavens are playing a joke on you, your place happens to be right behind Junmyeon’s table. When he sees you, he offers you a small grin which makes your insides flutter. You smile in return and hope it doesn’t come out like a grimace.

 

The teacher passes the handouts to everyone and goes over it before all of you are expected to complete and hand in before the period is over. Everything seems to be fairly easy as you just have to follow everything that is printed onto the handout.  Still, you can’t help but glance at the person sitting in front of you, wondering if he can finish all of it in time. You are too engrossed in your own thoughts that your table partner has to tap you on the shoulder a few times before you

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LucyWrites2225
#1
Chapter 7: KIM MINSEOOOOOOKKKKK AGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
ChickenBread #2
Chapter 8: Junmyeon being the struggling student was a breath of fresh air. So far I’ve only read a few of your works but I really like how you write Junmyeon!
Bint_yahya
#3
Chapter 8: Adorable :’)
-natsukim #4
Chapter 8: This story is so uwu :3
Bingsuho08
#5
Chapter 8: i love this story !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!