“I’ve got bad news.”

That’s the last thing Haru needs to hear right now, especially when she’s running on nothing but sugar and coffee and a five-minute power nap that she’s taken in the bus on the way over here. Sleep-deprived, and starving, she’s here for the peer counsel meeting with Jimin.

Peer counseling is a program set up by lectures, where students with a higher academic excellence pairs up with another to help them through studies. Despite pleading and refusing several times, Haru was paired up with Jimin, and Haru had enough of her.

“Minzy,” Haru slowly turns towards her friend, hands already pressing together in a pleading motion, eyes squeezing shut as she draws in a deep breath. “Can’t it wait till later? I am already late. I don’t want her to yell at me,”

“It can’t wait,” Minzy answers, much to Haru’s disappointment, and when she opens her eyes again, she’s met with a frown on Minzy’s face, distress etched into every inch of her features. “It’s about the meeting.”

“If she cancels it one more time, I swear to God-”

“No!” Minzy is quick to say, a short laugh bursting out with the denial, head shaking. “No, it wasn’t cancelled. Not at all. No way.”

Haru is about to feel relief, about to let herself breathe again, but then, Minzy murmurs out a quiet, “But…”

“But?”

Minzy squirms where she stands, palms clenching and unclenching awkwardly at her sides, “You got a new pair.”

Oh.

“It’s no longer Jimin?” Haru asks, head swiveling around to take a look at the room they’re in, before her eyes land on her friend again.

“No-”

“Thank God,” Haru’s voice shrieked, “You have no idea how badly I wanted to switch my partner. She’s terrible,”

“Don’t thank him just yet,”

“Why?”

“You’re paired with Sehun-”

Haru blinks. “Sehun? The Oh Sehun?”

Minzy nodded.

“So?”

“So… So… , No, I don’t know! Aren’t you mad?” Minzy sputters out, throwing a weird look at her, like she’s confused as to why Haru isn’t throwing a fit. “You have to deal with him now,”

“How bad could he be?” Haru asks, an innocent smile stretching her lips wide as she takes a step towards the class.

Well, he’s way worse.

Minzy clasped her hands together. “I don’t think you know about him-”

shuts close when she saw one tall boy amidst of a group, approaching towards them. He sent a chilling glare at Minzy, folded his arms and waited for her to step back.

“Guess, I’ll-“ Minzy murmured, “I’ll see you later,”

Sehun waited till Minzy exited the class, then turned his head towards the clueless girl.

“Hi,” The person who speaks is taller than the rest of his friends, both in height and frame. His black hair combed to perfection; skin smooth like butter.

His eyes seem to flicker over Haru, taking a good view of her with an unimpressed expression.

“Kim Haru, right?”

“That’s right,” she smiled, “And you are Sehun,”

“You know me,” he smiled, gloating for a few seconds at the thought that he doesn’t need introduction.

Nice.

“Yeah, I guess everyone knows you here,” she stated plainly.

A quick search on the internet – Haru doesn’t even have to type in his full name before it pops up – tells her everything she needs to know about him; his family background, what car he drives, and heck even his favorite color.

“About the time,” she pushes the sheet of paper towards him, “I think we need to discuss about it,”

"Fine, but first can we get something," Sehun deigned to agree, looking down at Haru judgmentally. "Come on, I'll buy you lunch."

He then winked at his friends slyly.

The game is on.

Sighing out loud, Haru mentally regretted the life choices that had brought her to this point. She should’ve stand on her decision not to tutor anyone, especially not when she has 2 part time jobs, and a full academic class to attend.

“Hey?” Sehun asked as he pretended to see the paper. Haru was occupied looking at the new timetable. But her mind seemed to be elsewhere. She wasn’t even thinking about the math or school or any of that, her mind was wondering.

“Mm?” She sighed.

The ambiguous reply irks him, bugs him enough for his numb tongue to come alive, to spit out, “Pay attention to me when I’m talking to you,” Sehun's voice was dark. It almost sounded like he was forced to sound nice.

“Now, now, Sehun, play nice,” another voice warns, though it comes off almost mocking with the airy tone behind it, and the razor grin on the face that appears to match the voice only proves that. “We don’t want to upset anyone, do we?”

Haru looked confused and blinked several times, “I was thinking about the time slots,” she showed him the paper, “Is it okay to only do this on weekdays?”

“What?” Sehun asked, his eyes accessing her expression the whole time.

She doesn’t flinch at his cold voice, doesn’t even blink, and all she says is, “I’m a little busy. I don’t think I can make it on weekends,”

A muscle in Sehun's jaw twitched when he realized she completely ignored his invitation to lunch.

He doesn’t know why her action stings him. He’s used to having things his way, blame it on his charms or even his looks, Sehun always gets what he wants. And, he doesn’t understand why it isn’t working this time.

He doesn’t get why she unnerves him so much, why it makes heat bubble in his veins, why it makes anger rise in his chest, and he doesn’t like the feeling of it.

This so-called Haru stands up grabbing her bag. “It would be really nice if you could rearrange the schedule,” She took the form in front of him, then gives another dismissive once-over. “I’ll see you next week,” she nodded, not even waiting for his reply before walking out the room.

It took him a few solid seconds to respond, “What the hell was that?” Sehun stood up, his stance clearly defensive. “I have to rearrange my time for her?”