Jongdae bounced alongside Kyungsoo as they walked down to Rho Eta Omicron's scheduled classroom. Every other Wednesday, the club convened to discuss promotional, financial, and business matters. Sometimes an outside tutoring opportunity piqued Kyungsoo interest, but he didn't really care for anything else about the meeting. Tutors were required to attend though, so he moved down the halls to their usual classroom. He couldn't wait for it to end so that he could start tutoring. He had one regular tutee named Kang Seulgi, and though he wasn't too close with her, he did enjoy her company.

After a short spell of disappointment of the club's lack of noodle soup, Jongdae perked right back up again and decided to join the club the week after Kyungsoo. Jongdae was one of the more popular tutors and usually ended up staying in the classroom to take walk-ins. Kyungsoo suspected that there were more ogling fans and conversations about sports rather than math, but Jongdae always countered by showing the math problems he had done alongside the tutees.

"Do you think they'll have pho this time?"

"I don't think they'll ever have pho, Jongdae."

"It's false advertising if they don't."

"Even though it clearly said 'Rho Eta Omicron: Math Tutoring Club" underneath?"

"Yes."

Kyungsoo chuckled and patted his shoulder.

"I'll treat you to some pho if you can confess to Yuwon properly."

"You make a tempting offer, Kyungsoo, but I'm going to confess to her whether you bribe me or not."

"Good. You pass."

Jongdae grinned at him before pulling the classroom door open for them, bidding Kyungsoo to walk in first. He had about a second before needing to sidestep out of the way. A horde of tutors and even some of the club's officers swarmed towards his friend, all wanting to talk with him. Kyungsoo nudged his arm before finding an empty seat towards the back.

As Jongdae responded to questions with his usual excitement, Kyungsoo looked out the window. The late afternoon light reflected into the classroom and across the ground, making the walls and cement sparkle. There were no clouds, and the red of the autumn leaves contrasted against the blue of the sky. A chair next to him squeaked, and Kyungsoo turned to see Jongdae sitting down.

"Finished enjoying your adoring fans already?"

"Everyone's really nice, and I like responding to that. Maybe you should try it sometime."

They snickered, and Club President Wei soon quieted everyone down to start the meeting. Kyungsoo was listening for the first ten minutes, but somewhere in between he started zoning out. The agenda was mostly over business meetings with the student committees and which representatives to send. He knew that he should have been listening, but his attention pranced elsewhere with the talk of having ideas for improving math club and speaking about its rewarding experiences. Kyungsoo only rezoned back in when he heard Jongdae declining something.

"I really don't have anything to say at these kinds of things."

"Then how about joining the promotional side of the committee? You have a lot of potential in getting people to come."

"But if they're not actually going to try being good tutors, then that won't help the tutees or the club."

"Let them decide if they want to stay to tutor. As long as they know about us, they can stay or go or tell other people."

Jongdae rubbed the tip of his nose, looking away. He did that whenever he felt uncomfortable, and Kyungsoo knew that the officers wouldn't relent so easily. He raised his hand.

"The committee is something pretty long-term, and Jongdae doesn't know if he can commit if he also has basketball season around."

The officer nodded in agreement, and Kyungsoo did his best to watch for only the officers' reactions, not the ones from the other tutors.

"That's true. Then I'll get back to you on this, Kim Jongdae. But I hope that you'll consider doing at least one promotional thing for the club. I think you'd be good at it."

"Okay. Thank you, Secretary Oh."

Jongdae grabbed Kyungsoo's arm and let out a sigh of relief, bowing his head into Kyungsoo's space, whispering a million 'thank you's. Kyungsoo patted his head before pushing it away, whispering a 'no problem.' With how loud and peppy his friend was, he sometimes forgot how Jongdae disliked public speaking. Kyungsoo felt the same, but he could cover for his friend this time.

"Any club member is free to join until all the spots have been filled up, and I encourage you guys to do so. It looks great on resumés! Now for those who have agreed to be on the committee—"

The clatter of a door opening interrupted the president. Kyungsoo leaned back in his chair to see the backdoor and almost fell backwards in his chair. Kim Jongin stepped inside the doorway, looking around the classroom. His eyes lingered over Kyungsoo's direction, and because of that, Kyungsoo saw the late afternoon sun illuminating the dark in them, turning his irises into the color of coffee cream. He had almost seemed approachable, curious, but then the president chirped a greeting, Jongin turned his head to her, and his eyes darkened again, disinterested.

"Can I help you?"

He held up a paper, and Kyungsoo saw as the paper fluttered back down to his side that it had been one of the promotional posters pinned on the bulletin boards.

"Oh, right now we're having a meeting for tutors and officers. Every other Wednesday we have meetings, and then afterwards is when the tutoring begins. The tutoring is the same time every Wednesday. We just made the required meetings for tutors before that to make it simple. But since you're here early, you can just wait if you'd like. We're going over committee matters."

Kyungsoo was sure that Jongin would walk back out like Club President Wei hadn't even spoken, but he stood for a moment, then nodded at her. He closed the door, took up a nearby empty chair, leaned back into it, and crossed his arms, his eyes staring ahead at the board.

For a good fifteen seconds, the classroom dropped into silence. Kyungsoo was still trying to calculate which dimension he must have been transported to for Jongin to stay when the president cleared and continued about the requirements for the new committee members.

Kyungsoo didn't have anything against people finding tutoring. He encouraged it, and as a tutor, he hoped that people would seek help for their learning. But he just wanted to know WHY in this case. From what Jongdae said and what he's heard, Kim Jongin didn't want anything to do with grades or school. Putting aside the rumors about him beating people up, Kyungsoo also knew that Jongin wasn't liked by the rest of their teachers because of his low grades and his 'lack of trying,' as their language teacher had said one day when she had called Jongin after class to talk to him and Kyungsoo hadn't quite made it out the door yet.

People threw looks at him, and Kyungsoo figured that they were wondering why too. He looked back at the board and decided to stop thinking about it. Jongin could be wherever he chose to be. The nudge of curiosity prodded him, but he wouldn't look at him like the others were doing. Even if Jongin looked completely unfazed by the glances, Kyungsoo thought that if he himself felt uncomfortable when others looked at or whispered about him, then he wouldn't impose it on others no matter what.

When the meeting ended, and Club President Wei opened the doors for walk-ins, she went by Jongin's desk.

"Since you're our first walk-in, do you have a particular question or subject you need help in? I only ask because we have a few tutors who specialize in certain subjects and would be able to answer questions better."

Jongin shook his head.

"Then general it is. Whoever's a general tutor, please come help this student. Those with signed up tutees, please go meet with them."

Kyungsoo got up to leave, but Jongdae pulled him back to ask if he could confirm a few things in his notes first. He gave him his journal to check and waited. His eyes wandered around the classroom, and he saw that the general tutors were chatting amongst themselves. No one had approached Jongin. Looking down at Jongdae hopping back and forth between journals, Kyungsoo stole a sideways glance to the student. Jongin had pulled out his books and homework and was staring at the homework, his gaze as blank as during the meeting.

"Kyungsoo," Jongdae whispered, still flipping through their notes. "I'm scared."

"Of?"

"Of having to be the one to tutor him."

"You are kinda popular, so maybe another walk-in will arrive and ask you to tutor them."

"Yeah... but I feel kinda bad for him. No one else is going."

He nodded in agreement. "Then you go tutor him if it bothers you so much."

"But... just, why is he even here? I thought he didn't care about grades."

"Well, maybe that's not the case."

"Yeah, but—"

"Hey, Do Kyungsoo."

He looked up and saw one of the general tutors, Lee Taeyong, slink up to their tables and jerk a thumb towards Jongin.

"Go tutor him."

Kyungsoo blinked at him for a moment, wondering just how someone could be so rude to a tutee.

"I'm assigned. Jongdae just needs my notes for a bit."

The general tutor clicked his tongue.