Annyeonghasaeyo everyone! Sorry for taking a long time to update :( Really really sorry, but here is an update! Enjoy! Btw, the teaser pictures are amazing <3 Jisoo is so pretty in the picture! Anyways, for the group's 1st teaser pic, I still don't think that the one in purple is Jisoo and the one at the bottom is Jennie. I think it is the other way round but I heard that it is confirmed through some Instagram post. Anyways, can't wait for 2nd Oct! Mark your calendar for a comeback!

Next chapter will be prob be the last of this mini-series but no guarantee when the next update will be but I will try my best. See you!

---------------

"Aww man, we can't hang out later!" whines Hwasa as she sees Jisoo packing up quickly for her tutoring session with that hoobae.

"After the session, maybe ice-cream at Joe's Parlour?" replies Jisoo, still keen on hanging out with her friends on a day when they do not have after school classes.

Nayeon teases and merongs, "don't take too long or we will eat without you!"

"Sure thing, bye."

With that she walks to the library with hurried steps, not wanting to be late. Surprisingly, she feels rather excited about the task. It is not her first-time teaching someone but with such an important task, she feels empowered to help improve the hoobae's grades, no matter how bad the hoobae is, academics wise or character wise.

She reaches the library, not expecting to see a certain someone given the other's reputation. Jennie was late when meeting the principal, so yea, it sums up everything. Since the younger looked as if she wasn't too keen on the tutoring arrangement earlier, Jennie is going to be terribly late for sure. Jisoo pulls out a chair and puts her bag down before going to her favourite aisle, the fiction novel section. She looks at the books that line up neatly. Though she has read all of the books from the section, it is still fun for her to pull out a book and recall the story and her analysis of the text. She really loves literature. She has already thought about majoring in literature, though her parents told her that an arts degree wouldn't be valuable. However, she believes in chasing after her passion.

"Kim Jisoo, where are you?" she hears a booming voice calling out her name and instantly recognises the voice. She looks at her watch. 20 minutes late. Not too bad. However, she sighs internally when she hears the librarian's loud hush.

"That brat... This is a library for a reason..." she thinks to herself but decides to keep her calm. She walks back to the tables and chairs to find the brat standing there, with arms folded in front of her.

"Yes, I am here, there is no need to call out my name," she whispers in a hushed tone and pulls the other to the table where her bag is. After both of them settle down on their seats, she tells the younger, "anyways, you are late."

-----

"Anyways, you are late."

Jennie wants to explain herself. Mr Kwon, her literature teacher made her stay back after class to write lines for not paying attention. Thank goodness it is just 50 lines of "I shall pay attention in all classes". As she opens , trying to explain her stance, she realises that she has never wanted to clarify herself so much until today. Everyone knows that she is always late for classes, so it wouldn't be weird for her to be late for this unusual tutoring session. However, seeing how the senior in front of her has expressed her disappointment in her, she feels really bad.  

"I... forget it. I didn't want this whole thing in the first place," Jennie mumbles but it is loud enough for Jisoo to catch everything.

The older understands her. Nobody wanted this in the first place. They have been forced into it but since it has happened, all they can do is to get the best out of it. She leans forward and puts out her hand saying, "it’s okay, let's just start over again. We are going to have this thing until you improve your grades so it will be better for us to get along. I am Kim Jisoo, from class 3L."

"Jennie Kim, class 2L."

"Cool. Anyways, any goals for college?" asks the older to break the ice.

The younger is still sulky that she has to study even after classes. She decides to make the conversation short and replies curtly, "I haven't thought that far."

"You are taking the CSAT next year. You should think about it over the summer break. It would be a good motivation as well."

"You talk too much for our first session."

-----

The older is slightly hurt but she beams back and says, "just to know you better. Anyways, let's just start." Jisoo takes out her pencil case and asks, "any schoolwork that you won't work on? We can probably work from there."

Jennie pulls out a stack of paper from her bag and judging by how crumbled the papers are, they must have been sitting in her bag for long. The senior takes the stack and looks through each piece carefully.

"Gosh, this looks like they were from January and it is already early March. I guess we can work on those that are pending soon."

Jennie just nods absent-mindedly while looking around the library, trying to get distracted while the older is working hard sorting through the papers.

"Ok, let's start with biology or something. It is due tomorrow," the older tells the younger as she pulls out the worksheet from the stack and looks through the material, "oh wow, glycolysis. This question is interesting. So, what do you think the answer is?"

Jennie reads the question. It is the question that Ms Park asked earlier but she doesn't remember the answer. She tries to think hard. She remembers that it is a simple answer, but nothing comes to mind.

Jisoo chuckles and says, "it is 0."

"Oh yea... 0," the younger mumbles, feeling a little embarrassed. Zero is really a simple answer.

Jisoo takes out a black paper and scribbles out the metabolic pathway.

"You see, when the red blood cells utilise the 2,3-BPG pathway to counteract the low oxygen tension environment, it bypasses an important step that synthesises ATP, meaning 0 ATP in this step. Before this 2 ATPs were invested and afterwards 2 ATPs are generated in the last step, total ATP produced would be 2-2 = 0."

Jennie stares at the diagram and with how the important steps are annotated clearly, she manages to understand something that took 1h to be taught in class to less than 5 minutes in this tutoring session. Jennie is impressed, maybe this session isn't too bad after all. 

"It actually makes sense."

"Alright, I will give you another question but don't worry, I will annotate the important steps on the pathway. Tell me, how many ATPs will be synthesised in a normal cell in the glycolytic pathway?"

Feeling the adrenaline rush of getting the answer right initially, she looks at the question hard enough and after a few minutes, she replies, "2 ATPs."

"Ok, how?"

Jennie explains clearly while using the diagram to help her.

"Actually, you are smart. Keep it up." The older is rather impressed. She doesn't give compliments so easily but maybe if she ignites some love of learning in Jennie, it will change everything.

After an hour, they manage to finish the biology homework and now taking a break.  Feeling a little hungry and craving for something sweet, the senior tells the junior, "hey, I am going to the cafeteria to get some drinks. Do you want to go together?"

"Sure."

-----

- Cafeteria -

They are now at the cafeteria, looking at what is available now that it is way past after school hours.

"Do you want any drinks or snacks?" asks the older as she points at the snack bar with her purse on hand.

"Chocolate milk will do," the younger scans the refrigerator but with the lack of options, her eyes lands onto something that she can drink.

Jisoo goes to the stall and gets 2 packets of chocolate milk. While waiting for her change, she sees the mochi roll cakes and decides to also get the 2 different flavours, matcha and red bean.

"These are really good. The best snack in my 3 years here," Jisoo grins and shows her haul before grabbing the younger by the wrist to a bench.

Jisoo passes a carton of milk to Jennie and opens the 2 packets of mochi roll cakes. "Try them, they are so good," the older once again emphasises how good the cakes are. The younger takes one after the older has eaten one and gives it a try. It is really good, but she doesn't want to show it.

"Not too bad."

"Come on, just say it is good, brat."

Jennie should be annoyed when Jisoo calls her brat, but she finds it rather endearing. Maybe because she is the only child and her parents are often away on business trips. They even often coddle her no matter how ridiculous her request is. Most of the time, she just wants their attention. Today, someone she just met has already given her the attention that she needs without demanding for it. As she picks up a slice of matcha roll cake and taking a bite, she feels a sense of warmth rushing through her veins, making her feel giddy, in a good way.

-----

After the short break, they decide to head back to the library to finish one more assignment before ending the session for the day. Jennie remembers the literature assignment that she has to submit soon and tells Jisoo to help her. She doesn't want to get in trouble in Mr Kwon's class again. Who knows what the next punishment is? She doesn't think that he will be that nice to give her just 50 lines to write again.

"Of course, we can work on the literature homework. Is your batch still using Macbeth for the sophomore text?"

Jennie nods in response.

"Great, at least it is a text that I am familiar with."

"Help me with it. Mr Kwon irks me. He made me write 50 lines just because I wasn't paying attention in his class. I think he dares to punish me just because he is my father's friend. But this doesn't mean that he has the rights to punish me," the younger whines as if Mr Kwon is the worst teacher ever.

Jisoo chuckles at the recount but the younger did deserve the punishment.

"Hey little brat, you didn't pay attention and it is right for him to punish you. Just pay a little more attention in class."

"Ouch... Can't believe you are chiding me too," the younger whines and reads the instructions of her assignment.

"Alright I assume that you are also familiar with the text, so what do you think Macbeth's personality is?" asks Jisoo, hoping to hear the younger's opinions on the main character.

Jennie sighs internally. She hasn't read the entire book and she says whatever comes to mind, "I don't know, wishy-washy perhaps. To be or not to be, that is the question."

Jisoo on the other hand, couldn't believe what she has heard and thought to herself, "gosh, it is the wrong quote..." She then replies with a matter-of-fact tone, "You do know that that line isn't from Macbeth right?"

"It isn't?" asks the oblivious younger. She swears that she has heard this quote somewhere.

The older almost chuckles but says it in a way without making the younger feel any more embarrassed, "It's from Hamlet."

However, the younger is beyond embarrassed and no matter how Jisoo tries to make everything seems fine, one thing for sure is that her lack of knowledge has made her feel insecure. She begins to ramble along the lines of, "gosh, this is embarrassing."

"Ok, tell me what you remember from the text."

"The prophecy from the three witches."

"And..."

"Can't remember anything after that."

Truth to be told, Jennie couldn't continue reading after the 1st few pages. The only interesting thing was the opening act. Subsequently, it is so bad that she fell asleep during the reading period of morning assembly.

Jisoo takes out her copy of Macbeth and passes it to the younger. The younger looks at the book. There are many tabs at the side with different colours and as she opens it, quotes were highlighted and there the columns are annotated.

"Wow."

"Anyways, the main point is to flip through the pages with the blue tabs. These are key events where we see Macbeth's character change throughout the story. From the 1st act, we see that he is a competent war hero. This may also suggest that he is already ambitious from the start. The witches' prophecies just nudge him out of his shell. However, he isn't that daring until his wife influenced him to murder the king."

Jennie nods as she imagines the story in her head.

"2nd act, we see that he resolves to put his consciousness aside and continue to feed his ambition," Jisoo continues to ramble on but monitors the younger's expression. It definitely looks the expression that Hwasa had when she gave a crash course to the other a week before the sophomore finals. 

"Wait... you haven't read the book?"

"I just couldn't continue."

"It is the shortest book! Nevermind, I will pass you my notes. You can probably read it. It summarises the key events but you will have to extract some information out to answer this question."

Jisoo isn’t too shocked but time isn’t by Jennie’s side. She continues to nag, "geez, better appreciate this text. It gets a little boring next year if you have to analyse Romeo and Juliet. A melodramatic love story, in my opinion, not really as interesting as Macbeth."

The younger loves romance genre and is rather excited for next year. She says, "you hate sappy love stories? That's sad, but I look forward to it. Maybe senior year will be the best!"

"I wish you all the best. Don't come crying to me next year," the older jokes and instead got an eye roll from the younger.

-----

Soon, it is already 4pm and Jisoo feels her phone vibrating. She looks at the text and sees her friends starting to eat the ice-cream from the photo that Hwasa has sent. Since they are done and are packing up for the day, she quickly packs her bag, not wanting to miss out on having ice-cream.

"I got to run! See you. You are alright on your own right?"

"Yea, I am fine. Run along and see you."

Jisoo flashes a huge smile before making her way out quickly to Joe's. Jennie on the other hand is confused by A) she said see you to Jisoo unknowingly, which means that she enjoys the session and B) she doesn't mind studying anymore. Horrified by her sudden change in attitude, she packs her bag and heads off to find one of her besties at the dance club room, with her thoughts still on a certain cute senior with the brightest smile.