Minho leaned back in his chair, stretching his hands high over his head. He’d been attempting to study for his history test tomorrow for an hour, yet all he’d managed to do was open the book. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to study; it was just really hard when your eyes were threatening to shut every time you tried reading. Studying after a long day of school and a soccer game didn’t really work out too well.

He couldn’t even do homework when he wasn’t exhausted, what made him think he was going to be able to now?  Sure, he may not be the best student, but he sure as hell tried when he could. Unfortunately, he wasn’t born with the brains like some of his classmates had.

Ducking his head into his book, Minho grabbed his cell phone from next to his book and stared at the screen.’23 unread texts’. “,” Minho mumbled. His fingers were itching to reply to all of them but if he did, he knew he’d never study. Glancing at the textbook he was lying on, he sighed, “I can always rest my eyes for a few minutes.”

Setting his phone alarm for about ten minutes, he peeled his face from his textbook, and drug his tired limbs, collapsing onto his bed. Within a few seconds, his eyelids began to get heavy and he was out. Once his phone started going off in his ears, he groaned. The grumpiness was already setting in as he grabbed his phone. It was most definitely not his alarm, he’d barely been asleep for five minutes. Looking at the caller I.D. he saw an all too familiar name. Jonghyun.

“Hello?” Minho said in a low, groggy voice.

“Hey, Minho! Are you up for going to a party this weekend?” his friend Jonghyun asked.

Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, he stared at the evil history book still open on his desk. Minho knew if he didn’t pass his test, his mom wouldn’t let him go to the party. “I don’t know dude, I’ll have to check and see. Alright?”

“Alright, bro. Just let me know when you find out. Tell your mom I said hi.”

“Will do. Bye Jjong,” Minho said before ending the call. Tossing his phone onto his pillow, Minho stood back up and glared at the still open textbook before slowly making his way towards it. Plopping down in his office chair, he situated himself for some hardcore studying.

Before he even knew it, the clock read 2:23 a.m. Minho tried his best to remember everything he had just crammed, but he was finding it increasingly difficult. His stomach was practically speaking sentences to him by now, complaining how hungry it was. Banging his head against his desk, Minho concluded he was pretty much screwed and his studying was a complete waste of time.

“Well .”

----

Their teacher stood at the front of the classroom with a stack of papers in her arms. Everyone automatically groaned and began whispering to each other in worrisome tones. They were surprised that she had graded them in a matter of two days. Minho on the other hand, was busy sleeping on his desk without a care in the world. When the teacher put the paper on Minho’s desk, he slowly opened his eyes to see his teacher shaking her head.

“I expected more out of you,” she said in a disappointing tone.

After his teacher went to the next student, he begrudgingly looked at his grade. 68. It looked like his coach was going to yell at him again for being so careless. Everyone stood when the bell rang, eager to get out of class. Still half asleep, Minho was the only one left in the room, slowly gathering his things.

His teacher stopped him before he left the room. “I e-mailed your mom this morning,” his teacher began, “I want you to start going to tutoring. It’ll really help you out, I promise.”

Minho’s posture slumped. “Okay,” he said in defeat.

----

In a bad mood, Minho pushed open the door with an annoyed shove. As expected, Minho’s coach had given him a stern talking to about his grades. ”If you don’t improve your grades I’m going to have to put you on probation or kick you off the team,” his coach’s voice still rang in his head.

Before he could even change into his practice uniform, Jonghyun began assaulting him with questions. “Why’re you late? I’ve been in this musty locker room forever just waiting for you!”

Minho ignored Jonghyun and proceeded to strip and toss on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. “Fine then, just ignore me,” Jonghyun huffed. “So, do you know if you’re going to the party tomorrow night?”

“I don’t know dude,” he sighed, “I’ve had a pretty ty Friday. I failed my history test and the teacher e-mailed my mom about it. You know how my mom can be sometimes, and now coach is mad at me.”

Jonghyun patted Minho’s back unsympathetically. “Well it’s practice time now, baby! Better get that spirit up!”

“Thanks,” Minho said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Finally putting his cleats on, he ran onto the field with Jonghyun and a few other teammates. Unfortunately for them, it had begun to rain while they were in the locker room. Everyone immediately began complaining and wondering why they had to practice in the rain.

“Minho!” the head coach yelled, “20 laps around the field, go!”

“Just me already,” Minho groaned.

----
Tossing his soccer bag off at the door, he shuffled his way into the kitchen. Both of his parents were sitting at the table eating and probably planning the perfect moment to strike. Attempting to ignore them, he grabbed some food out of the fridge. Munching on it, he was almost out of the kitchen when his dad stopped him.

“How was soccer practice, son?”

He shrugged. “It was alright.”

“Well, I talked to your history teacher today. I think it’s a good idea to put you in some sort of tutoring. But since she obviously isn’t teaching you anything, I think it’d be better if we sent you somewhere else,” his mother said while still picking at the food on her plate.

“But mom-“ Minho protested.

She stopped him before he could say anything else with a wave of her hand. “No more buts, you said you were going to keep your grades up and you’re not. This is the consequence of your actions.”

“Whatever.”

Turning to leave the kitchen once again, he heard his father yell, “You start tutoring tomorrow at 2! You’d better be ready to go by 1:30 at the latest.”

Face planting into his bed, Minho was pretty frustrated with how his day went and on top of that his body now felt extremely sore. Really needing someone to cheer him up, he pulled out his cellphone and texted the one friend he knew he could count on, Jinki.

’Want to hang out tonight?'

A few moments later, Minho’s phone began vibrating with a reply. ’Sure, my house?’

’Yeah, be there in a few.’

Pushing himself off his bed, Minho grabbed a hoodie out of his closet and jogged down the stairs. Returning to his soccer bag that he had deserted by the front door earlier, he grabbed his car keys. Minho didn’t even bother telling his parents where he was going, the slam of the door shutting the only indication he was out of the house.

----

“It may be good for you though, Minho,” Onew said, comforting his friend, “I went to tutoring for a while but I actually quit going because I finally got the hang of things on my own. You might even have fun.”

“But I don’t want to go,” Minho whined.

Onew was sitting at his desk, typing up a paper for his English class. Minho was sitting on the floor, back pressed up against the bed, cell phone in hand. Onew laughed at him, replying, “No one wants to do anything we don’t have to do, but we do them anyways. It’s just a cruel part of life.”

Minho rolled his eyes and kicked the back of Onew’s computer chair. “Well isn’t someone a smarty pants…”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Onew said. Getting up, Minho placed his elbow on Onew’s desk. Onew was busy typing away and on a mission to bug his friend, he slowly moved his face closer and closer to Onew’s.  He turned his head and raised an eyebrow at Minho. “Can I help you?”

Backing up, he plopped himself back onto the floor. “I thought we were going to hang out!”

Clicking his tongue, Onew leaned back in his chair and stared at the pathetic human being on the floor. “We are hanging out.”

“Hanging out does not mean you doing your homework while I talk,” Minho whined. “Come on, let me spend the night. We can play video games or something.”

“Fine, only if you drive us to practice tomorrow morning.”
----

Minho hopped into the driver’s seat of the car while Onew hopped into the passenger’s side, both dripping wet. Practice had been let out late and they both took as quick of showers as they possibly could when Minho realized he was going to be late to tutoring. The clock said 1:45 and he still had to drop Onew off.

“ coach,” Minho cursed. Grabbing his cell phone out of his bag, he tossed the bag into the backseat and speed dialed his house. “Hey dad- I was at Onew’s house- No, just, practice got out late. Just give me the directions to the place. Alright thanks,” Minho said, the entire conversation being super speedy.

Starting the car, Minho might have gone over a few speed limits. If there was one thing Minho hated, it was being late. Even if he was going to something he disliked, it was always bad luck to be late. Onew jumped out of the car once they pulled into his driveway.

“Sorry about this,” Minho apologized to him through the rolled down window.

Onew waved it off. “It’s alright, just go actually learn something for once!”

----

Hello everyone! This fic is different from what I normally write, so I hope no one is disappointed.

At the moment I'm looking for a beta reader with previous experience who can read over my fics and make any necessary grammar changes and such. Half of this fic was already beta'd by my friend subits @livejournal, but I'm also looking for another person to help me out. Please drop me a message on my profile if you're interested! 8)

~meri