Strengths & Weaknesses
My Boyfriend, Boyfriend
As the day dragged on, Mrs. No pulled out Minwoo’s baby pictures and began showing them to me. I giggled and laughed at all the pictures of him on his toes and bathing in the sink. Minwoo sank in his seat, mortified. I looked at the pictures then at him.
“You look the same. Except now, you don’t your toes!” I giggled.
“Not funny!” He snapped. “Mom! Put them away.”
“Oh, all right. You’re such a cranky boy,” Mrs. No cooed, putting the album away. “My little boy is growing up so fast. I can’t wait to see the day he stands at the altar waiting for his special lady.”
She then turned to me, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Who knows, we may be step relatives the next time we meet, Ms. Go,” she chuckled.
“Mom! I told you. She’s a friend,” Minwoo groaned. He covered his face with a couch pillow. “Just end my misery now Mr. Pillow.”
“Oh, relax, Minwoo,” I laughed, rubbing his knee. “I’m not going to hold this against you.”
“Whatever,” he said, pulling the pillow closer and tighter.
I stood up and began observing all the portraits and pictures of the family around the living room. Suddenly I laid my eyes on a wall in the annex of the living room. It was filled with frames upon frames of certificates. All around it were pictures of Minwoo. At the top were two pictures of him at elementary and middle school graduation. I looked at the certificates in awe.
Academic excellence?
Top dancer?
Most likely to succeed…
Honor Roll?
Omo, Minwoo was pretty smart when he was little. What happened? I thought.
I quickly turned to Mrs. No. Minwoo grumbled as he walked away from us, into the kitchen with his dad. I sat down next to Mrs. No.
“Mrs. No, could I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Was Minwoo really smart when he was little?”
“Oh, my, yes! He was one of the top students in his class. We never had academic troubles with him.”
“How’d you do it? To be honest, right now he’s failing his classes… and I really want to help him, but he just won’t focus.”
“Oh, honey, have you tried rewarding him? Minwoo’s a greedy little child. Heh, it’s our fault for always giving him what he wants. Usually we incorporate things he likes into his studies and he just does the rest.”
I stopped to think about it for a while. That’s when the ideas began flooding into my mind.
Why didn’t I think of it before? Singing and dancing! I need to somehow incorporate those things into his studying method and maybe it’ll help him. I should’ve thought of this sooner.
“Thanks Mrs. No!” I shouted, popping up.
“No problem, dear!” She replied as I ran out the living room.
I ran into the kitchen and grabbed Minwoo’s wrist, pulling him away as he stared at the microwave.
“Let’s go study, Minwoo!” I shouted, dragging him out the front door. “Good bye Mr. and Mrs. No! Thank you for having me over.”
“Come again!” They replied, chuckling as we disappeared.
“My pizza!” Minwoo whined.
I quickly hurried Minwoo all the way back to the dorm. As I stomped in, pushing Minwoo along, Donghyun passed by on his way home.
"Omo, Go ____?" Donghyun gasped. "Are you tutoring Minwoo now?"
"Can't talk. Have to focus," I grunted.
"Hai hyung," Minwoo cooed.
As we reached the dorm, I quickly grabbed all of Minwoo's books and notes without even greeting anyone and left as fast as I entered. Minwoo and I then ran to the dance room where I put my plan into action. As I looked through Minwoo's notes, I smiled happily seeing what I could put into action.
"All right, so I got this great idea. You seem to work better with dancing and singing than you do with studies... so how about combining them?" I asked.
"Hm," Minwoo thought, squinting his eyes. "Sure?"
"All right. So let's use your songs and dances for Boyfriend. Say I'm Youngmin. This is for Algebra, okay? So say Youngmin has to turn twice every beat, while Kwangmin has to turn once every beat. Youngmin took four turns while Kwangmin took two turns. How many beats were there," I asked, spinning around and around.
Minwoo stopped and thought about it then grinned. "Two beats!"
"Good job! Ah! Minwoo," I shouted, hugging him. "You got it!"
Minwoo smiled open mouthed. "Aw, man, if I knew I would get a hug every time I got a question correct, I would've totally studied harder for the exam."
"Enough chit chat, let's keep going!" I squealed.
We continued to dance and sing for hours on end. By examination time, Minwoo was ready to do the impossible.
"Go ____! Look at my grades!" Minwoo shouted, shoving the grade sheet in my face as he entered the dorm.
I looked eargerly at the paper. I gasped. "Straight B's. Oh, Minwoo!"
I hugged him and he hugged me back tightly. The rest of the boys' jaws dropped. They rushed over and checked out the paper, amazed.
"Go ___, after this, I really do believe you are a miracle worker," Donghyun gawked.
"Aish, this is why I wanted to study with Go ____," Jeongmin whined. "I could have totally gotten an A."
"Yah, shut up," Hyun Seong said, conking Jeongmin on the head. "Be happy with the B I helped you get."
"Oh, Go ___... you know... I usually get a reward for doing good in school," Minwoo singsonged.
"Oh! Of course. Anything you want, Minwoo, ice cream? A giftcard?" I asked, beaming at his accomplishment.
"A kiss!" He replied.
My smiled turned upside down into a look of awe. "What?"
"A kiss!" He repeated. "I want a kiss."
I turned to the others. Youngmin looked at him like he was crazy while Kwangmin shook his head no. Jeongmin shook his head even harder than Kwangmin did. Hyun Seong bit the inside of his lip and rubbed his lips with his index finger. Donghyun sighed.
"Well, he did do well. Just give him a little peck," Donghyun grumbled.
I turned to Minwoo and gulped. He closed his eyes and stuck his lips out. Biting my bottom lip, I gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. He opened his eyes in surprise and pouted.
"I was cheated," he muttered.
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