Thump, thump, thump.

Startled by the knocks, he spun around. Was someone throwing something about?

He squinted in the darkness, hoping desperately for his night vision to work better. Now he regretted not eating all those carrots. The thumping came again and he knew not if it was a good or bad omen. He was afraid, but not a syllable would be forced out of his throat.

Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed his shoulders from behind, shaking him violently.

“Byun Baekhyun, wake up!”

Baekhyun woke up with a groan as his eyes struggled to adjust to the blinding classroom lighting, a huge contrast from his nightmare. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned as he looked about. His classmates were all scurrying back to their seats like mice to their holes in the wall. The sound of a pair of stilettos clicking against the tiled floor of their corridors grew louder now, but Baekhyun could hardly bring himself to be intimidated. He only knew that he had been sleeping, though not peacefully, and he had needed that rest badly. Turning to his left, he muttered a string of profanities at his best friend who had interrupted his slumber.

“You’ll thank me later, look who’s coming into the class,” Chanyeol whispered in response, nudging his potty-mouthed seatmate to face the front of the classroom.

Oh, so it’s annoying-heels-Park. And I thought it was the principal himself, Baekhyun thought, his eyes falling upon their reputed weakling of a discipline mistress.

He never understood why anyone would fear their discipline mistress. To him, she looked nothing more than a housewife who should stay home and look after her children, or grandchildren for the matter. The daily morning assembly was a torture; listening to her speak to the student body like they were all in nursery school rather than college made him wanted to go right up and destroy the microphone. So he opts to catch the extra forty winks that would help him get through each boring school day.

Mrs. Park sashayed into the classroom of the top, graduating class, her heels finally silenced when she stops at the teacher’s table. Baekhyun rolled his eyes as she clapped her hands twice to get the class’s attention.

As if you don’t already have their attention with your stupid clicking heels.

“Alright children,” Mrs. Park spoke, resulting in a cringing Baekhyun at once.

Chanyeol tried hard not to laugh. He had grown accustomed to Baekhyun’s dislike for the discipline mistress, but still found it amusing how his best friend would frown and cringe whenever she spoke.

“Let me introduce to you your new chemistry teacher, as well as form teacher. This is Ms. Tiffany Hwang.”

Thirty pairs of eyes averted from Mrs. Park to Ms. Hwang. A young woman who looked no more than twenty, she was decked out in a sky blue blouse and skinny jeans, her feet clothed by a pair of Converses. What stood out most, however, was her hair. Dyed a deep reddish-auburn, it was much like that of the Disney mermaid princess.

“Hello, I’m your new teacher, Tiffany,” she smiles, her eyes crinkling into little upturned crescents.

A few boys were already checking her out. There was no harm after all; they were definitely about her age.

Mrs. Park cleared and continued her introduction. “Your previous chemistry teacher, Mrs. Kwon, has left on early retirement –”

“Oh my goodness, that’s the best news I’ve heard in my four years here! No more Mrs. Kwon and her strange analogies!” Chanyeol shot up from his seat, clapping in excitement.

The class breaks out in whispers, murmurs and laughter. Even the new teacher could not help but smile. Embarrassed, Baekhyun buried his face in his hand, the other reaching for his buddy’s collar. But the height difference caused him to miss by inches and he settled for the back of Chanyeol’s shirt instead, yanking him back into his seat all the same. A few girls started giggling at his best friend’s outburst and Baekhyun makes a mental note to have a really good talk with Chanyeol about learning how to contain his overzealous excitement. Stupid tall bloke.

“Well, it’s good to see that we have a student so enthusiastic about our new teacher… So, from today onwards, Ms. Hwang will be taking over most of Mrs. Kwon’s lessons. Treat her nicely, you hear me? I will tell your parents if you bully her!”

Baekhyun resisted the urge to throw his shoe at the discipline mistress. Who in freaking damnation cares about what their parents had to say about the conduct in school at age eighteen?

As soon as annoying-heels-Park left the class and the clickety-clacks of her heels were too far to be heard, Baekhyun’s head met the table again.

And awkward silence enveloped that class as Ms. Hwang tried to find the right thing to say. “So, since it’s my first day seeing you guys, how about a Q-and-A session?”

The class cheered and nodded enthusiastically. No one cared that the preliminary exams were round the corner; it was revision phase already and there was not much to be taught.

“First question?”

“How old are you, Ms. Hwang? Can we call you Tiffany?” Jongin, the boisterous one in class piped up immediately.

“I’m not any much older than you guys; I’m twenty-two. And since we have a pretty close , I don’t suppose we need that much of formalities, do we?” Tiffany grinned, earning the approval of the class immediately.

It certainly was not every day that they had such a fun teacher. Questions were continuously fired at the new Disney-princess look-alike Chemistry teacher.

“What’s your hobby?”

“I like reading and listening to music.”

“What kind of music do you listen to?”

“Baby you light up my world like nobody else… Familiar?” Tiffany sang.

“Oh my goodness, you listen to One Direction! And you sing really well!”

“Why, thank you!”

“What’s your favorite color?”

Baekhyun stealthily reached for his earphones in his bag. The noise level in the class was getting too much for his comfort and he would rather not participate in the frenzy.

This noise-cancelling earphones work really well, he thought, enjoying the peace and quiet.

Suddenly, one side of his earphones was pulled gently out of his ear. Getting up, he noticed that all eyes were on him, his earphones in the hands of the new teacher. The class watched in anticipation. Baekhyun was known to be the cynic of the class and hardly appreciated humor.

I thought it was the earphones. Huh.

“Byun Baekhyun,” Tiffany read off his name tag.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. One of those new teachers who think they’re it all.

Barely rising from his seat, he tugged at the cords and kept his earphones away without even acknowledging Tiffany. The atmosphere became tense and Chanyeol prodded Baekhyun to say something.

“Tiffany, you haven’t answered my question; what’s your sign?” Jongin broke the silence.

The class erupted in laughter at his weak attempt of flirting with Tiffany.

“Does it matter what sign I am as long as we make chemistry?” Tiffany replied with a wink.

The class was wowed by her response, pleasantly surprised.

Jongin smirked, he liked this new teacher.

It was the second week into the term, the second week since Tiffany started teaching class A of Year 12. She was dressed neatly in a white blouse and denim shorts, finishing off with Vans. Her eye-catching red hair was tied into a messy bun that only accentuated her beauty more. It would be a lie to say that she had not caught the hearts of most of the male faculty with her gorgeous looks and a good percentage of the male population in school with her sweet nature and easy-going personality. There was not a single student who disliked her and everyone loved her, with the exception of just one student – Baekhyun.

Baekhyun did not exactly hate her, but nor did he like her. He was simply neutral, never offering a simple smile, sleeping his way through most of his classes. Most teachers did not really care so long as he handed up his work on time, with good quality of course. As the class’s form teacher, Tiffany had not really received complaints from the students’ different subject teachers. However, she did notice that one student that seemed to take no interest in her Chemistry lessons, sleeping through each and every one of them. And though he handed up his work on time, she always felt that he lacked thoroughness in his answers.

Tiffany stepped into class, greeted by the usual sight of cliques of students gathered around a classmate’s table, the girls gossiping, the guys boasting about some sporty feat. It was all seemingly in place except for one thing… Baekhyun was not sleeping. Tiffany observed in surprise. He was helping Chanyeol out with his mathematics assignment and… Baekhyun actually smiled.

“Tiffany, need help?” Jongin offered with a wink, disrupting Tiffany’s train of thoughts.

“Oh, it’s fine; I can manage the laptop and book. Thank you,” Tiffany smiled with gratitude.

Jongin swaggered back to his seat, proud that he had gotten into the gorgeous teacher’s good books, whether or not he actually helped her. Greeting the class, Tiffany distributed the revision notes and worksheets on organic chemistry, noticing that Baekhyun had gone back to his usual state of hibernation.

The class quietened down and did their work. Tiffany typed away at her laptop as the low murmurs and exchanges went around in class about their assignment. She chuckled softly when she saw Chanyeol prodding Baekhyun with the back of a pencil, asking him for help.

“My Chem.’s no better than yours,” Baekhyun frowned, pushing the pencil away.

“At the very least, do the assignment. It’s due later,” Chanyeol pursed his lips and turned to someone else for help.

Ignoring his best friend, Baekhyun went back to sleep.

The bell that signaled dismissal soon rang and everyone scampered out of class immediately. Chanyeol was among the first to dash out of class, conveniently leaving the sleeping Baekhyun behind.

“Say, Tiffany, want to grab a bite together?” Jongin grinned like a Cheshire cat, leaning against the teacher’s table.

“I’d love to, but I’ll have to take a rain check. I’ve things to be done today,” Tiffany replied politely, her eyes not leaving the screen of her laptop.

“Maybe next time, then,” Jongin shrugged, a little put off by the rejection.

He was used to girls accepting his offer immediately, no matter how busy they were. After all, he was the college’s number one heart throb.

Tiffany chuckled to herself as soon as Jongin left the class. She tidied up her things and was surprised to see someone a completed worksheet in her face.

“Oh, you’ve woken up, Baekhyun.”

Seeing that she made no motion to take the paper out of his hands, Baekhyun left it on her desk and went back to his seat to pack his things. Tiffany glanced at the worksheet. She noticed how he had once again answered the questions with vague phrases. Picking it up, she walked over to his seat and stopped him from packing his things.

“Your answers are very general. You need to be more specific.”

Baekhyun looked up and met the gaze of his Chemistry teacher. “I don’t like Chemistry.”

“Then why did you take Chemistry?” Tiffany questioned.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “Check out what are the core subjects for a triple science course, Ms. Hwang, before you ask stupid questions.”

Tiffany was taken aback. Never once had a student spoke like this to her. “Since you have to take it anyway, why not make the best out of it?”

“Passing it to just make it for this course’s good enough for me, Ms. Hwang. And if you please, I need to get somewhere now,” Baekhyun answered, pushing Tiffany away a little to leave his seat.

Tiffany watched as he disappeared out of the class’s door. Sighing, she got back to her computer and continued with her work.

Six-thirty, Tiffany glanced at the bottom right corner of her computer.

Looking out, she realized that it was pouring heavily. She wondered when the rain had started. She had been typing out more notes for the class for hours and was finally done with two topics. Powering off her device and gathering her things, she left the class to head back to the staff room.

“It’s almost seven; you think she’d be home by now?”

Tiffany turned to find the source of the voice. Who’s still in school at this hour?

“I don’t think so. She’s working the night shift tonight, I think,” another voice answered.

Tiffany stalked closer to the study area, seeing two boys sitting at a table, doing their homework.

“I’m tired. Let’s just go home,” the one with his back facing her whined.

The other looked up to answer, only to see Tiffany staring at them curiously. “Ms. Hwang.”

“Baekhyun, what are you two still doing in school so late?” Tiffany asked, addressing the familiar face.

“Doing homework,” Baekhyun replied nonchalantly, his attention reverted back to his work.

The other boy grinned as he greeted her. “Hi Ms. Hwang! I’ve heard you’re a really nice Chemistry teacher. I’m Kyungsoo from Year eleven!”

Tiffany smiled at the bright and bubbly student. She wondered why Baekhyun would know a junior.

“And don’t bother asking my stone of a cousin why we are still in school. It’s raining really heavily… And he doesn’t want to go home since we can hardly see anything.”

Tiffany’s mouth formed a little ‘O’. Baekhyun glared at Kyungsoo, as if to tell him to keep quiet and not reveal so much.

“Anyhow, Baekhyun, I think I’ll need to have you stay back after school for extra lessons if you continue to hand up work with sloppy answers,” Tiffany glanced at his homework.

She was not exactly pleased that he was doing mathematics, and he wrote out all the steps in detail, but could not do the same for her subject. Baekhyun stared at her, not believing his ears. All his life, he had never needed extra lessons. Kyungsoo, too, was surprised.

“Extra lessons?” Baekhyun questioned, an eyebrow shot up by the stubborn teacher.

Tiffany nodded. “You say you hate Chemistry, right? I’ll change your mind.”

Kyungsoo gulped while Baekhyun chuckled dryly, “It’ll take a miracle to do that.”

“Then a miracle I shall make.”

Baekhyun was extremely grouchy. He hated how he had been forced to stay after class to attend one-to-one lessons with Tiffany. She had threatened to ruin his testimonial if he refused to stay back, and that was one risk he was never going to take.

His eyes scanned the worksheet on organic chemistry. It was the exact same one he had done the day before. He was extremely tempted to shred the paper into pieces and leave the classroom, but the thought of his testimonial kept him in his seat.

Ugh, I’m just going to fill it up with whatever I wrote yesterday!

“That’s wrong,” Tiffany pointed out immediately as Baekhyun scribbled his answer for the first question.

“What type of reaction do alkenes undergo to form a macromolecule?” Baekhyun read the question aloud, frowning, wondering why his one-word answer of polymerization was wrong.

“It should be addition polymerization.”

“It’s just one word!”

“One word makes a difference,” Tiffany retorted, crossing out his answer.

Baekhyun gritted his teeth. If Tiffany was trying to irritate him, she was doing a really great job. How annoying could this teacher get? She’s just forcing her way with things!

“Go on, write down the words,” Tiffany purposely pushed his hand towards the paper.

Begrudgingly, Baekhyun jotted down the words. The whole session went on with Tiffany striking out Baekhyun’s answers and Baekhyun on the verge of throwing his pen at Tiffany each time.

“You might as well do the worksheet for me!” Baekhyun cried out, frustrated.

Every single answer on the paper was given by Tiffany. The paper was awfully crumpled from the tug-o-wars the two had over it whenever Tiffany tried to cancel out Baekhyun’s answers.

Tiffany ignored his outcry and scanned the paper for mistakes. Satisfied, she put it down and cheerily announced that he was free to go. Without a moment of hesitation, Baekhyun grabbed his things and left the class, shoving his stationery down his bag as he stomped out. As he disappeared down the hallway, Tiffany removed her glasses and leaned back in her chair, sighing. How am I supposed to convince him that Chemistry isn’t that bad?

“So, how was Chemistry with Ms. Hwang?”

Baekhyun glared at his cousin. Kyungsoo was grinning from ear to ear, obviously enjoying poking fun at Baekhyun. Annoyed, the older of the two stomped to his room. Kyungsoo ignored his cousin’s grouchiness and got back to his work in the kitchen.

“I’m home!”

Baekhyun poked his head out of his room. “Hey mum.”

“Hi aunty!” Kyungsoo chirped, setting a pot of stew on the dining table.

“How’s school today?” the middle-aged lady asked, placing her things on the couch.

“Don’t remind me,” Baekhyun muttered.

Kyungsoo bit on his lip to hold back a laugh as his aunt casually asks, “Oh?”

Getting no response from her son, she turned to Kyungsoo for an answer. Kyungsoo simply shrugged, afraid that his cousin would murder him in his sleep for saying anything. Silence encompassed the trio as they ate their dinner.

“Kyungsoo, I feel so bad for having you do the household chores at home all the time,” the oldest of the three started. “After all, you were just supposed to stay with us because of school.”

“Oh, it’s fine. I like doing them anyway,” Kyungsoo smiled.

“I’m done,” the last of the three spoke up and made a beeline for his room.

Kyungsoo takes no notice as he continued to eat, whilst his aunt nudged him. “Did something bad happen?”

Replying with a shrug again, Kyungsoo left his aunt befuddled as to what was going on.

Baekhyun stared incredulously at the woman before him. His eyes shifted to the stack of worksheets placed on his table then back at her. Unfazed, Tiffany simply nudged him to start on the papers.

“You must be insane,” Baekhyun spat.

Tiffany chuckled. “Au contraire, I’m perfectly sane. We have four hours to six. C’mon, start doing them. Or else…”

The way Tiffany’s voice trailed off scared Baekhyun. He remembered her threat on his testimonial. Left without a choice, he picked up his pen and started scribbling. Maybe I should write in a real untidy handwriting, let’s see how she would read my answers and pick at them, then.

Smirking to himself, Baekhyun applauded himself for being such a genius. However, as soon as he began his untidy scrawling, a ruler landed on his wrist sharply.

“Write properly. You’d fail if your handwriting is this terrible for your English essays,” Tiffany chided.

“This is Chemistry, not English,” Baekhyun retorted.

“Don’t forget that your Chemistry teacher is your form teacher as well.”

Baekhyun swallowed in anger. She always used his testimonial to threaten him.

“I ought to lodge a complaint to the principal about how you threaten students with their testimonial into doing your bidding.”

“I’d like to see you try and do that. I can always argue that you were an unwilling student who did not complete his assignments properly and that would affect your testimonial anyway.”

“Why you…”

It was Tiffany’s turn to smirk.

“It’s six,” Baekhyun announced happily.

Tiffany looked at him, with an unamused expression. “Okay then. I guess it’s enough practice for today.”

Suddenly a low rumble of thunder resounded. Lightning flashed a second time, followed closely by yet another roar of thunder. The lights flickered for a moment. With a buzz, the class was clouded in darkness, the setting sun proving of no help to illuminate the surroundings. Baekhyun felt his heartbeat accelerate. He hated the darkness. Panicking, he grabbed whatever was near to him.

“Baekhyun?” Tiffany asked, concerned as she felt his grip on her tighten. “Baekhyun, what’s wrong?”

His eyes squeezed shut, he made no movement to let either let go of his teacher or explain his actions. He willed the lights to come back, he was afraid of what was going on.

Baekhyun cowered behind the huge desk. He heard the crashing. It was raining outside and the thunder scared him out of his wits. Another crash bounced off the walls and he knew something had been thrown on the floor again. He squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ears, unwilling to hear and know what was going on. But he knew. His parents were quarreling again. Why did they get married to quarrel every day?

The lights above him flickered and within seconds, the entire house was plunged into a state of darkness. Unable to see his fingers before him, Baekhyun felt around him to escape. He did not want to stay to listen to his parents shout at each other despite the darkness.  As he crept out of his hiding place, a deafening crash sounded to his left. There was a shriek that followed, which he recognized to be his mother’s voice. What happened?

Rain began to pour heavily and lightning flashed again. Baekhyun caught sight of what had happened momentarily as the bolt of light illuminated the room. His mother was clutching a bloody arm, laying on the floor in pain, his father long gone from the scene. He felt something warm trickle down his cheeks. His heart was beating a lot faster than usual. This was the first time he saw one of his parents get injured. He hardly knew what he had to do. Unsure, he crept out of the study and ran to the living room.

The main door was left ajar and Baekhyun knew his father had stormed out again. It happened after every fight. His heart still racing, yet another flash of lightning illuminated the spacious area. His tiny hands grabbed the phone and he connected a call to the place he had never dared to ring up.

“Hello?” Baekhyun whimpered as someone on the other end picked up the phone. “Can you please help me? My mummy is bleeding. I’m scared. Mr. Police, you can do something, right?”

Tiffany hugged the boy tightly, patting his back to relieve him of his fright.  As she felt his rapid heartbeat against hers, she could not help but feel her own heart quicken its pace. She had never held a student so close before.

Shaking her head, she willed her mind to think about something else, anything but the boy that was now clinging to her like she was his life buoy.

“Baekhyun, it’s fine,” she breathed.

As if her words stirred him from a bad nightmare, Baekhyun quickly released his teacher and backed away. The darkness was intimidating him and he could seek refuge nowhere. Not the slightest bit of light shone from anywhere.

Sensing his insecurity, Tiffany crept into Chanyeol’s seat and placed an arm around him. “It’s fine, it’s probably a black out only.”

Baekhyun fought every bit of his urge to simply launch himself back into Tiffany’s embrace. He knew it was wrong, he knew he was scared, he knew he could do nothing. To his surprise, Tiffany pulled him close again. “Don’t worry. The lights will be on again soon.”

Baekhyun nodded. What other choice had he but to trust Tiffany?

As if on cue, the lights flickered on again and frantic footsteps sounded down the corridors. As the lights lit up the class once again, Baekhyun sighed in relief and released Tiffany from his embrace for the second time.

“Are you alright?”

Tiffany looked up at the school caretaker. Smiling and responding that everything was fine, she thanked him for getting the lights back.

When the caretaker disappeared down the hallways again, Tiffany grabbed Baekhyun’s arm and led him out of the classroom.

“What… Where are we going?” Baekhyun asked, unable to form coherent sentences.

Tiffany ignored his question and simply led him to the students’ study area. She searched her jeans pocket for loose change and pushed them into the slot of the vending machine.

“Here.”

Baekhyun looked up in time to stop Tiffany from pushing the warm cup of coffee into his face. Thanking her with a slight nod, he wondered why Tiffany was being so nice to him. A few minutes of silence passed as they each sipped the drink in their hands.

“You want to talk?” Tiffany broke the silence.

Baekhyun glanced at her, unsure.

“I’m fine if you don’t want –”

“He was a Chemistry teacher, too,” Baekhyun interrupted.

 “He was nothing like a father. All he did was get drunk and quarrel with my mum about the slightest of things. They fought and trashed things practically every other day. All I could do was to hide behind the study table every time they threw things at each other. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t know how many times I’d have to be sent to the hospital.

“I don’t even know how I managed to bear with it for so long. From what I can actually recall, they started fighting ever since I managed to totter about. It never grew out of hand, though. Within half an hour of their fight or so, he would stomp out of the house and disappear for a whole day. When he came back, he usually reeked of alcohol, an odor I came to recognize at the age of four,” Baekhyun chuckled dryly at the last sentence.

“It was a thin thread that everyone in the house was treading on and finally, that thread snapped. It was raining hard on that day, too,” Baekhyun paused and shuddered. “The lightning storm caused a power outage and the house was plunged into a state of total darkness. He still flung the furniture about. He didn’t care. I was trying to get out of the room. My mum suddenly shrieked, and I turned to see her on the floor with a huge gash on her arm.

“I scrambled out of the room. I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do. I was only five, what did you expect a kid like me to do but cry?”

Angrily, Baekhyun’s fist met the table. Tiffany looked at him sadly. She never knew that he had such a sad story to tell.

“I don’t know how I did it. I connected the call to the police. What actually happened after that, I don’t remember. I just know that I was placed with social services and I had the worst time of my life there. Every freaking social service volunteer acted as though I was something so fragile, I’d break any time. I’d cry and they’d assume I was upset about my parents. They didn’t know that I just wanted to go home. I hated how every one of them looked at me with sympathy… I didn’t need it. I wanted to know how my mother was, not hear them tell me it was freaking alright because it jolly well wasn’t alright.

“I was only brought back home to stay with my mother when I was almost six. The whole fiasco took that long. But at least my parents were separated and I didn’t have to witness them fighting anymore. I still hate stormy evenings like these, though. It reminds me of how I was taken away from my house,” Baekhyun ended his story, wiping away his bitter tears away with the back of his hand.

Tiffany pulled out a paper napkin and offered it to him. When he did not make any motion to take it, she reached over and dabbed away his tears instead. Baekhyun stared at her, surprised by her sudden actions. Smiling in response, her hand tousled his messy hair back into place, and then pinched his cheek. 

“Don’t you feel better spilling it all out?”

Baekhyun nodded, a hint of red creeping to his cheeks.

“Look at the time… It’s seven already. You should get home soon,” Tiffany broke the awkward atmosphere.

Nodding again, Baekhyun followed her back to the classroom to get his things.

“One last thing.”

Baekhyun stopped in his tracks and glanced back.

“He’s not your Chemistry teacher. I’m your Chemistry teacher.”

Tiffany leaned back on her couch with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands, her towel carelessly draped over her shoulders. The television was switched on, but her attention was hardly on the variety show that was airing. Taking a sip of the hot chocolate, she looked out of her window into the dark night sky. It was still pouring and she found herself wondering if Baekhyun was home yet.

Of course he would, right? It’s so late. Even I’m home and done showering.

Her heartbeat accelerated again as she recalled how Baekhyun had been holding her tightly. Mentally cursing herself for an over active imagination, she finished her drink and tried to focus on the television.

Baekhyun felt restless as he lay in his bed, his heart racing. He had never once told anyone about his childhood, not even Kyungsoo knew the full story. What compelled him to suddenly spill everything?

Images of Tiffany’s smile as he finished relating his story flooded his mind. Absent-mindedly, he reached to ruffle his own hair, mimicking Tiffany’s movements.

No, it’s just sympathy, like the rest of them. Right?

Tiffany no longer requested Baekhyun to stay back after school hours for extra lessons. Baekhyun was surprised at her decision, but happily agreed, nonetheless.

“Wait, what? Tiffany, you gave him extra lessons?” Jongin frowned as he stood a little too close to Tiffany for comfort.

“Yes, is there a problem?” Tiffany stared back at the frowning boy.

“That’s unfair! You should have given the rest of the class extra lessons too!” Jongin practically whined.

A few girls giggled at his outburst. Tiffany patted him on the shoulder and guided him back to his seat. She had seen Baekhyun rolling his eyes and knew that Jongin would be socked in the eye if he continued the childish whining.

“He’s not doing as well in Chemistry as you, Jongin. Besides, I’ve stopped the extra lessons, right?” Tiffany chuckled.

Baekhyun tried hard not to laugh. Jongin was reduced to nothing more than a little kid who threw tantrums in Tiffany’s eyes.

Wait, why am I even concerned about that?

Slapping himself and earning a funny look from his seatmate, Baekhyun got down to his work.

“You’re doing your work.”

Baekhyun looked up into Chanyeol’s wide eyes. “Yeah, I am. Is there something wrong?”

“That is something new, seriously. Baekhyun doing Chemistry homework during Chemistry class; that’s pretty surprising,” Chanyeol grinned.

Baekhyun wondered if it would ruin his testimonial if he got his best friend severely injured.

Tiffany looked through the pile of assignments on her desk. When she picked out Baekhyun’s, she smiled a little. She was pleasantly surprised to see that he was actually making effort in his answers more. As she got to the last page of his paper, she noticed a little note scribbled in pencil just below the last question.

‘You’re right. He’s not my Chemistry teacher. You are.’

Smiling, Tiffany picked up her pencil and penned her reply.

‘Glad you realized. How could you have compared such a pretty teacher to him? You dealt a huge blow to my ego, you know?’

Baekhyun grinned at his returned Chemistry worksheet, especially at the last question. Chanyeol thought he was seeing things; Baekhyun rarely smiled and now, he was smiling at an inanimate object. Worried, Chanyeol placed a hand on Baekhyun’s forehead, only to be slapped away.

“What are you trying to do?”

Chanyeol merely shrugged and asked if he was feeling alright. Giving his best friend a strange look, Baekhyun replied, “I think you’re the one who’s not alright.”

“…says the delirious one.”

It was late afternoon when Tiffany left the staff room, clutching a beige Miu Miu handbag. She seemed to have a never ending closet of clothes; she was dressed up differently each day. Sporting a pair of flats, her blouse and black trousers made her look extremely professional that day.

Baekhyun had not even noticed that she was headed his direction, too caught up in his book, with earphones plugged into his ears, the other end connected to his phone. When she was barely inches away, she pulled out one side of his earphones, startling him.

Funny, didn’t I do the exact same thing to him the first time we met, too?

However, instead of ignoring her, Baekhyun smiled. “Ms. Hwang.”

“Why are you still in school? It’s not raining today.”

Baekhyun shrugged nonchalantly, replying, “I’m supposed to wait for Kyungsoo. His supplementary lessons were supposed to end an hour ago, but his teacher made the class stay back longer than usual.”

“So, it means you have time to spare right now?”

Baekhyun nodded.

“Then… Let’s go somewhere fun!”

“This is your idea of fun, Ms. Hwang?”

Baekhyun glanced about his surroundings, his hands holding a cup of ice cream as he sat on a swing.

“Little pleasures in life; you don’t know how to appreciate it,” Tiffany chided, bringing a spoonful of ice cream to as she kicked off.

Baekhyun stared awkwardly at the little cup in his hands. He wondered how Tiffany did not feel the slightest bit out of place, dressed so formally yet eating ice cream and playing at a playground like an elementary school student would.  He was dressed casually in contrast, but felt as though every passer’s-by eyes were on him.

“Aww, come on. You’re not even trying to eat the ice cream?” Tiffany sighed.

Standing up, she strode to Baekhyun and took the ice cream out of his hands. “Better I eat it than let it melt in your hands.”

With that, she her empty cup into his hands. Still feeling out of place, Baekhyun merely stays put, rooted.

“Open your mouth,” Tiffany commanded.

As he complied, Tiffany shoves a spoonful of vanilla ice cream into his mouth.

“Hooray, Byun Baekhyun has tasted vanilla ice cream for the first time!”

Baekhyun never felt more embarrassed. “I’ve eaten vanilla ice cream before!”

“You look like you’ve never even come across ice cream, my dear,” Tiffany chuckled in reply, using a paper napkin to clean off ice cream on the edge of his lips.

Baekhyun felt it. His heart was racing again. His body seemed to no longer take command from his sense of logic as he reached out to grab Tiffany’s hand. Too startled by his sudden actions, Tiffany did not even jerk back.

Wha – What am I doing? Baekhyun questioned himself.

Seeing that there was no point turning back, he stood up, towering over Tiffany by a few centimeters. The height difference hardly mattered as he pulled Tiffany closer, closing the proximity between their lips. His heart raced more than ever when Tiffany dropped her things and held him closer. What did this mean?

Breaking away, Baekhyun was sent into a state of panic. “Ms. Hwang, I –”

Cut off by Tiffany’s index finger against his lips, Baekhyun was given no chance to explain as Tiffany interrupted, “Still Ms. Hwang?”  

“Tiffany.”

“That’s a lot better,” Tiffany smiled and pulled him close again.

“Yours,” Tiffany pushed a heavy letter into Baekhyun’s hands.

Thanking her with a slight nod, there were no other exchanges between the two of them. Baekhyun’s fingers quickly found a sticky note stuck to the bottom of the envelope.

‘See you later. Same place.’

He smiled as he left the class, leaving Tiffany to distribute the rest of the testimonials.

Sitting himself at the study area, he read through his testimonial a few times, till he could practically memorize what his girlfriend had written for him.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

Baekhyun turned to face Tiffany, shrugging. “Just wondering why you didn’t include the part of me being the most wonderful boyfriend in it, too.”

“Oh, I knew it!”

Startled, both looked up to see a wide-eyed Kyungsoo pointing at the both of them.

“You guys are dat—”

Baekhyun clamped a hand over his cousin’s mouth, looking around to make sure that no one heard anything. Kyungsoo struggled to be freed, clawing at Baekhyun’s arm.

“Shhh. Not a single word, understand?” Baekhyun spoke sternly.

Complying, Kyungsoo nodded.

“You know, maybe the thing for Chemistry teachers runs in the genes,” Kyungsoo laughed.

Baekhyun cracked his knuckles and glanced at Tiffany, who simply shrugged. “Your testimonial has already been issued…”

Kyungsoo had never run so fast in his life.