Woohyun’s POV

Summer holiday ended a lot faster than we expected. We had so much fun, just hanging around with my friends and girlfriend. And now school was starting for another year, with us being a sophomore, Myungsoo being a freshmen and Sung Jong and Tanaka Kasumi, my sweet lovely girlfriend, in their last year in middle school.

Last year was a good year for Infinite. Sunggyu, Hoya, Dongwoo, Sungyeol and I entered our freshman year in the first two top classes of our year. That meant that Sunggyu and I could become tutors, to help students in years younger than us so that we can help them improve their grades. Sunggyu suffered quite a bit since his tutee was a girl who had a crush on him. I originally had Sung Jong as my tutee but I refused to tutor him because he lied and because he deserved to fail his subjects (shush, I know I’m mean) so he exchanged tutors with this girl, Tanaka Kasumi, who was the quietest and shyest girl we had ever met.

Infinite was the kingka group in our school, Kingsridge Academy — the biggest public school ever in Seoul because it combined elementary, middle and high school together — so a lot of girls would’ve killed to be in Kasumi’s spot. And yet I didn’t realize that I was falling for this girl who hardly ever talked much, especially about her past.

It was something about her that attracted to me.

Obviously I had pride and didn’t dare to confess to her, so Hoya had to cook up a plan to get us to get together. It worked. We got together (although I hated what Hoya did to make us get together). I was so happy when I found out that she liked me back. But right after we got together, there was some misunderstandings between Infinite and us (thanks to this y group of girls who pathetically called themselves Seven Heaven) but we managed to work it out and we became friends again. Ever since then, we found out more a bit about Kasumi. Like the fact that she knows so many people, like the girls from f(x), and that she was extremely close to the old kingka group, DBSK, and also that she’s friends with the Girls Generation group.

Kasumi was the kind of girl who didn’t really like to talk much about her past but lately, after she told me about how her dad died in a car crash while rushing to the hospital as her mom was in labor with her, I had a feeling that she was starting to open up to me. That was an improvement for me because it meant I was gaining her trust. That was a week before school start.

And now . . . school was officially open.

As usual, Infinite was at our usual spot by the gates at the start of a new school year when a golden dog just came and suddenly bounced on Dongwoo (but making sure his uniform didn’t go dirty) and my girlfriend walked up behind him with a huge smile on her face. She shook her head at her dog, Botan, before she turned to us.

“Hi!” she beamed at us. She walked up to me and we hugged before we kissed each other. “It’s so great to be back in school, isn’t it?”

All seven of us gave her a ‘are-you-crazy?’ look.

She laughed at our lack of enthusiasm. “Well, I guess it is for me, at least,” she replied, shrugging. “It’s not like we can avoid it.”

I entwined our fingers together. “Well, at least this year, I know that this year is going to start out great. Do you wanna know why?” I asked, grinning.

“Oh, no, just . . . no . . .” everyone else groaned, including Kasumi. They all turned around and walked right ahead of something.

My face fell when they turned their backs on me. “Why do people not like it whenever I am trying to be myself?” I asked, pouting my lips a little.

Everyone walked on, leaving me to stand alone by the gates. Even Botan had turned around to walk back home. I shook my head. This is ridiculous. I am being walked out on not only by my friends, but by a dog as well!

“Kaaaasuuuumiiiiii,” I whined. I stomped on my feet like a five-year-old. “Are you really going to leave your boyfriend out here?”

Kasumi giggled and turned. She had this amused smile on her face as she held her hand out. “Just say it already, Oppa,” she said. She gave me a small smile.

I walked up to her and kissed her tenderly on the lips. I chuckled lightly as I looked down to the face of the most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on. “This year is going to start out great because I have you here with me,” I whispered into her ears. I nibbled it gently. I smirked when I saw her blushing.

So adorable. My Kasumi.

“Let’s get to class,” I told her and we walked to our new classes. “You know, I really do think that this year is going to be a great one.”

“Okay.” She shoved me lightly.

I stared at her while she stood there, a few feet in front of me. “Did you just shove me aside?” I asked her, my hands on my hips.

“No.” She ran.

“Yah! Come back here!” I laughed as I followed after her, smiling as she giggled, running down the hall, as we both dodged the crowd.

In class, I beamed when I saw that Sungyeol, Hoya, Dongwoo and Sunggyu were in the same class as I was this year. Maybe this year was really starting to look up. Kasumi and I are still strong together and I was going to spend a year with four of my best friends for the rest of the year. But that all changed when Mr. Byun stepped into class the moment the bell rang, signaling for the start of the first day of a new year in school.

Suddenly I felt my smile slipping off my face when I saw him and I turned to stare at Sunggyu and Dongwoo in horror. They had the same look on their faces as well, and those in the same class as us before were groaning. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” we muttered at the same time.

Don’t get us wrong; it’s not that we don’t like Mr. Byun because he was a bad teacher or anything. He was a nice teacher. It was just that we were kind of tired of seeing his face every day and was actually hoping for a new face.

Mr. Byun smiled grimly at us, like he understood our pain. “Yes, I see a couple of familiar faces,” were the first words out of his mouth. He set his stuff on his desk. “Believe me when I said I was actually hoping that I could see only new faces instead but, alas, I cannot argue with the principal.”

“This is going to be a long year,” Sunggyu grumbled next to me.

Behind me, Hoya was snickering. “Ah, he sounds interesting,” he said but Dongwoo, Sunggyu and I sighed heavily.

“Now,” Mr. Byun went on, holding up a pile of papers in his hands, “I hope you all know what is in my hands. These papers here are a list of names in this class and if your name is on the list, it means you are going to be a tutor this year.”

Dongwoo leaned in front of us. “Does he use the same speech every year?” he whispered to us, grimacing.

I looked down, stifling my laughter, while Sunggyu practically had to stuff his whole fist into his mouth.

“Seriously,” Hoya groaned, “this was the same speech Mr. Song gave us last year. Does this mean all top-classes teachers give the same speech?”

Sungyeol slumped in his seat. “I think so,” he said miserably.

“. . . However,” Mr. Byun went on, oblivious to what we were saying about him, “we are going to do things a little different with the tutoring this year.”

Sunggyu and I exchanged glances.

I hope that whatever the changes are with the tutoring system, I’m still with Kasumi. It shouldn’t be that, because I remembered that I was stuck with the same tutor every year until he graduated and I no longer needed a tutor because I was becoming one.

“This year, those who didn’t get a chance to be a tutor will have a chance at tutoring this year,” Mr. Byun continued. “And those who had survived their first year of being a tutor, I will say congratulations to you.”

Sungyeol stifled a yawn. “Wake me up when this is over,” he mumbled.

“Ditto,” Dongwoo and Hoya agreed and placed their hands on the tables before resting their hands on them, closing their eyes to sleep.

Sunggyu and I couldn’t afford to doze off since Mr. Byun was talking about something that could concern us. We exchanged glances and grimaced at the fact that those lucky bastards get to sleep while the both of us had to endure the monotonous speech and fight the sleepiness that was coming upon us.

“This year, for those who already had tutored last year, I know that every year we always give the tutors back the same tutee if their tutee still needs tutoring, but this year, we decided it was better if they have a chance to teach other students instead.”

Wait, what?

“Does this mean we don’t get back the same tutee?” Sunggyu blurted out, interrupting Mr. Byun’s well-planned and scripted speech.

He looked annoyed at being cut off but nodded curtly. “Yes, that is what I meant,” he said a little testily. He hated it when students interrupted his speech. “Anyway . . .”

“Awww yeah!” Sunggyu air punched.

“Noooo,” I moaned, covering my face down to my table in despair. “I actually like who my tutee is.” This cannot be happening.

Sunggyu stopped. “Oh . . . right . . .”

I rolled my eyes. “Thank you for being so concerned about me, best friend,” I said, my vo