School ended for the day. Scribbling down the last of the notes presented on the board, I could feel a presence next to me. Of course I didn’t have to think long and hard who it was because there was only one person who would want to speak to me, especially what I had witnessed this morning. I decided to slowly write down the last characters, hoping that my stalling would make him impatient and leave rather than stay and wait. What business did he have with me anyways? It wasn’t like I was going to report this to the police or anything. It’s his business, not mine. I nodded at my comment. But as time passed, he was still standing there—and he was even humming. I cringed at the thought of having to face and explain to him that I didn’t see anything, only him holding a metal rod. Hopefully he will understand and try to not do something.
Curving the last letter of my notes, I exhaled and placed my pencil onto the desk. I could feel tension rise from within my heart; each pound was deafening. Swallowing back a ball of spit, I finally looked up and faced him. My brows furrowed at the sight of him, “W-What is it?”
Kyung shifted his weight from one foot to the other, “Yesterday, did you not hear me call out your name?”
“Yesterday…” I slightly tilted my head to the side to remember the events of yesterday. I recalled walking home afterschool and—that’s right! He was calling my name, but I had ignored him. I narrowed my eyes in thought of how to explain to him that I “didn’t hear” him call my name, rather than say that I ignored him. I cleared my throat, “Sorry, I guess I didn’t hear you calling my name because... I was listening to music.” I ended it with a soft laugh which quickly died down when he leaned down towards me. I leaned my head back, “S-Sorry,”

He exhaled, “Are you sure you weren’t just ignoring me?”
I blinked and immediately chuckled nervously, “No, of course not. I, um, like to turn my music up high, so I couldn't hear.” I explained, hoping he would take it and not press on. My eyes quickly glanced over to the clock on the wall and noticed that two minutes had already passed since class was over. I am going to be late for work if don’t leave now!
“Well, since you ignored me yesterday, I’m going to tell you what I wanted to tell you yesterday,” he said, ignoring what I had said to him. Kyung leaned back from me and smiled, “From now on, you are going to help me with my math—you’re going to be my tutor.” He cleared; the smile on his face quickly turned into a smirk.
“Tutor you?”
He nodded.
“That can’t be right,” I said, “yesterday you answered that math problem so quickly, why would you need help with math?”
“I only answered it quickly and correctly because the kid sitting beside had told me what the answer was.” He answered.

“Well, I’m going to have to decline being your tutor,” I said, “I have work after school so I can’t stay and teach someone.” I gathered my things and quickly put them into my bag. I stood up from my desk, “Plus, what’s the point of me helping you with math when you’re part of a delinquent group?” As soon as the word escaped my lips, I quickly regretted it. Kyung laughed at my comment.
“Ah,” he clucked his tongue, “I was going to ask you about what happened this morning, but it seems that you wanted to bring it up, huh?”
“Sorry—I didn’t mean to. I mean, it slipped my from my mouth and I couldn’t help but—”
Kyung shook his head, “We weren’t doing anything harmful,” he explained, “just a good old workout.”
“Sure,” I nodded at his comment and glanced back at the clock, “well, bye now.” I waved at him and took a step forward, but that was all the steps I could take because Kyung had clasped a hand around my arm. I clamped down my jaw and turned around to face him, “Look, I have to go to work and I can’t waste any time here, so please let me go.”
“Not until you agree to become my tutor,”
“I don’t even have time after school to tutor you,”
“I’m sure you have the mornings off, and possibly the weekends too.”
“I have to study,”
“Well, we can study together.”
“I don’t like—”
“Mornings and weekends,” he interrupted, “agree to it or you’ll be late to work.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. Of course I wanted to say no, but with the situation like this, I couldn’t waste any time. I quickly nodded my head in agreement, “Fine, I’ll tutor you in the mornings and weekends; but on the weekends, I’ll only tutor you in the evenings. I have… things to do in the morning.”
“Deal,” he let go of my arm, “I’ll see you tomorrow morning then, tutor.”

I rolled my eyes and practically ran out of the classroom.

-

“Have a safe walk home,”
I nodded back at my co-worker and waved at her. Stepping outside of the store, a gust of coldness struck at my face. My body shivered at the icy wind; I folded my arms and began my walk home. It wasn’t even this cold earlier, I thought to myself. My teethes began to chatter on their own, and every now and then, my body would shiver.
As I passed by a certain place, an image of this morning flashed in my mind. I glanced to the side to see the now empty place that Kyung and his group had occupied this morning. I still wondered what they were doing. Could he have been beating someone up? Probably, since they had weapons. I shook my head, and sighed at the fact that I had agreed to help tutor such a guy. I curse under my breath, “What the hell am I doing?”
He’s only going to distract me from studying, which is bad since I’m trying to keep up my reputation of being the number one smart kid at school. Hell, I was ranked number two last year so I must get number this year. I clenched my fist, ready to pump it in the air, but the rush of wind quickly changed my mind from doing so. I forced my legs to take longer strides and soon I am at the foot of the apartment. I take the stairs up and quickly fish out the keys in my pocket. I place the key inside of the keyhole and turned it. A click sound, indicating the release and I quickly twist the knob so I could get inside.

“I’m home,” I called out and waited for a reply.
“You’re finally home, huh,” a husky voice called back. I gulped at the voice. The beating of my heart began to escalate as I took off my shoes. I stepped forward, surprised to see the sight of my step-father sitting on the ground with a beer in hand. I nodded at him and quickly walked away, hoping that he wouldn’t try to start a conversation with me. But I was too slow. “Hold on, where are you going?”

“It’s late,” I answered, “I’m going to sleep.”
He clucked his tongue at my answer, “Sleep? Why don’t come and sit beside me, huh? Your mom isn’t home yet.”
I quickly shook my head and took one final step into a room, “I’m tired.” I said and slid the door closed. I almost didn’t realize that I had been holding my breath as I sat down on the ground. Letting out a staggering breath, I try to control myself from losing my cool. That bastard just sits there drinking, I think to myself. Tears dare to form around the rims of my eyes, but I blinked back the tears and decided to just sleep for the night.



-

“Just take this answer and work it backwards; if you end up with what the problem was then you’re doing it right.” I explained.
Kyung nodded at my comment, “But what if I don’t get the right answer? How will I know what I did wrong to get the right answer?”
“Well, you have to go back and see what you did wrong. Like, for instance, if you miscalculate something and it gives you the wrong answer, then that would be the problem to why your result had been wrong.”
Again, he nodded, “I see. You really like math, don’t you?”
“It’s simple and it’s reassuring,” I answered him, “nothing could go wrong because you can just go back and see what you did wrong.”
Kyung smirked at my answer, “Just like him, huh?”
I furrowed my brows, but ignored his comment. “You can do the rest, okay?”
“Got it,” he nodded. I turned my attention back to my paper, which I couldn’t do last night because I decided to head to bed early. I sighed and tried to work a problem on the paper, but my mind was distracted and tired. Sure I had gone to bed early, but the sounds of my mother and step-father arguing in the other room didn’t help me sleep at ease. At one point, I could have sworn I heard my mother talk about leaving, which would be great because I don’t want to be near that man. I had no idea why she had married him. Was my father just another man to her?

I frowned. I can’t work on homework with this kind of mood. Putting my pencil on the desk, I leaned forward and yawned. Maybe I could just take a nap here before class could start. I still had more than 20 minutes anyways. Placing my arms on the desk, I put my head on my arms and closed my eyes. The nap only lasted a quick second before a rapid tapping on my shoulder interrupted me. I sighed and turned my head to look at Kyung, “What do you want?”
“When I said ‘tutor me,’ I mean tutor me. You can’t just sleep, you know.”
“Well, you picked a bad day to have me tutor you.” I simply said and turned my head away.
“How late did you work?”
“None of your business,” I replied sharply.

Kyung laughed, “I see; you’re someone who’s a hard shell, huh?”
“Hard shell?”
“Tough and smart on the outside, but on the inside, there’s some emotional past you have, right?”
I clucked my tongue and sat up, “I just don’t like people trying to pry into my life.”
“You don’t even have a single friend here, do you?”
“Shut up,”
Kyung sighed, “Lonely and rude,”

I rolled my eyes and said nothing to him.