Walking towards my seat, I slightly looked over to my side at Kyung, who had his head down on the desk. Guiltiness found its way around my emotions about what I had told him yesterday. I knew that I had been harsh on him, telling him that I wasn’t going to help him unless it looked like he needed help; but if he wasn’t going to be serious about math then there was no reason for me to be. As I slid into my desk, Kyung called my name. It was only instinct to look at him since he had called my name.
“You came late to class,” he said, placing his arm on the table and rested his chin atop of the palm of his hand.
“I’m not late; the bell hasn’t rung,” I replied back to him.
He nodded, “True, but you came here later than usual.”
“Only because I don’t need to tutor you anymore,” I said, “I told you last night that if—”
“Yeah, I know,” Kyung nodded annoyingly, “look, I’m sorry if you think that I’m just fooling around, but I really do need your help in math. I’m serious.” He said, “You’re the smartest one in this class, so it’s only normal for someone struggling to ask someone who is smart.”

“You don’t even keep your assignments,”
Kyung sighed, “I’ll begin to from now on,”
I furrowed my brows, “You’re being serious?”
“Of course,” he answered, “I want to graduate.”
“Fine,” I replied to which he quickly smiled to, “but if I feel like you’re just doing this to fool with me, then our tutoring sessions are over.” I warned, “I won’t take the likes of you, Park Kyung.”
He chuckled, “That’s cool with me,” he answered, “oh, and since tomorrow is a weekend-day, what time should we meet up, huh?”
I paused before answering him, “We’ll meet at the library around 4.”
“Deal,” Kyung nodded, “after that, you better start coming to school early in the mornings.” He pointed a finger at me, “If not, I’m going to come to your house and wait outside for you.” He warned with a smile. I rolled my eyes and just nodded at him. After that, class began and things went along normal… sort of.


Afterschool, Kyung had already gone and I walked my way to work alone.

-

“Is that your boyfriend?” My co-worker whispered. I looked at her and noticed her staring straight ahead. I followed her gaze and noticed that Kyung was sitting at a booth and staring at me with a goofy smile on his face. I rolled my eyes and shook my head at her question.
“Nope; I don’t even know who the dude is,” I replied and continued to sweep the ground. I couldn’t believe he decided to show up again. Was he planning to stay up late here and walk me home every night? I sighed, hoping that that wasn’t his plan. Our relationship should only stay at school as tutor and student.
“Why is he staring over here then?” She asked again, “And especially at you—or, well, at least it looks like he’s staring at you.”
I shook my head, “Maybe he’s looking at you,” I said, not daring to turn my head to meet his eyes.
“I’m pretty sure he’s looking at you,” she smiled, “he’s quite the cutie though,”
“Sure,” I only replied to her.
She suddenly gasped, “He’s walking over here,”
“Let him; you can take care of him, right?” I said and made my way towards the backroom, but a sudden call of my name made the hair on my back stand. I stopped and slightly turned to see Kyung wave a hand at me to come. I shook my head and nodded my head at my co-worker, “She’ll be taking your order.” He frowned, but I could care less and continued walking into the backroom to put the broom up. Walking back out, I could hear my co-worker laughing happily at whatever compliment Kyung had said to her. It wasn’t much of a surprise to me that he was flirty. Being in the same homeroom with Kyung for 2 years had showed me that he really likes getting close to girls; though it does surprise me that he didn’t even know that I was in class for those 2 years. This year was our third year together in the same homeroom, and it was only this year that I was suddenly recognized by him. I’m not even sure if I should happy that someone had recognized me in the class; then again, I’m being recognized by a kid who loved trouble. Sighing, I leaned against the wall from the behind and watched as my co-worker began making whatever drink Kyung ordered.

“Please make it delicious,” Kyung said with a smile, which definitely had a physical effect on my co-worker, making her weak in the knees. I snide a laugh at his comment and shook my head. Kyung noticed this and looked at me with a raised brow, “What?”
“Your sly comments towards a girl makes me gag,”
Kyung leaned forward, placing both his elbows on the counter and slightly titled his head to the side, “My sly comments make you gag? Well, what would you prefer me to say then?” He shrugged his brows, “Seeing that you don’t like being called pretty and all.”
“Nothing,” I replied, “I would prefer that you don’t ever talk to me,”
“You shouldn’t put such a barrier around yourself, you know,” Kyung said, “sometimes it’s good to open up and let others into your life.”
“I would rather not,” I said bluntly, ending that conversation. After a couple of minutes, Kyung got his drink and headed back to his seat. My co-worker turned to me and smiled happily; before she could say anything, I shook my head, “I don’t want to know how pretty he looks up close.”
She clucked her tongue at me, “That fact was already obvious the minute he kept looking over here,” she said, “he told me that you guys go to school together and you tutor him in the morning. You told me you hated tutoring people because they just use you in the end,”

I clamped down on my jaw and had forgotten that I had told her this. I cleared my throat and nodded, “Yes, I do, but…” I paused, trying to figure out how to explain this, “there are some conditions that come along with it, I guess.”
“Conditions; like what?”
“Um,” I thought for a second, “he told me that he really wanted to graduate school, so I took that as his motivation and decided why not.”
“You don’t think he’s just doing this to get closer to you?”
“N-No,” I answered, noticing the sudden stutter to which I quickly answered with confidence, “No. There’s no reason for him to want to get closer to me.”
She sighed at my reply and nodded, “Well, there’s only 5 minutes till the both of us are off. I’ll take the sink tonight and you can just clean out here, alright?” I nodded. She walked towards the backroom leaving me out alone… sort of.

-

We stepped out of the coffee shop and began walking. The atmosphere between us was the same as yesterday: quiet but not awkward. Kyung inhaled and exhaled slowly. I turned to look at him and waited for him to say something, but instead he kept quiet. My brows furrowed and I decided that I was going to be the conversation starter, “You don’t have to keep waiting for me every night just to walk me home. It’s a waste of your time.”
“It’s not a waste of my time because whenever I see you, I feel the need to protect you.” He bluntly said, turning his head to look at me.
“I don’t need protection,” I replied, “I already told you that I’ve been walking home—”
“I know,” Kyung interrupted, “but it’s good to have someone walk you home, especially a male who will be able to protect you since you’re a girl.” He said and quickly added, “And you can also think of it as a payback for tutoring me.”
“Payback,” I repeated the word, “well, you could probably leave me alone as a payback for tutoring you.”
“Why won’t you let me walk you home?” He asked, ignoring what I had just said to him, “Do you not like talking to others and getting to know them?”
“Involving myself with another human being is too much work.” I replied. “Why should I let someone into my life when our time together will only span out and soon we’ll be nothing but strangers to each other?”

Kyung whistled at my answer, “What are you, a psychiatrist?”
“That’s just a reason of mine,” I replied, “There’s no reason for you to want to know me when we have no common relativity with each other. You’re a guy who likes to make trouble while I’m someone who looks forward to her future.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sure we’ll soon have something the two of us will be agreeing on.”
“What?”
“Why don’t you take a guess at it,” he shrugged, “I’m sure it’ll cross your mind within a second since you’re so smart.” I furrowed my brows and thought of things that we might just agree on, but nothing came in mind. “Think of anything yet?” He asked to which I don’t answer because there was nothing that we had in common. He clucked his tongue, “I thought it would be obvious since we’re going to be spending the rest of our school lives every morning together.”
I shook my head.
“Math,”
“Right, math,” I stopped walking since I was already near my place.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at the library,” Kyung waved as I turned away from him. I didn’t wave back nor did I tell him bye, and walked on.

Standing before the apartment door, I could hear screams come from inside. It was going to be one of those nights again. I braced myself for what was to come and twisted open the door knob. Once I entered, I found my mother on the ground, crying while my step-father was yelling at her. Anger built from within me; I clenched my fist and walked towards my step-father. “Why are you screaming at her?” I yelled, interrupting him saying spewing out anymore unintelligible things.
“ doesn’t know how to respect her husband and it seems that her daughter doesn’t know either,” he yelled back and swung a fist at me, which I wasn’t prepared for. The next thing I could only remember was the spreading of hot pain on my left cheek and my body hitting the ground with a thud. The rest of the night was a blur; the only thing I knew was happening to me was that I was getting kicked and punched by that man.