Minah woke to the sound of her alarm screaming. She sat up in bed, groaning. Minah slapped her hand on the small clock, and the annoying sound instantly faded. She yawned and stretched her arms. Minah twisted the clock so that she could switch the button to OFF, but froze in place when she noticed the time.

It was 7:45. She had ten minutes to get to class.

Minah flew out of bed and raced into the bathroom. Hayoung was nowhere to be seen.

She brushed her hair and teeth rapidly, while her mind raced as well. Why did her alarm ring 45 minutes later than usual? Why didn’t Hayoung wake her up before she left?

Oh. Of course. Hayoung had probably changed the time on her alarm clock, and left early by herself. What the heck! Minah grumbled to herself. She quickly finished and splashed water on her face. Minah ran out of the bathroom, her face still dripping water. She grabbed her shirt and stripped it off, wiping her wet face dry in the process. Hey, it was kind of insanitary, but it worked.

She threw on the outfit she had picked the previous day, a cute floral skirt and a white t-shirt, grabbed her school materials, and raced out the dorm.

She arrived at AP Chemistry ten seconds late. Ten.

The teacher, Mr. Lee, marked her tardy.

Today was not starting out very well.  

A girl tripped her as she was scrambling up the stairs, and Minah went sprawling. Her books flew out of her hands. The students began to snort with laughter.

Kris, who had been watching her late entrance, stood up instinctively. His chair fell behind him with a clatter. The people around him turned to look at the tall Chinese boy curiously. Why the heck was he standing?

Kris began to walk, not noticing his fallen chair, the stares, or the giggling students. He made his way down the stairs, where Minah was picking herself up. He said nothing as he bent down and gathered her books.

When he had finished, he handed them to her.

“Thank you,” Minah whispered. Her eyes did not meet his, but he could see that her face was red with embarrassment. Kris nodded wordlessly and turned around. He returned to his seat, and Mr. Lee continued where he had left off.

Throughout the period, Kris paid Mr. Lee no attention at all. His mind was on Jung Minah and the girl that had tripped her. Damn that stupid girl. She could’ve killed Minah! Kris thought angrily. And Minah! She’s so freaking clumsy! Normal people don’t fall when they get tripped, they just trip!

He was seething with anger the entire period. He almost didn’t notice when the bell rang. When it did, Minah bolted. She tripped again on the stairs, this time without any help from the bullies, but luckily she did not fall. Minah raced to Physics, and spent the entire period conversing with Taeyeon.

Yup. Today was definitely a horrible day.

Minah managed to slide through second period, the break, and biology without any trouble at all (at least, nothing worth mentioning. Minah overheard some rude students talking about her in the back, but she was already used to this kind of treatment. It wasn’t a big deal.), but the moment she walked into calculus, things started to roll downhill again.

Minah sat down in the back, so that students would not be able to throw things at her anymore (it was just a safety precaution. Nobody actually threw things at her anymore, but Minah didn’t want to risk it. Those brain cells are precious!)

Kris walked in a minute later, after most of the seats had already been taken.

“Kris oppa!” a girl cried. “Come sit next to me!”

“No thanks,” Kris replied. He made his way up the stairs, looking for a suitable place to sit. He usually always sat by himself, because the girls would give him too much trouble otherwise. There were a grand total of six seats available.

Kris ended up choosing the empty seat right next to Minah.

“Hello,” he whispered to her, lowering his voice so that no one else would hear.

“Hi,” Minah whispered back. She looked at him and smiled. “Thanks for earlier.” Kris smiled back, much to her surprise, and nodded. Minah still had difficulty getting used to Kris’s smile. He looked so… y normally, but the moment he smiled, his face was reduced to that of an adorable child’s.

“So,” the teacher announced. “I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that you’ll be having your first math exam in three days!” The students all began to break out in chatter, and the teacher was temporarily overpowered by their whining voices.

“That’s hardly good news,” Kris muttered under his breath. He looked over at Minah, expecting her to smile or laugh, but his gaze was met with an extremely worried one. Minah was biting her nails anxiously.

“Oh no,” she breathed. “I’m going to fail.. I’m going to fail..”

“No you’re not,” he reassured.

“Yeah, I am,” Minah replied. “I don’t understand anything!”

“The bad news,” the teacher continued after the students quieted down. “Is that this exam will be worth 10% of your overall grade. Now I know that doesn’t sound like much, but this test could very well give you the boost that you need… or it could drop you down a grade. This test will determine how hard you’ve been working. Those who have studied will be rewarded, and those who don’t care… well, those who don’t care won’t be impacted that much either, since they don’t seem to care about their grade. Any questions?”

“How many questions will be on the exam?” a boy asked. “Are they multiple choice or free response?”

“Sixty seven,” the teacher replied. “All of them are free response.”

Minah smacked herself in the forehead, as if she didn’t quite yet believe what was going on.

“Sixty seven free response questions…” she breathed slowly.

Kris looked over at Minah. “Are you okay?”

“What? I .. Yeah I’m fine. I’m just… so screwed for this test.”

“I can tutor you,” he offered.

Minah looked over at Kris in surprise. “You can?!”

Kris nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

“That would be awesome! I’ll pay you!”  

Kris snorted. “It’s okay, keep your money. What time are you free?”

“Anytime,” Minah replied. “Thank you so much!!”

“No problem,” Kris replied. “Be at Lay’s café by 3:30 today okay? I’ll tutor you there.”

“Okay!” Minah said happily. “Thank you so much!”

Kris nodded and smiled at the black-haired girl. She had been so down just a moment ago, and now she was all smiles again.

The two of them focused on class again, only to find that the teacher was yet dropping another bomb on them.

“…not finished with the bad news, though,” he was saying. “Pop quiz! This will show me just how prepared you are for the test.”

Everyone began to groan and complain.

The teacher had to raise his voice to be heard. “Take everything off your desk! Keep only a pencil and eraser! Raise your hand if you need scratch paper to do your work on!” he said loudly.

A few students raised their hands, but Minah was frozen in place, only hearing the words “Pop” and “Quiz”. Kris raised both of his hands, so that he could get two sets of paper. He slid one over to Minah, who snapped out of her daze.

“Oh my gosh,” she groaned. “Today is NOT my day.”

“Pop quiz,” he agreed unhappily. “This .”

“No talking! Tests are coming out!” the teacher scolded sternly. He passed out the quiz sheets, and the students began to work on their quiz.

Kris finished his within the first three minutes. There were only ten questions on the quiz, and most of them on basic concepts. He didn’t even end up using the scratch paper. Kris slid the pile of papers to the corner of his desk and set his pencil down. Now that he had finished, he could not resist peeking at Minah. How far along was she? Was she close to finishing?

Kris found that Minah was staring at her paper blankly. Nine out of ten questions were still completely blank. She tapped her pencil on her chin anxiously, while her eyes darted around at the questions on the paper. She would write a few numbers and symbols, then erase them, and continue writing more numbers and symbols.

Clearly she had no idea what she was doing. But at least she was trying.

Kris sighed. His hands seemed to have a mind of their own, for they picked up the piece of scratch paper and set it down in front of him again. He picked up his pencil and began to write carefully.

A minute later, Minah felt a light pushing sensation on her arm. She looked up from the quiz to find that Kris was pushing his scratch paper at her. Confused, Minah took the paper and flipped it over.

Here are the answers!     The message read. Underneath the message was the quiz, rewritten in Kris’s handwriting, complete with answers and everything.

Minah shook her head. She wrote on the paper:   Thanks, but I don’t cheat! I’ll just take the F. Thank you though!      Then, she slid the scratch paper across the table and back to Kris.

Kris read the message, and replied. The teacher was obviously blind or something, for he didn’t even see the obvious paper-passing between the two.

Do you want to fail or something? Just take advantage of the situation! I’m giving you the answers! Put them to good use! I’ll get mad if you don’t use it >:(

Minah looked up at Kris. He was going to get mad? His face showed no signs of anger, though. He gave her an encouraging nod. “Do it,” his face seemed to say. “Just do it.”

But Minah shook her head. She pushed the paper back at Kris.

I don’t want to cheat, though!

Kris sighed.     Alright whatever,    he wrote.     Your loss. Last chance!

Minah shook her head, but smiled at him in gratitude.

Well, at least she was honest. She didn’t cheat. That was definitely a great trait. Now he just had to tutor her really well, so that her exam score could make up for her failed quiz.

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D: I'm sorry! I know I promised that I'd update YESTERDAY the moment I woke up, but I had to leave to take a SAT test! I had no idea I was doing it that day! My mom just dropped that bomb on me like FIVE MINUTES before I went... and when I got home my sis took me to see World War Z (The graphics were pretty freaking awesome) and then we ate dinner... and when I got home it was like 11/12 ish and then I forgot. and then i went to bed at like 1, the fanfic completely forgotten. D: FORGIVE ME. I'll double update the next chapters, okay? Does that make up for this? haha 

oh and I dont know why, but I had a lot of trouble uploading this chapter. The first two times I uploaded it, the chapter was like cut in half. If there's anything missing, please tell me, and I'll reupload the chapter! Thanks .