“I’m home!”  Ahri yells as she enters her apartment, Chanyeol right behind her.

“I’m in the kitchen!” Her mom yells back, “… Hi Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol looks at Ahri with wide, shocked eyes, before they chuckle quietly. “Hello imo!”

“How did she even know you were here…?” Ahri asks aloud, mostly to herself as the two walked to the living room. “I’ll be right back,” She tells Chanyeol as she runs to her room. Chanyeol sits on the floor beside the coffee table, opening up his backpack to take out the work he gathered for Ahri.

“Will you be staying for dinner today, Channie?” Ahri’s mom asks, sticking her head out from behind the wall dividing the living room from the kitchen.

Chanyeol smiles brightly at her, “No, I can’t… If I don’t go home for dinner more, my mom might refuse to feed me her cooking,” He jokes.

Ahri’s mom laughs, “Oh, okay fine… But I already told her that we’ll be kidnapping you next week.” 

“Really? Okay, I guess I’ll just HAVE to be forced to eat your food then”

                They both laugh as Ahri walks back into the living room, her books, pencil case and meds in hand. She sits down beside Chanyeol, putting everything down onto the table. Chanyeol’s eyes widen as she takes out capsules of different sizes and colours from her container, placing them neatly on the table in front of her. He bit his lip, and shifted his eyes away from the tablets, trying to ignore the fact that the amount of them doubled since the last time he saw her take them. The sound of a cup hitting the table brings his attention back to Ahri, and her mom, who was smiling at him gently. They both watch as Ahri takes all of her capsules and drink all of the water in the glass.

“More water?” Ahri’s mom asks as she takes the glass. Ahri shakes her head, smiling at her mom assuringly.

“Okay then, I’ll leave you two to your studies… Work hard, kiddo” Ahri’s mom says as she puts her hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

“Mmm” Ahri replies with a single nod.

                Immediately after, Chanyeol tutored, well, tried, to tutor Ahri while she copied all of the notes he’d taken, as well as the notes he’d gotten from her friends. It was a lot harder than they expected, because one, Chanyeol wasn’t the best student himself, and second, Ahri was almost like a part time student, with the amount of school that she missed on a regular basis.

“Okay, so after this step you have to-“

“-This is terrible. I’m gonna fail. EVERYTHING.” Ahri interrupts, with an angry sigh.

“Well… I’m pretty sure you’ve already figured that much… little Channie is your tutor,” Ahri’s dad jokes as he sits down, echoing Ahri’s sigh. Ahri and her dad laugh as Chanyeol pretends to be utterly offended.

“I’m sure that you’d be passing with flying colours if he was helping you with music, but anything else…” Her dad continues, also laughing at Chanyeol’s charade.

“Oh, quit bugging them will you? We already know Channie is a terrible tutor, so you distracting them isn’t any help!” Ahri’s mom chimes in as she takes a seat on the sofa.

“Oh no Imo, not you too!” Chanyeol exclaims, putting his hand on his forehead, pretending to be upset.

“Poor boy, little Channie is always the punching bag for our jokes,” Ahri’s dad laughs.

“Yeobo, stop calling him ‘little Channie’! He’s clearly grown up a lot now, he even towers over you!”

“It’s a habit, yeobo. We’ve known Chanyeol ever since he was a tiny, squeaky voiced kid! He’ll always be little Channie to me,” Ahri’s dad explains, “… And as we can all clearly see now, it is I who is taller than him” He adds, raising his eyebrows twice, looking at Chanyeol who is sitting cross legged on the floor. The joking and laughing continued for the rest of the evening, the light and carefree atmosphere a relief for everyone.

‘Are you home yet? Remember to let me know when you get home.
And stop being so corny! And dumb!  >.<’

Chanyeol laughs as he walks into his own home, reading Ahri’s text message before replying with his own.

‘I’m home now okay, sheesh, stop asking so we can start talking about the good stuff… And I’m not corny and dumb! It’s called being romantic ^^’

His phone vibrates shortly after he presses send.

‘Good stuff?... you mean your corny jokes?!’

Chanyeol lets out another laugh.

“Oh, so it is you, honey” Chanyeol’s mother says as she walks towards him, smiling. “How’s Ahri? She all caught up with school now?”

“Yeah, she’s good. And no. not at all, we’re pretty sure she’s hopeless with me as her tutor.” He replies, sounding oddly cheerful.

Chanyeol’s mother laughs, “Well as long as you both are trying, that’s what really counts. I guess…”

“Ahh…” Chanyeol sighs as he plops onto his bed, ready to sleep. He picks up his cell phone from his nightstand and dials.

“Hello?” Ahri answers.

“…”

“…Chanyeol? Hello?... Helloooo…”

“Hey, are you tired?”

“What? Not really, why?”

“Because you’ve been running through my mind-“

“-ahahahahhaha-oh my god, that’s so dumb… where did you even get that from?” Ahri laughs, almost out of breath.

“I didn’t get it from anywhere, I’m pouring out my heart to you…” Chanyeol replies, in the most sincere voice he can pull off without breaking into laughter.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… you’re sooooo romantic… sicko,”

“Well… Call me whatever you want, I know you love me anyways.” Chanyeol answers, unfazed by Ahri’s namecalling. “What’re you up to?”

“Nothing, combing my hair, what about you?”

“Nothing, just talking to you. So… you’re probably not gonna be at school tomorrow, right?” Chanyeol asks, letting out a sigh as he closes his eyes.

Ahri sighs as well,  “… I don’t think so, I’m always too tired in the mornings, you know how I almost never sleep at night.”

“Yup… That’s why I call, haha.” Chanyeol answers, still resting his eyes.

“Yeah… every night.  I don’t know how you do it to be honest,” Ahri replies, feeling guilty about depriving Chanyeol of sleep.

“I sleep during first period, haha. Math puts me to sleep anyways.” Chanyeol smiles, beginning to get sleepy. Ahri lets out an airy laugh.

“Impossible, there’s no way Mr. Ahn lets you sleep in class,” Ahri says in disbelief.

“Obviously he doesn’t let me. He doesn’t even notice that I’m sleeping, haha.”

“What?... How does he not notice? What do you do? Hide behind your textbook or something?”

“Hahaha, no, that’s for losers and newbies who always get caught.” Chanyeol laughs, “I’ll tell you the real trick… so you can start coming to class again, okay?”

“Haha, okay, but I’m not making any promises.” Ahri replies, half laughing.

“Okay fine, deal.” Chanyeol continues, “What you have to do is sit like you normally do, but lean one elbow on the desk. Easy, right? Next, rest your head on your hand, but make sure that your head is tilted down a little bit or else-“

Chanyeol stops after he hears something drop to the floor, followed by an almost inaudible gasp. He opens his eyes, worried about the silence that followed.

“Ahri? Are you okay?” No reply.

“Ahri? Aaaahhhhrriiii….? Are you still there? Did something happen? Ahri!” Chanyeol urges, worried.

“… No, uh, I just… dropped my brush, that’s all.” Ahri answers, sounding blank.

“Oh. Okay… you’re okay though right?” He continues to ask, his brows knit together.

“Yeah… Chanyeol, I’m actually kinda tired… Uhm… I-I think I’m gonna sleep now… And you know, uhm, you should probably sleep too, you shouldn’t be staying up so late anyways, you have school in the morning. I’ll call or text you tomorrow, okay?”

“Uh, yeah sure-“

“Night.”

“Night.”

                Chanyeol listens to the line disconnect, confused about what had just happened. Tired? Shouldn’t stay up late? He thinks about why she suddenly decided to end their call, they always talked for hours into the night. He has to go to school every weekday, but it’s never stopped them before. Maybe she was just tired, with all the studying she did today, Chanyeol thinks, accepting her explanation. I’ll just talk to her tomorrow, he assures himself, putting his phone back onto his nightstand before he closes his eyes, attempting to get some actual sleep.