“What do these three have in common?”

Feasting squinty eyes on the white cloth neatly draped in front of the blackboard, Yoona inspects the meticulously cropped yearbook pictures of three other classmates via the math club’s own personal projector.

“Uhhh…”, she begins, casually tapping her chin with a finger out of habit.

She immediately recognizes all three faces though they could not be any more different from one another aside from the fact that they are all relatively attractive and well-known around the school.

Indeed even those in the lowermost—think ocean-bed low—level of her high school totem pole would recognize the class president, Kim Taeyeon, beaming through the projector with an innocent brilliance comparable to that of a cute baby. Standing barely 5’, Yoona has to admit that the doll-faced leader can be quite attractive—even if she did have the mind of a dirty old man. Despite attaining the reputation for staring too long at the perfection that is the post-pubescent female teenager, she still manages to win the majority of the student body’s votes; which brings Yoona to classmate #2:

Hwang Tiffany, head cheerleader of which the class president is notoriously known to ogle, smiling even with her eyes to the right of Taeyeon’s picture. With an angel’s face on a vixen’s body, she fits the mandatory traits needed to be the ruling stereotypical queen bee—and that included being a walking hyperbole.  When Tiffany laughs, you can hear it all the way to the Himalayas; when she likes pink, her entire apartment (who lives on their own at 17?!) is pink, even transforming her line-backer then-boyfriend into the pink panther by making him wear an all-pink suit to Homecoming.

As if the pastel pink tie she’s wearing in the picture doesn’t already confirm this.

Yoona’s curious stare slides to the image after the cheerleader’s and there could not have been a greater contrast. Sharp features—with the tongue to match it—bore beautifully through the screen. Unlike the last two, the third girl showcases only a small hint of a Mona Lisa smirk; the signature smile of Soshi High’s very own Ice Princess, Jessica Jung. If Tiffany were to represent pink in the color wheel, Jessica would be found right across from her as her opposite-complimentary, blue. Like their favorite colors, their personalities are bright and calm respectively. Yoona, or anyone else for that matter, don’t really know much about her besides her penchant for stoicism, though that in itself adds to her mysterious appeal—quite unlike this awkward girl currently standing in front of Yoona.

After a couple moments, Yoona peels her stare away from the bright board and back to her tutor when her mental search came back with no connections.

“I don’t know. They’re all pretty?”, Yoona gives up, half-heartedly shrugging at Seohyun.

“What’s this even about?”, she sighs, already exasperated of  the underclassman’s enigmatic nature since the day Mrs. Kwon assigned her as her tutor.

‘Damn that stupid teacher’, she silently curses though she acknowledges her need to focus more in math class; it’s just hard to concentrate when her crush is so excruciatingly close (only within an arm’s reach if she leans to the right three inches). 

‘Meet me after school. Same place  -Seo’

Yoona practically had a heart attack when she discovered the message that Seohyun had furtively slipped in her locker this morning. She furiously dug out the class syllabus from the bottom of her locker, buried under a pile of used uniforms and cluttered paper just to make sure that she hadn’t forgotten about any upcoming exams. After frantically flipping through the entire thing, Yoona practically screamed a cry of victory when she failed to see any exams scheduled for this month—and also the following month, for that matter. She was about ready to barge into Seohyun’s homeroom in rage when a sudden thought grounded her: the nerd did possess a special gift when it came to sensing the brutal surprise of an upcoming pop quiz.

Why else would Seohyun want to meet up?

So Yoona walked around the first half of the school day in dread, a gloomy cloud hanging above her head as she aimlessly wandered from class to class until the realization of the nerd’s possible scare tactic of prep work for an exam two months in advance slapped her right across the face.

That b*tch.

“What I’m supposed to do: improve your grade”, Seohyun replies whimsically, snapping Yoona back to the present as she suddenly finds herself stuck between bursting into laughter and being nervous at how comically serious the girl is being.

“And how exactly will making me stare at these guys give me an A?”

“Oh Yoona, even if you miraculously ace the final exam, you’re not getting an A in math class”

“Well thanks for the bright forecast, Einstein”

“I’m just being realistic”

“You know, Seohyun, since you’re already tutoring me, perhaps you could teach me how to pulverize people’s hopes instead?”

“It comes naturally. But you’re missing the whole point: I can still help you pass; granted it’s barely passing but I’m sure that’s already outstanding by your standards. I just need to change my approach. You’re quite the special case”

“Well get to it. You’ve been tutoring me for a month now and here I am still getting F’ed in math class”

“Bet you’d like that to be literal”, Seohyun raises an eyebrow in insinuation

“If you’re not going to tutor me today, I’m out! Thanks for wasting my time”, Yoona gathers her belongings, finally reaching the final straw with Seohyun.

“I know about her”

Yoona immediately freezes, recovering seconds later to stutter a weak deflection defiantly.

“H-her?“

Seohyun slowly saunters over beside her, a Cheshire grin plastered on her horn-rimmed glasses-donning face.

“Yeah, you know, the pretty girl you sit next to? What was her name?”

“What? Kwon Yuri?”, Yoona replies nonchalantly, hoping to feign disinterest though her voice cracked a bit when she uttered her secret crush's name.

“Yeah her”

“What about her?”

“Nothing. I just find it odd you’re after the daughter of your most hated teacher”

“What? You’re so weird”, Yoona laughs it off, preparing for a quick exit.

“Comes naturally. But you know what doesn’t? That screechy girlish giggling sound that you make when that girl lends you a pencil. You’d think she was handing you an engagement ring or something”

“You were observing me?! Why are you such a freak?!”

“I wasn’t stalking you. Don’t flatter yourself. You were so loud that I practically had to try to drown out your annoying giggling”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”

“Oh please, like you’re not constantly day dreaming, drooling in her direction and rubber-necking her every movement? Either you’ve been hanging out with the potheads or you’ve got a serious crush on Kwon Yuri. Though to be perfectly honest, I originally assumed the former. No offence.”

Yoona stays quiet, internally mortified. Has she been that obvious?!

“I don’t blame you. She is quite breath-taking: tall, dark and oddly handsome for a girl. Athletic, smart, and that leader-like aura--”

“You like her too?!”

“Thanks but no thanks”, Seohyun pries Yoona’s tight grip off of her shoulders, weirded out.

“We don't have the same type. Besides, I don’t have time to be dawdling around for romance in high school. I got enough on my plate as it is. But even if I did, we have a lot of competition”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t tell me you actually devised a plan to pursue Yuri without researching about her, least of all your competition?”

“What plan?”, Yoona says, completely lost. She seems to always be when she’s with Seohyun which is why she makes it a point never to talk to her outside their study sessions.

“Oh Yoona”, Seohyun sighs, now putting a hand on Yoona’s shoulder in pity, to which Yoona leaned away from like it carried every disease known to man.

“It’s okay, you have me”, the tutor assures self-righteously.

Seohyun pulls out a tiny remote control from her pocket and points it at the bright screen, a red laser light now visible on Taeyeon’s nose, doubling as a moving red mole. 

“And what I’m here for is to help you succeed”

“What these guys have in common…”, Seohyun points her laser light at each of the three students, pausing for dramatic effect,

“is Yuri”

Yoona is lost throughout all this and it’s apparent to Seohyun looking at her baffled expression as it’s akin to the face she makes when she gives Yoona an arithmetic equation.

Seohyun takes this as a cue to continue, clicking a button to enlarge the first picture of the slide accompanied by bulleted texts below it.

Yoona skims to find that it’s the president’s student record; her personal demographic information ranging from height, GPA, awards and clubs memberships.

“Kim Taeyeon. Senior class president and resident ert. And also Yuri’s first girlfriend”

“WHAT—“

“Tiffany”, Seohyun ignores Yoona’s outburst by bringing up the next slide of Tiffany’s.

“Cheer Captain with numerous romantic interests which happens to include our Kwon Yuri”

“And this”, Seohyun turns around to face a stunned Yoona, snapping her out of shock.

“This will be your largest obstacle”

Yoona watches as the screen transition from Tiffany to her next classmate.

“Jessica Jung”

Indeed, just looking at the enlarged photo of the smirking beauty coerced a loud gulp. Yoona shakes her head in an attempt to make sense of the jumble in her brain.

“I’m confused. And slightly creep-ed out. How did you even get these?”

“I have my ways”

“Like…this is…helpful and everything…these pie charts and stuff but how exactly does this connect with my grades?”

“Everything. But all you have to know for now is that if you want Yuri, you’d have to find out what attracts her by studying her; her history, how she behaves, how everyone interacts with her”

Yoona just scowls, partly from confusion and partly because Seohyun's a freak of nature. It's unsettling how the nerd reminded her of Dr. Evil--albeit a female, teenage and more sassy version of the mad scientist.

“And what are you getting out of this?”

“The joy it gives me to see a fellow classmate succeed”, Seohyun states, putting a gentle hand on her chest to highlight her sincerity.

“Really now”, Yoona crosses her arms incredulously but lowers it seconds later at a sudden thought.

“Unless--do you like me or something?!”

She watches as Seohyun’s face contort from calm to a ruffled expression akin to catching a whiff of a dead skunk.

“As tempting as that sounds, I think I’d rather gouge my eyes out with lemons”

“You didn’t answer my first question. What’s your motivation?”

“My pride and reputation. None of the students I’ve tutored have ever failed a class. And you, Yoona, won't be my first.”

Yoona allows the information to sink in, staring pass Seohyun and into the fixated stares of three classmates representing three obstacles to get Kwon Yuri. 

Yoona just sighs and allows her head to collapse on the desk.

Shouldn’t love be easier than math?!

--

Already posted it in soshified but I guess I want to take a crack at this again.