Lunch break was over and students piled into their classroom for their Add Maths class.

Se Ri and Hinata entered the class while chatting about the rising indie band that had came out with their new song. She turned her head and locked eyes with a new male student in her class. Instantly she recognised him. *The boy who had come to her rescue*. Hakyeon looked away first and dig out his add maths book from his bag. Se Ri gripped the book that had miraculously fell upon Sanggil's head and promised she would return it to him after class. She took her seat beside him and hid the book under her desk.

The teacher, Mr Yoo, came in and everyone settled down. He took a roll call and invited the new student in the class up front to introduce himself. Hakyeon reluctantly stood up and went to the front. Everyone was staring at him and that made him uncomfortable. He dodged everyone's piercing stares and timidly bowed.

"My name is Cha Hakyeon. Pleased to meet you."

Snickering could be heard from the corner of the class. Sanggil and his friends were laughing at the new student. "Pleased to meet you? Who says that nowadays?"

"Go Sanggil! Behave." Mr Yoo reprimanded him. "Oops. Sorry ssaem." He saluted, mockingly. Se Ri rolled her eyes at his immature remarks.

Hakyeon went back to his seat, which was in front of Sanggil and class commenced. Fifteen minutes of class passed and Hakyeon found himself struggling with the subject. He was clueless of the questions that was written on the board, heck, he was clueless about any subjects they taught in the school. He flipped the pages of his book and squeezed his eyes shut. *You can do this. You can.*

Mr Yoo finished writing a math problem on the board and turned around to face the class. "Okay, who can answer this question?"

Se Ri eagerly raised her hand. "Me." Mr Yoo smiled, "No, I don't want you Se Ri.." His eyes roamed around the class and landed on Hakyeon. "..Cha Hakyeon, how about you try and answer?"

Hakyeon opened his eyes and looked up at Mr Yoo who urged him to answer with a smile. "Come on, try." His ears burned red with embarrasment. By hook or by crook, he had to answer the teacher. "I'm sorry Mr Yoo, I don't know."

There was an uproar of laughter behind him. Sanggil kicked the back of Hakyeon's chair. "Hey new student. You look smart but you don't even know how to answer an easy peasy add maths question? Why are you here anyway?"

"Hakyeon, it's not that you don't know. You just don't know it yet. There's a difference there." Mr Yoo sympathise with him and called on another student to answer.

Hakyeon nodded his head with a meek smile and seem to ponder about Mr Yoo's words. He turned his head and met eyes with Se Ri who gave him an encouraging smile. Hakyeon nodded briefly and return to his math book. Sanggil saw their brief exchange and drilled holes into the back of Hakyeon's head with his glare.

The school bell rang, signalling the end of school and the students cheered because it was the beginning of their weekend. Se Ri packed her bag and remembered the book that belong to her new classmate. She took a quick look and saw Hakyeon leaving the class. She hurriedly slung her bagpack, grabbed the book from under her desk and raced after him.

"Excuse me, Hakyeon-sshi!"

Hakyeon's converses screeched to a stop. He turned around slightly and blink at the girl in front of him. "Uhhhh..." Se Ri was at loss of words. Heat crept up her neck and suddenly she was too embarrassed to thank him for the earlier incident.

"Yes?" Hakyeon answered. Se Ri snapped out of her reverie and stretched out the book to him. "Erm...earlier on..thanks for helping me." Hakyeon stared at the book for a few seconds and accepted the book. "Oh, yeah. No problem." He nodded at her and turned to go.

"That's my favourite book too!" Se Ri blurted out. Hakyeon stopped and turned again. He smiled at her and that was enough to stir a raw feeling inside her heart.

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Lights went out at the correctional facitlity and the residents were forced into their cell. The officers were out patrolling with the guard dogs to surveil different areas for any unusual activity. Kai and his cell mates were under their covers but none of them were asleep. Kai removed his thin blanket and took a peek at the bunk bed below to see if Himchan was fast asleep. Seeing that he was staring into blank space , Kai called out to him.

"Hyung?"

"What?" Himchan didn't even look at him.

"Hyung, did you see what that bastard did to that gayboy?"

"I think everybody did." Himchan answered nonchalantly. The rest of the boys who were eavesdropping, joined in. Zico swung down from his bunk and plunked himself onto Himchan's bed. "I think Dragon isn't someone we should mess around with. He's got everyone in his hands."

"You think?" JR questioned as he played with the thread of his blanket.

"It's obvious that he's trying to tell us that he's the boss around here." L.Joe reasoned. "But I gotta admit that he stuffed that damned cucumber in that gayboy's is super hilarious!" Zico cracked up.

"Should we give him a piece of our mind? To show him that we're not the kind he could step on?" Kai suggested.

Himchan stayed silent and weighed Kai's suggestion thoroughly. *Doesn't sound like a bad idea.*

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Hakyeon stayed back after school in the library. He scratched his temple multiple times. He had been trying to solve a math question to his best knowledge for the past 2 hours but he just couldn't. He sighed and thought back to his conversation with his employer earlier this morning.

Hakyeon knocked onto his employer's office.

"Come in." Said the voice from the other side of the door. Hakyeon entered with a smile. "I'll be heading to school now. Wouldn't want to be late." He informed.

His employer, Mr Shin, looked up from reading his newspaper and studied Hakyeon from head to toe. "Well, look at you. Looking so smart and preppy. Do you think by going to school, you can get all the riches?" He scoffed and shook his head at the ridiculous idea of an ex-convict studying to improve his quality of life.

"Some people have dreams too." He replied, not taking his employer's previous comment too seriously.

"Yeah, some people have crime history too, but they just ignore it." Mr Shin squinted at the paragraph of sentence he was reading in the newspaper.

"Are you stopping me from going to school?" Hakyeon questioned.

"You don't understand, do you? Look at this place. This is a place for you ex-convicts. No one would want ex-convicts like you out there, working for them. Be glad that I hired you at this car workshop. Some day you'll realise that I'm right and you're wrong." He snapped.

His train of thoughts were interrupted when someone pulled a chair in front of him.

"Hi Hakyeon-sshi. May I?"

Hakyeon realised it was his classmate and nodded. "Thanks. Ermmm..I realised I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm Lee Se Ri." Se Ri held out her hand and Hakyeon shook it with a small smile. "I'm Cha Hakyeon"

"Yeah I know. You introduced yourself in class remember?" Se Ri chuckled. "Oh. Right." Hakyeon pressed his lips into a thin line as his ears turned red. "That book..I have the same one as you do. That's my favourite book. Do you...like it?"

"Yeah, I like it a lot. It's very inspirational." He nodded. Se Ri's smile grew wider. Hakyeon rubbed the back of his neck, "It's just that, there's nothing about add maths in it."

"Let me help you then. I'm a maths wiz, so ask away." Se Ri laughed at her own little joke. Hakyeon gave a small laugh and pointed to the question on the paper. Se Ri went into her maths wiz mode and started teaching her new classmate tips and tricks to solving maths.

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