My precious Friday nights were snatched away from me when Principal Shin requested that I tutor Kim Kai, our school’s resident bad boy, for a few weeks. The little punk thinks school’s a joke and makes a habit of never showing up to class. Despite his frequent absences, everyone still knows who Kim Kai is. He is the person who reputedly belongs to one of the wealthiest families in Korea, the person who is fabled to be the most attractive being in the school, the person who is the unofficial king of Seoul Private Academy.

Unfortunately for him, popularity can’t buy you grades- no matter how much of an enigma you are. Due to his contempt for attending classes, Kim Kai's grades have plummeted. I don’t even think he’s turned in a single assignment.

    My eyes dart around the library once more. After realizing there is still no one here, I sigh in exasperation. This is a stupid idea. How does Principal Shin think telling Kim Kai to attend mandatory tutoring sessions with the class valedictorian is going to help him at all? Hell, who says he’s going to show up? I bet he’s out at some club right now, picking up women 5 years older than him. Or fist-fighting in an alleyway. Or swimming laps around his yacht.

    I shake my head. Might as well get some of my own homework done while waiting. If I stay around for an hour I can tell the principal that Kim Kai never showed up and I just left-

    A hand slams down on the table next to my arm. Startled, I whirl around-

    And come face to face with what has got to be the most divine man I have ever seen.

    Tall, chiseled bronze features, messy brown hair tucked under a black cap. His eyes resemble pools of melted milk chocolate, deep and rich and beautiful. The corners of his lips tug upward in a cocky smirk.

    “Park Sojin? You’re my tutor, right?” he drawls in a throaty voice full of condescension.

    Pull yourself together, Sojin. My features draw tightly together into what I have dubbed “The Extreme Face”. Guaranteed to cause anyone to either wet their pants or at least tremble a little.

Kim Kai doesn’t look even the slightest bit intimidated.

    “Park Sojin. I’ll be tutoring you in math.” I stick out my hand, maintaining firm eye contact with him.

    Instead of returning my handshake, he takes a step towards me, closing the gap between our bodies. “Sojin, huh?” My name rolls off his tongue in a way that makes tremors run up my spine. “I’m Kai. Pleased to meet you.”

    “It’s common courtesy to shake someone’s hand when they offer theirs,” I snap irritably, stepping away from Kim Kai. “Let’s get to business. We’ll be reviewing asymptotes.”

    “What if I say I don’t want to?”

    “Then that’ll be too bad, because that’ll result in your possible suspension.”

    He lets out an abrupt bark of laughter. “Right. Like they’ll suspend me. Why would it matter anyway?”

    I clench my teeth. “How can you say it doesn’t matter? Your grades are terrible. How do you expect to get into a good college or have a good future if you can’t even get into college? Oh, that’s right,” I scoff, a dawning realization coming over me, “you have daddy’s inheritance to hide behind. You can afford to be a worthless degenerate if you wish-,”

    The breath is knocked out of my lungs when Kim Kai slams me against a wall, cold fury alight in his eyes. “Say that again,” he says quietly, his grip on my shoulders tightening. “I dare you.”

    I refuse to flinch. Instead, I stare right back at him. “Can you let go?” I ask, feigning indifference. “I’m sure you’ll agree with me on this matter, but I don’t want to spend my entire Friday night here battling it out with you.”

    After a few moments, he finally releases me. A twinge of pain pierces my shoulders where he gripped me. Bastard.  

    “Let’s get this over with.” he mutters, and the two of us take a seat at the table on opposite sides.

    “Gladly.” I write down a math problem on my notebook and pass it over to him, along with my pencil. “Let me see where you are with how much you know. Try to solve this problem, if it’s not too hard for you.” I can’t resist smirking a little at the end. Loser. He’s been ditching class so long he probably won’t even know how to do this simple problem.

    “Done.” He slides back the notebook in almost an instant. My eyebrows shoot up as I look over his answer. Kim Kai has barely done any work... yet he got the problem correct.

    I copy down another problem for him, this one a little more challenging. Same result. He solves it in only a minute.

    Another problem. Same thing.

    All the while his smirk is growing larger and larger.

    Finally, as a desperate last resort, I pull out a copy of the last test we took and find the extra credit problem at the very back.

“It’s okay if you got this question wrong! This is a college-level question which I threw in just for fun,” our math teacher had informed us. “If you got this question right then I would’ve had to move you up about 3 math courses!”

“Solve this,” I exhale, throwing it at him. Kim Kai takes one look at the problem and laughs.

“With pleasure.”

5 minutes later, he tosses my notebook back.

“You have nothing to teach me,” he laughs coldly.

He got it right.

    A good minute passes before I can bring myself to speak again.

“What... are you doing?” I whisper.

    He an eyebrow.

    “What are you doing?!” I scream, slamming my palms on the table. The librarian throws a bewildered glare at me from her desk. “You- you could be the valedictorian! You’re a genius! But you’re just throwing it all away like this? What the hell is wrong with you?”

    I’m done. I can’t stay here any longer.