“Before lessons start, let me remind you all that End of Year examinations start in October, which is only a few months away, and it determines which class you will be streamed to in year 5. This will in turn affect your futures greatly, so I hope that every single one of you will try your hardest during these exams and do well, arraso? Study hard and you’ll definitely succeed! I have faith in every single one of you, so don’t let me down, oh?” Mrs. Jung, the math teacher and form teacher of class 4F, Woohyun and Mihye’s class, announced.

“NE!” The children answered, eager to do extremely well, not only for their parents and their future, but also for their favourite Mrs. Jung.

“Good” Mrs. Jung smiled softly, obviously happy that her students were so cooperative. “Now, let’s get started, shall we? Flip your textbooks open to page 52, where we last left off…”

What to do? Mihye fretted, biting her lip. She had no problem ace-ing any subject, any at all…

As long as if it wasn’t math. Math was the downfall of her life. She hated it, and really had no aptitude for numbers in it whatsoever. It was as if her brain was totally not wired to process math, and no matter how many math tutors her father had hired for her in the past, they were all unable to help improve her math results.

And unlike the previous years, she couldn’t afford to flunk math this year. She needed a good math grade in order to get into the best class in fifth grade, and believe me, she really REALLY wanted to get into that class.

“Lee Mihye? Would you like to try?”

Mihye immediately looked up. Mrs. Jung was smiling expectantly at her, having written a problem sum on the board, a marker in her hand. Mihye gulped. She had never been called out to solve a math problem before, and to be honest, she had totally no confidence in herself. But she had no choice. So, she nodded and stood up hesitantly, making her way towards the darn blackboard as slowly as possible. She stared at the question written on the board, but nothing could go into her brain. To her, the numbers just looked like an ancient, unreadable language and she had no idea how to decipher them. She didn’t even know where to begin!

Dongwoo and Sunggyu were given some apples each. After eating 3 apples, Dongwoo realized he had 3 times as many apples as Sunggyu had. The total number of apples given to both of them altogether in the beginning was 11. How many apples did each of them get initially?

“Try drawing out a model first, that always helps…” A voice suddenly came out of nowhere, and started to guide her slowly.

Mihye obeyed. She started to draw a model out to help her visualize things better. But she didn’t know how to draw that stupid model for the stupid question.

“Well, for starters, who has less apples?”

Mihye pointed to Sunggyu without a moment’s hesitation. Hey, her language was totally fine, thank you very much. She could understand the question, no problem.

“Well, then you should draw the model for Sunggyu first. He has 1/3 of Dongwoo’s apples at the end, right?”

Mihye nodded, then proceeded to draw 1 unit for Sunggyu and 3 units for Dongwoo.

“But before that, didn’t Dongwoo eat 3 apples? So what should you do now?”

Mihye’s eyes widened. She got it. She freaking got it. She immediately drew an extra portion of 3 apples for Dongwoo, and made a note at the side that the total number of apples was 11.

11-3 = 8

8 apples -> 4 units

2 apples -> 1 unit

Number of apples Sunggyu got = 2

Number of apples Dongwoo got = 11-2 = 9

“Correct, Mihye! Excellent work! And good job, Woohyun, for that amazing coaching!” Mrs. Jung smiled approvingly, patting Mihye gently on the back.

Woohyun? Mihye spun around and saw Woohyun standing up, flashing her a ‘thumbs up’ sign and beaming widely. Blushing, she rushed back into her seat, her cheeks flaming red from all the attention.

But yet, at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment. No matter how many times everyone had tried to explain the same type of question to her, she never got it. But to think that with a simple model, Woohyun had made her understand everything.

For the rest of the math lesson, Mrs. Jung made the class do the problem sums in their math workbooks at their own pace. And for the first time in her life, Mihye had managed to solve every single freaking question by using the model method Woohyun had taught her before. Even though Mihye had absolutely no aptitude with numbers, she had a gift for visualization and hence, models allowed her to understand math completely. In fact, the model method was so effective, that Mihye was done with all the sums in her workbook almost the same time as Woohyun had finished them, when she used to be unable to complete even half of the sums in that darn workbook. That was how much improvement she had made.

She looked towards Woohyun slowly, from the corner of her eye. Much to her surprise, he was looking right back at her, beaming widely. As soon as they made eye contact, Mihye pulled her gaze away and turned back hastily, her cheeks red once again.

He really is a nice guy, Mihye…She bit her lip as she struggled with her thoughts. And he really seems to genuinely want to be friends with me. Should I trust him? Can I?

The bell rang at that moment, cutting her train of thoughts sharply. It was lunch time.

“Mihye ah, want to have lunch with me today?” Woohyun asked her again like he did every day, even though he always got ignored every time he did that.

But much to his amazement and happiness, Mihye nodded in response. It was a small, slow nod, almost unnoticeable if you weren’t paying attention to her, but a nod nonetheless. And Woohyun noticed it.

“Did you just…agree?” Woohyun’s eyes widened, not daring to believe what he was seeing. Was Lee Mihye actually agreeing to go eat with him, for the first time ever?

Mihye nodded again, this time even more certainly. She stood up and grabbed her lunch box, walking towards the door.

Woohyun blinked. Once reality finally sank in, he immediately turned around and ran to catch up with Mihye.

“Wait up!”