Yixing sighed as he leaned back against his door, glancing at his watch. Of course he was late. He was always late to class, so why would this be any different? How exactly Yixing had gotten himself roped into this situation, the teen was still trying to figure out. He was debating calling his teacher to cancel this ordeal when he heard a set of footsteps behind him. Letting out a slight sigh, Yixing forced a smile before turning around.

“Yifan, there you are. I was starting to think you weren’t going to show up.” he muttered, a sharp edge to his words despite his smile.

The taller male simply gave a grin and shrugged. “I’m here, aren’t?”

Resisting rolling his eyes, Yixing turned back towards the door he was leaning against. “Well, let’s get started. We have plenty of time, but with the way your grades are looking right now, I’m not sure how many times we’ll have to meet this week.”

Yifan crossed his long arms as he watched his classmate unlock his apartment and let him inside. Like Yixing, he wasn’t looking forward to this. He had been doing fine in Algebra II (having a D was fine, right? He thought so.), until his nosy teacher had intervened and set him up to be tutored by the young man who was currently unloading a bag of books and notebooks. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Yixing, he barely knew him. He was the class president, had the best grades, and seemed to be friends with everyone. Yifan was at the bottom of the class and only hung out with the other kids that didn’t give a damn about their grades. So why would he bother talking to a preppy, know-it-all guy like Yixing?

“So the last thing we went over was quadratics. Do you remember the formula?” the prep in question asked, gesturing to empty seat next to him.

Yifan sat down at the small table and glanced over the open book and notes that were spread out in front of him. He could see the neat slanted handwriting, much different from the sloppy script that he scrawled on his papers. It only served to annoy him a bit. Was everything about this guy perfect?

“Quadratic formula? Isn’t that the one with the numbers and letters?”

“Thank you for naming almost all of the formulas in Algebra, Yifan. But you’re going to have to be a bit more specific.” Yixing chuckled slightly.

Surprised when the other laughed at him, Yifan hesitated. He hadn’t meant to make that a joke. Maybe he was funnier than he’d originally thought. The idea of giving up his sure-to-be-successful career as a world famous rapper to be a comedian crossed his mind, but he tried to focus on the problem at hand.

“Then I have no idea what you’re talking about.” he admitted.

Yixing sighed. This was going to be a long day.

“Then you multiply by the reciprocal and you should get….” Yixing trailed off, watching his classmate’s focused expression as he worked through the problem. His large hands moved over the paper quickly as he hurried to finish the steps before he forgot them. As they had worked, Yixing had noticed that the other had picked up on the concepts rather quickly and understood what they were doing. It seemed that working the problems out and getting the correct answer was the true problem.

“I got 4. Is that right?” Yifan piped up, looking at the other expectantly.

Yixing glanced over his work and smiled brightly when he saw that it was correct. “You got it. See that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Yifan sat back with a proud grin and shook his head. “I knew I could it all along.”

“If that’s the case, then why do you have such a low grade in the class? I’ve been sitting here with you for almost four hours, and it seems like you understand.” the shorter boy asked.

“I don’t know. When the teacher describes and goes through it, it doesn’t make any sense to me. But for some reason, when I heard you explain it, something just clicked and I got it.” Yifan muttered. He fell silent as he noticed the other staring at him with an unreadable expression. “What?”

Yixing blinked when he realized that he’d spaced out. He had been thinking about Yifan so hard that he’d actually forgotten that he was talking to him. A light blush tinged his cheeks as he averted his gaze to his textbook.

“Nothing, nothing. I think we got through enough for today, let’s wrap it up. We can meet back here tomorrow if you want.”

“That sounds cool. Can I borrow your notes? Yours are much neater than mine.” Yifan added with a toothy grin as he stood from the table.

Nodding and gathering the scattered papers, Yixing handed him the stack, noticing then just how tall the other boy was. From his sitting perspective, Yifan looked like some sort of giant.

“Aren’t you going to come and lock the door?”

Yixing cursed himself for getting caught up in his thoughts again as he quickly stood from the table. He was going to have to stop doing that.

“See you tomorrow, nerd.” Yifan called over his shoulder, giving a wave and grin.

Yixing shook his head and couldn’t help but smile. “Bye, Yifan.” he said lightly. As he closed the door behind his classmate, he found himself thinking that this might not be so bad after all.