The classroom was deadly silent, and Jongin and Sehun both paused and continued to stare in my direction. There was no response from the either of them. I kept on looking at Jongin, searching his eyes for an answer, but they were clouded with fury.

Suddenly, Jongin abruptly stood up and got off of Sehun. The surrounding students quickly went out of his way so he could make it back to his desk in the back, where he sat down and put his head to the desk, face down.

Some of the students became whispering, and began eyeing Jongin, Sehun, and then me. I didn’t realize that I was still frozen, and finally shook myself out of my daze. I looked at Sehun who was still on the ground, and opened my eyes wide. I rushed over to him, and helped him stand up.

“Sehun!! Are you ok? Are you extremely hurt anywhere??” I asked with urgency.

“No… It’s just some scratches..” Sehun insisted, wiping some of the blood off of his lips.

“A-are you sure…..?”

“Yes. It’s nothing.”

I stared at his as he made his way back to his desk, limping a bit, and finally sat down, staring in front of him, waiting for class to start.

I shooed the students away from the front of the room, signaling for them to sit down in their seats.

“Once class ends today, I’d like Kim Jongin and Oh Sehun to stay after class,” I announced with a firm voice.

The rest of the tutoring session went as normal. Lay answered a lot of my questions that I asked for the class, Jongin slept in the back, and the rest of the students worked diligently. Of course, the fight earlier had disturbed their focus, but they soon managed to concentrate on the classwork.

“Bye ssaem,” the students said as each of them bowed before exiting the room. I smiled at them and waved. Soon, only Sehun and Jongin were left.

At first, I didn’t want to jump right to the topic of the fight, so I tried to make my way around it.

“So, Sehun, how was your day today?”

“Umm…. Ok…. I guess.”

“That’s good.”

“…” I sat down in the seat next to Sehun.

“Oh! How are those scars doing? Do you have any painful bruises?” I asked as I leaned in and traced my fingers around the bruise on his cheek.

“Like I said earlier, it’s fine. I’ve had worse,” Sehun replied abruptly, flinching at my touch.

Is Oh Sehun a notorious fighter as well?

“O-oh… well I guess that’s ok…” I said, giving him a smile.

“Yeah.”

I managed to smile at him, but Sehun didn’t really smile. He just nodded. I looked over at the sleeping body next to him, and sighed loudly.

“Is there anything you want to tell me?” I asked Sehun.

“………… ask Jongin.”

I looked over at Jongin, who was still sleeping. I couldn’t believe he could sleep so soundly after beating a guy up so badly.

I shook his body, waking him up in a few seconds. He lifted his head with half-drooping eyes, realized where he was, and turned to look at Sehun. His eyes opened wide, and he sat up, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Glad to see you’re awake, Jongin. I have a question for you.”

Jongin remained silent, avoiding my gaze.

“Is there anything you want to tell me?”

“…”

“Jongin. I just want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Why did you punch Sehun?”

Jongin started fumbling his book bag nervously, and then finally looked at me, our eyes locking. I was taken aback by his stare: his eyes were full of sorrow and guilt.

Just from that one stare, I knew something was wrong. But for some reason, he wasn’t telling me. I looked over at Sehun, who was just aimlessly staring at the wall. Maybe it had to do something with the victim…

“Ok Sehun. You can leave now. Thanks for your cooperation. Be sure to put on some medicine when you get home!”

“Ne. Have a nice day.” Sehun stood up and bowed before leaving the classroom, not giving Jongin one last glance. When the door finally shut, I looked back at Jongin.

“So, Kim Jongin. Any explanation for earlier today?”

Jongin remained silent, not looking at me. I sighed in frustration. I really didn’t want something like this to happen again, and wanted to help somehow, but I had to know the problem in order to solve it. He looked emotionless, and his eyes were looking at something out in the classroom.

After a few moments, I judged that it would be smarter to ask him another time. I didn’t want to get all worked up at the moment.

“Fine. Ok. You are dismissed.”

Jongin immediately stood up and walked out of the classroom, not sparing me another look.

And I thought he was such a caring kid after he saved me from those gang members… To think that he resorted back to fighting, especially at the academy.. I wonder what’s going on with him lately..

I sighed deeply, and yelled out in frustration. After being nervous for the meeting at Suho’s office, and then encountering the fight in my classroom, I had no energy left whatsoever. I dragged myself to my desk, packed my belongings, and left for my dorm.

“Hey Eunbi! Is everything alright?” Dara asked with a raised eyebrow as I collapsed on my bed.

“mhmmmm” I mumbled as my face was to my pillow. I was too exhausted to do anything right now. My brain had been on an emotional rollercoaster.

Finally I lifted my face from my pillow and looked over at Dara, who was looking at me with concerned eyes. I managed a smile, and then looked past her.

“Unnie…. What do I do?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You know that student that I told you about? The nice kid who walked me home after I came out late from the academy?”

“….oh! Yeah! What about him?”

“Well… He totally changed today.. he just exploded in the middle of class. I didn’t know how to handle it either… I thought he was a good kid, but after what happened today, I realized that he hadn’t changed at all…” By now I was talking to myself, just randomly reporting bits and pieces about Jongin.

“Did he start fighting again?” Dara asked quietly.

I remained silent, which Dara took as a yes.

“It’s ok, Eunbi. You tried your best, and it’s not your responsibility to take care of that kid out of the tutoring hours anyways. You’re just his tutor! Nothing more, nothing less, so don’t think about it too much.”

This was why I loved Dara-unnie. She knew just what to say at what time, and made me feel much better. I was so glad that she was my roommate.

I thanked Dara for her advice, and turned to face my wall, where I had pictures set up in a scrapbook-like setting. A lot of the pictures were with family and friends. As I looked at the pictures, my eyes slowly were attracted to one particular picture. I paused when I recognized what I was looking at, and stared.

It was Luhan.

It was the picture that I had taken during our anniversary dinner. Both of us looked so happy. The smiles on our faces were genuine. At least mine was.

I turned away before my tears welled up in my eyes. I missed him. I missed him dearly, ever since he left. Even though I knew that he was probably kissing other girls here and there, for some reason, I still felt an attachment to him. After he left for China, we didn’t really contact each other. I couldn’t bring myself to be the one who called him first, because I didn’t want to seem dependent or needy. Especially not after what I saw at the anniversary dinner night.

I sighed deeply. The last thing I needed was more painful memories about Luhan. I got up, changed into my pajamas, and returned to my desk, checking my emails and whatnot. The fall semester was starting soon, so I had to prepare myself for yet another year of university.

“Please read through chapter 3 and familiarize yourself with chapter 5 as well. We’ll go over the key points the next time we meet,” the professor said before dismissing the class. I rushed to pack my belongings and get out of the room. I had a part-time job to get to.

The fall semester had finally begun at SNU, and unfortunately, my new major had more homework than I had anticipated. I thought that music education would involve less reading and memorizing than biology, but nope! I actually had to read and study even more new material. The reason I chose music education as my new major was because of my secret passion: singing. I had always wanted to become a music teacher, and teach students as well. Of course, performing would have been amazing, but making it in the real world as a singer is very competitive. I decided to be more realistic and stay on the safe side and stick with education. Besides, I loved teaching!

As I continued to rush out of the classroom and to my new tutoring job at the kind lady’s house, I heard a beautiful voice singing from one of the practice rooms. I was taking a new shortcut through the school, so I had never passed by this room until today. I stopped running, and slowly backed up to the entrance. Whoever was practicing was real good. I paused at the doorway, completely swept by the amazing voice. I closed my eyes to enjoy the song more, and started humming with the tune.

Suddenly, I heard the door open.

Oh shoot.. I thought, with my eyes still closed. The person didn’t speak. I slowly opened my eyes, peeking out to see who it was. I was afraid that I had disturbed their practice session, so I timidly looked at the person in front of me, only to open my eyes wide in surprise. I couldn’t believe who it was.

“C-Chen……?” I asked, not 100% sure but still pretty confident.

“HEY!!! IT’S YOU!!” Chen shouted, reaching out and giving me a bear hug. I was a bit taken aback by his sudden friendliness, but appreciated it nonetheless.

“H-hey Chen!”

“Eunbi!! I can’t believe we’re finally meeting each other again at school!! I missed you!” Chen said, releasing me from his hug.

Why does Chen look so excited to see me? Meh, I guess we’re closer than I thought we were. He sure is a friendly guy!

“Haha nice to see you Chen! W-was that you… singing?” I asked.

“Well yeah! I’m a performance major here!”

“Wahhhh really?” I asked with admiration.

“Haha yup! Practicing non-stop!”

“That’s so cool! Wow I never knew you were this good at singing!”

“Haha I’m trying. I love singing anyways, so I guessed that performance was for me.”

“But still, that’s amazing. I look up to you, man!”

Chen blushed, and just smiled and laughed.

“Oh, by the way, Eunbi. Do you have time tonight? Do you wanna go grab dinner and catch up or something?” Chen asked.

“Oh I can- oh wait. SHOOT sorry Chen I gotta go!! Maybe next time, but thanks!” I shouted as I quickly waved bye and turned around and ran towards the exit. I had totally forgotten about my new tutoring job that afternoon! I checked my wristwatch, which told me I still had 10 minutes to get to the house.

Chen just chuckled as he shook his head and sighed, going back to the practice room.

I ran through the school, and even through the streets as I walked to the house. I looked at the map all the way, making sure I was on the right track. Finally, I entered a street that was relative quiet in comparison to the busy ones near the city. The neighborhood here was full of grandiose mansions, with huge front yards and a bazillion windows for each house. I was awed at the designs, as I was raised in a town where everybody knew everybody. It was my dream one day to live in such a nice house.

I arrived at the gate to the house at just the right time, and rang the doorbell.

“Yes?” the person said through the intercom.

“Hello, my name is Song Eunbi, and I’m here for tutoring.”

“Oh, yes. Please come in.” The gate clicked as it opened, and I cautiously went through, closing it behind me. When I turned back around to face the actual house, my jaw dropped. The front yard was beautiful and huge. The grass was green and perfect, and the flowers and bushes and trees were neatly groomed. I looked down at my outfit, hoping that it was formal enough for the household. I didn’t know the lady was THIS elegant.

I walked up to the door to the actual house, and knocked.

“Coming!” I heard.

When the door opened, it was an old lady who appeared to be the housekeeper. I bowed and greeted her, and she led me to the back of the house, where the office of the lady was.

“She’ll call you out shortly,” the housekeeper said, smiling. She then left me alone in the huge waiting room.

After a few minutes, I heard the door open from the office, and I immediately stood up.

“Ah, hello there! Welcome!” The lady said.

I bowed, and entered her office, sitting down at the chair.

“Hello, uh…….” I paused, waiting for her to say her name.

“Ah, yes. Just call me Mrs. Kim.”

“Hello Mrs. Kim. It’s nice to meet you,” I said.

“It’s nice to meet you as well, Seonsaengnim.”

We talked for a while, and I basically explained to her my experience with tutoring, English, and how I was going to help her son. After a few minutes, she seemed to be satisfied with my explanations, and told me a few of her own rules.

“I am looking forward to working with you dear, and I know you’ll work very hard to help my son, but from past experiences, I would just like to outline some basic rules so everything can go as smoothly as possible,” she said as she drank from her glass of tea. “I would appreciate it if you come a little bit early so you can set up and start promptly at the correct time. Also, please dress a bit conservatively, as I do not want my son to get distracted during the tutor session.” I smirked to myself on the inside, because that wouldn’t be a problem at all. Even if I wore something revealing, nobody really noticed me anyways.

“Last but not least, please always keep in mind of your position and image as a tutor, and keep a professional aura around my son.”

I nodded, agreeing to her circumstances. Although I was a bit surprised by her restrictions, I didn’t really mind, because all I was here to do was tutor.

She called over the housekeeper, who led me to the second floor of the house where Mrs. Kim’s son’s room was. I thanked the housekeeper for showing me the way, and she left, with me standing in front of the door.

I took a deep breath, and calmed myself down. I was getting nervous for no reason. Maybe it was suddenly the pressure to keep the job, maybe it was because I didn’t know how Mrs. Kim’s student was going to be. I just hoped he wasn’t one of those kids who never did any of the work and annoyed me.

I knocked on the door, and the person inside grunted, signaling for me to enter. I opened the door, only to almost drop my bags as I saw who was waiting for me by the desk.

“J-Jongin??” I asked, bewildered. Kim Jongin’s mom was Mrs. Kim?? Kim Jongin lived here, in this huge house?!

Recognizing the voice, Jongin froze, and slowly turned around. Our eyes met, and I stayed frozen by the door, still in shock.

“W-what are you doing here, noona?” Jongin asked, just as surprised as I was.

“I could ask the same for you! Mrs. Kim is your mom?!?”

“Don’t tell me….”

“That I’m your private English tutor?”

Jongin sighed, and put his head face down on his desk with a loud thud. Taking it as encouragement, I finally snapped out of my surprised state and entered the room, closing the door behind me.

Jongin’s room was spacious and neat, just like the rest of the house. The furniture was minimalistic, and his bed was in the center, while his desk and bookcases were along the walls of the room.

Wow…. This is more than the size of my dorm… I thought to myself.

I made my way over to the desk, and put my belongings down. I sat down in the chair next to Jongin, and waited for him to lift his head.

“Kim Jongin, wake up. This isn’t like the hakwon where you can doze off in the back. We gotta start.”

Jongin didn’t respond.

“Jongin, come on. I know you don’t like English, but your mom is expecting me to teach you. Come on, you can do it!”

Jongin groaned.

My frustration began to slowly bubble and build up inside of me, turning into anger. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I was going to get this done. I had to.

“Jongin, if you don’t get up right now, I’m going to tell your mom about the fight.”

Immediately, Jongin raised himself up, and turned to look at me with desperate eyes. I kind of felt bad, using the fight to bait him into working, but I was desperate as well.

“Ok good. Let’s begin.” I opened the book, and began to tutor Jongin on the basics of English. I worked off from the lessons at the academy, but actually helped him one-on-one on the parts that he didn’t understand.

Of course, things were still a bit awkward since the fight, so I couldn’t joke around and talk to him like I did that one time when he walked me home, but still, I tried. I mean, we would be stuck meeting each other every week for probably the rest of the school year, so I really didn’t want our relationship to be awkward forever.

While Jongin continued to do the reading passages, I corrected his essay for grammar mistakes. It was relatively quiet, and all you could here was the sounds of birds chirping outside. It was still bright out, but night was arriving.

As I was reading his essay I giggled, smiling as I corrected his mistake.

Jongin immediately looked over at my direction, confused.

“Why did you laugh? Is there something funny?” he asked.

“Haha no, not really. It’s just that you were so close right here,” I said as I leaned towards him, showing him his mistake in the essay. Jongin frowned, which made me laugh even more.

“Don’t worry,” I said, reassuring him. “It’s a mistake nonetheless, but it’s cute. You can fix it, no problem.”

Jongin seemed to be a bit more relieved, and continued to work on his reading passage.

Little did I know, Jongin was going through his own little rollercoaster.

Why is she laughing- oh what why is she so close to me all of a sudden?!?!? She smells nice though.. Peaches I think? Something fruity… Argh snap out of it man! Concentrate!! Don’t get out of hand… I hope I’m not red.. As long as she doesn’t come so close to me again, I’ll be fine.

Jongin sure knew how to change someone’s perspective of him. At first, I thought he was going to try to put off the work and be lazy and not put in any effort, but on the contrary, he actually worked very hard and tried to improve his English. He was totally different from the Jongin I was exposed to at the academy.

I ended up staring at Jongin while thinking all of this, and before I could catch myself, Jongin realized that I was staring at him, and stirred uncomfortably.

“Why are you staring at me?” he asked.

“Oh…O-oh!! Sorry! I was just thinking… Sorry I distracted you.”

“What were you thinking about?” Jongin asked, taking me by surprise.

“Oh… Just about how you change a lot… Like.. You seem totally different from the Jongin I know at the academy.. Right now, you’re so hardworking and honest and attentive, but for some reason, you’re so different during class..”

Jongin just stared at me with an expression I couldn’t quite understand.

“Haha sorry.. I’m just going off on a tangent. Continue working.” I turned around and grabbed my bag, ruffling through for something to eat. Maybe my hunger was making me think too much. I finally found a package of pepero, and secretly felt relieved. I quietly opened the package and stuck a pepero stick into my mouth, nibbling on it quietly, still thinking deep thoughts.

Jongin turned around and saw me eating, and stared at the box.

“Oh! Sorry! Do you want one?” I tried to mumble with the pepero biscuit still in my mouth as I started to take out another biscuit to give to Jongin, but before I could, something weird happened. Something totally unexpected.

Jongin suddenly leaned towards me, causing me to look up with curiosity. Before I could speak again, he tilted his head as he leaned towards my face and bit the other side of the pepero stick hanging from my mouth. Out of pure shock, I froze, letting Jongin take the pepero directly from my mouth. He leaned back into his chair and began working again, munching on the pepero that just a few seconds ago had hung from my lips.

My mind was buzzing with questions and hormones and inexplicable emotions.

W-what?? Why did he…. He could have just asked for a pepero biscuit.. he didn’t have to take the one that I was eating… Yah Song Eunbi! Are you blushing right now?! Stop it! Don’t do it! You can’t show your weak side!

Likewise, Jongin himself couldn’t concentrate.

Now you’ve done it, Kim Jongin. You couldn’t handle your hormones, and now, she’s going to think you’re crazy. Aish….. I can’t even read the passage! Didn’t I read this sentence like ten times already?!

I awkwardly cleared my throat, and handed Jongin the whole package.

“If you wanted pepero that bad, you could have just asked,” I said, not looking at Jongin directly in the eye.

Jongin remained silent, working but actually just nervously listening to my remarks.

I checked the time on the clock, which said that the tutoring session was over for today.

“Good work today, Jongin. I hope you’ll work like this every time I’m here,” I said as I stood up and gather my materials. Jongin still looked straight ahead, not meeting my eyes.

I turned around to leave, and quietly closed the door behind me. When I was sure the door was completely closed, I took a deep breath, calming myself down.

I closed my eyes, and leaned my head against the back of the door. My heart was pounding like crazy, and I touched my cheeks with the palm of my hand, only to feel a burning hot sensation.

Song Eunbi…. What just happened….

Woop woop fluff! Coming up: more Sehun! and idk! I gotta plan it~

Anyways, thank you so much for reading~ You guys are the best! <3