I insist you get tutoring he said, it'll be good he said. Yeah lot of good it's going to do me. Why can't dad just see I don't want to be a mathematician like him anymore? 

Kyuhyun sighed in frustration, shouldering his schoolbag as he trudged through the empty school hallway.

The only people still at school at this time were the basketball team and him, on his way to math tutoring.

Ordinarily, Kyuhyun would be excited. He enjoyed math, and was very good at it, but lately...his heart wasn't in it.

His grades were dropping and Kyuhyun honestly did want to bring them back up but he just couldn't bring himself to care anymore. Oh well, maybe if he flunked his dad would stop hassling him.

He pushed on the door to his math classroom and sighed. He was supposed to be getting taught from a senior student who offered his free time to teach struggling juniors.

Honestly he didn't feel like being lectured by a senior nerd about how his should care about his grades.

He got enough of that from his parents.

Kyuhyun expected glasses at the very least, a neatly pressed uniform, pens behind his ears, maybe even braces.

"You must be Kyuhyun, I've been expecting you." 

"A-Annyeonghaseyo sunbae-nim," Kyuhyun bowed as he entered the room and put his schoolbag on one of the desks.

He took a good look at his new tutor. He had shoulder-length shimmering black hair pulled back into a ponytail, red-framed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose.

His school uniform was neat and tidy as predicted, but his shoes were fire-truck red, and his nails painted black.

"My name is Kim Heechul, there's not need to call me sunbae-nim," he said. "Just hyung is fine,"

Kyuhyun nodded and took a seat opposite Heechul.

"Your father tells me you've been experiencing sudden difficulty in your advance math class," Heechul went on to say.

"Not a difficulty as such..." Kyuhyun murmured.

"Did the work get harder? Do you want to drop down a class?"

"No, no I want to try to bring my grades back up, I do I just...advanced is a bit..."

"Much?" Heechul prompted.

Kyuhyun nodded.

"I was like that in your grade. What I'll get you to do for me right now, is to complete this little quiz, just so I can see where you're strengths and weaknesses lie,"

Heechul handed him a thin booklet and started a timer as Kyuhyun got to work.

The booklet was just like the homework he got in class, and it was a breeze for Kyuhyun to complete.

When he handed the test back to Heechul, he went through it quietly.

"Kyuhyun-ssi you've answered every question correctly and in less than three minutes. Are you sure you need my lessons?" Heechul raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not good under pressure," Kyuhyun lied. "In exams I freeze up, and in class my teacher explains it badly. It confuses me,"

"Where do you think you're getting confused?"

He picked something easy. "Algebra I think, I don't understand all the letters and stuff. And extended equations."

"Alright, so the harder stuff. I can make up a few sheets for you that might help, but for now show me your process, how you worked out the answers,"

Kyuhyun was bad at working out, he'd admit that, the answers just came to him without much figuring out, he'd never needed to write anything down to show his process. He didn't really have one.

Stumbling over words to try and explain how a normal person would have figured it out, Heechul stopped him.

"I think I see the problem. You're just guessing some answers, and some you just know because you do."

Kyuhyun nodded.

"Makes things harder. You need to learn the process of working out a problem, you can't just jump straight to the answer. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Now, your last exam result was 30%. That's a fail, a bad one. Based on this quiz here, I doubt you were working to your full ability. Is there something outside of school causing these results?"

"I - no, no nothing." Kyuhyun stammered.

Heechul paused, but said nothing. "30% in this kind of exam, you should have gotten at least 90% at your level, 100% even, but you got 30%. We have a lot of work to do if we're going to lift those scores."

"I really do want to pass my final exam," Kyuhyun said honestly.

"Good, because you'll repeat if you don't. All your teachers have said you're usually a brilliant student, but recently you've been acting up in class, not paying attention and disrupting the other students. Don't you like your class?"

"I like the class just fine," Kyuhyun shrugged.

"Hmmm..." Heechul narrowed his eyes. "Well, I'll get to the bottom of this sudden flip, it may help flip it back. That's all we have time for today, I'll see you tomorrow same time, right here. Until then, here's my phone number. You can text me anything you need help with in your homework or just any general questions you're having trouble with. Okay?"

"Okay." Kyuhyun entered Heechul's number into his phone and bowed, leaving the classroom with his bag.

He was surprised to see his best friend Sungmin waiting for him still at the gates.

"So? How did it go?"

"Heechul hyung says I should be brilliant,"

"Well you are and we both know that." Sungmin snorted. "Wait, did you say Heechul?"

"Yeah...why?" Kyuhyun asked. "Is he someone I should know?"

"Kim Heechul, in final year yeah?"

"That's him. What is it hyung?"

"You're so lucky is all, I've heard Heechul sunbae is reclusive kind of person. He only began tutoring last month, so his first and only student would be you." Sungmin said.

"Oh. I wonder why he suddenly decided to tutor," Kyuhyun commented. "It doesn't matter, I have no intention of being brilliant in his class. If he thinks I'm brilliant he'll stop my lessons and then dad will have something to say about my grades you can bet. He might even guess my lack of interest in his stupid subject,"

"I'd hate to have a mathematician as a father," Sungmin cringed. "Too restricting."

"You're so lucky you have artists as parents hyung," Kyuhyun sighed. "They don't pressure you into anything academic. It's not like I don't want to succeed, I just wish he'd lay off a little. I'm not him after all,"

Sungmin patted his arm sympathetically.

"I don't know what to do," Kyuhyun groaned running his hand through his hair. "I have to see hyung tomorrow too,"

"Isn't that the same time as your..."

"I'll fake sick half way through, I should make it in time if I run. I'd better get home, my dad will have my skin if I'm out late," Kyuhyun waved dismissively and turned into his street.

"See you at school tomorrow!" Sungmin called.

"Bye hyung!"

Kyuhyun had beend moved up into Sungmin's grade because of his intelligence level, at first he'd been proud and a little smug, he'd never had friends in his own year anyway so it didn't affect him, but now he was beginning to regret it.

Being smart only meant you had more expectations, he wanted to be like Sungmin. His parents never pressured him into anything or expected anything from him. Kyuhyun couldn't imagine how great that would be.

Sighing, Kyuhyun unlocked the door to his apartment and entered, leaving his shoes at the door.

"I'm home." he called dully, knowing his father would hear him but not acknowledge his presence.

He shuffled into his room and hopped onto his laptop, plugging in his headphones and listening to some music Sungmin had recorded for him on the guitar.

Grabbing a notebook he began to write down lyrics to the melody, softly singing them under his breath.

He left his math books on top of his song books and went to bed without dinner that night, he didn't want to face his father just yet. Let the tutor talk to him first.