“In view of the term exam coming in a few weeks, I’ll be assigning study buddies for you. This is tailored to your weaker and stronger subjects and some other reasons. So no partner exchange.” Mrs Song starts, a resounding yes then fills up the classroom.

“First up, Jimin, Jina. You both live in the same house, so no excuses.” The two immediately scrunch up their faces with the thoughts of the impending world war 3 at home. The other students also snicker at the imagined scenario, it is a well-known fact that the twins are polar opposite of each other after all.

"Next, Seokjin" the said guy immediately shoots up his head peering at the homeroom teacher. "You’re with Hyerim.  Please do help her in the weaker subjects. Then next…" her announcement lengthens as she continues to read out the list of tutors and tutees or, as what Mrs Song prefers to call them, study buddies. The students, on the other hand, are getting more restless as the clock ticks by, it is almost dismissal time after all.

"That's all for today. Please do study hard for your second last school-based exam. Fighting!" Mrs. Song pumps up her fist as she leaves the classroom. Almost everyone scramble towards their respective study buddies, eyes sparkly b with hopes for the last lap of race they call school. Hopes and dreams are being pinned on the kindness of their classroom superheroes.

"So, which subject do you need help in?" Jin turns to his right, facing his desk neighbor / tutee. He is replied with mumbles along the lines of embarrassing and stupid and a thumb-fiddling Hyerim. Seeing the situation, Jin smiles and gets down on both knees just beside the girl's table. "Hey, it's okay. I'm here to help you, not judge you. Okay?"

Hyerim musters her courage by taking a large deep breath, looking at Jin's hands on her table instead of his handsome face, "My Math sooo bad" she says "and I'm pretty much borderline at everything else… except Biology". By the time she finishes saying the whole statement, her ears are already burning red because of the embarrassing revelation. “Ahh, I’m going to be such a huge burden” she adds, releasing a big sigh.

"Aigoo… you should've told me long ago if you need help. I don't bite, you know." he chuckles. “And you’ll never be a burden, teaching is learning too! Anyways, let's start tomorrow?" he offers amicably.

"Okay, I guess? I’m not disturbing your play time or anything, right?"

“Ah, hyung. I have study session with Hyerim, our homeroom teacher assigned us as study buddies.” Jin answers as he’s walking to his usual seat.

“Your teacher knows what’s up, Jinnie. Anyways, what’s your order today? The usual?”

“What’s up? Yups, the usual, please”

Minseok explains he secretly ships the two classmates. Their coincidental café visits together are far too many, he almost thinks they actually plan their run-ins. Jin then lightheartedly dismissed the older guy’s assumptions saying he takes care of the female very well just because he’s the class president and she’s the clueless transfer student. They leave it at that.

Within 10 minutes, Hyerim comes through the door, wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of black trousers with a flannel shirt tied around her waist. The said girl finds no difficulty in finding her partner, it’s always the same place and the café is not that crowded either, pretty good atmosphere for studying.

“I’m sorry, am I late? Did you wait long?” Hyerim says while sitting down across her tutor.

“Nope, don’t sweat it. I was just a little early. Ready to start?” Jin asks while tilting his head slightly.

“I guess so, I actually revised some stuffs yesterday night.” She shrugs, feeling rather pessimistic.

Jin then slides a few sheets of paper to Hyerim, explaining it’s somewhat a test to let him diagnose her weaknesses in Math. She promptly starts doing the numerous questions, cruising through the first few problems. Jin, on the other hand, continues drinking his cappuccino and observes the girl sitting before him. For him, watching her is actually quite amusing. Her expressions keep changing every few seconds. When she finds an easy question, a soft smile will grace her lips. Whenever she is stumped by a problem, she purses her lips and scrunches her forehead to the extent that some wrinkles are visible.

After around half an hour (and an eternity for Hyerim), she passes back the papers. There is practically nothing else that she can do to those questions sent from the deepest pit of hell.

“You’re actually not that bad at all!” Jin praises his protégé with a huge smile. He then continues by saying that her weakness is mostly just Calculus, pretty much everyone’s enemy, including himself. The session goes on with him explaining his study tips for Math and explaining the methods to the questions that she gave up on.

Having study buddy is not bad! 3 hours fly by fast for the both of them, and the session is a productive one. By the time they finish, the sky is already turning a deeper shade of blue with a hint of orange splatters. Like a gentleman, Jin insists on sending her home reasoning that it is not good for a girl to walk alone in the dark. They end up talking about anything under the sun, just so that they won’t have any awkward silence. Also so that they don’t need to think about math anymore.