“Hey, Jessica!” A familiar voice called out and I subsequently felt a hand reaching out from behind to pat me on the head.

Knowing exactly who it was, I swerved around in my seat instantly, raising a brow when nobody was in sight. Before I could turn myself back around, a figure jumped up, causing me to jolt in my seat involuntarily.

“Scaredy cat,” the girl responsible for the childish prank giggled before occupying the seat in front of me.

“You’re late,” I made a face when I noticed the time reflected on my watch. This girl has serious time management issues. I sometimes wonder if she even cares about these things. “A good half hour. Where the heck were you?”

“I got held up in class. You know Mr. Kim,” the girl scrunched up her nose at the mentioning of the Mathematics teacher whom she so loathed.

Sick of the same old story, I sighed and jumped to a most possible conclusion, “You got into trouble again and were made to stay back in class, weren’t you?”

A toothy smile in return proved I was right.

Clicking my tongue in annoyance, I went on, “I’ve told you to stay away from that Yuju girl. She’s nothing but trouble.”

She dismissed my comment with a casual shrug of her shoulders, “Whatever. Anyway, thanks for waiting, Jessica.”

Her reply invoked a sort of frustration within me and I leaned forward at once to clamp the shell of her ear between my thumb and index finger, tugging impatiently.

“Ow, ow! Arasseo! Mianhae!” She whined.

“What are you supposed to call me?” I simply refused to let up until a satisfactory response was given.

“Unnie! Mianhae!”

With that, I released my grip and grinned smugly, “Better.”

“That hurt,” She pouted a little too cutely and I almost melted. Almost.

Clearing my throat, I ordered in a stern voice, “Textbook out, right now. You’ve got an hour left and there’s much to go through today.”

But the girl did not seem too keen to begin, “I’m hungry, unnie.”

“Yah, Hwang Eunbi, I’m your English tutor and your mom is paying me to make sure you clear your classes.”

“I know…” Her shoulders slumped a little and her eyes fell to her hands. Moments later, she looked up at me, “But I’m still hungry.” She’s doing it again. Pouting. She needs to stop before I die from all the adorable.

Glancing around the rather empty café, I sighed and nodded, “We can’t have you starving, can we? Go order a sandwich or something.”

“Umm, there’s just one teensy weensy problem, unnie.”

Teensy weensy? Is that the language kids are using nowadays?

“Shoot.”

“You see, it’s almost the end of the month and you know what they always say about students at the end of the month--”

“Do not beat about the bush,” I quipped randomly in English.

“Beat about the bush?” She repeated after me loosely, head cocked to the side, seemingly confused.

Jessica, you are not supposed to be finding this cute.

“What I meant was, go straight to the point,” I shifted my gaze away from her to stare at the people passing by outside the cafe instead.

“It’s a little embarrassing but I’m broke, unnie,” she confessed in a small voice my ears had to strain to hear.

My eyes reconnected with hers promptly, “Mwo?”

“Yeah…” She nodded slowly, cheeks turning a faint pink. Goodness, how am I supposed to deal with this