One more egg shaped grade to add to the growing pile set in the back of his locker. That's all Jungkook could think as the Japanese teacher handed him last week's test.

       He couldn't understand why this class seemed to be so hard for him- not that he had ever been academic to start with, his solid C grade report guaranteed he wouldn't be going to a decent college (if any). Although what teacher started a class with handing out graded tests was beyond him. Then again, this teacher had always struck him as eccentric.

       Glancing at the person in front of him, he tried to peek over their shoulder. Jungkook had never actually held a decent or constructive conversation with the male who sat ahead of him- he tended to let his friends do more of the talking when 'V' (as Taehyung was affectionately called by more people than Jungkook had friends), actually spoke with those he hung out with. He had admired Taehyung for some time. His classmate seemed to be more of a troublemaker than Jungkook at moments, but Taehyung held grades Jungkook could only dream of- and despite struggling to see the little red number in the corner on the other boy's test, he knew instinctively that he’d passed.

       "Jungkook, are you paying attention?"

       The teacher's voice broke through his thoughts, and Jungkook to snapped to attention.

       "Ne, Sensei!"

       “Then what was I saying just now?” Park asked challengingly, and Jungkook immediately looked to the chalkboard for help, only to realize he couldn't read the kanji presented to him. Thinking fast, he leaned back and answered with a lazy shrug.

       "Japanese, baka."

       Between the peals of laughter, Jungkook didn’t miss the way Taehyung snickered, and silently appreciated that unlike some of the other students of the class who were favorites of the teacher by merit of their test marks (he shot a disinterested look at Choi Minki who turned to give him a look of pure unadulterated judgment), Taehyung didn’t bother with hiding his amusement when Jungkook answered the questions he didn’t know with snark.

       And if Park Sensei’s face was any hint, this time it had gotten out of hand.

       “Jungkook, that is not appropriate!” The holler in heavy Daegu dialect only added fuel to the fire when it fell out of a mouth that had restated the importance of speaking in Japanese in Japanese class more times than Jungkook cared to count. Most of the students were now dipping their heads and hiding their laughter. Thoroughly embarrassed by his slip up, the teacher barked out a warning about one more comment like that landing him in detention which Jungkook waved off.

       As the class slipped back into its normal routines, Jungkook quickly found himself struggling to understand as the teacher sped through explanations in language possibly thicker than the book. Before long his attention was wandering to anything but the lesson. At a side of the class, Changjo was occasionally kicking at Hyemin’s chair despite her glares. At the front, Minki was staring up at the teacher like he was a prophet and the class kiss-up was having a religious experience. Jungkook all but scoffed.

       He turned his gaze to the person in front of him. Taehyung seemed bored, chin propped on a hand and an elbow on the table, he was doodling in his notebook. For a moment the thought crossed his mind- how exactly the other managed to get the marks he did without actually paying attention in class seemed a wonder.

       Minutes ticked away languidly till Park closed the book he was instructing from and announced the commencement of a partly in-class assignment. They were to work in partners (or individually if they were so disposed), on an assignment that was to be handed in the next day. The class came to life, seats screeching against the floor and tables being moved as each person found their friends to partner up with. And Jungkook decided that this would be as good as time as any to make use of Namjoon’s skill in Japanese. The elder may not have the time to tutor him, but surely to help with a little bit of homework?

       As he considered when to approach him on the subject, Jungkook almost missed the movement as Taehyung swiveled around in his seat, arms resting on his desk.

       “Got a partner yet?” Taehyung was all bright smiles.

       It took everything in him to remain composed when V turned to face him, his arms on Jeongguk's desk bringing the boy to look up at him, "You want to work on this assignment with me?" Jungkook questioned with blatant disbelief in his eyes. Looking around for a second, he tilted his head slightly, "Are you sure...?"

       It was no secret he had the lowest grade in the class, the fact that the teacher had practically advertised it every time he passed out the tests claiming they would be passed out from the highest grade to the lowest assured that- his paper always being the very last one. When Taehyung shot him a bewildered, ‘Yeah, why not?’ and turned his chair properly, Jungkook wasn’t sure what to think, or say.

       It seemed he didn’t need to though, as Taehyung started doing the speaking.

       “So what are we supposed to do?”

       Brushing aside the idle thought that this confirmed Taehyung wasn’t paying the least bit attention, his brows creased in frustration turning his gaze to glare at the useless textbook. "The directions seem to be fairly straightforward..."

       “I know the answers till number four,” Taehyung stated and Jungkook looked down at the book. Sixteen questions. Did he expect Jungkook to finish the rest? “Did you read till chapter 7?”

       Hearing the question, Jungkook looked up and shot Taehyung a look that screamed ‘are you serious’, "Yeah, I read everything that's written in Korean. So... the page numbers." Without hesitation, he opened the book to the first page of chapter two. "I can't read a of Kanji and the entire chapter is in Japanese from the top of Chapter two! How do they seriously expect me to learn from this?"

       Taehyung stared, then laughed. “True that,” he murmured before beginning to flip through the book again.

       This wouldn’t do. The fleeting look of surprise on Taehyung’s face was clear enough and Jungkook flipped through the book to try and find a way of making himself useful, though Taehyung’s laugh and words seemed to be in agreement to his statement. "Wait, this is the same,” with a finger on the question and the other on a certain word in the book, Jungkook glanced up at the other for confirmation, “so... the answers should be around these words, right...?"  

       For a second, Jungkook wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but immediately V was flipping through his book to the same Jeongguk was on and reading through, expression going from contemplative to surprise and delight. "Yeah... yeah it is," he murmured disbelievingly before looking up with bright eyes, clearly wanting to test the questionable methodology (really, what did it matter how they got to the answer, Jungkook too reasoned). "Hey... this isn't bad, you have a good eye. Can you do the same thing for the next question?"

       Feeling a glimmer of hope that he may be of some help, Jungkook analyzed the fifth question, taking in the shapes before turning to the textbook, comparing the characters from the question to the ones in the book- it took a moment before he was finally able to locate it but he pointed the line out to his partner once he saw it.

       "Right here." Maybe this could work.  "You know what you're reading, right? So if I can go through and locate where the questions are from, can you figure out t