I was seated in one of the library's wooden stools, my body stiff and rigid, my eyebrows knitted in perplexity, and my teeth clenched as I drummed my newly sharpened pencil, the led slightly chipped off and dulled from the contact with the recently furbished table where all my textbooks scattered around the whole area in a disarray manner, which is very unlikely of me, since I absolutely despise working around messy grounds. But I can leave this situation an exception of my usual routine. All these confusion and befuddlement, all leads to one measly subject.

Calculus.

One of the branches of math that is one of the perks of my high averages and the latter of my popularity several years ago and absolutely means nothing now. And now, I, frankly, suck at math. I felt my brain getting smoother as my whole personality becomes dumber along with it, and I have no idea why. My thoughts suddenly shift from math to another irrelevant thought, which is absolutely not needed for the exams. I'm not going to mention my thoughts, but I can hint that it's hella distracting!

And I've been answering questions in my study guide, and the first five questions I solved, was incorrect! I perfectly know the fundamentals and guidelines for finding the solution, and yet none of my answers came correct, for even once. I've must have had an error in between solutions, due to the small amount of carelessness and ignorance I've developed spending time with V. If I'm going to top the midterm exams I have to avoid V all throughout my remaining leisure time. He's certainly the root to all these misinterpretations of my math problems. So, as long as I fully devote myself to my studies, avoid V, and prevent my own thoughts from drifting away from the subject, I'll be just fin-

"Sinon-ah!" A low, vociferous voice shouted across the library, along with violent shushes silencing the screaming man.

-e, never mind.

I gnashed my teeth together and rubbed my aching forehead, hearing scuffed footsteps through the aisles. I scratched my short hair in vexation as it flew all over my face and tried my best to focus back to calculus.

I scoured through the study guide losing track of the page with my my mistaken formulas with annoyance marred over my features.

"Sinon-ah! There you are." V's sudden call made me jerk from my seat, nonetheless, I knew he was going to find me sooner and pester me anyways, still I was not prepared for it.

"Can't you see I'm busy, just go back and hangout with your gang and leave me be." I said, ice cold.

He stood beside me, between the stools and bowed his head downwards, towards my seated figure and pouted. I clicked my tongue through my teeth making a 'tsk' sound and attempted to be unaffected with his aegyo.

"You kept saying that for days now!" He whined, pushing back a stool beside me from under the table and sat on it, resting his elbow on the table as his cheek rested against his palm, tilting his head sideways in a sad, yet seductive expression. "I missed you, noona."

I closed the proximity between me and the textbook, literally burying my nose in the book and desperately tried to quell my racing heart. How dare he use my hormones against me! But unfortunately for him, I vowed to devote myself to my studies and ignore him, so his charisma won't even convince me to throw away my hard work.

"I-I don't care. I'm studying right now."

He huffed in annoyance and pouted in his seat with arms crossed. I gave a mental sigh of relief and went back to my studies, disregarding that tingling feeling in my stomach from the distance between him and me. Unbeknownst to him, I slowly slide my chair away from him until I got to a good distance and skipped calculus, moving back to arithmetics. I pull out my pencil and began to solve the questions, V rocking his chair back and forth creating a racket, and eventually cracked.

"Waaaaaahhhhh!" He groaned and lazily stretched out his arms and flailed it around like a crazy madman and slammed his stool back in place with so much force, it made me flinch and move my gaze away from my formula to the rampaging baby before me. I gave a vexed shush and scowled at him as he rummaged through his pocket and took out a crumpled piece of paper. He smoothened it and showed it in front of me.

Apparently, it was a pamphlet from a restaurant which served the best Gogigui and Japchae.

"I want to go here!" He demanded like an angry five year old, wanting to go to McDonald's instead of eating at a family restaurant.

"Then go, no one's stopping you." I said flatly, and went back to question 7.

"No! I want to go here with you!"

My jaw tightened as my gaze moved back to question 7. How could he act so carefree, especially in an exam week. I need to have high grades, and in order to have high grades, I have to study.

Study. Get the degree. Get a job. Retire. Die

I kept telling myself that, and in order to get to the second step and get my degree, I have to aim for perfection. I can't always be laid-back about everything and let someone else steal the satisfaction of being in top. In order to escape this crappy life, I need to follow my lifetime plan and ideals. And now is not the time for barbeque.

"You may not value education as much as I do, so please don't drag me down your level. Now is not the time for barbeque, especially when QUESTION 7 I IMPOSSIBLE TO ANSWER!"

He peered over my formulas and frowned.

"Oh that. You just have to solve the intersections first before getting to that part." He stated blankly.

*silence*

I squinted my eyes at him, holding his gaze while my other hands solved it his way. I turned the study guide to the back where all the answers were and frowned.

"Beginner's luck." I suspiciously leered at him before going to the next question which was the Pythagorean theorem.

"B isn't equal to 8, according to the question, it should be 4."

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I slammed the hardback at the table and gathered all my notebooks in my arms. Without taking a glance at him, I stomped my way towards the exit and closed the door with a bang, hearing shushing from the inside.

~•~

Author's POV

Taehyung wandered around the hallways with his hands placed in his pockets, and gaze averting all throughout the place in frantic search of Sinon. Ever since that incident with Sinon, he hasn't seen her since yesterday, and it made him anxious to bits. Though the reason was clear. She was upset that she had a hard time correcting and redoing her formulas in math, and no matter how much she studies, Taehyung managed to correct her mistakes in a way that she couldn't even see in her own efforts.

Taehyung felt droopy whenever he separates too long with Sinon, and now, he felt his posture hunch and his jaw slackened downwards as he dragged his feet, scuffing his feet in a ramble. So pretty much without her, he felt incomplete.

When all hope was drained from the lonely boy, he saw a blur of massive black blending in with the crowd.

"Oi, Sinon-ah! Why are you avoiding me since yesterday!" He yelled through the crowd, he figure halted in the middle of the hallway. Just when the people had cleared the hallway, she turned back to face with a stolid stare. She had dark bags around her droopy eyes, and she became more blanched than her usual porcelain skin, clearly showing that she was unhealthy.

Taehyung returned the stare with a blank, confused expression. Sinon responded with a 'tsk' and walked away.

"Oi, noona! Why are you upset!?"

"Sorry." She answered in a insincere way. "The exams are in less than a week, and I advise you to study also, because for now, you are my opposing antagonist." She stated harshly, turning her back. "Don't interfere with my studies."

Her statement caused Taehyung to be slightly irked. "Hn, studying that much is pointless. Unlike spending time with your friends, studying can wait."

"Wait for what? An F stamped in my report card."

"You won't fail an exam when you set your mind and heart to it. Even the ignorant can pass."

"Don't compare me to an ignoramus." Sinon spat. She turned around and deepened her frown. Somehow, she felt grumpier by the minute.

"Is it because of yesterday that you hate me?" Taehyung asked in a loud voice, that it echoed around the empty hallway.

Sinon just sighed as a response. Her time was better spent with something valuable, rather than bickering like a petty 5 year old.

I never mentioned the word hate. Sinon thought to herself as she continued to trudge against the tiled floors, leaving Taehyung with a sour start to his morning.

~•~

Sinon hastened her pace and looked behind her from time to time to check for any distractions, and luckily, there was none. She gave a deep sigh and fixed her black jacket that was folded up in her upper arm, smoothening it to prevent wrinkles.

She sharply exhaled and bended her back. "Time to study." She murmured to herself, hearing two pairs of heavy footsteps getting closer and closer. Sinon put on her trademark scowl and faced the two begrudgingly.

She hoped that she would just give them the wrong impression and avoid her, but they halted just a few feet away from her. Their intimidating stares provoked Sinon to just punch them in the face, studying her opponent from head to toe. Their hair was slicked back and ridiculously coated with dried gel, sweat trickled down their arms and their muscles taut inside their thin uniforms.

They're delinquents. From what she believed, both of them are from the same degree as Sinon was, so she didn't want to get in trouble with students from the same school as she did, especially in the week of the midterms.

"What." She breathed out, holding their glares capably with a more fiercer one.

"Sinon, right? You have to come with us."

Her eyes widened at the gentleness of their tone, like a sort of pleading way. It made her cringe that she deemed them as intimidating when they're like everyone else. With terrible sense of grooming at that.

She merely rolled her eyes and followed the two inside the school building.

~•~

"Hey, have you seen Sinon?" Taehyung asked one of the two girls who were gossiping, but shook their head no. Taehyung grunted, his frown deepening.

He continued asking almost everyone in the classroom, and finally, one knew where she was.

"I saw her a few minuted ago outside, talking to some scary looking dudes and made her follow them." One of the boys implied flatly as Taehyung's blood boiled.

He ran throughout the hallways and slammed each door he passed by with a loud this, screaming her name and waited a few seconds for her reaction as his eyes scanned the surroundings for her.

~•~

Sinon sat in one of the desks of a crowded classroom located a few floors down from where her classroom was, indicating that she was in a lower class men's classroom. The two boys just waited out the door and told her to stay put in here, while the rest of the students ogled at her like some hubae.

"You're a senior right? Wow, you're so cool!

"What's your business here, noona?"

"Is being in the last year hard?"

My teeth clenched inside my frowning mouth, the time wasted here was making her giddy in her seat.

"Is she there?" She heard whispers from the other side of the classrooms. "Really? Thank you! Sinon-shi!"

A shrill voice piped up, a familiar face walking over Sinon with her prosthetic leg clinking with each step she takes.

"I'm so glad you came!" She implied sweetly, clasping two hands together. Sinon looked at her flatly, the ends of the pencil grinding between her teeth.

"You're the one who sent them?" She said, removing the pencil from her mouth and pointed it at the two men standing near the door.

A disgusted smile made a way to Lani's features delicate features. "They insisted in helping find you. I never knew they would actually do it."

"So, why am I here?" Sinon blatantly interrupted.

"Oh, yes." Her cheerful smile turned to a pleading pout. "I need your help."

"Help? With what?"

"I know that you're really smart, can you please tutor me?"

"Why?"

Lani paused for a while and looked to the floor in shame, her hands fidgeting behind her and her feet twisting in a shy way. "It's because I'm failing." She said quietly.

"What?"

"I said I'm failing!" She yelled and dramatic tears fell from her eyes. "I need to pass the exam next month because my grades are plummeting to the ground! And it's only been two months since school started! And they said that if I fail the exam, I'll get expelled!" She went on her knees and cried on Sinon's lap, as she reached her hands and patted Lani's head, feigning pity.

"There, there." She deadpanned.

"Will you help me?" Lani pouted.

"Will my study routines be affected by this?" Sinon raised and eyebrow.

"I'll try my best to not annoy you!"

Sinon raised a finger to her chin, pondering on her decision. Try her best not to annoy her? Was it good enough? What if her best was still distracting her-

Her thoughts we're interrupted when a thundering voice shouted as the door slammed open, in the verge of cracking.

"SINON!" Taehyung shouted, his eyes wandering around until it fell to Sinon. He yelled her name again in relief as he ran to her side, glaring at the two men. "What did you do to Sinon!?"

Sinon sighed and gave an apologetic look to Lani and the rest of the crowd who watched the scene unfold before them. "Nothing happened to me. Let's go." She instructed, tugging on his shirt with so much force.

Taehyung wasn't satisfied with her answer, and decided to take it on them. "What did you want with her anyway!?"

One of the boys grew angry at his tone, glaring at him as he raised his hand to Taehyung's chest, shoving him backwards. "Don't act cocky just because you're a senior!"

Taehyun growled and gave him a shove back, gasps surrounded the whole classroom. Sinon gaped at the two, pulling Taehyung backwards demanding him to stop once he laid a punch to the boy's face.

"V! Stop this! It's not worth it!" Sinon tried to convince him but the fight only grew more violent by the second. The students desperately tried to break the two apart, though to no avail. The students who tried to separate them ended up injured and thrown away as Sinon grew irritated. He seized Taehyung's arm and pulled him back as Taehyung prepared a punch, throwing his hand backwards, hitting Sinon square in the face. With a wince, she fell a few feet backwards, her butt hitting the floor with so much force that it could bruise as she held her bleeding nose. Students ripped their gaze away from the fight and went to Sinon's side.

Taehyung noticed the crowd lessen, much to his confusion as he looked back, revealing a pissed off Sinon with a bleeding nose. Taehyung shoved the guy away and went to Sinon, who was covering her face with her palm.

"Sinon, are you alright?" Taehyung panicked, prying her hand away from her face, but didn't even budge. Sinon's fists clenched, her face darkened under her hand.

"I had enough of this...." she murmured, removing her hand from her face revealing her ice-cold glare, piercing towards Taehyung. "Don't go near me again. I mean it." She spat.

Taehyung felt his heart sank.

"I don't want to see you again."

She stood up from her position and walked away from the classroom, leaving students befuddled.

Taehyung's bottom lip shivered, her words echoing through his head, mocking him for his inconsideration.

"I don't want to see you again."

"I don't want to see you again."

"She hates me....." Taehyung thought to himself.