Mingi is used to being dragged to random places by his friends. They usually give him a time and place and all he has to do is show up. This time, everyone is refusing to tell him where they're going. He's asked a hundred times but all of them are on some mission to keep this a secret.

After a whole journey of trying to figure out where they are going, they arrive at some restaurant. Jongho is smirking at him as they walk up to the entrance. "What are you guys up to?" Mingi says, not liking the looks on any of their faces.

"We kind of set you up for a blind date" San says, so quickly that Mingi almost misses it.

"Tell me you're joking" Mingi says, no amusement on his face whatsoever. They all give him a guilty look.

"We think it will be good for you! You haven't dated in years and it will be a nice change" Yunho says.

"That's not for you guys to decide, I don't need to be dating right now, I have more important things to focus on"

"Like what?" Jongho says, and Mingi has to stop himself from smacking him.

"Studying! I'm about to graduate" Mingi says, making the others burst out in laughter. He doesn't blame them, even he doesn't believe himself.

"Just give it a try Mingi-yah, you never know, this person might become the love of your life" San says. "Or you might get a one night stand from it" Jongho adds.

Mingi rolls his eyes. Some people might not think so but Mingi is actually a soft hearted person, he finds it hard to say no to his friends. He knows they had good intentions and he's not actually upset, his friends would never attempt this if it was something he really didn't want, so he's not mad and just accepts his fate. "So why did all of you come if you were setting me up?"

"To stop you from getting suspicious" San says, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Now hurry up and get in there, you're already 10 minutes late. It's that guy with the blue jacket" He points to a guy on his phone, sitting near the window. Before he can even get a complaint in, he's being pushed into the store.

He sighs, not in the mood to talk to someone new but he goes up to him anyway since his friends made the effort to find someone for him. The person looks up from his phone when Mingi walks up to him, giving him a smile.

"You're my blind date I assume?" He asks and Mingi nods, politely returning the smile. "I'm Daehan, nice to meet you"

Mingi takes a seat opposite him. "I'm Mingi"

"I know, how could I not?" Daehan says and Mingi looks at him in surprise.

"You know me? Do you go to our university?" The guy nods, and Mingi lets out a small 'oh'. He's aware that everyone knows who he is because of his father, and while some may take the 'fame' as a good thing, Mingi doesn't like it. Sure, he's popular and he always gets what he wants. But it's usually either because they want to be on good terms with the school or they're afraid of him. San and Jongho are the only people who didn't want something from him. And Yunho is his childhood best friend so he doesn't count.

"I did a group project with San once where I mentioned something about dating, and that's when he said he has a friend who he could introduce me to. I had no idea he was talking about the Song Mingi!" Daehan says with a wide grin.

Mingi just smiles back, not really knowing what to say in response to that. They order some food and chat a bit more, but Mingi doesn't like Daehan's vibe, it's nothing specific but Mingi would rather go home right now.

"I can't believe you are my blind date! The universe must be on my side" Daehan exclaims.

"How so?" Mingi says. He can't lie, the attention does please him sometimes.

"I just got back my grade for my project and its literally 1 mark away from the next grade"

Mingi's face drops. Yep, there it is. "And what's that got to do with me?" Mingi already knows where this is going but he'll give this guy the benefit of the doubt just in case.

"I was thinking... since you're the head's son- you could put in a good word for me and get my mark boosted?" Daehan gives him a knowing smile and Mingi frowns at him. "What will my father do? He's not in charge of your mark, your professor is"

"You're rich aren't you? You could bribe him or something"

Mingi scoffs, standing up. "Why would I do that, am I some tool for you to get your target grad or something?"

"Oh come on, everyone in the school knows you pay to keep your fake grades"

What he said isn't necessarily wrong, but it still hurts hearing it. "No I dont" He doesn't care if he's lying right now, he's not going to sit here and be ridiculed. "I'm leaving. And since you think I have so much power over someone else's grades, maybe I'll put in a bad word for you".

It was petty. But Mingi didn't care. He walks out of the place despite the protests of his so-called date. This is mostly the reason why Mingi doesn't like going on dates, everyone is the same. No one cared if they hurt his feelings if they could get a favour done by him. Daehan will probably spread rumours about him now, how he probably sabotages other student's grades to make his look good. He doesn't care, people have always been like this to him. He's learnt to shut it out and not care what other people think. As long as his friends know the truth and believe in him.

***

The next day, his friend's crowd over him in their private lunch room. His father had given him a private space to eat when more and more students would come and bother him. He doesn't use it often though, preferring the vibe of the actual cafeteria. But he does use it on days like this, when he isn't in the mood for seeing other people.

"So how was your date?" Jongho asks, eating his lunch as if it was popcorn and he's watching an interesting movie.

"It was terrible, the guy wanted me to bribe his professor to improve his grade"

The others sigh defeatedly. This isn't the first time this has happened to Mingi. Why is it so hard to find a normal person in this school. "Really? What a shame, Daehan seemed really nice when we did our group project" San pouts.

"It's fine, I was prepared for that going into the date." Mingi says, patting his back, he knows San would never set him up with someone who he thought wasn't a nice person.

"Oh, I know a person who's cousin's brother-in-law is looking to date!" Yunho says, the other three giving him an 'are you serious' look.

"Guys, I appreciate you trying to set me up with people" for whatever reason, he adds in his head. "But I really don't feel like meeting anyone right now"

"You just need to give it a chance!" San says, and Mingi looks at him pointedly. "Ok- Daehan was a practice round. We'll gather some genuine people we find and you can choose from the list. Even if it's not dating, you can just be casual with them"

"You know what, since you guys keep insisting that all my stress will be relieved if I get laid, I will consider finding someone". Mingi says, and his friends look at him with open mouths. San squeals.

"Really-"

"But only if I find the person myself, none of you guys sending people to me or tricking me into blind dates"

Jongho laughs "Hyung, the only people you know are us! There's no way you can find a person without our help".

Mingi glares at Jongho "I'll have you know I'm handsome and popular, people will be lining up for a piece of this" Everyone gags. "Besides, I'm just looking to get laid, it doesn't need to be with an angel, just someone who I can tolerate".

Yunho rolls his eyes. "It should be with someone you like Mingi, otherwise you could've just done it with that blind date guy and called it quits. You're too much of a softie to have one night stands"

"I'm not a softie!" Mingi gasps, offended at the accusation. But the others ignore his scandalised look and keep agreeing with Yunho. "Whatever, I'm leaving. Otherwise I'll be late for my tutoring session" He stands up and packs his bag while his friends look at him in confusion.

"You're actually doing the tutoring?" Yunho says, looking sceptical as he watches Mingi pack his bag.

"My father's forcing me to so yeah. I'm just going to show my face, I'm not planning to learn anything" Mingi shrugs, heading out the door while his friends wave goodbye.

***

Mingi takes his time walking to the classroom, he's sure his tutor won't mind him being a few minutes late. He wonders if he's even expecting him to attend the lesson.

He enters the classroom ten minutes late, which isn't bad at all in his opinion. Unsurprisingly, his tutor is already here, Kim Yeosang was it? He mentioned it on the text message but Mingi didn't care enough to remember.

Kim Yeosang looks up from his phone when he arrives, and Mingi almost thinks he's in the wrong room. He doesn't know what he expected him to look like but the guy in front of him is not what he thought his tutor would look like. He probably expected some tired and nerdy looking burnt-out student, this guy looked like he just came back from a magazine shoot.

He is sitting on the teacher's chair so Mingi just takes a seat somewhere on the front row. Once he's sat, Yeosang wastes no time in getting started. "I'm Kang Yeosang, your new tutor" Mingi simply nods, he figures he doesn't need to introduce himself.

Kang Yeosang stands from his seat, walking towards him. "I'm sure you know why you're here so I'm not going to bore you with the information" He places a paper on his desk. "Since I'm not sure of your skill set yet, I'd like you to do this sample exam paper, then we can work from there".

Mingi stares at the paper, then at Yeosang who is looking at him with no expression. He has big round eyes, which instantly make him look soft. Mingi supposes he will be easy to get rid of. Even if he tries to look intimidating, something about him makes him think that he's the soft-hearted, pushover type.

"No" Mingi says, not sparing the paper another glance. He hasn't completely decided yet if he wants to go through with the turning or not, something in him still tells him to push a bit more, despite how mad his father will be if he doesn't behave. This guy seems easy to disobey so Mingi tries to see how far he can get. To his surprise, Yeosang isn't looking shocked or offended. Instead, he lets out a small laugh.

"You don't think your father didn't warn me about you?" Yeosang says with a glare. "Let me make this clear to you Song Mingi, I am not going to be like your other wimpy tutors that run away once you give them a few angry faces." Mingi frowns at that.

"My scholarship that I gave up everything to get is on the line all because of you, and if tutoring you will keep my place in this school so help me or I will be hunting you down every day and making sure you get your shitty grades up!" Yeosang didn't exactly mean to blow up on him like that but the way Mingi had the audacity to already be stubborn when he is aware of this situation makes him so mad.

Mingi blinks, a scholarship student? That is cruel even for my father. He acknowledges that Yeosang will be impossible to get rid of, he seems to have made it his mission to improve his grades. He doesn't blame him but he does feel sorry for him. 

"Sorry," Yeosang says, surprising Mingi. He didn't even say anything back yet and he was already saying sorry. "I just- I'm in my third year too and I really need to graduate. Otherwise everything I worked for will go to waste, so please co-operate with me".

"I understand your reasons, but I have my reasons too. Why would you think I'll suddenly start agreeing with tutoring after all this time?" Perhaps it was stupid of him to say this to someone who is clearly set on staying. But, Mingi has barely gotten a word in this whole time and he still wants to see how far he can push this new tutors buttons, even though he's certain Yeosang wont crack.

"I've already told you why, and I'm not going to waste time repeating myself. I don't want to be that guy but I will tell your father if you don't work with me. I'm not getting my place here revoked because of you" Yeosang wonders how annoying this guy could get. He clearly is actively avoiding studying for whatever reason. And it's way harder teaching someone who doesn't want to learn over a dumb person.

Mingi nods, he knows he can't win this. None of his other tutors were this determined to tutor him before, usually a bit of money got them skipping away. No amount of money can win over a nerd's education. "Fine, I'll go through with the tutoring- but that doesn't mean you can improve my grades".

It was surprisingly easier to get through to Mingi than Yeosang thought, he took Mingi as more of the argumentative type. Maybe it was out of pity, but Yeosang doesn't care as long as he co-operates. "Trust me, I'll make you top of your class if I have to. Now do that exam." he says, pointing at the paper.

Math equations stare at Mingi as he picks up his pen. He sighs loudly, making Yeosang roll his eyes. No one has ever made Mingi do work like this before, so he tries to do it as slow as he can, to show his annoyance.

After ten minutes, he's barely half-way through the first question when Yeosang walks up to him. "Do you need help? You haven't gotten far at all" he says, concerned.

All of a sudden, he sits right next to Mingi, grabbing the pen out of his hand. Mingi stares at him in surprise, people usually are too intimidated by him to be this direct. He starts explaining the question to him but he just zones out. He'd noticed that Yeosang has a deep voice, but sitting next to him, he can hear the bass of his voice and it intrigues him how someone so soft looking can have a voice almost as deep as his.

"Are you even listening to me?" Yeosang glares at him, not amused that he's not taking this as seriously as him.

"The questions are too easy, I got bored" Mingi says, making Yeosang raise his eyebrows. 

"Easy?" They were the most basic questions he could find but after looking at Mingi's grades, Yeosang would have thought that they would be hard for him.

"Yes. Easy, give me something harder and I'll consider answering them"

Yeosang gives him an unimpressed look, surprised that Mingi still has the nerve to make snarky comments at him. "You wont consider anything, you will be answering them" he corrects him. Yeosang gets out a textbook and after a few minutes of consideration, he shows him a page full of questions. "Do these, I'll check back on you in 20 minutes".

Heading back to the teacher's seat, Yeosang watches Mingi to make sure that he's actually doing the question. With one last glance at Yeosang, Mingi actually gets on with working out the answers. He smiles to himself, feeling like he's accomplished a big goal. This is just the first step of getting out of this contract.

After a while, Yeosang checks up on his student who is looking bored and fiddling with the pen. He frowns, standing up and walking over to him. His paper is full and Yeosang grabs it immediately, checking the answers.

"What the fuck?" Mingi's focus snaps from his pen to Yeosang, who is looking at him with an annoyed expression. "Are you messing with me right now?"

If it wasn't for the look on Yeosang's face, Mingi would think he is the one messing with him. "What are you talking about?"

"I gave you the hardest questions in the whole textbook and you got all of them correct" Yeosang says, still frowning. Mingi looks pleased with himself after hearing his score but it only makes Yeosang more confused. "How the fuck did you do that?"

Mingi shrugs. "Maths comes naturally to me". He's been a prodigy ever since he was a child, and his parents loved him for it. It was only when he started becoming interested in music that he no longer liked maths. That was also when his parents started forbidding him from doing a music career.

"It comes naturally to you? Those were the hardest questions on the textbook and you did them so quickly- do you even need a tutor?"

"I guess not" He hasn't done maths since he came to university, but it turns out he still has it in him to do well. "Those questions weren't even hard"

Yeosang scoffs. "So why exactly are you failing all your modules?"

"Like I said, I have my reasons" Mingi says calmly. In truth, it sounds a bit childish and spoilt for him to say that he's rebelling against his father for making him do maths, so he chooses not to say the exact reason.

The sigh that comes out of Yeosang makes Mingi jump. "I thought you don't even want to do these tutoring sessions, doesn't it make sense for you to get a good grade and stop these sessions?"

It is a good point. Mingi recalls his father promising to free him from tutoring if he got his grade up. But it's not motivating enough, he wants to show his father that he made the wrong decision forcing him to do a degree he doesn't want.

"I can't even do anything now, it's not like I have anything to teach you. You were right when you said I can tutor you but I can't get your grade up" Yeosang looks defeated and Mingi almost wants to give in. But this isn't about Yeosang, its about him.

"Please, can't you just do well on your next test? Just once so your father thinks the tutoring went well and he lets us both go, then you can go back to rebelling or whatever reason you're sabotaging your grades"

It isn't fair that Yeosang is being dragged into this, especially now that he knows that Mingi is purposefully keeping his grades down, it leaves him hopeless. "I'll do literally anything you want, I just need to keep my scholarship. The only way I keep it is if you get your grade up".

Yeosang looks at Mingi with sparkling eyes, great. Another person with big puppy eyes to lure him to do anything they want. Mingi rubs his temples, getting stressed out thinking about it all. It's the righteous thing to just ace one test just to let Yeosang free from his father's death grip. On the other hand, Mingi is set on proving a point to his father, one he has been doing for two years already and he does not plan to break it now.

But the desperate look Yeosang is giving him will probably be etched in his mind every time he fails a test on purpose. Like Yeosang said, his scholarship is in his hands now. "Fine". He says, and Yeosang breathes a sigh of relief. "But like I told you, I have my reasons for keeping my grades low. Since I have to pause that, I also want something out of this deal". He hopes that this doesn't make his father think that he's finally got to him.

"Okay, anything you want just name it" Yeosang says all too quickly. Mingi pauses, not actually knowing what he wants from this.

The curious look Yeosang is giving him makes Mingi stare back at him. He's never actually paused to fully look at Yeosang's face and now that he is, Mingi can admit that he's pretty good looking. His mind goes back to his friends all telling him that he needs to get laid. He scans Yeosang again, considering the idea, but immediately shutting it down.

This is crazy. He thinks, there's no way he can just ask Yeosang that. But then he thinks back at his friends earlier today when they claimed that he wasn't able to find anyone on his own.

Yeosang is still staring at him, waiting for an answer. Mingi avoids his gaze, his eyes are too piercing, it's like he can read his every thought. "Are you into guys?" He blurts out and instantly regrets it, but the damage is done and Yeosang is looking at him in confusion.

"Huh- I am, but why?" Mingi clears his throat, since he's put himself in this position he might as well go through with it. He tries to find a way to suggest it but Yeosang observes his hesitation and catches on.

"Wait, are you saying you want to fuck?"

With the way he just said it, Mingi almost coughs. He's no prude but he expected his nerd tutor to have a little decency. "Yeah" he replies. Yeosang is smart enough to have caught on without him actually saying it.

His eyes rake over him, Yeosang is still standing up while Mingi sits, making him feel like an item on sale. He seems to be considering it for a while and Mingi almost tells him to forget about it, before Yeosang crosses his arms.

"Fine, but only if you swear to keep up your end of the bargain"

Mingi raises his eyebrows, honestly not expecting Yeosang to agree with this. He is about to call it off in case Yeosang thinks he's some whore that gets people to sleep with him if they want anything from him. But he doesn't really care what other people think.

Besides, this will only be a one time thing.

"Okay, you have my word". He decides that it's worth a try if he wants to relieve his stress, which is recently getting bad, to the point where he can't sleep. He's at the stage where he's willing to try this and if his friends were correct about sex being a good stress reliever, then good for them.

"I'll text you my address and let you know when I'm free" He doesn't really like taking strangers to his house but he figures it's impolite to force himself into Yeosang's home after he was the one who suggested all of this.

It doesn't matter anyway, since Yeosang will only be going to his place this one time.