Chapter Text
Seungcheol dreaded going to school. His grades were barely good enough for him to pass most of his classes, and he didn't have any friends. His teachers basically hated him, and kids even picked on him for being the dumbest kid in class.
He was practically counting down the days until graduation.
Looking at the clock, he realized it was time to actually go to school. It wouldn't be the first time he lost track of time while looking at Zodiac memes on Instagram and ended up getting to class late.
The distance from his house to school was thankfully only about 15 minutes, and he had a couple of minutes to spare by the time he arrived.
After pushing past the crowds of kids scattered throughout the hallways, he reached his locker. He dialed the combo into his lock and pulled the door open, the rusty hinges making an ear-piercing squeal. He took his science textbook out, and put his backpack on top of the mountain of miscellaneous crap that Seungcheol always planned on cleaning but never did. His locker kinda looked like a landfill.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when a hand slapped his shoulder.
"Move it or lose it, kid, you're crowding my locker," a shrill voice said much too loudly in his right ear.
Seungcheol stepped back, watching as a few cheerleaders congregated right next to his locker. There were probably 5 of them, all talking cheerfully as they got their books and stuff.
Seungcheol still needed his pens, so he stayed and waited for them to leave for a few seconds.
The same girl made a sour face at him, "Why are you standing there staring at us? Get lost, you perv!" She said, almost immediately letting out a surprised shriek when someone pulled on her ponytail.
"Don't be so rude, Jisoo," the only boy in the group said, furrowing his eyebrows at her. He looked up at Seungcheol, his expression softening. He opened his mouth, but didn't speak, just walking away and letting all of the girls follow him.
Yoon Jeonghan, the first male cheerleading captain in the history of the South Seongnam High School Angels. He made waves at the beginning of the Quarter when he was chosen for the position, and proved himself by leading the team to victory at their first competition of the season.
Everybody in the school knew the name Yoon Jeonghan, and the jawdroppingly beautiful face that went with it.
Seungcheol had hardly ever spoken to him, and frankly he was surprised that jeonghan wasn't just as mean as the other snobby, rich cheerleaders.
Shrugging it off, he got his pen out of his locker and went to his first period class.
"Alright. I've finished grading your tests from last week. These are worth 5% of your final mark, so you should hope you did well," Mr. Kim announced during math class, handing out papers at everyone's desks.
Seungcheol groaned, crossing his fingers for at least a 70%. This was one of the tests that he actually studied for, and he was kinda confident.
He knew he was fucked when his teacher stopped next to his desk, and murmured the words "See me after class," when he gave him the test.
Flipping the paper over, Seungcheol's heart sank when he saw the 53 written in red ink at the top. He put his head in his hands and tried not to freak out, taking deep breaths until he was sure he wasn't going to cry.
He basically zoned out the rest of class, his mind wandering as he thought about how exactly he'd go about dropping out of school, since at this point he might actually flunk.
By the time the bell rang, he'd come to the conclusion that he could just quit school and be a stripper.
He gathered his things and went straight to his teacher's desk, "You wanted to see me Sir?"
Mr. Kim nodded, "Well, uh..you made a 53 on your test. I'm afraid you're at risk of flunking this class," his eyes shifted around the room.
Seungcheol didn't say anything.
"I think it would be best if you had another student tutor you."
"Wait what? No no no no, I can study on my own, I promise!" He begged, he didn't want to get stuck having to spend time with one of these people in his class.
Lowering his voice, "Seungcheol, I really think this would be good for you. Please just try it out for a little. If your grades improve by the next test, you can drop the tutoring sessions."
"Alright. Fine," he sighed, giving up. 'I guess if it keeps me from flunking out, it's worth it'
He smiled kindly, his crows' feet becoming more prominent, "I have a student in mind who I think you'd get along well with. He's one of the smartest in my class, and he's very outgoing. He'll be getting extra credit for helping you, of course," He explained.
"You wanted to see me, Sir?" A smooth voice said from the doorway, drawing the attention of both the teacher and Seungcheol. Yoon Jeonghan, of fucking course.
Seungcheol stared at him wide eyes for a moment, "H-hi," he blurted out, waving slightly.
"Jeonghan-ssi, this is the student you'll be tutoring."
Seungcheol's mind had gone blank. Jeonghan would be the one tutoring him? Yoon jeonghan? The most popular boy in school who had tons of friends and threw parties all the time and shit? He was going to be the tutor.
Jeonghan approached hun, extending a hand for him to shake, "I don't believe we've ever formally met. I'm Jeonghan," he said, smiling politely, "I look forward to working with you."
"I-I'm Seungcheol," he said, not sure why he was suddenly nervous, "So uh..when should we start with the tutoring?"
Jeonghan nodded, "Well are you available Thursday and Sunday evenings? I have Cheer practice all the rest of the days."
"Yeah..wait today is Thursday," he said, glancing to the side to see that Mr. Kim had already left the classroom, leaving the two of them alone. His heart thumped, for some reason he was avoiding making eye contact with this boy.
Shrugging, Jeonghan put his backpack over his shoulder, "Yeah. Why don't you come over at 6:00 and I'll help you with math stuff."
"Ok. What's your address?"
Jeonghan scoffed, "I just had a party last month, weren't you there?" He asked.
Sighing, Seungcheol looked at the floor, "I wasn't invited.." his ears started burning at the awkwardness of the situation. Just when he was starting to think Jeonghan wasn't like the other rich snobs at school, he was proven wrong.
"Really? Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I thought I sent invites to all the seniors, I must not have had your number," his eyebrows raised, thin lips forming a pout, "Anyway, here's my number," he said, pulling out a piece of paper and scribbling onto it, "Text me sometime today."
Seungcheol was a little taken aback by that reaction, "oh uh..ok," he took the piece of paper, turning to leave the room, "See you..later," he said before walking out into the hall. Jeonghan looked like he wanted to say more but their next period was starting soon, and frankly Seungcheol didn't want to spend more time with that guy than he had to.
The rest of the day went by way too quickly. After school, Seungcheol went back home and just watched tv for an hour, not wanting to think too much about stupid math, or stupid tutoring, or stupid Jeonghan.
By the time 5:30 rolled around, he figured it was time to start walking to Jeonghan's house. He texted the boy, asking for his address, and was met with a very fast response that-in seungcheol's opinion-contained way too many emojis.
Apparently, the two boys lived in the same neighborhood, so the walk to his house was only 15 minutes. When Seungcheol reached what he assumed to be the correct house, his expectations were proven false yet again.
Jeonghan's house was..normal looking. Not a massive, gaudy mansion, but a modest suburban home not unlike Seungcheol's. The bushes in the front yard were dying a little, and the front door looked like it needed a fresh coat of paint. Seungcheol felt a little guilty for making such reaching assumptions about Jeonghan despite not really knowing him.
Taking a deep breath, he rang the doorbell.
A few seconds passed.
Suddenly, the door swung open, "Hey!" A cheerful voice greeted, it was Jeonghan, "Come on in."
His blonde hair was up in a sleek ponytail, and his cheer clothes were replaced with a pink tshirt and ripped jeans. He might've been wearing some makeup, too, but Seungcheol couldn't tell for sure.
Seungcheol stepped inside, kicking off his shoes, "So uh.." he didn't knew where to go with that sentence. Thankfully Jeonghan had something of importance to say.
"My bedroom is upstairs. Do you want anything to drink? We have water, tea, juice, soda," he explained, smiling politely at him.
'God why is he so nice?'
"Um.." Seungcheol looked at the floor, "Water, please?"
"Ok. Go ahead upstairs, and I'll be up with it. It's the room at the far end of the hallway. You'll know it when you see it," he chuckled, walking away, probably towards the kitchen.
Seungcheol went upstairs and went to the room at the end of the hall that, indeed, was exactly what he expected Jeonghan's room to look like.
There was a shelf full of miscellaneous cheer trophies and other memorabilia.
He observed the other side of the room, which had a twin size bed with pink bedding. Above it, was a poster of a kpop singer who Seungcheol didn't know the name of, but knew he was from a group called Super Junior. On the night stand was a small pride flag sticking out of a mason jar, which made Seungcheol smile a little bit.
"Hey," Jeonghan suddenly appeared in the doorway, "What do you think of the decor?"
"It's..uh nice.?" He looked around again, this time noticing more kpop posters on the other walls, and the bunny plushie on the bed.
"Totally doesn't look like it belongs to a 12 year old girl, right?" His tone was thinly veiled with passive aggressiveness, "Here's your water," he said, holding out a bottle of water.
"Thanks," he took it, "So where should we-"
"We can sit on my bed," he said, plopping down onto the mattress and patting the space next to him.
Seungcheol did as he was instructed, sitting on Jeonghan's bed and pulling his math book out. He looked at Jeonghan, waiting for him to give more instructions. The silence was awkward.
Scooting over a bit closer, Jeonghan cleared his throat, "Do you want to go over today's homework?" He asked with a slight smile.
Nodding, he got out his homework from his backpack, putting it on top of the math book, "I haven't even started it yet, but if it was anything like yesterday's, I probably won't get it." He mumbled, running his fingers through his hair to get it out of his face. He wondered for a moment, is Jeonghan's hair as soft as it looks? He imagined playing with it and letting the silky strands glide through his fingers, then he realized how weird that was and he shook the thought out of his head.
"Ok, we can go over the first problem together," he said, lurching over Seungcheol to reach the pen that was on top of his night stand.
Seungcheol couldn't help but notice that Jeonghan smelt nice, like strawberries and vanilla.
They began working on the first problem of the homework, then the 2nd, then the 3rd. The awkwardness seemed to dissipate once the two began talking more. Seungcheol began to look at the situation a little differently, realizing that he may have misjudged Jeonghan. He wasn't a stuck up, snobby popular kid like Seungcheol originally thought. He was nice, and smelled good, and could help Seungcheol not flunk out of math.
Maybe this arrangement wouldn't be so bad after all.