Chapter Text
Baekhyun thinks the library is too stuffy, with all the hushed voices and page turning, and he wishes he could leave, tapping his fingers on the table anxiously while Jongdae laughs at him.
“Shut up,” Baekhyun mutters, even though Jongdae hasn’t said anything yet. It doesn’t matter, though. His stupid smile is already annoying enough.
“This wouldn’t have happened if--”
“--if I’d studied. I know. Why can’t you just help me? We could go to the park instead.” Baekhyun is using his best puppy dog eyes, but after four years of being friends, Jongdae has become immune.
“I told you, I have a date with Minseok today.” Jongdae begins to gather his stuff from the table, and Baekhyun groans. “You’ll be fine. Most of the tutors are really nice, believe me.” And Baekhyun does. After all, Jongdae has been tutoring ever since his second semester his freshman year, and he knows most of the other tutors who signed up. Still, there of course has to be one student he doesn’t know, and it has to be the one person paired to help Baekhyun with Linear Algebra. Do Kyungsoo, a mathematics major. What if he’s mean or boring? Baekhyun already can’t handle studying on his own; if he has to deal with a terrible tutor on top of that, he isn’t sure he’ll survive.
Speaking of survival, Jongdae stands to leave. Baekhyun grabs his wrist.
“Please don’t leave me.”
“You’ll be fine.” Jongdae moves his hand to pat Baekhyun on the head. “Listen, Minseok and I will be right across campus. If it goes really bad, we can pick you up. But it won’t go bad, so don’t worry.” As he turns to leave, he pauses, a smirk curling the corners of his lips. “Speaking of… it looks like that’s your tutor now.”
Baekhyun looks up to follow his gaze and almost has a heart attack. The guy walking towards them is gorgeous. He’s wearing a black button up and black pants, and his gaze is dark and focused, scanning the room (which is kind of strange since Jongdae and Baekhyun are right in front of him.) When he notices the two of them staring, he comes closer and says, “Baekhyun?”
Jongdae moves more to the side and points to the man in question, grinning. “This is him. Bye, Baekhyun. Good luck studying.” He grins knowingly and sends Baekhyun a wink, then saunters off before Baekhyun can beg him to stay and protect him. Damn it. Of course Jongdae would notice right away that Kyungsoo is totally Baekhyun’s type, but then he isn’t great at hiding it.
Baekhyun stands and shakes Kyungsoo’s hand awkwardly before pulling a chair out for him, sitting down himself. “Uhm, thanks for coming,” he says, taking out his textbook to give himself something to do. Kyungsoo nods.
“It’s no problem. Tutoring helps refresh my memory. So what are you having trouble with?”
Baekhyun does his best not to get nervous when Kyungsoo slides in closer to take a look while he explains what he doesn’t understand. For Baekhyun’s distraction-prone mind, having a really cute guy teach him math is really not helping him focus. He’s too busy trying hard not to stare at Kyungsoo’s concentrated gaze or his lips while he talks about the problems. It takes all of his energy not to reach over and touch him, just to see if he’s real or just a figment of his imagination. Seriously, it’s impossible for the literal definition of Baekhyun’s type to exist, but there he is, in the flesh.
Kyungsoo pauses in his explanation and Baekhyun realizes he’d asked a question. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
The small smile Kyungsoo gives him borders on amusement and it makes Baekhyun’s stomach flip. “I said: are you going to focus or are you going to stare at me all day?”
Shit. He caught him. Baekhyun feels the heat rise up his neck. “Uh, maybe. Stare?”
Kyungsoo laughs, and Baekhyun forgets to breathe for a second. “I was actually asking if what I was saying made sense, but I guess you weren’t paying attention anyway.”
“I’m sorry. I’m really bad at that.”
“I can tell.” The amusement doesn’t leave his eyes, but he says, “I’ll explain again, but you’d better listen this time.”
“Yes, sir,” Baekhyun chirps, and he’s sure Kyungsoo is pleased this time around from his attentiveness.
By the end of the tutoring session, Baekhyun feels pretty good. He learned a lot under Kyungsoo’s instruction, and he feels satisfied. Plus, Kyungsoo turns out to be not only extremely attractive but also a really good teacher. He’s patient with Baekhyun even when he has to explain a concept a thousand times, and he actually seems to enjoy teaching him, which Baekhyun feels is a nice touch. They’re packing up their stuff when Kyungsoo says, “it was nice teaching you” and Baekhyun thinks, oh. Right. He’d only signed up for one tutoring session.
The sun is already setting, and it’s too late to ask him out for lunch even if he wanted to. Baekhyun chews on his lip and says instead, “Can I request you next time?”
Kyungsoo looks up and smiles. “Sure. It’s what I’m here for.”
It’s just a tutoring session, but Baekhyun feels the butterflies flutter in his stomach as Kyungsoo says goodbye and leaves. A heart-shaped smile. He contains his giddiness and messages Jongdae and Minseok, cheeks hurting from grinning too much.
I think I have a crush.