When Kyong arrived at school, his first thought was, Veronika. He walked to her classroom, even though his first class was english. He thought about just kissing her outright, but thought, it would be better to use the entire week to build up to it. He had already lost one day, so he had four days left. If Louella’s advice didn’t make his father crack, then he didn’t know what would. He looked through the windows that outlined the classroom but didn’t see her. He approached the door and took a deep breath. As his hand gripped around the handle, “Kyong!” 

He turned to see the source of the voice. It was the girl from his algebra class, the one that had blushed. “Hi,” He stated, eyebrows cocked. 

“Hi,” She said back, eyes fleeting up and down his body. Kyong would have blushed, but honestly, he was used to it. “Close up, you look like Jung Kook.” She looked away, cheeks reddening.

Kyong wanted to say that BTS was one of his favourite bands, but instead he said, “I get that alot.”

The girl bit her lip, “What are you doing here? You don’t have algebra until fourth period…” She squealed, realising she had just relieved herself as a stalker.

“How do you… know my schedule?” Kyong’s voice faltered.

“It was passed around school. Someone got a hold of it and…”

“Of Course it was…” Kyong breathed. “I’m here to see Veronika… uh, Chae, Veronika.” he corrected himself.

“You’re on a first name basis with Chae, Veronika?” She squealed again.

“No, uh, it was an accident.” He backtracked, but it was too late, she was coming to conclusions. He needed to get rid of her. “If you leave, I will think about being your boyfriend.”

Her mouth dropped open. She went to speak but nothing came out. She tried again, “Really?” It was barely more than a whisper. 

“Yes. What is your name?” Kyong asked, nonchalantly. 

“It’s, Aanya. No need to know my last name, we can be on a first name basis. Just like you and Chae, Veronika.” She giggled.

“You are going to need to drop that, if you want to be my girlfriend.” Kyong was getting inpatient. Time was wasting and he was about to be late for english.

“Okay.” She bowed her head at him, skipping away hastily.

Kyong sighed, pushing down the door handle. Veronika was sitting on her desk, reading something, a student paper by the looks of it. 

“Kim, Kyong.” She said in surprise, placing the paper down on the desk next to her.

“Hi, Veronika.” He said, backing onto a desk, facing her.

She blushed at the mention of her name, and Kyong lost all sense of doubt, his confidence soaring through the roof. He crossed his right leg over his left, “I think I need some help with Algebra.”

“Already? We only just started yesterday.” her eyes narrowed in confusion.

Kyong winced. Of Course that was not believable. He needed to pick this up fast. “I mean, I can see I will need help.”

“Okay. We can set up some one-on-one tutoring.” She said, seriously, picking up her diary from the desk next to her.

Kyong grinned, until she said “I will see which student would have a free period at the same time as you.”

Kyong screwed up his nose, “Actually. I think it would help me more if you were to tutor me. You know Algebra better than anyone…”

Veronika looked up at him, surprised. “Me? I…”

“My father would prefer it.” He said quickly. 

“Well, if your father would prefer it, we can uh,” Her eyes darted between her diary and Kyong. She shifted uncomfortably, “I should be able to do Thursday.”

It wasn’t soon enough. Today was Tuesday and he needed to woo her asap. “How about today, lunch?” he blurted.

“Uh, don’t you want to have lunch with your friends?” She was startled and searching for words. Kyong couldn’t let her think too much.

“I don’t mind giving up my lunch for learning.” The last word came out choked. “Do you?”

“No, not if you don’t mind.” She was still reeling about what had just happened. How did he talk her into tutoring him one on one in her lunch break.

Kyong needed to leave before she changed her mind. “I should get to my English class.”

“Yes, go.” She said, shaking her head.

Later that day, Kyong found himself at the same door, lingering at the handle. He sucked in a breath before entering, lunch in hand. When he enters, Veronika is sitting behind her desk. She is halfway through scooping a spoonful of rice and pauses when she sees Kyong. “Chae,” she chokes a bit on her rice, swallows it and clears her throat, “Kyong.” 

“Veronika.” He acknowledges, stifling a grin, biting his bottom lip to keep her from seeing it, but it's too late. Her cheeks grow crimson and she lightly touches a hand to her throat, turning away from him. Her hair is in a high bun and her makeup is simple. 

When she turns her head back to Kyong, she says, “We should get started, we only have fifty minuets.” 

“Right.” he pushes his lunch bag to the side and picks up his Algebra book, waving it at her.

“You got an Algebra textbook?” She looks surprised and a bit impressed, though she tries to hide it.

“Yes, someone leant it to me.” he says casually, “Should I come to you, or you to me?”

“Agh, I will come to you.” She shuffles in her seat, collecting her lunch and bringing it over to the student desks. “You packed your own lunch?” She says, as she takes a seat.

“Are you surprised?” Kyong looks her dead in the eyes, and she holds his gaze.

“A little, yes.” She blinks suddenly, realising the intensity of the moment.

“Well, consider me full of surprises.” He smiles quickly before looking down at the textbook.

She coughs, trying to break what she sees as an inappropriate moment for a teacher and student. “Yes, let’s get started with this.” She flips through the pages, looking for a page to get started on, accidentally bumping Kyong’s hand as she does. She immediately shifts uncomfortably and he stifles an awkward laugh. “Let's start with some equations.” She breaks the silence. “Are you familiar with any of these?” She runs her finger down the page. “Here is a good one, x3 + 1 and (y4x2 + 2xy – y)/(x – 1)” she mused, “Do you know how you would work this one out?” 

Kyong knew the answer but he would humour her; he had an agenda after all. “The ‘x’ is the number that needs to be revealed.” he pretended to ponder the options of what ‘x’ could mean.

“Yes, exactly. The fun part of algebra is figuring out what the letter is. It’s like a puzzle.” when Kyong didn’t respond with more than a glance, she continued, “an easier example would be, 1 + 2 + x. ‘X’ stands as a placeholder for the answer. So with algebra, before you find out the answer, you must first find out the equation.” 

“Yes. That makes so much sense.” Kyong mused, “You're so good at Algebra.” he complimented her and she grew giddy.

“It’s my favourite thing.” she bit back a smile.

“I can see that.” Kyong said. If he was being honest, he knew the answer was twelve but he didn’t want to waste time sitting there figuring out the equation, when he could be wooing Veronika instead. “Are you coming to the swimming competition tomorrow?” Kyong tried to change the subject from maths to something he could utilise. If Veronika came to the swimming competition and saw him in a speedo, it could escalate things much faster than doing maths equations. 

She looked taken aback by the sudden shift in topic, “uh, yes, I believe all teachers are expected to attend. Are you competing?” her eyes were filled with confusion.

“Yes, I am.” Kyong beamed.

“Really? But you only just started attending yesterday…” She was turned to face him now. Her pencil still fixed between her fingers.

“I am an experienced swimmer so when I tried out for the team yesterday, the coach entered me into the race for tomorrow.”

“Wow,” she uttered, suddenly shaking her head like she was trying to rid thoughts. Thoughts perhaps that took her mind off of algebra. 

Kyong smirked, hiding his face in the crook of his arm. His elbows were fixed on the table and he was almost shoulder to shoulder with Veronika. 

Veronika traced the pencil back over the equation, pointing the tip at the little ‘3’ above the ‘x’. “Do you know what the little ‘3’ means in this kind of equation?” he asked, meeting Kyongs eyes, though Kyong could tell that her thoughts were still elsewhere. 

“I can’t remember. Could you remind me?” He asked, not taking his eyes from hers.

“It means that when we find out what ‘x’ means, we multiply it by three.”

“Oh, of course. That makes so much sense.” he hit the table, snapping Veronika out of her haze. That's when Kyong heard a giggle, coming from outside. Veronika did too. They looked to see the girl with the pigtails. Kyong searched for her name in his head. What was it again? Aanya. “Crap.” Kyong muttered, before realising this could actually serve him well. Hopefully Aanya had a big mouth. Veronika looked panicked. That meant she thought there was something to be panicked about. Kyong grinned, his plan had worked perfectly.