026

"Are you always such a smartass?" Jun asked Sana the next afternoon, after she perfectly explained a trigonometry concept to him. They were in one of the half-enclosed booths that had been built specially for students to study in at the library.

Sana smirked. "No, sometimes I'm asleep."

Jun rolled his eyes. "Now try and solve these," Sana told him, pointing to the problems. He scratched his head, picked up his pen and poised it above the page. Sana could almost see his brain whirring. He paused, then looked up at Sana.

"Sana," he said, all seriousness in his voice. She looked at him, surprised. "What?"

He looked off into the distance dramatically. Then he said, "If a can opener breaks..." and paused for effect while Sana sighed, "does that mean it's a can't opener?!"

Sana facepalmed, then proceeded to choke him, but he dodged quickly and began the actual solving. She chewed the inside of her cheek as she watched him make a mistake that would mess up the whole problem. When he was done, she glanced at him with a suppressed smile and began to explain it to him again.

---

Seulgi fiddled with her pen as she sat in one of the booths in the library with textbooks spread in front of her, waiting for her study partner to arrive. As she saw him approach, she subconsciously tucked her hair behind her ear.

She would prefer to be tutoring any other girl in her class, but fortunately-unfortunately, nearly every single girl in their class was a tutor (Girl Power!). She wasn't very good at talking to guys, and the person she was partnered with was best friends with her crush!

He smiled as he entered the booth, a stack of books in his arms.

"Hey, Seulgi," he said sweetly as he sat down. She simply smiled in response. Jaebum was arguably the best tennis player in the school. It was rumored that he played tennis so much that he didn't know how to study. Seulgi thought that was a load of crap; anyone can study, and it was not possible for someone to not know how to study. Some people just needed guidance, and that was what Seulgi was there to help him with.

"I was thinking we start with the subjects you are least comfortable with," Seulgi said when he had settled down properly. He nodded staring at his pile of books.

"French is my main problem..." he muttered, picking out the textbook. Seulgi smiled and looked at him. "Don't worry, French is my specialty," she told him confidently. "By the time I'm done with you, you'll be fluent."

Jaebum laughed nervously and glanced at her determined features. "I'll try my best," he said with little fight. Seulgi nodded, opening the textbook. "That's what I like to hear."

He mustered a smile, which disappeared when he looked down at the text book. "Okay," Seulgi said. "Introduce yourself in French." Jaebum glanced at her wearily and she encouraged him with a nod.

"Uh...je m'appelle Im Jaebum...je suis 17 ans et je...je adore la tennis..." He got stuck after that. Seulgi nodded again, a signal for him to stop.

"Um...first of all, when you talk about age, in French they use the verb 'to have', which is 'avoir' instead of 'to be' which is 'etre'. So you would say, 'j'ai 17 ans' instead of 'je suis 17 ans'. Do you...under..." she trailed off when she saw he was looking dejectedly at the ground.

"What is it?" she asked him softly. Was he going to cry? Seulgi thought desperately. Had she been too hard on him? She had no idea what she'd do if he started crying...

"No...it's just..." he began slowly. "I want to tell...never mind." Seulgi scanned him, confused.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she asked him and he dismissed the question with a nod.

---

"What?!" Irene exclaimed, staring at Suho. He glanced around, then put a finger to his lips. Irene composed herself and cleared her throat.

"I apologize," she said quietly. Suho nodded.

"How did you get that scrawny score on the test? Is it that you don't really understand what's being taught, or you forget, or you're not sure of how to study?" Irene asked him. He considered her options, then said, "I guess it's all three..."

Irene simply nodded. Then she slid the textbook over to him. "Go through that unit and fold down the corner of each page you don't understand," she instructed.

When the book returned with all but two of the pages with folded corners, she nearly chucked the book at him, but she kept her calm. "Do you listen at all when lessons are going on?" she asked him, inspecting the pages of text that she perfectly understood.

"I know there's no point in it because I never understand even if I do listen," he told her. Irene shook her head.

Then she slammed her fist on the table, loud enough to make Suho jump, but quiet enough so she wouldn't disturb the whole library. "You love your parents, don't you?" she asked him, her eyes boring holes into his.

He nodded detachedly, still shaken from her sudden action and the unexpected question. "Well," she continued, her tone sharp, "what do you do to show them your love?"

He hesitated for a few seconds, and before he could even answer Irene jumped in and said, "Right! You do nothing, don't you? Therefore, the least you can do for them is get good grades, do you understand me, Kim Junmyeon?"

He stared back at her quizzically, then nodded quickly as she stared at him harder. "So you're going to start listening in class, right?" she continued, and he nodded again. "And you will follow the study timetable I'll make for you?" He nodded once more, but slower this time.

"And finally, you will cut down on the hours you spend afterschool playing basketball on the court, won't you?" she asked, her tone still sharp.

He stared back at her, but didn't nod. "Won't. You." Irene repeated with a growl. It was not a question anymore. But Suho had seemed to have recovered from her attacks, and stood his ground.

"No." he replied flatly. Irene's eyebrows drew together, her eyes unblinking as she continued to stare right through him.

"I said," her voice rose slightly and became more threatening. "You are going to CUT. DOWN. On the hours you spend uselessly playing those sports. Do you hear me?"

Suho frowned at her, his body language showing that he was slightly scared, even though his expression seemed almost angry if not for the slight pout.

"Yah! D-don't you know who I am? You can't boss me around!" he attempted a snappy retort.

Irene leaned back in her seat, not dropping her piercing gaze even once. Then she smiled with a corner of her mouth. It was a victorious smirk. "Yes, I k-know who you are," she replied with a tease, folding her arms. "You're from some stinking rich family, aren't you? Don't try and kid yourself that money or power will always have your back; you're not the owner of them. Now I'm here to try and help you do better. You may not see why you have to learn about complicated diagrams in Math, but at least one thing we've learned in school is going to come in handy someday."

She paused for a moment and studied his face. He was listening raptly and didn't seem very stung by her words; he was rather thinking very deeply. "So, Mr. Kim Junmyeon," she dropped her voice and leaned forward again. "I advise you to act strongly upon the things I instruct you to. I believe that will be good for both you and m—well, actually, it'll just be good for you. Kapish?"

He seemed puzzled by the last word, so Irene repeated it in English, "Understand?" He nodded almost solemnly. Satisfied, Irene finally dropped her gaze and spread out notebooks, textbooks and pens over the table before cracking her knuckles and stretching her fingers. Suho hadn't moved, so she looked up at him. He was sitting as if trying to make himself smaller by folding into himself, almost like he was afraid she might lash out at him.

She scoffed lightly. "Relax. I'm not going to attack you again," she assured him. "That bit was just to scare you into listening to me." She stood up and walked around the table to seat herself next to him, then dropped the textbook open on the tabletop.

"No more 16% scores for you, when I'm through," she announced, then slowly began to explain.

A/N

How u like me now~

Hey y'all! Thanks soooooooooooo much for getting Don't Lie to nearly 800 reads!!!

If it reaches 1000, I'll probably cry...

Now that I think about it, Don't Lie is going to have A LOT more chapters than I had imagined. Because I have A LOT of ideas to add to this fanfiction.

I am also in the process of writing other Twiceteen fanfictions (spoiler: Chaeno and Wonmi) to post once Don't Lie is complete, so be expectant!

Basically I write my fanfics to spread awareness of certain problems we have in this world. For example, in this one; sexual assault, bullying, school pressure...you get the gist.

I hope that my fanfics can be a kind of comforting kind of thing, especially if you've had a bad day...kind of like Seventeen to Carats, how our boys cheer their fans (us) up.

So that's why I'm so happy that you guys are enjoying my story so far...thank you again!

P.S I hope you like the new ships! <3 *chosen fairly and squarely*