027

"How many do you think you got?" Chungha asked him. Hoshi shrugged. "Probably, like, three, maybe...if I'm lucky..." he answered.

Chungha grinned and revealed his score: 20 out of 30. "You were just 10 questions short!" she told him proudly, displaying the workbook before his eyes. His face lit up with a smile. Last time he'd done an exercise, he'd only had 12 of them right.

It had been nearly two weeks since the two had been studying together and Hoshi had improved a lot. It turned out that he nearly always had the general idea of certain concepts like in Math and Science, but didn't know very well how to work them out.

He'd turned out to be a visual learner, so for other subjects like Korean, Language and Literature, Chungha had made and shown him videos to help him understand how to do things.

In return, Hoshi was helping her with sports to up her grade in P.E. Basically, he was teaching her how to play basketball and football, and yesterday, she'd scored her first proper basket from the free-throw line.

Hoshi high-fived her, still with a smile adorning his features. "Now," Chungha said, bringing another workbook out of her bag. "English."

Hoshi groaned, even though he was better in English. He wanted to play football, as his favourite group of seniors were. Chungha nudged him. "Come on, Hosh, you're great at it now." she assured him. "I'm sure you'll only take a few minutes."

When he still didn't look very convinced, she told him that he could continue his basketball lessons with her if he got above 15/20 on the exercise. He agreed.

A few minutes later, Chungha grinned as she held up the worksheet with a perfect score marked in red in the corner. Thrilled, Hoshi got up and jumped around as if he'd just been set free from a month-long punishment. Then he ran at Chungha, grabbed her arm and tugged her towards the court. She nearly fell but Hoshi held her up and they began their basketball lesson.

"Now try shooting from the 3-point line," he ordered her, pointing at the curved line on the court. She shot and missed miserably. Hoshi held in his laughter and pretended to cough when she glanced at him. He strode over to her and stood behind her, closing his hands over hers that held the ball.

Chungha gulped slowly as Hoshi started speaking into her ear.

He raised her arms with his and held them in the correct shooting position, explaining all the angles of her arms and wrists. Then he let go of her and told her to shoot.

She did and it bounced off the rim; the closest she'd got so far. She hadn't made a basket, but she grinned at Hoshi nonetheless.

They practiced for quite a while, and Chungha lost track of time, and only realized it was late until she noticed the rapidly darkening sky. She was tired, but exhilarated as she checked her watch. Her eyes widened as she realized it was nearly an hour past the time for her to take her insulin. She could already feel a slight weariness as she walked back to where they had been sitting earlier.

She turned to Hoshi who was walking beside her. "Listen, Hosh, I'm sorry but I have to get home quick..." she began. "My dad wanted me home early and I'm quite late." She hastily packed her things into her bag and swung it onto her back.

"Let me take you home. We can take a—" he was cut off by Chungha.

"No, it's alright. My dad may get sensitive if he sees you with me..." she told him quickly, then turned around to go. But something stopped her. Hoshi had grabbed onto her bag.

"Wait I—"

The sound of something falling to the ground cut him off for the second time. He looked down at the black pouch on the ground. Time seemed to have stopped for a second...Then it clicked in his head.

Chungha stared at him wildly for a second, then snatched it up and ran. She was on the verge of tears as she sprinted away from him.

Now Hoshi was going to hate her like how all the other kids had done.

She suddenly felt a hand close around her arm and spin her around. She collided with his chest and he hugged her.

"I'm sorry," Hoshi said into her hair. "I didn't know. You need to take it now, don't you?" Chungha's breathing paused for a moment.

"Don't run all the way home, you'll get tired," he continued. "Take it here, then I'll walk you home. I'll explain everything to your dad if I have to..." he pulled her away from him. "Alright?"

Chungha sniffed and felt his thumb wipe away a tear. He was probably just pretending to be nice so that she'd help him get better grades.

But she listened to him anyway after pushing his hands away and headed to the girls' bathroom to take the shot. She sat on the toilet in the stall knowing Hoshi was waiting for her outside. Why did he care? Why wasn't he abandoning her like anyone else would? Why hadn't he looked at her with the eyes every other student had looked at her with?

With a sigh, she silently left the stall, washed her hands and went to meet him outside. He grinned at her. "Are you alright now?" he asked, his tone normal. Chungha looked him in the eye, not saying anything, but just searching for any hint of disgust or regret or...something!

Why wasn't he like the rest?

.

.

"Are you okay?" Jun asked Sana over the phone.

She groaned and rolled over in bed. It was Saturday again.

"No~" she mumbled grumpily, scrunching herself up as small as she could in her bed. They were supposed to be having their date, but Sana was on her period and had been having bad cramps the whole day.

Jun sighed into the phone. "Do you want me to come over?"

"NO!" Sana answered quickly, her grip tightening on the phone. On the other end Jun raised an eyebrow, then said, "You're on your period, aren't you?"

It was Sana's turn to sigh. "No..." she said again with a groan. She was silent for a while. Then, "Yes...and I want you to come over. And I want snacks and chocolate and ice cream and I want to cry over Titanic and pet my dog and go to sleep and—"

"Woah, woah!" Jun stopped her with a chuckle. "Calm thyself. I'll be over there soon, okay? I'm coming..."

He jumped off his bed and skipped into his mother's room where she was watching a hospital romance and munching on chips in bed.

"Yo, mum," he said. "Is it Ibuprofen that you take when you get cramps?"

She nodded without looking up at him. "And get her a hot water bottle and she'll deffo want chocolate," she added.

He nodded with an appreciative grin and left. He threw on some clothes and got his wallet and phone before exiting the house with a, "Bye mum! I love you!"

He earned a "Mhmm..." in response.

Sana had crawled downstairs to watch TV and sulk when Jun rang the doorbell. She yelled at him to come in because she couldn't be bothered to get up and go and answer the door.

Jun found her wrapped in a blanket watching cartoons and sniffing every few seconds. As he approached, she turned to look at him and her eyes were red and slightly puffy. He sat beside her, placing the snacks and medicine on the table. "Have you been crying?" he asked her, pulling her into his arms. She shook her head, then changed her mind and nodded.

"Where's your mum?" he asked her as they continued to watch the silly animation.

"Went to work..." Sana mumbled.

"And your dad?"

"He's on a business trip...I'm all alone..." She began crying again. Jun held her tighter and stroked her hair, watching Luna trot into the room.

"No~"he said. "You're not all alone. I'm here and Luna's here..." He kissed her foreheadand wiped her tears away. "We're not going anywhere..."

A/N

Eugh~

CRINGE

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And I hope you are enjoying it! GoSe on MONDAY!!!! <3