Chapter 01 - I Don't Want Your Help Anyway

Note : in this universe, they already legalized a same sex marriage, and most people are open minded and didn't mind this kind of marriage, although some older generation still hates it.

Ohm's POV

Oh Shit...!!! This is bad. I looked at the mid term exams results on the board. There were eight subjects. I got 2 Cs, 4 Ds, and 2 Es. That's bad, right. I'm failing at almost every subjects. I'm still on my first year of engineering and I'm already failing. This is a result of too much playing online games with my friends and not paying attention in class. If my dad finds out, he's going to kill me. Or worse, he's going to take all my credit cards and facilities, including my car that I love so much. And I'm gonna have to move to smaller apartment. I shuddered. No. I should do something. I'm thinking of some ways. One, paying smart student to do my final exams. Two, burn the campus down so we won't have final exams. Three, bribing the professors to give me a better grades. Or four, actually study to get better grades. The last options is the most unlikely. I looked at my best friend Drake's result, he got 5 Cs and 3 Ds. Holy shit, how can he got better grades than me? It's official, I'm dumber than the dumbest laziest student in this university. 

Suddenly there's a voice behind me. "Hi Ohm, have you looked at the exam results? What you got?" It was Perth, my friend from the faculty. I've been crushing on him since the beginning of college. He's so handsome and kind to me. I looked at him and smiled. "Hmm. And it doesn't look good, I got Ds and Es. What you got?" I asked him. "Oh, I got 1 A, 4 Bs, 2 Cs and 1 D. Some of the subjects are very hard." he answered. "You're right, it is very hard, that's why I'm failing." I laughed. Suddenly there's another voice from behind Perth. "You got E's and you can still laughed? Aren't you embarassed at all?" My smile disappeared. Nanon. The fucking model student, Nanon. Perth's best friend. The super "I hope he burned in hell" annoying, "straight forward, say whatever I want because I'm just super cute" son of a bitch. Seriously, if Perth is the definiton of handsome, then Nanon is the king of cuteness. Saying he's cute didn't do justice for him. With his sparkling puppy eyes, and his extra very very cute dimples. It's a waste though, that what once I thought was cute got cancelled because of his very sharp tongue. I gave him my middle finger. "You're so fucking rude. Come on, show me what you got." I turned to the board to look at his test results, hoping he at least failed at one subject. Holy mother fucking shit. He actually got straight As, for eight subjects. Even that one very hard subject that everybody failed, including Perth. I mean, he's the only one in class who actually passed the exam, and with A as his grade. C I can still imagine, but A? Who is he? Frankenstein? I looked at him in disbelieved. He smirked. He fucking smirked at me. I really want to pinch his mochi cheeks hard. "So you've seen what I've got. Do you have anything to say to me now?" he's so fucking cocky. "I....i...you...ugghh....nothing." I'm so pissed, but I can't say anything when he's at the top of the class. 

"You know, it doesn't look good for you, Ohm. If you failed the final exams, you're going to get D's and E's as the final grades, and you won't be able to graduate on time" Perth explained to me. He cared about me. He's so kind, I want to hug him. "Don't I know that" I answered. Tell me something I don't know. "You know there's one person here who could help you" he smiled, looked at me, and then looked at Nanon. Nanon's eyes widened. "No. No. No. Never. No. No. No. No. No. Not going to happen. No." Nanon shook his head. That's a lot of No coming out from his mouth. "Okay, one no is more than enough. And I don't want your help anyway." Okay, I do need his help, but I won't admit it. I'm not sure which is worse, ended up failing the subjects or passing them with his help. I won't hear the end of it if he help me. I can already imagine him being snarky. "Remember when I help you passed your exams. Yeah, I'm that good." Oh God, I won't hear the end of it. "Oh, come on, it will be fun. You can tutor him like you did with the others." He tried to convinced Nanon to tutor me. "And you can really use his method of study, he's a very good tutor, you know. I can guarantee you will pass all your exams if he tutors you. So you have to pay him, but I promised it's going to worth it." He tried to convinced me. "Nah, sorry, but my schedule is really packed until the end of semester" he tried to turn down tutoring me. "No you're not. Your only students are Drake and me." He's so straight forward, Nanon blushed. "Okay, how about this. What if he paid you double? You know I'm sure Ohm won't mind spending a little more money" Perth still tried to convince him, and he's still shaking his head. "What about triple?" I suddenly said. Well, if he can make Drake got better grades then he's a fucking wizard, and a very good one, of course. I mean, dumbest and laziest got Cs and Ds, come on. I thought he was going to get straight Fs. "I'm rich enough to pay you triple from what your usual rate is." He went silent. "Okay, fine, I'll think about it. I'll inform you later." he left, and Perth followed suit.

Honestly, Nanon and I didn't start out as an enemy. It all started the first day of college. I met Perth, and then Perth met Nanon and suddenly they were best friends. Maybe I was jealous of them. Or maybe there's something else going on that I couldn't explain. I mean, I'm crushing on Perth and suddenly he came in just like that. But I still thought we can just hangout together, Perth, Nanon, Drake, me, and some other friends. The thing about us is that we're all rich, except for Nanon who got in to this college with scholarship. We don't even know who his dad is, or what his father's job is. That's why it's a little too difficult for him to maintain a social life here. But he still tried to keep up, hanging out with us at expensive places, sometimes ordering nothing. Then one evening all hell break loose because of my stupid mouth. We were arguing about something, and I said something about him trying to fit in and having a better social status by hanging out with us. Now we got problem, and I don't think we can solve them. He got offended and didn't hangout with us at all after that. Perth said he's Switzerland in this case, meaning he didn't take sides, but in reality he took Nanon's side because he also stopped hanging out with us after that. Sometimes he tried to bring our group back together, but the attempt failed because Nanon always left once he saw me. In the end Perth just stopped trying. But he's still nice to me. I tried to remedy the situation but it's not working. And here we are throwing insults to each other everytime we met. Maybe this whole tutoring thing is his idea to bring our group back together.

I shook my head and get back to my class.

Nanon's POV

He offended me, he tried to offend me. He always do that. Why did he try to offend me everytime we meet. That fucking bastard. Saying I'm too low for his social group just because I don't have money. Even when the truth is far from that. I have money, I just can't use them. They just didn't know that. So my dad has this stupid rule that when you go to college you have to try living on your own so you can gain experience, so you know the worth of money, and you can valued it more. So I'm kind of like a prince in disguise. Everyone, including my dad and brothers think I won't last for a month living on my own. They all see me as this spoiled little brat who can't live without daddy's money. Seriously, everyone (including my dads, brothers, cousins, and even the helps) even have a bet going on for how many months I'm going to last. I mean it can't be that hard, right? If my brothers can do it, so can I. I can live without daddy's credit card. And so far so good, I can maintain my money. I even do the tutoring so I have extra income. "I'll pay you triple your usual rate" his voice still echoed in my head. I used to think Ohm was a very nice person. He could hangout with anyone without looking at their social status. But turns out I was wrong, because he thought of me like that, like I'm some kind of rat in his animal kingdom. He made a really deep cut. I stopped hanging out with him and his friends afrer that incident happened. It broke my heart because I used to have a crush on him. Well, I still do, I still think he's handsome, and I still hope that someday we can be together, even when I know that's just a silly hope. But what's worse is, I know that Perth has a crush on him too. We even talked about it. He said all is fair in love and war. He has the upperhand, he texted Ohm almost everyday, while I can do nothing. Imagined my surprise when he tried to make me tutor Ohm. On one hand, I'm happy because I can be alone with Ohm, but on the other hand, I don't want to lose my best friend. 

"Come on, why don't you accept the job?" Perth asked me. I played with my straw, biting it until it broke. "You know why." I told him. "Do you really want to see him fail? I know you're not that kind of person who celebrate other people's failure. Besides, it's your chance to get close to him." He keep pushing me to tutor Ohm. "But what about you? You have a crush on him too. Why don't you tutor him?" it's not like Ohm is going to go out with me, because, again, according to him, my social status is lower than him. "I asked for your help to tutor me, I'm not good at tutoring anyone, if anything they're gonna fail in the end" he has a good reason. "Are you totally fine with it?" I'm still not sure. "Yes, I'm fine with it, now give me your phone." I handed him my phone. I saw him typing. "What are you doing?" I asked curiously. "There. Done." He texted Ohm using my number. Fuck. "What....what have you done?" I'm shocked. Ohm replied. "Okay, let's talk schedule" I saw on the phone screen. 

For the next hour, I typed furiously. Lucky my phone screen didn't crack because I typed so hard. This is how it went down.

O : Why can't you do 8-10?

N : You know I have to do my homework too, right?

O : So? Just do your homework here and let me copy it

N : 🖕🏻

O : Rude

O : Even on text you're rude

N : This is a bad idea

O : I need you 6 days a week

N : So demanding

O : jvkfjkl

O : Sorry, phone fell down

N : I hope it smashed your face

O : Fuck you

O : Just kidding

O : Please tutor me

N : Okay fine

N : Let's do monday to saturday, from 7-9

N : How about that? 

O : Cool

N : Okay, cool

The next evening, I go to his apartment. He has a huge apartment, penthouse, actually. I went there once when we were friends, before we fell apart. He opened the door for me, looking disheveled, wearing only boxer and undershirt. "Please tell me you're alone." It really is going to break my heart into million pieces if suddenly Perth or anyone else appeared out of nowhere from inside the apartment, but mostly Perth. "Huh?" He looked confused and then some realization hit him. "Wait. You thought I was just finished having sex with someone?" He looked at me in disbelieved. "I just woke up from my nap you piece of shit." Okay, so we're off to a good start. "Sorry. I looked at you and thought....." I didn't finish my sentence. "Are you mad? Should I leave?" I don't know the protocol here. "No. Just....come in." He let me in to his apartment.

I sat on his sofa. He sat beside me. "So the final exams is in less than three months from now. I know you're far from ready so I prepared these for you." I handed him my summary of the subjects. "Hmm. Aren't you going to ask me which part I don't understand and how to work on them?" He asked me. I thought it was a sarcasm at first, but no, he really asked me. "If you know which part you don't understand, you won't need me to tutor you. You just have to ask me to explain it to you. People needs tutor because they don't understand at all." I explained to him. "So we're going to start with this subject, from this chapter. This is actually very easy, but the professor made it looks difficult. Here, let me explain to you....." 

For the next two hours I explained some things to him. He grunts and grunts. I tried to be as patient as possible. And I think there's a smoke coming out from his ears, and also my ears. "This is impossible. It's hard. So hard. Too hard." He yelled at me. "No it's not. You just need to be more focus. This is actually very easy." I tried to teach him again. "Okay, why don't we try applying it to actual problem." I gave him a question and 10 minutes later he solved it. "Okay. Not bad, not bad at all. See how you can solve the question I just gave you. That was easy, right? Not hard at all. I know you can do it. This is a very good start." I sighed a relieved. There's still hope for him. I looked at the clock, it's a little past nine. I packed my stuffs up. "Okay, that's it for today. I'm gonna go home. See you tomorrow." I started getting up. Suddenly he said "Nanon, do you need a ride home?" He asked me. Okay, this one is shocking.

Ohm's POV

I solved a question. Even if it's just one. I'm very proud of myself. I smiled. And to my surprise, Nanon smiled too. "See, I know you can do it. This is a very good start." he told me. I saw him packing up his stuffs. "Okay, I'm gonna get going now." he excused himself. "Nanon, do you need a ride home?" I asked him. "I mean, I'm gonna go out to get something to eat anyway." I explained to him. "Umm. Okay. If it don't bother you." he nodded. I put my jacket on, and we headed down to the garage in silent. 

We entered my car, a two seater black Mercedes. My favorite car, the one I considered the love of my life. My dad gifted it to me for my eighteen birthday. I just realized something. I never let anyone in to my car. I always drove alone. Not even Drake, or even Perth has ever sat on the passenger seat. And now Nanon sat on it. He's the first person to sit on it. "Ohm?" Nanon shook my arm. "Huh?" I just realized I haven't start the car. "Sorry. Okay, let's go." I told him. We took the main road. Suddenly he played with the screen. "Is there something good we can listen to?" he asked me while tempering with the screen. I was so shocked. One, he wasn't supposed to touch that. Two, how can he play with it like he's so used to it. I mean, not everyone knows how to operate the Mercedes screen from the very first go. He looked at me and must've realized his mistake. "Sorry, I didn't mean to.....to.....just sorry" he turned off the screen, maybe waiting for me to yell at him. Well, I was about to, but I saw him got a little scared so I didn't. I took a deep breath. "It's okay." I said to him, assuring him that I'm not mad because of the simple matter. I  turned the screen back on, and started playing song called 'just friend?' a very popular, award winning song. "Oh, I know this song." Nanon smiled and started singing along to it. Okay, his voice is amazing, I have to admit that. "Nanon, have you ever thought of entering a singing competition?" I asked him when the song's over. "Are you mocking me?" he asked but still smiling. "Well, I don't know if you're gonna win, but your voice is good. I'll definitely vote for you." I teased him. "Well, with my voice AND my cute face, I don't think it's going to be fair for the other contestants." we laughed. "And besides, my dad won't like that." We fell silent.

"Have you eaten yet?" I asked him. "Hmm.. I haven't. I'm planning to order something after I got home." he said, pouting his lips. Cute. "Why don't we go get something to eat together, and then I'll drive you home?" I offered. "Any good restaurant I should try?" I continued. He looked at me like I'm crazy. "Are you sure?" he asked me. "Yes Nanon, I'm sure of it. 100%. We can have one dinner without trying to kill each other." I assured him. "Okay. Have you tried This Restaurant?" he asked me. Now I'm confused. "What restaurant?" I asked him. "This Restaurant. That's actually the name of the restaurant. Funny name, but the food is quiet good." He explained.

I thought he was kidding. He showed me the route to go there and we arrived. It really said 'This Resto' on the sign board. I laughed. Okay, funny name. We got off the car and entered the resto. It's quite packed considering it's almost 10pm now. We started ordering, and everything on the menu looks good, I have trouble deciding what to eat. Nanon suggested ordering some menus so we can share. Not a bad idea. We ordered and wait for our food. "So, how was your first lesson?" he asked me. "Not bad. I thought it was going to be much more difficult, but you make it easier." I complimented him. "I know, I'm a good teacher." he laughed. I laughed too, as I know he was just kidding. Our foods arrived. I tasted the noodles, and it's delicious. "Okay, you weren't lying when you said the food here is good" another compliment to him. Okay, what's wrong with me. To my surprise, he just smiled, again, a very cute smile. I thought he was going to snark at me like we usually did. We finished eating, and I paid for the meal. "No, we should split the bill" Nanon offered, but I shook him off. "You can get the bill next time, don't worry about it." 

I drove him home. We said goodnights and I drove back to my apartment. 

To Be continued...