"—So if you move this to this side, x becomes equal to one," Gun lectured. He pointed at the numbers on the formula that he was teaching the girls.
"Oh! So that's what the teacher meant back then!" Min Chae exclaimed in realisation. Back when the teacher was teaching the topic, she hadn't had a clue of what the teacher was talking about. To her, it was practically alien language.
"How can you not understand something as simple as that?" Jang Mi remarked with a disdainful look. Since they had started studying, Jang Mi had lost her nervousness as she got into her element. Alongside Gun, she helped the two other girls on points where they did not understand.
The two exchanged heated glares.
For the twelfth time that day, Gun sighed and reminded them, "Stop fighting, please."
""Yes~""
And for the twelfth time, the two girls straightened their postures and assumed a serious image. Of course, neither of them lasted for a few minutes before they got into another fight.
Again, Gun sighed.
Meanwhile, there was also another person who was currently confused about the 'alien language'.
Hyuk stared blankly at Yeo Ri who was seriously writing down her answers while muttering the equations.
It felt like ages ago since he last held a workbook and he could not recall a single thing that he learned in school. Of course, it was also because he used to doze off in class and rarely even studied since he spent most of his free time working or getting into trouble. Luckily, his school had a policy where there was no failing grades; as long as one's attendance was kept, it was good enough to move up a grade and graduate.
Finding himself bored with nothing to do, he took out his phone and began his daily routine of fiddling around on the 'net.
He looked through multiple job-searching websites and half-heartedly applied for some jobs. After a while, he got tired of it and randomly browsed through some news and entertainment websites.
When he got bored of that as well, he switched to gaming. He played for twenty minutes straight before getting tired of the repetitive process.
Hyuk placed down his phone for a short while, taking a break. His eyes moved to Yeo Ri once again, staring as she continuously answered question after question without raising her head.
Her eyelashes fluttered as she blinked every once in a while, barely breaking her concentration. Hyuk found himself entranced by her seriousness. She looked so mature with her eyes slightly drooped and mouth curled into a slight frown as she tried to solve the questions.
Yeo Ri's hair fell over her shoulders, and with one hand, she tucked it back behind her ears without pausing her other hand.
Secretly, Hyuk raised his phone, pretending to be absorbed by whatever people thought he was looking at behind the screen, and opened the camera app. He changed the settings to silent mode before snapping a candid picture of the studious Yeo Ri. Acting nonchalantly, he looked around to see if there was anybody who had noticed his actions. Fortunately, the other people he was sharing the table with were not interested in what he was doing. Even Min Chae who sat next to him had not realised what he did.
Hyuk pursed his lips to suppress his victorious smile. Instead, he cleared his throat, "This is too boring. I'm going to go hang out outside. Yeo Ri, call me when you're done."
"Mm." Yeo Ri raised her head and flashed him a smile. "Be careful, Oppa. Don't push yourself," she reminded him.
He gave her a slight nod before getting up and heading outside.
Once outside, he immediately whipped out his phone to look at the result of his perfect crime.
He had taken only one photo, but that one photo was more than enough to make him happy. It was the first picture of Yeo Ri that he had taken so clearly and closely.
He admired the picture for a long moment before putting it away.
Actually, it was not the first time he took a picture of her without her knowing. He had taken a bunch of them before, and the only problem was that they were all candid pictures.
If one was to look through his picture gallery, one could easily mistake him for a creep. It was filled with pictures of Yeo Ri; when she was sleeping, when she was cooking, when she was folding clothes, when she was walking... it was almost as if he was stalking her.
He had no idea when this habit started. It was just that he found it easier to look at Yeo Ri through the camera lens instead of face-to-face. He used to lean against the bedroom door and look at her through his phone's camera before going to bed, and the habit proved to be hard to break as he still continued to do it, albeit less frequently than he used to.
Hyuk allowed a small smile to grace his face. He decided that the latest picture was his most treasured one. Hyuk went through his gallery, deciding to delete the ones with bad quality. With such a clear and high quality photo in storage, he no longer needed most of the other candid photos to relieve his longing. He cleared his photo gallery, and all that was left was a few candid shots that were deemed to be well-taken along with the newest addition.