Dear Sputnik

XVIII

- TAEHYUN -

"Math is too hard," Huening Kai murmured to him as they walked to the cafeteria for lunch, "I feel like you're the only one I can count on to actually teach me, Taehyun."

Taehyun chuckled a bit before telling him, "I don't think doing your homework classifies as teaching you, Kai, I hate to break it to you."

"Hey, it's more than what our teachers have done!" Huening Kai exclaimed before flashing him a crooked smile.

Taehyun laughed and shrugged, gripping his backpack straps around his shoulder. It was true, the teachers weren't the best at this school. Taehyun felt like the quality of the education he was receiving was ten times worse than it was at his private school, but that was expected. Still, he had perfect grades in all of his classes. He learned a lot of advanced concepts back in his private school. Taehyun missed learning all of those subjects, as well. They had many electives to choose from, despite having a fourth of the student body count that this public school had.

As long as he kept his grades high, he felt like no matter what college he went to, he would likely excel in. Maybe he wouldn't get into his dream school that he wanted to get into like his sister wanted, as well, but at least he would likely get a scholarship to cover his tuition. By looking at his parents finances, it was unlikely that he would be able to go to a prestigious college of his choosing. Scholarships didn't help that much. If he played a sport, maybe he would've been able to get a full-ride grant.

Taehyun pushed his thoughts aside and tried to focus on what was truly important. He needed to graduate at the top of his class and have near perfect grades, so that would set himself up whatever college or private school he might go to in the future on the right path. College was still so far away. At the same time, though, he was still concerned about it and he knew that what he did now would affect him in the future.

"I brought my lunch today," Huening Kai announced as they walked into the cafeteria together, "I have leftovers. Last night, we had bulgogi."

Taehyun felt his stomach rumble when he heard what Kai had brought in his lunch. He hadn't remembered the last time that they had Korean barbecue. It had been such a long time that he felt like he had forgotten what it tasted like. Maybe he would be able to eat it again someday. Hopefully, that day would come soon.

"That sounds good," Taehyun murmured, smiling some, "I'm gonna go ahead and get in line for lunch."

Huening Kai nodded and started off towards the table they normally sat at. Taehyun walked to the lunch line, starting to get a place before he heard a familiar, striking deep voice shouting his name.

"Taehyun-ah! Wait up!"

Taehyun turned around, backing out of the lunch line to see Beomgyu walking towards him. He had a grin on his face and he had to readjust his bangs to see him clearly. Taehyun returned his smile and the two of them joined each other in the flowing lunch line.

"Hey," Taehyun greeted him, "How's your day been so far?"

"Pretty good!" Beomgyu exclaimed, "Guess what?"

"What?" Taehyun asked curiously.

"I got an A on my math test, all thanks to your help!" Beomgyu told him, patting his shoulder suddenly, "I used your method to isolate the variables! Thank you so much!"