Stereotypes | Lee Minho

3

My teacher was already waiting for me when I entered the classroom a week later. "Minseo, please come to me for a second, I want to talk with you about something." I nodded. Did I do something wrong?

"I know you are new in this class but it seems like you understood the current topic, right?" He didn't even wait for my answer. "That's why I wanted to ask you if you could help Lee Minho. Or at least try to motivate him to study." Uhm what? Why me? "His grades are not good and I'm worried about that."

"Yes of course" I bowed and went to my seat. Actually, I had neither any time nor desire to do this, but now I finally had a reason to talk to Minho. Obviously only if he decides to come to school today. Luckily he did. A few minutes after the lesson began someone knocked on the door. The teacher just glanced at him for a second and instructed him to sit down. I figured that I should tell him about my offer to help him during lunch break.

>time skip<
"Class, dismiss!" All students hurried to leave the room. I turned around to face Minho but he was already gone.

"Perfect" I mumbled and sighed. He could be everywhere. The school was very big and I had problems finding the rooms where I had my classes in. The fact that my sense of direction is quite bad as well didn't help. How exactly should I find Minho? I eventually stood up and left the classroom.

Not knowing where to start looking for him, I decided to go to the cafeteria first. Most students went there during lunch break. Almost all seats were taken but I couldn't see Minho anywhere.

"Okay, he must be outside then." I turned around and was happy to leave the crowded cafeteria again.

For mid-august, it was already kind of cold. I got upset about myself since I didn't carry a jacket with me. I thought about wearing one in the morning but I was in a hurry, so I forgot.

After searching outside for a while I still couldn't find Minho anywhere. "Why am I even doing this?" I muttered to myself. By now my stomach had started growling. Spending the entire lunch break searching for someone instead of eating wasn't planned. On the way back inside I finally saw him sitting on a bench. He wore a dark blue hoodie. His hair was messy and I had to fight against the urge to stroke it out of his face. In his hands, he held something that looked a lot like a sandwich. It seems like the brown-haired boy didn't notice me until I stood directly in front of him when he suddenly looked up

"Do you want anything from me? Or are you just gonna stand there and watch me eat?" Minho raised one eyebrow.

"Tsk, rude" I mumbled. Not loud enough for him to hear. For a second I thought about how I should tell him. "I want to offer you my help.'' he froze as soon as the words left my mouth.

"And you want me to help with what?" Minho asked monotonously as his eyes grew cold.

"Uhm St-studying," I said nervously. It came across like a question though.

"No thank you" he scoffed. "I don't need your help. Who do you think you are? Huh? We aren't friends or anything just because I helped you out once. So leave me alone!" I didn't know what to say and just stared at him in shock.

"Yeah, right I just thou-" I sighed, he had already left.

>time skip<
I didn't see Minho again during the rest of the day. I was surprised by the way he had behaved before. So far I only talked to him once or twice but he acted differently this time. I shrugged it off. Maybe that was just the way he was. My phone caught my attention as it began to notify me that I received a message.

Mom
You have to pick your siblings up from school

Me
Sorry, I can't
Me
I have to work after school

Mom
No one else can pick them up
We don't have to discuss this
It wasn't a question

Oh hello, Mom, yes my day was good, thank you for asking. I groaned. Was it really that hard for her, to ask things like this, or at least act as if she cared about my day? I checked the time. Ahhh come on, how should I reach their school in 20 minutes? Before putting my phone away, I searched for Ha-euns contact and called her.

"Hiiii Minseo!" I couldn't hold back a smile. Ha-eun was like a small bundle of joy and without seeing her, I knew that she was jumping up and down while talking with me. She was one year younger than me, but we started working together at the cafe simultaneously. "Why are you calling? Is everything okay?"

"Yes, but can you tell our Boss that I'll be late? I need to pick up my brother and my sister from school. I think it will take around an hour"

"Oh okay sure. Good luck and don't let them annoy you too much. See you later" She said in a cheering voice before hanging up.

I left the school building quickly and sprinted to the bus.

It took me 30 minutes to arrive at my siblings' school. "Huh, where's Mom?" My sister asked, confused.

"I don't know, she said that I have to pick you up today. And now hurry up, I have to go to work!"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, but calm down"

After we found our brother we wanted to leave but my sister stopped. "Wait, I forgot to say goodbye to my friends" I silently groaned as my younger sister ran back into the school. I'm pretty sure that she is doing that on purpose.

It was far more than one hour later when we finally arrived home. "Can you help us with our homework?" My brother looked at me with puppy eyes.

"Sorry, like I said before, I really have to go to work now. Bye, see you later" I left the apartment in a hurry

The moment I opened the door of the cafe someone came out and bumped into me, spilling their coffee all over me. Oh no! Today was definitely not my day. The person stopped in front of me.

"I-i'm so sorry," a familiar voice said. Before I could answer, Ha-eun came out of the café.

"Ahhhh Minseo, are you okay? Oh god, what happened?" She looked at me worried. "You need to change" My friend pulled me to the locker room. "Here, you can wear this. I think this could fit you." Ha-Eun gave me a beige sweater, which she was probably wearing when she arrived here. Luckily it fitted perfectly.

"Thank you Ha-eun, I don't know what I would do without you" I gave my friend a quick hug.

"No problem," she said and a slight blush appeared on her cheeks.

>time skip<
I let myself fall onto my bed. "Ahh this day was so tiring" I whined. It was finally weekend, which meant no school. I still had to go to work, but everything is better than school. My phone made a notification tone as soon as I lay down in bed to sleep. Usually, I would have just ignored it, but it made the same tone two more times before I eventually decided to take it from my nightstand to see who sent me the messages.

Minho
I wanted to apologize
Minho
For spilling coffee on you
Minho
And for the way, I talked to you at school
Minho
Uhm...is the offer you made still valid?