2U

Chapter 13: Study Buddy

Lalisa was sure that her brain stopped functioning in the midst of their exams.

The thought of her transferring to another school, leaving all her friends behind, bothered her.

If she does well in this school, will her parents just let her continue to study there?

“The back part of the test was the hardest!” Eunwoo complained.

Bambam's brows furrowed. “What back part?”

Eunwoo blinked twice at him. “The enumeration? At the back of the paper?”

“There was an enumeration?” Bambam gawked. Reality dawned upon him. “I am going to fail!”

As the whole class discussed about the test, Taehyung couldn't help but dart his eyes towards Lalisa. He noticed that she was a bit under the rug ever since earlier. He didn't sense her usual bright demeanor. He wondered what happened, and prompted to ask, but he was contemplating whether or not she wanted space.

What are you doing, Taehyung-ah? he thought to himself. He knew he already lost to Jungkook. With a bitter smile to himself, he tried to wipe out the thought of approaching her.

“Do you know how to play chess?”

Taehyung was startled when someone suddenly asked him, his head turning towards the direction where the person was. There, he saw Park Jinyoung — as much as Taehyung knows, Park Jinyoung was once part of the Student Council. However, he refused to run for a position this school year.

Jinyoung's question echoed in Taehyung's mind. “No,” Taehyung lied.

Taehyung assumed that Jinyoung would either invite him to a seminar or to be a part of some chess club. He already had a lot on his plate right now, Taehyung couldn't afford to have any additional workload.

Jinyoung sarcastically chuckled, scratching his temple with his pointer finger. “Well, I think I asked the wrong question . . .” Jinyoung sighed. “Do you still play chess?”

Taehyung's brows furrowed. “What is this about?” He looked around the classroom, eyeing Lalisa once more, before he looked back to Jinyoung.

“The school will participate in a chess tournament in January. The head assigned me to assemble the school's first ever chess team,” Jinyoung explains.

Taehyung's brows knitted together even more. “But I don't play chess,” Taehyung lied once again.

January will be the start of the student council's preparations for February and March, when a lot of activities will take place.

“I'll meet you after classes in the AVR.” Jinyoung gave Taehyung a tiny salute before he left their classroom.

You see, Taehyung had this tiny err big problem — he has trouble saying no. It'd be so simple to turn Jinyoung down, but he just couldn't.

With a sigh, Taehyung just shook his head. Guess I'm part of the chess team now, he thought.

>><<

“Won't that be tiring?” Chaeyoung asks Lalisa as she sips onto her juice box.

There the girls were, on the bleachers right beside the basketball court of their school. Lalisa told Chaeyoung all about her plan to excel this school year — albeit they were already halfway through, that is. Lalisa had to generate all the possible ways she can excel.

“You can excel in academics, that is without a doubt,” Chaeyoung told her. “You just need to really focus.”

Though Lalisa abhorred this thought she had, she knew that she needed to do it. “And that means less time with Jungkook, right?” She sighs.