Gold | Park Sunghoon

2

Disbelief

It had been a week and a half since Jangmi got back to South Korea. She had been studying nonstop while preparing to go back to cheerleading. It was part two of the tryout process to have the athlete train with them for a week—next week. If they liked the athlete, they were in; but if they don't, then better luck next time. Jangmi had sent her in tryout video last month and they seemed to be impressed with her. All she had to do now was prove to them that she was the same girl they saw in the video.

But that was only for the cheerleading part.

"Sunoo, is this right?" She slid her math notebook towards him. Classes were currently over, and Jangmi wanted to head to the library to finish her schoolwork. Sunoo, on the other hand, didn't want to go the library but chose to tag along and see if she needed help catching up. But by the same confused expression on his face as he saw the equation, he was probably not the help she needed at that moment.

He told Jangmi that he was going to call backup and ran to the tables across the library—or somewhere else she didn't know of. Jangmi was still getting lost since the library looked like a maze to her. And plus, she was too focused on trying to solve the problem herself.

"Jangmi!" This is Jake hyung! He's also one of your brother's friends and he's really good at math," he said loudly. Sunoo had come out of nowhere, earning a gasp from Jangmi and a shush from the librarian. ("Sorry, Mrs. Kwon.") Surprisingly, she had already seen him somewhere. Probably from the few pictures of Jay's friends. The older boy bowed at her and sat in between both of them.

Examining her math notebook full of computations, Jake nodded at her. "Jangmi, your solution is already correct." When Sunoo told her that he was good at math, she didn't expect him to be speedy either. He literally just got there and was already able to check her answers. Jangmi was impressed.

"The answer is x equals negative one?" She questioned, looking over at the older boy who was too busy helping her best friend. He gave her a thumbs up before going back to the younger boy. Jangmi continued to do the homework just like the first problem; and turns out, she was pretty speedy too—but only when she understood it. She rewrote her answers and computations neatly then closed her notebook. 

Jangmi stared at the two other boys as they fully immersed themselves in the homework. As Jake paused from speaking, the girl cleared her throat and called Sunoo's attention. "Do you need help with the other homework? I can help you after math."

"No thanks, Jangmi! I just needed help with math," he smiled at her sincerely. Sunoo was still not used to being offered a lot of help. He was the class president, so people never assumed that he needed help. That all changed when Jangmi entered the picture because she would constantly ask him if he needed anything from extra food or help with his class president errands. (She would easily persuade him by saying "It will help me get used to the school" but he knew she just wanted to help out.)