Amor de mi Alma || 2Jae

Chapter 7

"Conclusion; I hate Grade Eleven Math,"

Jinyoung huffs and rolls his eyes over Skype as Youngjae tosses his pencil on the notebook that lays open on his mattress, running a hand through his hair in frustration multiple times at the equation that has been annoying him since he first read it.

"You don't hate it," Jinyoung says, as Youngjae picks up his pencil to try again. "You just don't want to put in the effort to actually do the math itself."

"How does one even solve a quadratic equation with numbers over a hundred, let alone a number just four-thousand eight-hundred?"

"I thought you had quadratic equations at the beginning of the semester?"

"It's a study guide, Jinyoung," Youngjae sighs. "I have my mid-term for Math on Thursday."

"Good thing I'm already done," Jinyoung grins. "Seriously, just wait until next year, then you'll be complaining about Math and math equations."

"Shut up."

There are a few moments of silence where Jinyoung is texting on his phone while Youngjae attempts once more to solve quadratic equations, before moving on to the Annuities: Future Value chapter of the textbook (which he hates even more - he just hates Math to begin with).

Youngjae hears the ticking of Jinyoung's fingers on his phone and looks up when Jinyoung calls for him. "Mind if Jaebum comes over to your house? You live closer to him and his mom is leaving and apparently, there are some kids asking around for fundraisers and he really doesn't want to face them."

"Sure he can, text him my address."

"Is anyone home?"

"Other than my sister, no. My parents are on a business trip again."

"Okay, he'll be there in about five minutes," Jinyoung says, reaching out and holding his laptop screen, "I have to go, okay? My aunt is coming over and my mom is forcing me to go to the restaurant with them."

"Fine, be like that," Youngjae huffs, looking back at his paper and scribbling something on it. Jinyoung clicks off and Youngjae leaves his computer open on the browser page, flipping through his textbook every now and then to reach the end of the many pages to the answer keys.

About five minutes later, he hears the front door open and his sister speak and he rushes off his bed, nearly tripping over his computer charger, to get to the front door before his sister can make Jaebum uncomfortable. 

"Youngjae!"

"Coming!" Youngjae hops off the last few steps of the stairs and walks to the front door, where his sister Jaehee is awkwardly standing with the door half-open and with Jaebum on the front step. "Hi, Jaebum."

"Hi."

"All right, I'll leave you two be then. I'm going to the store, call me if you need anything." Jaehee picks up her bag and then leaves the house after Jaebum is invited inside.

Youngjae rolls his eyes at his older sister - who probably isn't even going to the store, most likely just going to meet up with her boyfriend, whom Youngjae has taken a liking to - and closes the door, turning to face Jaebum. 

"C'mon, let's go up to my room. It's up the stairs and the second room to the right."

Jaebum nods and walks up the stairs, Youngjae following after him once he has the door locked. In his room, Jaebum lets his backpack drop to the floor before hesitantly sitting on Youngjae's bed.

"So how did your English exam go yesterday?" asks Youngjae, sitting in his original spot. From his brother's room comes his dog Coco, jumping on the bed and curling up into a little ball.

"Fine, I guess," Jaebum shrugs. "I think I might've messed up on the essay but oh well."

"What was the topic?" 

"On why we should hold a public market during summer," Jaebum sighs. "I kept saying that it'd be a good idea because it'd attract people and let men and women who grow their own crops get some extra money but then there was this girl Nayeon who wrote a whole essay about how it would not only benefit the farmers or the people selling but also the environment and the health of people who buy the things and why it would also benefit the good of the whole town and the town's name and attract more people even from close-by places."

"I'm sure you did fine," Youngjae says, leaning over and petting Coco. "Did you take your Social Studies exam yet?"

"No, that's next Friday. How about you? Any exams you have taken already?"

"On Wednesday is my Chemistry exam, Thursday my Math exam, which I think is at the same time as your exam, and Friday my French exam. Right now I'm just a bit worried about Math because I suck at it."

"I could help you," Jaebum says. "I mean, I brought study material but Social Studies is easy for me and I've already gotten Math down."

"Really?" Youngjae asks, and Jaebum nods, scooting forward to take the textbook from Youngjae's hands. "Thank you so much, I hate this, especially Annuities."

"It's actually pretty easy once you think about it," Jaebum says. "So you have the chart with the pays and such and then you have to make a column-like chart like this," He takes Youngjae's notebook containing the study guide and begins drawing columns as if he has done this many times before. "And once you have the information filled in and all you need to do is find the pattern, which goes like this, and then you'll have the values of the very last date."

"... But it's so confusing."

"I know it is," Jaebum leans back. "You've got a text message."

"What?" Youngjae looks at his phone, which lays on his pillow, and sees the screen just go black. He takes it and opens his phone to his lock screen of Coco and then he taps in his password before he opens Jinyoung's message.

Jinyoungie: Good news, apparently, according to Jaebum's mom, Jaebum has been doing better with his social anxiety and he keeps talking about a friend of his whenever he and his mom talk, and I think it's because of you. Don't you even dare hurt him or stop his recovery or I will snap your dick in half personally :)

Sent 5:03 PM

Youngjae chuckles at the message and clicks his phone off, tossing it back on his pillow. "Don't mind that, I'll respond later."

An hour later, around dinner time, Youngjae gets another text message, this time from Jaehee, saying that she has some money on her bedside table that he can take to order a pizza with and, after a long argument where Jaebum argues that pineapple pizza is the best while Yonugjae counters that it is the worst, they settle on a cheese pizza.

Yeonjaejae: Trust me, I'd move to a different continent if I ever were to hurt him so don't you even worry about your precious little bean, though he is growing on me quite a bit (watch out bitch)

Sent 6:57 PM