✓ nostalgia | jungwon

chapter 13.

nostalgia, thirteen.
❛ post-it notes ❜

Yebin immediately looked around in confusion, wondering who else was here at this hour. She was surprised to find Yang Jungwon sitting at his usual seat, looking at her with an amused expression.

     She rubbed her tired eyes in disbelief, thinking she was hallucinating. But when she opened them, he was still there. "Jungwon? What are you doing here?"

     "I fell asleep and missed my stop." Jungwon shrugged, causing the driver to turn around and give him an unimpressed look.

     "Oh." Yebin nodded in understanding, lifelessly putting her backpack down as she took her seat next to him.

     "Rough day?" Jungwon asked.

     Yebin laughed at the reference, sighing as she leaned her head back on the seat. "You have no idea."

     Jungwon smiled, before his eyes fell to the textbook in her hands. "Need any help with that?"

     "Sure, if you'd be willing help someone to do the devil's work for free," Yebin explained. "It's calculus."

     "I know." Jungwon shrugged.

     "Oh my god. You're one of those smart kids who like math, don't you?" Yebin droned. "Okay, it might be a little hard for us to get along after this."

     "No, seriously!" Jungwon laughed, shaking his head. "Come on, tell me which topic you're on."

     Yebin sighed, mumbling something about the world being unfair as she opened her textbook. She handed it to Jungwon. "Knock yourself out."

     "Logarithm Functions? You can breeze through this topic for sure. Don't worry, it's not as bad as you think it is," Jungwon assured her. "Here, I'll summarize the terms and explanations for you, just tell me if you any questions."

     Yebin blinked in shock as if to ask 'really?' and Jungwon nodded. She then excitedly scooted closer, wanting to get a better look at the textbook while she listened.

     Jungwon scoffed lightly as she peered over his shoulder, like a little kid wanting to play games on his phone. He shook his head before focusing on the book. "So, logarithmic and exponential forms..."

     He read through the text and shortened the sentences into easier words, which Yebin would hum in response to. Every now and then, he'd laugh in amusement at the contents of the post-it notes she'd messily scattered on each page, supposedly things that would help her remember. But clearly, she just wrote whatever came to mind at the subject. They were full of bad jokes and frustrated questions.

     Yebin eventually had to lean on him for support, her replies growing softer each time she responded.

     "Hey, we're almost done! Now, you remember the first set of properties, right?" Jungwon encircled the list on the textbook, before raising an eyebrow when he didn't get a reply. "Right?"

     He looked to his left, finding Yebin with her eyes closed and her head against his shoulder.

     Jungwon's mouth hung slightly open, not knowing what to do. He tapped the top of her head, trying to wake her up. It didn't work.

     "Yebin-ah," he called, however the girl didn't move a muscle. Jungwon sighed, realizing she had probably dozed off a while back without him noticing. He debated on waking her up again, but decided to ler sleep knowing she was already exhausted.

     Jungwon clicked his tongue at the fact that his lesson, which he thought was pretty informative, had gone to waste. Until, he realized it didn't have to. It would take a big effort on his part, but he didn't mind. Looking at her again, he tried to discreetly slide her head off his shoulder to reach for the post-it notes in his backpack. He panicked when the action almost resulted in her falling off completely, but he caught her before that could happen, hesitantly moving her head to lay on his lap.

     Thankfully he could now reach for the notes in his bag, and quickly got to work. He went through the entire lesson, listing down every important term or phrase and explaining it in simple words, along with leaving a few study tips in general.

     But as he flipped through the textbook pages, it was hard to miss the dried tear-stains and disfigured scribbles that he knew she'd drawn out of frustration. He carried on, but it was hard to shake the feeling of concern. Nevertheless, the whole process took as long as expected, and the driver reached his drop-off point just as he was writing down his last note. The man turned to signal him.

     "Sorry, give me a second." Jungwon shoved his pen and paper into into his backpack before closing her textbook and sliding it into hers. He gently lifted her off his lap, letting her rest on the other side with her head leaning on the window. Her hands automatically crossed to cover her arms, and he figured that the short-sleeved shirt of her uniform wasn't enough against the chilly air conditioner.

     Jungwon sighed. All this for a girl he started talking to a few days ago, something he shouldn't have done in the first place.

     He shrugged his school blazer off, pausing as he thought of how to put it on her without waking her up. He settled on just throwing it over her, crossing his arms as he looked at her, still completely asleep.

     "You better give that back," he warned her unconscious figure.

     With one last shake of his head, he took his backpack and headed to exit the bus. He stopped by the driver's seat once again.  "You have another fifteen minutes before her stop right? Could you wake her up after that so she can get some rest?"

     "Yeah, yeah, I got it." The man waved him off.

     "Thanks, Mr. Nam." Jungwon grinned, turning to the bus exit.

He didn't miss the driver's scoff and side-comment when the man thought he was out of ear-shot.

     "Not close friends, my ass."