They got that Ijin didn't get a lot of school before he was stranded in the middle east. They could see it when he had to do math, or when he had to write something. Although he wasn't bad, there were times when he needed help with his math and literature homework because of it.

They didn't hold it against him. He left Korea at nine years old, and then he had to learn an entirely new language for his own survival. A language he primarily knows verbally with little knowledge of the written language, so he was almost illiterate in it. That, with the combination of having a decade of speaking another language with no exposure to the Korean language, it made sense that he was extremely behind in his studies. Though Ijin did make it up in practical knowledge and skills.

He couldn't find a derivative if his life depended on it, but he definitely had enough skill to get himself out of the life-threatening situation all by himself.

Again, he wasn't dumb, it was just something he didn't receive as the rest of them did. There were all types of intelligence: academic intelligence, musical intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, etc. It just so happened that Ijin was more of a practical intelligence guy, especially with his upbringing. But it was definitely moments like this where they were reminded about Ijin's different education.

Ijin sighed, running his hand through his hair as he looked at the computer, "Yeongchan, can you check my English paper?" Ijin looked mildly annoyed, and that was only emphasized by the dictionary and textbook that was open right next to him, "I'm not that good at writing."

He didn't even hesitate. "Sure, "He leaned towards Ijin's side of the desk, pulling the laptop towards him as he said, "And don't worry about it. Everyone needs help sometimes." Despite his kind words, Ijin did not look happy about needing help overall.

Leave it to Ijin to develop some sort of complex where he hated asking for help. It was something they had long noticed, Ijin was open to learning and criticism, he was just not open to asking for help. But really, considering the fact that he grew up in an area where the only person he could ask for help was himself, it made sense that he had such a mindset toward that. It was progress that Ijin was asking for help for once.

Smiling to himself, Yeongchan started to look over his essay while Ijin leaned back in his chair with crossed arms, "If you say so, "Ijin huffed out. It was silent as he waited for Yeongchan to help him like he had been all semester. To Yeongchan, it was a simple essay, especially since they were high school seniors, but once you took Ijin's past education into account, it was a good essay. It was a very good essay once you remembered that Ijin had only been in formal schooling for less than a year. Sure, some of the grammar was a little bit off, and the transitions from paragraph to paragraph were a little bit clunky, but it was still good.

Idly, Ijin drummed his fingers on his arm as he waited for Yeongchan to give his verdict. "Ah, "Yeongchan was pointing at the screen, and Ijin found himself leaning in for a better look as his friend pointed at a word, "You put the wrong there here. You put they're, not there." Yeongchan looked over at Ijin to make sure that he understood, and upon seeing the slightly confused look, he knew that Ijin hadn't.

"You just said the same word, three times." Yeah, that was the downside of homonyms, either verbally they sounded identical, or they were spelled identically on paper, with different pronunciations.

He tried to explain, "There's there, like over there. They're like they are and their like this is theirs. You put they're instead of there. "

Yeah, that only made it worse.

Ijin looked even more confused at his words, his eyebrows were scrunched up as he completely missed the point, "So there's there like over there, "Ijin repeated his words back, looking exceedingly confused as he continued, "there like they are and there like this is there's?"

Somehow, that just made it even worse.

Yeongchan stared at him for a few seconds and Ijin stared at him back. The bad thing about saying something like that verbally was that he didn't know if Ijin was saying the proper there, they're, and their, or if he was just repeating one of the words over and over again.

He needed to write down the words, "Just-" He flipped open his notebook and started to write down the different words, "Look. There, like over there. They're like they are and their like this is theirs." He finished writing and underlined the differences in the words to try and help him understand.

Ijin pulled the notebook closer, skimming over the contents before he finally said, "Oh." Yeongchan internally sighed in relief when he realized that Ijin had finally understood, "Ok. I get it now. That's dumb." Yeongchan laughed at Ijin's words and continued looking over Ijin's essay.

Yeongchan still remembers thinking the same when he was young and kept on mixing up the homonyms. He still remembers the frustration he felt so he completely understood why Ijin felt like that, " Kinda. They can be kinda confusing sometimes. Like, read and read, they are spelled the same but are pronounced differently." Those were particularly frustrating because even now, there were occasions where he mixed up the spellings between the three words and others.

"Wait, they are?" Ijin still looked as confused as ever, and Yeongchan didn't blame them.

"Yeah, "He paused for a few seconds, trying to figure out the best way to explain the differences without making it too complicated or confusing, "read for past tense and read for present tense." Like before, Yeongchan decided to write them down to show the differences, he even wrote down some simple sentences to show him.

Ijin stared at the paper for a few seconds. "And they are spelled the same?"

"Yeah."

"So read in past tense is pronounced red but spelled read. And read in present tense is pronounced reed but spelled read?"

"Yeah, "Yeongchan happily nodded his head, happy that Ijin was able to understand what he was saying, "exactly like that." It was good to see that this little tutoring session was paying off and that Ijin was learning the differences between the words.

The teenager pursed his lips and Yeongchan could tell that Ijin wanted to say something, probably about how dumb he found it to be, but restrained from doing so. "I…" Ijin let out a heavy sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "can you give me a list of words that I might mess up?"

Yeongchan was more than happy to do so. "Sure." Flipping to a new page in his notebook, he started to write down words as he spoke, "There's minute and minute. Address and address, content and content, does and does, wind and wind. Don't forget about kernel and colonel."

"Wait wait wait, "Ijin cut in, a frown on his face as he pointed out at kernel and colonel, "those two are spelled differently."

Yeongchan nodded his head with a hum, "I know. But they are pronounced the same." That was because colonel had French origins, which is why the pronunciation did not match the way it was spelled.

That in particular made Ijin frown at him as if he said something exceedingly stupid,"…You're telling me that kernel and colonel are pronounced the same? That's spelled colonel." Ijin pronounced the word as it was spelled, rather than the proper pronunciation of kernel. Well, to be fair, it was a weird word. Almost everyone had that same mix-up at some point in their lives, and it was just Ijin's turn to have an aneurysm over it.

"I know, it's from the french language, it's pronounced colonel."

Ijin huffed, looking almost bitter in the process. "I hate this." Yeongchan almost laughed at that, but considering the fact that Ijin sounded like he genuinely meant it, he was going to refrain from doing so.

He patted Ijin's shoulder comfortingly, "Writing is hard. Don't worry, you'll get better with time." Ijin was going to need a lot more than a year for him to get on par with the others, especially since Ijin did not dedicate more time than what was needed for his homework. Ijin just needed to practice.

Ijin gave him a look that showed his doubt. "I think it's going to be a long time. What is that, minute and minute?" Ijin repeated minute twice, instead of saying minute and minute, the both of them having different pronunciations.

Yeongchan almost cringed, because he just knew that the minute difference was going to annoy Ijin some more. Still, he went forward, "No, it's minute and minute, minute is a unit of time and minute means that something is small, or insignificant."

As he thought, Ijin's face curdled and now he looked like a mix of disgust and confusion, "And they are spelled the same too?"

He nodded his head, "Yeah, it depends how you use them in a sentence so the pronunciation varies." There was also this rule about how different parts of the word were stressed that changed the definition of the word, but that was a rule that Yeongchan would introduce later. Maybe when Ijin was done having an aneurysm over weird spellings and pronunciations.

"What about does and does?" Understandably, Ijin was starting to get frustrated, especially since the list was starting to get longer and longer. The paper became almost cluttered as Yeongchan added on the almost identical words, along with the definitions.

"Doe's like the female deer, does like this does not work." It was a good thing that they were distinguishable verbally, but it was a different story when it came to writing.

Ijin looked like he was questioning his life choices, which was fair. "This is making my head hurt."

Yeongchan had no doubt about that. After over ten years of not using the Korean language frequently, Yeongchan knew that he was going to have to put in some dedication if he wanted to get a handle on this before exams came around. "Fair. Don't even get me started on silent letters." Silent letters were such a pain, especially when there was only one sound that was being pronounced and somehow, you're expected to learn how to spell it effortlessly.

When he heard a confused noise, he looked over at Ijin, and was not when he saw that Ijin was still confused, as he had been for most of the conversation at this point, "What?"

Ah.

Whoops.

Honestly, he should have expected that Ijin wasn't aware of the silent letters, especially since Ijin didn't write more than what was needed.

He began to attempt to explain the concept of silent letters, "Silent letters, you know, like the k in knife?"

Apparently, that was a bad example.

This had to be the most confused Ijin had looked yet. "There's a k in there? Are you shitting me?" Ijin looked like he was questioning everything he knew again. But again. Fair.

"Yeah…do you want to know how to spell queue?" might as well go all the way and annoy him with the spelling for the queue.

"Q?" Ijin repeated and Yeongchan already knew that he didn't know how queue was spelled.

"Yeah, queue."

"Isn't it just a letter Q?"

He almost smiled, because he already had a good idea of what Ijin's reaction going was going to be, "No, it's queue. Q-u-e-u-e. The other letters are silent." The reaction was immediate.

Ijin looked done with life. His mouth was slightly hanging open as he went over the information Yeongchan gave him.

It was kinda funny.

In his defense, Yeongchan knew that Ijin had a hard childhood, and the fact that it was the way queue was spelled that made him look like that, it was funny.

They sat in silence for about a minute, Yeongchan waiting for Ijin to finish processing everything, and Ijin questioning his life choices.

Suddenly, Ijin started to pack up, putting everything away in his backpack without saying a single word.

Now it was his turn to be confused. "Ijin?"

Ijin didn't even hesitate. "Fuck this. I'm going home."

Yeongchan just laughed.

It was relieving to see that a person like Ijin had the exact same thoughts when it came to school work.