A Poor Scholarship Girl Tutored the Heir She Couldn’t Stand — Then He Became the Man She Never Expected to Love
Chapter 2
Their first tutoring session began at six the next evening.
Adrian arrived twelve minutes late.
Sophia looked at the clock.
“You owe me twelve minutes.”
He sat down.
“Put it on my bill.”
She pushed a workbook toward him.
“Page thirty-six.”
He opened it.
“This is basic.”
“Then finish it.”
He glanced at her.
“You’re serious.”
“Painfully.”
He started solving the problems.
Sophia expected him to fail.
He didn’t.
He finished quickly.
She looked over the answers.
All correct.
“You know this.”
Adrian shrugged.
“Most of it.”
“Then why are you failing?”
He leaned back.
“I get bored.”
“That’s your excuse?”
“It’s the truth.”
She stared.
“People like me would do anything for the opportunities you waste.”
His expression changed slightly.
“People like you?”
“Scholarship students.”
He looked at her.
“Do you think I don’t work for anything?”
“You were born into everything.”
The room became quiet.
Adrian closed the workbook.
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know enough.”
“No.”
He leaned forward.
“You know my last name.”
She said nothing.
He stood.
“My father doesn’t care whether I graduate. He cares whether I become the son he wants.”
Sophia looked surprised.
“Then why don’t you care?”
“Because he’s already decided what my life should be.”
He picked up his backpack.
“You think money means freedom.”
Sophia frowned.
“Doesn’t it?”
Adrian smiled sadly.
“Sometimes money is just another cage.”
He walked toward the door.
Sophia watched him leave.
She felt guilty.
Only slightly.
But enough.
The next morning, she found him waiting outside her classroom.
“You came back.”
“I said I’d do the tutoring.”
“Good.”
He handed her a coffee.
“For your twelve minutes.”
She stared at it.
“I don’t drink sugar.”
“I noticed.”
She looked at the cup.
“How?”
“You always order black coffee.”
She smiled despite herself.
“You’re observant.”
“Sometimes.”
Their second session went better.
Then the third.
Adrian was smarter than Sophia had expected.
Much smarter.
His problem wasn’t intelligence.
It was motivation.
He understood complicated concepts almost immediately but refused to apply himself unless he cared about the result.
Sophia slowly realized that he wasn’t lazy.
He was angry.
Angry at his father.
Angry at his family’s expectations.
Angry at the life waiting for him.
One evening, after another successful session, Adrian asked:
“Why are you working so hard?”
Sophia stiffened.
“Because I have to.”
“For what?”
“My mother.”
He waited.
She didn’t elaborate.
“My father left years ago.”
Adrian nodded.
“Are you supporting her?”
“She supported me first.”
He smiled.
“That sounds fair.”
She looked at him.
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophia lowered her eyes.
Neither of them realized that the tutoring sessions had stopped being about grades.
Something else had begun.
Neither knew what to call it.
Yet.
