The Tutor

by Kelsi Clayton

  “Yeah, that seems like a good idea,” He nodded.

  “I know that things like games can be a good way to get people involved,” She continued. “So I’m going to try and find some games that would get everyone to talk and participate. I think that is where you and the rest of the guys would be pretty useful, if you’re willing.”

  “Of course, yeah,” His expression was sweet as he looked back at her. She found herself having to concentrate so she wouldn’t be distracted by his enchanting Aussie accent and sweet good looks as he sat across from her with his just off the beach look. His mop of blond hair, textured with effortless waves, was held back with a thin headband pushed back high on his forehead. It didn’t keep the hair out of his face and a few locks of hair draped gently down across one side of his forehead, trailing down across his eyebrow to end almost at the corner of his eye. She could feel herself staring slightly more intently than she meant to, and forced herself to look away with a couple of blinks.

  “So then,” She cleared her throat and smoothed her pants down with the palms of her hands. “I’ll look forward to getting your help in this. Actually, do you often try and have any English conversations with the five other members?”

  “Not often,” He replied. “After all, we live and work in Korea. It hasn’t always been that important. A lot of us have at least a really good grasp of English so when stuff came up in an interview one of us could answer or translate things for one of the others.”

  “That’s understandable,” She acknowledged. “I guess now that the company is promoting you more overseas, they want all of you to be marketable there. Getting everyone to have their voice and their face out there will help all the fans connect. If you’re a fan of Wonjung, you want to see him and hear those ever important answers in an interview directly from him.”

  “Ah, true,” Cheol Min admitted, not having thought of that before.

  “Oh I’ve found my new phone number and I think it's working now,” She blurted out, suddenly thinking of it. “Here, let me give it to you.”

  She turned back to the desk and flipped through a couple of papers before finding what she was looking for.

  “Here,” She passed him a small post-it with a phone number scribbled on it. “If you have your phone with you, you can save it there, otherwise I can find a piece of paper you can take with you.”

  “I’ve got my phone with me,” He said as he pulled it out of a side pocket on his bag. As he opened his contacts in his phone and started to put the number into a new contact, he realized he only knew her first name.

  “Oh, what’s your full name, by the way,” He asked.

  “Claire Faroe,” She chuckled. “I guess I never said that, did I?”

  “It’s not a big deal, I just wanted to save your number with it,” He gave her his most charming grin. “It just felt a little weird to save it with just your first name. Is there something we should call you?”

  “I know that titles and all are a big thing here,” She allowed. “But as an American, I still find them sort of awkward to use, especially with myself. You guys can call me anything really. Claire, Claire-nim, Claire-ssi Ms. Faroe,” at this she made a little face which clearly indicated that she wasn’t overly fond of that option, “ajumma…” she burst out laughing at the last, having trouble seeing herself as a ‘ma’am’. “Anything is fine, really.”

  “Claire-ssi,” Cheol repeated, suppressing a highly amused laugh. “I can manage that. I’ll also pass along your contact information to the other guys.”

  “I was thinking of starting a chat group or something,” Claire mentioned. “That way everyone can talk and we can organize things together.”

  “Good idea,” He agreed. “It’s better when everyone can see everything at the same time.”

  “Did you have any other questions for me? Concerns?” She said after a pause. “I know you guys are very busy and this might seem like a useless or stupid thing to be adding on top of everything else you are doing—”

  “No, no, no,” He jumped in to reassure her. “It may not have been something I would have thought to focus on, but I think it could be really good.”

  “It’s never a bad thing to be able to express yourself better in any language,” She offered. “I’d love to get much better in Korean, and maybe helping everyone out can help me too. Oh, not that I’ll be bothering you all for that, or anything.”

  She felt color rise in her cheeks at the thought she had implied they might be asked to teach her. Being their teacher was her job, not the other way around and she didn’t want it to get back to the management that she had implied such a thing. Cheol sensed her sudden embarrassment and felt the urge to assure her that he hadn’t taken it that way, but as he reached out to touch her arm reassuringly, a knock sounded on the door giving them both a start.

  “Hello,” Changho opened the door and poked his head in. Cheol dropped his hand and moved to face his friend who had just entered.

  “I’ll get going,” Cheol motioned towards the door. “But, uh, see you later.”

  “Yes, thank you for the help,” She flashed him a kind smile and nodded at him as he moved out the door. He looked back through the window of the door after it closed and saw her take a seat opposite Changho, looking at him warmly. He gave his head a shake as he started to walk away, trying to clear her smile from his mind.

  Chapter 2

  Claire opened the door to her new apartment and stepped in pulling her large suitcase behind her. She pulled off her shoes, leaving them in the small recessed area just inside the door before proceeding down the short hallway to the single room that made up most of her apartment. It was the living room, bedroom, and kitchen all rolled into one. The place was small, but very functional. She had a bed, couch, coffee table, TV, and even a breakfast bar style table with stools arranged up against the large window that made up one wall of the apartment. The kitchen was basically a stove, washing machine, and sink stuffed along one wall, all of which could be hidden behind folding doors when not in use. The fridge was hidden back alongside the closets in the entrance hall, but was a decent size. Yes this place would be just fine.

  As she began unpacking her bag, her mind was back at KXO and the five boys she had met with this afternoon. None of them had been completely lacking in English skills, but at the same time, none of them had seemed comfortable stringing together more than five words at a time either. The youngest, Kitae was, perhaps the worst of them, but had such an eager and charming attitude that she had high hopes for working with him. He was clearly very sweet and also eager to please. That alone would make him easy to work with, even if he had trouble.

  Changho had been a pleasant surprise to her. Although he may have come across as slightly intimidating and rough, he was actually rather kind and dedicated. His preference for dark clothes and, well, resting bitch face, belied his willingness to try and his kindness and affection for those around him. His English skills were lacking, but some of that likely stemmed from his reluctance to speak when he wasn’t sure of what he was saying. He seemed to understand things better than his speaking might lead one to believe. She was actually looking forward to working with him and learning more about who he was under that deceptively hard persona.

  Wonjung seemed like a bit of a wild card. He definitely needed some help with English and didn’t seem like he would object or try to get out of working with her, but he was still a little reserved with her. She hadn’t been able to get a read on why he was just yet, but she hoped it was just introversion and shyness. He was nice and perfectly happy to answer her questions or agree to her suggestions, but he never seemed to offer something independently. Without a doubt, he was kind though. When she had dropped her pen, he had immediately reached to pick it up off the floor and hand it to her with one of his enigmatic half smiles. He had also made an effort to make sure she knew he was listening to what she said, even if he hadn’t given her a verbal response.

  Minjun had seemed a lit
tle put out with the idea, but had made an effort to listen and answer her questions as best he could. She had gotten the impression that English frustrated him due to his lack of current skill. Something he was not used to. He seemed smart and relatively physically skilled, meaning he was largely good at the things he had decided were important to him, or perhaps, had invested time to become great at the those things that came more naturally to him. If he found working on things that he wasn’t inherently talented at frustrating, it might be harder to work with him. But, he hadn’t actually rejected the idea and seemed willing to make the effort despite his minor frustration.

  Hyunwoo was interesting, she thought. He seemed to want to make an effort, but might be in need of more guidance than the others. It wasn’t that he seemed unwilling to make an effort, instead, that he didn’t seem to know how to start without guidance. He had understood most of what she had said and asked, well enough that she wasn’t worried, but despite his abilities, he had seemed stuck. Some people need companionship on the road to growth and improvement, and he seemed to be one of those people. She hoped that with the help of some of the other members who spoke English well, she could get him the skills he needed and the motivation to work on improving. Maybe attaching the learning to something that he enjoyed would also work. She would have to see.

  Then there was Cheol, the only one of the members who didn’t need her help that she had spent any sort of time with. It still puzzled her slightly as to why he had come to talk to her by himself. She was still more puzzled by her reaction to him, though. He flustered her in a way she wasn’t usually. It wasn’t a matter of just looks; if that was enough to fluster her, she would have felt it with every one of the guys she had met with this afternoon, but she hadn’t. He was charming, effortlessly so. There was something about when his eyes met hers, especially when he smiled, that was breathtaking, almost literally.

  She just hoped that she had played it cool and that he hadn’t noticed. God, it would be embarrassing if he had picked up on it. Not only would it be unprofessional, which could cost her the new job, but it would just be humiliating to be seen as some simpering fan with a crush. Of course, she was a fan, she’d liked their music and had listened to it before being assigned this job. Regardless, being a fan would not and could not affect her on the job.

  ***

  Cheol flopped down on his bed in the dorm mussing his damp hair as he adjusted his head on his pillow. His phone, attached to its power cord, was resting on the bed beside his pillow. He reached for it, then dropped his hand…only to change his mind again, finally picking up his phone. He opened his chat app and scrolled through the contacts to find her name. The urge to message her was strong, but he couldn’t find a reasonable excuse to do so. He couldn’t just message to check on her or ask if she had already gone to bed. She’d probably think he was some weirdo or creep if he just messaged her out of the blue. Could he ask if she was meeting with anyone tomorrow? Surely that was an innocent question he could ask. If she didn’t answer, she was probably just asleep. That was reasonable and it would be a good thing for him to know anyway, right?

  “What are you looking at over there?” Jaejin asked from his bed across the room. “Your stare is going to burn holes in your phone if you keep it up.”

  “Huh?” Cheol put the phone against his chest to hide the screen.

  “Bro, you look like I just caught you stealing something,”Jaejin snickered, slipping out of bed to try and steal a look at whatever had caused his friend to look so guilty. Cheol quickly hit the home button to close the messaging app before Jaejin could snatch his phone.

  “It’s nothing,” He flashed his empty phone screen at the other guy who was already halfway across the room. “I’m just spacing out. I must be really tired today.”

  “Sure,” Jaejin scoffed skeptically, sitting back down on his own bed with a huff. Both of them looked towards the door as it opened and Changho stepped through. He nodded toward the other two as he headed to the ladder up to his bunk above Jaejin’s.

  “How did it go today with the new teacher?” Cheol attempted to casually ask.

  “Fine,” Changho replied blandly. “She seems nice.”

  “Yeah?” Cheol prompted when his friend didn’t elaborate. “Are you going to work with her tomorrow again or…?”

  “Yeah probably.” Changho lay back and opened his tablet. “She wants at least a couple of hours a week and is going to give me something to do in my free time.”

  “That’s not much, at least,” Jaejin as he resumed a prone position on his bed.

  “Nah, I don’t mind,” Changho turned onto his side to look over the edge of his bed at the other two in the room. “It would be nice not to have to rely on interpreters as much.”

  “If you wanted to get better at English, you know, you could have asked me for some help any time,” Cheol mentioned.

  “Nah,” Changho laughed. “There is a lot you help me out with or, you know, we help each other with. This just isn’t something I feel like is one of those things. Lots of you know English really well and I know you all would help me out if I asked. I just…it's not something I thought of as something I wanted to ask you about.”

  “You’ve asked us to translate things for you before,” Jaejin reminded him.

  “That’s different,” Changho shook his head. “Asking someone to tell you what something said or what some question means doesn’t take a lot of time…or involve you having to answer my stupid questions.”

  “Pfft, like I’d think your questions were stupid,” Cheol scoffed.

  “I think my questions are stupid,” Changho corrected. “Most of it is stuff I probably learned in school and forgot or that I probably should have learned but didn’t.”

  “It’s not like we all remember everything we’ve been taught,” Cheol countered. “So it wasn’t your best subject, I wouldn’t judge you for that.”

  “I know, that’s not what I’m worried about,” Changho admitted. “I don’t want it to become a thing, all of you correcting my English. Maybe I don’t say things right but I don’t want you to correct me every time I say something or be listening more to the stuff I get wrong than what I’m trying to say. If she corrects me or something, it’s just like getting a question wrong in class, not like feeling like my friends are listening just to my errors.”

  “Okay, man, I get what you mean,” Cheol hadn’t really thought about that as someone who was completely fluent in both languages. “The offer of help still stands though, always.”

  “I know,” Changho smiled and gave his friend an appreciative nod. “You’ve never said no when I needed your help.”

  Cheol smiled back, pleased to hear his friend say that about him.

  “She’s also really cute,” Changho added with a slight smirk.

  “Wha..?” Cheol propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at his friend in the top bunk.

  “She totally is,” Jaejin agreed with a laugh. Cheol caught himself feeling slightly indignant at his friends talking about her, which was silly.

  “Any idea how old she is?” Changho queried. “I mean she has to be older than us to have the experience or qualifications to teach us, right? But how much older is she, do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Jaejin paused as he pondered the question. “I’m thinking like, five years or something…”

  “Mmmm, an older woman,” Changho sucked in a breath through lightly clenched teeth. “It’s kind of hot, huh?”

  “Wha…what?” Cheol sputtered at his friends again.

  “What ‘what’?” Jaejin laughed, looking at Cheol’s exasperated expression. “Is she not your type or something?”

  “No! I mean—” He sputtered, catching himself. “I didn’t really think about it. She’s a teacher with the company.”

  “So,” Jaejin prodded. “How does that mean she can’t be hot? Just means Changho and the other guys are lucky.”

  “She even smells nice,” Changho commen
ted.

  “Ooooo, what does she smell like?” Jaejin looked eagerly up at his bunk mate.

  “I’m not sure what it is,” Changho answered. “It's kind of like a fruit but there is something else, like a plant or leaves or something.”

  “Heh, I’ll have to try and see for myself,” Jaejin plotted, rubbing his hands together.

  “Okay, no smelling the teacher,” Cheol declared, feeling silly and ridiculous. “I can’t believe I’m saying this. Ugh…”

  He rolled over and buried his face in his pillow as he heard the other two laughing uproariously. Outside the door there was a shuffle of feet, then a short knock on the door.

  “Okay, I’m dying to know,” FX asked, poking his head in the room with Hyunwoo’s head appearing just behind him. “What is so funny?”

  “Hyunwoo, you got to meet with the new teacher today,” Jaejin prompted. “What did you think?”

  “Huh?” Hyunwoo muttered with a puzzled expression.

  “She’s cute, isn’t she?” Jaejin goaded the newcomer.

  “Oh, yeah, she is pretty, why?” Hyunwoo nodded.

  “Oh my God,” Cheol groaned. “What have I done to deserve this?”

  “Just ignore him,” Changho waved off the moaning of his friend. “What did you talk about with her?”

  “Nothing much,” Hyunwoo shrugged. “She asked me about myself and asked me to meet with her at least for a couple of hours every week. She seemed nice, like she would be fun.”

  “Did you get to smell her?” Jaejin pressed.

  “Huh?” Hyunwoo seemed slightly thrown by the question, but it made FX burst out laughing. A couple more faces appeared at the door, those of Minjun and Seunghoon. They surveyed the room, which was starting to feel very crowded with seven of the nine housemates all squeezing into one bedroom meant for four. Cheol felt the bed sag slightly as someone sat on the edge of his bed. He peeked out from behind his pillow to see FX sitting on the edge of his bed grinning down at him.

  “Hey bro, what’s up?” FX chuckled.