The Tutor

by Kelsi Clayton

  “Just kill me,” Cheol groaned.

  “Aww, they’re all just being ridiculous,” FX patted his friend on the back. “She’s the most fun thing we’ve had happen aside from our trips. Practicing, writing lyrics and music, we all love it, but having something more, something out of the ordinary, is fun.”

  “I know,” he groaned. “It’s just more than a little embarrassing to hear all of you…drooling over her….and how she smells.”

  He cringed slightly at the last, half of him jealous that some of the others knew that and half uncomfortable with the idea that it was being discussed at all. What would she think of all of them sitting around discussing her? Would she be amused, insulted? She’ll never know, right?

  “No one here is stupid,” FX attempted to comfort his friend, patting his stomach lightly. “No one is going to say anything to her.”

  “Am I that obvious?” Cheol gave a chagrined sigh.

  “A little bit,” Changho said from his top bunk.

  “Just, be nice,” Cheol said to the room in general. “She seems…kind.”

  “And she smells nice,” Changho added with a grin, propped up on his side.

  ***

  Claire swiped her card on the gates at the entrance to the building on the first floor. The start of her second day would begin with a couple of hours for her to lay out lesson plans in one of the practice rooms before finding the guys who she was supposed to meet with today to see when would work best for all of them. She also wanted to try and plan some fun activities everyone might take part in and rewards for everyone to encourage them to work on things.

  After sending a few emails to some of the people who had been working with the group over the past few years, she came to the conclusion that one of their favorite rewards was…food. That would be easy enough to work with. She had a budget to work with in relation to activities with the group and buying and organizing meals for everyone would probably be relatively simple and eating was a fun social activity anyway. If everyone got the reward for the five members doing their work, they could help her encourage them to stay dedicated.

  Room 3011 still hadn’t been reserved for the day so she put her name on the registry for the hours she was planning to be in the building. With a quick message, she let all the members know that she would be in the same room as yesterday, please come by when they could. On her laptop, she pulled up the first set of documents and potential interview questions which had been sent to her through management. The members would get translated versions of the questions to help them prepare, but these were for English language outlets or programs and would be filmed or done in English.

  What’s your favorite thing about yourself?

  I feel most creative when….

  What is your favorite thing to do while traveling?

  What differences have you noticed with the fans around the world?

  What is your favorite song you have done with the group?

  How do you write lyrics for new songs, what inspires you?

  How do you feel you’ve grown over the last year?

  What is a personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

  It seemed to mostly focus on a lot of ‘getting to know you’ questions, perhaps because K-Pop and its bands were just starting to break into the overseas markets in a serious way. Lots of people would be seeing something with them for the first time when they saw these interviews. Connecting with them on a personal level might drive interest in the music. Cute, personable guys were marketing gold.

  Each one of the members had their own strengths which she planned to work with to get them to practice using English. Wonjung might be easiest to get to with the relatively traditional activity of just having him write things down for her. It sounded silly, but essays were good for exercising vocabulary and would give him a chance to think about what he was doing. He wasn’t one of the main songwriters of the group, so having him song write wouldn’t be the best tactic, though that was her plan for engaging Changho.

  Minjun also was hard to pin down, but he seemed like he would dislike being asked to just write an essay on himself but he did like music. Maybe getting him to find and share some music that he felt reflected who he was and his journey would be something he could do. It included things that he already enjoyed and would get him to have to do some active listening in English.

  Hyunwoo seemed to have good comprehension but was reluctant to speak and she suspected he was out of practice at coming up with the words he needed to express himself in English. She had discovered with a little research last night, that he was one of the readers of the group, known for getting deeply invested in things he was reading. So having him translate some passages from his favorite works and having him describe why they meant so much to him seemed like a good way to reach him.

  Kitae probably needed the most help but his sociability might make him easy to work with if his tasks were simple and broken into manageable bits. She had decided it would be easy to just have him message her at the end of the day with an update about what he had done and thought about during the day just to get him looking for basic vocabulary. Hopefully making it something where he could get some interaction and instant feedback would make it feel less like a chore to him.

  Now that she had a basic plan for the five members she was going to work with individually, she felt prepared for them to come by. She looked at her watch to check the time and tried to decide if she should grab a snack from the cafe or the cafeteria now or wait. It was quarter to one but she wasn’t sure when someone would actually have time to see her. With a flick, she opened her phone to check and see if anyone had messaged. Unsurprisingly no one had so she figured that she probably had time for at least a quick trip down for a warm drink.

  She closed the screen of her laptop and slipped it into her bag. With her bag on her shoulder, she started down the hall only to run into Changho as she turned the corner toward the elevators…literally. She made a slight oof sound and caught herself with a hand against the wall. She looked up to see as surprised an expression on his face as she felt she had on her own.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” She said automatically.

  “It’s ok,” He gave her a smile. “Are you going?” He gestured vaguely behind him towards the elevators.

  “I was going to get some tea at the cafe,” She explained. “I can wait if you were coming to meet with me. Ah, or you could come with me if you wanted?”

  “Yes, I can come,” He smiled and turned back towards the elevators he had just come out of. They managed to make somewhat stilted small talk as they made their trip to the cafe and back. Changho really was a sweetheart, she decided as she concentrated to make sure she understood him over the background buzz of the people sitting at the tables in the cafe. He was making an obvious effort for her and looked adorably awkward with his hands stuffed in his pockets as his eyes flicked from her to the room around them and back to her.

  Tea and iced coffee in hand, they made their way back to the room. She opened up her laptop and pulled up the range of questions which they would probably be asked in the first round of upcoming interviews. After he read through them she helped him to understand the questions and begin formulating the answers he might give with help figuring out the vocabulary he most needed to focus on to come across clearly. She discreetly took notes of things she would need to work on grammar wise, but just getting him comfortable using English was the important first step.

  The hour long lesson passed surprisingly quickly and was practically over by the time she first thought to check the time. She gave him his individual assignment to work on and give her towards the end of the week.

  “I want you to write something for me,” She explained. “I want rap lyrics telling me about what it means to you being part of the group. You can talk about performing, the fans, your bandmates and friends, anything that will tell me what you feel, what you like, your fears, what you’re proud of, anything like that. Okay?”

&
nbsp; “Okay,” He nodded, looking like he was already pondering the subject. “Can I come talk to you when I am writing? Or just when I am done?”

  “Oh you can come talk to me whenever you have the time,” She agreed. “You can bring me what you are working on as you are doing it or when you are done or just message me with questions if you are having a problem. We will also meet for another hour later in the week to go over the questions for the interviews some more.”

  “Okay, thank you,” He gave her a lopsided smile as he scooted his chair back and grabbed his mostly empty cup. “I will come meet you again soon.”

  “Alright, just let me know when it's a good time.” She smiled back. “If you and everyone else get your assignments done this week, I’ll have a surprise for all of you on Saturday. So work hard, yeah?”

  “Yes, I will,” He sounded like he was actually looking forward to working his assignment, or maybe it was the reward that brought out that eagerness. With a last thank you he headed out of the room to do some individual practice in one of the small practice rooms in the same hallway. He could hear some of the others in the rooms he was passing including Hyunwoo. As he had promised, he knocked on the door of his practice room to let his friend know he had finished meeting with their new teacher. Hyunwoo waved through the window in acknowledgement of his friend’s message and started packing up his things to go see her himself.

  Chapter 3

  The group performance practice ended just before seven, when they were all going to grab something to have for dinner either from one of the nearby restaurants or the cafeteria downstairs. Everyone was packing up to clean up and change in the nearby changing rooms. Cheol decided to make a detour on the way and see if Claire was still in the room down the hall where she had been meeting with the other guys. He peaked in the window to see her still there seated at the table with a few short stacks of papers spread out in front of her. She had a pair of headphones on and was tapping out a beat on the table as she looked intently at one print out she had open directly in front of her. He quietly opened the door and could hear her singing softly to herself.

  I don't know what it is but I got that feeling (got that feeling)

  Waking up in this bed next to you swear the room

  Yeah, it got no ceiling

  If we lay, let the day just pass us by

  I might get to too much talking

  I might have to tell you something

  Damn, I like me better when I'm with you

  I like me better when I'm with you—

  She finally noticed some movement in her peripheral vision and jumped, pulling off her headphones as she turned to see who it was.

  “Oh you surprised me,” She gasped, sounding a little out of breath, as she leaned back into her chair, hand pressed to her chest.

  “Sorry,” Cheol apologized, with a chagrined look. He could feel his ears warming as they started to turn a little pink in embarrassment.

  “I just didn’t hear you knock,” She gave him a half laugh, half sigh. “I guess I was a little absorbed in what I was doing. Was there something you needed?”

  “Oh we were all going to break for dinner now,” He explained. “I was wondering if you had eaten yet or if you wanted to get something with me…or I mean us.”

  “I haven’t yet,” She looked at the face of the watch on her wrist. “I could join you, if no one minds me coming along. I don’t want to be a bother or something.”

  “Nah, nah, no one would mind,” He reassured her. “I still have to get cleaned up a little but I’ll come and get you in about fifteen or twenty minutes.”

  “Sure, I’ll pack up,” She gestured toward the papers. “I’ve already met with everyone but Wonjung. I’ll ask him if he still has time today or if maybe tomorrow would be better. I can just message him.”

  “Don’t worry about it, I can just ask him now,” He offered. “I can let you know when I come back.”

  “Thank you, that is probably faster,” She admitted with a chuckle. “I’ll just finish up here and we can eat when you are done.”

  “Okay, I won’t be long,” He waved as he exited. Making his way to the changing room, he felt a warm satisfaction in his stomach. He liked having an excuse to see her for a little while today. She had looked really cute so deeply absorbed in her music and what she was doing. Really, it seemed like everything she did was just a little charming. Maybe it was just the crush he had to admit he had on her that was coloring everything for him, but, he reminded himself with a tinge of annoyance, he wasn’t the only one who seemed to feel it.

  “Hey Wonjung,” He sidled up to his friend in the changing room where he was toweling off. “Were you still going to meet with Claire-ssi still today?”

  “Yeah after I get something to eat if she still has time.” His friend replied. “Why?”

  “She was just wondering,” Cheol answered casually. “I asked her if she had eaten yet and she mentioned she hadn’t seen you yet today. I told her I’d check with you for her. You can meet up with her when we are all back from getting some food.”

  “Should I just go see her now?” Wonjung asked. “I can wait an hour to eat.”

  “Nah, I asked her to come with us to get something to eat already,” Cheol nonchalantly informed his friend. “Do you know where everyone was planning on eating?”

  “Jaejin and FX mentioned something about going to the restaurant a block over with the good bulgogi,” Wonjung relayed to the best of his recollection. “I think Minjun, Seunghoon, Changho and I are just going to go to the cafeteria here and I don’t know about everyone else.”

  “The restaurant sounds pretty good,” Cheol nodded. “You guys could come along, it should be fun.”

  “Yeah, I might,” He agreed. “I’ll mention it to the other guys.”

  “Okay, I’ll head over there with her as soon as I get cleaned up,” Cheol said as he headed over to the showers.

  Fresh and clean and back in street clothes, he headed back and found Claire leaning on the wall outside the door absorbed in looking at her phone. She looked up as he approached, greeting him with a smile. Cheol led the way down and out of the building towards the nearby restaurant. Even before they entered, he could see that most of the group, if not all, had decided to come to the restaurant to eat today. They stepped through the door and the eyes of the rest of the group turned one by one to look at them. Claire felt the eyes on her and gave them all a huge grin and wave as greeting. Cheol pulled out a seat for her, taking the empty spot next to it.

  “Have you all ordered yet?” Cheol asked the group in general.

  “Not yet,” FX replied from a few seats away. “We waited for you.”

  “Thanks,” Claire responded, accepting a menu which Changho offered her from the other seat closest to her aside from Cheol. “So who wants to recommend something for me to try first?”

  “Do you eat spicy?” Changho asked, scooting slightly closer.

  “Not really,” Claire turned to him, scrunching up her nose slightly.

  “Okay, then you should try this,” Changho twisted to look at the menu with her, pointing to an item.

  “Ooo beef, noodles, and veggies,” She made sounds of anticipation and nodded at Changho. “Good call, sounds delicious.”

  Cheol narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at his friend while trying hard to not be too obvious about it. Too close, he’s getting too close, he thought with a small prickle of jealousy. She didn’t seem to notice, or at least she didn’t seem to mind, another thing that sent a small spurt of the emotion through him.

  “Since all of you are here,” She started, leaning forward on the table to see everyone at the table clearly. “I wanted to share the incentive I am giving everyone for the week to make sure that my five new favorite students finish their assignments and meet with me this week. If they do all of that, hopefully it’s not too much, Saturday morning I will be bringing over a big breakfast/lunch for everyone to share. I know you have that day ‘off’
, at least from major activities this week, so that’s why it's that day. In addition, the one who does the best on their assignment will get to pick the reward for the next week...within reason.”

  “Oooo, what food?” Jaejin looked eagerly at her.

  “I’m open to suggestions on that,” She offered. “You can all message me with requests but I was figuring something Korean, so rice, kimchi, pickled things, and various meats. But if you want something else or something in addition to that, just send me a message. I’ll come by a little early to cook for all of you, but if everyone could try to be up at around 1, that would be great.”

  “Awesome,” FX said in a deep Aussie accent. “If you include some steak in that I would get up at seven for that.”

  “There is no need for you to get up that early,” She assured him. “I know you all keep pretty late schedules compared to the average person.”

  “What, you mean most people don’t stay up until five in the morning on a regular basis?” Seunghoon said with an exaggerated tone.

  “I know,” She responded with a matching tone. “I too was shocked to learn this.”

  Everyone around the table fell into comfortable conversations with the people near them as they waited for the food to arrive. It had been a few weeks since they had all bothered to all eat together rather than just whenever they could fit it into their schedules. When things got busy, it wasn’t always easy, or even possible, to find time where they were all free to do something together aside from group practices. It was actually kind of nice that their curiosity around her had gotten everyone to come for a meal together, Cheol observed silently. Just another plus of her coming around. Since they all lived together and saw each other often enough, it was easy to forget how nice it was to actually do something as a team.

  The food arrived at the table without interrupting the happy buzz of conversation among the members. Cheol had ordered a mixed plate of gimbap with various fillings, a favorite of his at this restaurant.