The Tutor

by Kelsi Clayton

  “Sweetheart, I’ve got you on speaker and I have a few friends over, just FYI, but go on,” She told her friend adjusting an arm under her head to prop it up slightly. “Go ahead, I’m listening.”

  “You have friends over?” Roz asked with a slightly slurred surprise.

  “I know them from work, we were having something to eat,” Claire explained.

  “You have new friends from work?” She gushed and then giggled. “Are they cute?”

  Her friend tried to whisper conspiratorially, seemingly forgetting that she was on speaker phone.

  “I guess you could say that,” Claire laughed, casting a glance toward the dining room to see a few questioning looks coming back in her direction.

  “Goooooooood,” The word was drawn out in a way that only the very tired or very drunk could do.

  “Are you still out or did you already make it home?” Claire asked after her friend took a long pause.

  “I just got home,” She sighed. “But I miss my guardian angel who always puts me to bed.”

  “Ahhhhhh,” Claire responded knowingly. “Getting to bed drunk is harder alone, isn’t it? See you never appreciated my hard work enough.”

  “I toooootally appreciated everything you did,” Roz protested. “I never used to get such bad hangovers when you took care of me. Tomorrow is gonna suuuuuuck.”

  “Okay, step one,” She advised her friend. “Did you have two glasses of water yet?”

  “One…” Came the groggy answer.

  “Okay then just go grab one more and some aspirin on the way,” Claire encouraged. “Morning you will thank you if you also leave the bottle and some water on your night stand for when you wake up.”

  “Fiiiiiiiiiine,” Roz groaned, followed by the sound of unsteady movement on the other side of the phone. “There…good?”

  “I don’t know, you tell me,” Claire chuckled. “Or maybe hung over you can give you your grade on completion in the morning.”

  “Hung over Roz is always a bitch,” Her friend referred to herself using the third person, with a tinge of disapproval in her voice.

  “Well I’m sure it's because hung over Roz is rather fed up with what she is left with by drunk Roz, who gets to have all the fun,” Claire pointed out.

  “God, drunk Roz is a bitch, too,” She said, after flopping down onto her bed with a groan.

  “Have you remembered to wash your face and change into your pajamas?” She asked her friend.

  “Do I have to?” Her friend whined.

  “Remember when your eye swelled shut that one time because you got something in your eye?” Claire reminded her.

  “Yeah,” Roz sighed, not sounding grateful for the reminder. “Fiiiiiiiiine, I’ll be right back.”

  While she waited for her friend to come back, she glanced into the dining room to see a few eyes on her, looking curiously at her. It was mostly the members whose English was good enough that they could probably follow the drawn out speech of her friend if they listened hard enough. She waved at them, to let them know she had noticed them listening and chuckled as a couple tried looking away, as if they hadn’t been listening. Jaejin waved back with a smart ass grin, making her chuckle.

  “Okay I’m back,” Roz mumbled.

  “Did you change too?” Claire prompted.

  “What if I just take everything off?” Her friend offered a middle ground which seemed the easier answer to her.

  “That will probably do,” Claire agreed.

  “It's not like you haven’t seen me naked and all before,” Roz justified.

  “Well true, but I can’t actually see you right now, remember?” She pointed out.

  “Oh right, you aren’t here,” Roz sounded a little sad when she said that. “Why aren’t you here again?”

  “I’m a little far away at the moment,” She explained as if she were talking to a kid. “But I’m there in spirit, always.”

  “Where are you?” Roz had started sounding very tired.

  “I’m with some new friends in Seoul, remember,” Claire said.

  “Oh yeah,” It was possible to hear her nodding against the phone on the other end. “You said they were cute. You gonna date one of ‘em?”

  “Oh I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Claire tossed a quick glance at the guys, who looked away as she did.

  “Why? You said they were cute.” Roz muttered, slightly confused.

  “You know better than I do that workplace romances are terrible ideas,” Claire said knowingly.

  “But they can be fun for a while,” Roz laughed huskily.

  “Mmmm,” Claire agreed, trying to drop the subject. “Ready to go to sleep?”

  “Yes,” She already sounded half asleep as it was. “Sing me a song. That always makes me sleep well.”

  “Sure, you all tucked in?” Claire soothed.

  “Uh huh.”

  “Let’s see,” Claire thought for a minute. “Dirty tissues, trust issues. Glasses on the sink, they didn't fix you. Lonely pillows in a strangers bed. Little voices in my head. Secret keeping, stop the bleeding. Lost a little weight because I wasn't eating. All the songs that I can't listen to, to tell the truth, Loving you was young, and wild, and free, Loving you was cool, and hot, and sweet. Loving you was sunshine, safe and sound. A steady place to let down my defenses, But loving you had consequences. Hesitation, awkward conversation. Running on low expectation. Every siren that I was ignoring, I'm payin' for it…”

  She finished singing the song and paused in the now quiet room, listening to the sound of light snores on the other end. Hanging up the phone, she shook her head at her friend, hoping that her hangover wouldn’t be as bad as she guessed it might be by the sound of it. Poor Roz still hadn’t figured out her limits even as she was nearing 30.

  “Do you sing your friend to sleep a lot?” Seunghoon asked from the dining room, where everyone was still seated around the table, though their attention was now solidly focused on the living room.

  “Only when she gets reeaaally drunk,” Claire shrugged. “I used to take her home and put her to bed after our late nights and she kind of got used to it. Drunk Roz still calls me even though I’m not actually there.”

  “You have a nice voice,” Changho stated with a smile. “I think I know why she still calls you.”

  “Thank you,” She smiled. “I’ll take that as a high compliment coming from you all. Anyway, it’s probably time for me to head home.”

  “Do you have to?” Kitae asked, leaning forward from his seat at the table.

  “Well no, I don’t have to,” She repeated back to him. “But you all probably have things you need to do today and I have an appointment with my TV to watch a few more episodes of Moon Lovers which will probably make me ugly cry.”

  “Ooooo, you like K-Drama, too?” Hyunwoo piped up with an excited look.

  “I do,” She responded. “Sadly I still need the captions when I watch, so I can’t keep up with the newest series which are airing.”

  “Ahh, yes,” Hyunwoo nodded. “That’s ok, I don’t mind if they are on.”

  “Do you want to watch a couple of episodes of something?” She offered. “I can bring over something, if you want.”

  “Yes, please,” Kitae accepted, sounding as excited as Hyunwoo.

  “Ok I’ll do that, but—” she raised her finger and pointed at them. “You have to pay enough attention to catch one translation mistake in the captions for me, deal?”

  “Yes,” they both agreed eagerly. Claire walked back to the kitchen to gather up her things to take home and to check one last time that she hadn’t left anything too taxing for them to do in the final clean up. With the few items she needed to take packed up in a bag, she headed toward the front door.

  “Hang on,” Cheol jogged up behind her, now dressed in street clothes. “I’ll walk you home.”

  “You don’t need to do that,” She assured him, with a gentle hand on his forearm. “Besides, I think you might bring me more attenti
on than just being alone.”

  “Ah, but look,” He pulled a black face mask out, put it on himself, and put on a dark hoodie. “See, practically unrecognizable.”

  “Not….exactly…” She squinted at him, wondering a bit if he was joking or serious about thinking that would hide his identity.

  “Wait, one second,” He dashed off to another room, coming back with a black beanie and slipping it on his head and tucking in his hair. “Tada.”

  “I mean, you can come with me, but I still think you’re more likely to draw attention than I am by myself.” She pointed out.

  “Let’s go,” He said, eyes crinkling, revealing his face had broken into a smile. He took the bag she was carrying off her shoulder, transferring it to his own.

  “I can carry that,” She informed him as he guided her to the door with a gentle hand on her back.

  “I know, so can I,” He replied with a gentle pat. They headed out the door and through the yard into the moderately busy residential street. She pointed in the direction of her apartment and started leading the way down the road towards the high-rise where she lived. It was the closest one, visible from the intersection just down the road from their dorm house. From her 12th floor apartment she could look over the city and the winding Han river that split it.

  He took her hand in his free hand as they fell into step, side by side walking along the sidewalk. His hand was large and warm as it wrapped around hers in the cooling air of the fall afternoon. She thought about trying to find a reason to drop his hand, but couldn’t find an excuse that didn’t feel more awkward than just holding it back.

  Foot traffic increased as they got closer to her apartment and the more densely populated part of the city and she worried that eyes were following them more closely the more people were around. She didn’t know whether to be grateful or not when the clouds overhead began to break, letting down a sudden shower of rain about ten minutes from her front door. It wasn’t that she wanted to get soaked, but surely no one was going to be looking at them as everyone started walking a little faster, heads down, as they headed to their destinations.

  “Let’s jog,” She suggested, looking up at the sky which promised more rain, based on the darkening slate grey of the clouds moving in on them. He took her suggestion and pulled her along behind him as he jogged along the streets, trying to stay close to the buildings where occasional awnings provided some protection. The rain was cold and heavy as it pattered down on them and everything else around them.

  They made it to the front door of her building just as the rain became a downpour that threatened to wash away anyone who hadn’t gotten off the streets yet. She was wet enough that locks of her hair were plastered to her forehead and cheeks and her shirt and hoodie clung to her arms and chest as she ushered Cheol into her apartment.

  “Sorry I don’t have any house slippers that will fit you,” She apologized as they took off their shoes and wet outer clothing in the little alcove just inside her apartment. “You’ll just have to go barefoot.”

  “It’s okay,” He shivered slightly as he hung up his hoodie on a hook in the closet. His knit beanie had soaked through, making his hair wet as well.

  “Oh dear,” Claire chuckled, running her hand over her wet hair.. “We look a bit like drowned rats. Are you cold?”

  “A little, yeah,” He admitted, running his hands up and down his arms.

  “Ugh, you got soaked,” She looked at him apologetically. “Come with me.”

  She headed further into the apartment and over to the drawers under the television. After a bit of searching, she pulled out an old t-shirt and held it up in front of him. Deciding that it looked vaguely the right size, she set it down and dug around a bit more eventually finding a tube shaped towel with elastic around one end.

  “Ok, hop in the shower and give me your clothes, I can put them in the dryer so you can at least wear them home in an hour or so,” She sighed. “These should be ok, but I don’t actually have clothes that will fit you well.”

  “This is fine,” He picked them up and headed toward the only door in the apartment that didn’t lead outside. “I won’t take long.”

  “Just toss your wet stuff outside the door before you get in so I can go ahead and put it all in,” She mentioned, back digging in the drawers, this time for herself. He nodded and stepped into the bathroom. It was small, but it had enough space for to find a place to lay the dry clothes on the back of the toilet before he started stripping off his wet clothes. He started slightly when there was a soft knock on the door just as his jeans dropped down to the floor around his ankles.

  “There are towels in the cabinet above the toilet,” Came Claire’s voice from the other side of the door.

  “Thanks,” He answered, opening the cabinet door to take a peak. He finished stripping and carefully slipped his clothes out the door and onto the floor through the smallest possible crack he could manage in the door.

  The water of the shower was comfortingly warm as he stepped into it and closed the glass door behind him. He washed himself from head to toe as quickly as possible, feeling slightly awkward to be naked with his crush a few meters away, just on the other side of the wall.

  Feeling sufficiently clean, he toweled himself off and put on the slightly tight t-shirt and slid the towel like tube up to his waist. Luckily it fit, but it felt strange to just be wearing that. He wrapped the towel around his head and stepped out of the bathroom. Claire was in the kitchen boiling some water in the kettle on the small bit of counter she had in the closet kitchen.

  “The water is hot,” She said, placing a mug on the counter for him and putting a selection of teas and instant coffee on the counter by it. “I’ve got the clothes, including your hoodie, in the dryer. It won’t take me long in the shower but please help yourself.”

  She was wrapped in a fluffy robe as she shuffled off to the bathroom herself. He swallowed as he watched her disappear behind the door, deciding he should concentrate on making himself something warm to drink as opposed to the girl in the shower. Maybe it had been a bad idea to walk her home, but how was he supposed to know it was going to rain like that on the way? He had just wanted to spend a few minutes just with her, away from everyone else. She’d even let him take her hand. Did that mean she liked him too? If she had been a Korean girl, he was sure it would have meant that, but she grew up is a culture far closer to the one he had spent his childhood in. In Australia things weren’t quite as easy to read, at least in his opinion. Maybe she was just happy to hold hands with a friend or she just hadn’t thought anything of holding hands with someone.

  He concentrated on making himself some tea and tried to distract himself from those thoughts by looking through the small pile of magazines she had left on the breakfast bar set up in front of the large picture window which overlooked the city. Though he flipped through the pages of a couple, he wouldn’t have been able to tell you a single thing about what they said, his mind being decidedly elsewhere.

  Claire finally stepped out of the bathroom, after an eternal 15 minutes, with wet hair trailing down the back of her fluffy white robe. He was surprised to see that it reached past her waist and almost reached the back of her thighs. It took him a minute to realize that she had said something to him which he had missed, again being lost in thoughts he was probably better off not having at the moment.

  “Sorry, did you say something?” He apologized, his ears and cheeks turning decidedly pink.

  “I asked if you minded if I put an episode of the show I was watching on,” She repeated. “It really was my Saturday afternoon plan.”

  “Ah, no, go ahead,” He nodded, pacing a bit, feeling unsure where he should put himself in the small room. Everything seemed a little too close to the bed in the small apartment.

  “Sit, sit, sit,” She insisted, pointing to the loveseat across from the TV. “Do you want something to snack on? Uh, I have…chips and sandwich stuff…yogurt…ummmm, yeah if you want something more than that
we should order dinner or something.”

  “I think I’m ok,” He assured her, smoothing the towel down his legs as he took a seat.

  “Ok, just let me know if you want anything,” She said, carrying over a mug of hot tea and coming to sit next to him on the love seat. She set it on the coffee table beside her laptop which she opened to pull up the next episode she was going to stream to to her TV.

  Anything, he thought to himself. I don’t think you mean that the way I wish you did.

  The TV turned itself on and Claire scooted further back in her seat, untying the belt on her robe and tucking her feet under her pajama covered legs, causing her thigh to brush against his. He scooted slightly further away, clearing his throat.

  “Oh sorry,” Claire said, taking note of his slight discomfort. “I can just move over there…”

  She started to get up, her face turning slightly, her eyes avoiding his direction.

  “No, sorry,” He caught her wrist. “I’m just being stupid.”

  He pulled her back beside him on the couch, daring to put his arm around her shoulders on the cushion behind her, pressing her against his side. She made a little surprised expression and stiffened slightly but, to his pleasure, didn’t pull away. The episode had already started playing on the TV and they both fixed their gazes purposefully on the screen across the small room.

  “So, have you watched this before?” She asked, breaking the silence.

  “No I haven’t,” He shook his head, eyes still directed at the TV.

  “Okay, so see her,” She pointed at the screen as the camera focused on a woman in historical dress. “So she sort of came from the present time to 10th century Goryeo after drowning while saving a kid that fell in the water that is the same place as the royal baths like 1000 years ago. She is in this love triangle with, like…all of the princes who are all half brothers or full brothers, there are like 14 of them, but it's mostly two of them. The first is that guy there with the bangs, he is sweet but sort of tall, dark and broody. Then there is the other brother who is really regal and refined but recently became an ass because he decided he needs to become king and that will somehow solve everything even though it means basically abandoning the woman he was all about marrying an episode or so ago.”