He gave her a nod and they headed out of the room, both now fully dressed. They found Changho, Jaejin, Hyunwoo, Kitae, Minjun, and Wonjung all gathered in the hallway just outside their door. The conversation died down as they came out and curious eyes turned to examine them.
“Did I hear something about dinner,” Claire asked as she made her way past everyone in the hall, heading to the living room.
“You want to stay for dinner?” Hyunwoo asked, following behind her.
“Yeah,” She nodded. “If you all don’t mind.”
“It’s okay,” Wonjung agreed as he came up behind her.
“Oh, before I forget,” Claire said, turning to Wonjung just before she got to the couch. “I got someone at KXO to arrange an arcade visit for you all on Wednesday.”
“Really,” Wonjung grinned excitedly.
“Yeah, I think you guys will have fun,” She took a seat and started unbraiding her hair. “You’ll do a little filming while you are there but you’ll get half a day to play around.”
“You got them to let us go to an arcade,” Cheol was impressed.
“Yeah but they had to rent out the whole place for a few hours,” She took the brush he offered and started brushing her hair. “So you and a small crew will go down there and film some while you play.”
“Wait, does that mean that you aren’t coming?” Jaejin was slightly surprised.
“Not this time,” She confirmed. “But you guys will have so much fun. Someone can bring back a plushie or or something for me.”
“Awww,”Cheol whined, curling around her as she tried to brush her hair. “You sure you can’t come along?”
“No one wants to see me playing with you guys,” She cast him a knowing glance. “Besides, I really don’t need to be associated with you publically.”
“I know,” He admitted. “It just would have been fun.”
“Not this time,” She patted his thigh gently.
“Can I do your hair?” Hyunwoo asked as he took the open space on the other side of her.
“Do you know how to braid hair?” Claire paused.
“I used to braid my sister’s hair when I lived at home,” He explained, accepting the brush she offered to him. It was something he used to do for his younger sister after breakfast and before they had to head to school. He liked playing with hair and often had fun experimenting with funny or odd styles when his bandmates would let him mess with their hair in the evenings or after practice.
She turned so that her back was facing him and he started carefully brushing the tangles out of her hair.
“I didn’t know your hair was so long,” He said as he worked the brush through it. “It’s really pretty.”
“Thank you,” She reached back to pat his knee. “I usually keep it sort of hidden in braids and buns. It just gets in the way otherwise, really.”
“You should wear it down more,” Hyunwoo suggested. “You look good like that.”
“Maybe,” She chuckled and nodded. Hyunwoo busied himself playing with her hair as everyone else worked on making dinner out of the leftovers and the little snacks they had in the house. Tomorrow they would have to see about having more groceries brought over. Since they had been gone for more than a week, the cabinets were looking somewhat sparse, but between left overs from a few days of take-out and some instant meals that had been scrounged up, like the kimchi ramen FX had forgotten he had hidden in the back of his cabinet, they had managed to pull together something resembling enough food. Everyone shared, passing around small plates of this and that and the bowl of instant ramen with the disposable bamboo chopsticks someone had found left over in an otherwise empty takeout bag.
Cheol and Claire tucked themselves into a corner of the couch, side by side, feeding each other as the dishes were passed around to them. Hyunwoo was happily snuggled up beside them, having quickly gotten over his earlier embarrassment at having seen just a little too much of his friend and his girlfriend. He would be more careful in the future...and would knock much louder as well. More than being flustered for his own sake, he wasn’t sure how Cheol would have felt about someone else seeing Claire in that state or how Claire would have felt about one of them seeing her like that. As much as she had become a friend to all of them as much as she was a teacher, he was pretty sure that was…a side of her she wasn’t looking to share with all of them.
As the food was finished, the conversation died down with everyone feeling happy and full. Most of the members opted to head down to the gym to exercise or practice some dance and work off the fullness of the meal. Claire and Cheol opted to stay on the couch cuddling up together, talking in hushed tones and chuckling about whatever nonsense came to mind. She yawned and put her head on his shoulder, planning on just resting it there for a minute. Instead, they both fell back asleep with her seated in his lap, head tucked in between his shoulder and his chin. He held her loosely, one arm draped across her legs and the other around her waist.
“Last night he was tossing and turning,” Changho commented to Jaejin and Wonjung as they passed through the living room on their way from the gym downstairs. “Now look at him...Can’t stay awake for more than an hour.”
“All for the same reason,” Wonjung shrugged with a laugh. “She does seem better than a plushy, I’ll admit.”
“How did he get her?” Changho wondered aloud. “Her of all people.”
“What?” Jaejin gave his friend a confused look.
“You going to pretend like you didn’t think she was good looking, too,” He gave back a withering stare.
“Sure but we had no chance,” Jaejin said automatically before he thought about it for a second. “I mean I figured none of us had a chance. Plus, we aren’t supposed to have girlfriends.”
Both of them cast a glare at the people on the couch, letting out a sigh.
“How…” Changho gestured at them with a huff. “He wasn’t even supposed to be meeting with her and…this…”
“Our leader has his charms,” Wonjung smiled, patting Changho on the shoulder consolingly. “Including a determination to go after something he wants. And he clearly wanted this with her.”
“I know he wanted her,” He shrugged back. “Why did she have to like him back? She was supposed to be our teacher. Now what? Can she even have 10 minutes without him deciding he has to see her or touch her?”
“Ah, he’ll get over it one of these days,” Wonjung assured him.
“Besides, they had time off,” Jaejin jumped in to counter. “Better that they get it out now. None of us are going to have time again starting tomorrow.”
“And you really think she can say no to him?” Changho cast and annoyed eye sideways at the couple on the couch.
“Do I think she can say no?” Jaejin gave them an assessing look. “Yeah I do, now whether she will always want to, that’s different. Do we wake them up now? She probably needs to go home, right?”
“Yes,” Changho and Wonjung agreed in unison, making Jaejin struggle to keep a straight face as he walked over and gave Claire’s shoulder a shake.
“Hey, Claire-nim,” Jaejin said gently. “It’s getting pretty late.”
With a slight jump she opened her eyes and sat up, looking around at where she was.
“Oh no,” She groaned, looking around to see the current time on some device around the room. “Ten thirty? Ooooo, I was supposed to call Roz an hour ago...I can’t believe I fell asleep.”
“Hmmm?” Cheol stirred as she started squirming off his lap.
“I have to go,” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek as she slid off.
“Go? Go where?” He asked, still half asleep.
“Home, 자기야[37],” She replied simply as she went to pick up her bag. “Oh Changho and Wonjung, I need to know your schedule for the week as soon as you figure out what times I can meet with you. It might be good to get in more hours than we have one on one if we can, but maybe at least in small groups. Please tell Minjun and Kitae the same thing for m
e. Sorry, I have to run.” She shot a glance to Cheol on the couch and blew him a kiss. “사랑해요”
She was out the door before anyone could even try to say much of anything to her, leaving the guys wondering if they had ever seen anyone move quite so fast. It took Cheol another moment to collect himself to full consciousness, staring at the door she had closed behind her.
“Good night, I guess,” He said to the empty space in front of the front door as he gave a few blinks.
“How about a shower and then bed?” Wonjung suggested. “By the time you get out, she’ll probably be home and you can call or something to make sure she made it alright.”
“Yeah, true,” He nodded, pushing himself off the couch finally. “A shower sounds nice.”
The three other members watched him absently pad in the direction of the bathroom. He hadn’t chased after her, much to everyone’s surprise. Maybe he was just too tired, or perhaps he was learning when asking her to stay was a losing argument.
Chapter 11
The weeks that followed were full of activity related to practice and preparations for the tour. Fall started its fade into winter with morning frosts periodically making appearances. Nobody was left with very much free time, especially Cheol who still had a lot of producing work in addition to the practice and appearances everyone else was committed to as well. As they had known it would, the full schedule made it difficult for Cheol and Claire to find time together aside from a couple of times a week she was able to come by for a meal or hang around after she met with one of the other members later in the evening at the dorms. It wasn’t always easy for Cheol to remember to let her be a teacher and not his girlfriend during the times she came over to meet with other members, but it got easier as time went on. She was never more than a phone call away and was happy to come by when she could, even if it meant just dropping in for an hour at two in the evening after a long day.
The days he got to see her he slept best and felt like he woke up with a little smile. His fear that she would disappear on him faded and he was left with the pleased anticipation of the next time he would get to see her. When he worked at home on new compositions or on fine tuning old ones, he loved it when she could come and just sit with him while he worked.
Their reward activities had to be slowed, though the work all of the members put in towards the interview preparations and their English skills actually increased. Claire promised all of them a big reward of some sort when everything was finally settled and they were back from the tour. She was quite proud of how well everybody was keeping up with all their responsibilities and how much better the language skills of most of the members were getting. They were really impressive people.
With Christmas coming they would finally be getting some time off, only a few days, but it was something. Most members were going to take at least some of that time to go home and visit family. FX and Cheol were not, as the flight home and back would have taken most of the time they had off, leaving almost no time to actually spend with family. They would be having a snowy Christmas this year in Seoul rather than the sweltering beach Christmases of their childhoods. Cheol, who had lived much longer in South Korea than FX, had grown fond of all the cold Christmas traditions but still sometimes missed Christmas like he had when he was a kid.
In the week leading up to the holiday, it was finally decided exactly who was staying in the dorms over the holiday and who wasn’t with Cheol, FX, Kitae and Seunghoon staying behind. Claire decided to arrange a holiday surprise for them, only telling them to not have any plans between the morning of the 24th and late on Christmas day, they would be busy during that time. Some of the other members heard about the holiday plans and bemoaned having decided to go home, even without knowing what it was they would be doing.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, she arrived early at the dorms to help them pack for the overnight trip. She gave each of them a quick list of required items and passed them pre-purchased bus tickets that left from a bus stop not far away in an hour. The list of items they needed to bring seemed a little confusing to say the least as it included cold weather shoes and bathing suits, but the boys packed everything on the list into their small suitcases and met her at the door as she had asked them to, right on time.
They spent the next two hours switching between a few buses and heading out of the city to their mystery destination. No one gave them a second look with all of the members dressed in thick coats, hats, and masks on the journey. They finally got off the bus in what felt like a small semi-rural town that didn’t look like much of anything. With curiosity piqued, they followed her to an oddly fancy looking hotel which was situated not far from the center of the town.
“Is this the surprise?” Asked Kitae as she doled out the room keys.
“No but we should put our stuff up there and then we can head to the surprise,” She chuckled in reply. “We can all meet back down here in the lobby once the bags are in the rooms. You three all have a room together and Cheol and I will be staying in another. We won’t be back until later so be sure to bring your cold weather clothes.”
Everyone eagerly went upstairs to find their rooms. The boys had an interesting room, usually reserved by families with one full bed and a twin bed on the other side of the room. They played rock, paper, scissors to see which one of them would get to sleep alone in the twin bed, with Seunghoon happily winning the privilege.
Claire had reserved a slightly better room for herself and Cheol, planning to make good use of the lovely bathtub in the room later. Cheol gave a happy gasp and giggle when he saw the romantically adorned room. She wished him a Merry Christmas with a quick kiss, before scooting him out of the room with the promise they could use it later in the evening.
They met up with everyone else in the lobby, looking like any other Korean group of friends this time of year, dressed for the cold from head to toe. She greeted them with a laugh, taking Cheol and Kitae by the hand as they headed out for the real surprise. The stop for the shuttle to Neverland amusement park was a mere block and a half away, which was the main reason she had chosen the hotel. It was fun, seeing the childlike excitement that popped up on the boy’s faces when they realized where they were. FX had never been and neither had Kitae, but both Seunghoon and Cheol had gone years before, but never for their Christmas event.
They walked in the front gates together arm in arm, excited to be blending into the crowd of other visitors on their little adventure. They decided to try and see what was open in the wild animal section of the park as it was probably best seen in the daylight hours. When they arrived at the winter safari they took a queue number which said they could come back to the ride in about an hour. As it was now lunch time, they decided to try and find something to eat in the meantime. Luckily there was a small cafe and a kiosk just outside where they found some quick food they could take with them as they wandered around looking at the outdoor areas which didn’t require standing in line.
Kitae was ecstatic when they got to the panda exhibit, jumping up and down with excitement as they entered. Claire was the only one of them who had seen a panda before, at all, having visited the National Zoo in Washington DC a few times. The pandas were cute but quite lazy, happily lying around in their exhibit eating bamboo like they didn’t have a care in the world. They didn’t have any cares, Claire supposed as she watched them through the glass, lucky them. As the other boys excitedly chattered about the pandas and how cute they were, Cheol snuggled up behind Claire as they looked through the large glass window.
“Thank you for thinking of this,” He whispered, snuggling in against her scarf covered neck. “This is a perfect Christmas Eve.”
“It seemed like something you guys would love and you’ll have to see what it is we are doing tomorrow,” She reached up to pat his cheek with her glove-covered hand. “More surprises tomorrow, you’ll just have to wait and see.”
“How did you get the company to splurge on this?” He wrapped her in a warm hug as he
asked.
“I didn’t,” She shook her head slightly. “It’s just a little present from me. My mother always said, what do you make money for if not to spend it doing things you love with people you love.”
“You paid for all this yourself?” He was a bit startled by her confession, mentally trying to calculate what she had spent on this.
“Don’t worry about it,” She patted his arm, trying to reassure him. “It wasn’t too much really. And don’t say anything to the boys, at least not until we get back. It might be good not to specifically mention this to your manager and everyone when we get back.”
“You really shouldn’t have spent so much on us,” He chided, torn between feeling guilty that she had done it and glad that she had planned something so fun for them over the holiday. He’d have to pay her back for all this when he figured out what it had cost, but that was a worry for another day. Today he was just going to enjoy himself.
The weather was starting to turn, with grey clouds rolling in and the temperature dropping just a little more below freezing. It actually looked like it might snow. Maybe they would get a white Christmas here to top it all off.
They made their way back to the safari ride as their reserved time rolled around, hopping on the bus and looking eagerly out the windows. As the bus slowly moved along the route they saw bears and tigers lying around in the mostly open exhibit. FX and Kitae giggled happily in the seat in front of Claire and Cheol while Seunghoon leaned toward them from the seat behind. Everyone was having a blast seeing everything like they were normal 20 somethings.
With the temperature dropping slightly, they decided to get some of the bigger rides out of the way before it got too cold to stay warm while riding them. They went on the two biggest rollercoasters, one made from wood and the other with two 360 loops. Claire enjoyed them, always having found rollercoasters oddly peaceful,while Cheol screamed joyfully in the seat beside her. FX spent both rides screaming in terror while holding the hand of whoever was riding next to him and gripping the harness of the ride with all his strength. Though he was offered the possibility of not riding these at all, he wanted to, terrifying or not. In the end, even scary was pretty fun.
The Tutor Page 20