(Guide Us to) A Million Stars

2

After learning who Auntie tutored and being just slightly disappointed, I took in the sight of Kim Taehyung. His black hair was a bit messy and his face was bare, a nice natural look that suited him. He was wearing a white sweatshirt with the FILA Biella Italia logo and matching joggers. It was a far cry from his flashy outfits and made up face I had seen him wear in music videos and photos. But this made him seem more approachable. He could pull off the "I'm just a normal guy not a famous pop star" look.

"Suni?" Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows and moved his head from side to side. "You have the same name as Ms. Suni?"

I nodded. "I was named after my aunt. My mom loves her sister. They're like best friends."

"But you are not Korean. You are miguk saram," he said with a cute accent.

I knew from experience he noticed how my espresso-colored hair and hazel eyes did not make me look like I was her niece. "Yes, I'm American. But my mom's parents adopted Auntie from Korea...wait...." My eyes went from Taehyung to Auntie and back to him. "Can you understand me?"

Auntie spoke up. "He can understand English more than he can speak it."

Taehyung let out an "ah!" and made a cute face. He was either agreeing with her or getting shy. Auntie decided we had enough small talk and started the lesson. She reviewed how to greet people and taught him phrases like "Good morning. It's a pleasure to meet you. How have you been doing lately?" Taehyung would repeat her, slowly and carefully. She read more polite and formal phrases from the book for him to copy. I enjoyed watching his determination but then he looked concerned and turned to me.

"Suni?"

My head perked up at the sound of my name. "Yes?"

"How do you say hello to your friends?"

I had been staring at him but then found it hard to make eye contact. His eyes were so big and he looked at me intensely like my answer was going to be the most interesting thing in the world to him.

"I would say 'Hey, what's up' or 'How you doin'?"

He smiled and copied my words. His English is so cute! Taehyung turned to Auntie. "This is English I want to learn."

Auntie didn't seem to agree. She pointed back at the book and cleared her throat loudly. She had him repeat more words that seemed to get more random as the list went on. "Man, woman, girl, boy, traffic light, pizza, slipper, tire, tree..." I couldn't hold it in and started laughing. Taehyung looked hurt.

"Not funny," he said. I stopped laughing. The sadness in his eyes reminded me of some of the recent videos I watched where he seemed to just be going through the motions in interviews and performances. I wondered what he was thinking.

"Oh! I wasn't laughing at you. It's just...this reminds me of a 'Run BTS' episode I saw. You know, the one where you have to guess the pictures."

"Can you show me the video?" he asked, his mood brightening.

I looked at Auntie to see if it was okay that we were taking a detour from the textbook. She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. I showed Taehyung the video on my phone and asked, "Can you translate what you are saying here?"

He took the phone from my hand, his fingers lightly brushing my fingers. He correctly named the objects in English, his eyes lighting up, and added in his cute accent, "This fun. I can learn this way."

"This is how I hope to teach my students," I said.

He pursed his lips. "I am learning English. But there is a lot of words I cannot understand. Something...same words but...have different meanings. Same word but different meaning. It is hard. English is hard."