annyeong | im jaebum

12회

I held in a breath as I shyly peaked open the front door and slipped in to my house.

The air in the corridor was stuffy. This lifted my hopes, as it meant that my mother hadn't been up to open the windows yet.

I skipped up their stairs two at a time. The lights in the upstairs hall were still off; another good sign, as my father couldn't stand them off during the daytime. He was likely in bed too.

I made a beeline to the closet upon entrance to my room, savaging through the piles of neatly folded clothing for an outfit. The unfit candidates were condemned to the carpet, where a teeming pile of clothes was starting to take place.

A black and white romper came to sight from under a stack of bras, and I hastily withdrew it from its hiding place. The bras toppled onto the floor, joining the rest of the rejected clothing.

Yesterday's outfit was tossed in the laundry bin (well, almost in the laundry bin) as I stripped it off and replaced with the romper. As soon as the zipper hit the top of the seam on my back, I darted out of the house.

--

I opened the door to class two minutes before the bell. Jaebum looked up from his phone and caught my eye. His expression was warm.

A small twinge of emotion arose inside of me. I couldn't tell what it was. Happiness? Excitement? Guilt? Regret? My heart started to pound. I looked away as fast as possible and focused my glare on the floor.

As I took my seat in front of Jaebum, I waited for him to drop a comment or poke me in the back, but he kept silent.

Class continued without a peep from Jaebum. By the end of class, the only word that had come from his mouth was "Here."

I was appalled.

Mrs Lee called on me a few times as a part of her usual sick plot to expose my linguistic inferiority, but she stopped when my responses were correct. It was exhilarating to watch her jaw clench up when I proved her wrong.

"That's it for today, class." Concluded Mrs. Lee, "Make sure to read pages 351-356 from your textbooks and write down the new vocabulary words. I expect to have it by tomorrow."

The class nodded.

--

My focus was on the ground yet again as I trudged through the halls. For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about Jaebum.

Why was he so quiet today? Was he ashamed of me or something? The tutoring was his idea, anyways.

I folded my arms on my chest.

"Eric!" Jaebum called, catching up to my pace.

I gave him a look.

"What's with the cold shoulder?" He grimaced.

"What?"  I was bewildered. Shouldn't I be asking him that?

"You wouldn't even look at me today." He went on. "Look, if you were embarrassed about last night it's fine. I do this all the time, I'm not gonna go around screaming in a megaphone that you were at my house."

"Shh!" I held up a finger to his mouth. "There are other people in these halls, too."

"Alright, alright." He smirked.

"Hey," I deadpanned, "Why didn't you, like, tease me at all in class today? You were completely silent."

"Do I normally do that?" Jaebum asked in a tone laced with exaggerated denial.

I didn't reply.

"I'm kidding, I was just laying back to see if I had taught you anything last night." His smirk grew. "You did pretty well. Mrs Lee seemed really shook. When do you want to have our next session? I'm free tonight."

"Sorry." I told him. "I've got work. Maybe Friday?"

"I don't know about Friday. Party night. I'll text you."

"Cool."

Jaebum adjusted his backpack and gestured towards the opposite way. "I gotta go to class now, I'm out."

"See you later."

"Yeah, yeah." He called back from behind me, already on his way to his next class.