just ash

chapter 11

During orientation, they had said that the first three months of the program would be the most intense.

According to the leaders, there would be an exponential learning curve when it came to the Korean language and culture, homesickness would spike, new relationships would be formed – whether that be between supervisors and employees, between students and teachers, between new friends, both local and foreigner – and burnout was imminent.

Ash wished she had listened to their advice more closely.

The first week at school was absolute hell. Minji barely even looked at Ash, and the kids were literal demons. Ash thought that students playing pranks on teachers was merely a thing of cheesy television shows, but nope.

The second day of class, an English-speaking student told her that a certain phrase in Korean meant "you look very nice today," and that they thought Ash should tell Minji on behalf of the class. So, she repeated the message to the head teacher, hoping that some complimenting would come to her benefit. When Minji's face turned beet red and she told Ash they needed to have a serious talk after class, Ash knew she had fucked up.

Yeah, the phrase turned out meaning something along the lines of, "eat poo, you crazy bitch." After that, Ash's outlook on the innocence of children was botched.

Literal. Demons.

The weeks following that incident were tense and awkward. Thankfully, Minji eventually began acknowledging Ash again, but only after some serious ass-kissing on Ash's part. Ash went so far as to ask if Susie had any Namjoon things that she could "gift" Minji, and after a huge eyeroll and plenty of teasing, Susie gave Ash a couple photocards and a cute little koala plushie.

When Ash walked into school the next morning, her heart pounding and hands clamming up as she placed the items on Minji's desk without a word, her supervisor blinked before asking what they were for. Ash just mumbled something about appreciating Minji's patience, and Minji smiled in response.

For the first time ever.

When Ash returned home that afternoon and told Susie, her roommate had laughed and said, "Well, duh. BTS solves all of the world's problems."

Ash scoffed at the ridiculousness of her roomie's statement but then wondered if maybe Susie wasn't so wrong.

After that, Ash's days began melding together. She returned home much less emotionally exhausted than those first few weeks, but teaching was still no simple task. Realizing her original and naïve assumption that her job would get easier over time was sorely mistaken, Ash armed herself with the "one day at a time" mantra.

She was always so tired, and when she stumbled through her apartment's door every afternoon, she and Susie would collapse onto the couch together, leaning on each other and discussing the day's events before turning on a mindless show to watch. Then, they would go to bed after a few hours and do it all over again the next day.

Unless, of course, Namjoon was free. In those rare cases, Ash did her best to make time stand still.

At first, he was able to see her regularly – sort of. Him and his bandmates were on an extended break, which allowed him more free time than normal. Of course, Ash caught him at the end of this, so she only had about a week and a half before his life exploded again. Even though they were both busy and exhausted, they did their best to meet once a week. If they couldn't, Namjoon would video call Ash and quiz her on her vocab.

The first time he did this, Ash had been sitting in the living room with Susie, pants off, legs resting on the coffee table as they finished up a drama after a particularly rough day at school. When she saw Namjoon's face lighting up her phone, she had literally tossed her phone into the air, causing it to land heavily and painfully on Susie's boob.