Chapter 3 – Just like a child

The first time I saw him after our initial meeting was at the end of May. They had just wrapped up their promotions for the new song, and were coming to Japan to shoot a variety show and appear at some event. He mailed me suddenly, telling me about it.

“If I can, I want to see noona!”

He always called me “noona” and it cracked me up.

Noona, as you might know, means “older sister” in Korean, but it’s also an affectionate term that boys use for a girl who is older than them. Actually, considering I’m nearly 10 years older than him, it might’ve been more appropriate for him to call me “ajjuma” (old lady. lol) so I guess “noona” was pretty flattering. I hear you gasping behind your screen as you’re reading this. Yes, I was 29 years old, at the time. The thing is, I really don’t look my age. People are constantly asking me if I’m a university student here and get really surprised when I tell them that, no, I’m a teacher. And Tae, when I first told him, had the same freak-out reaction as everyone else. But after his initial total disbelief, he’d just shrugged it off and started calling me noona. I thought it was cute. I viewed him more as a cute little brother than anything else anyways. A really hot little brother that I wasn’t related to… but still…

Anyways, as for his request, I said I’d be happy to meet up as long as it wasn’t during school hours, or in the middle of the night. It worked out alright because the days he was here ended up being on a weekend, and he arranged it so that I was able to watch in the audience of the talk show they were on. It was cool because I got to see all the other members, and since it was in Japanese, I could understand.

I couldn’t see him after the show which kinda , but I understood. There were other fans there, so there was no way for us to skip off unnoticed. He saw me in the crowd during a break and waved like an idiot though. That confused a lot of people but it made me laugh.

Finally, I got a mail from him, maybe an hour later asking where I was. I was still wandering around in Shibuya, where the show had been filmed, so he said he’d come meet me. I didn’t think it was a good idea since there were probably other fans still wandering around so I suggested meeting somewhere else. After some pondering, he asked me to meet him at a café instead. I’d never been there but it was this trendy little restaurant-like shop in Omotesando. Apparently someone had recommended it to him.

“Noona!!” he shouted at me from his seat as I walked in, making everyone turn around and waving his arms around in huge, obvious signals, which was totally embarrassing.

He grinned widely as the waiter brought me over and basically tackle-hugged me before I could even sit down. It’s a good thing our table was half-hidden into a little alcove with tall plants around it because I was already mortified enough as it was. Actually, I thought it was super cute, but just worried because this was Japan so PDAs weren’t that common, and we weren’t that far from Shibuya so what if a fan saw him?

He chatted my ear off the whole time – about the show, about their recent promos… And he wanted to hear about my school, and every little detail about my kids. I talked about my favorite brats, recounting several anecdotes, and he laughed, that big, choky laugh, every single time.

And he asked, “Noona, my English got better, yeah?” and I patted his head, saying “Of course.”

Now I know what you’re thinking. Wasn’t this kind of behavior weird? Shouldn’t there have been flashing signals of improper behavior? No. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. As a teacher here in Japan, all I hear all day is “Sensei, kawaii!!!” and kids running up to hug me is – if not a daily occurrence – still common enough that I’m kinda used to it. And I don’t teach toddlers either, I teach teenagers. Although, usually, the ones doing the hugging are girls, haha. The boys are too shy I think. Probably because THEIR thoughts aren’t that innocent, but that’s not really my problem. Anyways, Taehyung, to me, was like a little kid, so it didn’t seem odd when he hugged me. It was cute. It was easy to interact with him like this because he reminded me of one of my students with his cheerful and youthful ways. The desire to bestow the same kind of attention upon him came almost automatically to me because he was so adorable. Plus, I was in a position to pat his head because he’d decided to sit next to me in the booth, instead of in front of me.

After the meal was over, we said our goodbyes and I went home; and he went back to his idol schedule, doing a million other things and not getting enough sleep – and eventually flew back to Korea.