He was a funny guy, though forgetful, and his little habits while learning English made teaching him worthwhile, at least it became worthwhile when you started to think positive about the matter instead of negative. 

 

You sat across from him a full week into month two of you tutoring him. You were fully distracted by his habits.

 

How he would squint his eyes while in thought, the way he would pout his lips when trying to pronounce an English word, and your favorite, his dimple when he would smile in joy at getting a word correct.

 

 

 

Does That Answer Your Question? (Y.O.U) Part 2

 

 

 

I would be lying if I said tutoring YiXing didn’t have its perks.

 

Just being around him always lifts my spirits, and that’s whether I am in a bad mood or a good mood.

 

I know, at first I was a little begrudging, impatient, and harsh…who am I kidding, I am still those things.

 

“Maybe you should focus on the letter ‘S’, when you see a picture of a women, you refer to her as ‘She’,” I calmly explained to him.

 

“But in my language there is no gender difference.”

 

“I know YiXing, but you can’t refer to every women as ‘He’ unless they are really a ‘He’ in disguise, now say the sentence again.”

 

He pouted his lips in such a cute manner, but I was not an easy going tutor, he would learn English, no matter how distracted I have been lately.

 

"Mary like to eat meat; he definitely not ve-ge…vege..."

 

“YiXing, don’t worry about the big words! Look you have messed up the pronoun again; Mary is a ‘She’, not a ‘He’!

 

“I want to know what the big word is,” he started wiggling in his seat like a little toddler on the verge of having a temper tantrum. 

 

I gave him a stern look in which he immediately calmed down before grounding out the word Vegetarian to him.

 

He tried the word on his full lips and pronounced it over and over again as if it was the most fascinating English word he has ever heard. He did this same thing last week with the word ‘Carpenter’. 

 

It’s not that I am complaining about him being distracted by words, I completely understand, but it’s me I don’t understand.

 

I get completely distracted by him.

 

I was starting to having urges to cuddle him when he did good and chastise him when he did wrong, like a toddler.

 

He does act like a toddler while I’m tutoring him, but he is definitely not a toddler in any other aspect of life.

 

Sitting across from him hours at a time, constantly talking to him, and looking at him is making me want to get to know him better on a more personal level.

 

Yes it has been two months, yes he has asked me to be his friend, but we are not friends…yet.

 

I told him to recite all the English letters, and the numbers up to twenty and spell his name, he accomplished that part, but I also asked him to write it all out, if he did all of this, we could be friends.

 

Well YiXing couldn’t write in English correctly, and he still can’t even though it has been two months.

 

I am growing weak with each passing day though. He really wants to hang out with me often, but I use that as an incentive for him to do better during tutoring. It usually works; he tends to remember things better if he knows he will receive a reward for working hard and passing my test. The fact that he could read sentences now is really an improvement. Now we just have to work on everyday conversation, and writing skills.

 

“NaNa,” he called out to me in a soft voice.

 

My eyes that were already trained on his face seemed to widen as if they got caught doing something bad.

 

“Ye-Yes, YiXing?”

 

“Did I pronounce it right?” he asked in Chinese, snapping me back to the present.

 

What was he pronouncing…oh, right, vegetarian…

 

“Are you in a hurry?” came my slick reply. I eyed him for a second while he squinted his eyes in thought, obviously thinking about ways to answer me in English.

 

“Yease,” he pouted out.

 

“You mean ‘yes’?” he simply shook his head agreeing with me while packing up.

 

I just stared not bothering to stop him. He had been rushing out on me since day one and that was two months ago. 

 

He finished packing his things and gave me a small, dimpled smile before he left, leaving me to my thoughts.

~~~~~~

 

Some time had passed before I next tutored YiXing. It was time for exams and lots of studying had to be done. 

 

Both of us took the liberty of cancelling tutoring sessions on each other, but promised during our winter break we would definitely catch up.

 

We needed to after all, YiXing is so forgetful. I wouldn’t be surprised if he forgot how to spell my name ‘NaNa’.

 

I was walking through the campus, going to the arts building to visit one of my friends who is a painter, but I got terribly sidetracked on my way there.

 

The dance studio was the building right before the arts building, remembering that YiXing danced is why I took a detour into that building in the first place.

 

It was like my mind was subconsciously telling me to go see YiXing…

 

And that I did.

 

I saw him…

 

I felt like the muscles in my jaw were loosened, because I was sure my mouth was hanging open.

 

He told me he danced, I didn’t bother to ask which dance style, but now I feel like I should have.

 

Hip Hop and popping was a major weakness of mine. I could not dance the style correctly, but I sure did practice in my mirror at home, and I know I do not look anywhere near as good as YiXing looks right now.

 

I didn’t even recognize the look he had on his face. He was so concentrated and serious. His eyes were focused and the movement of his body…that body…

 

“娜娜你什麼時候來到這裡呢？” (Nana, what are you doing here?)

 

Why is someone speaking a language I don’t understand? Can’t they tell I obviously speak English and that I am BUSY!?

 

“娜娜?”(NaNa?)

 

If this person calls me one more time...

 

“娜娜?”(NaNa?)

 

“WHAT!? CAN’T YOU SEE I SPEAK ENGLISH?” I yelled at the voice unceremoniously, before I realized that the music had stopped and the voice belonged to YiXing, who looked obviously flustered at my sudden raise of voice.

 

Imagine the split second when you realize your face is pressed up against the glass of the door with your mouth hanging open in the most ungracious manner, STARING BLATANTLY in your own world because your thoughts managed to travel off to the deep end, while the boy you tutored had managed to not only stop the music, but walk all the way over to the door your face was pressed against, open it and asked you a question in a language you professed and proved to know, while you’re yelling and throwing a fit because now all you claim to know is English…

 

“I was asking what you were doing here, no need to fuss,” he trailed off.

 

I gathered together my wits before speaking again, my face hot, and my heart pumping too fast. 

 

“I am sorry YiXing, I didn’t even understand Chinese for a second, I was…distracted,” I explained.

 

“Is my dancing that good?” he asked excitedly pulling me fully into the room.

 

“Ha, ha ha, you are so funny,” I said awkwardly slapping his arm, “I have to go now, my painter, friend building in art…Bye!!!” I shouted before booking it out of there, my arm burning in the place he had grabbed.

 

What is wrong with me?

 

~~~~~

 

“Ready to get back into tutoring!” YiXing said excitedly as he plopped in the library seat across from me, scaring the living daylights out of me.

 

“Yah! YiXing! You are in a library,” I shushed.

 

He ducked his head as if suddenly embarrassed.

 

“I know, I know, I just haven’t seen you since the first time you saw me dance,” he whispered loudly.

 

I unconsciously began smiling at his obliviousness before the feeling of remembering the first time I saw him dance came washing over me.

 

I am not going to watch him dance again, unless he is performing in front of the entire school so my creeping face and creeper thoughts won’t be so obvious.

 

“You are so funny YiXing, now let’s get into the lesson, this is the last day the campus library will be open since winter break is tomorrow, so we will have to pick a separate place to meet. But first, how did you do on your exams?” I changed the subject twice.

 

He gave me a kool aid smile.

 

“I got all A’s,” he cheesed out.

 

I smiled back at him, genuinely proud he passed all his exams, before praising him for doing so well. If possible, his smile grew even bigger.

 

“Now what about our location for tutoring?”

 

Puffing out his cheeks cutely, he thought of a logical place I could tutor him comfortably. I felt my eyes becoming stuck on his face again…

 

“How about in the public library?”

 

Wow, that was simple.

 

“Good idea, tell me where you live and I could pick you up and take you there.” Can’t he just meet me there? Why do I need to know where he lived? I am being a complete creeper right now!

 

“I live in Dorm B on the north side of campus,” he said looking directly into my eyes, a habit he had been developing lately, or maybe he been giving me such strong eye contact but now that my face burns up every time, I am starting to notice it more. 

 

“Alright, then it is settled, I will pick you up for tutoring for the next two weeks, here give me your number and you can have mine,” I said handing him my phone, “and YiXing, you seem like the type of person who calls for no reason or as a practical joke, if you call yourself pulling a prank on my phone, I will pull a prank upside your head, you understand that?”

 

He continued smiling at me as if what I spoke to him was true before giving me a confused face, “Upside my head?”

 

“Mess with me, and you will find out,” I ended smiling sweetly.

 

---

 

A/N: …and that was Part Two of ‘Does That Answer Your Question’! Hope you guys enjoyed it, it was a little more exciting than the first part, but the excitement just builds as the story progresses, so stick with me here!

 

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Also, does anyone know what ‘Upside your head’ means? Maybe that is just a term we use where I am from, I am not sure, don’t want to confuse anybody…