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Calm Before the Storm

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“Momma, I just want to warn you that when the doorbell rings, it’s probably Se Hun. He’s a boy from my English class who needs tutoring. We’ll be in the main room and I promise we’ll be quiet,” Sa Rang told her mother, setting her school bag down on the floor as she spoke to her mother who was in the kitchen, preparing dinner.

“That’s fine, he can stay as long as he likes. Why don’t you ask him to stay for dinner?”

Sa Rang laughed at her mother. “Momma, we’re just classmates. It’s nothing like that,” she replied, looking through her bag. There was a familiar notebook in there, but she knew it wasn’t hers. She pulled it out; it was the same black notebook that she had taken from Se Hun a few weeks back.  Sa Rang decided not to transfer schools after that horrible mishap with her abusive ex-boyfriend. It took a lot of convincing on Kai’s part, but he was by her side every second of every day to make sure nothing went amiss.

He couldn’t afford for her to just transfer schools like that. Rumors would go around—not that they hadn’t already—and Kai frankly wasn’t prepared to deal with that. He convinced her to stay much against her will, but in the end she figured she didn’t really have a choice. She talked to her mother about it—who seemed to be her primary caretaker. She was completely opposed to the idea. Sa Rang had worked so hard and they had spent so much money to get her into this school, and her mother wasn’t about to let her throw all of that away.

“There’s nothing wrong with inviting a friend who is of the opposite gender to stay for dinner! I promise I’ll behave!” her mother teased, winking at her slightly before pinching her cheek.

Sa Rang rolled her eyes, pushing her mother’s hand away from her cheek as the bell rang. “That’s him, please be on your best behavior anyway?” she asked, earning a laugh and slight agreement from her mother before she scampered off to the door. She smoothed out her clothes and looked through the peep hole, confirming that it was indeed Se Hun, bag slung over his shoulder as he stood there awkwardly.

The door opened slowly, bringing Se Hun back to the real world. He met eyes with her before looking away. “Hello,” he managed to mutter. She replied the same before stepping to the side to let him in. He entered equally as nervously. The sink water shut off and Sa Rang knew that was the end of it. Her mother entered the room, drying her hands before she began to speak.

“You must be Se Hun, it’s so nice to meet you,” she said with a wide smile.

Se Hun bowed nervously to her. “The pleasure is mine, Mrs. Chung.” Se Hun could be so polite, and it kind of shocked Sa Rang. She looked at him, watching him smile and converse easily with her mother.

“Anyway!” Sa Rang interrupted, grabbing Se Hun’s arm. “We’re going to study now, thanks mom,” she said, dragging the male away.

“If you need anything just let me know!” she called, watching them disappear into the other room before she shook her head, going back to preparing dinner.

The two sat on the floor in the main room and Sa Rang was quick to pull out her English text book, Se Hun following close behind as he examined what little parts of the house he could see. He looked almost in awe, being in someone else’s house wasn’t something he usually did, much less to do school work and be helped in a subject he was struggling in. “This is so much better than the library,” he said, looking over to Sa Rang who seemed to be completely ignoring him.

Sa Rang only looked over when she realized her mother had entered the room again. She set a platter down on the table. “I made you both some tea to help you with your studies. It’s an old Chinese import,” and before Sa Rang could protest, her mother had scurried back into the kitchen.

“That crazy woman,” she said, shaking her head as she reached forward for the pot, pouring Se Hun’s tea first before her own.

“These are beautiful cups,” Se Hun said. He wasn’t sure what else to say, but he knew he wasn’t going to make a comment on Sa Rang’s comment about her mother.

“You should tell my mother, she’d be happy to hear that her work is appreciated,” she muttered, taking a sip of her hot tea, only to have Se Hun look at her.

“She made these?” Se Hun asked, earning a nod from Sa Rang.

“That’s not the point. We’re here for a tutoring session on the English language. We’re going to start focusing now,” Sa Rang ordered, setting her teacup down to flip to the lesson they had been working on in class.

Se Hun set down his teacup too and turned to Sa Rang. “Are you always this uptight around your mom?” he asked, his hand reaching forward to take hers. “If you’re stressing about me and her interacting, don’t. It’s not a big deal. We’re getting along fine. Is there something else on your mind that you’d like to talk about?” Se Hun asked, looking for a reaction on her face.

“Let’s get this done and then we’ll talk,” she said, looking down at her text book after pulling her hand out of Se Hun’s. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she was getting a weird feeling from him. It wasn’t particularly a feeling she disliked, but it was a weird one, something she had felt from someone else but she wasn’t sure who, and she wasn’t sure how to place it.

The tutoring session moved along like normal, things went smoothly the way they always did and Se Hun seemed to really be learning. He was very engaged in the practice that Sa Rang had put him through and he seemed to be having no difficulties with the new material.

Sa Rang checked the time; it was getting a little late, but the second she looked at her watch a loud crack of thunder rolled over the house. Rain poured hard on the roof and she looked out the window. There was nothing to see, the rain was coming down too hard. “I take it you’re not leaving any time soon,” she muttered to herself, but directing it at Se Hun.

“Doesn’t seem like it. Especially since I walked here,” he pointed out, putting his text book back in his bag. She sighed and continued to look out the window before she remembered Se Hun’s notebook.

“You forgot this the other day, I picked it up for you and then totally forgot,” she said, pulling the black notebook out of her backpack to hand it over to the male who snatched it a little to eagerly out of her hands.

“You didn’t…read it, did you?” he asked, eyeing her face.

“No! I don’t invade people’s privacy like that! But I may as well ask why you’re so protective of it!” she said, calling him out on his strange attitude towards the ringed paper.

“There’s things in it I don’t want anyone to read, things I don’t want anyone to know about. But if anyone had to pick it up, I’m glad it was you,” he muttered, shoving it into his bag before Sa Rang’s mother made her presence known with a clearing of .

“It’s raining pretty hard out there, would you like to stay for dinner? I’ll give your mother a call and let her know you’re safe?” she asked, looking towards Se Hun who had finally met her gaze in return. Se Hun took a glance outside, realizing just how hard it was actually raining before thunder rolled over the house again. He nodded, agreeing to stay and offered up his mother’s number. 

There was silence among the teens in the main room as Mrs. Chung made the call. “Hello, Mrs. Oh? Hi, this is Chung Ji Hae, Chung Sa Rang’s mother. As I’m sure you’re aware, Se Hun is currently here being tutored by my daughter and I was just calling to let you know that he’s safe. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. If it becomes necessary he may stay here for the night. Yes. Yes I will have him back tomorrow morning. Uh huh. Okay. Alright I’ll put him on the phone. Se Hun! The phone is for you!”

Se Hun looked to Sa Rang who urged him to stand and get the phone. He took the phone from Mrs. Chung without complain and began a conversation with his mother to which both Sa Rang and her mother tried to listen to.

“Hi mom. Yeah, I’m fine. Studying is going well.” There was a short pause in the conversation, “What? Yeah. No, mom. No I’m not dating her! Mom, mom stop. Mom! Oh my god, mom, no. No! Yes mom, I am behaving myself. Yes. Yes, mom. Okay.  Okay!... Okay mom! Okay I will! Okay! Okay bye. Bye. Bye mom. Okay bye mom!” Se Hun quickly hung up the phone, rolling his eyes. Sa Rang knew exactly how those conversations went. It seemed to be the same with every teenager on the face of the planet.

Se Hun handed the phone back to Sa Rang’s mother before she announced that dinner would be ready shortly and that they should go wash up. Sa Rang led Se Hun to the bathroom downstairs so they could clean their hands. “Is your father coming home?”

“Se Hun, my father hasn’t been home for over eight years.”