The 2-month vacation Yubin had before she took up the teaching job was not just a time-out for her to review her relationship with Taec but it also a self-discovery journey that gave her the opportunity to try out adventurous stuff she had always wanted to try out. Like horse-back riding and if she had more time or if Taec wasn’t against the idea, she would have tried to get a motor-bike license or even a little tattoo. Now that they had broken up, she toyed with the ideas again but the new teaching job obviously meant she still had to keep a clean teacher role model image so she shouldn’t venture into a tattooed biker image yet. However, since it was hip-hop and dance lessons she was going to teach that day for her class, she decided to dress all biker babe with a hot leather jacket, a loose tee and high-cut leather boots to school.  No motor-bike to ride to school but at least it was a look she could make herself feel all fierce and hip-hop.

Her students arrived in the dance practice room and Yubin told them to sit down on the floor before she started her lesson.

“Which one of you can rap? Or have plans to be a rapper?” Yubin started with a question for her kids.

She saw a show of quite a few hands and pointed out one of her students who had amazing singing vocals.

“Yerin, you rap?” Yubin asked the always cool and calm girl.

“I listen to hip-hop a lot as well. So, I started to learn some raps on my own as well.” Yerin admitted.

“That’s great. Can I hear a sample?” Yubin asked and prompted the rest of the class to start clapping and cheering to encourage the young girl.

The girl threw in a Nikki Minaj song and Yubin was really impressed she wished Lim was also there to see a ballad vocal kid actually perform a hip hop song. Just like what Sunye said, you would find a new hidden talent in them. Yubin then turned to JR who raised his hand earlier.

“And you, JR?” Yubin asked. “You want to be a rapper as well?”

“Yeah…” JR admitted. “I had always looked up to Taecyeon hyung from 2pm. He came by once to the school to give a short talk about how he went through the years of practicing and performing to the point he started composing. And I want to see myself improving just like him.”

The problem of dating a public figure - Even after breaking up, you could never escape being reminded of your ex, Yubin thought to herself and worse still, when JR grinned, he actually looked a hell lot like Taec. These kids obviously did not know of her relationship with Taec since they both kept it from the public for past 7 years and she shouldn’t chide these kids for bringing up his name. She would think she might be proud of what JR just said of Taec but memories of Taec’s breaking up with her kept her from feeling so. This time, she could only feel like how she felt during her early JYPFSA days when she first met Ok Taecyeon…. that total Loser. 

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Flashback 2006 : Back to the days when we were young and wild and free..

It was recess time on her first day of school and Yubin looked around the canteen for any familiar faces. When she found none, she decided to take an empty spot in the canteen and have her meal. She was quite tired on her first day so she did not really take note of who was who in her class. Also, it wasn’t because she was not friendly or sociable, she just did not have the energy level to mingle. She checked her mobile phone to see if her gal pal, Gina had replied her texts and calls. Gosh, where was that girl? Yubin had enrolled to JYPFSA together with Gina last week but unfortunately they were allocated different classes.

“Hi, newcomer! Mind if we join you?” the short kid whom that tall kid Taecyeon did a homie handshake with earlier in class sat in front of Yubin and asked her in an American-accented English. “I must say I was impressed with your introduction in class earlier, Yubin.”

Yubin did not get to respond before he, and a short tanned girl and a skinny fair-skinned foreign-looking dude placed their lunch trays down and made themselves comfortable at the canteen table she was sitting alone. So Yubin just shrugged and let them.

“Ok, let me introduce myself and my homies here.” The short guy was still speaking in English. “I’m Jaebom from Seattle but you can call me Jay like my friends do. And this is my LA homie but he’s Thai, Khun…. And this is our homegirl, Min!”

Just then, that familiar tall dude came with his tray of food and a huge pile of notes and sat down to join them. He passed a juice to Jay and Jay added “And this is Boston boy, Taecyeon. Or you can call him Taec for short!”

“Well, nice to meet you all.” Yubin replied in Korean with her most friendly smile. She wondered if these American homies were trying to take in new members for their ‘hip-hop’ group?

“So…did you really come from San Jose?” Jay wondered aloud to Yubin because she did not reply him in English yet she seemed to understand every word of English.

Yubin nodded. “But I was only there for 2 years. I’m more of a Gwangju kid. Do you know if any of our classmates are from Gwangju as well?” she asked and would think Jay would be disinterested in getting to know her by now.

 But Jay still though hard at her question. “Let me see…. I think Junsu is… Right? Taec, who’s from Gwangju? I can’t differentiate their dialects but I know Junsu and Wooyoung speak some.” Jay turned to Taec who was busy eating and reading his notes at the same time.

“Nope. Junsu’s from Daegu and Woo’s from Busan. I don’t know anyone from Gwangju so far.” Taec reported with his mouth full.

“So all of you were born in the States?” Yubin asked.

The Thai boy Khun shook his head and chuckled. “No, not all of us. Just that we happen to spend many years there. Actually, Taec here was born in Busan but move to Boston during middle school.”

Khun spoke very basic and simple Korean you could tell he was still pretty new to the language but Yubin liked that he still seemed genuinely friendly and outgoing while coping with the new language.

“Yeah…But unlike you, Yubin, Taec thinks he’s more a Boston kid than a Busan kid, even though he basically spent more years in Korea than the US! Haha.” Min added.

Taecyeon stopped chewing his food and glanced between Min and Yubin and then in a defensive tone stated. “I spent 6 years speaking English and I only just got back to Korea not too long! Of course I lost my Busan dialect.”

“Well, I spent a great part of my life travelling to other parts of the world with my family and I can’t seem to be able to get rid of my usage of Gwangju/Korean language…. maybe ‘cause my family speaks Korean at home most times, even when we were living abroad. I guess we are different because perhaps you prefer to be more American than Korean?” Yubin gave her honest input to Taec and then she stood up to prepare to leave since she finished her meal already. “Anyway, it was great talking to guys. I see you guys in class later!”

“Later!” The friendly ‘hip-hop’ group waved her goodbye when she took her leave but she could see the tall guy still staring at her blankly, probably offended by what she just told him.

------------------  End of Flashback ----------------

A/N: I feel like I'm getting the silent treatment as well.. haha.