Five

Instead of going home after school, I took the bus four stops to Kris’ new work place, the Hapkido school. He was in the middle of teaching some middle school aged boys, and I took a seat in the back of the room to watch for a bit. Then I wandered out into the other rooms, checking out the school. I was just rounding the corner to the vending machines when I saw a familiar face.

“Tao!”

Tao seemed surprised to see me, and his voice was soft, still shy, when he replied. “Jungah-ssi, right? What are you doing here?”

“My brother is teaching here now,” I explained pointing in the general direction of Kris’ room.

Tao’s eyebrows shot up. “Instructor Lee is your brother?”

“Uh...yes?” I replied unsurely.

Tao’s face seem to lose some of its apprehension. “He is a great instructor,” he said, finally smiling. “I am an advanced student here and I sometimes teach beginner classes. We’re happy to have him here with us.”

When Kris’ class ended, I got a ride with him back to the house, where I immediately did the dishes. Kris was on his laptop, doing work for the NIS.

“Where is - what is my father doing?” I asked nervously.

Kris squinted at me, trying to decide how much to tell me. “He’s leading the smugglers on a wild goose chase in China,” he let out finally. “They’re in the process of setting a very intricate trap.”

I knew that he wasn’t going to tell me any more than that, so I changed into something more comfortable and decided to take a walk on the beach. At least there were pros to being on the run from pseudo revenge-seeking arms-smugglers, because the beach view was gorgeous and I definitely appreciated that. I had just stepped off the back porch when I saw two figures heading towards me, with dogs on leashes. One of them was waving at me, shading his eyes against the sun.

Jongin.

He turned to the boy next to him and told him something. The other boy laughed and gave Jongin a shove, and then Jongin was heading over. I meet him halfway, stepping into the sand.

“Hey Jungah,” he said, smiling down at me. The sunlight danced across his face, setting all the angles just right and his eyes were warm and sparking. Even his hair was perfectly windblown, messy in a y way. I could definitely tell why the girls in the school all loved him: good looking and flirty, a recipe for success.

“Is that your new place? Right on the beach?” he asked.

I nodded and gave him a smile as his dog leapt onto me.

“Hello there, what’s your name?” I cooed at the adorable brown toy poodle.

“He’s called Monggu.” Jongin scratched at its neck and Monggu seemed very pleased, rubbing into my hand with his nose.

“And the other one?” I asked, pointing at the dog being walked by the other guy. “And that’s…”

“Janggu, and yep, that’s my one and only, extremely annoying older brother, Joonmyun.” He rolled his eyes at the thought of his brother, but he was still smiling. He obviously loved him a lot. “He always annoys me about my schoolwork and girls,” he shook his head ruefully, sighing.

“He cares that much about your life? Aw, cute.”

Jongin laughed at my tone of voice, “Yeah. He thinks I should grow the hell up and be a mature young man soon, even if I’m already half a head taller than him. But Joonmyun’s smart and polite and perfect, so I work hard to measure up.”

Jongin and I kept talking for a while. It turned out that Jongin lived close by, also near the beach, and that he walked Janggu and Monggu out here very often. We talked until Jongin’s brother came jogging back with their other dog and yelled at Jongin to “get back home and stop flirting with girls.” I laughed at Jongin as he pinked a little and yelled back at his hyung to stop embarrassing him.

After waving goodbye to Jongin, I jogged back to our house and let myself in through the back door.

“How was school?” Kris asked the moment I shut the back patio door.

“How was work?” I answered his question with another question, making my way to the couch and plopping myself down.

He rolled his eyes at me. “Fine. You?”

“Fine,” I grinned at him.

“So, what’d you do today?”

“Well, that calculus teacher may be the only teacher I can go to for help at school, but his class is sure as hell boring.”

“Did you make any new friends?” Kris would probably make a great father in the future, but for now, the thought of the possibility of having a great father like Kris when I’d never really had a proper father at all left a bitter taste in my mouth.

“Yeah, I did actually,” I said, waiting for more prodding.

“That’s good,” Kris said as he settled down on the couch next to me and ruffled my hair, making it as messy as his was. “Was that boy you were talking to on the beach one of them?”

I sat up and gave Kris a glare. “Hey, were you spying on me?”

He gave me a mischievous look. “Well, I wasn’t spying, but even if I was, it’s kind of my job to keep an eye on you. So, buddying up to the boys already?”

I pushed Kris away from me and stuck my tongue out at him. “He’s just one of the new friends I made today, even if he is pretty good looking.”

Kris slid his right hand down his jaw and gave me a posed smile. “Better looking than me?”

I pretended to throw up at his cheesiness and groaned, turning away. “You saw him, didn’t you? Judge for yourself, Oppa.” I said, putting emphasis on the last word to mock him.

Kris smirked at me, looking like he was about to laugh, before standing up and announcing that dinner would be ready in ten.

When I got to Calculus class the next day, the girl sitting next to me was suddenly a lot more chipper and interested in me. She introduced herself and her little group of friends, but I didn't bother remembering their names.

“Does your brother drop you off for school every day?” one of them asked. “And wow, are you really eating with Jongin’s crew at lunch?”

I just blinked at them, unimpressed. I didn’t want to be friends with people like this.

Eunjung and I turned out to have a lot in common. We listened to a lot of the same music and were fans of the same idol band. I didn’t have many female friends back home in Seoul either, so having Eunjung around was refreshing.

The next time that Tao greeted me, he was bright and chipper, having lost of the shyness from the first meeting. Even Yixing seemed more friendly and less distracted.

“Jongin and I have a showcase coming up in a few days,” Yixing told me over lunch. He, of course, was eating curry. “It sold out before you even got here, but I managed to get an extra ticket so you can come with the guys and Eunjung.”

“What is with this ‘the guys’ things,” Baekhyun grumbled. “Why am I always lumped together with three other unattractive men?”

“Hey, just who are you calling unattractive?” Lu Han said as he punched Baekhyun on the arm, and the rest of us just laughed at the bickering that ensued between the two.

“They’re dumb, aren’t they?” Eunjung exaggeratedly whispered to me, her eyes twinkling fondly.

“Just a little.” I whispered back, making sure everyone else could hear.

“Hey Oppa, does this look good?” I asked as I walked into living room where Kris was on his laptop. He looked up from his laptop to take a look at my outfit and he shrugged at me.

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