The Seventh Meeting
The Little Things
November 11th, 2009
She loved Shakespeare. Her class was currently covering Macbeth, but even for hardcore Korean university students, translating English to Shakespearean English to Korean was a challenge. She had no problems in the class except the occasionally mistranslation. After having to communicate in English while in the states, Shakespeare was a breeze.
Fighting the urge to raise her hand and tell the professor that he translated Macbeth’s soliloquy incorrectly, she merely propped her head against her hand. There was no point in taking notes on something she already knew by heart. Her high school had covered Macbeth and she knew it front to back. The class midterm was entirely on the play but she was hardly worried. She caught herself yawning several times like her fellow classmates.
The door of the lecture hall squeaked open, but only a few number of students actually turned their heads towards the sound. She guessed they were used to late students. She had only just finished her transfer papers into Konkuk weeks ago and started attending class for the last week. Every interruption, sneeze, or teacher slapping a ruler on a desk caught her attention.
A student came in silently and bowed to the teacher, who acknowledged the student with a nod before continuing his translations. The student appeared surprised at her presence, but sat down in the seat next to her.
She smiled at the pure bizarreness of the situation. They were seeing each other everywhere nowadays. But their last encounter…
Oh man, did I really cry like a hysterical loser in front of him?
He was coming back from class to his dorm when he saw her on the bus. He was going to comment on her hair until he noticed that her shoulders were shaking and her head was down. And even though he could pull together a last minute performance confidently without blinking an eye, he had no idea what to do when he saw her crying. He stayed on the bus until it was her stop and didn’t ask any questions. Minho knew it was wrong, but he was secretly delighted that she had allowed him to see her cry.
Maybe we could be called friends?
She was mortified at his sudden appearance. Minho did nothing but nod a greeting to her before taking out his notebook. He concentrated on the lecture and paid no attention to her. Praying that he wasn’t going to ask why she was mess when he last saw her, she sat with her back straight and mindlessly took notes. She was so engrossed in the teacher’s drone that she nearly jumped when she felt a paper ball fall in her lap.
Her head sharply turned to Minho, who was still intently listening to the professor. Curiously, she opened the note and quickly scanned the messy scrawl in fear of getting caught.
“Fancy meeting you here. Meet me after class - You owe me another banana milk!
- I looked super cool in the Ring Ding Dong MV, didn’t I?
Minho ^^v
P.S. Do you get what Kim seonsaengnim is saying? @__@ Why would that one character want the stars to set their sires on fire?”
She snorted at Minho’s mistranslation and simply tucked the note in her bag. Glancing sideways, Minho seemed to be pouting at her mocking expression.
Well, at least English got a little more interesting.
After another two hours , the lecture ended and students were chattily leaving the class. Minho high fived a couple of guys who she guessed were his friends. They asked if he wanted to join them for dinner but he told them to go without him. The group of boys looked from their friend to her; immediately, some began to cat call and pat Minho on his shoulder. Minho looked confused for a moment before quickly punching his friends lightly as they ran out of the class.
“Ready to go?” Minho said sheepishly as he put on his backpack. Before she could reply, the teacher called Minho. He closed his eyes as if in pain and responded with a “Ye!” before whispering to her to wait for him.
She shrugged and dug for her earphones in her bag. Risking a glance to the pair in front of the room, she frowned slightly at the bits of conversation she managed to hear.
“ - know you’re busy with promotions and that insane schedule of yours, so I postponed the midterm for a couple of days for you… Sorry to say that I can’t do much else or it wouldn’t be fair.. I recommend a tutor.”
Minho’s face slowly turned into a scowl as he was hearing the words from his teacher. She wondered if he was going to complain and ask for more days to study but he just shook his head.
“Ah.. Kim seonsaengnim. Don’t worry, I can take the midterm when everyone else is taking it. And I don’t need a tutor. You know how hard it is to find a good English tutor and I don’t have much time for that with the new single out,” Minho said determinedly, earning the teacher’s sympathy.
“Minho sshi, I am simply worried for your performance in this class and -”
“With all due respect, seonsaengnim, I know I can handle it. I’ll get an A. Please don’t worry about me,” Minho bowed to the teacher. His eyebrows were knitted in frustration as he approached her. She quickly pretended to be interested on the tile pattern on the ground until he reached her and led her to the exit.
She didn’t miss the grim expression on Kim seonsaengnim’s and Minho’s faces.
“So.. Transfer student?” Minho said while browsing the small store’s milk selection. “That explains why you’re in Korea. School in the States started a while ago, right?”
She bent down next to him, wondering whether to tell him that she knew of his current English problems and offer to tutor him. Somehow, she figured her wouldn’t take her offer. “School in the States generally starts in August or September. I transferred since my appa’s company is based here and I could see him more often. Do you want a red bean bun? My treat.”
“Sure,” Minho called as she walked to the pastry section. “Chocolate or strawberry milk?”
“A banana milk please, Minho. How many red bean buns would you like?” she asked in English, hoping to subtly steer the conversation in her favor.
Minho looked at her blankly. Right when she thought he would ask what she was saying, he slowly responded, “Two. Actually, three.”
She sighed. He probably had too much pride to ask for her or anyone else’s help. With Shinee currently promoting a new single, she knew his schedule was insane. It seemed that every day there was a music program to go on (Not that I watched them, she thought hastily) or an interview or photo shoot. How he came to school without outright passing out in exhaustion was a wonder.
The two paid for their snacks and walked back to the school’s field to watch a practice soccer game. While Minho was engrossed in the game, she pulled out her Macbeth copy and threw it at him.
Unfortunately, she overestimated his reflexes and the book hit him on the side of his head. He looked thunderstruck at her but she simply nodded her head to the direction of the book, silently telling him to study. He groaned before falling back into the grass, clearly intent on ignoring her order.
She simply hugged her knees and said to him, “You know, that one character is Macbeth. And he was asking the stars to hide their light so that no one could see his true desires. Not to set people on fire.”
Minho just folded his arms behind his head in response.
Sighing, she fell back to lay next to him. They gazed wordlessly at the clouds that drifted slowly across the vast blue sky.
“… You know. I could tutor you. I’ll bring banana milk for us to drink afterwards,” she said casually, hoping that the bribe would convince him.
He scoffed, throwing some blades of grass at her face, before saying stubbornly, “I don’t need a tutor. I just have to find time to study some more.”
“Yeah, the person who says that Macbeth wants to set people on fire thinks he can handle the entire play on his own,” she said sarcastically, punching him in the arm.
Minho rolled to his side to face her. He lightly flicked her forehead and said, “I don’t need help.“
His eyes were glowing in irritation despite his playful tone, but she took it into stride. “You mean you don’t want help, Choi Minho. You certainly need it. Stop being so stubborn and hardheaded. I’m practically fluent in English and I’m not even going to bother to study for this midterm because I know the play by heart. Not to mention, I’m bringing you free banana milk! And we could spend more time together!” she blurted without thinking.
Minho’s indignant frown slowly curved up to a smirk.
“Ah, ____, so this was your intention? Then by all means, you’ll be my tutor. If you just wanted to spend more time with me, all you had to do was ask -”
“Really, Minho oppa..?” she said softly and his smirk fell to an amazed expression. His eyes were wide and Minho swore that the clouds stopped moving and the world was standing still because it was that or he was dying because he suddenly couldn’t breathe. All of the pestering and the disappointment from the distance she put between them vanished in those two words.
She had finally called him Minho oppa.
Eyes gazing softly into his, her hand reached out to touch the side of his face. Minho gulped noticeably at the sudden closeness and he realized that he was a man and she was a woman and that she was looking at his face with such wonder and affection and -
A fistful of grass met Minho’s face.
“Don’t be so arrogant, Minho sshi.”
Author's Note: More of a filler chapter than anything else but I needed it to help set the stage for later chapters. Plus, I was tutoring kids in Macbeth today, which completely caused this chapter to be born.
Plus, we now know what class Minho would have an A when he was asked "'What about your grades?' 'I don't have any F's. I also have one A.'" in the recent GQ interview. Kekekekeke :D
And our character finally called Minho "Minho oppa"~ Although she converted back to Minho sshi -_-;
Oh! I fixed my (stupid) date mess up from last chapter! It's not quite 2010 yet in our story.
Thanks for all of your encouraging comments and subscriptions! Free banana milk for everyone! My next update will probably take a little longer than usual since school dictates it. >_< Sorry!
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