G Dragon was in a strange mood.  Actually, it wasn't so much that his mood was strange... it was more strange the way it kept changing.  He had felt an intense flash of annoyance when Seungri suggested  chatting up the new tutor - probably a combination of exasperation at him for constantly chatting up every cute girl who came within range, and the idea of chatting up that irritating tutor.

But after he'd left, GD felt pretty good.  He was getting a head start on his work for Teacher Park and was able to relax for the first time in weeks, now that their summer promotions had finally come to an end.  He felt a surge of unexplained joy upon finishing his work and plopping down onto the couch.  He sighed luxuriously, closing his eyes.

This didn't last, however.

His attempt at lazing was interrupted almost immediately when the door was flung open and a griping Seungri plunked down nearly on top of him and promptly began complaining relentlessly about not being able to bother the new tutor.  When GD grumpily reminded him that he would be seeing her the following morning - and nearly every morning for the next few months - Seungri's complaining continued, undeterred.  He'd wanted to see her outside of class, he moaned.  GD made a mental note never to tell him about any extracurricular encounters with the tutor, lest he inspire more whining.

Meanwhile, Seungri's lamenting continued: Why couldn't he get time with her? Why was he the only one who didn't get to see the tutor?  Why does Top hyung get to see her and he doesn't?  Why is life so unfair?

Suddenly GD felt disproportionately angry.  Usually he delt with Seungri's complaining with a sense of humor, but for some reason, today he was fed up.  He stood abruptly and mumbled an excuse to leave the apartment.  All of his odd, sharp mood swings were giving him a headache and he decided that the best cure was to take a long walk to clear his head.

He stomped down the hall and slammed the elevator button, tapping his foot impatiently while he waited.  When it arrived, he stepped inside and pressed the button for the lobby.  He wasn't sure where he was going to go, but he knew he needed to get out of there.  He'd do laps around the block if he had to.  He sighed, leaning against the cold metal of the elevator's wall.  Even this small amount of movement was already starting to make him feel better.  He watched as the number counted down until they finally reached one.

The elevator paused for a moment before the doors opened and revealed, to his surprised, the new tutor with an armful of grocery bags.  She also seemed initially surprised to see him, but quickly broke into a warm grin.  Even as she was doing this, one of the many bags she was carrying split and canned goods were rolling everywhere.  Her smile immediately changed into a look of alarmed dismay and she nearly dropped the rest of her bags in surprise.

"Oh my god!" she cried unintentionally, in English, dropping to her knees in an attempt to pick up all of her various groceries.

GD, who had been equally shocked by this sudden minor-catastrophe, had been standing sort of frozen in surprise until she said that.  The funny little outburst knocked him out of his daze and he immediately followed suit - stifling a chuckle at her uninhibited reaction (he tried to imagine any of his other tutors saying 'oh my god' like that, but failed).

Picking everything up turned out to be a bit of a chore, as the cans had managed to roll in literally every direction, ending up in the most peculiar places.  Caden went around the room picking up cans from behind the decorative plants, under the various chairs and side tables, and even from behind the front desk (which was, surprisingly, unoccupied.  There was a little sign on it that promised the employees would be back in 15 minutes), all the while muttering to herself in English things like 'stupid flimsy bags' and 'I knew they put too many into one bag'.

At the same time, GD was busy gathering all of the cans that had stayed near the spot where she'd dropped them, diligantly sorting everything more evenly distributed into the non-broken bags.  At one point he dove heroically in front of the elevator's closing doors to save several cans that had somehow rolled inside.

Finally everything had been gathered back up and Caden made her way back over to GD with one last armful of cans.  She was handing them to him to put in the bags when she lost her grip on the last one and it toppled out of her hands and onto her foot, which was protected only by a flimsy layer of fabric.  She let out a yelp of surprise and pain before accidentally uttering a single explative in English.

Unfortunately, this reaction caused GD to roar with laughter, to the point where he nearly toppled over, leaving Caden to rub her foot furiously in an attempt to alleviate the pain.  He tried to get ahold of himself, but it took nearly a solid minute before he could get control over his laughter.

"I'm glad to know you get so much joy out of my pain," Caden said when he finally calmed down.  She seemed to have recovered by this time, having stopped rubbing her foot, and it was clear that she was teasing.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry," GD said, still chuckling slightly between big gulps of air, attempting to catch his breath. "It's just, that reaction was so unexpected coming from you.  I've never heard anyone curse so cutely before..."  Caden grinned rather sheepishly.

"I know, I'm setting a horrible example as your new tutor," she said in mock shame as she grabbed the can that had perpetrated her discomfort and shoved it roughly into one of the bags.  He chuckled at this, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes, still smiling broadly.  Caden stood, putting weight on her injured foot gingerly, testing it out before determining that it no longer caused her pain.  GD followed suit, grabbing several of the stil-intact grocery bags in the process.

"Oh, no, you don't have to-" she protested as she realized what he was doing, but GD quickly interrupted her.

"There's no use arguing," he told her firmly, "I'm going to help you bring everything upstairs.  You don't want to have another incident like this as soon as you get out of the elevator again, do you?"  At his insistence she conceded, instead helping him make sure that the bags he had picked up were secure.

"By the way, I don't mean to question your capabilities, but how in the world did you walk all the way back from the grocery store carrying all of these bags?" GD inquired, lifting the arm with only one bag in it. "They are so heavy!"  Caden scoffed at this.

"Oh, don't doubt me," she said jokingly. "I may not look it, but I've got a lot of power in these things."  She started flexing her arms, making serious faces and posing like a body builder.  GD gave a loud laugh of surprise at her silliness, which caused her to devolve into laughter as well.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you can be pretty nanpokhan at times," he told her pleasantly.  Caden smiled, looking a little confused.

"'Nanpokhan?'" she repeated cheerfully.

"Oh, you don't know what that means?" he asked grinning, but scratching his head awkwardly. "Nevermind then..."

"No fair!  You have to tell me now!" Caden demanded, apparently scandalized.  GD laughed awkwardly, still scratching his head, considering.

"No, no," he said, "I shouldn't."  Caden narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips,

"If you don't tell me, I'll just have to ask Teacher Park what it means.  You said 'nanpokhan', right?"

"You can't tell Teacher Park I said that!" he said, laughing. "I'll get in trouble!"

"Why would you call me something bad enough to get you in trouble?" Caden challenged.

"Fine, fine," he said in English, relenting. "The closest definition in English would probably be 'ridiculous'."  Caden's eyebrows shot up.

"Ridiculous?" she repeated in English, before switching back to Korean. "That's not so bad!  What was so wrong with calling me ridiculous?"  GD grinned at her acceptance of his assessment.

"It's just not something one would call their teacher," he explained, smiling. "It just comes across as talking down to the person, so it's very impolite for me to say it to you.  It's so easy to forget that you're going to be my tutor when I talk to you outside of class."  Caden scoffed at this.

"You were worried I'd be bothered by something like that?" she inquired. "I'm American - what do I know from politeness?"  He let out another surprised laugh.

"Nanpokhan," he said again, shaking his head with a mischievous glint in his eye, causing Caden to giggle.  She bent down to grab the two remaining bags and pushed the button for the elevator.  They rode up the four levels in companionable silence.  GD followed Caden the short walk down the hall and waited while she punched in the door code.

"Teacher Park, I'm home," she called politely as they entered. "And I have a student with me!" she added, throwing GD a teasing look.  There was no answer, so the pair made their way over to the kitchen to set all of the groceries down on the counter.  With still no response from Teacher Park, Caden glanced curiously down the hall to see if she was in her room, but the door was closed.

Behind her back, GD quickly shook out his arms - he wasn't lying when he said those bags were heavy.  As he was stretching, he noticed a small note card addressed to Caden.

"Oh," he said in surprised, picking it up, "have you seen this?"  He held it out for her to see.  She took it curiously, opening it to read the inside.

"Ah," she said finally, nodding in understanding. "Teacher Park said that she and her fiance had an appointment having  to do with wedding planning and that she'd be gone for a few hours."  She smiled, setting the note back on the counter,

"That was so sweet of her to leave a note..."

"Yeah, I've always liked that about Teacher Park," GD chimed in brightly, "she's always considerate and looks after people well."

"You must be sad that she's leaving after all this time," Caden said, looking him over seriously.  GD thought a moment before answering.

"I am," he said carefully," but I would never begrudge her desire to move on with her life.  Plus we already seem to have a competent replacement, so I'm not too worried."

"'Seem'," Caden snorted, turning to investigate her grocery bags.  GD just laughed at this, shaking his head.  He didn't bother trying to explain himself - by now he knew that she would find a way to no matter how politely he said it.  Not that he minded, in fact he found it pretty amusing.

Meanwhile, Caden had instinctively started unpacking the groceries.  When she realized what she was doing, she abruptly stopped, turning to find GD standing there with nothing to do.

"Oh!  Right," she began in a rush. "Thank you for helping me with my groceries!  I wouldn't have made it back without you..."

"That's probably true," GD joked, feigning sincerity.  Caden swatted his arm, laughing at his insolence.  He took this opportunity to brush past her and begin to put away the food she had started to unpack.

"Oh, no!" Caden said, alarmed by this developement. "Please don't feel like you have to keep helping just because I dragged you up here!"  GD grinned with his back to her, moving to unpack the rest of the bags now.  He wondered in what world trying to convince him that she could manage the bags on her own was the same as dragging him up here.

"I don't mind, really," he said brightly, pushing a bundle of freshly unpacked groceries into her arms.  Unsure of whether or not to encourage this behavior to continue, she unconciously furrowed her brow in concern, biting her lip anxiously, causing her to look unintentionally vulnerable.  GD felt a strange surge of affection toward her that startled him with its suddenness.  He quickly turned back to the groceries in a manner he hoped appeared casual.

He heard her shuffle over to the cabinet and begin to put away the food he had handed to her.  Then her face appeared at his elbow looking determined.

"Weren't you on your way somewhere when we ran into each other?" she pointed out. "I don't want to keep you if you have somewhere to be..."  GD just rolled his eyes, bonking her on the head softly with a snack-pack he had just unloaded.

"Why would I tell you I don't mind if I had somewhere to be?" he pointed out, laughing at her overly surprised face upon being hit.

"But, but," she sputtered, still determined to find a reason to refuse his continued manual labor. "You had to be going somewhere, or we wouldn't have run into each other!"

"Stubborn girl!" he cried, still laughing, shaking his head.  Caden gave him a quirked smile at this.  She wasn't exactly sure what he'd called her, but judging by the tone of his voice and using context clues, she could take a pretty good guess.  The boys she'd dated in Japan called her the Japanese equivalent all the time.

"Actually, the real reason I ran into you was because I needed to get out of the house - Seungri was driving me up the wall," he explained earnestly.  GD almost laughed again when her attitude immediately changed from argumentative to interested.

"You and Seungri live together?" she asked pleasantly.

"Yeah.  We actually get along really well, but he can get a little irritating at times.  I guess it's just one of those days," he explained. "I was just planning on taking a walk to get some time away, but this works just as well."  Caden nodded in understanding and instantly began putting away the groceries that he had already unpacked without another thought, apparently finally convinced that she wasn't imposing upon him.

"I know what you mean," she chatted cheerfully, "I had a roommate in college who was just like that.  I still keep in touch with her from time to time.  Is it just the two of you that live together?"

GD began to explain where the various members lived throughout the building, where the other performers and various YG staff were all located.  They continued to chat happily as they unpacked.  Caden seemed excited to voice all of her curiosities about the company and GD was happy to be able to lend his knowledge on the subject.  Working together they quickly managed to get everything put away and they ended up just standing there in the kitchen talking after they were done.

Finally their conversation petered out and Caden realized that they had finished they chore a while ago.

"Thanks again for your help," she said, smiling. "Between the two of us, we got it done really fast."

"It was no problem," he replied smoothly, leaning back onto the counter.

"I feel like I should give you some kind of reward for taking time out to help me," she pondered aloud.  GD snorted in amusement.

"Not this again..." he muttered jokingly.  Caden ignored him, looking thoughtful.  Suddenly she brightened,

"I know!  Since you helped me with my groceries, why don't I make you dinner?"

Hearing this, GD froze.  Having a girl cook for him (only him) had always been related to his idea of romantic interaction.  All of a sudden he was conciously aware of the fact that the two of them were alone in her apartment.  His realization must have showed on his face because Caden immediately burst into laughter,

"I was joking!  Don't look so terrified, gosh!  You make me seem like the witch from Hansel & Gretel..."

He was torn between amusement and embarrassment that her offer to make him dinner apparently gave him a reaction that resembled hearing that it was him that she was cooking for dinner.  He expected her teasing to continue, but she seemed to have forgotten about him - deep in thought once more.

"I know!" she cried suddenly, spinning around and flinging open the cabinet.  She grabbed an armful of the various snack that they had just put away.

"Here!" she said excitedly. "Choose one!  Any one you like, pick your favorite.  I bought several of each, so don't feel like you'd be depriving me of anything."  GD grinned, fighting the urge to roll his eyes good-naturedly at her childlike glee having found what she considered to be a suitable reward.  He hesitated, considering refusing, but he knew that she wouldn't stop until she found something to give him and this was likely the most reasonable option she would come up with, so he relented.  He pretended to take his selection into deep consideration before grabbing the type he liked best.

"There," Caden said, satisfied. "From me to you, as payment for helping me with my chores."  GD grinned at this.  She turned to put the remainder of the snacks back in their proper place before turning back, holding another of the same type that he'd picked.

"Since you say it's good, I'm going to try this one too," she explained, grinning. "I was planning on eating one after dinner."

"Ah, now I'm glad I picked the one I actually like," he joked.  Caden smiled,

"Me too.  Now that I know which one is your favorite, I know what to get you the next time you deserve a reward."

GD felt his cheeks warm slightly.  He laughed down at his feet to cover it up.  Then he glanced at the clock on the other side of the room.  It had been nearly two hours since he'd left his apartment.

"Well I'd better let you get to your dinner," he began. "All this talk of food has made me pretty hungry, myself."  Caden grinned at this.

"Anyway, thanks for giving me an excuse to stay out of the house for a while.  And thanks for the food," he added, holding up the package and shaking it slightly for effect.  She laughed this time,

"Of course!  Food and distraction are two of my specialties!"

GD suppressed his laughter at this - for some reason, the way she worded that statement made it sound unintentionally provocative.  He could only nod when she offered to walk him out.  They paused at the door.

"Thanks again for helping me out today," she said earnestly, leaning  casually against the door frame.  Although she was incredibly well aware of politeness and appropriate bowing for a foreigner, she seemed to be more relaxed about it in her own home, with only an underling present.  He didn't mind.  He had always rather appreciated the casualness which Westerners offered him, although he rarely allowed himself to indulge the same attitude (out of sheer habit), it was a nice change of pace.  He knew they wouldn't be offended by a small slip up the way his own people might.  This was one of those feelings he never thought about unless it was actually happening.

GD was so caught up in thinking, that he nearly missed what she said next.

"...I'll try to be less of a bother to my students from now on," she said with laughter in her voice.  GD smiled,

"Don't worry about that.  It's a student's job to take good care of their teacher anyway."

She laughed again, reaching out and playfully tugging on the sleeve of his shirt - a clearly affectionate gesture; one that wouldn't feel the least bit out of place  between a teacher and student (almost like a few steps up from ruffling the hair, but without highlighting the difference in rank).

"Well, good bye then," GD said politely, smiling. "I'll see you in class tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow," Caden replied, bowing as he walked out the door. "Have a nice night."  He bowed back and she waved before closing the door.

GD wandered lazily toward the elevator, in no particular rush to go back to his room, although by now all of his annoyance at Seungri had evaportated.  He was content to take his time getting back.  He pressed the button to go up and waited, looking over his 'present'.  

It was smaller than the package he usually got - probably because she hadn't tried it yet and didn't know if she'd like it - made for one person.  They were chocolate and peanut butter flavored cookies with a small strawberry jelly-type side to dip in.  It was the kind of snack he had eaten ever since he was a kid.  He smiled, remembering when his mom would pack them in his lunch on random days for a surprise.

Just then the elevator arrived.  The doors opened, and as GD stepped inside he was surprised to find Top, also looking surprised.  He nearly cringed as Top glanced at the floor number, waiting for him to make some smartass comment.  Strangely, it never came.  Top simply raised his eyebrows  slightly before greeting GD normally,

"Oh, hey.  Going up?"

"Yeah..." GD responded weakly.  There was a moment of silence as the doors closed again and the elevator began to rise.

"Out running errands, hyung?" GD  asked finally, making conversation.

"Sort of," Top replied pleasantly. "I just ran out to buy something from the store."

"The grocery store?" GD asked, probably with more surprise than was appropriate.

"Ah, no.  I went to the mall close by," Top responded.  GD noticed that he didn't have any bags, but seemed to be gripping something small in one hand.  Suddenly curious,  GD restrained the urge to ask about it, since Top had been conscientious enough not to interrogate him.  He glanced down at the snack-pack in his hand and smiled slightly.  They rode the rest of the way in comfortable silence.  The doors opened again on the 10th floor and GD hopped off, waving good bye enthusiastically, promising to see him for breakfast the next morning.  Top grinned, waving back as the doors closed once again.

With that GD marched down the hall, back to his apartment.  He opened the door to find Seungri working on his laptop on the couch.

"Ah hyung, where have you been?" the maknae inquired. "You were gone for a long time."  GD stared at him blankly for a moment.  It did seem like much time had passed since he'd left to escape Seungri's whining...  Realizing this, he suddenly remembered his internal vow to never mention his chance meetings with the new tutor.

"Oh..." he said rather woodenly. "I just went for a walk..."

"A walk to the convenience store?" Seungri inquired. "What's that you have?"  GD looked down and saw that he had been swinging the snack-pack back and forth as he spoke.  He looked up again to see Seungri eyeing it with interest.  GD instinctively held it more protectively with both hands.

"Cookies..." he answered cautiously.

"You only bought one?" Seungri lamented, a hint of longing in his voice.  GD had begun inching his way toward the hall.

"Yes..." he responded, still inching.

"Well, can I have some?"

"Um, no."

"Please?  Just a couple?"

"No... I, just... no."

With that, GD turned and scuttled into his room, closing the door behind him.

"Jeez, alright stingy," Seungri muttered to himself.  Then, louder, he said, "You've been acting really weird today, hyung."  

Hearing no response, he simply shook his head before going back to his computer.

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Finally updated :P

I have lots of excuses for why it took me so long to get this chapter up, including a very sick boyfriend, but if I'm honest, it was mainly because I'm easily distracted. :P

I promise not to get into the habit of late updates whenever possible. :D

I hope you enjoy this chapter.  Comment and subscribe if desired - it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside :P