Chapter Two: It's Not What it Looks Like (or I'm Not a Fangirl, I Swear)

It All Started with a Big Bang...

(Recap in italics)

There was a pause and she wasn't quite sure what to say next.  She started to apologize, closing the gap between them slightly by taking a couple quick steps forward.  Then, all in an instant, her foot caught on one of the cobbles and she started to fall.  She floundered for something to stop herself - dropping her phone and bags in the process.  She felt hands grabbing her under her arms as she threw them around his waist, smacking face first into his chest, ultimately preventing her from landing smack on the ground.  In that same instant the door of the building beside them burst open and they heard a loud sing-song voice croon,

"The official pimp T.O.P."

A shorter, but no less familiar boy appeared, grinning widely.  Neither Caden nor her unfortunate victim had yet recovered from her fall.  They both stared up at him dumbly.

"What are you doing out here?" he queried in Korean, "I saw you from the window, but you never came in, so I came to see what you're still doing out-"  He broke off midsentence when he finally noticed the awkward position his friend was in.  His grin morphed into a knowing smirk.

Top immediately took Caden by the arms and set her firmly upright.  Caden dropped her arms to her sides and began brushing herself off, avoiding his gaze with some embarrassment.

"Wow, you really are the 'official pimp'," G Dragon teased.  Top opened his mouth to argue, but before he could say anything, G Dragon continued,

"But you should probably take that inside before someone takes your picture and you start a scandal."

Despite her embarrassment, Caden couldn't help but be slightly amused - she couldn't understand the exact words words he had used (they were just a little beyond her basic conversational understanding), but she got the gist of his teasing, considering the awkward position he had found them in.  Before Top could respond, G Dragon pushed past him to address Caden.

"Do you speak Korean?" he asked kindly.

"A little," she responded weakly.  He immediately switched to English.

"You speak Englsh then?"

"Yes... I'm American," she explained.  He smiled.

"Great!  Why don't we all go inside for a moment?"

"Um..." Caden began, but before she could say much, G Dragon took her firmly by the wrist, leading her up the steps and inside the building, with Top following closely behind.  Once the door was closed, G Dragon turned to her once again, an amused grin still playing across his face.

"Now, I'm not sure how you know Top," he began - implication clear in his voice, "but it would probably be better for you guys to be a little more careful in public-"

"Oh, no, no," Caden sputtered quickly, unable to even glance at Top, "that's not- I've never met him before-"

"Don't jump to conclusions," Top said in Korean, interrupting her.  Caden finally allowed herself to sneak a glance at him.  He looked slightly annoyed by G Dragon's implications, but not so much as she might have expected and he certainly didn't seem as embarrassed by it as she was, which was something of a relief.

"All that happened was she was walking toward me, trying to ask me a question, when she tripped and I caught her.  You just happened to walk out right then..."

"That seems like quite a coincidence," G Dragon teased.  Top scoffed at this.

"Shut it, you," he replied somewhat jokingly.

"What was it that she was trying to ask you then?" G Dragon shot back.  Top deflated slightly at this, glancing over at Caden - who had been managing to follow their conversation fairly well.  She skillfully avoided his gaze.

"I'm not really sure," Top admitted finally, "she was talking really fast in English and it was really long..."

"And that's exactly why you need to continue your English lessons," came a female voice from within.  They all turned to see a plump, short haired, older woman walking down the stairs.  She shook her head at Top in mock disappointment, before turning to Caden.

"Hello," she greeted her in Korean. "You must be here to interview for the English tutor position.  You're a bit late- we were expecting you fifteen minutes ago."  She shot a suspicious glance at the boys,

"-but maybe these two were too rude to show you in."  All three opened their mouths to respond, but before any of them could get a word in, the woman continued,

"Luckily the President has been in a conference call for the past half hour.  I'll take you up and you can start filling out forms while we wait for him.

Caden stared at her blankly for a moment, not sure how to respond.  She'd had no intention of applying for a job there - having had no prior knowledge of an open position, especially one in her field.  But she had come to Korea for the precise purpose of working as an English teacher - she had her interview with the local high school set for the next day, but that was a first time interview and the job there was by no means guaranteed...

She glanced down at herself, thankful that she had only packed professional cloths, since she was only meant to be in town for two days.  She was wearing a white, long sleeved button down shirt with black dress pants- perfect interview cloths (in fact, she had planned to wear a nearly identical outfit to her other interview).  She was suddenly very glad that she had decided to shower at the hotel that morning after her plane ride.  She had almost decided to skip it and start exploring immediately. 

She wondered idly about the original job candidate that they had clearly been expecting.  She didn't want to swoop in and steal someone else's spot, but she figured that if Koreans were anything like the Japanese professionals she had dealt with for the past two years, something incredibly dire must have happened if the other woman was already 15 minutes late to an interview, so there was little chance that she would show up now.  Caden made up her mind.  She decided to go for it.

"Yes, thank you.  Please lead the way." 

The woman eyed her suspiciously, making Caden feel nervous despite herself.

"You have your resume ready, don't you?" the woman asked.  Caden was relieved - being such a short trip, she had only packed an overnight bag of clothes and a small shoulder bag where she kept her wallet and important papers.  The overnight bag she had left at the hotel, but the shoulder bag she'd taken with her - so despite her ignorance of this interview, she happened to have her resume on her.  Maybe it was fate.

"Oh yes, I have it," she answered, reaching for her small shoulder bag where she kept her wallet, passport, hotel key, and other important papers.  When she didn't feel anything at her side she realized that she was no longer wearing it.  She tried not to panic; her mind raced back to the last time she remembered having it - she had taken it off to get her phone out to call the hotel...

Before she had a chance to lose her cool too badly, she felt a nudge on her arm.  She turned to see a handful of bags that she recognized to be her own, including the shopping bags she had been carrying all day.  She looked past the bags to the person holding them.

"You dropped these earlier," Top said, looking down at her with an unnervingly piercing, slightly confused look that Caden was coming to recognized as a common expression of his (though this made it no less affecting to her).  Relieved, she reached for her bags, flashing him a thankful smile.  He blinked a few times before breaking into a small half-smile - the first time she'd seen an expression on his face that didn't relay confusion.

Caden felt her stomach flip-flop slightly.  'Oh no,' she thought.  How could one little smile make her feel so unexpectedly flustered?  She tried to cover it up by abruptly bowing inappropriately deeply.

"Thank you," she muttered, staring at the floor for a moment, trying to regain her composure.  She stood again, more of less under control.  She glanced up at Top once more to see that he was now grinning fully, seeming amused by her behavior.  She gave him a small, sheepish smile before turning away quickly, making it seem casual to the best of her ability.

As she turned back to the assistant, the woman was looking at her with a bit of confusion.

"Oh!  I tripped outside and dropped my things," Caden explained, smiling brightly.  The woman's expression changed to one of understanding and she smiled back, shooting the quickest glance at Top, who nodded blankly confirming the story - determined to seem as non-suspicious as possible.  Caden took this opportunity to pull her work information folder out of her bag, handing over a copy of her resume.  The woman looked it over nodding, seeming impressed.

"Very good," the woman said, smiling politely.  "Follow me and we'll fill out your paperwork while we wait for the President."

"Thank you," Caden replied, bowing slightly. "Please lead the way." 

The woman nodded and began making her way back up the stairs.  Caden turned back to Top and G Dragon and bowed slightly again, smiling politely before following the woman upstairs.

The boys bowed back, although she was already turning away, and watched as she disappeared up the stairs.

 

 

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A/N

Two chapters in two days!  I'm on a roll. :P

Anyway, I hope people will enjoy this story; I couldn't help but write it for my own amusement, but I think it's pretty good for a fanfic. :D

The next chapter will be up within a day or two and it will be the first chapter with strong focus on the boy's point of view.

Please look forward to it!

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Mikalino13
I'm back! In case... you missed me! Lol. I hope you enjoy this latest chapter starring GD~~

Comments

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Yoongi1230 #1
Chapter 4: Omg the lip biting so cuteee! It's gna cause trouble lol!
Cinderelly12
#2
Chapter 37: Wow! I really enjoy the flow of the story! I also just realized that we are 37 chapters in and we don't know who exactly her love interests are. Hmm. I can guess at maybe 2. Will be interesting to see what happens next! Thank you!
Cinderelly12
#3
Chapter 34: So is Daeho cool with her teaching the idols? Was he shocked or impressed. Was he understanding? It seems like he is okay with it. Thank you!
Cinderelly12
#4
Chapter 18: I like her friendship with Daeho. Thank you
Cinderelly12
#5
Chapter 3: I'm glad she fessed up to not being the other applicant. Looks better on her.
Cinderelly12
#6
Chapter 1: Interesting start! I like that she is a little clumsy and confused.