By Wednesday, Top was beginning to wish that he had managed to progress further in one language or the other before Teacher Park left.  Not that he disliked class exactly - just that switching back and forth between two languages every other day had thus far managed to instill in him little more than headaches.  Admittedly, it was only the third day of this new regiment, but still.  

Having class at the tutor's apartment every night was beginning to make him feel like he lived there.Generally he would have some work-related activity in the morning or afternoon, end up staying out most of the day, then returning to the apartment building, only to head straight up to the fourth floor for lessons.  He only ever saw his own apartment at night anymore.

On the other hand though, being in lessons daily meant that he had double the individual attention from Caden during class than the rest of the group, which had so far (if he could judge solely from yesterday's English class) proven helpful in improving his comprehension.  Still, effective or not, he couldn't help but  tire of these extra learning opportunities.  He couldn't decide if the excess effort was worth the positive results (thoughts like that one were beginning to grant him a greater insight into why he wasn't progressing very much in the first place).

On the positive side of the daily lessons, he was pretty sure that extra time he now spent interacting with the tutor would surely speed up the rate at which she was warming up to him.  He couldn't help but notice that, out of all the members, he seemed to be the one that she initially felt the least comfortable around.  It had become far less noticable over the month that she trained with Teacher Park, but every one in a while he could tell that she sometimes got flustered talking to him.

He was beginning to suspect that she must have been a fan before she got this teaching job - he couldn't think of any other reason why he (and only he) would make her feel uncomfortable.  That, or she didn't like him as much as the other members...  But that didn't seem to be the case, since she treated him just as well, and joked around with them all equally.  Clearly, when forced to interact with him daily (as she had been for the past month, and would continue to be for the next several) she slowly became more comfortable - just as Young bae had finally become more relaxed around her during that time.

Or was that a positive aspect after all?  Maybe giving the tutor more opportunities to get used to him was an unfortunate part of Top having lessons almost every day.   He liked being able to get her flustered due to his teasing sometimes - ruffle her feathers a little.  Teasing was in his nature and he liked winning at it.  She was already enough at ease to take the piss out of him without a second thought - the only major defense he had against this was to get her flustered and off her game.  He hated to admit it, but without that advantage she would usually beat him - she had a habit of getting in the last word.

So on this subject, it seemed, he was caught between the desire to get along well with his teacher, and the desire to tease a funny girl.

He pondered all this vaguely as he returned to the apartment for class after his afternoon activities.  He was about 15 minutes early by the time he entered the lobby.  He nodded in greeting to the staff behind the front counter before entering the elevator.  He rode silently up to the fourth floor, finding that he seemed to be the first to arrive.  He strolled over to Caden's apartment, knocking briskly a few times.

When, after a few moments, there was no response from inside, he wondered if he should knock again.  It was possible that she hadn't heard him - being in a back room maybe, away from the door - but he didn't want to be pounding on the door like an ape if she was in the bathroom or something.  He decided to wait for a few more moments.

After a solid minute, he decided that she hadn't heard.  He raised his hand to knock again, but was distracted by GD's sudden appearance from down the hall.

"Decided to take the stairs for once?" Top prompted, grinning at his friend.

"Nothing wrong with a little free exercise," GD quipped, smiling back. "Looks like you beat me to class once again.  This must be some kind of record."

"Yeah, you'd be amazed how quickly habits develop with twice the practice," Top joked.

"That's right," GD laughed. "How are double lessons treating you?"

"Too soon to tell.  Although I have a nasty feeling that it's going to slowly drive me insane long before we see any language progress..."

GD laughed at his cynical response.

"So is that why you're just standing out here?" he teased once he'd recovered himself, leaning around Top to press the doorbell. "Did you forget to knock or something?"

"Actually, I've been waiting for a while-" Top started to say when the elevator doors slid open, revealing Daesung.  They all greeted each other as he walked over to them.

"Ah hyungs - arriving bright and early as usual," Daesung pronounced, smiling innocently. "You've both become such dedicated students."  The other two opened their mouths to respond, but Daesung's attention turned elsewhere as he reached around them to ring the doorbell.

"Did you guys forget to knock or something?" he inquired cheerfully.

"I just said that," GD assured him matter-of-factly.

"We both knocked and rang the doorbell already and she didn't answer," Top explained. "I wonder if she isn't home..."

"Hmm... it's pretty unusual for her not to be ready for a lesson," Daesung pointed out thoughtfully.

"So what should we do?" GD asked. "Stand out here until she comes?  Or should we go in?  We all know the door code after all..."

"Yeah, I guess so," Daesung responded deliberately.  Top sighed,

"We probably should, but I don't know - I can't help but feel that it's an invasion of privacy for us all to burst into her apartment whenever we like."

"I think we all sort of feel like that.  Well, except Seungri," GD stated, causing Daesung to laugh appreciatively, "but who knows when she'll get here?  Maybe she's stuck in traffic.  Maybe she's had some sort of accident in there and she can't get to the door!"  Top gave him a skeptical look while Daesung rolled his eyes, trying to hold back his laughter.

"Fine," Top agreed. "Although I'm pretty sure your accident scenario is a little-"

"I'M HERE, I'M HERE!  NOBODY PANIC!" came a sudden voice as the door to the staircase banged open down the hall.  They all turned to see Caden come hurrying toward them, her cell phone in one hand, a book and what appeared to be several dozen papers in the other.

As she neared them, she fiddled with her bag, trying to put away enough items to free at least one hand long enough to punch in her door code.

"I'm so sorry I kept you waiting," she apologized once they had finished greeting her, switching to Korean after her initial outburst. "I attended a meeting with some of my friends and it went later than I thought.  Since it started at 4:00, I thought I'd be back with plenty of time..."

"It's fine, teacher," Top responded smoothly. "Now we know that you care more about your friends than our lessons...  It's good to have this imformation up front I think."

"The meeting itself didn't really last three hours, did it, teacher?" Daesung piped up, grinning. "Or were you and your friends just having too much fun that you forgot about us?"

"Oh hush," Caden laughed, still getting herself situated. "That's enough out of you two."

"So you made some friends already, huh?" GD inquired cheerfully. "Only you could make friends so quickly - wasn't it just last Friday that you were complaining about not making any?  How did you meet them?"

"Oh, well I met with an English club student from the local college on Saturday and he took me on a tour of the city," she began. "We ended up hitting it off, so I met with him and his friends at their English club meeting today to get to know them better.  I definitely didn't expect to stay so long."

"Good for you," Daesung congratulated earnestly.

"That sounds nice," Top offered politely with a grin.  On the other hand, GD's face seemed to have fallen slightly over the course of this explaination.

"I thought you said that you were planning to explore on your own," he said quietly.  Caden, who had finally gotten all of her things in order and had made to enter her door code, glanced over her shoulder at him.

"Well, yeah, I said 'alone', but I know of just meant without my students," she explained, shooting him an apologetic look. "Not that I don't like you all and enjoy our time together, it's just that, well, it would be a little embarrassing if my students were my only friends.  People would probably think I was up to no good."  Top and Daesung laughed at this and GD looked a little brighter.

"So your friend - he's a nice, respectable young man I take it?" Daesung teased, sounding like a concerned parent.

"Yes, dad," she grinned, finally getting the door open.  She moved aside to give them room to enter as she continued. "My friend - Daeho - is quite young, only 20 - younger than Seungri even.  But either he acts older, or I must act younger than my age, because we get along perfectly.  His friends seem nice too."

"Well, it sure is a good thing you and Daeho get along so well," GD snapped suddenly, scowling over her shoulder. "I just hope this person lives up to his name at least."  With that, he stormed past her into the apartment.  Caden followed his progress with a perturbed expression before turning back to the other two.

"What does that even mean?" she asked curiously.  Daesung laughed, walking over to her.

"I think he's talking about the meaning of your friend's name," he explained, smiling broadly. "'Daeho' translates to something like 'great goodness'.  It's not the same for Westerners, I think, but all Korean names have specific meanings that everyone understands when they hear it.  Like my name - I have the same first half in my given name, Daesung, which means 'great success'."

"Great goodness," Caden repeated thoughtfully. "In that case, I think Daeho does like up to his name.  And you too, Daesung, managed to become a great success."

"Oh stop," Daesung joked, pretending to blush.

"But I wonder what's up with him to begin with," Caden mused, indicating GD.  Daesung grinned widely, but didn't elaborate.

"Oh, you never know with Jiyong hyung," he said vaguely, smiling as he walked past her into the apartment.  Top followed, pausing long enough to say,

"Don't worry.  He's probably just used to us having you all to ourselves.  It's just a bit of growing pain -we guys are sometimes irrationally possessive of what we come to think of as ours."  With a wink and a grin, he continued past her.  Caden had no idea how to respond to that - simply staring after them for a moment before shaking her head.

"There must be something in the water today," she muttered to herself as she followed the boys inside, ready to begin the day's lesson.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N

Hey guys!  Sorry I took so long updating.  Writers block, busy schedule, blah blah blah.

It's actually quite late at night as I post this, so unfortunately I expect there will be some accidental errors, so I apologize for that.  I could barely keep my eyes open at the end there.

Anyway, I hope you like it.  I feel like I really have to keep up with a certain level of excellence, and hopefully it was met (or at least in the ballpark) :D

Goodnight for now!  Comment and subscribe!  Woo!