The following week passed by without much incident - their workload had returned to normal, and now that the party was over, it was the start of a few weeks of relative calm.

The only differences that Caden particularly noticed were her slightly increased suspicions of Top and his actions (despite the fact that he seemed to have pretty much returned to his mostly normal self), and that GD - who was usually the most forgiving of Seungri’s outrageous behavior - seemed to be giving the maknae a slightly harder time than usual.

Apart from these two aspects, the week was as mellow as they got.  Caden finally made plans to take the members out to lunch the following week - both out of a delayed sense of guilt over having promised to do so long before, and as a way to prevent any of them from inviting her to join their weekend plans (and therefore preemptively avoiding having to turn anyone down).

She reminded them of this at the end-of-the-week meeting on Friday.  After she informed the boys that she was happy with their progress throughout the week, they had little else to discuss other than the Fact of the Day (‘If you lift a kangaroo’s tail off the ground, it can’t hop’), which took some interesting explaining, and finally where they would like to be taken on their group lunch.

The five of them took to this last matter with great enthusiasm- breaking into deep discussion on the merits of various restaurants in the area.  It didn’t take long to come to a conclusion - the answer was obviously meat.  Shortly after, she dismissed them- offering an early start to their weekend, along with her well-wishes.

She, on the other hand, was not free to end her week just yet.  In fact, she had a meeting of her own to attend with President YG.  He had thus far only called her in twice before (if you didn’t count her interview) - the first time, shortly after she arrived to go over the details of her new duties, and to make sure everything was settled with her transition, and the second to discuss the boys’ progress under her tutelage.  This meeting would be very similar to the later, and considering how pleased she was regarding the news she had to report, she was hardly even nervous.

As expected, the meeting was quick and painless (because despite his tendency to appear quite intimidating, YG was quite professional and to the point when it came to dealing with his staff).

Caden spent most of the remainder of her Friday afternoon at home- aside from a leisurely walk along the river which finished with a quick trip to the convenience store for ingredients for dinner.  She received a few texts from Daeho (in the middle of his shift at work, as usual); first to quadruple check that she would definitely, absolutely, for certain be joining them Saturday night, and then just for fun (and because he wasn’t supposed to be texting).

His random messages kept her entertained as she cooked and ate dinner, then caught up on some recreational reading, and watched a few episodes of her current drama.

A little later in the evening, she got a call from Shoko, who she happily chatted with (completely in Japanese, as her friend insisted whenever Naira wasn’t around ever since Caden had left Japan) for about an hour before hanging up.  She resisted the urge to message Naira, knowing that she would be sleeping still, instead making a mental note to send her one first thing in the morning.  Instead, she sent a teasing reply to Daeho, who had finally gotten off work.

Yawning and stretching (even at the relatively early hour), she considered sending a little message to her students as well.

She had recently obtained all of their phone numbers after all, and hadn’t yet had much need for them.  She glanced down at her phone briefly, contemplating what she might say.  Finally, eyes steadily drooping despite still being quite early (for Korea), she shot off a quick group message to all five members:

Everyone!  Hello!

Your bored and sleepy teacher just wants to wish you a goodnight! ^^

Make sure to use this weekend to relax and refresh your minds.

That way you’ll be bright and ready to learn come Monday, ㅋㅋㅋ

Have fun!

With that she stood and stretched, picking up her phone before shuffling into her bedroom and placing it carefully on her pillow.  She promptly turned back, heading for the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash up before she got comfortable.

When she returned to her bedroom - teeth sparkling and face scrubbed - she discovered that she had gotten several replies to her message.  She quickly snuggled down under the covers before checking the group thread.

There was a short response each from Young bae, Daesung, and Jiyong - all within about a minute of each other.  She was guessing that they were all probably out together and had all stopped to respond at the same time.

Daesung’s message was brief, but sweet: ‘Teacher, get some rest.  I’ll make sure to enjoy the weekend’.

Young bae’s was similarly polite and kind: ‘I’ll make sure to release all of my stress and be ready to learn.  Goodnight, Teacher’.

GD’s response was a bit more sassy and playful, though still just as short: ‘I promise that I would have worked hard to lose my stress this weekend, even if you hadn’t told me to ㅋㅋ.  Sleep well, Teacher’.

Caden rolled her eyes good-naturedly at his teasing before sighed contentedly and scooching down further under her covers.  She set her phone down on the bedside table, reaching for the book that she was currently in the middle of reading.

She hadn’t gotten more than a few pages before her phone buzzed again.  She finished the paragraph that she was on before reaching over to grab her phone once more.  Just as she picked it up, it buzzed again.  She opened the messages up curiously.  

They were both from Top.  The first message read: ‘I guess you really are bored… You must be really free, sending such texts’.

Caden tsked at the rude wording.  She proceeded to open his second message with some hesitation when she noticed that it wasn’t part of the group thread, but sent solely to her.  It read: ‘ㅋㅋㅋ, sorry… If you’re really that bored, I could come down’.

She scoffed/laughed with a roll of her eyes.  That punk…

‘Home by himself on a Friday night and still teasing me,’ she thought, caught between amusement and contempt.  She debated over how best to reply, worried that anything she could think to say might start him on a roll of comments when she was about ready to go to sleep.

In the end, she simply wrote back: ‘Zzzzz… (-,-)'

There was a moment of silence, in which Caden started to set her phone back on the nightstand, when it suddenly began buzzing again as two more texts were sent in quick succession:

‘Ah, Teacher is asleep?  I guess I’ll have to find someone else to keep me entertained’ - the first one read, followed almost immediately by:

‘Eeeeh, now you’ve got me feeling bored.  Don’t be surprised if I come knock on your door later tonight’.

Caden arched an eyebrow, not sure if (or how) she should respond to that.  She was still debating a few moments later when yet another message buzzed in, this time from Seungri:

‘Teacher is such a buzzkill.  Who talks about Monday class on the first day of the weekend?’

Caden tsked loudly before chuckling to herself at the maknae’s blunt response.  She strongly suspected that he was out on his own (separate from the other members) and possibly a few drinks in.

‘Pabo-yah!  I hope your weekend is terrible!’ she sent back, not holding her breath for a reply, but satisfied with, what she felt, was the most appropriate response to his sass.

Yawning again, Caden picked up her book once again, reading a few more chapters before her heavy eyelids forced her to set it down and consider sleep.  Just as she was attempting to motivate herself to get up to turn off the light, her phone buzzed one last time.

Surprised, she picked it up, half expecting it to be a another snarky response from Seungri.  When she opened it, however, she saw that it was, in fact, one more message from Top:

‘Wow, you actually fell asleep?  Another night then…  For now, goodnight Caden ssi.  Sweet dreams’.

Caden stared down at the message for a few seconds, blinking rapidly, feeling slightly more awake all of a sudden.  She took a second to register that this message, unlike the others, was written in mostly informal language.  She hardly paid this any mind, however, because another thought was occupying most of her focus.

Instead, she was remembering back to the half registered thought she had pushed to the back of her mind just moments before receiving this last text.  Now she couldn’t be sure, since she hadn’t paid the thought much attention at the time, but thinking back… She was fairly certain that she had heard a very soft, very distant tapping noise.  It had been barely enough to catch her attention, and certainly not enough to even pause in her reading.  She had probably chocked it up to typical empty apartment noises, or just figured she was imagining things.  Suddenly she wasn’t so sure.  Suddenly, the more that she thought about it, the more that this half imagined tapping noise sounded almost like ever so quiet knocking on a door.

She stared down at her phone for several minutes, finger unintentionally raising and lowering several times, as she debated over whether to reply.

Finally, when no inspiration came, and her eyelids began to burn with the effort of keeping them open, Caden gave up.  She set her phone down on her bedside table rather firmly - this time for good.  She rose, walking sleepily over to turn off the light before sinking blissfully down under her covers.

She resolved not to think about anything except to briefly recount her plans for the following day.  She smiled at the idea of seeing Daeho, feeling excited to finally meet his friends.  With a satisfied sigh, she turned over, closing her eyes and allowing her mind to go blank before she quickly drifted off to sleep.

​=============================================================================================================

A/N

​A point of clarification on the title- for those who don't know, 'morning call' is one of those different meaning Konglish words that Koreans use which is different from the way we use the word in English, meaning what we call a 'wake up call', like one you might get at a hotel.

I realize this chapter is ​quite​ a bit shorter than most ^^  Sorry about that.  But, it made for shorter time between updates, and gave us a little update with the BB boys before we get some intense OC character developement for the next few chapters ^^

​I actually wrote this part quite a while ago, and as I was rereading it, I kind surprised even myself with the cheekiness, haha.

I really hope you're enjoying the story so far.

​I love comments, and always appreciate subscribers!  It's nice to know whether I've sparked an interest.  I like my story no matter what, but still.  It's nice to know if others like it too!

​I hope all the Americans had a lovely Thanksgiving, and I hope you all took the time not only to give thanks for the positive in your lives, but to aid and bring attention to those who are less fortunate than yourself.

​And to everyone else, I hope you're having a great week, and that you too take the opportunity to be thankful for what you have, and get and give help to those (including yourself) who are lacking in positivity.

​<3