“Please come see me after class, Taemin!”

Without raising his head from its lowered position, let alone catching the teacher’s gaze, Taemin nodded.

“I will.”

In front of him lay the surprise test the teacher had handed out last lesson, graded and covered in red – he had hardly gotten 20% correct, which was certainly not enough. English had never been Taemin’s best subject and he knew he should probably have studied a little bit more, but the reason his throat was blocked by a giant lump was a different one.

Ever since he had been accepted on the dance team, Taemin hadn’t done much besides practicing. Every day after school, he would meet up with Jongin and run through the choreography they had to learn before the spring competitions started.

Their coach had made it very clear how serious he was about dancing and how serious he wanted his dancers to be.

‘If you can’t attend the three practices we hold each week, don’t even try,” the man’s words echoed through Taemin’s head as he stared at the paper in front of him.

The grade he had gotten was bad news. His parents were already skeptical of his passion and his mother would probably gladly take the chance to keep him away from the team. Taemin knew his parents only meant well, but that didn’t make his situation any easier.

When the students, save for Taemin of course, were dismissed for the day, Jongin shot his best friend a sympathetic glance as everyone filed out of the room. As he turned to leave too, Taemin couldn’t help scoffing at his back.

The younger boy was struggling in their shared math class and him passing history this year could be considered a miracle – yet Jongin’s father didn’t bother his son about his grades. As long as Jongin went to school and didn’t cause trouble, he was in the green.

Sadly, Taemin’s parents were a lot stricter.

“Can you tell me what happened there, Taemin-ah?” the teacher asked once they were completely alone.

She didn’t sound angry or upset with him, just curious about the reason he had failed so miserably.

“Guess I didn’t study,” Taemin mumbled.

He was absolutely not in the mood to have a discussion right now. Jongin had promised to take him to his place after dancing practice and after not seeing Key in weeks, Taemin had kind of hoped to catch a glimpse of the older girl today.

“You are aware that you did the worst on this test by far,” the teacher told him. “I’ve looked at your grades from middle school and they weren’t good at all. Are you struggling in this class or with English in general?”

“Well, I think so.” Taemin still refused to meet her eye. He felt embarrassed by the fact that she had decided to call him out and have a heart-to-heart talk with him – it only made his failure feel realer. “I don’t really get anything.”

“Well, if that’s the problem, you might need a tutor,” the teacher carefully said. “I know quite a few of your seniors who could probably help you out – you’ll be on track again by the end of this term.

“I suggest you talk to your parents about this matter and if they want, they can email me or you can talk to me again. I’d gladly help you find someone who can study with you. You don’t have to fail this class, Taemin-ah.”

The teacher’s words were still resounding with the walls of Taemin’s head as he stepped out of the classroom a few minutes later.

_______________________________

“So, you have to get yourself a tutor?”

Jongin’s legs were dangling in the air as he sat on top of the metal rail that separated the river from its banks. If Taemin pushed him, the younger boy would fall into the water and get wet, but right now his mind was in a completely different place.

“It so much,” Taemin whined as he sullenly stared into the water. “You know what it means, right?”

“What?”

Jongin looked like he didn’t have the slightest idea what his friend was talking about and not for the first time, Taemin felt a spark of jealousy. The other boy was so blessed to have a father this lenient and easygoing.

“My parents,” Taemin said while rolling his eyes. “They’ll be mad and probably won’t let me go to dance practice anymore. Guess I won’t be competing this season.”

“But, they’ve never stopped you before?” Jongin dumbly replied and this time, Taemin slapped him.

“Idiot! We literally went to a boarding school for dancing, of course they didn’t!”

When he had finally regained his balance on the rail, Jongin looked Taemin up and down with his almond-shaped eyes that looked a lot like his sister’s, now that his best friend thought about it.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was that serious. They’d be crazy not to let you compete, Taem, you’re literally one of the best already.”

Suddenly, Taemin was all too aware of how harsh he had sounded, and he lightly patted Jongin’s tan arm.

“Don’t worry. I’m just really mad at myself because I should have seen it coming. I’ll try to talk to my mum and the coach and maybe we’ll find a solution – I doubt it, though. After all we’re supposed to train three times each week and knowing my parents, they’ll make me cut the practice just to teach me a lesson.”

As an afterthought, he added, “I kinda deserve it, though. I haven’t studied English in years.”

Jongin shrugged.

“Well, I didn’t do much either, but I kind of pick it up naturally at home. Kibum is obsessed with English, he took it as his major and is dead-set on writing a book in it one day. Crazy, right?”

“Wait, him too?”

“What do you mean? Who else is obsessed with English?”

“Didn’t you tell me Key-noona was?”

Taemin raised an eyebrow at Jongin’s dumbfounded expression which took a few seconds to light up.

“Ah, right!” the younger exclaimed as he barked out a laugh. “They’re crazy similar, right? Hyung and noona I mean…”

“I guess. I don’t really know your hyung – I only saw him dance once.”

“Oh, I forgot.”

For a few moments, they stayed quiet. To say the silence wasn’t welcomed by Taemin would have been a lie – it calmed him a lot to take a moment to collect himself and put his thoughts in order after everything he had been told today.

He was watching a few ducks floating on top of the freezing river when Jongin spoke up again, “hey, do you wanna go back to my place? It’s getting kinda cold… My dad’s home early tonight and he asked if you wanna eat with us.”

“Thanks, Nini,” Taemin gratefully accepted the offer.

He was more than glad that he had gotten the opportunity to stay away from home longer today. Telling his parents about his grade would be hard enough.

“By the way, I just got an idea,” Jongin unexpectedly told him as they walked side by side, taking the shortcut over the small bridge to their right. “But I need to talk to someone first.”

“Wait, what is it?”

Taemin pouted as his curiosity had gotten the better of him, but his best friend just smiled mysteriously.

“Oh, just you wait.”

______________________________

The rest of the afternoon was quite uneventful, except for the fact that Taemin properly got to greet Jongin’s father for the first time. The man arrived shortly after them and introduced himself in a friendly way – however, his tall height and bulky statue were intimidating more than anything else.

To Taemin’s surprise, Jongin’s father was also the one to cook dinner, but he quickly found out that Key wasn’t home anyway. While he had hoped to taste more of the older girl’s homemade food, he would never turn down any meal as long as it was well-made, and the house definitely started to smell delicious after about half an hour.

At 8 o’clock, the family, excluding Key yet including their guest Taemin, gathered at the table. For once, Kibum was there, but he didn’t say anything and kept his head down. When he had come in, Jongin’s older brother had greeted Taemin with a curt nod – however, that had been the only time his long black fringe didn’t cover half of his face.

While he ate, Kibum didn’t look up or contribute to the conversation – he didn’t have to anyway, since his father was, apparently, quite the talker.

Mr. Kim spoke about his job, asked about school (to which Taemin responded with a sheepish grin and a few mumbled excuses) and even their dancing practice. During all of that, he let the three boys hear his obnoxiously loud laughter and after half an hour, Taemin had decided he liked Jongin’s father.

The man seemed a bit rough, but Taemin knew he had been raising his children on his own since Jongin’s birth and to him, that was definitely admirable.

“Ah, it’s great to sit and chat like this!” Mr. Kim announced at some point as he leant back in his chair, comfortable crossing his arms behind his head. “Kibum-ah, don’t you have some story to tell us as well? How was school?”

His elder son, who had jumped at the sound of his own name, briefly glanced up but stayed silent – his father only laughed more loudly.

“You didn’t listen again, did you? Well, son…”

Then, he took a look at his expensive wristwatch before saying, “oh, would you look at that? It’s late already. I’ll drive you home, Taemin-ah, if you allow me to.”

“That’s too kind of you, thanks.”

While Taemin put on his shoes in the hallway, Jongin bid him goodbye with a grin and a pat on the back.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Good luck with your parents tonight, Taem!”

“I’ll definitely need it. Wait, didn’t you want to tell me something before?”

Taemin frowned at his best friend’s cheeky smile that almost reached his ears.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find out about it soon enough.”

“But-“

“Kibum, you didn’t even say goodbye to our guest. That’s rude, go do it now! I will not tolerate any impoliteness in this house!” Mr. Kim’s loud voice suddenly reached Taemin’s ears and when the boy turned around, Kibum was standing in the doorway, a turtleneck covering his mouth and nose.

He gave a small wave when Taemin smiled at him and before the younger boy knew what was happening, Jongin’s brother was gone. Instead his father stepped into the hallway, apparently ready to go out.

The drive to Taemin’s house was luckily short, or else he would have died in the awkward silence that filled the car on the way there. Mr. Kim didn’t bother to start another conversation – he must have sensed Taemin’s tiredness.

After thanking the man and taking his bag out of the trunk, Taemin snuck up the stairs to his room as quietly as he could. He had left his mother a message earlier saying he would come home after dinner, but right now he didn’t feel ready to tell her about the failed test yet.

First, he needed a few moments to himself to think about what to say.

When Taemin arrived in his room, he immediately flopped down onto the bed and pulled out his phone. Frowning, he realized he had a message from an unknown number – an odd thing, especially at this time of the day. He opened it nonetheless, too curious about its content to ignore it.

The lines that awaited him almost made his heart stop beating.

09:15 PM: Hi Taemin-ah!

09:17 PM: Jonginnie gave me your number, he said you needed help in English. I’m quite good at it so I might be able to tutor you, if you want me to of course. In case you do, I suggest you go talk to your teacher soon.

09:18 PM: This is Key, by the way!

Again and again, Taemin’s eyes scanned the last message, but he was still unable to comprehend what the words said. The only thing that stood out to him was the character that form the name – the one that never failed to work its magic on his brain, leaving him a nervous, sweating mess.

Key.

Key – pretty, beautiful, funny, smart Key – Jongin’s noona Key – wanted to tutor Taemin. Key was going to tutor Taemin.

(Taemin screamed into his pillow.)

______________________________

Woowww what a cliché move - of course Key became Taem's English tutor. honestly, I love Taemin in this story because he's just so head over heels and it makes me soft. I hope you had a nice week and that I'll see you all next Saturday/Sunday!