Chapter Two

"I'm Japanese-American," Naomi answered as they walked toward the little café a few blocks from the school, "so I always wanted to visit Asia. Only trouble was, I couldn't keep the gender language[1] straight when I tried to learn Japanese. My teacher used to tease me about not knowing I was a man when I took tests or had oral examines. The other students laughed at me. I was a tomboy though, and I studied with a group of guys, so that's what I absorbed most."

"Your Korean is wonderful though," Seunghyun told her. "How did you learn it so well? At school in America?" He an unruly curl of hair out of her face and saw how she blushed when she gave it an angry swat. Surreptitiously, he glanced at her hand. No ring, but that didn't mean she was single. Not really.

"Actually, no. I learned most of what I know through Seong-Li after I got here. I came to teach English with my best friend, but she found out she was pregnant a month before I left." She paused, her eyes on her shoes. He stopped beside her, surprised by the haunted look in her large eyes. "We fought," she continued in monotone, but he could hear the hurt dripping from her words like fresh blood from a mortal wound. It may have happened two years ago, but she was still suffering from whatever was said. "I called her some not-so-nice things, and we haven't spoken since. Actually, if you really want to know the truth, I haven't been back to America since then. I brought all my worldly possessions with me. When I moved in with Seong-Li, I had no choice but to learn Korean. No one believed I was American, so they insisted on speaking Korean."

He took her elbow, leading her the few steps to the curb, and helped her over a puddle standing in front of a litter-clogged grate. Touching her made his heart skip a beat, and he kept his eyes on the horizon so he wouldn't accidentally let her see how she affected him. "She got pregnant by her boyfriend?" he asked her, just to be clear. "Could they not have discussed their options for the baby?"

Naomi stopped in the middle of the sidewalk again. In order to hear her, Seunghyun had to lift her chin with his hand and look into her troubled face. "She liked ," she said softly. "She didn't even know who the father was. I called her a ." worked convulsively around the word. "She called me a prude. Said I wouldn't even open my legs if Jesus himself told me to. I said that at least I had enough dignity to not give it away like an unwanted kitten." She tapped the side of her neck, where four faint scars traced the muscle under her skin. "She scratched me so hard, I needed stitches."

"Why did you leave home?" he asked, forgetting for a moment that they had a time table to keep. He stood in the center of the sidewalk with her chin in his hand like they had all the time in the world. "To come to a new country where you didn't know the language. Weren't you scared?"

"Terrified, but without Patricia, I had nothing. She and her mother took me in when my mother died. My father was stationed overseas in Germany at the time, and my parents were long divorced by then. I thought Korea would be a good place to start over since Dad had remarried in Germany." Naomi looked away, but not before he saw the tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Seunghyun-sshi. I shouldn't be bothering you with such things."

"Just call me Seunghyun," he told her. "We're friends now, aren't we?" He smiled comfortingly at her. "Come. We'll be late if we don't get lunch soon. I'm sure you're starving."

She smiled a little. "Yeah, admittedly, I am." She blushed faintly as her stomach gave a low growling sound, and he laughed.

"Then we should hurry. We only have twenty minutes left."

On their way back up the street to the school grounds, a light drizzle began to fall. Naomi looked up at the sky and wrinkled her nose. "Really?" she asked in English. "Really? Rain? The day I didn't bring an umbrella?" She shook her head, light mist catching in her hair like crystal. "I just can't catch a break," she muttered.

Seunghyun ped his hoodie and pulled it off. "Give me your bag," he said and offered the still-warm material to her. "You'll catch a cold if you get wet. I can wait in the office until I dry off, but you have to teach." Setting his lunch on the brick wall that bordered the sidewalk, he took hers from her and put it down before helping her into the sleeves of his hoodie. He straightened it on her shoulders and zipped it before realizing how close they were standing.

Naomi apparently became conscious of the fact a moment later because her cheeks turned pink, and she quickly pulled up the hood over her head. It fell over her eyes to the bridge of her nose, and she covered the rest of her face with the extra three inches of sleeve that covered her hands. He laughed again - he couldn't remember the last time he laughed this much when it wasn't Daesung being dorky - and picked up their lunches as raindrops speckled his white collared shirt.

"Why are you so cute?" he asked when they had started walking again.

"I'm cute?" she asked, looking up from under the pale blue hood over her head with her eyes wide like a child's.

"You are adorable," he confirmed and pulled back the hood to ruffle her hair.

"Oppa!" she squealed and squirmed out of his grasp. Her heel got caught in a crack, and she stumbled back into his arms.

He chuckled, held onto her arms while she steadied herself. "Careful. I can't return you with bruises. Your students would riot." He looked up hearing the tolling of a bell, and he felt her stiffen.

"Five minutes!" Naomi squeaked, and without letting go of his arm, they ran the rest of the way up the street to the school building.

They were panting when they reached her classroom, where her students were already seated and quietly studying while they waited for her to return. Naomi removed the pale blue sweatshirt that was now cold and damp from the rain, handing it back. "Thank you," she said softly so they wouldn't draw attention to themselves. The students, however, were straining their ears without looking up from their books. "It was fun. I just wish we didn't have to run back so fast."

Seunghyun lifted her hand and deliberately placed a small slip of paper into it, closed her fingers around it. "Call me when you're free," he said. "I'll make time to see you." Bending his head, he kissed the back of her hand, feeling it cool from their jaunt in the rain. "I'll be waiting to hear from you."

Her classroom erupted into whispers and giggles when the idol leaned down and kissed their teacher chastely on the lips.