Chapter 17.
 

In all honesty, Kyungsoo had had absolutely no intention what so ever to invite Kim Jongin into his apartment when he had accepted the teens offer to be driven home. His original plan had consisted of three quick, pain free steps:
1. Arrive at his apartment after been driven in silence,
2. Instruct Jongin to stay in his car while he ran up the stairs to his place,
3. Retrieve the folder of work quickly, run back down the stairs to give what needed to be given to the teen and then forget about the whole ordeal.

His three step plan undoubtedly had some flaws – flaws that, much to Kyungsoo’s horror, began springing up quickly despite his greatest efforts to quell them.
 

“Where should I park, Mr. Do? I’ll come up with you to collect the notes”

Kyungsoo’s owl like eyes darted up to Jongin’s face in surprise. Park the car? Collect the notes? He had not anticipated such a course of action.

Kyungsoo laughed nervously. “You don’t need to bother! You can pull to a stop in front of my apartment complex while I run up and grab the stuff for you.”

Jongin’s lips twitched. “No. That’s a waste of time. You’d have to make three trips up and down the stairs if you did that. I’ll simply come up with you to collect the work instead. It’s far more efficient to do so.”

The teen had obviously given it some thought, Kyungsoo realised with a jolt. And the fact that Jongin was showing signs of being considerate? The English teacher shook his head quickly. It wasn’t like the teen to care whether or not a person had to make three trips up and down a few flights of stairs… maybe he had some sort of ulterior intention… maybe the teen wanted to know where he lived in order to egg his windows or to set up some sort of horrid prank in front of his front door. Kyungsoo’s chain of thought continued along his somewhat pessimistic path until the sound of Jongin’s voice jolted him back into awareness.

“I don’t mean to seem pushy, it’s just that I’d really like to get the work as soon as possible so I can go home and get it done.”

Kyungsoo blinked in surprise, his wide eyes focussed on Jongin’s side profile. The teen seemed serious, and Kyungsoo immediately felt foolish for having thought otherwise.

“I- I guess you can park in the apartments underground parking complex? I still don’t have a car meaning my spot is vacant so…”

Jongin didn’t seem to need any convincing. “Where’s the entrance?”

“If you continue past the front patron entrance and turn at the next right, the parking entrance is on the building side almost directly after you turn.”

Jongin hummed in affirmation, his car speeding up slightly as he continued to drive in the direction of his teachers apartment complex.

Kyungsoo turned away from the sight of the teen beside him, instead focussing on the dashboard in front of him. Jongin’s car was sleek and still had a new car smell to it on the inside. It had an expensive looking sound system and leather seats that reminded Kyungsoo of Chanyeol’s car. All in all, it suited the grandiose feel that Jongin often let off. He was from a rich family, after all – it was only expected that Jongin would possess things that screamed of his upper class lifestyle.

Kyungsoo was jolted from his chain of thought once more, this time by changing lighting. Jongin had just made a turn from the road outside into the underground parking area. Not only was the lighting dimmer than what it was outside, it was also fluorescent and entirely different from the natural sunlight they had been driving in only seconds earlier. Kyungsoo blinked as his eyes grew accustomed to the new lighting and he quickly sat up straighter in his seat.

“My parking spot is numbered thirty two.” Kyungsoo said quickly. “Lucky it’s still vacant!”

Jongin’s lips twitched but his eyes didn’t leave the parking area in front of him. “Don’t talk, Mr. Do. I need to focus on not smashing my car into one of these concrete support beams”

Kyungsoo froze immediately, as if the slightest movement would cause the teen to have a terrible accident. Jongin managed to locate his teacher’s unused parking spot and it was with relative ease that he pulled his car to a stop. Kyungsoo exhaled a breath of relief as soon as the teen’s car was no longer running, and Jongin’s lips twitched once more.

“I was being sarcastic, Mr. Do. I was driving at about ten kilometres per hour. Even if I did crash into a pole I doubt we would come to harm.”

“You don’t know that!”

The teen had the audacity to roll his eyes at his English teacher. “Right.” He glanced up and gave the parking area a brief once over through the glass of his tinted windows. “Shall we go?”

Kyungsoo fidgeted for a moment. “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to wait here? I can be up and back in ten minutes…?”

It was more of a question than a statement. Kyungsoo already had a sinking feeling in his gut that no matter how good of an excuse or reason he had, Jongin would be the least likely human on earth to comply.

“No, if you have no objection I will go up and collect the work.”

If Kyungsoo had been more firm and strong of heart, he would have screamed his objections towards his current predicament (I actually do object, Kim Jongin! I am your English teacher and this whole situation makes me deeply uncomfortable! I feel like you knowing my place of residence is crossing a line and that as a student you should respect the differences in our positions more…!) However, Kyungsoo was simply not that type of person, and the more that he thought about it, the more he felt as if his own discomfort was uncalled for. For starters, he knew that students at Malhana often went to their teachers homes on weekends for extra lessons, especially in their last year of school. Although Jongin was yet to enter year 12, the fact that he had missed so many classes and was in such dire need of catching up seemed to Kyungsoo, when he thought about it, a good enough reason for it to be at least semi acceptable for the teen to come by his home due to the fact that it was benefitting him academically. Minseok had mentioned many times on past occasions about weekend meet ups with his year twelve extension math class and Jongin coming by his apartment to collect some schoolwork was basically the same thing. Secondly, Jongin was showing no ill intent in terms of wanting to retrieve the English work he was needing to do and the fact that he was controlling his usually sharp and disagreeable personality made Kyungsoo feel multiple levels of guilt. Jongin was actually trying yet all he was doing was overthinking the whole situation.

It was with what Kyungsoo considered a self-purifying breath of released air that he finally spoke.

“I guess that’s fine, Jongin. Let’s go.”

Jongin’s milo sat in front of the teen in a clear glass, Kyungsoo’s mug of tea held in its owner’s hand, cooling slowly. Between them sat Kyungsoo's bright red, slightly banged up, kettle, snug inside the ugly brown knitted tea cosy he had it into and never bothered removing ("Nice" Jongin had commented when Kyungsoo had placed it down, his lips twitching in amusement), like some sort of (ill acting) barrier. For the past fifteen minutes, Kyungsoo had been tirelessly explaining the content of Jongin’s latest unit of catch up work – close study of speeches. Kyungsoo knew that time for the teen was limited in terms of catching up on the work he had missed, and with exams coming up as well as the year eleven and twelve excursion (which Kyungsoo believed firmly as nothing more than an unnecessary distraction) Kyungsoo was truly ploughing through the English work that the teen needed to get done.

“You’ll have to write an essay on one of these selected speeches in the end of year exams, so make sure you study the techniques the author has used to convey their message and memorise at least half a dozen quotations as examples.”

Jongin hummed in affirmation from across Kyungsoo’s medium sized kitchen table, shifting slightly in his seat as he leaned closer to his teacher in order to get a better look at the unit criteria that Kyungsoo had just presented him.

“Everyone seems to hate this unit and I can sort of see why. It’s a pain to have to study so many spe