Found in Translation
Confusion: noun - 1. disorder; upheaval; tumult; chaos ; 2. When Wooyoung met Nichkhun.
Wooyoung is in his first year of college. He is happy most of the time.
He lives in his own apartment with his best friend: himself.
He is good at what he’s learning, more specifically…to be a teacher.
His parents are far, but not that far to see often.
He talks to some fellow students in his class but doesn’t really feel the need to be so connected and
for the most part,
Wooyoung is content.
Well, he was.
It’s the morning of the first day of the first week of the second semester of the year. Wooyoung is excited. He gets himself ready to walk across the street to the campus. He’s light on his feet. Halfway there Wooyoung stops walking.
Why is it that today the breeze feels ominous?
Wooyoung furrowed his brow. Something is wrong. Something is VERY wrong.
The girls next to him chattered incessantly about some topic Wooyoung could not hear. He ignored it and tried to focus on his book. The words blurred and his eyes began to hurt each time he tried to put effort into reading.
“He’s new…” “….a foreigner?” “….uh, America.” “…he sounds cute..” “oh my god, shut up.” “he’s here.”
Wooyoung heard fragments of this conversation that he couldn’t be bothered with. Unfortunately though, they just wouldn’t stop talking. Suddenly though, they did.
He turned to see what caught their attention and looked to his left. One girl pushed her hair out of her face and sat up straighter, accentuating what she probably thought were nice breasts. Wooyoung scoffed. The girl next to her, who was visibly shyer, just looked astutely at the board, as if there was someone teaching. Wooyoung rolled his eyes at their high school like behavior.
What was this for; some new student? Wooyoung felt annoyed.
He followed their line of vision to the door straight ahead of him, which seemed distant due to the rows and rows of seats. Walking into the classroom was a man, probably taller than Wooyoung with light brown hair. Wooyoung squinted his eyes. The man looked around the room for a seat.
Wooyoung was staring, he hadn’t realized it. He was trying to look for the features that had the girls next to him so amazed. They gasped and he could even see them grab each other’s hands from the corner of his eye. What was this guy? A celebrity? A God?
The man looked at Wooyoung who had finally realized he’d been staring and his face was stoic, his mouth slightly agape. Wooyoung looked down in embarrassment. Again he tried to read.
When teaching………….when……teach-…………..when teaching
He couldn’t focus so he pretended. Startling him, a hand on his shoulder made him flinch. He looked from the hand on his shoulder to the owner. “Uh…good morning. I’m Nichkhun Horvejkul. I’m from the United States.”
Panic: verb - 1. to affect with panic; terrify and cause to flee or lose self-control. ; 2. When Nichkhun speaks to Wooyoung.
Wooyoung looked straight at this man. How is it possible for his heart to not beat for such a long period of time? Wooyoung was pretty sure he should be dead by now. How is it possible that he could stare for so long and this man doesn’t move? Wooyoung was almost positive that the man must have been a robot. How is it possible for a person…a man…to make Wooyoung feel that worthless, that quickly? Wooyoung knew he hated him already.
“Hello? I’m sorry for being rude.” Nichkhun put his hand on the seat next to Wooyoung. “May I sit here?” No.
“You can sit wherever you want. I don’t own this class.” Wooyoung was finally able to tear his eyes away from Nich…whatever his name was. Nichkhun pursed his lips nervously and pulled out the seat. He sat down slowly as to not bother Wooyoung.
Wooyoung looked at his watch and tapped his foot on the ground impatiently. He wondered where the teacher was. Wherever he was, he wished that he would come quicker so that he didn’t have to talk to the person next to him. He made him feel awkward, nervous…and that didn’t happen to Wooyoung. He was itchy. He wanted to crawl out of his skin.
But for some reason, fate had it that the teacher would be an hour late today.
Inconvenient - noun 1. annoying, awkward, bothersome. ; 2. Wooyoung’s predicament.
Wooyoung felt the heat of Nichkhun’s eyes on him. The heat radiated from them and seeped into his skin and went down to the core of his stomach and boiled like hot water. He averted his eyes and put his elbow on the desk and held his head with his right hand, precautionary measures just in case he felt the urge to look back.
“Can you help me with something?” Nichkhun asked clearly. His voice reverberated through Wooyoung’s ears. What would it sound like if a voice that sounded like that, with that clarity, were to say his name? Wooyoung didn’t dare to think of it. At least now he knew that Nichkhun was in fact, NOT a robot.
He couldn’t ignore Nichkhun though; he didn’t want to be even ruder than he already had been. Though he turned to answer, he tried not to look him in the face, in fear of staring.
“…What is it?” Wooyoung tried to sound confident.
“Well, my Korean isn’t very good. I just recently moved here. So I was wondering…since this is a teaching class, you must want to practice your skills right?” Nichkhun played with the paper on the desk in front of him. Wooyoung looked at his fingers; the skin on them looked too soft, almost feminine.
“Yes…where are you getting to with this?” Wooyoung was proud he was able to form words.
“Uh...” Nichkhun nervously laughs, runs his fingers through his hair. Wooyoung smells how clean it is. He wants to throw up. “Nevermind.”
The bell rang and it made Nichkhun jump. Wooyoung smiled and before a second thought could form in his head, Nichkhun swept up his books and darted out of the class. Wooyoung felt his chest tighten and his stomach turn. He felt nauseas. Suddenly, Wooyoung wasn’t happy.
Later in the day, Wooyoung sat in the silence of his apartment. It was raining outside and the sound of the droplets of water on his window was putting him to sleep. As his eyes drifted to a close, he breathed calmly.
Secretly, he admitted to himself that he felt guilty; guilty that he felt so happy that he wasn’t in that torturous classroom. In all honesty, that man…okay, Nichkhun…hadn’t really done anything to him, all except make him nervous and make him cringe. He had been content being by himself in his mind. Now he found that someone else wanted to occupy that space. He didn’t like sharing.
Sleep - verb 1. to be careless or unalert; allow one's alertness, vigilance, or attentiveness to lie dormant; 2. What Wooyoung did to try and get away from Nichkhun even though Nichkhun had already gotten away from him.
The next morning Wooyoung woke up on his couch and he felt hung over. His head reeled and his bones ached. He put his fingers to his temples as he sat up. The sun shone through the windows of his apartment and he winced in pain. He got up, tripped over his sneakers, stumbled into the kitchen table and staggered his way to the bathroom.
When did his life become like this? As he stood in the lukewarm water of his shower he contemplated what made today different than yesterday? Had he done something to cause the fates to hate him? OH, that’s right. He had met Nichkhun yesterday. It was obviously his fault.
“Shit,” he muttered to himself.
Somewhere closer to the school, Nichkhun was preparing himself for another day. Korean, the hardest language he had ever known…scratch that, was attempting to learn, was on his mind nearly every millisecond of his non-eventful life.
As he combed his hair, Annyeongasayo. As he brushed his teeth, Ne iremeun Nichkhun. Grabbed his bag, Kansahamnida. He repeated random words over and over in his head, to no avail. He still sounded like a foreigner. He still felt lost and he still didn’t really understand WHY he needed to be here.
Oh, yes. OF COURSE, how could he possibly forget? He followed his girlfriend…ex-girlfriend here. What was her name again? Nichkhun realized he was doing it again: thinking of her, the American woman whom had become his first love. Realistically, he knew there was a huge possibility that their relationship wouldn’t last once they stepped onto the carpeted floor of the Seoul Airport and that she, a nice girl…really, would find herself needing “space.”
He replayed the conversation in head again, trying to make sense of an insensible situation.
“Nichkhun, you know how I am already. Why are you still trying to make this happen?”
“Oh, so…I’m not allowed to TRY and keep you in my life? I’m supposed to just…give the fuck up?”
“C’mon, there’s no need to curse. I already told you that it has nothing to do with you. I just want to take some time to meditate on my career, figure out what it is that I want.”
“You bitch. You made me come all the way to Korea with you. I don’t even know Korean. I don’t even like Korea.” Nichkhun remembered word vomit. He heard her begin to cry.
“This just won’t work out.”
“Apparently not.”
“Good bye Nichkhun, take care of yourself.” Nichkhun hung up, ending the call and as the dial tone rang in his ears, the hope dropped in his heart.
Instead of dwelling on her, for the millionth time most likely, Nichkhun stepped outside of his apartment and turned around to look at the cluttered space that was his home. Rolling his eyes he thought of his to-do list: clean the house, remember to eat something.
“Ah, never mind,” Nichkhun mumbled to himself and walked to the parking lot.
Careless- adjective 1. Not caring or troubling; having no care or concern; unconcerned; 2. Nichkhun’s most promising personality trait, pre-Wooyoung.
Wooyoung sat idly in his seat in his calculus classroom. He bore his eyes into the book in front of him and out of the corner of his eyes, suddenly…a pencil.
“You dropped your pencil.” The girl next to him smiled brightly as she placed the pencil on his desk.
“Oh…thank you.” He smiled back and noticed how beautiful she was. Had she always sat there? He realized the teacher had stopped talking and had went to his desk. Silently cursing himself for missing part of the lesson, Wooyoung looked back at his notebook and noticed it was completely blank.
He hadn’t been paying any attention, truthfully. Ever since the morning he had felt like the entire day he had been having an out of body experience. He didn’t feel anything on his skin, didn’t feel anything inside of his body. If anything had been moving it had been the wheels in his head, turning clockwise and counter-clockwise in tandem with the beating of his heart. It was as if the inside of his brain was a machine that had to continue moving -click, click, click- and if for one second it stopped working, his heart would take complete control and over heat the machine, causing it to self-destruct. Wooyoung was rational, so he tried not to over analyze…in fear that his brain would fry.
He didn’t even really know what there was to over-analyze anyway because nothing was happening. Everything was in its place.
Without realizing it, Wooyoung had been dreading his teaching class, a class that he usually is more than excited to go to. The once ecstatic feeling rushed out of his body, the same feeling when the blood rushes from your head.
But here he was, in this class. Impatiently, he checked his watch repeatedly. When was it going to be over?! It hadn’t even STARTED yet.
“Oh, hello!”
Mellifluous - adjective 1. sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding; 2. The sound of Nichkhun’s voice to Wooyoung’s unsuspecting ears.
Wooyoung snapped his head to the side. There he was again. Sweat forming on his forehead, sighing in exhaustion from…apparently, running here. He was breathing heavily and every time his chest rose, Wooyoung inhaled.
“Hello,” Wooyoung said. He looked back at his book.
“You know…I never got your name.” Nichkhun sat down and smiled brightly.
“It’s Jang Wooyoung.” Wooyoung looked at him and he looked so happy. Maybe he should be a little friendlier. “Nice to meet you.”
Nichkhun’s smile widened. Wooyoung’s hand ached to shake his but he didn’t lift it. Conversely, Nichkhun extended his and Wooyoung was forced to.
“So, are you from Korea? I hear you’re a foreigner.” Wooyoung held his head up with confidence and his his hand was still burning from shaking Nichkhun's. He shook it off and ignored it.
“OH?! Ha, people are talking about me?” Shit, no.
“Ah, yes.” Awkward smile. “I mean, no. It’s just since you’re new a lot of the students are interested. It’s not often that we get foreigners.”
“Hmm, a topic of interest, am I? Sounds pretty promising. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Well…why are you here? What are you studying? Are you addicted to sex? Do you deal drugs?”
“WHAT?! What are you talking about?! Maybe where you are from that is appropriate to talk about but I don’t think I’m ready to talk about that with you…here.”
“HAHA, I was just kidding…but when you’re ready, let me know.” Wooyoung frowned. This guy…who did he think he was joking around like that? “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Nichkhun shook his hands as if doing so would shoo away his immature move.
Wooyoung looked at him and felt bad for blowing up. He tried the conversation again. “I’m here to learn how to teach. I would really like to teach Korean to college level students.”
“That’s nice. I wish I was more goal oriented.”
“Why? What are you here for?”
“Well, I’m from America. Don’t worry how I ended up here…it’s not really important. My Korean is incredibly terrible though, that’s something you should probably worry about.” Wooyoung laughed.
“Why would I have to worry about that?”
“Simply because you’re going to have to hear my voice. Isn’t it infuriating the way I pronounce your favorite words?” Nichkhun smiled…no…he eye-smiled. Wooyoung inhaled too much and started to cough. He covered his mouth and shut his eyes, cursing at himself, embarrassed. Nickhun pat Wooyoung on the back and Wooyoung stopped moving.
“You alright there man?” Nichkhun looked concerned. His brows furrowed and that’s when Wooyoung noticed that this man wasn’t perfect. He could basically feel the burn of the glare of the girls sitting next to him but didn’t they see how thick his eyebrows were and didn’t they hear how inappropriate he was?
Wooyoung finally got a hold of himself. Nickhun took a moment to reflect on his attempted nonchalant playfulness “Are you addicted to sex?” Holy shit, what is wrong with me?
By this time the class started and they didn’t have to talk to each other. Unlike before though, when Wooyoung would nearly kill a small animal in order to avoid talking to him Wooyoung felt the urge to whisper to Nichkhun, just to finish that conversation they were having even though he didn’t really know what direction it had been going in (if it was going in any direction at all).
The lights went off and the projector turned on. The light was bright and Wooyoung, of course to avoid the light, turned to the side and looked at Nichkhun. He was writing notes and looked concentrated. Head hunched over, he switched hands when he wrote. Ambidextrous? Fantastic, he’s even weirder than I thought.
Towards the end of class it seemed to Wooyoung that Nickhun had something to say. This was of course because Nichkhun had stood up and blocked Wooyoung’s only pathway to the door.
In the horribly stereotypical fashion, Wooyoung shifted to the left, as did Nichkhun and when Wooyoung shifted to the right, Nichkhun did too.
“What is it?” Wooyoung asked, finally annoyed with the awkward air he had created himself.
“I know we just met but I think you speak really well.”
“…What? I mean, thanks.”
“What I mean to ask is if you could help teach me Korean.” Nichkhun looked momentarily frightened.
“Oh, um, sure. At the school?” Nickhun’s shoulders relaxed and he stood up. Wooyoung straightened up to match his posture. He was flattered. Someone wanted HIM to teach them Korean. His ego slowly inflated.
“Yes, anywhere. I’m pretty desperate to learn the language well. I live here and sound like an idiot 90% of the time.”
“Based on earlier, I think whether it’s in Korean or English you’d sound like an idiot.” Wooyoung paused waiting for a reaction. Just as he was about to lose his sanity, Nichkhun laughed and nodded his head in agreement. Thank God.
“I’ll pay you if you’d like…”
“No, no! It’s fine. It’s good for my practice.”
“Then…it’s a deal? When are you free?”
“Thursday…around 5.”
It was Monday. The days wretched by. Wooyoung found excuses to look at the calendar, when really…he knew what day it was and knew what he had to do. Subconsciously, he felt that the more he looked at the calendar, the more fate would feel sympathy for him and make the days go by faster.
Scintilla - noun 1. a minute particle; spark; trace; 2. The amount of hope Wooyoung had that Nichkhun was checking his calendar too.
Wooyoung is in his first year of college. He is happy most of the time.
He lives in his own apartment with his best friend: himself.
He is good at what he’s learning, more specifically…to be a teacher.
His parents are far, but not that far to see often.
He talks to some fellow students in his class but doesn’t really feel the need to be so connected and
for the most part,
Wooyoung is content.
Well, he was.
It’s the morning of the first day of the first week of the second semester of the year. Wooyoung is excited. He gets himself ready to walk across the street to the campus. He’s light on his feet. Halfway there Wooyoung stops walking.
Why is it that today the breeze feels ominous?
Wooyoung furrowed his brow. Something is wrong. Something is VERY wrong.
The girls next to him chattered incessantly about some topic Wooyoung could not hear. He ignored it and tried to focus on his book. The words blurred and his eyes began to hurt each time he tried to put effort into reading.
“He’s new…” “….a foreigner?” “….uh, America.” “…he sounds cute..” “oh my god, shut up.” “he’s here.”
Wooyoung heard fragments of this conversation that he couldn’t be bothered with. Unfortunately though, they just wouldn’t stop talking. Suddenly though, they did.
He turned to see what caught their attention and looked to his left. One girl pushed her hair out of her face and sat up straighter, accentuating what she probably thought were nice breasts. Wooyoung scoffed. The girl next to her, who was visibly shyer, just looked astutely at the board, as if there was someone teaching. Wooyoung rolled his eyes at their high school like behavior.
What was this for; some new student? Wooyoung felt annoyed.
He followed their line of vision to the door straight ahead of him, which seemed distant due to the rows and rows of seats. Walking into the classroom was a man, probably taller than Wooyoung with light brown hair. Wooyoung squinted his eyes. The man looked around the room for a seat.
Wooyoung was staring, he hadn’t realized it. He was trying to look for the features that had the girls next to him so amazed. They gasped and he could even see them grab each other’s hands from the corner of his eye. What was this guy? A celebrity? A God?
The man looked at Wooyoung who had finally realized he’d been staring and his face was stoic, his mouth slightly agape. Wooyoung looked down in embarrassment. Again he tried to read.
When teaching………….when……teach-…………..when teaching
He couldn’t focus so he pretended. Startling him, a hand on his shoulder made him flinch. He looked from the hand on his shoulder to the owner. “Uh…good morning. I’m Nichkhun Horvejkul. I’m from the United States.”
Panic: verb - 1. to affect with panic; terrify and cause to flee or lose self-control. ; 2. When Nichkhun speaks to Wooyoung.
Wooyoung looked straight at this man. How is it possible for his heart to not beat for such a long period of time? Wooyoung was pretty sure he should be dead by now. How is it possible that he could stare for so long and this man doesn’t move? Wooyoung was almost positive that the man must have been a robot. How is it possible for a person…a man…to make Wooyoung feel that worthless, that quickly? Wooyoung knew he hated him already.
“Hello? I’m sorry for being rude.” Nichkhun put his hand on the seat next to Wooyoung. “May I sit here?” No.
“You can sit wherever you want. I don’t own this class.” Wooyoung was finally able to tear his eyes away from Nich…whatever his name was. Nichkhun pursed his lips nervously and pulled out the seat. He sat down slowly as to not bother Wooyoung.
Wooyoung looked at his watch and tapped his foot on the ground impatiently. He wondered where the teacher was. Wherever he was, he wished that he would come quicker so that he didn’t have to talk to the person next to him. He made him feel awkward, nervous…and that didn’t happen to Wooyoung. He was itchy. He wanted to crawl out of his skin.
But for some reason, fate had it that the teacher would be an hour late today.
Inconvenient - noun 1. annoying, awkward, bothersome. ; 2. Wooyoung’s predicament.
Wooyoung felt the heat of Nichkhun’s eyes on him. The heat radiated from them and seeped into his skin and went down to the core of his stomach and boiled like hot water. He averted his eyes and put his elbow on the desk and held his head with his right hand, precautionary measures just in case he felt the urge to look back.
“Can you help me with something?” Nichkhun asked clearly. His voice reverberated through Wooyoung’s ears. What would it sound like if a voice that sounded like that, with that clarity, were to say his name? Wooyoung didn’t dare to think of it. At least now he knew that Nichkhun was in fact, NOT a robot.
He couldn’t ignore Nichkhun though; he didn’t want to be even ruder than he already had been. Though he turned to answer, he tried not to look him in the face, in fear of staring.
“…What is it?” Wooyoung tried to sound confident.
“Well, my Korean isn’t very good. I just recently moved here. So I was wondering…since this is a teaching class, you must want to practice your skills right?” Nichkhun played with the paper on the desk in front of him. Wooyoung looked at his fingers; the skin on them looked too soft, almost feminine.
“Yes…where are you getting to with this?” Wooyoung was proud he was able to form words.
“Uh...” Nichkhun nervously laughs, runs his fingers through his hair. Wooyoung smells how clean it is. He wants to throw up. “Nevermind.”
The bell rang and it made Nichkhun jump. Wooyoung smiled and before a second thought could form in his head, Nichkhun swept up his books and darted out of the class. Wooyoung felt his chest tighten and his stomach turn. He felt nauseas. Suddenly, Wooyoung wasn’t happy.
Later in the day, Wooyoung sat in the silence of his apartment. It was raining outside and the sound of the droplets of water on his window was putting him to sleep. As his eyes drifted to a close, he breathed calmly.
Secretly, he admitted to himself that he felt guilty; guilty that he felt so happy that he wasn’t in that torturous classroom. In all honesty, that man…okay, Nichkhun…hadn’t really done anything to him, all except make him nervous and make him cringe. He had been content being by himself in his mind. Now he found that someone else wanted to occupy that space. He didn’t like sharing.
Sleep - verb 1. to be careless or unalert; allow one's alertness, vigilance, or attentiveness to lie dormant; 2. What Wooyoung did to try and get away from Nichkhun even though Nichkhun had already gotten away from him.
The next morning Wooyoung woke up on his couch and he felt hung over. His head reeled and his bones ached. He put his fingers to his temples as he sat up. The sun shone through the windows of his apartment and he winced in pain. He got up, tripped over his sneakers, stumbled into the kitchen table and staggered his way to the bathroom.
When did his life become like this? As he stood in the lukewarm water of his shower he contemplated what made today different than yesterday? Had he done something to cause the fates to hate him? OH, that’s right. He had met Nichkhun yesterday. It was obviously his fault.
“Shit,” he muttered to himself.
Somewhere closer to the school, Nichkhun was preparing himself for another day. Korean, the hardest language he had ever known…scratch that, was attempting to learn, was on his mind nearly every millisecond of his non-eventful life.
As he combed his hair, Annyeongasayo. As he brushed his teeth, Ne iremeun Nichkhun. Grabbed his bag, Kansahamnida. He repeated random words over and over in his head, to no avail. He still sounded like a foreigner. He still felt lost and he still didn’t really understand WHY he needed to be here.
Oh, yes. OF COURSE, how could he possibly forget? He followed his girlfriend…ex-girlfriend here. What was her name again? Nichkhun realized he was doing it again: thinking of her, the American woman whom had become his first love. Realistically, he knew there was a huge possibility that their relationship wouldn’t last once they stepped onto the carpeted floor of the Seoul Airport and that she, a nice girl…really, would find herself needing “space.”
He replayed the conversation in head again, trying to make sense of an insensible situation.
“Nichkhun, you know how I am already. Why are you still trying to make this happen?”
“Oh, so…I’m not allowed to TRY and keep you in my life? I’m supposed to just…give the fuck up?”
“C’mon, there’s no need to curse. I already told you that it has nothing to do with you. I just want to take some time to meditate on my career, figure out what it is that I want.”
“You bitch. You made me come all the way to Korea with you. I don’t even know Korean. I don’t even like Korea.” Nichkhun remembered word vomit. He heard her begin to cry.
“This just won’t work out.”
“Apparently not.”
“Good bye Nichkhun, take care of yourself.” Nichkhun hung up, ending the call and as the dial tone rang in his ears, the hope dropped in his heart.
Instead of dwelling on her, for the millionth time most likely, Nichkhun stepped outside of his apartment and turned around to look at the cluttered space that was his home. Rolling his eyes he thought of his to-do list: clean the house, remember to eat something.
“Ah, never mind,” Nichkhun mumbled to himself and walked to the parking lot.
Careless- adjective 1. Not caring or troubling; having no care or concern; unconcerned; 2. Nichkhun’s most promising personality trait, pre-Wooyoung.
Wooyoung sat idly in his seat in his calculus classroom. He bore his eyes into the book in front of him and out of the corner of his eyes, suddenly…a pencil.
“You dropped your pencil.” The girl next to him smiled brightly as she placed the pencil on his desk.
“Oh…thank you.” He smiled back and noticed how beautiful she was. Had she always sat there? He realized the teacher had stopped talking and had went to his desk. Silently cursing himself for missing part of the lesson, Wooyoung looked back at his notebook and noticed it was completely blank.
He hadn’t been paying any attention, truthfully. Ever since the morning he had felt like the entire day he had been having an out of body experience. He didn’t feel anything on his skin, didn’t feel anything inside of his body. If anything had been moving it had been the wheels in his head, turning clockwise and counter-clockwise in tandem with the beating of his heart. It was as if the inside of his brain was a machine that had to continue moving -click, click, click- and if for one second it stopped working, his heart would take complete control and over heat the machine, causing it to self-destruct. Wooyoung was rational, so he tried not to over analyze…in fear that his brain would fry.
He didn’t even really know what there was to over-analyze anyway because nothing was happening. Everything was in its place.
Without realizing it, Wooyoung had been dreading his teaching class, a class that he usually is more than excited to go to. The once ecstatic feeling rushed out of his body, the same feeling when the blood rushes from your head.
But here he was, in this class. Impatiently, he checked his watch repeatedly. When was it going to be over?! It hadn’t even STARTED yet.
“Oh, hello!”
Mellifluous - adjective 1. sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding; 2. The sound of Nichkhun’s voice to Wooyoung’s unsuspecting ears.
Wooyoung snapped his head to the side. There he was again. Sweat forming on his forehead, sighing in exhaustion from…apparently, running here. He was breathing heavily and every time his chest rose, Wooyoung inhaled.
“Hello,” Wooyoung said. He looked back at his book.
“You know…I never got your name.” Nichkhun sat down and smiled brightly.
“It’s Jang Wooyoung.” Wooyoung looked at him and he looked so happy. Maybe he should be a little friendlier. “Nice to meet you.”
Nichkhun’s smile widened. Wooyoung’s hand ached to shake his but he didn’t lift it. Conversely, Nichkhun extended his and Wooyoung was forced to.
“So, are you from Korea? I hear you’re a foreigner.” Wooyoung held his head up with confidence and his his hand was still burning from shaking Nichkhun's. He shook it off and ignored it.
“OH?! Ha, people are talking about me?” Shit, no.
“Ah, yes.” Awkward smile. “I mean, no. It’s just since you’re new a lot of the students are interested. It’s not often that we get foreigners.”
“Hmm, a topic of interest, am I? Sounds pretty promising. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Well…why are you here? What are you studying? Are you addicted to sex? Do you deal drugs?”
“WHAT?! What are you talking about?! Maybe where you are from that is appropriate to talk about but I don’t think I’m ready to talk about that with you…here.”
“HAHA, I was just kidding…but when you’re ready, let me know.” Wooyoung frowned. This guy…who did he think he was joking around like that? “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Nichkhun shook his hands as if doing so would shoo away his immature move.
Wooyoung looked at him and felt bad for blowing up. He tried the conversation again. “I’m here to learn how to teach. I would really like to teach Korean to college level students.”
“That’s nice. I wish I was more goal oriented.”
“Why? What are you here for?”
“Well, I’m from America. Don’t worry how I ended up here…it’s not really important. My Korean is incredibly terrible though, that’s something you should probably worry about.” Wooyoung laughed.
“Why would I have to worry about that?”
“Simply because you’re going to have to hear my voice. Isn’t it infuriating the way I pronounce your favorite words?” Nichkhun smiled…no…he eye-smiled. Wooyoung inhaled too much and started to cough. He covered his mouth and shut his eyes, cursing at himself, embarrassed. Nickhun pat Wooyoung on the back and Wooyoung stopped moving.
“You alright there man?” Nichkhun looked concerned. His brows furrowed and that’s when Wooyoung noticed that this man wasn’t perfect. He could basically feel the burn of the glare of the girls sitting next to him but didn’t they see how thick his eyebrows were and didn’t they hear how inappropriate he was?
Wooyoung finally got a hold of himself. Nickhun took a moment to reflect on his attempted nonchalant playfulness “Are you addicted to sex?” Holy shit, what is wrong with me?
By this time the class started and they didn’t have to talk to each other. Unlike before though, when Wooyoung would nearly kill a small animal in order to avoid talking to him Wooyoung felt the urge to whisper to Nichkhun, just to finish that conversation they were having even though he didn’t really know what direction it had been going in (if it was going in any direction at all).
The lights went off and the projector turned on. The light was bright and Wooyoung, of course to avoid the light, turned to the side and looked at Nichkhun. He was writing notes and looked concentrated. Head hunched over, he switched hands when he wrote. Ambidextrous? Fantastic, he’s even weirder than I thought.
Towards the end of class it seemed to Wooyoung that Nickhun had something to say. This was of course because Nichkhun had stood up and blocked Wooyoung’s only pathway to the door.
In the horribly stereotypical fashion, Wooyoung shifted to the left, as did Nichkhun and when Wooyoung shifted to the right, Nichkhun did too.
“What is it?” Wooyoung asked, finally annoyed with the awkward air he had created himself.
“I know we just met but I think you speak really well.”
“…What? I mean, thanks.”
“What I mean to ask is if you could help teach me Korean.” Nichkhun looked momentarily frightened.
“Oh, um, sure. At the school?” Nickhun’s shoulders relaxed and he stood up. Wooyoung straightened up to match his posture. He was flattered. Someone wanted HIM to teach them Korean. His ego slowly inflated.
“Yes, anywhere. I’m pretty desperate to learn the language well. I live here and sound like an idiot 90% of the time.”
“Based on earlier, I think whether it’s in Korean or English you’d sound like an idiot.” Wooyoung paused waiting for a reaction. Just as he was about to lose his sanity, Nichkhun laughed and nodded his head in agreement. Thank God.
“I’ll pay you if you’d like…”
“No, no! It’s fine. It’s good for my practice.”
“Then…it’s a deal? When are you free?”
“Thursday…around 5.”
It was Monday. The days wretched by. Wooyoung found excuses to look at the calendar, when really…he knew what day it was and knew what he had to do. Subconsciously, he felt that the more he looked at the calendar, the more fate would feel sympathy for him and make the days go by faster.
Scintilla - noun 1. a minute particle; spark; trace; 2. The amount of hope Wooyoung had that Nichkhun was checking his calendar too.