Translation of Love

9

Progression

It's been a few weeks since I slept in Taeyoung's room. The rest of the month had been pretty uneventful. I managed to befriend a girl in my Korean language class, Kiyoko. She's Japanese but lived in California for most of her life, which explains her tanned skin and maybe even her go-with-the-flow personality. She is a lot more outgoing than me and was the one who initiated the conversation.

I remember it clearly. I was reading a basic Korean sentence on my page, the professor was trying to explain a word to some guy in class. It had been about eight minutes of the student consistently questioning the professor in an arrogant way, causing most people to give up on paying attention and a few more outspoken students to ask him to kindly shut up.

Someone whispered behind me, "I can't fucking stand this guy," then went off into Japanese, mumbling to herself in a way that suggested she was collecting every swear she could think of.

She was leaned forward on her desk, causing her words to very clearly hit my ears. I turned around slightly, and she caught my eye, not at all taken aback.

"Hey." She gave me this weird, sour smile, one that made it seem like we were already friends. Her teeth were a bit too big for her mouth, giving her a really cute but intimidating look. She also could not hide anything—her eyes showed what she was thinking as clear as day.

Quirky, I had thought. This was the definition of a quirky girl.

"Hey..." I shyly said back.

"Well, we're not learning anything for the rest of the class so what's up? How's it going? Please distract me from this idiot before I flip the god damn table. My name's Kiyoko, but please for the love of God call me Koko instead."

Her forward approach absolutely stunned me, but I loved it. And that was the class where we ended up becoming friends. She moved her bag and climbed over the table to sit next to me.

Since then we've spent some time getting lunch or dinner together, other times sitting in her dorm room watching anime on her laptop. Despite her very Americanised persona, she is an absolute nerd for anime. I had never really watched it before, aside from Pokemon and Sailor Moon like most other Western kids in the 90s, so it was an interesting time for me to say the least.

Another thing Koko loves is messing with boys. Most of our meals include a couple of comments from her about the guys around us, either complaining at the lack of eye-candy in that particular restaurant or even talking herself into going up to a group of nerdy-looking Korean guys, in which she started speaking Japanese to in a ridiculously high, anime-like voice. While I was absolutely mortified, shielding my hands partway over my face, it was hilarious to see the looks on their faces. A couple of them probably could have drooled if she kept talking long enough.

Needless to say, Koko is a great distraction.

My other distraction is Taeyoung.

While not much has happened since that night I accidentally slept with him, it is enough to make my feelings grow for him. I'm not sure if they are just friend-ly feelings, or something different. I have never had a guy-friend before, so I am not sure how that is supposed to feel.

Two times a week we have been meeting up to practice my language skills, either in the coffee shop, on campus, or very occasionally at his place. He told me that he volunteered for language partner stuff each semester so that he could keep practising his English.

I sometimes worried about going to his place, because Minjun proved to be the most annoying guy I'd ever met. And not in a cute, cliche way.

While Junwoo was a sweetheart—quietly watching TV or studying while we worked—Minjun was the opposite. Either blasting music, asking for Taeyoung's opinion on a song while I was trying to read something to him, or sitting next to me, watching me write and telling me I write like a pre-schooler. Or making fun of the way I talk, once even grabbing my jaw mid-sentence to shake my whole face while he baby-talked to me. Sometimes he would out-right flirt with me right in front of Taeyoung. My face would heat up from annoyance. Taeyoung would often hit him, kick him under the table, or straight up yell at him to leave.

Eventually, he would.

The last time I went to his house ended up being the very last. It had been a late evening, we were almost done going over my homework. I wanted to use the bathroom before packing up to leave. The door was ajar, not closed but not fully open either. I thought nothing of this, obviously, since it wasn't actually closed.

However, when I walked inside I walked right into Minjun. A naked Minjun.

I didn't know what I had hit at first, and it took a second to realize that I was touching his damp back.

"Sohee! You come to join me?"

I walked backwards, arm knocking over some things on the counter, doing my best to not look at his well his derriere. He thankfully grabbed a towel, covering his lower region before turning around, but his torso was glistening, and the towel barely covered his pelvis.

I squeezed my eyes shut. "Why didn't you close the door!" I yelled at his face.

"We're men, I never close the door."

"I'm not a guy!"

"Oh really?" A smirk danced on his face as he leaned over me. His head moved towards the crook of my neck.

"Why don't you let me judge," he whispered in my ear, his whole torso lightly touching me. I could feel the towel pushing against me and I screamed. Just straight up yelled in his ear.

Taeyoung very soon opened the door, and as if he already knew what was happening, he quickly grabbed my arm, yanking me towards him so hard that I would have fallen if I didn't hit his body. My head was against his chest, and he put a hand behind my head, keeping my view blocked by his body. He yelled at Minjun, who was laughing, and I could feel Taeyoung move, probably kicking the boy. Minjun kept laughing hysterically and most definitely had no towel around him anymore.

Taeyoung walked out of the bathroom backwards, my head still stuffed into his chest.

"Can I breathe now?" My words were muffled by his shirt. He let me go once the door was closed.

"Let's stop meeting here." That's all he needed to say.

I haven't been over since.

. . .

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Love,

Sooaura