Echo || NCTau ||

11 - Pretty young thing

"Why doesn't Jeno teach him?" Haechan's dad asked, looking up from the computer screen. His office was a tiny room with barely enough space for the computer and desk, some filing cabinets and a bench. On the wall behind the computer, there were some of the awards the gym had received that couldn't fit the front desk area. Next to the computer screen was a wooden name plate that simply said 'Couch Lee' because his dad was cool like that.

"We considered it but Jeno said that since he doesn't really have much teaching experience in Taekwondo, he wouldn't know what skills to focus on." Haechan wondered why he hadn't sent Jeno to meet with his dad in his stead.

Dad preferred Jeno anyway.

Considering the saying about apples not falling far from the trees, Haechan must've fallen downhill or something because he and his dad were nothing alike. Whereas Haechan was only slightly taller than the average Korean man and not very muscular, his dad was built like a bodyguard – or a wardrobe. Before retiring from his position in the chief intelligence agency of Korea, he had a very intense – almost scary aura to him but, after retiring, some of the edge had worn off. He had even grown fond of cute emoticons and started taking Haechan's mom out on date nights as if they were newlyweds because he had been too busy for such things when he worked for the government.

Still, Haechan knew that he wasn't always living up to his dad's wishes. Unlike his younger sister and two younger brothers, all of whom were gym rats, getting Haechan to the gym required immense amounts of peer pressure, bribes or promises of fun group activities.

Dancing was the only exception but of course that happened to be one of the very few forms of exercising that his dad didn't find impressive.

His dad nodded. "That's a very good point. Jeno is a smart guy."

Why don't you just adopt him already?

Haechan didn't have the time to listen to his dad be proud about Jeno. He was in a hurry to go home because he was planning to ask Chenle for private investigator recommendations. Chenle's family was insanely rich and Chenle seemed to know everyone so he must have good connections. Haechan needed to find the girl from Taipei at any cost and having to look for a self-defense teacher for Jisung was a painful reminder of the possible connection between his slip-ups and the sudden threat to his younger friend's life.

"Anyway, that's why I'm here. Do you think that instructor Nam would be willing to give private lessons to Jisung? I figured that I should ask you first."

The thirty-something woman had been a good teacher in the past so Jisung would most likely feel at ease around her as well. Haechan's parents had pressured him to take her kickboxing classes during his studies, and he hadn't completely hated it so she had to be pretty good at her job.

His dad's mouth tightened for a second. "Unfortunately, instructor Nam stopped teaching here recently. She was offered a scholarship so she's going to pursue a master's degree." His eyes were unreadable. "We have a new instructor."

"Okay. Well, then, do you know if the new instructor does private lessons? Jisung is a bit jumpy around big groups of strangers, so we figured that it would be easier to have someone teach him one-on-one."

It had been Chenle's idea and, before anyone had time to argue for or against the suggestion, he had announced that he would cover the costs. He said that it was because he didn't want to listen to Jisung whine about his social anxiety if he had to meet so many new people again when he was barely dealing with the ones going to the same dance classes as him.

Chenle's attempts to hide his affection towards his best friend were adorable.

"I think that instructor Kim might be quite busy", Haechan's dad said. "Her mom is an old acquaintance of mine and I think that she took the position mostly out of courtesy. It's possible that she doesn't have time for any private sessions."