Stirring The Soul

Chapter 7

It's getting late and soon you both head back to the Underground. At the station entrance, Jungkook asks, "Noona, are you ok getting back home by yourself? Do you need me to come with you?"

You laugh and reply, "Not necessary JK, I've been around a while and I think I'm ok making my way back. You go on ahead, you must be tired."

"Yeah, I am a bit, and I still have to do my homework for singing class tomorrow. Thank you, Noona, for hanging out with me today. I really had a lot of fun." He looks at you with those wide doe eyes.

"Not at all, I should be thanking you for paying for the meal. Actually," you say as you pull something out from your bag, "I got this for you. Your wardrobe could do with an injection of colour." You hold out a red baseball cap with the British flag on it.

Jungkook giggles as he takes it from you and immediately replaces the black one with it. "This is so cool, thank you Noona. Hey, I didn't even see you buy it."

"I got it while you were paying for the meal."

"Wow, sneaky. I have to keep an eye on you Noona!"

You try not to read too much into that last comment and see him off at the station. You decide to take the bus instead of the train with Jungkook as you don't trust yourself to keep up this composure. You sit on the empty bus, exhaling deeply. You wonder what this effect is that Jungkook is having on you. You literally only met him two days ago. What is this you're feeling? The only thing you know for sure was that you love being in his company, but there is no way you are going to take this further. You are going to keep it strictly professional from now on, maintaining the student-teacher relationship. How can you even imagine that there can be some future with Jungkook? He is nine years younger than you, from another country which he is returning to in a few months, and, most importantly, there is no way he has feelings for you.

With that, you make your mind up about how you will behave towards him from now on. Your next meet is in five days which is enough time to forget about how great today has been. You smile as you think of him calling you Noona. It was kind of endearing to be his Noona.

As soon as you get home you put your phone on the charger, hop into the shower and then sit at your desk. Ok, you had your fun today, now time for work. I will be the one who suffers if these lessons aren't planned properly. You like to plan for at least two days' worth of lessons in advance, so this is going to take you a few hours. A large flask of dark coffee sits with you as you work through the night. It's almost 2 am by the time you finish and finally hit the sack.

The alarm on your phone blares out at 6 am and you jolt up. You get that usual groggy Monday morning feeling as you head into the bathroom. Every Monday, you regret being a teacher. Why on earth did I choose a job where I have to wake up at this ungodly hour every weekday to start at 8:30 am? Oh yeah, the paid holidays help.

This is your usual thought process every morning, which usually dissipates once you're dressed, fed, and out the door. Now fully plunging into your usual daily pattern, you don't have time to think about Jungkook. You spend the next couple of evenings either motionless on your sofa or marking homework. On top of that, every Christmas, you put on a musical recital with your students, and the planning as well as the rehearsals, take up the rest of your free time. You enjoy putting it together but are thankful for the fact it only happens once a year.

On your way home on Wednesday evening, you feel your phone buzz in your bag. You pick it up to see a message from Jungkook. A part of you is glad to see his text and your heart almost skips a beat, however, the other part is worried about the fact that you are happy to hear from him. You read his text, which reads like he talks.

// Hi Noona, hope u r well and teaching hasn't been too stressful. But I'm sure u are a gr8 teacher and your students luv you.
You're probably wondering why I'm txting you out of the blue, esp since I'm gonna see you on Fri anyway, but guess what! I've been chosen to perform at the Academy's end of term musical performance. It's a really prestigious event (Namjoon hyung taught me that word lol) and Mr Brown personally asked me to play a piece for it. He also said that I shud ask u to give me xtra lessons since it's only 4 weeks away. Even if Mr Brown hadn't told me, I wouldve asked you anyway coz I get really nervous playing solo on stage and I think you can help calm my nerves. I think you have a special ability to bring out the best in people Noona 😊.
If you're wondering why I'm send you a looooooong text rather than talking to you on the phone, I thought you might need some time to think about it since you're prolly already bz with work and u might feel bad to say no if I spk to you. I'll be ok with whatever you decide.

Pls let me know,
Thank u!
JK xxx ///

You read the message twice to make sure you haven't missed anything, whilst also mentally adding in all the hidden consonants and vowels. Well, this is unexpected. And do men really sign off with 'xxx' these days?

Suddenly your phone rings and you almost drop it in shock but breathe a sigh of relief when you see it's Mia.

"Hey Mia, how's it going? Now? But it's the middle of the week! You know how busy school is......ok, that's better, yeah, bring the food over to mine instead. No worries, I'll call Layla." You decide to reply back to Jungkook now before it gets too distracting at your place.