on track • hwang hyunjin (under construction)

seven

Yeonhee entered the visual arts clubroom only to see her student playing his phone in the corner. She heaved a huge sigh, dumping her bag on a chair as he finally acknowledged her presence.

"Shouldn't you have your homework out before I came?" She scolded, causing Hyunjin to roll his eyes.

"Stop sounding like a Ms Yoon," he complained, trudging to his seat opposite of her. She watched him take out a ragged book, peering around to catch a glimpse of its contents.

"English? Piece of cake," she blurted out. He snarled at her, flipping over to a folded page and sliding it over, asking, "Help me with this."

"Did you even look at the question?" She mocked, her eyes scanning the circled question quickly as the answer zoomed into her head. "In this case, either-or should be used instead of rather-than, because you're choosing between two items instead of stating a preference."

Yeonhee slid the book back, with her student furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. "I don't get it."

She rolled her eyes. "Let's say you are paying for a drink. I can say: you can either pay by cash or credit; meaning you can choose between those two choices. But if you want to pay by cash, you can say: I rather pay by cash than credit; meaning you prefer to use cash instead of your card. Understand?"

He nodded slowly, before raising another question, "How about neither-nor? Isn't it the same?"

"It's the opposite of either-or, but used in the same way," she replied nonchalantly, "Using the earlier scenario, you can say: I use neither cash nor credit, I want to use my coupons. This means you don't want to choose either of those choices, rather another option."

Hyunjin's face crumpled in a grimace. "They all sound the same. Why make English so complicated?"

"It's not as hard as you think," she answered, clicking her tongue. "You just need to get the basics to understand it."

He raised his eyebrows at the sound of her blatancy. "I guess you're starting to like this study session. Is this the result of the editorial club?"

"No, it's the result of countless tuitions I've received," she rebutted, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear discreetly. "Learnt from the best."

He couldn't help but smirk at her unexpected haughtiness, which Yeonhee caught instantly. "And not to get your hopes up, but I'm not enjoying this. So stop chatting and focus on your work." She cleared her throat, proceeding to occupy herself with her own revision. But Hyunjin's eyes weren't at all on his homework.

The more he looked at her, the more it made him wonder; why must she be so serious all the time? Not to mention her casual egotism, she definitely felt like someone who would let loose in the middle of the soccer field, so why wasn't she?

Maybe she felt a sense of responsibility to tutor him well, but her detailed explanation wasn't something one could force out, especially seeing how reluctant she has been. Either that or she couldn't stand wrong answers. How did he know? He had his fair share of diligent teachers too.

But what's surprising was the fact that he actually understood her, no, bothered understanding her explanation. Was it the style of teaching? Or tone? He couldn't figure it out. Sadly, all he could think of were those ramblings about getting into her desired college with perfect academic and holistic achievements, one which wasn't even her choice. Which brought him back to his first thought.

Why must she be so pressed about a perfect future?

As if on cue, Yeonhee snapped her fingers in front of his face, jolting him back to reality. "I'm not an English sentence, so stop staring at me."