The Tutor

Victoria Meyers had moved to Korea a couple of weeks ago and, now that she had finished setting up her new apartment, she decided that it was time to try to learn the language of her new country. Originally, she wanted to see if she could live there without learning Korean, but changed her mind after a mistake that she had made that involved her entering a place that was off limits to women for a good reason. She saw something that she wished she hadn't seen and vowed to never go through that again if she could help it. As a result, she had been spending a warm Saturday afternoon searching the internet for a private tutor who was fluent in both Korean and English. It turned out that there were quite a few, but some of them wanted more money than she was able to pay while others lived a bit too far away across the city for her taste. She put the latter ones on the "maybe" pile. She continued to search until she found a person who checked all of her boxes.

The tutor's name was Kim Namjoon and not only did he live fairly close by, but he charged a really reasonable rate, too. Victoria dialed up the phone number on the website and waited for him to pick up the receiver. She hoped that he wasn't already booked up, because he sounded perfect for her. Eventually, the call was connected and a voice on the other end answered in Korean. She didn't understand what he had said, but she assumed that it was the equivalent of "Hello" and so she continued on in English. "Hi. I'm calling about your tutoring services."

"Hi," he said, switching to English. "I'd be glad to help you out. When did you want to start?"

"As soon as possible would be great."

"How about next week?"

"Sure."

"If you give me your cell number, I can text you with a schedule," he said.

"Okay." Victoria gave him her number.

"Thanks. What's your name? I guess that I should have started off asking you for that, but sometimes I get a bit ahead of myself. I promise that I won't be so scatterbrained during the lessons. I have a really good reputation if you want to check."

"I don't think that'll be necessary, but thanks, anyway. My name is Victoria Meyers, but you can just call me Vicky if you want."

"Alright then, Vicky. I usually meet with students at local coffee shops or any other public place where people feel comfortable and where we can talk. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah. Just tell me where to meet and when," she said.

"I will. I'll text you all of the info later. My rate for each lesson is 10,000 won. You can pay me in cash at the beginning of each lesson or we can work something else out so that you can pay in advance. There's a book that I like to teach with so you'll need to buy that before our first lesson. I'll text you the name of it," Namjoon said.

"Okay."

"Thanks for calling and I'm looking forward to beginning our lessons together."

"I am, too. I'll go and get that book as soon as you tell me which one it is. I really want to learn the language," Victoria said.

"I'll text you everything either later today or tomorrow."

"See you later, then."

"Goodbye," he said and hung up. Victoria hung up right after he did and then she spun around in her desk chair, happy that she'd found a tutor. He sounded really nice on the phone, but the pic of him on the website was a little bit blurry so she couldn't tell exactly what he looked like. It didn't really matter what he looked like as long as he knew what he was doing, but it would have been good to be able to have a face to go with the name.

Several days passed and then it was time for her first Korean language lesson with Namjoon. She had her book packed into a totebag as well as a notebook to write in and some pens and erasers. She was supposed to meet him at a cafe a few blocks away, but she was so excited and wanted to be early so that she left 20 minutes before the lesson was meant to begin. He was already there sitting at a table with a cup of coffee, reading some sort of book with intense concentration. "Are you Kim Namjoon?" Victoria asked him.