EP:07 - Stretch
1557 Words
⚠️ Swear warning and Jimin might make you a little flustered ⚠️
I reach the correct door and make my way inside. I wanted to find my destination first so I wouldn’t get lost with a large amount of snack food. It’s awkward, trust me.
The inside is very modern. A lot of simple colors, blacks and white, silvers, golds, a couple marble looking things. No wonder mom and dad wanted me to go here. There’s music coming from somewhere. Lots of music, actually. It’s all muted from the classrooms being behind closed doors. The hallways are long but well lit. I find the vending machines and I walk back out to the van to grab my stuff. I follow my way back to the vending machines, pushing the cart of goodies in front of me. I put the cold drinks and stuff in first. Then, I work with the fragile stuff like chips and crunchy granola bars that get everywhere. Finally, I put the candy in. I keep a Sprite for myself. Maryn said to always reward yourself for the hard work we do.
I turn around with my cart and head back out the way I came in. As I’m walking, something on my right catches my eye.
I look over and see a man with silver hair dancing. I can’t hear the music very well, it’s muffled, but I can see the music being poured out of him. He’s doing a modern or contemporary dance. It’s very expressive. He practically skates on the floor like an ice skater. He bends and flies through the air. His tight tank top shows his arms and his stomach. And his loose sweatpants flutter in the air. After a little while, he ends up slowing down and stops in front of his class. He’s breathing heavy but I see he’s trying to hide it. His class (that’s mostly made up of girls) claps and applauds him. He bows deeply and begins talking. Just then, he looks up and sees me staring. My eyebrows flick up, flustered that I’d been caught and I smile. I turn and start walking.
“Hey!” A voice says. I freeze and turn around. He’s standing there with a smile on his face and glowing with a thin layer of sweat. “Did you like it?”
I smile. “Yeah, you’re really good. Your class has a good teacher.”
“Thank you.” He says. He’s breathing heavy. “I saw you out here and so I had to come say hello.”
I chuckle. “Oh, you’re okay. I’m just the vending machine guy.”
“Well I still wanted to say hello.” He says. “I can’t just let a pretty face go unnoticed.”
“Umm-“ I start to say but he cuts me off.
“Park Jimin.” He smiles, reaching out his hand. “I teach modern and contemporary.”
“Ahn Honja,” I reply, shaking his hand. “I go by Ahnie. I own a convenience store.” His hand is a little bigger than mine. He’s taller than me but only by about five inches. His eyes are dark brown and I can’t tell if they’re innocent or something else…
“Mr.Park!” A girl yells from inside the classroom. “We know she’s pretty but stop talking to her!”
“Lisa!” He yells back. “Don’t talk to me like that or it’s not gonna be good for you.”
“Whatever, goober.” Lisa replies. Jimin looks at me, apologetically.
“I’m sorry for her.” He says. “She’s my sister…”
I laugh. “Oh no, you’re okay.”
“Mr.Park?” A small voice asks. We both look down and see a small girl with a round face. She beams up at us.
“What’s up, Charlotte?” He bends down and pats her on the head.
“Can she stretch with us?” Charlotte asks. “Maybe we could teach her!”
“I’m not the most flexible person…” I say. That was half true. Daehyun was super stretchy. He taught me a few things and I’m decently flexible when I practice a lot.
“That’s okay, Miss.” Charlotte says to me. “They’re not that hard.”
“Lies.” I hear a child say and I laugh. I check the time. 9:32 AM. I touch the bump on the back of my head. It still hurts.
“Well, I don’t think it’ll hurt too much.” I finally say, sighing with a smile.
“Awesome!” Jimin smiles. He opens the door to the room widely and lets me enter first.
When I enter all of the girls look at me. I don’t think any of them are male. But I could be wrong…
“Who is she?”
“She’s really pretty.”
“She has boobies.”
“Maybe that’s Mr.Park’s girlfriend?”
Jimin clears his throat. “Class? This is Miss.Ahnie.” He gestures to me and the class does that monotone “hello” for me. Jimin continues, “She was watching me dance just now and Charlotte thought it would be a good idea to let you guys teach her how to stretch. I think it’ll give you guys the opportunity to work together and teach Miss.Ahnie what’s it’s like to dance.”
An older looking girl raises her hand. “Mr.Park? Is she your girlfriend?”
He looks over at me and smirks. “No. Not right now.”
The older girl tries not to laugh and the younger girls are disappointed that we’re not together, not understanding what he said.
Jimin rolls his eyes and speaks again. “Alright guys! Form a circle and explain what we do here.”
The kids form a big circle and I spot all of the friendships and enemy-ships immediately. A middle-aged girl tugs on my shirt.
“Can I sit next to you?” She asks.
“Of course!” I smile. “What’s your name?”
“Winnie.” She says softly.
“Well my name’s Ahnie. It’s nice to meet you.” I shake her small hand and she smiles. Jimin sits on my right and Winnie sits to my left.
The oldest girl stands up and starts speaking. “My name is Gwen.” She says. “I will call out the stretch and then we will count to 10, older kids saying one and then the younger kids counting on the twos.”
So I guess I’m a younger kid for today.
“First is sitting toe touches.” Gwen shouts. “Ready? One!”
Younger kids, “Two!”
Older kids, “Three!”
Younger kids, “Four!”
And it continued like that for a while. I knew every stretch (thanks Daehyun…). But when I looked to my right, I saw him staring at me.
Jimin.
His eyes looking at me. But then when he noticed me looking back, he would just smile and look away.
It was when Gwen shouted “Cobra!” when things got more…
Interesting.
I got into the pose and I stretched out my chest like I should. Jimin got up and was walking around. We got to eight when he came over to me.
“Make sure you reach up a little more.” He says. He bends down in front of me.
“I’m doing fine if you ask me,” I breathe.
“Push yourself up more.” He says again. “Reach your head back as far as you can.” He gets closer to my face and tilts my chin back a little.
“And make sure you keep your stomach clenched too.” He taps my stomach with his palm and pauses a little when he feels my abs. My face blushes a little.
“Damn, don’t get too excited.” I whisper. He smirks and walks back to his spot next to me.
“Downward dog!” Gwen shouts.
Oh s**t.
I get into the position easily. I feel my heels touch the floor and my calves burn like hell. I focus my breathing and close my eyes.
“Nine!”
“Ten!”
I sit back a little too quickly and I run into someone’s legs.
Jimin’s legs.
“Oh shi-“
He topples over me and it takes me a second to realize I just hit somebody in the legs. I feel our bodies collide and then stop once gravity is done playing it’s game. When I open my eyes he’s right above me. I feel his chest right above mine. He looks at me smiling.
“I’m sorry!” I say, panicking. “I didn’t mean to-“
“You’re okay.” He cuts me off. “Don’t worry about it.” He looks at me for a second and leans down to my ear.
“It’s a nice view, huh?” He whispers.
My cheeks flush, “The kids-“
“Don’t worry about them.” He cuts me off again. “They’re too young.”
“그웬은 아니에요” I respond, barely blinking.
Not Gwen.
He looks at me and licks his lips. “그래서 정국이 옳았습니다.”
So Jungkook was right.
“실례합니다?!” I say, my eyes going wide.
Excuse me?!
“당신이 나를 생각하는 동안 나에게 문자를 보내십시오.” He says.
Text me while you think of me.
I feel his hand enter my shorts pocket and leave a piece of paper behind. He taps it twice. Then he smiles and gets off of me.
“Okay class I think that’s enough for today.” He speaks loudly. I sit up and then get up on my feet. “Tell Miss.Ahnie goodbye and hopefully we’ll see her soon!”
The girls come over to me and give me hugs. Many of them give me compliments and some of them don’t say anything at all. When they’re done I say goodbye. I wave to the girls and then I wave to Jimin.
It takes less than a second to realize what we were both communicating to each other in only a look. He smirks and waves and I do the same.
No wonder he’s friends with Jungkook.
As I close the door behind me I grab my cart and walk towards the door. As I walk, I see a taller man at the vending machine I stocked. His red hair drips with sweat at the ends. He breathes a little heavy. He types in a couple numbers and puts in some money.
“What’s he getting?” I think in my head.
The machine drops a can of soda into the pit.
He pulls it out.
Sprite.
- Writer
