TITLE: teach me your language
GENRE: fluff, crack

SUMMARY: renjun is an exchange student from china and he encounters donghyuck, the student council's snobber president.

legend ;
normal - korean
bold - english
italic - mandarin

note: in this story, haechan is a year older than renjun. the ages are in korean age.
-

Today is Renjun's first day at Neo University in Seoul, South Korea. Despite not speaking Korean, He agrees to study at the school. He's willing to learn another language anyway.

He's almost late in his first class and until now, he's trying to find his assigned classroom. He scratches his head everytime he sees a sign which is written in Korean. For god's sake, he doesn't understand nor know how to read hangul.

Honestly, he's still trying to adjust in this country. His mother just bought an apartment for him in Seoul so he can have somewhere to stay in while she works in China. He speaks a bit English but not fluently. In fact, when he speaks English, it sounds broken.

As he reaches the school main building's ground floor, he bumps into a guy. He has a faded red hair, a pair of specs on his eyes and he's wearing a serious expression on his face while holding a clipboard in his left hand.

"I'm sorry— I mean, sorry." He bites his lower lip gently while looking down.

"You must be one of the new students, right?"

He lifts his head and stares at the guy confusedly. "S-sorry, I don't speak Korean."

"Oh, really? Poor you." The guy chuckles. "I said, you're one of the new students, right?"

He nods, "Yes. Exchange student."

"Right. What's your name?" the guy asks, looking at his clipboard which contains the files of the students in the campus.

"Huang Renjun."

The guy raises an eyebrow, "What? How do you pronounce that?"

"Huang Renjun."  he repeats.

The guy sighs and flips through the file in his clipboard. After a few turns, he stops to a certain page. "I'm guessing this is you?" He shows the page to Renjun while pointing at his name.

"Yes, that's me."

"So, it's Hwang Reon-jwin?" Renjun nods. "I'm assuming you're trying to find your classroom. Let me guide you, shall I?"

"Okay, thank you."

"No problem. You know, you should learn how to speak Korean because you'll be studying here for the whole year or whatever."

Renjun just smiles lightly because he couldn't process that in his mind, it's too long. He understands only the 'learn how to speak Korean' part.

While they're walking to the second floor, Renjun looks up at the guy. He's still wearing that serious expression, eyebrows meeting each other.

"He seems serious in his job." he thought but didn't know he said it out loud. The guy turns his head to him.

"Did you say something?"

He grins awkwardly, "Nothing."

The guy nods. When he stops in front of a classroom, he stops too. "This is your classroom. Hurry up, you're late."

Renjun bows and smiles, "Thanks. By the way, what's your name?"

The guy smiles back, "You can call me Haechan. Bye."

Haechan, he repeats in his head. He smiles to himself before entering his classroom. What a cute name.

~~~

Everything went fine in his first day so far. His professors are nice and speaking English to him because he says he doesn't speak nor understand Korean as he's a Chinese student.

Right now, it's lunch break. Renjun is walking alone over to the cafeteria, if that's what it said in the sign. But he assumes it is because there are students eating inside.

He goes in and finds a vacant table. He finds one but it somehow occupied by a familiar guy. It's Haechan.

He's about to approach him when a group of guys walk towards that table and greet Haechan. They must be his friends. For the first time in that day, he saw him smiles—laughs even. He looks beautiful.

He walks past their table to go to the counter to buy something. He buys some biscuits with cute design and a chocolate drink. After he pays, he sticks the straw to the hole for him to be able to drink it. He sips a little before tearing off the packet of biscuit.

he's about to bite onto the biscuit when he meets eyes with Haechan. He fondly stares at him for a long minutes until Haechan snaps his fingers.

"Hey!"

"Huh?"

"You can sit here by me."

He shakes his head, "No, thanks. I'm fine."

Haechan frowns and pulls him by the wrist to make him sit beside him. "I insist."

He hides his blushing face by looking down. When he made contact with him, he felt his warmth that feels relaxing.

"Who's your new friend?" one of Haechan's friends, Jeno, asks.

"He's Renjun, an exchange student. I met him earlier."

"The student council's president is not snobber anymore?" Mark teases and Haechan just glares at him.

"Shut up, Mark Lee! No one cares about your opinion." Haechan rolls his eyes.

"Hey, Haechan! Calm down! Why don't you just introduce us to your new friend?" Jaemin suggests.

"No, thanks. I don't trust you all."

"That hurts, hyung." Jisung suddenly said, acting offended.

"Except you, Sungie." Haechan smiles at the youngest.

Jisung giggles, "I'm fluttered."

"Favoritism at its finest." Mark rolls his eyes.

Renjun doesn't mind them and just eats peacefully. They sound bickering even though he doesn't understand anything they're saying, except his name being mentioned.

Maybe he really needs to learn Korean.

~~~

The next day, Renjun sees Haechan sitting on a bench, staring at his clipboard while some students are calling him but he just ignores them.

He walks over there and approaches him then carefully sits beside him. He tries to peak at the page he's reading but he couldn't understand the writings.

"Oh my— Renjun, you scared me!" Haechan startles and sighs. He flips the file to the very first page. "What are you doing here?" Renjun stares at him confusedly and Haechan realizes. "Oh, sorry. I said, what do you need?"

The exchange student sighs and gulps, "I-I just... I just want to... to know you."

"Like, know me better?"

He nods, "Yes, and also uhm, can you teach me Korean?"

Haechan smiles, "I could, if you teach me Chinese or Mandarin, whatever language is it that you speak."

"I speak Mandarin." he giggles. "Sure."

"Okay. If you're free later, you can come with me at my house. I can teach you everything you need to know about Korean language, as well as our culture and such."

He stares at him with adoration. Haechan sounds like he's so fluent in English. He nods and they smile at each other for so long before the school bell rings.

Haechan walks him to his classroom, saying 'see you later' to each other.

~~~

They arrive at Haechan's house. It's small, but it's enough for one person, or even two. It's a bit bigger than his apartment. He shyly follows Haechan inside and he's told to sit comfortably on the couch.

He sits on the couch as Haechan enters a room which he assumes his bedroom and closes the door.

While waiting, he notices the magazines on the center table. He picks up one of them and it's about a Korean pop group named SHINee. He flips through the pages but he only understood the english words. He closes the magazine then puts it back to where he picked it up.

When Haechan comes back, he's wearing an oversized shirt and a sweatpants. Renjun sees him brush his hair back and he thought that was hot.

He gulps when Haechan sits beside him, looking that motherfreaking hot. He thinks he might have a little crush on him. Just a little.

"Hey, you okay?" He just nods at his question. "You look tensed." Haechan laughs, "Don't worry, I don't bite." he smirks slightly.

He scratches the back of his neck while grinning awkwardly, "Uhm, Haechan,"

The said boy hums, "Yes? You want something to drink? To eat?"

"No, no! Uhm," He gulps. "Nevermind, I forgot."

Haechan looks at confusedly but later on, smiles anyway. "Okay. Shall we start? Or do you want us to introduce ourselves first?"

"Yeah, I guess that's a good idea. I go first?" Haechan just nods. "You already know my name so I'm not gonna say it again. I was born in Jilin, China on March 23. I'm currently 18 years old. Uhm, I can speak a bit English, but not really well."

"Your English is great, though. You sound fluent." Haechan reassures. "What else? What are your hobbies? Just talk about anything you like, I listen."

"I like to draw, traditionally and digitally. It's my hobby since I was a kid. I really, really like drawing, it erases my stress."

"You mean, eases?"

"Yeah, sorry." he chuckles. "Uhm, I also believe in aliens, angels, demons and any supernatural and mythical creatures. I like reading conspiracy theories, they're fun!" As Renjun speak, his eyes are widen and his voice goes higher.

Haechan giggles at his enthusiasm. "Really? Do you believe in Santa Claus too?"

He shyly nods, "Yeah. I'm sorry if you find that weird."

The student council's president smiles, "It's okay, no worries. I enjoy listening to you talking about things you have interest with."

Renjun smiles widely, "Thank you! No one actually listens to me whenever I talk about things I like. Now, it's your turn!"

Haechan nods and hums. "My real name's Lee Donghyuck, but only close friends can call me that. Otherwise, I'm called Haechan. I'm 19, was born on June 6."

"You just turned 19 last month? Belated happy birthday, Haechan-ge." Renjun said that gained confusion from Haechan.

"Ge? What's that?"

"Oh, sorry. In Chinese, we call a male person 'ge' if they're older than us." he explains.

The older nods, "Here in Korea, you call an older male person 'hyung', but don't call me that. Just call me Haechan, or Hyuck, since we're becoming close."

The younger smiles, "Okay. Continue, please."

"I'm the school's student council's president. They call me a snobber because they said I ignore them when they call me. It's just that, I don't wanna talk to them, unless it's about important matter." Haechan chuckles, "Why did I talk about that? Anyway , I was born here in Seoul, but we moved to Jeju for 5 years, and go back here. I play musical instruments such as piano, guitar and harmonica. I'm also good at math but right now, I major in biology."

"I don't know but I fear people who are good at Math and Science. they're a just, so smart for me. I'm scared." Renjun pretends to shiver.

Haechan laughs, "Why? Are you scared of me?"

"Now that you mentioned you're good at Math, I'm suddenly scared of you." Renjun pouts.

The older ruffles his hair, "You're such a cutie. Shall I teach you Korean now?"

Renjun can't just ignore being called cute by Haechan. He hides his blush by looking away. "Y-yeah, sure."

Haechan grabs a notebook from under the center table and flips it on a blank page. He also picks up a ballpen from the pen holder on the table. "Starting off by learning hangul or Korean alphabet. Shall we?"

Renjun nods and he watches Haechan as he starts to write something on the notebook. He assumes it's the Korean alphabet he's writing.

The way Haechan moves his hand, it relaxes him. He almost fell asleep just by watching. When the older finishes, he taps his shoulder to show him what he writes.

"I know Chinese has a lot more characters in their alphabet. So, I'm sure you'll learn this easily." Renjun just nods as he listens attentively. "In English alphabet, there are 26 letters, right? In Korean alphabet, we only have 24 letters."

Renjun focuses on every word Haechan speaks and how he demonstrates each pronunciation, how they're written, and everything.

He takes back what he thought earlier. He has a huge crush on Haechan.

~~~

It's been a year since they've met. Renjun can speak Korean now. He's not that fluent yet, but he's getting there. He also gets closer to Haechan each and every day. They're so close that almost everyone in school thought they're dating. Oh, how he wishes.

He's in third year now, while Haechan is in 4th year. For him, it's not much of a big difference. But thinking about it, Haechan is graduating this year, meaning he's going to leave the school soon. He feels sad but happy for him at the same time. Sad because he won't be able to see him in school but happy because he's finally graduating, it's like a milestone.

While Haechan is in his duty, Renjun visits him in the auditorium. He knocks on the door before opening it and everyone looks at him almost in sync.

"Hey, Haechan! Your boyfriend is here."

"He's not my boyfriend." Haechan rolls his eyes before approaching Renjun to the door. "What are you doing here?"

"It's lunch break and I don't wanna eat alone. here, I bought you a take out." He grins.

"Why don't you just join my friends in the cafeteria?"

He pouts and shakes his head, "I don't know how to talk to them. Come on, Hyuckie!"

"We're still decorating the auditorium for the auditions later. You can sit there on the stage and eat. I'll join you after."

"It's okay, Mr. President, you can join now your boyfriend to eat."

Haechan turns to whoever said that, "For the last time, he's not my boyfriend."

Renjun sighs. It hurts hearing from him that they're not boyfriends. But what can he do? They're not actually dating. They're just friends, close friends.

"It's okay, you can finish decorating. I'll just go back to my classroom. Here's your lunch." He gives the older his lunch and the older takes it.

Haechan chuckles, "Are you upset? Fine, I'll join you, Injun."

Renjun smiles at the nickname. Haechan gave him that nickname last year and said it's closer to his birth name and it's easier to pronounce.

Everyone at the auditorium cooed at them and Haechan just flips them off. Renjun laughs and pulls him outside.

"You're so aggresive!" he told him when they're finally outside.

"Whatever. Let's go to the garden, we'll eat there." He just nods and follows him.

When they arrive there, they go to their usual spot and start opening their lunch.

"Hyuckie," The said boy only hums. "what will you do after you graduate?"

He looks at him and sighs. "Hmm, I'll take a rest for a few months and then take the medical college admission test or MCAT. It's a requirement for students to be able to enter a medical school."

Renjun blinks, "So, you're still going to be a student?"

Haechan nods, "yes." then sighs.

"That's too much to process. I can't even." Renjun sips from his tumbler of water.

The older chuckles and ruffles his hair, "Don't worry, you'll still be able to see me. I'll visit you." The younger smiles.

~~~

It's the day Haechan finally graduates. Unfortunately, his parents won't be able to attend his graduation day because they're too far away. Luckily for him, Mark Lee's mother is there to take place.

Renjun also visits his graduation. He sits on the side part, beside Mark. The latter just graduated last year.

"Are you two dating yet?" Mark suddenly asks out of nowhere.

Renjun turns to him and sadly shakes his head, "No."

"Aww, why? He hasn't courted you?"

"I think he doesn't have a plan to, nor even ask me to be his boyfriend. But it's okay, being friends with him is enough, I guess." He looks down on the floor and sighs.

Mark rubs his back gently, "Maybe because you haven't tell him your feelings yet."

"Should I?" He suddenly lifts his head.

"Only if you want."

Suddenly, Haechan is finally being called on stage. "Last but not the least, Lee Donghyuck. President of student council, Excellence Awardee, and With Highest Honors. Congratulations!" By that, everyone applause.

Renjun smiles fondly as he watches Haechan tells his unprepared speech. "I'm so proud of you, Donghyuck hyung."

When the program ends, everyone approaches their companion. Renjun and Mark both approach Haechan with Mark's mother.

"We finally graduated!" Jeno and Jaemin also approach Haechan. The three of them give each other a high five.

"Hey, Mark hyung, Jisung's not here?" Haechan asks.

Mark shakes his head, "He's not here. But he wants to tell you, guys, congrats."

"This calls for a celebration!" Jeno screams and Jaemin has to cover his mouth.

"Shut up, love! You don't need to shout."

Haechan rolls his eyes, "Ugh, couples."

"Why are you so bitter, huh?" asks Jeno.

"Whatever. Let's go, let's go!"

Renjun hops next to Haechan and holds his hand, intertwining their fingers. The latter notices and squeezes their fingers together.

If being friends with Haechan will make their relationship last, then it's fine with Renjun. As long as his Donghyuck hyung is happy, then he's happy too.
-

fin.

© snowysung