That summer, when he visited the home of his maternal grandfather, who had permanently returned to Korea several years earlier, he found himself able to communicate with all his relatives without the slightest difficulty. Impressed, his grandfather had given him an apartment overlooking the Han River, telling him to use it whenever he came to Korea.
In the end, all those hours of studying had paid off.
Anyway.
The sight of those two huddled together, whispering into each other’s ears as though they were plotting something, made his insides twist with inexplicable irritation.
‘What, do they like each other or something? Are they planning to date? And why the hell is it so hot in here?’
Even the air rushing from his nostrils felt unpleasantly warm.
Hunter tugged at the knot of the tie constricting his neck. The incessant murmuring beside him had set his nerves on edge, drowning out even the monotonous droning of the white-haired old man at the podium.
Given the choice, he would have ripped off the suffocating tie and blazer and walked straight out. Unfortunately, this goddamn class came with courtside tickets to the US Open finals.
Hunter drew a long, deep breath.
Ignore them.
Let them do whatever they want.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
“Hah, fuck…”
Their whispering was more irritating than a mosquito circling his ear in the dead of night. Hunter glared at them, finally reaching the end of his patience, and opened his mouth to snap at them—only for every child in the room to rise from their seat in a sudden clamor.
It was the signal that dance class was about to begin. While he had been distracted, the etiquette lesson had apparently ended.
As the grand piano and string quartet began performing classical music live, Walter and Megan demonstrated the basic steps of the waltz in the center of the floor.
When it was time for the students to practice, Walter made a circuit of the hall, arranging the children into pairs one by one. Upon finally reaching the three of them, he traced an oval in the air above their heads.
“One lady and two gentlemen. The three of you will be tied together as a single team.”
He positioned Jiyu opposite Rex, then placed Hunter behind him.
“Mr. Lafayette, extend your right hand and support the lady lightly at the back with your left. Yes, very good. The lady will extend her left hand and rest it lightly upon Mr. Lafayette’s, then place her right hand on his shoulder. Keep those elbows elegantly raised!”
After personally correcting their posture, Walter turned to Hunter and instructed him to place both hands on Rex’s shoulders.
“Mr. Hamilton will follow Mr. Lafayette’s steps from behind. When the music ends, the two gentlemen will exchange positions.”
Hunter ground his teeth and swept the hair from his face.
So he was supposed to trail absurdly behind Rex like a dog’s tail while the bastard danced with Jiyu.
This fucking cotillion class.
His patience was rapidly approaching its limit.
He pictured the courtside tickets to the US Open finals. Those seats were close enough to hear the players muttering curses beneath their breath and see the beads of sweat flying from their foreheads. On the black market, such precious tickets had climbed as high as twenty thousand dollars apiece.
If he walked out now, he would have to give them up.
“Hoo.”
Hunter released a short, heavy breath.
Endure it.
Just endure it.
At that moment, the music began again.
With both hands resting on Rex’s shoulders, Hunter followed the waltz steps with an expression of profound boredom.
Who would make it to the US Open finals this year?
Rankings and projected seedings tangled chaotically in his mind. It would be perfect if Federer and Nadal both reached the final.
He was desperately trying to distract himself when Rex suddenly lowered his head and whispered something into Jiyu’s ear. Until then, Rex’s head had blocked most of Hunter’s view, leaving only Jiyu’s forehead visible. Now her entire face came into sight, her mouth rounding into a perfect circle of surprise.
What the hell had that bastard Rex said to make her pull such a ridiculous face?
Something twisted sharply in Hunter’s stomach. Acid seemed to bubble inside him like molten lava.
Maybe he had eaten dinner too quickly.
Jiyu looked up at Rex.
“No way. Really?”
Hunter rolled his eyes and scoffed inwardly.
‘Most of the outrageous stories that come out of Alexander de Lafayette’s mouth are complete bullshit. Hasn’t she figured that out yet?’
He couldn’t understand why she fell for Rex’s lies every single time.
Was she an idiot?
“It’s true. A seventh-grader told me the last song is always a line dance set to country music. They still use that ancient stereo and CDs, so I snuck a look. Sure enough, there was a country CD inside. I switched it with the gangster hip-hop CD I brought.”
Rex tilted his head, struggling to suppress his laughter. Jiyu stared at him with clenched teeth and trembling shoulders before a helpless “Pfft” escaped her lips. Her eyes curved into narrow crescents, and dimples that had not been there a moment ago appeared in her pale cheeks.
Hunter froze.
Again.
Those goddamn dimples again.
He could swear to heaven that he did not care one speck of dust about Ju Parker’s face—or whatever the hell her name was. He had never even looked at it properly before. But whenever those dimples appeared out of nowhere, his gaze was inexplicably drawn to them.
A strange feeling came over him. An unfamiliar restlessness, accompanied by an irrational anxiety, prodded relentlessly at his nerves. Not knowing why he felt that way only made it worse. His stomach was already churning, and part of him wanted to snap at Jiyu and order her never to smile like that again.
Rex suddenly came to a stop.
Only then did Hunter realize the music had ended as well. Walter’s voice rang out through the microphone, instructing everyone to switch places with the person beside them.
Hunter shoved Rex’s still-shaking shoulders without a trace of mercy.
“Get lost, Lafayette.”
“Shit. Take it easy, Hunter.”
Ignoring Rex as he stumbled away grumbling, Hunter strode toward Jiyu.
The instant their eyes met, the laughter vanished from her face like a soap bubble bursting. She quickly broke eye contact and lowered her gaze with demure restraint.
Hunter’s mood soured even further.
‘Why does she make that face whenever she looks at me? What the hell did I do?’
He placed a hand against her back and pulled her toward him.
Oops.
He had misjudged his strength.
Jiyu stumbled forward as though she were about to topple over, then jerked her head up, visibly flustered.
Her lips pressed into a thin line. Her eyes narrowed with unmistakable reproach as she glared at him.
‘Why are you looking at me like that? Waltzing with that bastard is fine, but dancing with me isn’t?’
The childish, embarrassingly immature question surged to the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it down.
“Hand.”
Hunter raised his right hand, the demand clipped and curt.
Jiyu released a quiet sigh and slowly lifted her left hand. There was something oddly tantalizing about the hesitant movement. Just before her fingers touched his palm, they curled inward uncertainly.
Hunter ran out of patience and seized her hand.
A scorching throb pulsed through his chest, as though a flame had suddenly ignited inside it.
‘Goddamn it, it’s still so fucking hot. Were her hands always this small? Or did mine get bigger?’
He stared down at her in bewilderment.
Ju Parker, whom he saw every day, suddenly felt like a stranger—like a girl he was meeting for the very first time. After drawing a shallow breath, she placed her right hand on his shoulder.
‘Is Ju Parker sick or something? Why is her hand so hot?’
His left shoulder burned as though she had pressed a heated iron against it instead of her palm. As he looked down at the crown of her head, her ash-brown hair loosely braided on either side of her face, a bead of sweat slid down the back of his neck.
The damn air conditioner had to be broken.
“Move.”
His voice cracked slightly.
“Okay.”
They began moving with the waltz.
Jiyu’s steps faltered, and she trod on his shoes several times.
“S-sorry!”
“Damn it. Focus.”
Hunter moved with aggressive precision to the elegant strains of Johann Strauss’s The Beautiful Blue Danube.
He excelled at anything physical. Simple, repetitive movements like these took him only a few attempts to master, and once he understood them, he never made mistakes.
Jiyu, on the other hand, moved as though she had two left feet, constantly fumbling the steps.
Hunter frowned.
‘What the hell is wrong with her? She wasn’t this bad when she danced with Rex.’
After stepping on his foot for the third time, Jiyu bit down hard on her lower lip and glanced up at him. The moment their eyes met, she dropped her gaze again.
Anyone could see that she was frightened.
What was her problem?
Did she think he was going to eat her alive just because she had stepped on his foot?
“…Sorry, Hunter.”
Hunter merely scoffed without answering.
He already knew Jiyu’s physical abilities were pathetic. Besides, being stepped on by those scrawny bird legs of hers did not hurt in the slightest.
He sank into thought.
There was something he had been wondering about for quite some time.