let me understand; i'm learning a human science

[vibrantdecay]

Muses: Cade Lu (vibrantdecay) and Im Siwan (lachesism)
Status: Closed
Date / Time: 11/01, after 10pm
Rating: G
Type: Thread
Summary: Language 101 - when acquiring a tutor, make sure they speak at least one common tongue.

Cade's watch struck ten. He had been early on purpose, arriving at the cafe half an hour before the appointed time. It's a mere jaunt and skip away from his apartment, but his car was still parked nearby. There had been an interlude - two hours in which he had nothing to do between leaving his office and keeping his appointment - and he was hungry.

Monday had been spent in complete seclusion. Halloween to most of the world, yet Cade had never celebrated a day of it, even upon learning of its existence. It was a ridiculous setup; the garish colours and costumes and the all-too-human fascination with things that went bump in the night. At any other time of the year, he would laugh at the misconceptions, give credit at things gotten right, be generally amused. His favourite movies are of the horror genre, and he could get just as into them as anyone.

Yet every Halloween, Cade sequestered himself in isolation. For the past three years, this meant a hidden warehouse he had bought over in Kowloon, and this year was no different. No one alive, as far as he knew, was aware of his reasons for disappearing each October 31st, and he said nothing of his staff jokingly referring to it as his 'dark day' behind his back.

But all that was an aside. Today, Tuesday, had absolutely nothing to do with his dark day, and his thirst needed to be slaked. Cade had driven off to a random neighbourhood away from the affluent reaches of the Peak, and sated himself upon the wrist of a young girl. He could smell the scent of printer ink and and the waxy scent of air-conditioning. An office girl - an intern, perhaps. He didn't ask. She never knew. His illusions were easy, practiced.

Thus he sat, thirty minutes to spare with a soft human glow to his skin, book in hand and a small cup of tea on the table, waiting for his new coach in Cantonese to arrive and claim the seat in front of him.

Comments

[lachesism]

Tuesdays weren’t meant to be that crowded. Maybe a full seat by the bar and three to five full tables on the floor and that was it. But it had been Halloween, a Western festivity that somehow made its way to Hong Kong. Siwan wasn’t complaining though. In a few hours, he made bank with just tips and all he did was reach top-shelf gin and shake up some mint julep. There were a lot of couples too and that meant Siwan was off the hook when it came to making small talk. Not that he hated it, but if another guy made another lewd joke at one of their waitresses, Siwan would be in jail for grave assault.

He clocked out 15 minutes earlier, already spotting Heng and his skinny tie. It was his ‘signature look’, but if the floor manager caught him not adhering to bar policies, he would probably be kicked out. Siwan decided to change his shirt on the way, calculating the time he would get there if he took the train versus a cab. He didn’t want to be late; it wasn’t a job interview but it wouldn’t make a good impression. He gambled with a cab, pushing his head out of a soft sweater. He probably smelled like alcohol and smoke after his shift and Siwan shook his hair out, mumbling a soft apology to the cab driver as he rubbed alcogel on his wrists and hands. Honestly, he would do his neck too, but he wasn’t sure if that was safe.

Siwan was late either way, arriving 10 minutes later. His face was full of apologies once again, squinting through the change of lighting from the dark cab to the pleasantly-lighted interior of the café. There was a group of students by the entrance and Siwan smiled to himself, wondering what it would feel like to be part of something like that, but he pushed the thoughts away once he spotted who he was looking for.

“Hello,” he greeted in Cantonese, hand resting on the back of the chair across the other. “Sorry I was late, I got held up at the intersection,” he switched back to Korean, unsure if his new friend would be more comfortable with that. “Im Siwan.” Extending his right hand, Siwan’s smile stretching wider.

[vibrantdecay]

For a man who prided himself in being meticulous when it came to his work, there was one glaring detail Cade realised he had missed, and it came spilling from Siwan's lips upon arrival. How was it possible, he wondered, that he hadn't thought of ensuring the other man spoke Mandarin or English, perhaps even German or Latin, as unlikely as the latter could be?

It was the internet. The ease with which language could be translated at the drop of a hat with a single click or tap was innovative, even if oftentimes inaccurate. They had only communicated via messages on the board and a scant scattering of texts, after all. Outside of work, Cade the citizen had a tendency to leave things unchecked, flitting from one idea to the next, from one curiosity to the other in varying speed. Outside of work, there was no to-do list to mind, no paperwork to remind him of responsibilies to see through, and the meticulous calendar he kept did not exist in his personal life. Everything was in his head.

And like so many things in his head, they were fleeting. The miracle was that Cade always remembered to keep his personal appointments.

He looked up at Siwan from his book, a light smile already in place as he accepted the handshake and gestured for the other to take his seat. His Cantonese might leave much to be desired, but his Korean was deplorable. Cade's expression was mildly contrite. "Cade Lu," he returned the introduction before continuing in halting, accented Korean. "It's okay. I'm glad you come. Apology, I'm good not Korean. Have you English?"

[lachesism]

Cade Lu’s face didn’t really match the way he held himself up behind the screen, though Siwan couldn’t put his finger on it. Was it his voice? Soft yet firm? Or maybe it was his freakishly youthful face—wait, Siwan didn’t ask how old he was, though that didn’t matter when they were just going to practice conversational Cantonese. There was something… Just something.

And that something was quickly forgotten the moment Cade spoke, catching Siwan off-guard. Siwan, like his mom, was the heart on your sleeve type of person. He was an open book, a little bit predictable at most, eyes going wide before his grade school etiquette training kicked in. “Your Korean is good,” he lied instantly, mostly because he didn’t want Cade to feel bad. The first rule of learning another language was to conquer the fear of speaking it, right? “No, no, English.” Siwan responded in English, because if Cade was going to try, he would too. “A little bit?” He motioned to the seat, asking for permission if he could sit down. “Where did you learn Korean?” He switched back, an encouraging smile on his lips.

He glanced at the counter, looking at the display before motioning back to Cade, hand lifting towards his mouth and his free hand curled around like he was holding a cup. "Have you eaten?"

[vibrantdecay]

'This isn't going to end well.'

Even as he nodded and gestured for Siwan to take a seat (who else would he be saving the seat for?), Cade was already wondering if this was, perhaps, a terrible idea. He had never studied a language from professional teachers, the ones he had learned, save for his native tongue, were taught in some way by acquaintances of some sort. In retrospect, Cade didn't actually have a pressing need to learn Cantonese - Mandarin and English had been more than sufficient in getting him by in Hong Kong, and he could understand bits and pieces of the dialect enough to respond. He had never bothered, however, to actually speak it.

"Just a drink," he replied, a half-lie, still sticking to Korean. It was something to note - Cade hated presenting himself in any way that would make him seem weak, but that was mostly tied to his office persona. Here, in a nondescript little cafe, he was not chief curator. So what if his Korean was terrible? Perhaps Siwan could be of help in fine-tuning that, too. "Are you hungry? I pay... music. No. Food.*" A slight grin. "I pay food is okay?"

Briefly, Cade pursed his lips. His foray into learning Korean had not been one borne out of interest in the language itself. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he could properly term it 'learning', considering his knowledge of it was primarily composed of him picking it up from being around the Koreans in his life and being corrected in his attempts to speak it. And then there was him. "I learn.. by some friends. They like tease. Teach me wrong word. So they say the Korea, I listen, I learn. Little bit."

Another slight pause as he marked the page and set his book aside. "Have you... you come by long work?"


[ *slightly useless info in case it made no sense:
음악/eumak - music
음식/eumsik - food ]

[lachesism]

People like Cade – people who wore suits to work, people who looked so polished even when they were just having a cup of tea, Siwan knew that they weren’t his crowd. Cade would be intimidating if he wasn’t speaking in this horribly adorable Korean but his demeanor was still something that reminded Siwan of standing up straight for hours, slouching extremely prohibited. He sank into the chair anyway, throwing his shoulders back to relax.

“Food,” Siwan repeated, letting the syllables roll on his lips. He gave the other a reassuring smile. Having the confidence to speak a language that he didn’t have a 100% command of was admirable and Siwan was immediately a fan. “If you’re paying, I wont say no.” Siwan grinned, rubbing his hands together and looking at the display. Of course, one thing to make Siwan roll over was the mention of free things. He lived for that.

But food could wait; the conversation was just getting good and Siwan always liked stories, especially when they’re from people he just met. “It’s faster to learn with friends. Learn from mistakes,” he said, taking out a notebook and a pen. He scribbled the phrase in Korean, showing it to Cade before writing the same phrase in Hanja. Siwan looked at the curator, a small smile on his lips as he repeated it back in Cantonese. “Easy, right?”

This seemed like a good technique to start with. Cade liked reading, Siwan supposed, watching him bookmark the page. He wrote another word. “Work,” he said in Korean, then repeating it in Cantonese. “Bartender at night, clerk in the morning. And you…” Siwan pulled the notebook back, thinking of the right characters, lighting up as he scribbled ‘curator’ down. “This is you. Is it hard being a curator?”

[vibrantdecay]

To have the confidence and just enough disregard for image when speaking a rather unfamiliar language was one thing. Understanding someone fluent in it was quite another. Cade found himself repeating the Korean syllables in his head a few times, attempting to separate them into words, and then into recognisable words. His reaction was thus a beat or two slower than average, nodding in agreement at Siwan's statement about learning from mistakes.

When Siwan brought out his notebook, Cade couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle. He remembered distinctly saying this meeting wouldn't be a first lesson, that it was more of a get-to-know session, a relaxed sitdown where they could hammer out details. It seemed the other man was simply eager to show he was worth hiring, after all. He watched in quiet amusement, and despite being taught the Korean alphabet some time ago, Cade's reading was snail-paced compared to his speech, clumsily mistaking similar vowels and consonants.

He pursed his lips, leaning forward as he read with arms folded on the table and his head tilted, a posture he would never assume at the office. Unfortunately for Siwan, half his explanation were words Cade didn't understand. The syllables were thick and unfamiliar on his tongue as he repeated them slowly.

"What is... bartender? Clerk..?" But he understood 'curator', of course, and shook his head with an easy smile. "I like my work. It's ... long work? Long time? But I like it." And with that said, Cade paused, using this junction to wave his hand at a passing waitress. "Please. Have food, and we talk more. Yes?"