The next morning at breakfast I was issued a new timetable. I studied it to find the changes. Several of my evening study periods had been changed to remedial Mandarin. Remedial classes? After a couple of weeks? Or, could it be, David owed me a night out... but this was several in a week, and rather early in the evening to be considered a night out. I'd ask him, as soon as I saw him in class. It would give me something to focus on other than, well, other than what had actually happened last "lesson" and the complex feelings which resulted.
So, I burst through the door to the Mandarin classroom ready to say "You owe me a night out. Is home by nine a night out for you?" but when I got inside I saw David was on the phone, and he motioned to me to sit down. So I sat, watching David lounge on his desk as usual, a fag in one hand and his phone in another, speaking in a language of which I couldn't pick up a single word. David seemed in no rush to end his conversation, but eventually he did so, sighed and stubbed out the last of his cigarette.
"What language was that?" I asked.
"Japanese."
"You speak Japanese?"
"Sure. Why not?"
"I-- I just didn't know that." I knew the proximity of the countries, but I had rather thought that there was some animosity between the two cultures and didn't think it was common to speak both. Oh, the crazy things I wished I could look up on Google!
"Heh. You not God, only I am."
"And, you know, the
actual
God." David just chuckled at this. I decided to continue the conversation how I'd planned on starting it.
"You owe me a night out!"
"I remember, you won our bet." His eyes twinkled and he gave me a rather impish grin which took the confidence out of my sales.
"Is that what-- you see-- on my timetable-- I mean--"
"Oh no, that's not the night out. Is that what you consider a night out? In my world, if you're home in time for breakfast you're home early."
"That's what I meant! But are we really doing remedial Mandarin classes?"
"No, massage class. You tried to give me one yesterday and you sucked." Ouch. "You will do massage classes later on, but you might benefit from a little one-on-one tuition before then."
"Oh, I see." I had a feeling the one-on-one might be more of a reason for the classes than me just being rubbish at massage, and that feeling came along with butterflies in my stomach. Nope, not going there again. I forced my mind away from that by getting back to the issue at hand.
"So... night out?"
"Someone's eager." Hopefully, my intentions weren't too obvious; a night out could be a great opportunity and I didn't want him to back out of it.
"Wouldn't you be?" I said with a shrug.
"Aye, but you're not ready yet." What did
that
mean? "Besides," he continued before I could ask, "I'm leaving the country tomorrow."
"Going where? Oh, Japan?"
"Yes." That would explain the phone conversation in Japanese.
"Oh. I've always wanted to go to Japan. I suppose, if the academy has its way I'll never go now..." Well
that
was a depressing thought.
"I wouldn't say never. Anything could happen. You might sweet-talk some rich motherfucker to take you there sometime."
"Uh-- would
you
be that rich motherfucker?" The words were out of my mouth before I thought the question through and I felt the heat beginning to rise to my face. If he noticed that, he didn't comment on it.
"Well, not this time. Why? You want
me
to bring you?" He gave me a cheeky grin.
"Um, just, you know... Japan." I said, trying not to sound like a girl with a major crush on her teacher. Because, you know, I totally did
not.
And
not this time
implied there might be a possible future time when he would consider taking me.
"Aye, of course. I'll be there for work, so not too much time for pleasure, but I plan on eating my body weight in sushi while I'm there. A chance for some decent udon too. But I'll be six days in Japan. Then South Korea for a lunch meeting, then Vietnam for a week." What business took him overseas? I was about to ask when I decided I'd rather not-- his father kidnapped young women and sold them as sex slaves. It didn't take too much imagination to dream up half-a-dozen reasons for his travel, each worse than the last. But I did wonder how complicit he was in his father's dealings. Nope, didn't want to think about that either. I needed to nudge him about taking me to Japan one time in the future. Not because I wanted to go off on holiday but because I needed to understand more about how David saw me. If spiriting me away off overseas was really something he'd consider doing, then he really could be my chance out of here.
"So... Vietnam... you going to see that young lady you like?" Is what I said instead. There was an unintended note of jealousy to my voice and I felt my cheeks grow a little warmer.
"Who? Oh, the really cute but crazy one?"
"Yeah, you showed me her picture in our first lesson. She said to look her up next time you were there."
"Sadly, no, no time for that this trip." He
did
look rather sad too, which wasn't helping with the unwanted pangs of jealousy I was experiencing. "Maybe next time." He gave me a rather sly smile. Was he teasing me?
"Maybe next time you take me to Japan?" I prompted. His phone buzzed and after a quick glance at it, he began typing away.
"Maybe when I don't have someone else thinking they can order me around," he said, still typing. He sounded rather disgruntled. "So, class," he said, putting his phone back down. I wasn't ready to end the topic yet. Someone ordering him around... had his father ordered him overseas? And had his father only just informed him he was going? That would explain why he'd altered my timetable, he would have waited to alter it after he came back if he'd known, surely.