A Taste for Teaching
"Excuse me."
After class.
Today was the day the cluster would begin.
As soon as the final bell rang, I gathered my things and headed toward the multipurpose room.
The multipurpose room wasn’t in the main building but in the school’s separate annex—a quiet classroom that looked empty.
It was usually used for club activities or practical lessons, but today it had been assigned to us for the programs the school hosted.
The assigned room 102 was surprisingly small.
Given that it was one-on-one tutoring, perhaps they didn’t need a large space.
It felt more like a student counseling office than a regular classroom.
There was a desk of the right size, and when two people sat facing each other, the space was filled almost to capacity.
There, alone, were me and Nam Yu-ri.
"Ah. Woo-hyun, you’re here."
Nam Yu-ri greeted me with a gentle smile as I hesitantly stepped into the multipurpose room.
She had already finished setting up for the lesson—she had even prepared the whiteboard—and was waiting for me while laying out the textbooks on the table.
"Huh? But it’s pretty thorough for a first time."
"Hehe, this is my own little setup. How is it? Does it suit you?"
"It actually feels like I’m getting a private lesson from a real tutor."
If there were such a pretty tutor, I probably would have studied hard in high school too.
Of course, back then I never had time to study because I was working.
"Hehe. I can’t compare to a real tutor, but the quality should be quite high, right?"
"You’re pretty confident."
"Because I did this last year too. In the cluster. That’s why I learned so much."
"Ah."
"When I explain like this, people understand it better, or when I draw it on the whiteboard instead of just talking, that kind of thing. I’ve learned a lot from that."
She wrote Seon Woo-hyun on the whiteboard and let out a soft laugh.
Those tiny actions from Nam Yu-ri stirred something in me.
Still, with one year of experience, this was impressive.
She was the top student in the whole school and had a year of tutoring experience; she would definitely be a great help, and my expectations rose.
"That’s good to hear."
"Right? Good, you can expect a proper lesson."
Look at that pure face burning with enthusiasm.
Once the door closed, the space became completely sealed.
With only a small window open to the outside, there was no other exit.
In the room, a faint, pleasant scent of Nam Yu-ri lingered.
…What was that? Why did I feel my heart racing?
After all, I was still just a clueless guy.
I hadn’t even met her to date.
I had never been in a closed space alone with a girl before.
Just that alone made me tense.
I unconsciously swallowed a gulp of saliva and took the textbook from my bag, placing it on the desk.
Nam Yu-ri watched my expression for a moment and said,
"Hmm."
"…Why?"
"You seem nervous. Your face is stiff. Did you get tense?"
Girls were always too sharp at picking up on things.
She noticed my subtle emotions in an instant.
I wished she wouldn’t notice things like that.
"A bit? It’s my first time receiving tutoring."
Actually, it was just being alone in the same space with her that felt tense.
If I said that directly, she might get offended, so I turned the conversation to the tutoring excuse.
At that, Nam Yu-ri blinked at me with her two eyes.
"That’s interesting."
"What is?"
"I’ve never seen you tremble before, Woo-hyun."
"What?"
"In our class, you’re the calmest person. Even when a scary teacher comes in, you sleep fine. Even during exams or performance evaluations, everyone else trembles."
That was true.
Seon Woo-hyun himself had always had a laid-back and calm personality.
Plus, he had never been interested in grades or anything like that and only liked to play around.
The kids who trembled were those who actually studied hard for tests.
Others who didn’t feel any value in studying had no reason to tremble.
"I was just sleeping through the exams anyway. There’s no reason to tremble. It’s the kids like you who study that get tense."
"Still, it’s interesting. It’s different from how you usually act around the others."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It feels like I’m the only one who knows your new side, Woo-hyun. It’s kind of cute that this is making you nervous."
Nam Yu-ri’s smile made my heart race.
I somehow held back the flush creeping up my face.
…What a scary girl.
She threw out lines that sounded like they could make any guy of a hundred lose his mind, yet she was completely pure and innocent.
That’s why Nam Yu-ri was scary.
She was the kind of girl you could never be careless around.
"Nam Yu-ri."
"Hm?"
"You can’t just say things like ‘you’re so cute to guys’ out of nowhere."
"Ah, sorry. Did I make you uncomfortable?"
"No, that’s not it."
Actually, I felt great. Too great.
I gently comforted her with a slightly dejected look.
"As you know, if you say things like that to someone like you, it could cause misunderstandings."
"Misunderstandings? Like…?"
"Like she likes me? That kind of misunderstanding."
"Ah…"
At that, Nam Yu-ri’s cheeks flushed red and she shook her head side to side.
Immediately, as if realizing something, she poured out a hurried excuse.
"T-that wasn’t what I meant at all, okay?!"
"I know. I know what you meant. Just don’t say that to other guys."
"Eh… I’ll be careful."
Muttering, ‘I could have thought of that…’, she lowered her head while her cheeks stayed red.
That was the problem with pretty girls who didn’t know their own worth.
They didn’t consider how much power their words could have on the opposite sex.
"Ahem! Well then, shall we start the lesson? There isn’t much time."
"Ah. Right, let’s begin."
And so, my first-ever tutoring lesson began.
"So, that means the exponential function takes on this shape when the a-value is greater than 1. Got it?"
Nam Yu-ri explained while drawing the graph shape on the whiteboard.
Actually, this part had already been covered in the previous classes, but
When she had taken the lowest-scoring student in the last cluster, Yu-ri had known that.
She knew her student might not have properly learned this in class.
And that he probably didn’t even have the basic concepts to understand it.
"Back then I even searched for middle-school and elementary math materials and suffered…"
Recalling my first year made my head ache.
It was because I couldn’t understand even her basic explanations.
That was common sense that anyone should know by now.
That was why I had learned the lesson from that time and prepared thoroughly for this cluster.
She had printed out all the related materials and was ready to explain from the basics if she had to.
She had prepared as if she was teaching from scratch…
"So, if the a-value is between 0 and 1, it would look like this?"
"Eh… yeah…"
Why was she understanding so well?
The one who was actually confused was her.
She knew my grades were at the very bottom of the class—actually, below even the bottom.
Why was it that even though Woo-hyun was fighting for first and second place in the entire school, he understood her words in just a couple of times and got it so quickly?
'Was he pretending not to study? Or is he just a genius?'
Of course, she hadn’t taught anyone else yet.
But to Nam Yu-ri, the top student, there was a kind of conviction.
The difference between upper and lower grades wasn’t just about accumulating concepts.
What made it different was comprehension.
The ability to understand words or catch the main points in someone’s speech and absorb them.
That was why when teaching students who couldn’t study, she had to repeat the same words over and over.
'But Woo-hyun understands way too fast. Faster than I thought.'
He was showing a comprehension speed that was hard to believe for someone in the lower grades.
After just a couple of explanations, she knew he understood, and he even applied it.
It was almost like she was questioning if it really was the Woo-hyun she knew.
"Then I’ll do the example problem."
"Yeah. If you have any parts you don’t understand while solving, tell me, okay?"
"Yeah. But math is important to practice thinking on your own, so I’ll try to do it by myself as much as possible."
And it wasn’t just about understanding.
Enthusiasm.
Students who couldn’t study often lost their passion or had none at all.
They just didn’t feel the need for studying in the first place, which was why they couldn’t.
But Woo-hyun’s attitude was incredibly positive.
Instead of being overwhelmed by his mentor’s energy, his eyes were intense as he looked at me.
The way he studied—with his posture and expression—was more serious than anyone else’s.
It was as if he had experienced the feeling that this was his entire life on the line.
"…Ah, what if it turns out like this."
While muttering to himself and seriously pondering the problem.
No matter whether it was right or wrong, he wrote detailed solutions in his notebook with all his effort.
From my perspective, the changed Woo-hyun looked even better.
'Honestly, I didn’t expect this.'
It was an unfair thing to say to the boy in front of me, but
The truth was, she hadn’t even thought that Woo-hyun would study so earnestly.
I didn’t know what had changed her mind, but passion without a clear goal was bound to fade quickly.
She had thought that if the content got difficult, he would give up easily.
So she had prepared ways to boost his motivation and instill a sense of purpose.
But those plans had become useless too.
"…If it’s like this, there’s definitely a taste for teaching."
A hardworking student was something a teacher could never find beautiful.
Moreover, Nam Yu-ri understood that she actually loved teaching more than she thought.
She was seriously considering choosing to be a teacher as her career path.
In that sense, Woo-hyun was a student with almost perfect attitude.
"Huh? What did you say?"
"Eh, no, nothing. More importantly, focus on solving the problem."
Thanks to the Woo-hyun who completely surpassed her expectations.
She started looking forward to the cluster lessons they would have together from now on.