of taekwondo & confessions [k.y.h]
Annoying or not, your mom asks you to take your little sister to her taekwondo classes, but you don't expect to see your once middle school crush being the practice teacher there.
➳ Characters: taekwondo practice teacher!Yohan x female!reader/you
➳ Genre: childhood sweethearts to lovers, fluff, comedy
➳ Words: 3.7k
➳ Warning: -
➳ WEi taglist: @dat-town, @effulgentfireflies, @hyu-won, @littlestartonightsposts, @ishuayou
It wasn't even a bad day. In fact, it was a pretty good day, your boss even praised you for your work that day, so you couldn't say that you had a strike of unlucky things happening to you. However, when you bumped into Kim Yohan out of all people at your little sister's taekwondo academy, you were definitely in for a surprise.
Not that his presence at a taekwondo academy should have surprised you. After all, his father was a taekwondo master and he had been doing taekwondo professionally when you had last seen him. It was the fact that he was the one teaching your little sister as a practice teacher under a senior instructor’s supervision that surprised you. Oh, and of course the fact that you never expected to see your middle school crush again after he had gone to a different school, and your silly little broken heart had convinced you that you would never find true love after the boy you had confessed to had not only said nothing in return, but he had also left your school altogether. Back then, you had no phone, no social media account, so he had gone without a trace.
There was no doubt that it was him though. He had the same boba eyes, the same bunny smile and the same pitch-black hair that you had always imagined ruffling like those main leads in your favourite young adult books that you had loved back then. You had imagined Yohan in the love interest's place so many times, and you remembered that aching feeling of wanting your love life to turn out like the ones in those books all too well.
Alas, you had been young and naive and foolish and...
"Hi!" Yohan greeted you with a wide albeit surprised smile. Well, at least he didn't expect to see you here either.
"Hi!" You responded slowly, still taking in the sight of the boy who had grown into such a handsome young man. Not that you hadn't considered him handsome back then because you had. It's just that his features were even more defined now, his shoulders even broader and he was even taller than he used to be. Though you had last seen him around a decade ago, it shouldn’t have been surprising.
"I didn't expect to see you here."
"Me neither," you reciprocated his semi-nervous laughter with a smile as you tried to keep it cool. After all, he must have forgotten all about your confession, right? It had been so many years ago, he must not have even taken you seriously if he hadn't replied back then (not that he had a chance because you had practically run away from him after your confession, too embarrassed to bear his gaze).
Just like that, silence enveloped you, and you knew that Yohan had never been good at awkward situations, so you tried to keep it casual.
"I came to pick up my little sister, Yeji. She attends a class here. Your class, it seems," you explained, referring to the fact that you had seen your sister come out of the exact same practice room he had come out of.
Yohan's mouth formed a surprised O in return, but then, he was back to his usual coy self as he mentioned:
"It's not my class as per se. I'm still just a practice teacher."
"Everyone has to start somewhere, right?" You joked, trying to ease the slight awkwardness in the air, but you weren't sure that you saying such a thing was helping at all. God, you two were full-grown adults now, him already practising to be a teacher and you doing an internship, you should have known how to communicate better. Maybe it was just that the surprise hadn't worn off. Yeah, that should be it.
"How about you? Are you at uni or already working?" Yohan inquired after clearing his throat, and it was such a Yohan thing to do. He had always cleared his throat like that before giving presentations or being asked to solve a task by the board. It was such a silly thing to suddenly remember, but what could you do? You had been once head over heels for this boy.
"Oh, I finished uni during spring. I'm now doing an internship. I'm a sales intern for a fashion company."
"Sounds exciting."
"Yeah, it is," you responded with a smile, then to fill the silence, you told him about what tasks you had and what products were sold at the company and how you were working part-time, so you could pick up your little sister from now on because your mother now had a schedule change due to a colleague going on maternity leave. Not that he asked about half of it, but you knew that your little sister needed an awful lot of time to get ready, so even though kids were leaving the changing rooms one by one, you weren't surprised that you didn't see your sister coming out anytime soon.
In return, you asked about Yohan, and how he had ended up here and how long he would stay here and such, and he responded casually. These weren't such difficult questions though, but you were glad that the initial awkwardness wasn't lingering anymore.
Finally, your little sister showed up, her face still quite red, but her smile was as wide as it could be. Especially when she saw that you were talking to her teacher.
"Did you ask him how I was doing?" Yeji chirped, reaching out to hold your hand - something she always did when you were around others. She was extra clingy around strangers.
"No. We were catching up."
"Catching up?" She looked at you with wide eyes, then at Yohan. To that, you explained that you had been middle school classmates, and since she went to the same middle school as you did, she found it extremely fascinating that her taekwondo teacher went to the same school as she did.
"Anyways, let's not keep up your teacher any longer," you announced firmly when silence settled over the three of you. As expected, Yeji complained a bit, but eventually, she let her teacher go his way and you two also went your way which meant home in your case.
It didn't take long for your little sister to gossip about the fascinating revelation that her new practice teacher was your middle school classmate. To make matters worse, your mother knew exactly who Kim Yohan was, and she couldn't keep it quiet either.
"Wasn't he the boy you liked so much back then?" She exclaimed beamingly as if she had received great news, and you felt like falling head first into your bowl of pasta.
"You liked my teacher?" Yeji immediately shrieked excitedly, and it took some serious minutes to explain to her that it was a long time ago, you didn't like him anymore, and that he wasn't her teacher back then, so it didn't sound that weird.
Ever since then, you tried your very best not to run into Yohan when you went to pick her up or when you did, Yeji couldn't be around or ask anything regarding your middle school crush. Miraculously, it worked for some time, but once you had an urgent matter at work, so you couldn't leave on time, and you were almost half an hour late than you usually arrived. You basically ran from the underground station to the academy because Yeji didn't have a phone, so you couldn't tell her that you were on your way, and you were afraid that she would be panicking when she didn't see you after coming out of the changing rooms.
The sight that welcomed you was totally different though. Yeji and Yohan were sitting on the chairs opposite the reception desk, and they were playing cham cham cham. You let out a long, relieved sigh upon hearing your little sister's laughter, and your heart did a silly little somersault when Yohan's bunny smile was on full display while playing with her.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry that I was late. Something came up at the company, and I had to stay a bit longer," you explained in one-go when you walked up to them, but instead of being angry, your little sister seemed more understanding.
"It's okay. Mom didn't always arrive on time either," she just shrugged, and god, you thanked the gods for having a sister like her in that moment. This gratefulness didn't stay with you for long though. "We were playing some games with your crush while waiting."
Oh. My. God. How did she... Why... How could... No. This wasn't happening. Nope.
"I've told you not to call him that," you muttered through gritted teeth, trying to act natural with a smile in Yohan's direction, but he definitely did hear you two talking, and if it was possible, he was even more flabbergasted than you were.
"Why not? You've said you told him-"
"Come on, that was a long time ago. Right, Yohan?" You glanced in the boy's direction quite frantically. You felt like it would have been better if the ground had opened up beneath you. You really just wanted to evaporate.
"Right, it was. You didn't even let me respond," he brought it up, almost sulkily, but you swore that you were on the verge of making an even bigger fool out of yourself and tell him that he was still handsome, and you found it cute that he was teaching kids, and he was seemingly good with your little sister too and that was adorable...
And so on and so forth, so you needed to leave.
"Anyways, we have to go now. I promised mom I would get groceries before going home, so we need to do that too," you clapped your hands to announce it and grabbed your sister's gym bag from the floor, throwing it over your shoulder.
Thankfully, your sister perked up at the mention of grocery shopping - which meant free food sometimes due to the promotional samples -, so she gave in easily. This way, you could bid your goodbye to Yohan as soon as possible, and you could leave before wanting to admit something that you just couldn't.
Yohan was kind enough not to bring up your awkward middle school confession, so your conversations could actually be about things that didn't cause awkwardness. He was still very much the introverted boy you had known him to be, but he could get really chatty when it was about a topic he was interested in or stories with his friends that he was trying to tell with big hand gestures and voice intonations. It didn't help your silly little heart though, in fact, you felt like you just fell deeper and deeper with no way out. Once your sister took an extra long time changing after practice, you could also see Yohan in a non-uniform outfit because he had already changed into his usual clothes before your sister came out, and oh boy, he did grow broader and stronger. He also knew how to dress himself, so the tight black jeans, simple white tee, leather jacket combo didn't help your heart at all.
Though you didn't meet outside of the taekwondo academy because why would you? You also had around 15-30 minutes twice a week to talk, so it's not like you talked a lot, though with him, you felt like you could listen to him all the time, so it wouldn't be enough anyway. He might have given you his number (in case you were late to pick up your sister, so at least he would know about it even if your sister didn't have a phone), but you didn't start messaging each other too intensively.
The first time you met each other outside of the taekwondo academy was at a taekwondo competition. It was your sister's first competition, so she was super nervous, but she got encouragement from both of her teachers and you as well. Her fellow taekwondo team members supported her as well, but she eventually lost before the semi-finals, and instead of staying out on the field, she didn't come up to you to the stand during break, so you got worried.
You walked down the corridors, and walked into the changing room where you had previously put down her stuff. However, she wasn't there. You were almost about to call Yohan, hoping that he looked at his phone during the breaks, when you caught sight of the said boy crouched down to be at eye-level with your sister and hugging her while she was crying.
"It's okay. I've lost in competitions too, it's inevitable. Next time you'll be even better. Almost making it into the semi-finals is already a great achievement," you heard Yohan say to her, patting her back reassuringly while Yeji was still constantly sobbing. Hearing her cry broke your heart a little, but the boy's reassurance warmed it a bit, too.
"Yohan is right," you said as you halted beside their duo, and gently patted your sister's shoulder to gain her attention. You reached a pack of tissues out to her, and she took it, immediately using up two to blow her nose and wipe away her tears. "It was your first competition. You did so well. Now you know what you can expect, and you'll smash it next time."
"And maybe even become a teacher like me one day," Yohan added with a light-hearted smile as he stood up straight.
"Really? Can I do that after losing here?" Yeji stopped crying to ask that question and blinked up at her giant of a teacher with bright, shining eyes. He nodded and told her just how many times he had lost in the past until she felt better and eventually went to the bathroom to wash her face.
"Thanks for being beside here. I thought she disappeared, but I'm glad that wasn't the case," you turned to Yohan after your sister got out of hearing range, and displayed a grateful smile.
"Don't mention it,” the boy shrugged casually, but you were truly grateful for his assistance, so you kept thanking him until he was called by the taekwondo master to get ready for the end of the break. He directed an apologetic smile at you, but you told him that he should go, you would fetch up your little sister afterwards.
Once Yeji was done in the bathroom and felt better, you two went back to the stand to watch the rest of the competition. Even though your little sister was a bit under the weather when her opponent made it to the final, she seemed supportive of her team members nevertheless, and she almost went back to her usual, bubbly self by the end of the event. You waited for her to change and get her stuff, and as usual, she was almost the last one to leave. That just meant that you managed to bump into Yohan on the way out.
You and Yeji were about to have some lunch, and your little sister was so pumped up about telling her teacher that she would have her favourite kimchi stew that she somehow ended up inviting Yohan as well. As expected, the boy tried to turn down the offer, but the grumbling of his stomach and Yeji’s puppy eyes convinced him to join you. Your sister couldn’t have been happier.
You couldn’t deny that you were happy as well. It was fun talking to the boy like this, and you had a fun time watching the boy’s facial expressions change when your little sister asked him very random questions such as his favourite childhood snacks, if he had ever seen Santa or if he had ever farted during a competition. That last one, though, was embarrassing even for you, so you tried to avert the topic to something more pleasant.
You three had different meals, and Yeji always tried others’ food if it didn’t involve something she absolutely despised, so she had some from your lunch and from Yohan’s lunch as well. Then, insisting that his meat was really good, Yohan even wrapped a piece of meat, rice and garlic in a perilla leaf and reached it out to you. You looked at him for a few seconds, confused, but ended up reaching for it while thanking him for the gesture. He gave you a gentle, almost proud smile in return, and there it was again: that warmth that ran through your body seeing his smile, feeling like you had just ran a marathon, but it wasn’t enough to tire you out, you were just so pumped up.
“Why didn’t you put it into her mouth? They always do that in dramas,” Yeji chirped in obliviously, and you almost choked imagining the scene of Yohan putting the perilla wrap into your mouth like couples would do. Yohan had the same reaction, but he tried to mask it with a few well-timed coughs.
“It’s because we are not a couple. It’s a thing that couples do, so it would be weird if we did so,” you explained to your little sister who seemed to be pondering for a few seconds before asking the very simple yet very complicated ‘why’. You blanched at the boldness of hers, your eyes growing twice their size, and your throat going dry. You reached for your glass of water and took a few sips of it, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn’t hurt Yohan's feelings either, but it wouldn’t give away your feelings either.
However, taking your silence as if you couldn’t understand her question, Yeji continued with her honest, child-like curiosity.
“Do you really not like each other anymore?”
“It’s not that. It’s compli-”
“Then, do you still like him, no?”
“I mean…” You protested fervently, your embarrassment growing by the second. Sure, kids were honest, and they didn’t hold themselves back, but they also didn’t know the complexity of human emotions and how people didn’t always like each other back. You were sure that the movies and dramas she watched weren’t about unrequited love either.
You were about to go into a long-ass monologue about how reality could be different from what she saw in the media, but Yohan spoke up after clearing his throat.
“I like her. I always did,” he admitted coolly, but the way he was picking on his food with his chopsticks without looking into your eyes gave away his nervousness.
You practically froze in place, unable to move or speak because you just couldn’t believe that he had confessed that he liked you, and he had always done so. It was what you had been imagining all those years ago while rolling on your bed and listening to heartwarming pop songs about first loves, it was what you had been imagining when you had picked up the courage to confess to him on the last day of grade 7, and it was what you had been imagining ever since, and now that it was out, you were unable to form coherent words.
“But… like… why didn’t you tell me before?” You mumbled, still puzzled, when you managed to pull yourself together enough to speak up. Yohan’s eyes darted between different parts of the restaurant before landing on yours, and his gaze made it impossible to look away. There was just so much in his eyes, a whole galaxy if you wanted to be corny, that you felt like you would never be able to have enough of looking into his orbs.
“It’s not like you let me tell you back then. You practically ran away!”
“Because you were frozen, and didn’t say a thing. So I figured you don’t like me and ran away to save both of us from further embarrassment.”
“I was frozen like you now. I couldn’t believe that someone like you would like me back,” Yohan insisted, and this almost sulky side of him was so adorable, so similar to his younger days that you almost felt like hugging him to your chest when he was already way taller than you. Gosh, you really did think that he said nothing because he didn’t like you whereas he was just surprised. You had to process that information and his pouty lips and his twinkling eyes and…
“Are you going to kiss now?” Yeji blurted out, too excited for her own good, but both you and Yohan answered with a vehement no before locking gazes again and bursting into laughter. You almost forgot about your little sister being there beside you because you were so into your own little world, but how could you forget about her presence and enthusiasm towards you and your crush on Yohan?
“We can try later though,” the boy mentioned with a teasing tone, and you held up your chopsticks warningly, but the boy’s giggles made you let go of any (theatrical) annoyance you held towards him.
Now that was out of the way, the rest of the lunch was fun and almost peaceful, but you would have never thought that his confession would happen at a restaurant on the way home from your sister’s first taekwondo competition, over perilla leaf wraps and bowls of steaming noodles. You wouldn’t have had it any other way though. It was so like you and Yohan, and it was just perfect.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading the story! It means a lot to me.❤️
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Have a lovely day/night!
