#and flatmate and i are going on a slightly smaller trip this weekend that's just the two of us

[benoitblanc]

sigh. you know when you love your best friend more than anything but still really really want to bash their head in a little

[btsbloodtearssquees]

Study Buddy

When you’re too shy to tell them your feelings, you figure out some kind of excuse to be around them...

“Hey!” Quick footsteps clomped down the hallway as the person belonging to the voice made their way towards you. Both amused and uncertain, you watched classmate Park Jimin approach with an armload of books which nearly hid him completely. He panted for a moment on arrival. “How do you get out of class so fast?!”

Your mouth twisted into a smile. “I don’t have so much to carry.” His cheeks turned pink briefly before he recovered with a gentle flick of his head. It didn’t do anything to get the hair out of his eyes. “You should probably get a haircut,” you mused. “Probably.” He brought his knee up to help push the slipping books back into a comfortable position, before giving you a cute smile. “Umm… do you need a hand with those?” As if to prove his own capability, he straightened his back and lifted his chin slightly. “No, thank you.” Again with the smile. You glanced away, unable to not take his little gestures to heart. “I came to ask you for a favour, actually,” he spoke again but in a much smaller, shy voice. His head tucked down towards the ground but his eyes looked back up at you. “I haven’t been doing so well in my English class…” You blinked. Park Jimin, the popular guy who everyone had a crush on even if they weren’t in his lectures, was telling you that he was struggling with English? “So I wondered, well -” his hand itched to rub the back of his neck shyly but it was impossible with all of the books. “Because you’re really good, I thought maybe you could help me out… a little. If you have the time.” Your eyes widened a little too much, causing him to blush and look away again. “Well, I - yeah. What do -” you swallowed nervously. “What do you need help with? Well obviously English but I mean, like…” He smiled over your nervous rambling while you totally forgot everything that you learnt in English. “Mainly just structure and word endings and spelling.” “So most of it?” He laughed nervously and cleared his throat while shifting the books up higher. “Yeah…” “Okay,” you repeated again. “I’ll help. When…” your voice trailed off as you realised what he had actually asked. To meet with you. Maybe regularly. “I have a meeting to go to now but,” his eyes crinkled into a hopeful, self-conscious smile, “we could do it after that?” You nodded, giving him a wave and turning to get out of there as fast as you could. “Wait, could I have your number so I can text you when I’m done? And to find out where to go and stuff?” Giving him your number?! You took his phone and shakily added your contact into it. “Thanks,” Jimin said, face breaking into a giant grin. This time when you waved and turned - you walked away from him as fast as you could so that he couldn’t see how shaken you were.

------------- “How do you spell ‘regulation’?” Jimin leant back against the wall and put his arms up behind his head. You looked away at the sight of his pronounced muscles. “R e g, umm u e - wait no! No e, so it’s r e g u, l a… t i o n.” “Very good,” you praised. “How about ‘correspondent’?” He licked his lips in thought. You had gone over this word with him just a few minutes before. “C o r… r, e s, p o n d, a n t.” You smiled and shook your head gently. “It’s an e at the end.” “What!?” Jimin protested. “But it sounds more like ‘ant’!” “When it comes to English, don’t judge spelling based on sound.” He pulled at a few fluffs on your duvet then smoothed it back over. “English is dumb,” he muttered. “Yes it is, but it’s also important.” You smiled at his pout and then thought back over to the first tutoring session where he had explained that his family had only moved over from Korea when he was sixteen. For being only twenty now, he was actually a lot better at English than he thought. It was mainly the spelling and sometimes the pronunciation which tripped him up. “Do you want to go over this list again or do something else?” He stared at you in consideration before tilting his head back against the wall. “Let’s just have a break.” A little surprised as your sessions had only ever been an hour long and with no break, you shifted on your desk chair uncomfortably and fiddled with your notes. “Are you going to the party this weekend?” Jimin asked casually. Your posture stiffened as your thoughts considered why he would be asking. “No, probably not. I should probably study for my exams next week.” “Oh, yeah.” The air grew thick as you waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. “Your spelling is actually a lot better,” you complimented to break the silence. He lowered his arms to pull down his shirt. “It’s because I have a really good tutor.” “A tutor isn’t anything without a good student.” Your chest constricted when he responded with a flirtatious wink. Flustered, you stood up to go put your books away, but it was unnatural with his eyes on you the entire time. “How come your flatmate is never here?” “I’m fairly certain she’s always drunk.”

“Oh,” he chuckled. “Great. Hey, why are you cleaning during our break?”

“It's a break from your studying. I still have lots to do.”

He watched you flicking through some papers and tossing most into the rubbish.

“Do you ever relax and just have fun?”

“Of course,” you answered defensively, not wanting him to think of you as a nerd with no social life.

“Perhaps you should come to the party this weekend,” he said in a meek voice. “I'd look after you.”

Your heart beat quickened as you hid your face from him until your cheeks had cooled. Why did he have to play with your feelings like this?

“Yeah?”

You faced him in disbelief.

“You would spend your fun party with someone as awkward and boring as me?” The question came out less lightly than you had hoped. Jimin shrugged self-consciously.

“I don't find you boring.”

Flustered, you continued stacking your papers.

“Let's continue studying,” Jimin urged, clearing his throat awkwardly.

You agreed and retook your position on the chair in front of him. It was two hours later and you were still together. The air had changed and now you were both on the bed, doubled over in hysterics due to Jimin's ridiculous pronunciation. You couldn't help but laugh harder at how cute his laugh was.

“That is horrendous!” You chided his deliberate failure.

“Horrendous,” he mocked your accent in response, but it was awful. You fell into laughter again.

“Park Jimin, I - can't -”

“Horrendous,” he tried again. Somehow he had gotten worse.

“Stop!” You begged between laughing. “I can't breathe!”

He went to poke your aching cheeks but fell over in his own amusement. You fell back too; exhausted from the long episode. Eventually the giggling subsided and you realised just how tired you were.

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

He licked his lips and turned his head towards yours as you did the same. A sense of shyness and nerves came over you as you realised you were mere centimeters apart. He noticed it too.

“Will you -”

You watched his cheeks grow more pink by the second.

“- say horrendous again?”

The mood was broken and you shook into laughter again. Jimin giggled beside you.

It was well into the morning by the time you came to your senses. Stirring ever so slightly, you suddenly noticed a warm presence wrapped around you. It was comfortable. Still sleepy, you tucked into it more.

It wasn't until the warm thing groaned tiredly that your eyes shot open. Looking up slowly, your heart lurched as you saw Jimin's sleeping face bent down over yours. His arms were tight around your middle; one hand gently in your hair. Your legs were intertwined.

How on earth had you two fallen asleep and ended up like this?!

Jimin began to stir, sensing your unease. You watched as his eyes slowly squinted open. Once he had fully registered the situation, he sat up very quickly and promptly whacked his head on the bunk bed above.

“Aohh…” he rubbed the sore spot, stunned.

“Are you okay?” You sat up also.

“Yeah, I'm…” he looked at you in confusion and embarrassment.

“You're…?”

Jimin swallowed and used his teeth to play with his bottom lip. Neither of you were brave enough to address the situation directly.

“Thanks for the lesson,” he mumbled, going to clamber off the bed before he realised that required clambering over you. “I, uh -” he ruffled up his hair.

Humiliated, you moved to allow him to escape; feeling confused by the mix of embarrassment and disappointment. Jimin waved on his way out the door, seeming relieved to get out. You were sinking down into a mix of emotion just as the door reopened only a few moments later. He shut it behind him politely and stood with his back against it, hands still on the doorknob.

“I don't have any classes today,” he rushed out breathlessly. “We could have breakfast together, but only if you like… I mean you probably want to study or you have your real friends to eat with, and you won't want to be stuck with me but, I just wanted to let you know…”

A small smile spread across your lips, masking the butterflies you truly felt. He seemed to be mentally cursing himself over his awful speech.

“Okay. Just… let me get into something else…”

He stared at you with a dumbfounded expression for a moment before spurring into sudden action.

“Oh! Right… I'll just be outside.”

You smiled and then shivered in happy anticipation once he had left, beginning to pull out something suitable to wear. It was difficult, but you had to be quick with him waiting outside. Slipping into some mini jean shorts, a floaty floral three quarter length shirt, and some strappy sandals, you quickly ran a brush through your hair and then dragged yourself out the door. Jimin straightened from the wall as he took you in.

“Oh, uh,” he ruffled his hair again with a small smile. “You look really pretty.”

“Thanks,” you managed back breathlessly.

He swallowed and then held out his arm. You linked it with yours.

“And what does my tutor like to eat for breakfast?”

Feeling unusually confident with Jimin beside you, you didn't hesitate to answer.

“Pancakes!”

“Ahhh, a sweet tooth,” he observed with a teasing voice. “It suits you.” “Really?”

“Hmm.”

You looked at each other, ducking away in shy smiles. Just before you reached the outside door, Jimin's hand slipped down into yours; clutching it both gently and firmly. You looked at him as the butterflies increased. He pushed open the door and led you outside.

“There's so much to learn about you. Perhaps we can both skip the party and… do something else?”

You looked away shyly again, unused to so much attention from anyone, let alone the handsome Park Jimin.

“Okay,” you agreed again, earning a beaming smile from him. “Let's go find some pancakes, then,” he announced; walking so close that sometimes you would bump into each other. ----------------- Just a cute little scenario I wrote a little while ago ;). -Dolceice

[pamoramas]

"So is work sending you to London?!"

Not quite. Employed by a Canadian organization with no operations in the U.K., this was definitely not the case. An office transfer would've been ever so slightly easier! A very vocal fangirl of my TELUS team, it was honestly easier to break the news to my parents that I was considering applying for the Tier 5 U.K. Youth Mobility visa than it was to resign from work. After over five years with the organization, having first started with a New Grad rotational program and quickly landing onto "the web team" right before our transformation into TELUS digital, our office felt like home. I was the person happy to go to work every day, taking any guest speaking opportunity to meet new talent after having led the Vancouver recruitment effort for the program I'd started with. I considered co-workers friends, with a few becoming some of my closest ties during challenging personal times. So why leave? Having a Canadian passport means you're eligible for the Tier 5, a 2-year right to live and work in the U.K., entering the country before you're 31. With my apartment lease coming to an end with one of my best friends and with a large London community of SFU alumni encouraging me to join them, stars started to align. Without going into too many personal details, timing felt right. I knew my risk-averse ways would always find a reason to stay put unless I ripped the bandaid and booked a one-way with my miles during a seat sale. Friends' advice to fly over during the summer was invaluable, since it truly is better to learn to navigate a new city in warm sunshine... but it also made it easier to leave Vancouver before the Seawall and English Bay sunsets lured me into staying. Why London? I'd been lucky to first visit London on a high school History group trip, covering WWI and WWII sites of significance, concluding in London. Then, as one of my best friends decided to move in 2011, I tagged along for her first weeks in Europe and enjoyed traversing the city by "tube", constantly getting asked for directions by tourists! Not having been able to afford going on exchange during my self-funded degree, I knew I wanted to explore the continent while still young and foolish. From a career perspective, having gained years of Product Management experience with TELUS digital, I knew I had something to offer London's dynamic tech scene. Ironically, our team had loads of expats from the U.K. so why not do a switcheroo! Finally, and I'd say most importantly, as an immigrant only child having moved to Vancouver with just my parents when I was eight, my extended family is still entirely in Mexico. This meant that the emotional hurdle of relocation was not only much smaller, but also implicitly encouraged. While my parents were less than thrilled that not only was I moving but I'd be doing so without a paycheck anytime soon, they knew I'd calculated the risks and was prepared for their consequences. I'd worked at Starbucks for years, surely I'd get behind the bar to make ends meet while getting sorted! Overall, moving to London isn't for the faint of heart... nor wallet. Absolutely everything (except groceries, if you're strategic to avoid the premium stores and stock up on sale items!) is expensive. Yes, public transportation is fantastic but it costs a pretty penny (pence!) and where you live can mean a hefty rent cost, unless you're willing to make the trade-off of being a long, potentially unreliable commute from core communities. Personally, the greatest sentiment I've gained through it all is just how strong and resilient the "pioneers" that moved to London long before me were. To NOT have had some of my best friends live here for five years would've meant I'd have never considered it. Their perseverance to convince me to take the plunge, as well as ongoing support through the past six months' emotional roller coaster, cannot be understated. I consider my roomie (flatmate!) my older sister, sharing her tips from her five years here and reassuring me whenever self-doubt plays peekaboo with my confidence, to continue to make value-based decisions. Moreover, several others had relocated here in recent years and became the crew I'd see pop up in my Facebook feed at all kinds of social gatherings, reassuring me I'd be in great company upon arrival. 48 hours after landing in Heathrow, I attended an SFU Alumni event in Canada House at Trafalgar Square and it felt like a homecoming! As for Brexit, nobody knows how that's going to unfold but for now, the Tier 5 visas continue to get granted under the same conditions so if you're considering coming over without an internal office transfer nor academic pursuit, look into it and let me know if you've got any questions! I'll be writing posts specific to finding a flat, learning some slang and the Funemployment "phase" of my seemingly endless job hunt. Stay tuned. For now, after a historic weekend of a certain Presidential inauguration and its subsequent Women's March movement, here's to a 2017 of "hustle and heart".