Page 23 of Teach Me K-Pop

“Nooooo!” Alita throws her bag—and herself—dramatically across a table. “But we have so much to talk about!”

“You still havesomany things to catch up on, Mr. K,” Savannah reminds me.

I could not be happier that they want to pick up where we left off, but I know I have to be cool about this. At least, as much as I can possibly manage at the moment. “Oh, yeah. Did your Lexus guy do something amazing? Stop for street tacos or buy a new pair of shoes?”

Harper’s jaw drops at the mention of “Lexus” just like I was counting on, and Savannah rolls her eyes. “Tang is the one that loves tacos, not Lux.”

Okay, I was being sarcastic, but that’s a fact I had not yet discovered about Tang. Although, in fairness, I hadn’t gone out of my way to learn much about the other members beyond the very basics. “So sorry. I hopeTangenjoyed his tacos.”

“Do we know that Tang had tacos?” Alita asks, as though this is a legitimate topic to discuss now.

“We don’t care about Tang and tacos!” Harper insists. “We need to show Mr. K more videos. He clearly needs to learn more if he’s still getting their names wrong.”

“What? You said there’s, what, six of them? Tang, obviously, Lux, and um, a big cat? Jaguar or something?” I pause like I’m trying to remember, but I’m very much just trying to think of ways to mangle their remaining names. Snapping my fingers, I exclaim, “Oh! Lulu and Nicky! Wait, that’s only five…”

Alita has dropped her head onto her folded arms, her shoulders shaking, and I can’t quite tell if she’s laughing or crying. Savannah is blinking at me so incredulously that I literally have to bite my tongue to stop from cracking up.

Harper slings her backpack over her arm again. “That’s it. I’m going back to class with the crypt keeper, I can’t deal with this.”

I do snort at that, unable to keep it from escaping. “I’m sorry, Harper. I guess you’re just going to have to tell me what’s what.”

“He needs our help, Harp!” Alita pleads, looking up at her. “We can fix him.”

“Ugh,” Harper groans, dropping back into her seat. “Fine. But he has to promise to take this seriously.”

I hold my hands up in surrender. “On my best behavior. I swear.”

Working in a high school, it’s always been easy to form bonds with the students over shared interests. But even at that, I will admit, it’s crazy that these three 17- and 18-year-old girls are the people I have the most in common with right now. They are my best chance to have any sort of discussion about the person who is occupying all of my available brain space. If I can’t talktohim, I am desperate to talkabouthim.

“We should show him some more videos, yeah? That’s probably the best way to show him. Pick a couple of those members’ habits compilations from the BowlofChiRyo channel, maybe?” Savannah suggests. “Ooooh! We could find out who his bias is!”

Oh god, no, let’s not do that. I cannot imagine what my face would give away if they asked me who had caught my attention or what I thought about Nikko, specifically. “Bowl of Cheerios?” I ask, deflecting hard. “I thought we were talking about your boy band, not breakfast cereals.”

“Idol group, not a boyband.” Harper corrects. “And ChiRyo is a ship name, not the cereal.”

“Ship? But not in a way that has anything to do with being sailors, right?” I give them a goofy grin. “See? I know a few things.”

“And we areveryproud of you!” Alita practically simpers. “But no, ships are just like, couples. Two people you want to see together. You ship them.”

“Oh. Sure. Okay. So, do you ship these people?” I ask. I’ve seen enough videos online to know about the speculation about members hooking up, but I’m willing to follow this train of thought wherever it’s going.

“Not really? I mean, I could kind of see it. But like, I love Chita and Ryo, of course, but it’s not the same, the way I pay attention to them?” Alita explains, but not really. “I ship Nix... Nikko and Lux. Even though neither is my bias, I just think they have this...thing,and I love it.”

“Nix. Huh. Okay.” I turn to Savannah. “What about you?”

“Nalo all the way. And twice on Sundays,” she informs me, much more matter-of-factly.

“Nalo?”

“Nikko and Lalo.” She does a little shivery kind of wiggle, and I’m not sure I want to know any more about that.

Glancing toward Harper, I wait for her to chime in.

She pulls a tube of gloss out of her bag and swipes it over her lips. “I hope they’re all banging, honestly, but I don’t ship Lux with anybody but me.”

Alita and Savannah giggle in a way that’s so fond and indulgent, I have to smile. I’m also just happy that they’re so casual about the way they discuss the possibility of these men being together somehow. I know it’s part of the fandom culture, but it’s still heartwarming to be able to imagine there are fans who would likely be accepting if any of the idols decided to publicly come out.

“Got it. Lux belongs to Harper.” I nod, as though this is factual.

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