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 Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:03 pm
 ...am I forgotten? Hyo was sitting on the floor in the library, his arms tightly wrapped around his legs, making the boy look pretty miserable. And he felt like that, too. It's been quite a few days (and nights) since the day when the kind spirit was supposed to meet with him, but so far, nothing happened. Hyo thought, that maybe some important things stopped him, but since it's the kind spirit, he'll surely come to him when he'll finally be free, yes? So he took a blanket and his pillow, and set a camp in this room, to make sure that he won't get missed by accident. The only moments when he left were for food and bathroom. Bathrooms were quite scary, by the way. But that's a different story. So far, he had quite some time, and not much to do, so he started browsing the scrolls they have here. Even though he didn't understand a thing, the pictures were pretty, and he was getting used to the weird symbols they're using here. There was also a scroll, similar to the one he was shown before, that had words in korean accompanied by the symbols from engrish. He had no idea how to read them, but since he didn't have anything better to do, he started copying them to his parchment, and remembering them the best he could, so at least he'll know how to write what he wants to say. But still, being left here, forgotten... <"...this is too sad...">
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:39 pm
It was nine-thirty in the morning when Lai approached the doors of the Library. He wanted to be early enough to have time to set up and prepare for his first ever lesson with Hyo, including making sure he had everything he needed and to consult his notes for the umpteenth thousandth time.
Before he entered he looked behind him, certain he had dropped something behind him as he speed-walked down the corridor. One thing did fall, a black ink pen, and he bent down to pick it up, happy he was in pants today rather than his skirts, which would not allow for proper bending room. As he rose back up his hair tickled the sides of his face and for a moment he wondered if Miss Hyo would know him immediately. He had, at the Masquerade, worn his hair slicked back and in a knob so it was off his neck, but today it was back down and normal. As he put the pen back he shrugged the worry away. His voice would be recognizable enough.
With a last look at his papers and books, Lai opened the Library door and stepped inside. Immediately, his eyes landed on the small camp that someone had constructed with a pillow and blanket. The Russian's eyebrows raised in surprise at seeing such a thing and they rose just a bit higher as he found Hyo sitting nearby.
"Mi-Miss Hyo!" His tone was startled, he really did not expect the girl to be in the Library right now. Looking from the blanket camp to the girl and then back he came to the conclusion the Korean had been here for quite sometime.
She did not understand my note to her...Oh no, how long has she been here? Not since the day after the Masquerade right? Right...?
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:01 pm
"Mi-Miss Hyo!"When he heard his name being called out by the familiar voice, Hyo quicly raised his head from the scroll with a brilliant smile. <"Raai! You really came! He came, he didn't forget about me!"> The boy placed the weird scroll he was reading on top of all the others he did (or just watched pictures inside them), adding another floor to the huge scroll-tower he already had. Then he bowed, as you should in presence of a good spirit, and stood up. "Hee-ro Raai." He welcomed him in engrish, since the spirit didn't know korean. You should always be polite towards spirits. It didn't matter that he was alone for so long anymore. His lessons were supposed to start.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:29 pm
Lai's startled expression faded as Hyo smiled. The Russian smiled back at the girl and approached after he shut the door behind him. His eyes landed on the scroll tower the girl had made and Lai was now officially sure the girl had been here for a long while. It didn't seem to matter now as she appeared quite pleased and ready to learn.
"It seems you have done a lot of reading Miss Hyo." He gestured to the stack with one hand. "That is good if they are English-Oh!" He turned back to see Hyo's bow and bowed in return to the girl. Lai was smiling and it got even brighter as Hyo greeted him in English. The Russian placed his things down and reached out to pat the girl on the head.
"Hello Miss Hyo, that was very good. You are already on your way to learning English." Lai quickly looked to his papers on the short table and sat down before them, turning back only to gesture to the girl to sit as well. Lai pulled out a sheet of lined paper that had a thin dotted line in between two lines as well as a pen and passed it over infront of Hyo. He did the same for himself then finally took out a thicker paper with neat and brightly colored letters on it. Lai placed it above and between the two lined sheets and turned to Hyo. "First thing is first. The Alphabet." Lai picked up his pen and slowly crafted the capital letter 'A' on the paper before him. Then he made the lowercase letter 'A' before he looked at the girl and nodded for her to try it.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:11 am
He patted me on the head, he patted me on the head, he patted me on the heaaaaad <3... Hyo was overjoyed at the show of approval from the Kind Spirit's side. It was worth it, it was so worth it to wait in this cold place, I'm so glad that I did, that I understood him correctly... As Raai showed him to, Hyo sat on the weird sitting thing, the same way he did that scary evening they met - sitting on his heels. It was a bit tricky, but catching balance was way too easy for him. He observed the Kind Spirit taking out the unusual, patterned parchments, and some sort of stick-shaped devices (which soon appeared to be this place's version of a brush), and drew a symbol from the picture he also took out on his parchment. So when Raai pointed at Hyo, the boy knew what to do. After a short fight with his brush, he started to redraw that symbol (this brush was pretty weird, no matter how much you pressed, you couldn't get a thicker line. How unrefined.), taking care to leave enough space in the middle of it. Now, if he only knew what's this supposed to mean.
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Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:32 am
Lai observed his pupil's struggles with the pen, certain the girl had never used one before. He watched the girl form the two 'A's and nodded when she was done. He kept his pen in his hand and with his left hand pointed to the capital and lowercase letter before clearly speaking its name.
"A. Letter A." He gestured for the girl to repeat, keeping his finger on the letter the entire time and an encouraging smile on his face as well. When she spoke it satisfactory, Lai moved on to the next capital letter in the line up. The Russian drew the 'B' and its lowercase with the same fluidity of the 'A' and that one's lowercase. Then he repeated, waiting for Hyo to write the two 'B's out before saying their name.
"B. Letter B." The same process for 'C'. "C. Letter C."
In his heart Lai really hoped the girl was getting this and that he hoped he was going at a good enough pace for her. He allowed for a nice pause between writing and speaking each letter, but with Hyo still yet unable to tell him if his teaching was alright or not, he would have to watch her expressions closely. If something were amiss he would slow up. If not, this pace would be kept. He had no other engagements planned, so he could spend the day teaching the girl the Alphabet. Maybe even assign her some homework so she could grasp it better. He had plenty of the schooling paper they were both writing on and he could let her borrow the colorful Alphabet chart, so it would be no trouble. His only fear through all of this was facing that "copy machine" again. That thing was some alien creation, he knew it. Fascinating, but it instilled fear.
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:25 pm
Hyo was slowly drawing the symbols of 'Aireteraia', 'Bireterbii' and "Siiretersii', whatever were they supposed to mean. They weren't that difficult - the right parts of the symbols had familiar, round shapes, and Hyo felt pretty good when writing those. Especially bireterbii, with those firm, curvy lines... Though he might've made those a bit bigger than needed. Definitely a pretty symbol. He simply must do it justice as soon as he gets some parchment and a proper brush. He spoke the names of the symbols loudly when he was drawing them (plus a few extra bireterbiis), just like the Kind Spirit did, and looked at him, waiting for him to explain the symbols' meanings.
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:34 pm
"Oh!" As he heard Hyo's pronunciation of the names of the letters, he knew he was going just a little too fast and confusing her. The Russian man turned to her and shook his head apologetically, silently saying that it was wrong, but not her fault. He was to blame for that. Lai placed his pen down and slid his paper over, where the first three letters stood out against the paper in ink. With an encouraging smile, he pointed to the 'A' and its lowercase.
"A." Then he pointed to the 'B' and its smaller companion.
"B." Finally to 'C'.
"C." This time he didn't add the 'letter' to it. He waited for a moment before pointing to the first letter again and repeating the names of the symbols. Once done with the second saying, he waited for Hyo to repeat. He would have to hope her confusion, if any, wouldn't last long and that the girl would grasp it quickly before moving on to the other letters. Twenty-six all together to be exact and he worried about her thinking learning English was too difficult. Still, she remained eager looking, so he shouldn't fret for now.
You can do it Miss Hyo, I know you can.
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:05 pm
Observing the Kind Spirit's movements, it seemed that he was finally being told the meanings of the three symbols he just drew. The problem was, he still has no idea what they meant. They were similar to the names of the symbols, only much shorter. And stil no hint of what they could mean. If this continues, the Kind Spirit might think he's...slow or something, and that there's no use in teaching him! He had to prevent that! Hyo concentrated on Bireterbii, since that was the symbol he liked most of the three. He drew it once again, with vivacious curves, and looked at the Kind Spirit, hoping to ask his question in a way that'll make it undersood. "Bireterbii is Bii yes? Bii what is?" He looked around, at the things lying around, wondering which of them could have such a pretty symbol for its name. In the end, his guess was on the scrolls - though different from the scrolls he was used to, as if made from many smaller scrolls combined into one, big thick scroll with a hard cover. There must be a lot of knowledge hidden in such a scroll! He took one of them, raised it and showed to the Kind Spirit with a questioning glance. "Bii this?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:32 pm
Lai kept a wary eye on the girl as she concentrated, still continuing to hope his correction had been be well received. If it hadn't, no matter, he was patient and well willing to teach the girl no matter how long it took. A small smile ghosted over his lips as Hyo drew the 'B'. It seemed she had taken a liking to it or possibly found it the easiest to draw. Whichever was no matter, he simply nodded at her first statement but paused at her second. How could he explain what the letter 'B' was, other than a letter of the alphabet?
"'B' is...Ah...." He floundered. The Russian was absolutely stumped on how to explain what it was. One hand flew to the back of his neck to rub at a phantom itch, but passed through the brown locks on his right side first and swept part of his bangs back from his eyes for a brief moment. Lai's mouth opened and closed twice as he thought, getting very little in ideas. Only Hyo's sudden searching movements made him turn to look at the girl and he was met with a book being held up to his face. Her question brought a clear smile to his face, but he gently shook his head, then reached for a smaller sheet of paper.
"Sort of Miss." He said as he picked up his pen. "That is a book. B-O-O-K." He slowly wrote the letters out, tapping to each one on the alphabet chart just before writing it down. Afterward, he reached for a paperclip that was stuck on one of the folders, leaned the book back towards himself, and clipped the paper to the hardback's cover. The Russian man looked at his handiwork and started to think that this sort of method wouldn't be too bad to use, should the Korean girl understand. There were plenty of objects in the library, and she might be curious about most, if not all, of them. Plus, she could learn to spell them out, speak them, and start to read all in one! Lai was optimistic, but he knew not to get ahead of himself.
Rushing would be bad. One step at a time Lai, let her grasp the basics first before you start throwing words like 'prodigious' and 'infinite' at her. You still have to teach her what the letters mean, judging by her question! Do not get ahead of Miss Hyo or yourself.
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:08 pm
Hm...so apparently, he was wrong. Hyo lowered his head in shame. Yet, he was still observing the Kind Spirit, since he was once again writing something down for him. It was a much longer symbol, and it seemed a bit different than the ones he saw so far - the one most on the left looked kinda like the left side of Bireterbii. The rest, he didn't know, though he enjoyed the roundness of the two in the middle. And then the Kind Spirit called the names of them, one after another. Somehow, the first one was supposed to be that Bii, even though it looked a bit different. Then there was Ou, two times one after another, wouldn't just one be enough? And on the end was Kei. All four symbols together were supposed to be read as 'buuk', wchich he did right after the Kind Spirit, and meant the huge parchment thing. So it's name was buuk. He'll need to remember that. And yet, there was still something he didn't understand. He drew Bireterbii - one line, two curves, and another line next to it, that changed into a nice round shape near its half (Bb), and then he drew Bii like the Kind Spirit did in buuk - just the line with the curves (B). Were they somehow different symbols, but meaning the same thing at the same time...?
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:01 pm
Since there was very little understandable communication between the two, Lai was left in the dark to Hyo's confusion about the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters. He beamed when the girl pronounced the word 'book', reaching over the bound pages to pat the girl on the head. Now that she knew what it is, he figured, she could ask for one or at the very least point one out without confusion.
"Very good Miss Hyo." Spoken in a library-soft voice, only loud enough for the girl to hear. When Lai's hand removed itself from the Korean girl's head, he eased the book from her hands and placed it on the table with the clipped paper facing them. He watched her spell out 'book' for herself, smiling just a little at the fact she had spoken and knew what one word was and that she had learned about five letters so far. Slightly out of order of course, but no matter. Letter 'B' seemed to have been grasped, as well as it's capitalization, so best to start working on the rest. Never hurt to start from the top, and he had to get some steam into the program or else they'd be working at a sloth's pace all day. Letter 'A'.
Lai got up from the table and, after leaning back to stretch and hear a faint popping in his back, scanned the library. Something that started with 'A', and that had a relatively short spelling....His eyes flicked around on tables, shelves, stands, anything and everything in the room. Nothing with an English 'A' name. How...Odd. He didn't want to have to resort to drawing examples; though he was creative, drawing was not his strong point. Something could end up looking like something else and confusing the girl more. There honestly wasn't anything in the roo--
He found it. Over on a small table in the corner behind him and Hyo was a metal bowl filled with wax fruit. Sitting on top of the arrangement was a shiny red apple, the perfect example. Lai looked down at Hyo and smiled before making the walk around the couch and across the room to the bowl, lifting it off its stand and carrying it back over. He set it down just next to the note-pinned book and plucked the apple off the top, setting it down between himself and the Korean. Another scrap of paper was torn off a larger sheet and he proceeded to tell her what it was, just like with the book.
"This is an apple. A-P-P-L-E." Point to the alphabet sheet, write down the letter. Once it was done he set the wax food on top of the paper, sliding the entire thing back against the book. Food items, wax or not, would be beneficial to learn. Just as long as she didn't try to eat the dust covered wax ones.
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