Day 8

            “Uniform…books…pencils…” Slowly checking off everything I needed for the day, I buttoned my shirt and tugged on my socks before grabbing my backpack and leaving my room.

            “You almost ready?”

            “Yeah!” I answered as I entered the kitchen. I flashed Jong Kook a smile as I grabbed a glass of water.

            “Excited for your second day?” I rolled my eyes.

            “I’ve never once been excited for school,” I said with mirth, end of my lips twisting up along with one of my eyebrows. Jong Kook chuckled.

            “Yeah, same,” he winked at me and grabbed his gym bag off the floor – he’d been taping his knee. He seemed to always have some sort of tape on.

            “All right, I’m ready.” He agreed to drive me this morning. Or rather he told me he’d take me in at the rude hour of 6AM but I forgave him for it because it meant I could sleep just a little bit longer.

            “I meant to ask how your first day went…” Was his opening sentence as we climbed into his car. I had no idea what make or model it was but it seemed like an average sized crossover type car with five seats and a sun roof. Not the car of some celebrity.

            “It was fine, I guess.” I started, “My homeroom teacher is pretty scary – he looks like a bulldog and sounds like one, too.” He chuckled next to me, “And he’s huge!” I exclaimed waving my arms in the air to emphasize the hugeness. “There’s a kid named Dino that I sit next to…he’s a trainee and then there’s this other girl named Chaeyoung but she doesn’t seem to have too many friends. Oh! I need a gym uniform –“

            “I put it in your closet,” He commented, I gaped.

            “I didn’t see it,” I could feel him face palm without even having to look at him. “My bad…” I trailed off, slightly embarrassed at the fact that I was angry with him for not getting me one when he really had and I’m just blind. Picking at my nails, my mind began to wander and it chose to settle upon the topic of my name. Specifically, what it legally was at this point.

            “Oh, and another thing…” I trailed off, hesitant for the answer, unsure how I was going to react regardless of the answer, “A lot of the teachers at school were calling me Kim Jae Si…”

            “Ahh…” He tapped the steering wheel with his thumbs, “I know I should’ve asked you what you wanted to be registered as but there wasn’t that much time and your birth certificate had Kim on it so I just went with that. I didn’t know that you went by your moms last name at the time…” I nodded, I hadn’t known until then that Kim was on my birth certificate. I guess there’s a lot of things I don’t know – especially about myself, about who I am.

            “I didn’t know…” I said out loud, worrying my lip with my teeth and looking out the window.

            “Are you okay? It’s probably an easy fix if you want to use your Mom’s…” I shook my head. It surprised me, but I didn’t want to be known as a Bailey here. Everyone would know me as Kim Jong Kook’s daughter, anyway – might as well bare the name, as well.

            “No, it’s fine,” I said, “I was just curious about it is all.” I paused, “You think my Mom ever planned on telling me about you?” He shrugged.

            “Who knows what was going on in her head?” He said after a moment of silence.

            “Probably not much – the drugs messed her up pretty bad,” I mumbled to myself, huffing a cynical chuckle before looking out the window – the car’s mood was pretty much ruined as Jong Kook slipped into nostalgia and I into cynicism and self-pity.

            “Have a good day, all right?” I nodded, grabbing my bag and giving a quick wave as I hopped out of the car.

            “You, too,” I said, before turning to leave. Jong Kook was soon out of my mind as I saw Dino walking towards the school and I hurried to catch up to him.

            “Hey!” I said excitedly, running and fake jump-kicking him. He had the sense to pretend to be hurt.

            “Didn’t know you were so violent,” He smirked, stuffing a hand into his pocket

            “There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” I replied in a mysterious crystal ball fortune teller lady voice.

            “Ooooo, got ourselves a badass over here,” He shot back, wiggling his fingers at me. I snorted.

            Before I knew it we were walking into class with Mr. Bulldog staring at us with a raised eyebrow. I couldn’t tell you why he felt the need to do that but, he’s a mean person so maybe he’s just playing mind games. I put out Mr. Bulldog’s weird behavior from my mind and focused on a budding friendship. Only the second day in and I felt oddly comfortable with Dino. We just clicked, I guess.

            I waved at Chaeyoung when she walked in and she smiled carefully and waved back. Another odd thing happened when I did that, though. A group of girls began laughing and being the opposite of subtle as they talked about me.

            “What’s their issue?” I asked Dino with an inquisitive brow. He shrugged noncommittedly.

            “They’re always like that. Plus, I think Chaeyoung is being outcasted by them and kind of by everyone else but not on purpose. They have some issue with her and other people don’t want to have an issue with them so Chaeyoung just kind of gets the short end of the stick.” I stared at the group of giggling girls, disgust boiling in my stomach.

            “Well that’s just stupid,” I commented, turning back to face Dino. He shrugged again.

            “That’s just life.”

            A loud slap of a stick on wood drew my attention from the clear case of cruelty throwing a shadow over the class.

            “All right, everyone, listen up….” Needless to say, I zoned out after that first line.

***

            “Hey Gapjin?”

            “Yeah?” The manager said as he sipped on a tangerine flavored fizzy water.

            “I think Jessi slipped that her Mom was on drugs this morning…”

            “I know.” Jong Kook gaped at his friend.

            “What? How do you know?”

            “Wahhh, you really don’t listen do you?” Gapjin paused to take another sip as he drowned a chuckle. “She died of an overdose. The social worker told us that.”

            “Yeah I knew that but wasn’t it just an accident?”

            “I mean it was probably an accident but meth isn’t a drug that accidentally injects itself into your blood stream. Therefore, Erin probably had a drug problem.”

            “Well…,” Jong Kook whispered, holding a hand to his mouth and scrubbing at the slight growth of facial hair around his lips, “So it’s safe to assume Jessi’s life wasn’t rainbows and candy before her mother passed, either.” He mumbled mostly to himself. Gapjin rolled his eyes again.

            “Now I remember why I’ve been this kid’s manager for the past forever and a half.” He laughed to himself as he walked to get another fizzy water – this time watermelon and kiwi flavored.

Note:

A certain social worker gave a certain father a certain file

But the father was a nincompoop

Albeit a well-intentioned one.

***

            At lunch I scoped out my target, Dino grimacing at my intentions but still egging me on with the reluctantly mischevious glint in his eye.

            “Yah…Jessi, you’re totally going to ruin how our class works…” the trainee said, flexing his shoulders slightly, his tone amused more than irritated.

            “It’ll be fine,” I drawled out with a smile. Deliberately rising slowly from my seat, I took slow steps over to wear my target sat, soon all eyes were on me and my target’s eyes rose to meet mine. The target shook her head slightly as her eyes darted around. I smiled at her and bounced the rest of the two steps it took to meet her.

            “Yah! Chaeyoung-ah, let’s be friends,” The room went silent, I could feel the evil group of popular girls staring fire bolts into me but in that moment I was flame proof.

            “No, it’s okay…” Chaeyoung tried to wave me off but I grabbed her tray and insisted.

            “C’mon it’s no fun to eat by yourself.” Chaeyoung hesitantly rose from her seat, head ducked painfully low as she followed me over to wear Dino was trying (and failing) to keep a stoic expression. I sat her tray beside mine.

            “You really shouldn’t have done that,” The timid girl said.

            “I’m not scared of them,” I said with a shrug, “Plus you seem too cool for me not to get to know you.” Chaeyoung smiled slightly at that. I nodded for her to eat seeing as we only had about five minutes left in lunch and she’d barely eaten.

            I heard someone mention that quote, “She’s asking for a death sentence,” end quote as I finished my meal and smirked at the thought of messing up the system at this ed up school.

            I also may have smiled a bit at the thought of making a new friend.

            That night I walked home and it was already dark, Mr. Bulldog thought it’d be funny to make me in charge of cleaning all the bathrooms under the premise of “having to learn how to contribute like the other students.” A whole load of BS if you ask me but I did it without complaint, him breathing over my shoulder every half hour or so to “make sure I was meeting standards” or something like that. Rolling my aching shoulders, I plugged my earphones into my phone and my music, humming softly as I walked down the middle of the carless street.

            I nodded at people as I passed and they nodded back although a bit awkwardly. I gathered that greeting strangers wasn’t the most common practice. As I walked and walked and walked and walked, twisting and turning on hill-ridden roads it occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea where I was.

            I was lost.

            Which was weird because I definitely knew the way back to the apartment.

            I decided to retrace my steps.

            Unfortunately, that did not work…at all. I was well and completely lost so I just found the nearest street sign – which was harder than you’d think and opened up a navigation app on my phone but then the unfortunate struck again and my phone blinked at me three times before dying. Ironically, “The Final Countdown,” was the song that happened to be cut short.

            “Well…this ,” I mumbled to myself in the dark. It was only then that I started to feel that the yellow glow street lamps were casting was actually pretty creepy. I could hear horror music in the back of my head as I settled on trying to find a convenience store.

Note:

Apparently Jessi found the only place in Seoul without a Convenience Store.

            I huffed, blowing short bangs off of my forehead and sat down – this wouldn’t be the first night spent outside. Perhaps a police officer would find me or some stranger would walk by and I could ask to use their cellphone to call Jong Kook.

            Who am I kidding, I don’t have his number memorized…I sighed defeatedly and settled against the wall of some realty building. It was slightly chilly but it wasn’t unbearable, I wrapped my arms around myself and tucked my knees under my chin, thankful for the fact that I’d decided to wear a pair of shorts under the god awful skirt that day.

            . I’ve been such an idiot lately.

***

            The apartment was quiet when Jong Kook got home that night around 11PM. More than the quiet, however, Jong Kook was bothered by the fact that all the lights were off. And her shoes were missing. Maybe she just took them off in her room? He thought.

            “Jessi?” He called, walking towards her room as he flipped on light switches. He knocked on the door and it opened. He was met with a dark and empty room – no backpack. No shoes. No Jessi. Maybe she went to the Judo gym again? His hope was ruined as he saw her uniform hanging on the wall.

            Jong Kook heard his manager come into the apartment – he usually stayed to hang out for an hour on days where there was work.

            “Hyung!” Jong Kook’s sharp tone immediately prickled Gapjin’s ears.

            “What?” He asked cautiously.

            “Jessi’s not home!” Jong Kook said, panic making its way into his throat.

            “Really?”

            “Yeah, really,” Jong Kook rested his elbows on the counter before he swiftly grabbed the keys to his personal car, “Sorry, gotta go look for her,” the father mumbled distractedly as he shoved on shoes and slammed the door. Gapjin waved him out, found a beer in the fridge and sighed as he rubbed his forehead.

            “These two are really gonna make me old,” He groaned before shuffling his phone out of his pocket and dialing a number.

Note:

“Homeroom teacher” appeared on the screen.

            Meanwhile, Jong Kook dialed his daughter’s phone number and felt his heart sink as his call was sent straight to voicemail. He did indeed leave a voice mail and it involved a lot of cussing.

***

            I felt myself start to doze off slightly as I played with the staples at my hairline – I’d honestly forgotten I’d got them. I sleepily chuckled at the memory of slipping in the shower – although it hurt back then now it was a just a comical scene.

            As I dozed off, more memories surfaced. A broken leg, a busted lip, black eye, papercut, someone elses tooth wedged into my arm – long story -, disgusting eyes trailing across my body, a child’s body, hands, a lot of hands. At the center of it all, a needle and the frozen features of my mother’s features as she shot up for the last time.

            My mind flipped. Sleepovers, sparring, laughing, running down the streets barefoot, torn clothing, cherished clothing, skipping rocks at the pond, Aiden – my childhood friend – and his dumb, toothy grin --- I was rudely awakened by a hand to the shoulder.

            A hand I quickly turned and held away from me.

            “Yah!” A voice yelled as the hand broke away. The voice was familiar but I was still drowsy, nonetheless I fought to my feet.

Rude Awakening

A large hand flicked the forehead

Of a drowsy girl

                                          Who was becoming his least favorite student

            I winced and rubbed my head, my eyes making out the familiar but disliked face of my home room teacher, Song Jeong Chul AKA Mr. Bulldog.

            “What kind of girl can sleep so easily on the street like that,” The teacher berated as he lead his student over to his parked car by the shoulder, opening the door to climb in. I hesitated, looking at him wearily. The harshness of his features relaxed slightly.

            “Do you want to call your Dad before I take you home?” I nodded eagerly, I didn’t know Mr. Bulldog, not really, and he was much, much larger than me. He handed me his phone with Jong Kook’s number already dialed.

            “Hello?” The voice answered, I relaxed at the comfortingly familiar voice.

            “Ahjussi,” I mumbled.

            “Jessi?”

            “yeah…”

            “Where are you?” His tone was urgent and I felt tear prickling my eyes.

            “I don’t know exactly but my homeroom teacher found me – I took a wrong turn on the way home,” Mr. Bulldog huffed in disbelief from the driver’s seat and I sent him a glare over my shoulder, he just rose and eyebrow at me as if to say “What?”

            “How’d he know to look for – Oh…Gapjin.” There was a pause, “Well, I’ll see you at home.” The line cut off and I handed my teacher back his phone as I climbed into his car.

            “Thank you.”

            “Yep.” The car ride was silent from then on out aside from another thank you and a sorry as Jessi climbed out and finally made it home.

Note:

Jessi got a hug and a lecture

She was much more careful going home from then on out

She did not mention that she’d fallen asleep on the street

Gapjin fell asleep in a drunken stupor on the Kim family’s couch

Jong Kook considered GPSing his teenage daughter

And a certain homeroom teacher rolled his eyes and raised a brow as he drifted off.