Chanyoung sits straight up in his seat with eyes straight forward. The bell had rung more than a minute ago, yet his classmates were still playing around in the halls.

“Good morning, Chanyoung,” Ms. Park, his homeroom teacher, walks into the room while greeting her student with a kind smile.

“Good morning, teacher!” Ever the model learner, Chanyoung gets out of his desk and bows politely. She nods with her sweet demure, proud of the polite boy. Teachers weren’t supposed to have favorites, but who couldn’t give special treatment to Chanyoung, the epitome of a perfect pupil: stellar grades, a kind personality towards everyone, respected by his classmates (more for his reputation than anything else), and he was going to be quite handsome in the future. Adults had that type of intuition.

As more and more of the class file into the room with sighs of a school day ahead invading their thoughts, she takes roll of those present and absent.

“Yoo Rachel?”

A bored voice calls out, “Here,” to remind the teacher of her presence.

“Has anybody seen Young Do?”
“Oh, I saw him with Kim Tan in the cafeteria!” Myeong Soo eagerly responds.

Shaking her head, Ms. Park marks a tardy for the two troublemakers, even though they would never receive any punishment. That was the thing when teaching children of millionaires and of the higher class. No matter what happened, the parents had enough money to protect their child from any damage to the resume. Still, Ms. Park wondered whether it was really the child’s fault if they did anything wrong considering how the parents acted in meetings. Some really needed to learn proper manners.

“Lee Bo Na?”

No answer is heard.

Chanyoung blinks when he hears the name, wondering why there was no high-pitched response, the one that had irritated him so in the past.

“Alright, everybody else seems to be here – today we’re taking a quiz on formulas so please get your privacy folders, everybody!” Ms. Park starts the class, pulling Chanyoung out of his curiosity.

--

--

“Penny for your thoughts?” Hyo-Shin comes to sit by Chanyoung on the school steps, a good observing spot of the playground where the majority of the school were frolicking in. The duo was always ranked in the top five, if not the top two. They both had recognized that the maturity of themselves had outgrown most people in their grade, resulting in the two spending much time together.

“You sound like an old man, but here,” Chanyoung grins and takes out a rusted penny inside his pocket, showing it to Hyo-shin.

“Yah, I’m supposed to be giving you the penny if I’m asking you, idiot,” Hyo-shin jokes with him, a genuine smile on his face.

“Oh,” Chanyoung looks down in mild embarrassment.

“Hm, something interesting going on? Gotta crush?” Hyo-shin’s playful smile disappears when he sees that Chanyoung stays quiet. “Hey, what’s going on? You’re too serious,” His voice drops lower, a sign that he was open to listen.

A heavy silence thickens the air between them.

“My mom…” The words come out on dry lips, and Chanyoung tries hard to continue.

“Yeah?”

“My mom…she…” Chanyoung bites his lip, feeling the cut on his lip reemerge and the taste of blood on his tongue. “It’s okay, yeah, everything’s…okay, let me just go to the bathroom quickly.” Standing up with a mission, Chanyoung quickly says a goodbye to the confused companion and briskly walks to the teacher’s office.

“Excuse me,” He politely opens the door with a greeting and makes his way to Ms. Park’s small desk space. “Ms. Park?”

She had been grading the quizzes and widens her eyes in surprise upon seeing her student right in front of her.

“Ah, Chanyoung! You surprised me.” She quickly smiles, “Something you need?”

“Hi, sorry to interrupt you…I just was wondering - Lee Bo Na must have some makeup work to do, right?”

“Yes, she does since she did miss class today,” Ms. Park nods her head slowly, not sure where this was going.

“Her house is always on the way home and I wouldn’t mind dropping off the notes,” He scratches the back of his head awkwardly. “Do you think I could?”

Ms. Park blinks a few times, surprised that Chanyoung of all people was asking her. She didn’t know the two were close, but well, spring was coming wasn’t it? Her hidden smile goes unnoticed while browsing through the mess of papers on her desk, finally finding the paper work of the day. “That’s wonderful of you to ask, Chanyoung. Taking initiatives – I like it! Now, just tell her to complete these and study for a quick quiz next time on habitats and she should be all good!”

“Thank you Ms. Park!” With a renewed energy, Chanyoung bows quickly and walks out of the room. Mission accomplished.