[No one’s POV]

            “Kim Soo Hee! I can see you.”

            She entered the classroom quietly, tip-toeing while the Social Studies teacher was writing on the blackboard. But it didn’t work and he noticed her presence. The teacher turned to her.

            “You’re so late that I consider it as disrespect for your teacher. Get out. It’s a pity only the homeroom teacher can give punishments. Wait outside until this class ends.”

            Soo Hee didn’t answer back. Better for her since she didn’t want to go to class either. She quickly went to the corridor.

            “You have to stay there. Don’t you dare go anywhere.”

            “Yes, teacher.”

            She threw the backpack to the ground and sat on it. It was a bit uncomfortable but still better than sitting on the dirty cold floor. She was playing with her converse shoes when her homeroom teacher appeared, stopping right in front of her.

            “What are you doing here?” He asked, sitting on his knees to stay at the same level as her.

            “The teacher won’t let me in.” She said, showing indifference.

            “Want me to talk to him or you don’t want to go in?” He smiled at her and didn’t let her answer. “You missed roll call, where were you?”

            “I fell asleep… and then we got in trouble.”

            “We?”

            “Dongho and I.”

            “Oh, Shin Dong Ho?”

            “Yeah.” She nodded.

            “You guys get along well now, huh…”

            “I sense jealously there.”

            “Oh, mr. Choi! Right the person that I needed just now.” The Social Studies teacher opened the sliding door with a lot of strength.

            “Nah, I’m pretty confident.” He said to Soo Hee, at the same time he stood up to talk to his colleague. “Yes, what is it?”

            [Soo Hee’s POV]

            What did he say really? ‘I’m pretty confident?’ Is he mocking me? I was just kidding when I said that… I only stared at him when he was talking with my other teacher. I didn’t want to hear them, but they were too loud. And they were talking about me. My teacher turned to me and made a sigh with his hand saying he was going to kill me. I don’t know if he wanted to scare me, but with that face of his, that’s pretty impossible. My phone vibrated inside my backpack, so I had to stand up to pick it up. I t was from an unknown number.

            “Hello?”

            “Is this Kim Soo Min’s daughter?”

            “Yes, that’s right.” This was strange. “Who is this?” The caller took a deep breath before starting to talk.

            “Kim Soo Min isn’t picking up her phone and didn’t come to work. This is unusual of her and we wanted to know what is wrong for her to be avoiding our calls.”

            “My mother didn’t go to work?” That’s even stranger. Ah! But… “Oh, that’s right! When she got home yesterday she seems pretty sick. She was cold at the same time she was hot, and she had this cold sweat and she was always coughing. I think she has a cold. I’m so sorry for not telling you beforehand.”

            After putting my mobile phone back in my backpack, teacher Seunghyun, who was already finished talking, came to me.

            “Your mother is sick?”

            “Yes, I think so.”

            “You think so?” He chuckled. “Oh, by the way—“

            “What did he say about me?” My chance to cut him off.

            “Nothing new, except that you are always skipping classes or when you come you’re late and that you never bring the book for the classes, and you don’t pay attention to it at all. And on that so happy note, the exam’s results come out tonight and he doesn’t seem particulary happy.” He breathed in. “Not to say that you at my subject, literally. No offense, of course.”

            “Oh, thank you, you’re so nice.”

            “Well, you asked what he said about you, so I told you.”

            “I deeply doubt he said the last part.”

            “That was me, yeah.” He smiled. “You need extra help, you don’t have the basis. And I don’t think there’s a teacher out there with enough patience to teach you, except—“

            “I bet you were going to say ‘except for me’”

            “Yeah, I was!” He nodded, laughing.

*

[No one’s POV]

            “Hey, new girl.” A few guys were behind Soo Hee. All three guys had three things in common, they were tall, good-looking, and had well-built bodies. Soo Hee turned, wondering for how long would she have that nickname, since she came to this school a few months ago.

            “Me?”

            “Yeah, you.” They got closer to her. “We saw you in P.E.”

            “Yeah, so what?” She was thinking this was weird, but she didn’t retreat. Were they going to hit her?

            “And you have a good body.” She laughed.

            “You know just now you sounded really dirty, right?” The other two laughed, while the one that was talking was trying to explain.

            “That’s not what I meant…”

            “Straight to the point.”

            “Straight to the point, right, hum…” The guy started off well, but now was getting kind of embarrassed.

            “Hyung, hurry up!” Soo Hee laughed.

            “Join our team, please.” He finally managed to say. All of them were holding expectations until Soo Hee said:

            “What team?” They couldn’t help but laugh of embarassement.

            “Basketball team.” They were the most popular team of that school, since it was where all good-looking boys were. “We are in need of one member and then you appearted, which is perfect.”

            “Think about it.” The other one said. “Don’t think about rejecting before trying it. You have to let us convince you.” He winked at her. He was cute, but winking when convicing… That wasn’t Soo Hee style at all.

            “Okay, we’ll see… I’ll try, one day.”

            “Why not now?”

            “Now?”

            “After school.”

            After school… She had the punishment after school, but basketball seemed a lot more interesting than cleaning, so… Why not miss punishment once?

            “Ok, see you!” She took the phone off her backpack and started texting,

            “Seunghyun-ah~

            Do you mind if I skip the cleaning duty? Just this once!

            Thank you~!”

            The screen showed a “message sent” notification. She walked to her classroom, smiling at the same time embarrassed for calling her teacher his name for the first time.