[Soo Hee’s POV]

“This is child labour...” I said, after minutes of silence since we got out of the Principal’s office. We were on our way to get the cleaning stuff.

“More like slavery.” Dongho completed, pouting. “I don’t deserve this!”

“You don’t?” His homeroom teacher seemed really pissed. “Then what about me?”

“You failed to educate me.” He pompously stated.

“No, it was you that failed to learn it!”

“I don’t think so~~” He cutely sang.

“Oh Shin Dong Ho, you’re so annoying for God’s sake.”

Those two just kept on discussing the whole corridor. My teacher sighed. I looked outside through the hall’s windows and it was already sunset.

“Okay, so let’s start by the rooms. You both clean all the classrooms from the male area and me and Soo Hee stay with the female area, deal?” My teacher spoke as soon as we got the cleaning stuff.

“What? What do you mean, you’re really going to clean?”

“Isn’t that what we are supposed to do?” My teacher gave the other teacher a confused, yet seductive, look. “Or are you thinking of ignoring the principal’s orders, Park Sun Mi?” He asked, with a smirk on his face.

She grabbed Dongho’s wrist and again, literally pushed him, making some loud steps, clearly affected Teacher Seunghyun’s look. Both started to argue again.

“Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to let those two be alone... I’m afraid Shin Dong Ho gets abused or similar by her.” I immediately looked at him as he said that, seeing him laughing at himself. “Let’s go?” He made a movement with his head indicating the way and I nodded.

We entered a classroom and put all the things on the teacher’s desk. It was a bit awkward since none of us talked and there was no sound on the whole school except for those two. I saw him looking at the clock and suddenly I felt guilty. Because of me he had to be held back from his appointments and stay at school doing some slavery work like Dongho named it.

“Sorry...” I started.

“Why?” He turned, smiling. He grabbed some wet fabric and started cleaning the students’ desks.

“Because it’s my fault you being here... cleaning... after school.” I was only standing there, feeling a bit awkward, so I started cleaning the chalkboard with its eraser.

“It’s as the principal said, I failed, so I have to be punished. Besides, it’s not like I had something to do at the moment, so I’m okay with it and... you’re doing it wrong!”

The last part caught my attention so I turned to him. He had stopped cleaning to take off his pullover and to roll his long shirt sleeves. Yes, that’s how he dresses for work, all preppy-looking. I gave him a confused look.

“You have to wet some fabric, put on some detergent and only then you start cleaning.”

“Ah, right.” How does he know all that? Or is it that obvious? “Makes sense...” I nodded. He chuckled and kept on cleaning.

I caught myself staring at him again. His dark blond hair moved as he strongly wiped the desk. You could see his biceps and triceps moving through his baby blue slim-fit shirt. His big intense eyes were focused on what he was doing. He looked... attractive. Suddenly he stopped what he was doing to take his expensive-looking watch and noticed me. He made a move with his head as asking “What?”. I shook my head and got back to work, a bit disoriented. I heard him chuckling while putting down his watch next to the cleaning stuff.

I felt weird inside. My face was burning and I had this strange... feeling inside my stomach.

“Oh, this is tiring...” He moaned.

“I know, right?” I kept on cleaning the board but I could hear he stopped.

“Heh, who knew I would be doing this again...” He restarted his work.

“Hm, what do you mean?”

“Oh, Soo Hee, if only you knew how many times I’ve cleaned this school after classes...” I stopped to look at him.

“What, did you have that many bad students over the years?”

“Oh, I wish. It’s only my second year here and I’ve only been in charge of this class until now.”

“Then, what do you mean?” I really wasn’t getting what he wanted to say.

“The bad student was me and all my punishments were doing this we are doing right now.” He leaned on the desk as he saw my confused face, putting the wiping cloth aside. “You see, I was a student here before, graduated high school here, went to college and graduated and then they offered me this place as a math’s teacher. Or else how did you think I got to be a homeroom teacher with my age?”

“What’s wrong with your age?”

“I’m 24. 25 in a few weeks.”

“Whoa.” I was shocked. I’m 16, that makes a gap of only... 8 years? He really is young! “You look older.” It escaped from my mouth. He chuckled again. “I mean, you look younger when in casual clothes.” I quickly corrected.

“But I have to look older! Do you think my students would actually respect me if I told them my real age?”

“So they don’t know your age?”

“Well, I never told them. They probably think I’m 30 or so.” He laughed. “Let’s get back to work or else we’ll never leave here.” He sighed. “I really don’t want to do this, though. I wonder what those two are doing...” He got back to work, turning his back to me.

I wanted to keep on talking, but he seemed he wanted to get this done as soon as possible and we still had a lot to work on. Suddenly a phone ring was heard, I kept doing what I was doing. Almost finished with the board!

“Your call, Soo Hee.” He said.

“Hm?” I went to get my phone from my backpack. “Oh, right, thanks.” I picked the call up. “Oh, mom?”

“Soo Hee, where are you? It’s late! I don’t want you to be wandering in Seoul alone, when you don’t know anything around here!” She seemed tired... and lonely.

“I’m at school, mom. Did you get off work okay?”

“At school this late? I thought all your classes ended at 5PM.”

“And they do. I’m just doing some... extra work.” I didn’t want her to be disappointed with me. “I’ll be home soon, don’t worry. Hang up.” I sighed.

“Extra work? Nice one! I just don’t think you should lie to someone that cares for you, that’s the worst, Soo Hee. Because when you need them, they might not be here for you anymore.” He ended this with a deep sigh.

I put my mobile phone in the desk and grabbed a broom. I hate to be advised of something, I’m too prideful, so I would ignore what he said if it wasn’t for how hurt he looked while telling me that. Something must have happened to him with someone that cared for him... I felt like I should change the subject before he started crying or something . I just don’t know what to say...

“Do you dye your hair?” I stupidly asked.

Hello~~! 

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Well, I have to go back to my writing!

Again, thank you so much for everything until now! :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR~~