(Class A-12, 1st period, History class)

"Good morning, class!"

The History teachers ambles in the class right after the bell rings. A-12 is her favourite class because the grades are usually very high and she never has to think to much about their rankings or conduct. But in return, the class is not very fond of this teacher. Her teaching style is old-fashioned academic with plain lectures and impractical excercises that are scraps from the book. Having History on first period makes the class sleep for the rest of the day.

"I have a good news for you guys. We're not having a quiz today as I checked the gradebook and you guys have done so far enough than I expected. So today we're going straight to the lesson today."

"Yes, ma'am."

The news doesn't cheer up the class anyhow. But at least, they have extra 15 minutes to rest throughout the class.

"Take out you books and open to page 210. This week we're studying the last period of World War I. Anybody tell me about what we learned last class?"

Nobody raises their hand.

"Anybody? Volunteer will be given bonus point!"

One hand rises in the air.

"Hyojung? Anybody else? Come on, people, don't rely too much on your monitor."

Still no sound, no hand up. Hyojung's hand is still solid in the middle of the class.

"OK, go ahead, Hyojung." The teacher has to give in at the end.

"World War I is a war between the Allies powers of British Empire, Russian Empire, French Empire and the Central powers of Germany, Autria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. It starts in 1914 when Archduke of Austria was assassinated. European countries catched the chance to blame each other and trigger the war." Hyojung gives a long description that doesn't attract any "Wow", except from the teacher.

"Wow! You did a good job in describing the war in only two sentences! Class, give her an applause!" 

The teacher claps loudly, but the class still stays quiet, only a boy from the far corner claps along with the teacher. Everybody knows he has a hard crush on Hyojung, even the teachers. When Hyojung hears the awkward clap, she shyly claps to herself and sit down in embarrassment. 

"Haiz, this class. OK, let's go on. We've talked about the battles, the new technologies of the time, but we haven't talked about specific condition of each country. Today we'll start with Russia."

The teacher can see some students collapse on their desks already.

"Russian Empire land itself expand from Asia to Europe. By the end of the 19th century, its territory was only rival to British Empire. But the Russian monarch of Nicholas II was not effective. While the people were living frugally in poverty, the Romanov house, which ruled the country, lived in luxury."

"Excuse me!" Hyojung suddenly cuts. "Sorry, can you explain about the Romanov and the Russian monarch? Are they different or just the same people?"

"Wow! That's a very good question! Did anybody read ahead of the book? Can anybody answer this?"

The class is still quiet to point of quesiness. "If we already know, why would we need a teacher?" is heard from somewhere. The teacher can only let out a hard sigh.

"The House of Romanov and the Russian monarch are the same. The thrown was descended from father to son, father to son, or in a better word, it's a patrilineality. Keep going to our main lesson, as I said, the last Emperor of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II, whose family was also the last Romanov, didn't rule Russia very effectively. There were many uprises aiming to oust the Romanov. The most famous is the Bolshevik party, which support Marxism. The February Revolution in 1917 overthrew the Russian monarch and declared the end of Russian Empire. The Tsar was replaced by Russian Provisional Goverment. But at the same time, the socialists formed the Petrograd Soviet, which represented the workers and soldiers of the country. This status of Dual Power ended when October Revolution took place in the same year, bringing the Bolshevik Party to rule Russia under communism."

Hyojung's arm throws up in the air one more time.

"Uhm, ma'am?"

"What's that?"

"Did Bolshevik party join the two powers or just end them and creat their own power."

"Thats a very good question. The Provisional Government is supported by intellectuals and professionals, basically the well-educated people. But the government failed to solve property problems as well as other issues because it didn't have absolute control over the country, since the Petrograd Soviet consists of workers and soldiers, the majority of the population. There needed another revolution to unify the country."

"Thank you."

"Other minor information is the book. Now is handout time. Fill in the blanks and short answer responses. You have 30 minutes to complete this. If there is any question, bring it to me. Next, we'll learn about Russia under communist rule, especially under Stalin."

"See that? She's so worth of being a prefect!"

"How lucky this tedious class has her!"

"She could have been the best teacher in the school, though!"

"Does anybody relate her to Trotsky or Stalin yet?"

"She better be Stalin."

Hyojung tries to stay calm when she hears mean comments about her in the class. They do disturb her but she is used to them. They always say she is the kind of all-powerful leader that uses her power to manipulate the students the way she wants. And most people know her for this reason.

(2nd period, Psychology)

"Good morning class. Ready to twist your brain? Yes? No? OK, take out your book to chapter 11. We have a lot to discuss today."

The students dully take out their books. The History class was like an agitating lullaby.

"Our new chapter is about different concepts in daily life. First thing, remember that people tend to learn from others by micmicking. It's the psychological influence in the biopsychosocial analysis. For example, if a student comes in class late, and I have a stick on my hand. What will I do? I'll hit him. And what do you learn from this? NOT TO BE LATE, right? Anybody give a similar example?"

Many students raise their hand. The scene is totally different from the last class. The students become way more active.

"Can I give an example from a movie?" A student says.

"Of course, anything."

"Do you know The Purge movie series?"

"No. But if you explain this well, I may watch it."

"The background is America in the year 2023. The unemployment rate and criminal rate are very low at 1%."

"That's pretty impressive."

"Because they have an annual purge! Every year, on that very day, people are allowed to commit any crime to let out their negative feelings."

"That's pretty scary."

"So, the reason I pick this is the reaction of the people when they first heard about this custom. It's not in the movie, I just question if somebody knows they will definitely be killed or not, and the feeling of the other half will be "To kill or not to kill." Of course, this act is like a degradation of ethics, but it is somehow not, because I can relate it to Social Darwinism⁽¹⁾. Then after the purge, what do they do? Do they live happily or just find some more trouble with people so they can commit the murder again, because if you can kill once, you can kill many..."

"Yah you've said enough! Save some time for others!" Another student complains.

"That attitude is not right in my class!" The teacher shouts and calms the class. "Back to you, yeah, this example is very good. It deals a lot with inner emotions and behaviors affected by the environment. I will watch the movie sometimes. Anybody else?"

Another bunch of hands in the air.

"Can I give an example about social media?"

"Of course."

"So you know about confession websites where people can post without having registered accounts?"

"Yes."

"That act of animosity is an in-between of right and wrong. Yes they can confess things and hide their identities if the confession doesn't harm anybody. But if it does, it's like an antisocial act."

"Hmm, you should explain more about this. So in your opinion about this issue, are you against animosity?" The teacher asks.

"Uhm...I can't decide on this. Animosity is somehow a form of privacy."

"Yes, you're right. Nobody asks your identity when you step in a store or eat in a restaurant, right?"

"Yes."

"Nobody cares about that when you're in the public. But in the Internet, you don't know if it's private or public, right?"

"You got me wrong there. I mean animosity on the Internet is not necessarily private by any means, because the context I gave is anonymous website."

"This is a very interesting discussion. Hyejin, do you have any ideas to share as you're in charge of the school confession?"

The moment the teacher calls on JinE is when dries up. She shyly stands up and looks around.  All eyes are on her. They are expecting an answer.

"When you deal with the confession, the students send their confessions to the school mailbox or whatever. You have to sort them out, right? Then it's not private nor public again. What do you think?"

"Uhm...well...I just post the ones that are appropriate."

"No, I don't mean the process. I mean the meaning of the confession site. Does that relate to our current topic?"

"I don't think so, ma'am." JinE hesitates for a moment. "The approved confessions are anonymous, but people who sent them are not. It's totally irrelevant." She states.

"OK, as you clarified this. Thank you."

(Class B-12, 1st period, Sociology)

"Good morning, class. Is there anybody absent today?"

The students look at around and all shake their heads.

"Very good. Today's lesson is very important and it will definitely be in the test. Get your notebooks out. We'll learn about school violence."

B-12 is considered less boring than A-12, though it's less famous and always ranked after the A class. The school has a discriminatory prejudice that all the "stars" gather in A classes, while B and C classes also have very good students but are less known.

"We don't need the book today. Information in there is pretty old and I don't feel like we should be totally loyal to it. OK, let's start with some simple question. How many of you think school violence is normal in every school?"

The students are dumbfounded when they hear the question that they drop their pens at once. Some secretly look at Mimi and YooA, but the two girls glare at them fiercely to stop the awkward atmostphere.

"Why nobody raises their hand? You must have some opinions about this!"

Some students raise their hand stiffly. They have their eyes scrolling around, avoiding Mimi and YooA. Of course, the girls don't raise their hand. 

"How many of you think school violence is a thing we should stop?"

More than half of the class agree to this.

"But how did it start that we have to stop? Anybody want to share something about this?"

A girl stand up suddenly.

"What story do you bring, Eunjo?"

Eunjo seems very unease. Everybody can see her sweating and closing her eyes tightly. Her hands are in fists and her knees start to tremble.

"My brother...I've seen my brother...being beaten by a group of schoolboys. His name is...Son Eunho."

Even the teacher is stunned when she hears the name.

Because she was at the scene when it was almost done.

"I don't know why...those guys are such bastards! They brought weapons in the school and nobody knew!" The shyness is replaced by the fierce speech. "I don't know why my brother goes to school everyday though he knew he would be hit. I don't know why school violence is even a thing!"

Eungjo almost yells at the teacher. The whole class is totally silent and impressed. Most of them know Son Eunho, as he was very famous. But the reason he was beaten to death is a mystery. The ones who committed the fight did say some common sense to the teachers and police, but the true reason is far too complicated that the case is forgotten.

While the class is still speechless, one student rises and leaves the desk.

"Yah Kim Mihyun, where are you going?" The teacher asks.

"I'm going to the restroom. I can't stand this sobbing situation!"

Of course, every students, including Eunjo, knows Mimi doesn't just go to the restroom, because somehow, somebody will slip their mouth something about her.

Author's notes:

(1) Social Darwinism is very close to the original Darwin thoery about evolution. In the social one, it states that human about go through the same natural selection process. If you're good, you'll survive. The bad ones will be eliminated.

1. I don't want to cram too many characters in, but seems like we've got more background characters, Eunho and Eunjo. Anyway, they do leave some impression about Mimi, YooA and this school violence, right?

2. It's not random that I choose the Russian Revolution for Hyojung's part. There suppose to be a part about Stalin too, but that will make the chapter too long. Can we make any relation about dictatorship and the role of our monitor? (full description in Character list - second update)

3. The Psychology part which features Hyejin is implicative too. The discussion points directly to her. What secret is she holding?

4. I'm sorry that YooA's role is smaller than the other girls. But remember when she said ABC knew the thing Minha always said and the way she became the Queen? The big role is THERE! The next chapters will tell a lot about all of them, so, YooA fans, be patient!

5. Quote of the chapter: You will never reach higher ground if you are always pushing others down. (Jeffrey Benjamin)