“Fight!!! Fight!!!” About thirty students of class 5 of Nanyang High formed a circle around two students who was performing another smack down scene in their classroom. Clapping their hands and yelling supportively, as if they were watching some sort of football match, they gave more and more energy to their quarrelling friends.

“She’s my girlfriend!! And you’re my best friend! How come you date her???!!” screamed Jonghwa, one of the fighting boys to another. Sitting on top of his love rival, he punched him hard on his stomach. Both boys were already in a mess; their school uniforms were hanging loose on their bruising bodies because all the buttons had already gone.

“She loves me more than loving you, !!!” replied Taehwan. Grabbing the other harsh on his arm, he rolled their bodies on the classroom floor and continued fighting. Some of their friends, who were standing up the closest to them, quickly stepped aside. The desks around them were all mussed.

“Oh, my God! Stop fighting, you two!” pleaded Nari, the girl both the guys were fighting over. She looked worried, but sometimes a satisfied grin escaped from her.

“Stop it! Stop! Stop fighting!” Reny Kim, the physics teacher, yelled furiously to her students. She made her way to the center, trying desperately to stop the chaos. But she was too tiny, too inferior, with her tiny figure and her inaudible voice that none of her students listened to her.

That was the third in that week. First week for Reny, but she had already felt sick and tired. Students in that school, where she had just started teaching in, were famous for their attitude. Not only performing body contacts in the middle of the lesson, they often set a prank on their teachers.

On normal days, Reny might be quite patient with her bothersome pupils, but that time, she really felt like quitting that school. Didn’t they know that that was her special day, the special day of a year when she would celebrate her 24^th Korean birthday?

Feeling more distressed, she climbed onto one of the desk and screamed her lungs out. “Aren’t you supposed to be studying??”

Seeing unusual reaction of their teacher, whose eyes were already red and watery, all students stopped dead at once. They stared at their teacher guiltily; even the combating boys on the floor lifted their faces up to look at their teacher.

“You, come with me now!!!” pointed Reny to both her fighting students. “We’ll meet the principal!!”

***

“Third times a week! In your class only! I’m sorry, Miss Kim, but it’s unbelievable!” said Principal Oh, a middle-aged woman, once the bothersome students stepped out of his room with a paper for their parents.

“As an educator, it’s your duty to teach them! Not only teaching Space is equal to velocity multiplied by time, but also to teach them how to become a useful human being! And look at this!”

The principal threw a folder full of students’ report onto the table, right in front of Reny’s eyes. She shivered a bit, but there was a denial in her. How on earth was she supposed to stop Nari, the well-known playgirl of the school to date more than one boy at once?

Reny sighed. “I’m really sorry, Headmistress. This is all my responsibility. I promise this won’t happen anymore.”

The principal let out a heavy breath. “I have to say this, Miss Kim. If this kept happening, without any efforts from you to stop it, you’d rather prepare your resignation letter. I don’t want my students to be some sorts of brats.”

With one last bow to the headmaster, Reny walked out from his room. She was already on the brink of the tears. Being a teacher was her dream. When she was younger, she had always fantasized how bright her future would be, teaching physics to her cute beloved students, who would listen to her explanation about Newton’s Law of Force attentively.

Reny took her phone out of her pocket, attempting to give Eunmi, one of her closest friends, a call.

“I’m sorry, Reny-ah, I’m busy right now,” the chemistry teacher said heartlessly through the phone.

“Just a moment, unnie, please?” pleaded Reny. “I really need someone to talk to. Aren’t you having a lunch break right now?”

“Yes, but… No, I have many things to do. See you later.” And she hung up the call.

Reny tried to call Hyebin, another best friend of her. She really hoped, actually she was praying inside that the later would pick up her call. But, after several tries, it was always ended with the operator’s voice.

Just that. That was what she got from her best friends, who said that no matter what happened they would be forever by her side. And they didn’t even remember her birthday.

Reny lowered her head in sadness just to lift it up again as she heard her phone ringing. That was JYJ’s Park Yoochun, her superstar boyfriend.

Even though she was feeling so cheerless, she couldn’t suppress the smile on her lips. It was such a surprise. After one week of no contact at all with her sweetheart, due to his drama-making, he finally gave her a call.

“Yoboseyo, oppa,” she greeted.

“Yoboseyo, Reny-ah,” Reny’s heart skipped a beat hearing his husky voice. “Listen, I don’t have much time to talk on the phone, but I’d like to have a dinner with you tonight. Our place at seven, okay?”

Startled by his straightforwardness, she stuttered, “O-okay, but-“

“Well done. I’ll see you there. Bye.”

That was all. No goodbye kiss, no his romantic I love you at all, even he didn’t bother to ask about her days.

‘He may be busy,’Reny tried to console herself. She didn’t want to question her boyfriend and end up being even sadder, not on her birthday.

‘Busy? But to forget his girlfriend’s birthday…’

‘He doesn’t forget it. It’s simply impossible. He loves me. We’re going to have dinner, and he probably has prepared something to cheer me up. A surprise or sorts…’

***

And there really was a surprise. As soon as she sat down for dinner, across her boyfriend’s stunning being, he said that they had to end their relationship.

“Why?” Reny asked in disbelief. Her voice was almost trembling for what she had just heard and yet she tried to hold back. “We love each other.”

“We do, but I can’t stand this anymore, jagiya. I hate going backstreet, I detest the fact that we can’t date publicly, and I’m tired to share my time between you, my family, and work,” said Yoochun emotionlessly.

Reny’s breath suddenly became shorter as she swallowed the fact. Yoochun, she always loved that Korean multi-talented entertainer since the day he had performed as DBSK member. Right then, they had been going out for two years. Together, they had shared many ups and downs, and they managed to carry on. Being tolerant as she always was, Reny tried to understand the circumstances her boyfriend was in, tolerating the way he forgot their anniversary, managing to stand against his bad habits not to mention the lacking contacts. But, all of a sudden, he said he couldn’t stand it.

Yoochun, who had been demonstrating his coldness ever since Reny had steeped into the restaurant, added, “I’m sorry, Reny-ah. We can be friends, nevertheless. Now, let’s eat.”

But Reny had lost her appetite. She stared blankly to delicious foods in front of her while Yoochun was helping himself with the food, eating so eagerly as if the end of their relationship was nothing important for him.

“Oppa, can I just go home now?” she asked.

“Go home?” Yoochun raised his head in confusion. “But you haven’t touched your food yet!”

“I’m not hungry,” she briefly said.

“All right,” Yoochun sighed. “I’ll send you home.”

“No, you don’t need to. I’ll take train home.”

“No, I’ll give you a ride. For the last time,” Yoochun gave an accentuation at the word last.

“Oh, okay,” Reny nodded briefly, avoiding Yoochun’s eyes.

“Reny, are you okay?” asked Yoochun concernedly. The way he asked her, the warmth in his voice, could only break Reny’s heart even more, as she realized that that might be their last day together. After that, she could suspect what would happen. Yoochun would forget her easily and Yoochun would soon find someone who was much more suitable for him. Probably a fellow celebrity, whose face is a lot prettier and whose achievement was much more than what Reny could get.

That was too much for her. She really wanted to scream out loud, telling the world that she didn’t want to end her relationship with her beloved boyfriend, or kiss Yoochun right there and then so people around them would get heart attack. She wanted at least tell Yoochun that was unfair. She did the tolerance needed for their relationship, and she was the one who should give up. But things went wrong, totally wrong.

“You’re being pretty quiet,” said Yoochun as they drove toward her apartment. All that time, Reny had been sitting on the passenger’s seat, leaning her head to the side, looking outside the window and completely avoiding Yoochun’s gaze. “Is there something wrong?”

‘I was just dumped by my boyfriend, of course there’s nothing wrong,’ Reny answered in mind cynically. But she kept that line only for herself. She answered instead, “Nothing.”

“Are you mad because we broke up?” Yoochun asked her again. “It’s not because I don’t love you. It’s because… I don’t wanna hurt you, Reny-ah. That’s all.”

As Reny continued being silence, Yoochun added, “If only we could meet in different-“

“I understand, oppa,” Reny cut sharply.

“Oh…,” Yoochun seemed to lose words. “Oh, all right.”

Arriving at home, Reny murmured a simple thank you for her ex before leaving him in sorrow. She expected Yoochun to leave her at once so she could cry freely. Her heart felt so full that she thought she could explode anytime. But she failed to notice that Yoochun had followed her.

“Reny, wait!” yelled the man. “Wait!”

“What do you want, Park Yoochun?” She turned around to face her ex; tears were already fulfilling her eyes. “I know what you want! I understand!!! Now can you just leave me?”

She was disappointed again as Yoochun looked calm and nonchalant. The man had used to be very bothered once he saw Reny mad. He had used to love her so much, but that love he had had vanished that time.

“There’s one more thing, Miss Kim,” said Yoochun coldly. “I need to walk you in.”

“Why is that?” asked Reny in distress. She stood still just to get Yoochun’s answer, but the man passed her by and walked directly to her door. He stepped aside, signaling her to open it.

Reny didn’t understand why Yoochun did that. She was so much confused, in addition to feel devastated, and yet her ex tortured her even more. But, obeying his unspoken instruction, she unlocked her door.

“SURPRISEE!!!” A loud yell, along with toy-trumpet sound and rain of confetti welcomed her. Closing her eyes in attempt to avoid the confetti from entering, she heard many voices shouting, “Happy birthday, Reny Kim!!!!”

“You…,” she lost her words, seeing that all her loved ones were there, her two best friends who had been ignoring her all day, her coworkers, and even the principal. On top of all, her parents who lived outside Seoul were there too, handing a big birthday cake with many beautiful candles on it. Right then she slowly understood that it was only a prank they had set for her birthday.

Looking expectantly to her ex, she found a man who was smiling so brightly, as if there was nothing severe had happened to their relationship. Yoochun later hugged her tight, enveloping her with his warmth.

“I’m sorry for lying to you. I’m really sorry for neglecting you recently. I wanted to make something special for your special day, jagiya, so we arranged this for you,” he said apologetically. Softly releasing her, he stared lovingly at the woman he loved so much and said, “Happy birthday, my love.”

‘What a day it is,’ Reny thought as she was congratulated by the people she loved so much.

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