We had a fire drill this morning. There were firemen invited to do demonstration on various safety precautions. The whole thing took almost the first half of school day. My class is supposed to be on the last period before recess but there is only ten minutes left so I guess I can just let the kids have study hall instead.

Now that I’m sitting at my desk, all on my own, my thoughts start to drift off to the incident from a couple of nights ago. I haven’t seen Seunghoon since that night, but that is understandable. He is beat up pretty bad. It is all a big mess of scam and misunderstanding. The club D2K is owned by Intae’s friend, Janggeun, who is also a famous producer from Duble Kick Entertainment. Seunghoon previously met with a few people at D2K who claimed to be a part of the team and asked him to show them his music. Seunghoon gave them his demo tape but was rejected, only to find out that the music was played at the club later. Those guys sold the tape to the club who had no idea about Seunghoon nor his stolen music. Seunghoon almost assumes that Janggeun and his company has ripped him off when it is those guys who are actually the villain.

“I swear I’m not simply sweet talking. I mean every word. You can trust me.”

I shake my head. Why does his voice suddenly interrupt my thoughts? Not simply sweet talking my foot. Trust him, my . Those are the exact words that all players in the world chant as their daily mantra. He is definitely a player. Jang Intae is definitely a bad boy.

But how come I don’t hate him as much as when he first revealed to me that he isn’t who I thought he is?

Ugh, he is so annoying! Get off from my head! Get off! Get off!

“Yoonyul?”

“Yeah?!” I instantly look up and pretend as if I am not trying to pull out my hair a moment ago. Even though I obviously just did.

“Are you okay?” Heejin, one of the few younger teachers who are the same age as me frowns at my weird behavior.

“I’m just great.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Let’s go for lunch. Come on.”

-

I almost forget that we all have lunch together.

P-E-R-F-E-C-T.

This is our first lunch together in public, after being official. Are we still are, though? I’m not quite sure myself. Of course the rest of the teachers who have lunch with us don’t know. If they do, I might consider jumping off a cliff.

Intae wears his ‘good boy’ persona during the day, out in the open as I has expected. His straight hair neatly combed to the side. Sweater that looks like it is hand-picked by his mother. Slightly awkward air about him. Gentle manners.

Tch.

They are talking about him, about his music-making career or something. I couldn’t pay attention at all. In fact, while I play my food with my fork, I am actually contemplating whether I should just leave.

“Yoonyul.”

I finally look up when Intae calls me.

“Heejin asked you something. Did you hear her?”

“You did?” I look at Heejin who is sitting next to me. Heejin narrows her eyes and smirks. She looks like a really sly fox doing that.

“Do you only respond to Intae now?”

“What-”

“You’re suspiciously quiet today. Usually you’re very chatty with Intae. Is something going on with you guys?” Heejin raises an eyebrow. Her boyfriend subtly tells her to quit teasing. Everyone seems so lighthearted when here I am having to witness Intae acting pure and innocent when I know he is far from being one. I can’t stand it I almost feel like screaming my head off. Yup, having my period right now isn’t helping at all.

I pout as my mind starts to work the gears to find an answer, some sort of lie to cover up that we actually start dating over a week ago. However, I am too off guard to come up with an answer that instant. Seeing the lack of response from my part, Heejin diverts her laser like stare towards Intae. He smiles, looking bashful and awkward like he always does; when we’re not alone, that is.

“No, no. There’s no such thing,” Intae says, rubbing the back of his neck and let out an awkward laugh. “I heard Yoonyul is having some problems with her student. Is that what’s bothering you right now, Yoonyul?” Intae looks at me.

“You bet I do.” I mutter under my breath. Heejin sighs and pat my back.

“Even though he’s not my student, I can relate. That Seunghoon kid is a big headache.” Heejin says.

But Intae is a bigger headache.

“I’m sure everything will work out. Yoonyul is a very dedicated teacher.” Intae adds, smiling like a cute, innocent guy he is. Wait, he is not.

“Aww, Intae, you’re so sweet.” Heejin cooed. Her boyfriend simply laughs while Intae stares at his food and blushes heavily. Ugh, he is so good at acting it makes me nauseous. My whole body itches to get out of there. How can a guy who reacts that way hides a totally opposite personality inside? Sometimes I doubt if the real Intae is actually just an act and this honest, pure looking Intae in front of me is the real one. Last time when he helped Seunghoon and I, he felt so genuine to me.

But then, there is also this other persona, Inati, who sent those scums scrambling off the scene. Just how many lives does he has?

Jang Intae, you are one very sketchy, shady guy.

-

My phone buzzed again for the hundredth time. When it gets annoying, I usually would mercilessly strangle the electronic device or something. Since I’m in class, I have to hold back myself from being abusive towards my phone. Even without looking, I could tell that it was from him.

Intae.

I’m in charge of the night class at the school that night. There is still twenty minutes before eleven, which is when the class exactly ends. Since I’m just sitting at the desk in front of the class pretending to be busy with my work, I decide to take a peek at my phone. The past couple of hours my phone had been bombed by finger-curling-kind-of-cringing messages that sounded like ‘Baby, I miss you so much it’s suffocating me,’ or ‘Can’t you leave early today? Just for me. I’m afraid I have caught a virus called ‘lovesick’,’ and ‘Can’t wait to see you tonight, I’d like to stare at your face all night.’

Shudder.

I pray that I will see none of those messages again and checkout the most recent text message. We are supposed to have another date tonight. I’m starting to regret for agreeing.

‘I’m picking you up at school. Otw right now.’

My eyes widen. I could feel blood withdrawing from my face and chill running down my spine. I quickly reply to his message.

‘There’s no need! I’ll go to the place myself!!!!’

Extra exclamation marks to make sure how desperate I am to not be seen with him in front of my students. Hey, I have my pride as a teacher. We don’t just go around showing off our boyfriends to the students.

I tap the ‘Send’ button. A few moments later, I receive a call from him. I clear my throat and rise from my seat.

“Guys, I need to pick up an emergency call, okay? Behave.” I walk outside the class and finally answer his phone call.

“Why? Your class almost ends and you don’t have your own transportation either.” He directly asks as soon as I answer, sounding really chill like he doesn’t have a care for the world.

“Because I said so. Wherever you are, don’t come here.”

“Really? Too bad. Look to your left.”

I could feel the cold horror hovering from behind me as I slowly turn my head to my left. He is there, walking towards me with his phone still pressed to his ear, his lips curved up in a smirk that makes my fist itchy. He waves at me with his free hand.

“Hey, Yoonyul. Ready for our date tonight?” He stands right next to me, easily towering over me. I find the close proximity is unnecessary, which annoys me to death.

“No. I still have fifteen minutes left.” I reply back coldly, giving him stern looks.

“Yeah? Too bad.” He makes his way around me, which instantly raises my panic level into the red zone.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” I grab the hem of his blazer as he pulls open the door to my class. All the kids inside look up, curious at the stranger standing by the doorframe, smiling and waving at them.

“Hey, guys.” He announces, grinning from ear to ear.

“Hey, what the hell are you thinking you’re doing?!” I whisper hard from behind him, trying to pull him away but he wouldn’t budge from his spot like a really stubborn cow.

“What time does your class end?” He asks one of the students.

“Eleven on the dot. There’s still fifteen minutes more to go.” A student who sits at the most front answers truthfully.

“Yeah? Count yourself lucky today. I’m taking away your teacher for a date today, so you get to save that fifteen minutes for yourself.” The kids all cheer, some whistle to tease. I rush back into the class and blocked him behind me while trying to push him out.

“Don’t listen to him!” I warn my students. Everybody is making some sort of noise. The kids are getting riled up, there is no way I can put them back under control.

“Teacher, your boyfriend is really handsome!” A female student giggled.

“Thanks.” Intae winked at her.

“What are you doing to my student?!” I turn around and speak to him through gritted teeth.

“Are you jealous?” He asks me back. I ignore him and focus on my students for the time being.

“Hey, Juno! Hongjun! Get back to your seat! Everybody be quiet! Hey, Sooyoung over there! Stop!” Before I realized it some of the girls are giggling and waving at him. When I looked at my back, Intae already has my stuffs and my bag in his hand, his other hand reaching out for mine. I hide my hands behind me, which is a wrong step on my part. He reaches for my shoulder instead and pulls my body towards him. The students cheer louder when our bodies bumped to each other.

“Thanks guys! See you later!” Intae says to the class and drags me along with him. I frantically struggle out of his hold and barely manages to turn back to my students.

“Guys, keep this a secret, okay? Don’t let anyone-”

“Teacher, have fun!”

Everyone is wishing me stuffs as if I’m on mission impossible or some sort; but the happy kind of mission impossible. My voice is buried under their loud cheers and teasings. If the principal knows this, I’m in for another hours long lecture session.

-

Strangely enough, during or date, he isn’t trying to irritate me on purpose like he just did at the school. He let me choose the table, when I tell him it doesn’t matter, he even asks me if the table he chooses is okay. He tells me about the food there, their special course and stuffs. It is an average looking restaurant, not a fine dine or anything but the menu was a bit difficult because they are all foreign food. Intae takes his time to enquire my preference on food, whether I eat spicy or not, whether I prefer fish over meat and other stuffs and then gave me a suggestion on my order. I agreed anyways since I had no idea about how the food tastes like.

It sort of makes me feel… comfortable, to know that someone is looking out for me at least that much.

And then I remember how we haven’t had the chance to be alone since the incident at Hongdae. When he is not being attentive in a conversation I don’t really partake, or when he is focused on his food, I steal glances towards him. I think I can still see some of the wounds in his face. They heal slowly, I thought. They probably still hurt.

Intae suddenly looks up, straight into my eyes which catches me off guard. He slightly tilts his head to the side and smiles at me.

I look away and quickly resume my eating.

“If you want to look at my face, just say so. I’ll close my eyes.” Intae suggests.

“Tch, who would?”

He closes his eyes anyway. I just stare at him for a short second and then huff before I drag my chair closer to him. He is sitting by my side so I can lean closer to him and have a close look at his bruises. I want to look at the side of his jaw, but our position makes it hard do so I reach for his chin with the tips of my fingers and gingerly turn his face sideway. When I look up, I realized he already opened his eyes.

My hold my breath the moment our gazes lock on each other. Even though I can’t see it to be sure, I can tell that there is a hint of a smile lingering on his lips as his eyes stare deeper into mine. If he just leans a bit closer, we could have-

WHAT AM I THINKING.

I lean back and away from him, clearing my throat.

“Everything looks fine. There’s nothing to worry about.” I tell him. Not that I worry about him anyway. Ugh, should have rephrased that. This is so awkward.

“Don’t you want to look at this one? This one hurts too,” Intae raises his fist and pouts. I simply glances towards it from the corner of my eyes and picks up my fork again.

“It looks fine.”

“There’s also a large bruise on my ribcage. Don’t you want to see it?” Intae reaches the hem of his black shirt, about to lift it up but I quickly stop him. I grab his wrist and pull it down altogether with his shirt.

“Stop it! You’re embarrassing me!”

“I enjoy embarrassing you.” He smirks.

“Don’t you dare do that again!” I recklessly grab my fork, causing embarrassingly loud clanking noise against the ceramic plate. I can tell Intae is chuckling from the side; I could see his shoulders shaking from the corner of my eyes. I continue eating anyways. He gradually turn quiet again. I can hear him taking a deep breath and slowly breathes it all out.

“Yoonyul,” His voice thick, soothing against the slight distracting noises in tehbackground, “Has anybody ever told you how kind you are?” He smiles at me, gently gazing towards me.

What’s with the sudden compliment? “Whatever.”

Why do I get so self-conscious all of a sudden? Why are my cheeks feel like they are burning? Ugh, I hate him.

“Do you still remember about my proposal last time? I was wondering if you already have the answer to that.”

I actually forgot about it. I was thinking about it so hard that I got tired about it and forgot all about it.

Right now, I don’t have an answer with me. For some reason, I don’t feel any regret that I don’t. It’s a weird feeling.

“Just so you know, until you say no, you’re still my girlfriend.” Intae adds casually. “There’s still ninety-five days left. We still have plenty of time. Take your time.”

-

A few hours earlier…

Intae just had a meeting with Janggeun, the owner of D2K and founder of Duble Kick Entertainment, the company he works for. They had a little talk about Seunghoon and giving him the right to his music which was sold to Duble Sidekick Entertainment by those scums. Originally Intae invited Seunghoon into the meeting along, but the kid was probably uninterested because he wasn’t showing up. Janggeun readily agreed to take all the necessary actions to properly credit the boy. Intae told him that he’ll manage the rest. After Janggeun left, Intae received a buzz from the receptionist, saying a young guy is looking for him. Intae relaxed in his chair and told her to let him in.

Intae explained to the younger guy about the situation and convinced him that he’d get all the credit he deserved, including royalty. And then, Intae handed him his namecard. Seunghoon was putting up a façade that might hint disinterest, rejection even, but the way he carefully inspected the card proved otherwise.

“Next time, if you have other demo tape, send it straight to me. Or you can come to this building anytime and leave it at the receptionist for me. I’ll do what I can to help you.”

“Help me?” Seunghoon scoffed. “You’re just doing this to please your girlfriend.”

Intae chuckled. To Seunghoon’s dismay, Intae didn’t look surprised, or in any way affected at all.

“Of course I am.”

Seunghoon was taken aback at his answer.

“But I also know that you want to change your life.” Intae added. “I am the guy you might want to go to for that. You have to prove to me that you worth the privilege though.”

‘Worth the privilege?’ Seunghoon frowned at him. Who did he thought he was? The way he phrased stuffs made him sound like he was so full of himself. There was no reason for Seunghoon to put himself on an inferior level against him. What a joke.

“You wish.” Seunghoon stood up and left the room, leaving Intae smiling to himself.