“You can ask me stuffs if you want. Afterall, we’re still trying to know each other,” Intae suggested.

“Can I ask you anything?” I looked back at him.

He nodded, briefly closing his eyes doing so. “Yes. Anything.”

“Why do you act differently during day and night? Isn’t it strange?”

“Is it? Isn’t it just normal to act accordingly in different situations? I mean, my life during the day and night are completely different. I work in different environment and with different people during the day and night.”

“You’re not answering my question.”

“Actually, I answered it perfectly and objectively.”

“Nevermind.” I gave up. He didn’t give me the answer I want. I had a feeling that he wasn’t going to tell me why he was having such eccentric lifestyle. Acting accordingly and acting as a totally different person are two different things.

“Don’t you have other questions for me?” He asked me.

“Just so you know, I’m not that interested in you, thank you.”

“Don’t you want to know what I find cute?”

“No.”

“You pouting.”

I quickly un-pouted my lips.

-

It’s the final day of the exam week. I’m glad that Seunghoon never skips his exams again. Intae probably talked, or more like dictator-ed some sense into his head that the stubborn kid didn’t skip a day throughout the exam week.

I finally finished collecting the exam paper for the last subject. I stand in front of my class and smile at the students who are already heaving relieved sighs.

“Good job guys. The exam week is finally over.”

My announcement is replied with cheers and complaints from the students, saying the exam was tough.

“It’s going to be fine. You guys studied with the notes I prepared for you. You’ll be fine.”

The kids pouted and reluctantly agreed with me, looking defeated. I laugh a bit seeing how anxious they are that they forgot how good it is that the exam week is over.

“You guys can go back early today and rest well. But-” I haven’t finishes my sentence and the kids are all jumping and cheering loudly already. I quickly add before things get out of hand,

“Don’t play too hard, the night study session will resume tomorrow! Don’t skip!” I have to yell to get my voice heard over the noise.

The kids are so hyped up that they no longer hear my voice. They were all talking with each other, discussing about the stuffs that they would do after school. The students leave the classroom one by one, gradually deserting the room to fall into its rightful silence. However, there is one student who stays behind.

It is Kim Seunghoon. I do realize that he doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of his classmates. Whatever the situation is, he either becomes the first to leave or the last. Since he seems to dislike the idea of being the center of attention, I waited until all the students have left before I speak to him.

“Aren’t you going home?”

Seunghoon leans back against the wooden chair, looking laid-back and unguarded. He stares back at me and let out a chuckle that seems cynical to me. The way he looks at me always makes me feel nervous. I want to reach out to him but I always feel like he dislikes me.

“What home?” he asks me back.

“Do you have somewhere to go to?”

Seunghoon shrugs, “why? Do you want to have a date with me?” He chuckles again. I put up a strict face, an exact opposite of my friendly one just now.

“No, thank you. I’d rather make you study instead.”

Seunghoon sighs and throws his head backwards. “Chill. I’d never snatch another man’s woman. Besides, I owe him a lot, even though I hate to admit it.”

“So, what do you think about him?”

“That Intae guy? Well, he’s good at the stuffs that he does. But I hate him.”

“You do? Why?”

“Why not? He’s handsome, rich, has a good job, and a girl like you. He’s just a guy you can easily hate.”

I realize that he has just indicated that I’m the type of girlfriend worth being envious of. Well, I’m not really sure how he deduces into that conclusion, but I’m sure he meant that by saying that he hated Intae for having a ‘girl like you.’ That sort of sprouts new hope for me. Maybe Seunghoon doesn’t hate me after all.

During my silence, Seunghoon had already stood up and gathered his stuffs. He is about to leave.

“Seunghoon, wait!”

“What is it?”

“Well, the thing about Intae and me... can you keep that a secret for the time being?”

He blankly stares at me for a moment. “I thought everyone already knows.”

“No, just... nobody knows that we’re serious now, and I’m not ready to let them know yet.”

Seunghoon shrugs and then leaves without another word.

Maybe I’m just being sensitive, or maybe not, but he seems to dislike that idea.

-

 “He’s really cute, and very gentlemanly!”

“His voice, gosh, his deep voice. No wonder the girls in my class can’t stop talking about him!”

“And his shy smile, oh gosh!”

It’s lunch break. As usual, my colleagues and I sit together at a table and catch up on the latest gossip. Gossiping isn’t my favorite activity to be honest, but today’s topic has my full attention. Well, there is this new guy at my workplace. He is actually my age and is really tall. He is the type of guy who strictly goes by the book, dresses with mother’s handpicked sweaters, gentle and quiet. Despite all those, he is actually very handsome as in the mainstream media standard of handsome, which is why all the female population of the institution are gushing over him. I wasn’t surprised when I start hearing teenage girls talk about him in hush-hush tones followed by girly giggles. If I were their age, I’d be doing the same thing too.

In the middle of our conversation, Intae sits at our table with Heejin’s boyfriend. I don’t even spare a glance at him as he quietly eats his meal. Well, nobody knows the stuff that is going on between us. Long time ago I did show obvious signs of interest towards him but after our first date, I just told everyone that we decided to remain friends.

“Oh, hi, Intae!” Heejin suddenly waves at him. Intae smiles politely and nods at her in return. On the other hand, I just ignore him. For some reason, I’ve been ignoring him a lot these days, if not the whole time. I have my guard up whenever he’s around and I’m not quite sure why myself.

“So, who’s the new guy you guys talk about?” He asks. His voice deep and gentle.

“Oh, he’s a new high school teacher, Park Jungwoo. All the girls are going crazy about him right now.”

Intae smiles, “Really? What do you think about him, Heejin?”

“Oh, the guy is gorgeous, for sure, but you’re always my number one, baby,” Heejin directs her words to her boyfriend who is sitting next to Intae. The guy simply laughs at her blatant act of affection.

“How about you, Yoonyul-sshi? What do you think of him?” Intae casually throws his question at me.

I am taken aback at the sudden question.  I try to keep my cool and act as I usually do.

“Well, he’s really sweet and kind.” I shrug.

“Oh, come on! I bet you’re head over heels with that guy! I know exactly the type of guy you like!” Heejin chipped in enthusiastically.

I almost react out of reflex and deny her, but I stay quiet instead. Well, she’s telling the truth. I do like guys like Park Jungwoo. I could totally imagine myself going crazy over him. But the weird thing is, I’m not.

Funny.

I look at my watch and realize that I have to get back to the staff room and get ready for my class right after recess. The other teachers had some time before their classes so I have to get back to the staff room earlier.

“Hey, guys. I have to get ready for my class. I’m going.”

“Yeah. Say hi to Jungwoo for me whenever you see him!” Heejin adds cheerfully and waves at me. I simply laugh at her and wave goodbye to the rest.

I gather a few stuffs in my hand and make my way towards my class. In the middle of the way, one of Seunghoon’s friend, Sanghyuk, appears in front of me out of the blue, looking frantic. I am so shocked that I stop in the middle of my steps as he rushes towards me and grab my arms.

“Teacher!”

“S-Sanghyuk! What is going on?”

“Teacher, Seunghoon is fighting!”

My eyes widen.

“Right now? In the school?”

Sanghyuk nods vigorously. It’s one thing when he gets into a fight outside, but another when that happens at school. The principal might not be so forgiving if he was caught.

“Take me to him!”

We rush to the scene. Seunghoon is exchanging fists with another student. I’m not sure how much I can help Seunghoon. There are a lot of students gathered there already, watching their fight. It’s only a matter of seconds before other teachers know about this.

“Seunghoon, stop it!” I scream. I can’t think clearly in the moment. I just want everything to stop now. First and foremost, I need to get Seunghoon out of this. Within a spur of a few seconds, I see the male student who is fighting with Seunghoon glances towards me and smirks. He drags his attention back at Seunghoon, along with his smirk, which riles up the latter.

Seunghoon raises his fist and charges forward. To my relief, Sanghyuk jumps into the fight and stops Seunghoon from behind. I too, rush towards the other student to take hold of his hand. Unlike Seunghoon who seems willing to stop this madness, the boy pushes me away. I fall on the floor, hard. I probably twists my wrist or something. It hurts so much.

When I look up, Seunghoon has freed himself from Sanghyuk and lands a fist on the other student’s face.

“Seunghoon, no!”

To my relief, someone arrives on the scene. It’s the new teacher, Park Jungwoo. With Jungwoo’s help, both he and Sanghyuk manage to tame the boys and stop the fight for good.

I sigh in relief.

-

There is no choice but to bring the matter into light. There are too many eyewitnesses, to hide the case for Seunghoon’s (or the other student’s) sake would be futile. The other student, Seo Hajin is a student from other class. I know him for his infamous troublemaker reputation as well. Unlike Seunghoon, Hajin is rather loud and popular among the kids. I’m not sure how the fight erupted. I don’t want to point fingers but Seunghoon is never one who starts fights first. At school, he is always quiet and prefers to isolate himself from the rest.

Right now, I’m in the nurse’s office for my treatment. I was in the principal’s office just now to report on the incident, along with Jungwoo and Sanghyuk. Since nothing came out of our investigation, we couldn’t judge the situation and the principal sent me for my treatment first. I’m worried if Seunghoon is judged wrongly.

I look up when I heard door knocks. Jungwoo enters. He smiles shyly as he steps closer towards me.

“Hi, Yoonyul. Is everything alright?”

I smile back at him. “Yeah, don’t worry. It’s nothing serious.” I show him my wrist which is now bandaged. “How about the boys?”

“Well, the principal is not finished with his lecture yet,” Jungwoo sighs. I laugh a little as he takes a sit on a chair.

“Hajin seems to be reporting malicious words about Seunghoon, but Seunghoon is being too quiet. It would be unfair to judge them under such condition, but I’m afraid that Seunghoon would end up being guilty.”

My spirit crumbles down to hear that. “What about the other kids? They all saw how it started, don’t they?”

“They did. And they all said the same thing, that Seunghoon started the fight.”

“That’s ridiculous! Seunghoon would never do that!”

“I trust you since you know him best out of all people in this school, but things aren’t siding with him now. Sanghyuk told us that Hajin had been taunting Seunghoon before the fight, but he wasn’t sure what it was about, and nobody knew to back him up.”

I let out a small sigh. I’m slightly comforted that Jungwoo is on my side, but I still worry about Seunghoon.

-

The teachers gathered again the next day, this time at the presence of Seunghoon’s father. I’m not surprised that the principal acts differently today. He was full of hate towards Seunghoon yesterday but he is rather lenient and understanding today. His newly made-up persona annoys the hell out of me, but it saves Seunghoon from being expelled. In the end, Seunghoon is charged guilty anyway and is penalized with toilet cleaning duty for two weeks. The punishment might seem light, but it is the verdict that is unfair to Seunghoon. I still believe that Seunghoon isn’t guilty. Until the end he refuses to say anything and I find that odd.

It is the third day since Seunghoon’s punishment had been decided. He has been diligently fulfilling his duty. I could tell that he is trying to stay under the radar for a while. I’m thinking about talking to him so I waited in the classroom until he finishes his duty. The moment he enters the classroom, our eyes meet. He looks tired. He casually ignores me and goes to his desk. He sits with a sigh and put his bag on the desk, ready to leave. Instead of getting up, he leans forward and rests his head in his hand.

I walk forward and then paused at the desk in front of him. I make myself comfortable and lean against the desk.

“Hey, Seunghoon.”

He doesn’t look up.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” I ask him again.

“What do you want me to say?” he finally looks up, looking like he doesn’t even want to speak to me. I feel a little unwelcomed, but I know I have talk to him.

“Well, about what happened for start. Why did you start that fight?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“No, I do,” I said firmly.

Seunghoon let out a short sigh, his fingers carelessly ruffling his hair, “I’d rather get expelled.”

“Why?”

“I’m just sick of this school. People talked crap all the time. You know. Like I’m so privileged, that I could get away with anything because my father is such a bigshot, and then... That we’ve been ing,” he looks at me and chuckles bitterly, “so I decided that that wuss needed his nose broken.” And then he added with a murmur,

“I should have broken a tooth or two while I was at it.”

My heart aches a little knowing that he got into this trouble because someone talked ill of me. I couldn’t care less with such baseless rumors especially when it comes from a kid who just likes to fool around like Hajin, but I am so touched that Seunghoon did.

“Even so, you should have said something during the meeting.”

“Does it matter? Bottom line is I hit him first.” He must be thinking that no one would take him seriously even if he tells the truth.

I nod at him, putting up my white flag. He does have a point, and I’m not that good with school politics either. “Just remember, even if your father is not there, I won’t let you get expelled.”

Seunghoon looks straight in my eyes, as if questioning my resolution. He seems to disagree but he didn’t say anything.

“Anyway, you must have been tired so I don’t want to make this conversation long. I made you a meal,” I nod to his desk.

Seunghoon gives me a puzzled look before he looks under his desk and pulls out a lunchbox.

“Eat it, and don’t go around making troubles.”

Seunghoon gives me a lazy smirk. “You know I don’t do that anymore.” He gets up, picking up the lunchbox with him.

“Thanks.” He waves the lunchbox at me and then leaves.

My eyes follow him until he disappears into the hallway. I was about to look away when a familiar face suddenly appears at the doorframe. Intae is gazing gently at me, leaning one shoulder against the doorframe. After a few moments of silence, he walks towards me.

“Intae...” Knowing him, he is probably there since a while ago.  He might have listened to the conversation between Seunghoon and I. Strangely, that doesn’t irritates me.

I realize that his eyes are staring at my wrist, which was bandaged days ago. The joint still pains a little when I do certain tasks, but I already took off the bandage. He must have heard about it. He reaches for my hand and gently caresses it with his fingers.

“I haven't been in the campus a few days ago so I only know now,” he told me.

“It’s okay. Nothing bad happened. Seunghoon gets to stay in school. That’s all that matters.”

“You should have told me.”

For a second I was wondering if he was angry at me for not talking to him about the whole incident, but then he doesn't look angry at all. His gaze looks gentle, and his calm voice soothing.

“It’s not a big deal.” I almost couldn't believe the voice that came out of my mouth. It sounded so gentle, almost a whisper that it’s strange. I subtly clear my throat and continues, “luckily Jungwoo was there. No one was badly hurt.”

“Even so, you should tell me.” And then he softly chuckles, “you’re amazing, you know that? That’s why I like you so much.” He brings my hand to his lips, and kisses the inside of my wrist. His act is so tender, as if I am a fragile thing that would break at the slightest touch. I think I like the way he treats me, even though it makes my heart race.