Yuri is sitting on her seat in the teacher’s room, her hand busily flapping the progress report about her student in the special class. There are only 8 students in that class, and how come the report shown a clearly significant differences between each students, how come 4 of them doing totally good at the academic report, and the other half definitely show their disinterest in it.

It’s been a month, and only thinking about that make the tanned girl feel like exploding. She still can’t get closer to her students which is only 8 of them in that class. How can she handle 8 students which are totally different with one another, and only have one similar trait, their ignorance.

What the hell the school principal thinks to let her handle a class like that? A new teacher? With 8 ignorant students? Well, that’s just… perfect.

She surely can understand if student doesn’t really like their teacher. But all students in her class show it frankly, which make her really irritated by their behavior.

She is a new teacher, this is her first time working as a teacher, and she doesn’t have any experiences about this before, yet she force to face 8 trouble students at once.

How much she hopes her father still here, at least, with his experiences, he should know what to do and how to get this students become better.

Looking from the report progress, she is sure that choi sooyoung, kim taeyeon, seo juhyun, and hwang tiffany definitely are going to graduate with more than satisfying score, while for im yoona, lee sunny, kim hyoyeon, and jung jessica, don’t even talk about graduate, yuri doesn’t even sure they will pass the mid exam which will come in a month.

Aside from the academic report problem, yuri struggled with another problem, and still with the same subjects. Yes, her lovely students.

Being a head teacher for that class for a month, there are only two students which yuri never get a report letter from their bad behavior, and it’s surely only the kim taeyeon and seo junhyun. Others, yuri feels like choking them all together.

How come she gets different report almost every day and it’s either from inside school and outside. From inside school, it should be like a report about how many times the students absent in a week, and she got that report every week, since there are too much absent from her class.

And from outside the school, it should be about fighting, a report about her students being in an inappropriate place, doing inappropriate things. The things are not really serious, just something about smoking, alcohol, and all. Yes, not really serious. That’s what she keeps on trying to assure herself.

No matter how many times she talks to her students in private, they don’t even listen to her even a word, yuri even doubt that they know what she was talking about to them, and for her, it’s seriously so irritating.

Aside from academic report and behavior issue, the other issue that she couldn’t get a hold of is her student attendance in class.

How come in a month, there is almost no a day which all 8 of her students all come to school together. Everyday, there must be a day where a student, or two, or even three students absent from class.

She tried to talk nicely at them at first, but she got nothing. Some student will argue back like tiffany or yoona with a really not nice behavior, while other will went totally silent in all that what supposed to be a warm conversation between student and teacher.

Yuri honestly feels like giving up, but there is something that holding her back. First, for her, it would be irresponsible to just leave or resign. After all her father already has a great reputation in that school, and she would do anything to keep it like that. Second, she knows there is something wrong with her students, something that she cannot see, but she can clearly feel it.

There are a lot of questions in her mind, about her student after being their head teacher for a month, a lot of questions which make her wondering what exactly happen to her students, why all that students behave like that, and what kind of person they really are.

She has a lot of doubt, but there is one thing for sure, a thing that she is clearly sure about all her students, that all of them wearing a mask. She is completely sure that they all hiding something, something that they refuse to let other people see.

In her private talk with them, which she usually does at the end of school hour and usually one student for each day. It’s really hard to face a student at a time and it surely a perfect good reason why she can’t handle more at once. She tried her best to get closer to the students and tried to make them open up to her, but she got nothing in return, clearly nothing.

She has been talking to the counselor teacher many times since their first meeting that time. And that counselor teacher’s words keep on replying on her mind.

“So, you’re the head teacher for the special class?” boa smiled, sipping her coffee. They are having their first conversation in the school canteen.

“Yeah..” yuri answered reluctantly, her eyes wondering around the quiet canteen. School hour ended already, and there are only few students walking around or sitting in the canteen.

Boa let out a soft chuckle “well.. good luck with that..” she said playfully, knowing that the new teacher must has been already know much less about her students.

“Oh, yes.. thank you..” yuri let out and awkward laugh.

“They are all actually a good students..” boa commented “don’t take what other teacher talking easily..”

“You should just have to get them know more..” boa added.

“Yeah.. that’s what they’ve been show to me..” yuri sighed “being a good student… by not coming to school regularly, making trouble here and there, not paying attention in class, bad academic report, and all stuff that giving me headache..”

Boa giggled “that’s maybe because you just haven’t know them greatly..” she gave a warm smile “it surely true whatever you said before.. but that’s just because you hear it from other teachers or students, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well..” boa stared at the new teacher for a moment “you just listened to whatever other teachers and students said.. but you clearly don’t have any idea why they’re doing it, right?”

“You just listen to what other people said, and it effect your opinion about them, that you start to think like them and believe whatever they said.. and instead of treating them like how you should as a teacher, you start judging them with what you hear from other people…” boa said, giving a small smile, and that words struck in the tanned girl’s mind.

How much yuri wants to deny it, she knows that what the counselor teacher said is true.

“Every people have that something that drive them to do something.. and it happens for them too..” boa added.

Boa leaned closer, placed her elbow on the table, and using her palm to support her chin, while her other arms placed on the table in front of her chest.

“You might get surprised to know that what can they do or what they really do in that what you call ‘skipping classes’…” she smiled.

That sentence brings a moment of silent between them, before yuri decided to talk.

“..do you know something about them? can you tell me?” yuri asked, hopefully.

“...I really hope that I can help you, miss kwon.. but I afraid that I don’t really have what you want and what you need right now..” she smiled, making the other girl sighed in disappointment.

“It’s true that they have come to the counselor room to meet me many times for their punishment, but it’s just because their teacher told them to.. and they clearly just doing so to get out from another serious trouble like suspension..” boa explained.

“They seldom talk.. some doesn’t even talk at all..” boa added “sometime, I even ended up staring at them the whole time, and students like choi sooyoung, lee sunny, and jung jessica will only sit there, without moving at all, staring at other side to avoid my stare, and as soon as the school’s bell ring, they immediately leave…” boa added, mentioning some student from her class “Other students might answer my simple question, but even so, I don’t really know much about them..”

The explanation from boa brought another silent between them, before boa suddenly broke it.

“Doesn’t it break your heart?” she asked.

“Hmm?” yuri hummed, her brows furrowed, confused.

“They are all just a normal teenagers… they must have something that bring them to behave like that.. that’s just maybe problem they have, but it’s really something sad to see how they deal with it by drawing that perfect line or having that thick wall around them..”

“They are all doesn’t care about what people see them as, and how people talk about them… but I know it must be painful to know people judge you without knowing who you really are.. and they must hold it a lot..”

“Sometimes, it make me wondering what kind of life they are living to bring them to that point.. or how much their past hurt them that make them distance themselves from others..”

“They are still young.. they should enjoying their life with others when they are still have time with their friends.. but, they doesn’t even see anyone as a friend.. they might see every people as enemies, since all that people just talk bad about them..”

“Then, what more tearing is they get used to that kind of treatment from others, about how other people see them as.. that they starts to believe what other people say.. right?” boa said, giving a sad smile.

“And in the end, it’s really not their fault if they behave like that because they know, no matter what they do, people will still judge them in a bad way..”

Boa stopped, staring at the other girl who has a serious expression on her face. She giggled “so... what do you think about my speech?” she joked, lessen the mood.

Yuri gave a small chuckle “..for a moment you make me feel like I’m in some kind of seminar..” she joke back “you might make a better teacher than me..” she added, making the other girl giving a soft chuckle.

“You really seems like one of my student..” yuri said “the way you smile, it’s kind of similar..”

“Ah.. I got that a lot..” boa commented, giving another chuckle “that one who have an eyes smile, right?”

They both giggled at boa commented.

“I really can’t do this alone..” yuri said.

“It’s okay.. I will help you whenever you need me.. you can just meet me whenever you need someone to talk.. miss kwon..” boa said.

“Thank you.. and just call me yuri..”

“Okay.. yuri.. and just call me boa..” she smiled “you’re their teacher, and you’re the only person who can help them before they graduate from school..”

“How come I even help them when they keep push me away? They don’t even talk to me..”

Boa slowly formed a meaningful smile “if you can’t go through the barrier around them… why don’t you try to make their closest person do it for you? people around them?”

“Hmm?” yuri seems confused.

Boa stood up from her seat, giving another warm smile “there is a lot of methods to do what you want.. and if one don’t work like what you want, you just have to find another way..” she took her bag “and there is a way of which is always work out just perfectly fine…” she smile, before leaving the tanned girl there, still thinking about what the counselor teacher just said.

“What does she mean?” yuri mumbled, her hands busily taking her books, ready to come onto her class to meet her lovely students, again.

She is walking on the corridor, having a deep though about her conversation with boa, still looking for a way to work things out between her and her student.

“if you can’t go through the barrier around them… why don’t you try to make their closest person do it for you? people around them?”

“Closest person?” she mumbled “who could it be? Their family?”

“There is a lot of methods to do what you want.. and if one don’t work like what you want, you just have to find another way..”

She opened her class door, and as usual the class not really noisy, yet not that quiet either. She walked calmly in front of her class, her mind still running a lot of thoughts. She places her books on her table, and staring at her students, and then something hit her. And slowly a small smile appears on her face.

“How come… this hasn’t crossed my mind before…”

“Okay.. class…” she said, calmly “I have an important announcement..” making all 8 student’s eyes glued on her in an instant.

“I have read your academic report, which is quite disappointing for me..” she started “and I come to a conclusion that you need to fix that to get a good grade so that you can graduate with a more satisfying score..”

“And my decision is final.. that I want you all to help each other to study… and I’ve made a group of study partner..” she smiled, looking at her students tensed expression “which is why, starting now… all of you will study.. in pair…”