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“So how have you been recently? Made any new friends?” Suzy asked the young boy sitting in front of her. He remained silent looking at his hands.

“What about your work? I heard from the teachers you’re maintaining quite a good standard. Are you finding anything difficult at the moment?” She tried again but to no avail. He hasn’t said a thing since he entered the little student support office.

“Sigh ~ Chulhwa-ah look at me”, the boy hesitate for a while before lifting his head up to face his teacher.

“I won’t pressure you into speaking if you don’t want to but can you at least give me some confirmation that you’re ok. All the teachers and your classmates are really worried about you.” Suzy tried again.

Chulhwa just blinked at her.

“Everything is ok right?”

He nodded.

“Are you sure?”

He nodded again.

“You promise me you’ll come to find me or any of the teachers if you have a problem”

His reply did not change.

“Ok then it’s almost time for class to begin so I’ll let you go. Remember we’re always here to help!”

Suzy watched as the small boy walked out of the student support office. Being a student support officer she holds mini meeting with students who want some help whether it be homework trouble or something that is troubling them at home. Sungmin strongly believes that a student must be free of trouble to be able to learn properly and hence makes sure his students get as much help as they can. Not many of the students visit the office but when they do it’s normally a one-off visit.

Im Chulhwa is an exception. Suzy makes sure she sees him at least once a week to make sure he’s ok.  Chulhwa isn’t a troublemaker and neither were his grades bad. In fact his grades are within the top band in his class. However he confines himself a lot and has never made any friends since he transferred to the school despite the other kids’ efforts to talk to him. Needless to say his fellow classmates have long since given up on trying to talk to this human stone who just doesn’t respond to them.

With a sigh Suzy turned to leave for the staffroom. When she reached her desk there was a brown envelope there branded with a red seal. After staring at it for a few seconds it finally struck her what it was: her exam results.  She sat down on her chair slowly and continued staring at it, scared of what might come out of it.

“Aren’t you going to open it?”

Suzy looked up to see Sungmin standing next to her desk.

“I’m scared oppa… wha..what if I failed…?” she vocalised her worries quietly.

Sungmin placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Turning her attention back to the envelope Suzy finally picked it up and held her breathe as she slowly broke the seal and took the documents out. As she read the results her eyes started to water. Shocked by the sudden tears flowing from Suzy’s eyes, Sungmin frantically looked around the staff room trying to find a napkin. He had never been good with crying girls. Whenever Sohee used to cry he would push Henli forward to calm her down, he just didn’t know what to do in that kind of situation.

When he finally found his napkin he returned to Suzy’s side and bent down to reach her eye level. At the same time Suzy looked up from the papers and smiled at Sungmin with a tear strained face before wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Thank you oppa, thank you so much!!” she said between sniffles, clinging onto the teacher she will forever be indebted to. Being the youngest princess she had always been spoilt by everyone around her allowing her to do as she pleased. She had never done anything with any significance and never felt the need to before Sungmin came into her life. Being the first person who has ever defied her, he has opened her eyes to a different world and she could never be more grateful.

Shocked by the sudden hug Sungmin dropped the napkin and froze at her touch. They stayed like that for a few minutes with Sungmin frozen stiff and Suzy still crying of joy for passing her exams. Suddenly the bell rang signalling the end of lunch time and Suzy realised how long she had been clinging onto Sungmin. Quickly letting go she started wiping her tear stained face with the back of the hands, chuckling quietly. Sungmin finally snapped out of his trance after hearing Suzy’s little chuckle. He picked up the napkin and helped wipe her face dry.

“It’s ok oppa ~ it’s time to go to your next lesson, you better hurry up before you ruin your 100% punctuality”, Suzy joked while taking the napkin from Sungmin. Sungmin stood up and went to fetch his notes from his desk before walking towards the door. On his way out, he reached a hand out to ruffle Suzy’s hair and simply said, “Well done, I’m proud of you.”

~~~Chulhwa POV~~~

Back here again just like every other week. God she’s so annoying, why can’t she just leave me alone. It’s not like she actually cares or anything. No one ever has.

Annoying teachers, I have good grades what else do they want.

I just sit here with my head down like every other time while she mumbles on and on about why I should make more friends and why I should talk more. Is it a crime to like my personal space or what?

She makes me look at her and promise her I would so I gave her a slight nod just to get out of this room.

Soon enough she finally exhausted all her well-rehearsed lines and let me go. I gave her a quick bow before walking out the room. I still had about half an hour left before the end of lunch so I went to the library to grab a book before heading out to my tree. And yes it is my tree since no one ever approaches it. It’s not like the other kids don’t like me, in fact they’re all really nice to me but seeing as I keep ignoring them they’ve sort of gotten used to it and started ignoring my presence too. Call me anti-social, I don’t care, in fact I’ve never cared.

After lunch time I still had two classes to attend which were PE and History. I don’t like PE. At all. Who invented this class? Why do I have to exercise?

“Right class spread out and start your warm-ups!” Coach Henli shouted above the class. Everyone calls him by his first name because he claims he is young enough to be our hyung/oppa and refuses to answer when addressed as Coach Lee.

“Alright then since we did field events last week we are going to do track events this week. But first everyone once around the track!”

The whole class started to moan in unison then but Coach Henli just shooed then towards the track. Everyone broke into their friendship groups and chatted as they jogged around the track. I stayed behind and jogged to my own pace. Not before long Coach Henli was jogging next to me.

“Come on Chulhwa catch up! You’re lagging behind! Come on One Two! One Two!” Coach Henli said with a wide grin on his face. Is this man always so happy and hyper? I’ve honestly never seen him any less than happy.

He pretty much spent the rest of that class jogging to and from me and the rest of the class. We had a few competitions and needless to say I didn’t place in any of them.

History was interesting as always. I really like stories hence why I read so much and the way Lee sunsaengnim teaches is just really amazing. I don’t have to revise for history because I can remember everything sunsaengnim teaches.

Finally the school bell rang. I waited behind while the other students packed their things and rushed out of the classroom, shouting farewells in every direction. I never understood why they had to rush like that every single day. Once the crowd dispersed I also made my way out.

I strolled around slowly, in no rush whatsoever to get home. If I can really call it home. I was quietly minding my own business when some men started falling in step with me. I knew these men all too well.

“Long time no see Chulhwa-ah ~ Where’s your father?” asked the leader of the group. I ignored them knowing they were up to no good.

“Hey hey hey, the boss asked you a question.” One of the skinnier men said, blocking my way and forcefully turning my head around to face ‘the boss’. The rest of them slowly formed a circle around me.

“How am I supposed to know?” I replied.

“But Chulhwa Chulhwa, I got news that he came to see you yesterday.” The boss said. Came to see me? More like harass Misoon Omonim for money…

“Yesterday, not today” I said uninterestedly. I tried to move out of their circle by fitting through the gaps between them. It would’ve been easy enough for a small boy like me if it weren’t for the fact they were all fully focus on my every move.

“Eyyy… where do you think you’re going?” the short one said.

“Let me go. Don’t push my father’s business onto me. What can I do if he owes you money?” he asked getting really annoyed.

“Well luckily enough there is one thing you can do.” He smirked before motioning to his men. The bulkier one leaned over me and picked me up.

I started kicking and screaming for them to let me go but I was only just a boy: they were too strong for me.

The bulkier men grabbed onto me and lifted me over his shoulder, while another put a piece of cloth to my mouth. A very strong herbal smell was the last thing I remembered before everything went dark.

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And the drama starts 

Sorry this is a bit late ~ I kept forgetting XD

Thanks for reading ^_^

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