January 7, 2019.

Today is the day students return to school. They recount their vacations, share stories with friends, copy each other’s homework that was long forgotten until today, and everything in between. Everyone was all smiles and happiness, enjoying their morning, disregarding the fact that it’s -25°C. No one cared. They were all dressed warm enough to tolerate the cold.

Sehun walked past everyone and made his way to his locker. He didn’t look at anyone. He looked straight ahead and continued to walk to his locker. Sehun could hear people calling each other’s names, the sounds of lockers being slammed shut, the squeaking of wet shoes on tiled floors, and the occasional scream or squeal of delight.

Even though he was walking through the school’s most crowded hall, he felt as if he was the only one in the hall. Sehun could sense people slightly distancing themselves from him. But he couldn’t do anything about it, therefore, he didn’t care. He walked straight to his locker, without looking at anyone who even glanced at him.

He collected the books he needed for the morning. Math, Physics, and English Literature. In math, they were doing polynomials, something no one seemed to understand. In physics, they were reviewing Newton’s laws. And in English Literature… Sehun didn’t know what to expect in English Literature today. His teacher, Mr. Wu, was quite the interesting man. Today they could be writing an essay about whether or not they should support animal testing, and tomorrow they could be doing nothing at all other than having light hearted conversations and just waiting for the bell to signal it’s time for them to go to their next class.

As Sehun closed his locker and began walking again, he heard the noise die down, and the whispers begin. He tried to ignore it - because knowing too much can lead to trouble - and he went to the stairwell. Here and there, he caught a few words. “Idiot” and “romance” was all he heard. Hoping they weren’t talking about that again, Sehun walked upstairs to room 202, English Literature.

A lot of people know Sehun because of that. It’s something Sehun regrets. It still irritates him to this very day. Whenever Sehun thinks about it, he can feel the frustration building up in him. Now, Sehun just wants to put it behind him and live on. However, people refuse to let that happen. Just when he thinks it’s over, someone brings it back.

Sehun stopped in front of room 202. The lights weren’t on, and no one was inside. Nevertheless, Sehun opened the door, the lights, and sat in his designated seat. The door for room 202 is never locked. Mr. Wu always says “I have nothing to hide, so why bother locking up a dusty classroom?” and Sehun respected that. Especially so early in the morning, when all he wants to do is sit down and maybe let his mind be carefree for a bit until class begins.

But Sehun couldn’t let his mind wander too much. He was stuck on two different thoughts. His first thought, regards the whispers. His second thought, regards the book he abandoned after New Years Eve, “The 5 People You Meet in Heaven”. He wanted to read the book right now. But Sehun left the book at home, on his nightstand. It continues to collect dust there. So he begins to think more about the whispers. Why would they suddenly start up today? It’s only January 7, the first day back from the holidays. There’s no proper reason for anyone to bring back the past. Unless, they weren’t even talking about him, and he heard wrong. And with that, Sehun began to think of the words or phrases that possibly rhymed with idiot and/or romance.

The next 20 minutes felt like seconds to Sehun. Sehun didn’t notice the 29 other students walk in and take their seats respectively, nor did he notice the bell that rang loud and clear, signalling the start of period 1. He finally returned to reality when a tall Chinese man decided to give him a light tap on his head.

“If you’re going to be imaginative, you can do that during a different lesson. Such as the poetry or short story lesson, Sehun,” Mr. Wu chuckled lightly.

Sehun bowed slightly before opening his book to the table of contents. Mr. Wu frowned immediately at the sight, and closed Sehun’s book.

Confused, Sehun stared at his teacher.

“Aren’t we continuing from where we left off before the holidays?”

“Nope,” and with that, Mr. Wu smiled before he walked to the chalkboard.

Mr. Wu picked up a piece of chalk. A red one today. And began writing on the chalkboard.

This was a habit of Mr. Wu’s. Sometimes, he chooses a chalk colour for a reason related to their lesson. Such as their previous lesson before the holidays, regarding simplicity. Mr. Wu used white chalk that day, and used as few words as possible both when speaking and when writing. He tried to teach his 30 pupils that simplicity doesn’t just mean making everything easier. It requires common sense and intellect to be able to summarize and shorten what could’ve been a 15 minute lecture into a 2 minute speech.

When Mr. Wu was done writing, everyone automatically began staring at the board. Silence filled the room, except for the occasional cough.

Sehun stared at the board too.

The 5 People You Meet in Heaven - A Novel by Mitch Albom

Mr. Wu clasped his hands together, stood up tall and proud in front of his class, and began explaining.

“During my holidays, I returned to Canada. But not my area, Vancouver. I went to Toronto instead. Why? Simply because one of my friends lives there. He emigrated from Beijing to Vancouver around the same time as me. So we were friends through high school even though he was a few years older. Once he graduated, he then decided to go to the University of Toronto. So he moved to Toronto, and he’s lived there ever since. Now, he has a son who’s 14.

“I like his son. Nice kid with good grades and looks,” this caused some girls to giggle.

“His son had also done a novel study. So he showed me the book, and it happened to be this one, ‘The 5 People You Meet in Heaven’. I only got around to reading the first few chapters. The boy explained a lot about this book to me, and I believe it evokes many emotions.”

A student raised their hand, “Mr. Wu, will we also be doing a novel study?”

Mr. Wu smiled. “Of course not. That means you would all have a lot of work to do, and then I’d have to mark it all. Instead, I’ll give you 3 weeks to read the book. Buy a copy, download it, borrow it from the library, whatever. Throughout the story, there are 5 lessons. I want you to pick one. Pick your favourite lesson, and explain why it speaks to you the most. I also want to know, how can you relate it to your life?”

All the students nodded in silence as they took notes.

Sehun smiled. This was an easy assignment, involving something he’s mildly interested in, making it even easier.

“Now,” Mr. Wu started. “I’ll give you the remainder of the period to do whatever. Start planning something or preparing for next period, whatever you think is the right thing to do,” and with that, Mr. Wu finally sat down at his desk and started playing on his phone.

The remainder of the period felt like seconds as Sehun went back to thinking about the whispers from this morning. Once the bell rang to signal period 2, Sehun was up and out before anyone could even say anything.

Sehun has math next. He had to go downstairs, down to room 145, Ms. Kim. Sehun’s friend, Youngnam, has math with him, so they always sit together. Youngnam does the talking, Sehun does the listening. When Youngnam struggles with math, Sehun helps. But Sehun doesn’t need Youngnam’s help in anything. Sehun just keeps his distance.

As Sehun walked through the halls, he heard whispers again. He caught the words “15” and “love”. Now, Sehun was sure they were talking about that. But why they were talking about that? Sehun didn’t know.

Nevertheless, he kept walking. His steps were more brisk. Sehun didn’t look anywhere but straight ahead. He kept looking for the door to room 145. Once Sehun found room 145, he walked in, sat at the very back, and waited.

It took a few minutes, but soon enough, everyone arrived and sat down. Youngnam came in right before the bell could ring to declare him late. Smiling smugly, Youngnam placed himself beside Sehun.

Ms. Kim soon entered and began talking about the distributive property of math and how it should be used to expand a polynomial. A lesson that no one seemed to understand.

Sehun wasn’t even paying attention. He was thinking about the assignment Mr. Wu gave, and the whispers. Sehun was distracted. Too distracted. Youngnam had to eventually poke him a few times to tell him that Ms. Kim caught him.

“Sehun, can you expand this expression to show how the distributive property can be applied to polynomials and replace the variable with a number to test if it works or not?”

Sehun got out of his seat, and walked to the front of the classroom. He took the chalk from Ms. Kim’s hand, and looked at the board.

6(2x - 1)

Sehun smiled. He was good at math. So this wasn’t a challenge. He began writing his answer on the board. The white chalk lost some of its length after Sehun was done.

6(2x - 1)

= 6(2x) - 6(1)

6(2x - 1)

= 6(2(3) - 1)

= 6(6 - 1)

= 6(5)

= 30

6(2x) - 6(1)

6(2(3)) - 6(1)

= 6(6) - 6(1)

= 36 - 6

= 30

Sehun gave the chalk back to Ms. Kim and returned to his seat.

The rest of period 2 and all of period 3 went by quite smoothly after that.

Author's Note

Enjoying it so far? I hope so. I'll be updating IOROS (Idiot of Romance, Oh Sehun) maybe once every week or 2 weeks. Twice a week if I'm lucky. With this story, I'm focusing more on detail. I'm sorry if it's boring so far. But I promise, it'll get better with time.