It was going to be their sixth lesson with Mr Kwon. Both Taeyeon’s and Sooyeon’s doubts with the teacher were gone but they were still not used to the calm and easy-going nature of the art teacher. Sooyeon often had her doubts about whether he was a fully qualified teacher but she had to admit that he did have a talent with paints after he had demonstrated to them a few days before.

The lesson was somewhat different from the ones they had before. Taeyeon and Sooyeon sat down with an apple in front of them and their visual diaries on open to a blank page. Upon the board was the technique that they were learning. “Remember to draw what you see, not what you think you see. It makes everything a lot easier if you copy everything that you can actually see. If it doesn’t look right, keep going until you reach the end. Nothing looks right midway through.”

At first Taeyeon and Sooyeon were confused as to why they were learning something that seemed like common sense, but as they started drawing they realised the difficulties they faced. The apples didn’t look like apples but it was what they saw. Sooyeon lifted her page and turned it at different angles in hopes of perhaps seeing an actual apple somewhere in her sketch but she was unsuccessful. Taeyeon was also in the same situation as she had both hands on either side of her head whilst she stared at her sketch. She looked up at the apple and back at her page and sighed. She followed the words and drew what she saw but what she could see was not what she could draw.

Sang-woo could see the conflict in both girls and merely smiled to himself as he tossed a spare apple up and down carelessly. Sooyeon slammed her visual diary down rather loudly, catching the attention of both Taeyeon and the teacher. Sang-woo couldn’t hold back his chuckle when Sooyeon dramatically slammed her head repeatedly against the table whilst Taeyeon looked on, wondering if she should perhaps stop her friend. Sooyeon then gave one last head-desk before resting her head completely on the table. Sang-woo wondered whether Sooyeon hit her head a little too hard and passed out but the sound of another book slamming on the table startled him.

To his surprise, Taeyeon was mimicking Sooyeon’s position. He covered his mouth to stop himself laughing at the comical view before him of two girls with their heads on the table, completely unmoving. Deciding that he should put some relief into the girls, he got up off his seat and poked the two girls’ shoulders. Sooyeon looked up and glared at him, silently cursing him for ruining her confidence in drawing.

“Keep going until the end. Add a little bit of shading and it should look a little more like an apple. Don’t give up just yet,” he reassured. Taeyeon rested her head to the side of her book and picked her pencil up lazily. With her head still resting against the desk, she started lazily adding some shading to her drawing. Unlike the older girl, Sooyeon slammed her head against her book again and shook her head furiously. She was tired of trying to get the right shape and her self-confidence was dropping dramatically at the fact that she couldn’t even draw a simple apple properly.

Taeyeon giggled at Sooyeon’s acts but quickly stopped when she met with Mr Kwon’s eyes. Quickly pressing her lips together, Taeyeon turned her gaze back onto her page and continued to shade mindlessly. Sang-woo then turned to Sooyeon and poked her shoulder again. Sooyeon waved her hand carelessly at him and continued to keep her head down. Again, the art teacher poked at Sooyeon. Knowing that Mr Kwon would continuously poke her until she got up, she reluctantly lifted her head and leaned against her upright arm.

Sang-woo cocked his eyebrow up at Sooyeon. The two stared at each other for a good long moment before Sooyeon backed down and took up her pencil. Taeyeon was left slightly surprised since no one had ever caused Sooyeon to back down from a staring contest before. Satisfied that both students are continuing, Sang-woo turned around and walked back to his desk to read some of his teacher notes. Taeyeon peeked up from her drawing and quickly reached to poke at the girl beside her when she was sure that the teacher wasn’t paying attention to them.

“Why did you back down?” Taeyeon questioned. Sooyeon gritted her teeth and continued to shade lazily. She too was also disappointed that she was made to back down from her ground during the staring contest. Taeyeon continued to wait before the younger girl finally sighed and admitted defeat.

“It felt like if I didn’t back down, he would come after me in my sleep,” she admitted. “There’s still a chance that he’s a serial killer and I don’t want my life to end just yet.”

Taeyeon covered with her hand to hide the smile that was growing. She never thought that she would ever meet Sooyeon’s match but what made it even more amusing was that it was the complete opposite of what she was expecting. She always thought that in order to match Sooyeon, the other had to be harsh, cold and stern to the point in which Sooyeon would cower away from the sheer intimidation. She never thought that a laid back art teacher would be able to cause Sooyeon to back down so easily.

“Aren’t you curious to know why there aren’t that many people learning art? What if he killed them all off and no one joins because they have their suspicions?” Sooyeon continued with furious hand movements. Taeyeon continued to keep her hand over with a laugh brewing in the back of .

After being with Taeyeon for so long, the younger girl knew what Taeyeon was doing and sighed heavily. She was going to be mocked for being scared of a plain art teacher but she couldn’t help it. He was too nice for her liking. No one that nice could exist unless they were secretly planning something completely evil behind the smiles they bore.

“I see Sooyeon is letting her imagination get the best of her isn’t she, Taeyeon?” Sang-woo voiced to catch the attention of the older girl. Taeyeon gave a small nod and quickly wiped the grin on her lips. Sooyeon returned to her drawing and took no notice of the two conversing beside her.

“Don’t try to correct her. It’s nice having a student scared of you for a change. I’ll put a mannequin hand in the storage room tomorrow and put some red paint on it. When she finds it tomorrow, try to convince her that she’s mad and this can remain our little secret,” he continued to whisper for the added effect. Taeyeon bit her lower lip and glanced over to Sooyeon for a moment. She hated it whenever someone was talking to her verbally in order to keep Sooyeon in the dark and even if it was a joke, it still didn’t settle well with her.

“Sorry, but could you not speak verbally to me? Even if it’s to keep a secret from Sooyeon, it’s not right to use her… situation to our advantage,” Taeyeon signed back and made sure that Sooyeon wasn’t looking at them. Sang-woo was mildly surprised at the request. Taeyeon had the gift of hearing but she never seemed to be grateful of it and would have preferred others use a common language.

“My apologies. I shouldn’t have been so careless,” Sang-woo replied with his hands. Taeyeon gave a reassuring smile before continuing to shade in her apple. The teacher leaned against his chair with his arms folded around his chest. He stared at the two girls in front of him and was intrigued.

“What interesting characters you two are,” he thought to himself. Just as he was about to put his feet onto the table, the light from in front of the room flashed, signalling the end of the period. Sooyeon immediately jumped out of her seat when she caught a glimpse of the flashing light and quickly packed up her belongings. Sang-woo could tell that both students were eager to leave after the somewhat torturous lesson. Sooyeon definitely lost part of her self-esteem but Sang-woo wasn’t worried. She would retain it again after the next lesson.

“Alright, you may go,” Sang-woo chuckled and dismissed the two. Sooyeon quickly took Taeyeon’s hand into her arm and dragged her out of the classroom eagerly. Sang-woo shook his head with a soft smile.

“Kids these days. Always full of sugar.”

The next day, Taeyeon and Sooyeon had their art class during last period. Whilst they were walking to their class, Sooyeon’s grip around Taeyeon’s arm tightened. Taeyeon silently questioned her but Sooyeon didn’t reply. Instead, she pulled Taeyeon to the side again and stopped them from advancing towards their class.

“Something bad is going to happen. I can feel it,” Sooyeon gestured with a fearful expression. Taeyeon then suddenly remembered the little joke that Sang-woo had told her about yesterday. Seeing her fearful expression, Taeyeon decided to keep it to herself in order to avoid having Sooyeon enraged. She made a mental note that whenever someone would go to the storage room, it would be her so that Sooyeon would not be caught off guard.

“You’re just nervous because you lost the staring contest yesterday. Mr Kwon is not a serial killer,” Taeyeon reassured her. Sooyeon furrowed her eyebrows and stared down at the hallway that would lead to their class. With a sigh, she linked arms with the older girl and continued to make their way to class. Something was not right and she knew that Mr Kwon would be the one to blame.

Taeyeon gave Sooyeon a reassuring squeeze of the hand once they stood in front of the art room’s door. Sooyeon took a deep breath and pushed the door open. As per usual, Mr Kwon was at his desk with both his feet on the table, only difference this time was that he had an apple in his hand. Sang-woo acknowledged the two students and tapped on the board to show them the instructions that he had written out for them.

“Continue with your drawings for today. Sooyeon, no sleeping or complaining.”

Sooyeon scoffed at the specific instructions for her and marched to her seat. Taeyeon was about to take her seat next to the younger girl but then continued to read another instruction on the board beneath the original.

“Your books are in the storage room. Sooyeon is to retrieve them.”

Before Taeyeon even finished reading, Sooyeon had already made her way towards the storage room. Quickly, Taeyeon got out of her seat and ran to the door of the storage room. Sooyeon was startled by the sudden appearance of the older girl in front of her and raised her eyebrow questionably.

“I’ve got them. You can just sit and wait. I won’t be long,” Taeyeon signed hurriedly before pushing Sooyeon back to her seat. Sang-woo from the front placed his hand underneath his chin and watched the two silently. He was sure that he was going to learn something new about the girls within that small encounter so he continued to observe carefully.

“But he told me to get them,” Sooyeon replied as she tried to reach for the door handle. Taeyeon quickly stood in front of the handle and prevented anyone from opening it for the moment.

“He’s just picking on you for your whining yesterday. I’ll get it for now.”

Sooyeon crossed her arms and stared suspiciously at the girl standing protectively in front of the door. Sang-woo from the front noticed how nervous Taeyeon was when she was lying to Sooyeon. He was expecting Sooyeon to call the older girl out on her lies but he was left waiting. The two stared at each other for a few moments before Taeyeon gave a meek smile. Without any further exchange, Sooyeon turned around and obediently made her way back to her seat.

Sang-woo moved his feet off the table and stared at Taeyeon with a bewildered expression. He quickly replayed the scene again in his head, wondering if he perhaps missed anything but he was sure that both girls were standing perfectly still. He then turned back to the seated girl and saw her patiently waiting for her visual diary to be retrieved from the storage room.

With a confused sigh, he held the side of his head and furrowed his eyebrows. He felt completely left out after the two girls’ exchange, like he had just been excluded from a very important conversation. Whilst he was left to his own thoughts, Taeyeon quickly walked into the storage room and took their visual diaries out. As she pulled them out, sure enough a fake hand came along with them. Her heart skipped a beat but she was already expecting it so she wasn’t taken by surprise that easily.  She could only imagine what Sooyeon would have done if she saw it. With a relieved sigh, Taeyeon placed the hand elsewhere for the time being before taking both their books out.

Taeyeon walked up and gave Sooyeon her book before they returned to finishing off their apples. They were almost done with the shading and Taeyeon had to admit that it did look decent enough to be called an apple. Sooyeon on the other hand was not quite that far with her shading and it only looked even more distorted with random lines that she drew for ‘shading’. Deciding that she wanted to move onto the next section of their learning, she decided to take the small project seriously.

Sooyeon reached to the corner of the table for her pencil case and dug around for her pencil. She dug around for a good long minute before she realised that she had forgotten the pencil at home. Not wanting to borrow one from the teacher, Sooyeon turned around and flinched when she saw a pencil pointed towards her. Taeyeon had her attention to the front as she waited for the pencil from her hand to disappear. With a smile, the younger girl gratefully took the pencil.

Sang-woo stared at the two girls before shifting his attention to the apple set upon the table in front of them. He then took a quick glance towards the open visual diaries and gave a small displeased sigh. Both of the girls’ pictures looked the so similar, if not exactly the same and he did not want the pieces of work to just be an apple. He thought for a moment, throwing the spare apple in his hand up and down to motivate his mind. Sang-woo then caught the apple for one last time and held it in his hand to observe.

Finally finding the perfect idea, he got off his seat abruptly and made his way to the two students. The two girls gave him a confused glance. None of them were complaining or falling asleep so they were confused as to why Mr Kwon would get out of his seat. Before they could register his reason for standing in front of them, he took up the apple and took a generous bite out of it before placing it down.

Sooyeon stood up from her seat and pointed at the bitten apple with wide eyes of accusation whilst Taeyeon stared blankly at the not-so-whole apple. Within the blink of an eye, Sang-woo snatched up both of the girls’ erasers and placed them safely into his pocket. Sooyeon’s jaw dropped and remained immobile. Taeyeon finally showed some emotion and frowned in displeasure. Both were starting to lose their patience with the man and didn’t think they could wait for an explanation any longer until Sang-woo started writing on the board.

“There is no such thing as a mistake. Compromise and continue. Use what you have to the best of your ability and don’t wipe away anything that could have been a chance to a great masterpiece.”

“That explains the erasers, but why did you bite our apple?!” Sooyeon signed in pure frustration and pointed to the bitten apple for the added effect. Sang-woo shrugged carelessly and pointed to the original writing.

“Draw what you see, not what you think you see.” He reinforced. Sooyeon picked up her visual diary and pointed towards the single apple on the page. She then furiously used her pencil to writer in the corner.

“I saw a full apple!”

Taeyeon leaned over her seat to read what Sooyeon had written and nodded her head eagerly, holding up her apple to protest in unison with the younger girl. Sang-woo took the erasers out of his pockets and tossed them up and down a few times before pocketing them again. Both girls waited for an explanation but none was given. Sang-woo merely gave a lazy shrug of the shoulders before returning to his seat with his feet upon the desk again.

Sooyeon slammed her book down onto the table in pure frustration and mimicked the actions from the day before. Her arms were crossed on the table and her head was rested in the middle of them. Taeyeon was more expressive with her emotions that day and rested her whole upper torso onto the table lazily. Mr Kwon had taken their erasers and she really did not wish to restart. The apple didn’t look like an apple when she first started and just when she was beginning to see an apple, the teacher had taken a bite out of their model.

Not caring for what the teacher thought of their pieces, Taeyeon started sketching in the bite marks into her half-finished apple. Sooyeon continued to sulk to herself and turned her head to seek condolence from her friend but was slightly offended when she saw Taeyeon continuing to draw as if Mr Kwon had not taken a bite of their model. With puppy eyes, Sooyeon reached over and tugged at Taeyeon’s shirt. Taeyeon tore her gaze away from her drawing and turned around, only to roll her eyes at the puppy look that Sooyeon was sporting.

Unwillingly, she lifted her hand up and patted Sooyeon’s head slowly. Sooyeon chuckled slightly at the gesture and shifted her seat to sit right beside Taeyeon and rested her head against the girl’s shoulder. She then took up the borrowed pencil and book over to Taeyeon’s desk before she started scribbling onto the page, not feeling bothered enough to use her hands.

“I don’t want to do this anymore. This evil man may not be killing students, but he sure is killing my self-esteem.”

Taeyeon glanced at Sooyeon’s drawing and had to agree that although it did somewhat resemble an apple, it wasn’t exactly the best there is and Sooyeon always had pride in her drawings. To have Sooyeon unsatisfied with a drawing was a rare occasion since the girl always worked until it was perfect. Taeyeon really couldn’t care less about her drawings since she only found it to be a hobby. No one was supposed to see her sketches but Sooyeon and she could’ve drawn with her uncoordinated hand and Sooyeon would always compliment it.

“Don’t take it to heart. I’m not enjoying this either but it beats sitting in Mr Ham’s class,” Taeyeon replied onto the page behind her drawing. They were to hand their drawings in and she didn’t want Mr Kwon to be reading their conversations. Sooyeon gave a heavy sigh beside her and the weight on her shoulder increased. Sooyeon was now resting all of her upper weight on Taeyeon’s arm as she started to continue her drawing.

Contrasting with Taeyeon, she drew the bitten apple separately from the original one but situated on the same page. Sooyeon sketched the outline out before returning to the original apple to finish the shading. The minutes ticked on and Sang-woo was started to become impatient. He was excited to see what the girls would present but controlled himself. He never liked to spoil surprises and would make the reactions even more real when he would finally see them.

Halfway through the class, Sang-woo decided to get up off his seat again and made his way to the apple. The girls thought that he would be inspecting their work like he would occasionally and ignored him. Sang-woo controlled himself and avoided looking at the drawings as he took up the apple and took another bite. Hearing the crunch of the apple, Taeyeon looked up and jumped, notifying Sooyeon who was resting on her arm. Sooyeon and Taeyeon both rose out of their seats at the same time, outraged that the teacher had taken yet another bite from their model.

Sang-woo gave them a proud grin before placing the apple back down and almost skipping to his seat.  The girls stood and stared at the apple again, neither of them moving. Sang-woo let out a low chuckle and spun around in his chair gleefully. He always loved teasing his students but he teases with a purpose. He only hoped that the girls will hol