*

GONG MINJI

*

On the way to the school’s office, Mr. Kim’s driving was borderline maniacal. It’s not that he drove badly, it’s just that he drove at speeds considered too dangerous to be anywhere near the general public on campus. He cut it close to trees, to buildings, to obstructions...to  students, but no matter how close he got he never hit anything.

Once we arrived at the front office, he parked and got out. I followed behind, very quietly desperately trying to avoid causing anymore trouble than I already had. I didn’t want to give Mr. Kim anymore reason to be angry with me. That is, if he was angry with me. He hadn’t given me any immediate signs that said he was unless being eerily quiet was how he expressed his anger.

That was one thing I had realized about Mr. Kim. He never seemed to lose his cool no matter what the situation. Even back after he had found out about the food fight and was going to punish the entire senior class if no one stepped up to admit they had started it he was still incredibly calm and collected.

Once inside, we headed straight to the back of the building to his office. His door was already open and once we stepped inside I was surprisingly greeted with the sight of Mrs. Jung already situated at Mr. Kim’s desk.

“Mrs. Jung?” I questioned confusedly. I hadn’t seen her in so long that it felt strange to be seeing her now especially in Mr. Kim’s office. To be honest, she’d been virtually nonexistent as of late, so I had kind of forgotten all about her, but boy was I glad to see her now. I knew whatever trouble I had just gotten myself into I would definitely be needing her help in order to get out of it.

Then again, I remembered how Mrs. Jung had told me at the beginning of the year to just follow along with everything Jongin said simply because he was son of the headmaster who saved our all-girls academy from closing down. So maybe I would have to fend for myself.

“Hello Minji,” she greeted simply before gesturing to the chair next to her. “Please have a seat.”

Feeling nervous, I gulped but followed her instruction, regardless. Mr. Kim, who chose to remain standing, moved to my left side and leaned his backside against his oak wood desk. Therefore, I had Mr. Kim, facing me, on my left and Mrs. Jung, sitting in the chair right beside me, on my right.

I suddenly felt as if I were in an interrogation room.

Mr. Kim was the first to start.

“Ms. Gong Minji.” Oh, here we go again. “Remember at the start of the school year when Mrs. Jung and I had informed to both you and Jongin how important it is for you two to get along and work together in order to set good examples not only for the students but for the school as a whole?”

Oh.

The guilt I suddenly felt made me scrunch up my face as I remembered. I’d forgotten all about the promises Jongin and I had made during the start of the school year.

Back when the idea of combining the all-boys school with the all-girls school to make a co-ed academy  had just been in the talks, parents had been against the idea expressing concern about how the boys and girls of our respective schools would socialize. This was why Jongin and I were supposed to set the bar for excellence and be “model students” thus, representing not only our school but being a good influence for our peers.

Needless to say, so far we’d both failed miserably; therefore, I didn’t speak but simply nodded to his question.

He continued, “So then you know that there are plenty of eyes watching your every move as well as monitoring your behavior and that any trouble you get into will be up for public scrutiny.”

If it was possible my face scrunched up even more. I probably looked very much like a wrinkled prune.

I nodded again, shamefully.

“Good!” Mr. Kim said rather loudly that it made me jump. He stood straight then moved to walk around his desk, opposite of me and Mrs. Jung, so he was back in his rightful place in his big black desk chair.

“It’s good that you realize that because then I won’t have to explain to you the concept of the board of trustees and why you will be subject to their judgement this coming Thursday.”

This new information stumped me. My eyes widened.

“The board of trustees?” I repeated, speaking aloud my thoughts. “Why would they be coming here?”

Every school administration around the globe had some top group of people in charge who made all the decisions for the schools in their district. For our academy, this group was a six-membered group known as the board of trustees. They were the ultimate reason why Cheonan Co-ed Academy was even existing today. Sure, Mr.Kim’s money had had a huge influence but if the board had not agreed to the combining of the schools then our academy would not exist today and I would probably be back at public school.

“Because Ms. Gong Minji,” Mr. Kim answered. “My son, Jongin, whom you know as your co-president, is presenting a case to the board, against you, for the very serious allegation of gender-based harassment.”

“WHAT?!” I yelled in total shock. I think my reaction surprised both headmasters because out the corner of my eye I saw Mrs. Jung clasp her hands over her ears in attempt to save them from the high pitch of my screaming voice, while Mr. Kim’s face twisted in displeasure.

“Minji,” Mrs. Jung spoke for the first time, her tone admonishing and I knew if I didn't settle I would be in even more trouble than I was in now.

“Sorry,” I muttered not actually feeling all that apologetic. “B-but me? Harassment?! Jongin seriously said that I was harassing him?”

At this, I barked out a cynical laugh. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The audacity of that boy! If anyone was committing the crime of gender-based harassment it was him and the guys! At least everything I and the girls had done was only out of retaliation. Afterall, it’s not like I spent my nights evilly plotting ways to make the guy’s lives a living hell. In fact, if it hadn’t been for all their scheming then I would’ve never have pranked them in the first place because my mind just doesn't work like that. I don't get joy from making others miserable, but I’d had no choice after the guys had continuously chose to do things behind our backs.

I mean, first they drug the drinks with medicine that causes explosive diarrhea, then put cameras in the girl’s bathroom to film afterwards, they coerce two ninth grade boys to do all their dirty work for them, they post up the video of Jiyeon on the web for thousands to see, and although they never got to complete it since we girls caught on to their pranks, had planned to hack the school’s website so they could post the videos they recorded of the girl’s bathroom on the school’s front homepage?!

And yet, Jongin is making a claim against me for gender-based harassment?

Un-ing-believable!

The more I thought about the absurdity of the whole situation the more I laughed.

By now, Mr. Kim and Mrs. Jung were both looking completely taken aback by my reaction but that was only because they didn’t know all the things I did. If they did know about the boy’s pranks they would find the idea of Jongin claiming me for gender-based harassment just as hysterical as I did.

Ah, the irony.

“Minji please take this situation more seriously,” Mr. Kim said.

“I’m sorry,” I said again in excuse of my behavior again. Once I got control of myself, I asked, “What all did Jongin claim that I did?”

“He told us about how you and the girls of the senior class have had it out for the senior boys since the start of the school year. That you didn’t like the idea of the co-ed school and that you hated the idea of having him as a co-president so you came up with a plan to stir up tension between the girls and the boys so that the faculty would consider separating the boys and girls and making same- schools again.”

My mouth fell open in shock-horror. “None of that is true!”

Mr. Kim continued on. “He also told us that you and the girls were responsible for what happened in the senior boy’s dorm on Monday, but that ultimately, you were the brains behind the entire prank and that you filmed the entire prank on camera even going as far to chase after him as he went to the bathrooms to film it all. That’s why I am currently searching your dorm room to retrieve any recorded videos you currently hold.”

I blinked. “Oh, w-well…” I trailed not knowing what else to say. Okay, so technically that entire last part was true, but the girls and I rather worked together as a team rather than me just being the main conspirator, but I knew that me having those videos saved on my laptop wouldn’t paint me in a good light.

“Well?” Mr. Kim asked, impatiently. “Is that all true?”

I sighed, upset. “Well, yes, but-”

“Minji!” Mrs. Jung exclaimed. “You mean to tell me you were really behind that incident in the boy’s dorm?”

“Okay, I know it sounds bad. And I know regardless that what I and the girls did was wrong, but I will tell you now that it wasn’t done out of pure deviance or delinquency and I definitely didn’t do it because I was trying to make a plan that would sabotage Cheonan Academy.”

“Then what was your reasoning Ms. Gong Minji?” Mr. Kim asked, seriously. “Please explain it to us.”

“Two words,” I answered. “Your son.” At this, Mr. Kim frowned and I shook my head, disappointed. “You both have no idea all the things he and the boys have been doing since the start of the school year.”

From then on the floodgates opened. I didn’t hold back a single piece of information I knew, even telling on my own self and what my role was in the pranks. By the time I was finished the room was so incredibly silent that if even a tiny needle fell onto the carpet floor, one could hear it.

“Oh my gosh,” was all Mrs. Jung could say.  

“Why wasn’t any of this information brought to me or Mrs. Jung until now?” Mr. Kim asked. “Why did you only come up with this after my son came to me first?”

I opened my mouth to speak but couldn’t say the words; therefore, I just sat there sputtering.

I didn’t want to say that I purposely chose not to tell Mr. Kim anything specifically because Jongin was his son. That I thought Jongin was a spoiled, overprotected snob who had him, his elite, headmaster father to get him out of any trouble he caused and therefore telling on Jongin would be utterly pointless.

Then Mr. Kim brought up something that literally made my entire world pause for a moment.

“...proof?” was all I heard him say. I looked up at him in confusion.

“Huh?”

“Do you have proof, Ms. Gong Minji?” he repeated. “You know you can’t go just making claims like the ones you just made without having solid proof to support them.”

And that’s when my world stopped spinning.

Instantly, I thought about all the materials the girls and I had gathered the night we found out about the boy’s pranks. The hidden cameras, the website, the two freshman boys who told us the entire story. And then there was the little recording I had on my phone of Jongin admitting to being the one behind starting the food fight with the girls the day the superintendent came to the school. The one I had secretly recorded behind my very back without him knowing.

Yes, technically I did have plenty of proof against my co-president to support my claims, but there was one problem. All of those pieces of evidence were back in my dorm room which, at the moment, just so happened to be being thoroughly searched by people hired by my co-president’s father, himself.

They would find those pieces of evidence, give them to Mr. Kim and then I didn’t know what he would do with them. If he was on the side of truth and justice he would acknowledge that his son was a liar and condemn him, but if he was only looking out for his son (like always) then he would probably ignore the evidence and either get rid of it or have it destroyed.

Still, there were two bits of evidence I had that couldn't be destroyed or done away with. That was those two freshman boys who had told us everything.

If I could get them as witnesses then I could present a pretty solid case. I just had to find the two boys.

*

By the time I was finally walking out of Mr. Kim’s office it was almost five in the afternoon. I think we’d been in there for nearly an hour-and-a-half. Mr. Kim told me to gather what evidence I could because I was definitely going to need it on Thursday’s meeting with the board.

“What if some of the evidence I have is on the things you are currently searching for back in my dorm room?” I had asked.

“Anything I find that pertains to either you or Jongin’s claims will be brought before the board for them to look over and discuss.”

It sounded like he wasn’t inherently picking sides even though I knew he was always going to be on Jongin’s no matter what. After all, the boy was his one and only son. Why wouldn’t he be on his side? But I still had hope that with the videos they found of the guys that I and the girls recorded, he would also find the videos the guys had recorded along with the link to the website, and everything else I had saved to my computer.  

I decided that the second I got back to my dorm I would get to work on putting together my argument beginning with finding those two freshman boys, but first I had to talk to Mrs. Jung. She’d hardly spoken during the meeting either than admonishing me for inappropriate behavior and I wanted to know what she truly thought since she knew everything now.      

“Mrs. Jung!” I called after her retreating form. After the little meeting in Mr. Kim’s room ended she had rushed out so quickly she was already several feet ahead of me, so I had to speed up to catch up with her. “Can we talk, please?”

My tone of voice was desperate; I really wanted to speak with her. She turned her head slightly to look at me and nodded.

“In my office,” she answered, quietly, which I assumed was because Mr. Kim’s office door was still open and she didn’t want him to hear us. “We can talk in my office.”

She then walked straight ahead towards her own office which was on the opposite end of the hall from Mr. Kim’s.

The moment she opened her door and we stepped inside I was hit with a pleasant scent of incense. I wasn’t sure of the scent but it smelled good whatever it was.

It had been a long time since I been in here last, but the comforting atmosphere of Mrs. Jung’s office was one I always liked. In comparison to Mr. Kim’s office, Mrs. Jung’s had a much more “home welcoming” feel which I was pretty sure she made that way on purpose since she spent so much time in it.

The chairs were cozier, plushier. The walls actually had color (mint green) unlike Mr. Kim’s plain white walls and many artifacts of her own decorated the office like pictures, ornaments and so forth.  

The main artifact of the room I had always liked was the long, elaborate dark wood cupboard that outstretched against the entire back wall behind her desk. It gave the entire office this antique vibe that contributed a lot to the comforting feeling of the room.

Being in her old office felt almost consoling which was nice considering the dreadful meeting I had just had; however, I wasted no time in getting straight to the point. I needed confirmation that she believed in my side of the story or else I had no chance in making it through this whole ordeal.

“Mrs. Jung, you do believe everything I had said during the meeting, don’t you?” I fired away the moment I sat down.

She must have been taken aback by my my suddenness because her hands fumbled with the mug and tea box she was currently grabbing from one of the cupboards behind her desk.

She didn’t answer me immediately, instead choosing to focus her attention on making her cup of tea with the boiling water from her  coffee maker.

I waited albeit not very patiently. My legs bounced repeatedly almost of their own accord like they had minds of their own, but I still waited due to my better judgement.

Rushing Mrs. Jung wasn’t something she would be fond of at all. She had never been a woman who liked to rush or do things hastily. After having witnessed her work ethics for so many years I learned that while she did things on her own time she still completed them within a set time frame that allowed work to get done on time.

I was on her time now, so I would have to wait and while I did it was then that I started to wonder just how well Mr. Kim and Mrs. Jung got along as partners heading a co-ed school. I knew she felt slightly in his debt because of how much money he contributed into combining the boys school with the girl’s which helped keep an academy open for the girls, so I know that if they had any differences she was probably going out of her way to comply with him more than the other way around.

Still, I realized that I only ever saw them together when it was in a public school-related setting, and they always displayed the image of perfect, respectful headmasters who respected one another. But I wondered if they truly felt the same respect for each other on the inside or if they were more like Jongin and I who simply tolerated each other for the sake of the co-ed academy.

I wouldn’t know unless something ever got out that proved otherwise, but if she was getting along with him then I would definitely be worried about my fate in this school.

Mrs. Jung sat down at her desk, opposite of me, and took a few sips of her drink while she eyed me blankly. I didn’t know what to make of the look she was giving me, so it made me a little uneasy.

“Mrs. Jung?” I questioned, unsurely.

She sat her mug down and looked back up at me. “Minji, do you remember back when you were just a freshman and you really wanted to run for president for your sophomore year but was too insecure to actually do it?”

I pressed my lips together feeling embarrassed as I remembered my scrawny, fourteen year-old self too worried of what her peers would think if I tried running for president. Back when I was fourteen, I’d been this happy-go-lucky kind of girl who was always pretty optimistic that is until I got in front of crowds of people. I didn’t have the confidence to speak publicly to people and not only that, but I was a bit on the shy side so I often had a hard time really speaking up.

Insecure and soft spoken weren’t the qualities of a president so I didn’t even bother. Well, that is until Mrs. Jung had given me a new perspective.

“Yes, I remember,” I answered finally.

She smiled. “And you’d come to me seeking advice and that’s when I had asked you to tell me why you wanted to be president in the first place. Do you remember what your answer was?”

My mouth began to form a sheepish smile as I recalled the answer I had given to her back then.

“I said it was because I wanted to make a difference where all the students mattered and all were treated with respect.”

By the end of my sentence I was really starting to feel guilty, so my head hung low. Mrs. Jung was really making me gain some perspective of my actions over the last couple weeks. I wasn’t living up to the kind of president I originally wanted to be.

The reason I had wanted change in the first place was specifically because of who had been elected as president back then. When our school was all girls, and I was a freshman, our president had been Park Guyri. She’d actually been elected twice--once, for freshman year, and again, for sophomore year.     

Back then, Gyuri had proven that she…wasn’t the best when it came to equality. In fact, she was kind of scary (that’s a huge part of the reason why she had been elected twice). Everyone feared her and with good reason. The girl was ruthless! If you so much as disagreed with her you might wake up the next morning only to find your hair all chopped off. I’m not even exaggerating. That actually happened to a girl at our school once.

I guess you could say Gyuri’s leadership style was more that of a dictatorship. With that in mind, she used most of her power to perpetuate her own status than actually caring about the school or students.

I had wanted to change that, but since I was too afraid to run up against her, Mrs. Jung had insisted that I first join government by running for a different position in office so that I could see how the administration ran behind-the-scenes, first. For that reason, I had run for secretary and once I had won, it had allowed me to see how our grade’s government worked as an actual insider.

That’s when I realized just how terrible a president Gyuri was (and how much being her secretary ). She literally did no work at all, but just barked out orders and bossed others around to do her own work. Guess what I had been in charge of? Her homework! That wasn’t even in the job description of what a secretary was supposed to do, but did she care? No.        

And her poor vice-president, Nicole Jung, had been so fed up with her that she actually resigned from her position only a few months into the school year. Unfortunately, that’s when Gyuri had decided to appoint me to take Nicole’s place as her new vice-president since I had proven myself to be responsible and she said she liked the way I did “my work,” which was actually “her” work. But at the same time, I had to thank her, for if I had never realized how terribly she ran government, I would’ve never been so motivated to run for president myself.   

So after serving as a secretary for freshman year, then as vice-president for my sophomore year, by junior year, I was ready to go for the president. I was older, more confident, braver, and I no longer feared, Gyuri (but by then just about everyone was fed up with her bull).

I ran for president with the slogan “Gong Minji, Voice of the Students” which everyone had really liked. When I won, I immediately started making changes, starting with choosing candidates for government who would care about equality for students as much as I did. That’s how I ended up with Bom, Dara, and Chaerin filling up the positions for government.

Together, along with everyone else on council, we had completely changed how government ran, and then I was elected again for senior year because everyone loved how great a leader I had been.

But then the rumors that Busan’s all-boy’s school would be conjoined with ours to make a co-ed academy proved to be true, and that’s when Jongin with his boys came to ruin everything we had just fixed.

Damn him.

But I also realize how much things were my fault as well. We were both at fault for being poor leaders to our peers. I just had to make sure that the board coming to the school realized this since Jongin was currently trying to make it seem like I was the only one at fault.

“Minji I believe you,” Mrs. Jung said suddenly, which made me jerk my head up and stare at her in bewilderment.

“Really?” I gaped at her. “Even without any evidence?”

“I’ve known you for four years, Minji,” she said with a warm smile. “You are not a liar. You have always been honest and fair, but I do think your judgement has been clouded since the school went co-ed. The only thing I can’t figure out is if all those things you said had been going on between the girls and the boys, then why hadn’t you ever come to tell me? You usually always come to me when you need any guidance or help.”

I puckered my lips and shrugged kind of worried to tell her the truth. “I don’t know, but what you told me at the beginning of year, about doing everything I could to ‘get along with Jongin’ has kind of haunted in the back of my mind all this time. It made me feel like you were more on their side since they gave so much money to keep make a co-ed school, one us girls could attend, as well. I guess, I thought you wouldn’t be very supportive if you were more on their side, so I didn’t say anything.”

Mrs. Jung sighed and leaned back in her desk chair. She rubbed at her temples.

“Oh boy. Those probably weren’t the best words to tell you. At the time, I was a bit worried about how well you girls would get along with the guys so I figured if you and Mr. Kim’s son had a good relationship, then the students would as well, but if what I told you made you think that you were supposed to play subordinate to Jongin just to keep things running smoothly, then I didn’t do a very good job at explaining.”

She looked back up at me. “I do want you two to get along. You both really do have some great qualities for presidents, just in different ways that would benefit the school if only you two would work together as a team, but it seems that’s just not working for you two, is it?”

I shook my head. “Not at all.”

“Well, then I suppose the only way to solve this is with the meeting on Thursday,” she said, finally. “I wish you the best of luck with your case, Minji, and since I will be on the panel of judges, I can assure you that you will have my vote in your favor.”      

I smiled, happy to hear those words and I knew she was still on my side.

“Oh, and Minji,” she called and I looked back at her. “For future reference, no more secrets, okay? You have no idea how mortified I was to find out about what all that had been going on between you girls and the boys since the start of the school year. If you need any help in handling that co-president of yours, just let me know. Okay?”

I nodded in agreement determined to keep that promise. After all, look where not saying anything had gotten me. In trouble with the school’s board members! But that was okay. I was determined not to lose this case. I would go back to my dorm and immediately begin working on getting my evidence together, starting with two freshman boys.   

***