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GONG MINJI

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Part II

I didn’t see Kai on Sunday. And I mean, I didn’t see him anywhere! I literally waited for an entire hour near the bench before I realized he wasn’t showing up.

Jerk!

I had no idea how to reach him either since I was too stupid to remember to get his number. He could’ve at least told me that he wasn't going to be able to show up. He even could’ve sent one of his friends to tell me he wasn’t coming, but he didn‘t, and as a result, I ened up wasting perfectly good time that I could’ve used to do something else.

I wondered if his absence had anything to do with those “important messages” he kept getting when we were talking on Saturday. It didn’t even matter now because it was already Monday, the first day of school, and I still had yet to see him anywhere.

At least I had my part of the speech done. I’d spent the entire Sunday afternoon writing, scribbling and then re-writing the perfect speech. It took me a while to get it under two minutes, but I liked what I had. At the very least, the day is not over yet and the assembly didn't start until later this afternoon, so we still had all day to talk over our speech. The only thing was that I had to be able to find him first!

Right now I was on my way to my first class which was English. I had to leave Bom snoring back in our dorm room. I’m an early riser, so I get ready much earlier than Bom who likes to sleep in as late as possible. School starts at eight o’ clock, so she set her alarm at seven-fifty.

“Minji! Over hear,” I heard Dara’s voice call me as I finally entered the classroom. Following the sound of her cheerful voice, I could see her arm waving in the air to get my attention. I followed to the very back of the classroom, walking to the empty desk beside her that she’d reserved for me and sat down.

“Hey Dara,” I greeted and sat the bag of food I was holding onto her desk. “Here’s your breakfast. You like cheese and ham right?”

She nodded excitedly, happy to finally have her breakfast. Dara had arrived early to class so that she could reserve us both our favorite area. It was in the very back of the classroom, right next to the long window.

Because Dara had to get here early, she didn’t get the chance to get herself breakfast so I stopped to pick something up for her. Usually on the first day of class, the desk you chose to sit in became your seat for the entire school year. The classes fill up quickly and nobody wanted to be stuck at the very front of the class or worst, right next to the teacher’s desk. Getting to class early enough on the first day of class to choose your perfect spot was pretty crucial.

Opening the bag, her fingers wiggled in anticipation of eating her favorite breakfast sandwich. I on the other hand, opened a sugar packet and poured it into my coffee; it was the only thing I needed in the morning to keep me going all day.

“So what do you think?” Dara asked me, gesturing toward the filling classroom. I assumed she was talking about our new male companions in the room. We’d gotten so used to the classrooms being filled with females over the last few years, seeing guys in the room gave it a bit of a different feel.

I shrugged. “I think I’m used to seeing them now. After all, they’ve been here all weekend, so…”

She nodded taking another bite out of her sandwich. “Did you catch up with Jongin?”

I rolled my eyes at the mention of his name and shook my head.

“No,” I sulked.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were upset for more reasons than just not being able to get your speech done.”

I was surprised by what she implied and slowly turned my head to look at her. “Not you too?”

She shrugged innocently. “What?”

“You sound like Bom!” I said, a little annoyed. Why were my friends so convinced that I wanted anything to do with Kai in more than a professional manner? Like, seriously? What signs was I giving that possessed them to even think that I was interested in that guy?

Coming out of my reverie, I turned back to Dara only to find her with this huge grin on her face. Oh dear Lord. She probably thought I was thinking about him. Well, technically I was thinking about him, but not in the way that she was probably thinking.

“Just eat your sandwich!” I said finally fed up.

Dara chuckled, then stayed quiet as she continued to eat.

I decided to quietly organize my notebook for the next few minutes but stopped when I suddenly felt the presence of two figures before me.

“Hi guys,” I heard Dara say.

I looked up to see two of the guys out of the five we’d met just this past Friday- Chanyeol and Kris. I'm pretty sure that was there names . Seeing how I was sitting down, I really had to crane my neck up to get a good look at the both of them; they were both really tall. What the heck did they feed these boys back when they were at Busan Academy?

They both greeted Dara back before placing themselves in the empty desks before Dara and I. Chanyeol sat in front of Dara while Kris took the desk in front of me. Silently, I admired how good they looked in their crisp, black suit and tie uniforms.

“I didn‘t know you two had this class as well,” Chanyeol said with a toothy grin. “This class will be way more fun then. Wassup ladies?”

I looked back and forth between Chanyeol and Kris, trying to figure out why they were sitting here and why they were talking to us.

“Hey,” was my monosyllabic reply as I feigned disinterest. This obviously amused Kris for whatever reason because he snorted a little and looked away from me.

I raised an eyebrow. “Something funny, Kris?”

He looked up at me. “Nope. Not at all.”

I looked over at Dara, and she looked back at me; I just shrugged and looked back at the two boys in front of us.

“Okay, well if you two don’t need anything can you please leave-”

“Are you always this uptight?” Kris suddenly asked, cutting me off.

"Uptight?” I repeated, offended. What did he mean by that?

“You just seem a little oversensitive or paranoid,” he explained, his black eyes peering into mine; like he was trying to figure me out. “Every time us or one of the other guys approach you, you always look like you’re expecting us to do something horrible to you.”

“I’m not uptight,” I argued, but I'm pretty sure the strain in my voice proved otherwise. "And I'm not paranoid or oversensitive, either!"

He didn't reply, but just smirked and nodded, but he looked unconvinced.

I chose to leave out the second part of what he said about me expecting them to do something horrible because that was actually true. I couldn’t help it; I didn’t trust people I barely knew, and I wasn’t sure why they seemed so keen on being friendly with us anyway. We’d only talked that once on Friday; that didn’t make us best buddies or anything.

I could see why maybe they would want to be friends with Dara, Bom or Chaerin since they were doing most of the talking but I thought my silence during most of the conversation made it pretty clear that I wasn’t in the friendliest mood.

“I find you interesting,” he suddenly remarked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

I stared at him for a moment, lost for words.

“And I find you weird,” I replied back.

This got a genuine smile to appear on his rather cold, expressionless face.

“Speaking of weird,” I said changing the subject, deciding I might as well get some information out them since it didn’t seem like they were going to leave us alone. “Do you guys know where your friend Kai is? I didn’t see him at all on Sunday and we were supposed to be going over an important speech.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widened. “Wait, you guys are on a nickname basis now?”

“I told him we should get closer since we were going to be working together a lot this year,” I explained. “He told me to call him Kai.”

Chanyeol looked over at Kris and smirked. Kris just rolled his eyes and shook his head. I looked back and forth between them, trying to decipher what that little moment meant.

“Hm…well, we haven’t seen Kai this morning,” Chanyeol said, rubbing his chin as if deep in thought. “But we did see him last night when we were- OW!”

Kris’s elbow had collided with Chanyeol’s shoulder, shutting him up. Chanyeol now pathetically rubbed the sore spot.

“We did see him last night, but we were just hanging out,” Kris quickly answered.

They were hanging out? Well I see where his priorities lie. “So when he was supposed to be working on our speech with me like he promised, he was hanging out with you guys. I thought he said he had an important meeting to go to?”

“He did!” Chanyeol said. “Well actually all of us were at the meeting. That’s why- Hey! Don’t hit me again Kris!” Chanyeol jumped away from Kris before he could hit him again.

Now I felt I had a reason to be suspicious because none of what they were saying sounded true. Were they covering for Kai’s true whereabouts?

“I change my mind, both of you are weird,” I said.

“Well weird is better than normal, isn’t it?” Chanyeol said with a huge grin. "Normal is overrated." 

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Dara nodding. Chanyeol looked over at her and they shared similar grins. I rolled my eyes. My 4D alien friend, and this goofy-looking boy belonged together.

I hadn't been paying attention to the rest of the room, but I noticed the noise in the class began to die down as someone suddenly entered the classroom. The sound of their heels tapped hard on the floor, making loud "clacking" sounds with each step.

I looked up and noticed that it was Ms. Johnson’s presence that made the entire class quiet. After putting her suitcase down on her desk, she moved to stand in front of the class and crossed her arms over her chest. The classroom was so quiet you could hear a pencil drop; everyone was now focused on the foreign teacher.

“Let me start off by welcoming all you new seniors to my class, and I’d also like to welcome the young men in this class who transferred to the school as well. This will be a new experience for us all and I hope you and I can get along throughout the school year.”

I trained my ears to listen carefully because she was only speaking in English. I didn’t mind, after all this was an advance English class, I just assumed we’d start the first day more laid back and casual. But I knew Ms. Johnson wasn’t a “laid back” kind of teacher. She was strict, like a drill sergeant; she meant business. I hear it's hard to get on her good side, but it's harder to stay on her good side- I hope to do both.

She turned around to the whiteboard, picked up a marker and started scribbling something down. When she was finished, I realized it was her name followed by the name of the course.

“Now that that’s said, good morning class,” she started, turning back around. Her voice was stern and her posture was stiff. “Welcome to Advanced English. I’m your teacher Ms. Johnson and I hope for your sake more than mine that you will fall into my good graces.”

“Please keep in mind, this an advanced English class you signed up for and therefore the work you have will be strenuous. I’d advised you take this class seriously and that you take advantage of all the help I supply. Also, starting tomorrow, we will only speak English in this class. I’m assuming that each of you know enough English to speak it conversationally, or else you wouldn’t even be in this classroom.”

I’d started to tune out Ms. Johnson’s introductory to the class once I noticed Chanyeol suddenly leaning back towards Dara and I. He looked like he wanted to share something with us and I looked at him questioningly.

“Wow, Ms. Johnson is really a ray of sunshine in the morning, isn’t she?” he joked with us, chuckling.

I smiled but didn't laugh while Dara, on the other hand, covered , giggling. Beside Chanyeol, Kris seemed to hear as well and shook his head.

“You! The big eared boy that’s talking,” I heard Ms. Johnson’s voice call out. Our amusement literally died the moment she called him. “Please stand up.”

Chanyeol turned back around and scanned the silent classroom; everyone’s eyes were on him. He slowly stood up, straightening out his uniform and faced our English teacher.

“What’s your name, son?” she asked.

“Park Chanyeol,” Chanyeol answered, but the way he said his name made it sound more like a question; like he was unsure of his own name.

“Park Chanyeol,” Ms. Choi repeated. “Well Chanyeol, I’m making seating arrangements tomorrow and guess where your seat is going to be?” She then pointed her finger at the only unoccupied student desk which was directly in front of her own desk.

“Wow,” Chanyeol said sarcastically. “Best seat in the class.”

I put my head down. Chanyeol was really asking for trouble.

Ms. Johnson clicked her tongue as she stared at Chanyeol. “You’re on my list Chanyeol and let me warn you now that the list is not a place you want to be. Take your seat.”

“And the giggling duo in the back?” Ms. Johnson called pointing to Dara and I. “What are your names?”

“Gong Minji,” I answered carefully.

“Sandara Park,” Dara gave her full name.

“Ah, Minji, this year’s senior president,” Ms. Johnson nodded. “Well, just because your president doesn’t mean you can get away with food and drinks in my class. This is my only warning to you two. You’re both on my list as well.”

With that, I placed my drink underneath my seat. I couldn’t believe I was getting in trouble for having food in the class. Usually teachers never got angry if you brought your breakfast inside, just as long as you didn’t disturb the class and you threw your trash away. But then again, this wasn’t just any teacher, this was Ms. Johnson, one of the strictest teachers onrt campus.

Well, so much for getting on her good side…

Ms. Johnson continued to pull out a sheet from her bag and stood at the front of the class. “I’m going to call out attendance. When I call your name please say ‘present’.”

She went down the list and I said "present" once she got to my name. I could see Dara secretly taking bites out of her sandwich as she was waiting for her name to be called. Luckily, since Chanyeol had a much larger body build than she did, she could hide behind him as she ate.

Ms. Johnson suddenly called a familiar name that made me look up and scan across the classroom.

“Kim Jongin?” she called again, only there was no response as the room stayed dead silent. She marked his name on her attendance sheet. “Absent on the first day, I see? He‘s on my list as well.”

So Kai was supposed to be in this class as well, huh? I wondered if Chanyeol or Kris knew where he was at. They seemed pretty suspicious earlier.

I was starting to get bad vibes from this guy. He just didn’t seem presidential material to me. First he wasn’t taking our responsibility as presidents seriously, then he was breaking promises to his own co-president, and now he won’t even show up to class on time.

I knew one thing for sure. If he didn’t show up in time before the assembly to go over our speech, and I ended up having to go up in front of the entire senior class by myself, then when I did find him, I was gonna kick his .

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