Prologue
Opposites Attract
March 2013
3.30 p.m
It was an awfully cold Tuesday afternoon. Light drizzle started damping the Earth as hundreds of students made their way home after a hectic day at school. But the chilly weather wasn't anything compared to the nerve-racking, stern looks on Mr. Gu's face. Well, at least, that's what 17-year-old Kim Kyoung Jae thought as he tried his best to hide his anxiety in front of his middle-aged Physics teacher. He stared at the windows in the teacher's room absent-mindedly, avoiding the teacher's solemn eyes who calmly stood in front of him.
"Kyoung Jae-ah, do you know why you're here?"
The teacher finally spoke, after a moment of silence.
"Well, you wanted to see me, sir."
The tense on the teacher's face slowly loosens, but he still looked somehow serious.
"Yes, that's true. And why do you think I wanted to see you?"
The boy hesitated for a while before he finally came up with his answer.
"I don't know, sir."
"Kyoung Jae-ah, I'm here to talk about your grades."
Silence.
"To be honest, you did play well for the school's basketball team and of course, did a lot of things to make the school proud. But unfortunately, you didn't perform well in your studies last year. You failed most of the subjects Kyoung Jae, including mine. That's actually really disappointing."
Still silence.
"As a teacher, I'm really worried about you. And I bet Sung Ho wouldn't be happy to know that you failed. He was an excellent scholar, you know?"
The boy's face, however, suddenly changed upon hearing the name.
"So, what do you want me to do? Cut down my basketball games and go to your extra classes every day?"
The teacher remained calm and fixed a gaze right into the boy's deep brown eyes.
"Actually, I was thinking of something else."
And the next few words that slipped through the teacher's mouth almost made the 17-year-old boy's heart stopped beating.
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