ges·so [/’jesō/] noun:

1. a white ground material for preparing rigid supports for painting.

“So when someone asks you ‘How are you?’ you can reply with the usual ‘I’m fine. Thank you.’ But what if you’re not feeling fine? You need to be able to express what you feel other than just ‘fine’. For example…” The teacher droned on, reading out of his textbook and occasionally writing English words on the chalkboard.

Jung Kook’s mouth hung open and his eyes half lidded in a trance as he stared at the board; none of this was making sense… He snapped out of his daze when he felt saliva pool in the corner of his mouth, quickly wiping it away and gazing around the classroom. Did anyone see that? Everyone’s noses were pressed into their notebooks, diligently jotting down the lecture and notes on the board… How could they pay attention to this stuff…? A quiet whine escaped his lips as he leaned forward, rubbing his temples as a painful migraine started forming behind his forehead. 

Everything in the room seemed more interesting than this lesson, even the ceiling seemed to be more entertaining than this. Every sound in the room distracted him; the sniffling of the kids with allergies, the sound of pens scratching on their notebooks, the tapping of pencils on the desks, the occasional cough or clearing of throats that seemed much too loud for the classroom atmosphere... The regret of taking an advanced english class hit him like a baseball bat to the cranium, what was he thinking when signing up for classes? 

“Yah,” Taehyung sighed, plopping down on top of Jung Kook’s desk, “Whatcha doin’?”

Jung Kook’s eyes lifted from the doodle he was working on in his notebook… Which half of Taehyung’s graciously covered... His fingers gripped the notebook and attempted to pull it out from under him but it wasn’t working well, since when did Taehyung weigh so much? “Hyung, move!” Jung Kook whined, pulling harder until a corner of the page tore, “Move!” He cried out again. Taehyung only let out short giggles at the juniors struggle to free his things.

“Why don’t you go bother Jimin during break time!? Leave me alone!” Jung Kook yelped, smacking his senior on his back. Why wouldn’t he move!?

“Someone's an unhappy bunny. Because Jimin’s boring, we’re the same age so I can’t get a good reaction out of him like you can!” Taehyung pouted, “He’s on cleaning duty anyways…” He mumbled, so the truth came out at last. The guy had nothing else to do so he wandered into Jung Kook's class wing to bother him. Just as he was about to shoot back a cocky response, a boy from the other classroom ran in, his face red and his chest rising and falling as he let out airy gasps.

“Guys, some weird chick is getting yelled at!” The boy giggled through his heavy panting, it was only seconds before kids were scrambling around the room. People were jumping up onto the desk and peering out through the hallway windows, crowding at the doors like flies to poop. Couldn't he have come up with a better metaphor than that...? What was so interesting? Kids got in trouble for stupid things all the time, and usually for the same things over and over… Yet everyone around here acted like it was breaking news.

“What’re they talking about?” Jung Kook asked, looking at all his classmates running around frantically. Taehyung only shot him a confused look and shrugged his shoulders, but even he got up and made his way over to one of the open doors. So age has nothing to do with maturity it seemed... Soon the classroom was giggling just like the boy who announced it was when he entered, even from his desk he could see Taehyung was laughing along with them… What was so funny? Jung Kook wanted to know too…! Without another second to think he scrambled out of his desk and ran over to the door to squeeze through the crowd.

Jung Kook’s eyes looked down the hall to see a teacher standing in front of a small girl scolding her, “Don’t think I’m some naïve idiot! I know well that Japan has the same rule for school shoes; you should have bought some when you bought that uniform! What? Can’t you understand me, can you speak Korean?” He barked, flicking the corner of her uniform as if he were whisking away dirt… Japan? What about Japan and why does it matter? Is she a foreigner? Yah, this was boring…“And that hair color is against school rules, dye it immediately.”

Jung Kook looked at the girl stupid enough to draw attention to herself, she stood tall even though she was being scolded. She certainly looked brave the way she stood before him… Or she didn’t understand much Korean yet. Her vibrant hair was pulled back into a messy pony tail revealing weird looking earings... But it was completely obvious why the teachers was upset, just look at those bright pink stilettos’! They certainly stood out against the schools black uni…form…

“I’m very sorry sir, I just moved here so I haven’t found the time to purchase shoes with all the language classes I’ve been cramming in. I had to perfect the language to attend this school afterall!” She giggled in flawless Korean. Before the teacher even had the time to respond she spun around with the same sweet smile she must have been wearing when she answered him. Someone pushed Jung Kook's back and he quickly shot an elbow back to reciprocate, he may be taller for his age but he certainly wasn't the tallest in the class! He his attention was back on the small girl the corners of dropped to a frown and her eyes rolled dramatically. Those large ink colored eyes and plump lips, Jung Kook nearly choked on his saliva and forced his way back into the classroom in a terrible coughing fit.

“What’s with you?” Taehyung followed him, the crowds of kids were starting to disperse now and whispers of her attitude were circling the room. Jung Kook’s face became red and his eyes watered terribly as he tried to get his coughing under control, he felt like he was going to throw up! That girl from the arcade, why was she here? “Did it go down the wrong tube?” He laughed, patting Jung Kook’s back to help him.

“N-No…!” He gasped, shaking his head only to start coughing again, “G-Girl…! The girl…!” Just as he spoke those words the girl walked into the classroom as if nothing out in the hall had happened. Instantly the classroom quieted themselves, all that could be heard was Jung Kook's wild coughing. She held her chin high and she walked in her skyscraper heels like a model, one foot in front of the other. What did he ever do wrong to deserve this kind of punishment? Who was playing a trick on him? This had to be a dream, a joke, anything but reality! Please!?

Just then her eyes flickered to him and he froze as a shiver jolted up his spine, did she recognize him? A bright blush spread on Jung Kook’s cheeks and his eyes quickly darted away from her. The room felt just a tad bit warmer that usual, someone must have opened a window… Right? But nothing happened, she passed him without a word and a heaviness lifted from his heart slightly... But there was still the boulder of his embarrassment weighing on his shoulders, it was the most uncomfortable thing he'd ever experienced. There was only one thing he could do until he collected his thoughts, run.

“I-I don’t feel good. I gotta get out of here.” Jung Kook cried and quickly left the classroom.

“Yah, classes are going to start again…!” Taehyung called after him. He chased Jung Kook out of the classroom but the kid had already fled down the hallway quicker than expected. All that was left behind was a rather confused Taehyung, “What’s his problem…?” He muttered as he stood in the middle of the hallway.