“Shoot!” Bom hissed when for the second time this morning she added an orange juice to her coffee instead of milk. She sighed and sat down, hiding her face in hands.

She could not deny it any longer – her nerves were slowly crushing under the weight of recent events. Park Bom was a confident, mature, successful and content woman and she should not let the circumstances mess with that. But even for her, everything that happened in the past few days was simply too much.

She recalled the moment when it all started and she mentally slapped herself for not stopping when she still could. On the other hand she never expected this all to happen.

She was happily married at the age of 24, to Lee Min Ho, her University crush who happened to be her first big love.  Everything was blissful for 5 years…until that one day, when she walked on Minho – busy making out with her best friend, Boa. From that day Park Bom became miserable but finally she let it go, promising herself that nothing will ever made her cry again. Especially a man.

But she was not smiling either.

That was the moment when she was called as a replacement for one teacher who was absent that day. She did not know the class but she led the lesson anyway. And when the bell finally rang, one student approached her. He asked why she is so sad, even though she seemed to be passionate and happy about teaching and her subject. She simply answered with ‘life’. The student nodded and left, but after few minutes he came back. He brought a broken flower she knew from being planted at the school’s boulevard. He put the violet on the desk, grinned widely and introduced himself as Kim Jongdae.

And in that moment Park Bom smiled.

After that day she was receiving broken flowers every day and it came to the moment when trainer Choi started his own investigation regarding vanishing violets from the boulevard. But Kim Jongdae was never caught.

When the winter season began he started to deliver bought flowers. When she finally asked him why is he doing that he simply answered with ‘I’m trying to make you smile’. And he did.

Of course he was the first to kiss her and Park Bom could not fight it any longer as she felt the mix of excitement, temptation, adventure and being adored. Too bad she never presumed that she will fall in love. And she did.

At first she thought it was nothing serious for Jongdae, as it was rather usual for young boys to have a crush on noona. But he was different and his confessions were sincere.

He always wanted to inform the whole world how much he loved her but he understood her concern and fear.

They were still in the same school – too bad he was a student and she was a teacher.

Jongdae tended to talk a lot about how he will marry her and how suitable ‘Kim’ seemed to be with her first name. And Park Bom felt happy, even though she knew that was wrong.

They managed to keep their relationship a secret for almost whole year until that one day they lost it, having a hot in one of the classrooms. They knew they could be caught but this made it even more exciting than it already was.

But they never expected to be caught that way. Filming and sending it over - the scale of that was bigger.

Park Bom lost her job in a matter of one second, even though Jongdae protested and even wanted to take the whole guilt on himself, telling the lies that he was the one to took an advantage of her.

Park Bom was truly touched by his behavior therefor she confessed everything, begging the principal to not kick him out. He agreed and Jongdae stayed, even though his role in the musical was cancelled as well as his next summer scholarship in Rome.

That was also the moment when Park Bom decided to end it since she did not want to ruin more of this young man’s life. She needed to be as far away from him as possible.

Just then she heard the knocking on her doors.

Her head perked up from her hands as she made her way to the entrance, preparing to see the Fedex staff. Instead she saw her former students, Lee Chaerin and Wu “Kris” Yifan.

“Good morning Ms. Park” Chaerin bowed and then smiled. Kris quickly followed her steps, minus the smiling part, and Bom just stood there, blinking her eyes, not sure what to do. She was not expecting that.

“What are you two doing here?” she finally asked, feeling that she can speak again. The smile never left Chaerin’s pretty face.

“Seeing how are you”

Bom grinned widely and stepped from her spot, inviting them inside.

“Do you want some coffee?” she asked while closing the doors behind them.

Chaerin and Kris nodded as Bom showed them the kitchen where they sat.

“You shouldn’t be skipping classes” Bom started while taking out two mugs from the cupboard.

“We’ll live” Kris nodded and looked knowingly at Chaerin, signalizing her that she should start the topic that basically brought them here. She cleared .

“Ms. Park” she said “I’m sorry for being so straight-forward but…Do you know that Jongdae is in a hospital?”

Just then a loud smash was heard as the two cups fell from Bom’s hands, landing directly in the sink, spilling the coffee around few dishes. Her eyes were widened but focused on the floor or her own feet. Chaerin and Kris exchanged worried looks.

“Let me deal with that” Kris stood up and went to the sink. Bom just nodded and left to the salon.

“You dropped the bomb, let me tell you” Kris raised his eyebrows while looking at Chaerin. She only rolled her eyes and followed her former teacher. She saw her standing near the balcony, observing the neighborhood through the window.

“He did something to himself, didn’t he?” she asked, her back still facing Chaerin.

The younger girl just sighed and decided it was not her mission to give her any facts or Jongdae’s illness history.

“No” she answered “It was an accident. I’m not sure what exactly happened…”

“Why are you here, Chaerin-sshi?” Bom asked while turning around and crossing her arms.

“I overheard Jongdae’s chat with Byun Baekhyun” Chaerin stated “I know you broke up with him and I wanted to tell you that…” she scratched her nape, not sure what to say more “I wanted to tell you that he told the whole school he loves you. I felt like you needed to know that”

Bom blinked her eyes and gazed at the ground. Chaerin saw she was fighting her tears but she herself took a better look inside the salon. Her eyes widened as instead of furniture she saw a lot of boxes.

“Wait” Chaerin looked around “You’re-“

“Leaving” Bom finished as she looked up again, smiling bitterly “I’m going back to California. I will be a corrector in one of the magazines. I took the job yesterday…As you know I am the one who had an affair with a student. I can’t teach anymore”

Chaerin took a step backwards.

“You can’t” she shook her head “He’ll be devastated”

“He’ll get out of it” Bom sighed “But I cannot take more of his youth. He should enjoy it while he still can. I made this decision partly because of him…I want him to enjoy his first loves, breakups, accomplishments, falls, everything. With me it’s impossible already”

Chaerin nodded her head, even though it was hard for her. Finally she also smiled knowingly.

“I hope your story is not over here” she said and Park Bom chuckled lightly.

“I’m afraid it is” she crossed her arms again “Can I ask you to not say a word to him or to any of his friends about it?”

Chaerin nodded firmly so Bom continued.

“You’re a good person Chaerin-sshi, but you did enough already” she smiled “But one thing bothers me…Why are you doing this?”

“Pardon?” Chaerin frowned slightly what caused Bom to giggle. She was still cute. Bom always saw her as a sweet girl instead of the gizibe, like the gossip between teachers was saying.

“Why are you so concerned. You’ve never been friends with Jongdae”

“Oh, that” Chaerin grinned “I think I’m actually doing this for a friend. He is the one concerned about Jongdae the most”

“I see. He’s lucky to have a friend like you then” Bom closed her eyes and smiled for the last time “He must be precious for you”

Chaerin slowly nodded, not sure how to respond.

LATER

Chaerin and Kris were on their way back to school.

“So she’s leaving?” Kris asked as soon as they left Ms. Park’s apartament’s underground parking. Chaerin sighed and nodded.

“But she asked to not tell anyone, so you know…Keep your mouth shut”

“Nothing new” Kris laughed bitterly “I spoke with Yongguk recently. He knows we met”

“I know” Chaerin waved her hand “He told me”

“And?” Kris eyes her carefully and she just shrugged her shoulders.

“You know him, not much…No drama, almost nothing. He was curious though but I didn’t tell him about Nana”

“Good” Kris nodded with approval “But on the other hand he should know…The sooner the better”

“I will tell him…Someday” with that Chaerin turned her head to look at Kris “Oh! I forgot…Thank you for not telling him anything. Especially why we met”

“No problem, but you know…You should really do something about that. He needs to know. I don’t think it’s necessary to tell the others, like Chanyeol or Yongguk’s Idiot Division” with that Kris smiled slightly and Chaerin laughed “But he should know”

“Yeah, but I’m just afraid how he’ll react” Chaerin voice became worried and Kris just raised his eyebrow.

“It’s Yongguk we’re talking about. He will be far from reacting” Kris scoffed “That mature bastard”

Chaerin smiled.

“I hope you’re right” she said “It’s not like he’s getting mad, worried or even a little angry or-“

“Jealous?” Kris finished for her and she just nodded “Crazy. I would be jealous all the time while being with you”

In that moment Kris wanted to face-palm himself – he really had no intensions to say that. He could be straight-forward with Yongguk but not with her. But on the other hand he was more than shocked to see that Chaerin did not react like she used to. Instead she just sat there, looking at the street and saying nothing.

LATER

Dara caught Chaerin in the main hallway.

“CL-roo! Ready for lunch?” she greeted and suddenly her smile dropped “What happened? What’s with the sad face again?”

“Dunno” Chaerin sighed “Yongguk is not responding to my texts since I came to school today”

Dara’s eyes widened while Chaerin began to fight with her locker, cursing under her breath at the broken lock.

“Stange” the brunette only said “He’s in basic classes with Luhan and Sehun-sshi right? I think they had some test…”

“Yeah I know, but still it’s not like