It was Monday once again and today, I woke up feeling happy. Maybe it was because Ting Yi and I were friends again and we were developing our friendship together. I started talking more to Ting Yi about myself and my favorite things and hobbies. After that day at the cafe, Ting Yi and I promised to go out every Saturday to the library and the shopping mall. We would alternate places every week as a compromise and just hang out together since Ting Yi was my only friend except Yi Xing. It’s not that I wasn’t willing to make friends, it’s just that I haven’t met a lot of people in Singapore, literally my life was revolved around the teaching course at NUS, my apartment, Yi Xing and Ting Yi. There were no social events like in Seoul that I had to attend, so I never had much of a chance to meet other people. However, Ting Yi has said that she will find time to perhaps host a party or arrange something so I can meet all her closest and best friends. I also couldn’t contact Baekhyun and Kyungsoo lately and video chat with them because of their busy schedule but I was still very well-informed about their activities in Seoul, thanks to Ting Yi. She claims she is one of their biggest fans and would always inform me about their promotions and from time to time, a few photos of them. She was extremely easy to excite when we talk about EXO, it was funny for me to hear about my friends. It seemed that she knew more about them more than I did. She also mentioned a few times about her bias in EXO, I almost couldn’t contain my laughter when she said her bias was Baekhyun! I plan to talk about Ting Yi to Baekhyun and Kyungsoo the next time I am able to email them, I would love to see their replies!

Yi Xing and I had breakfast and I prepared to go for the teaching course, we got into Yi Xing’s car and we drove off to pick up Ting Yi nearby her house. Apparently her house was a HDB flat, which consisted of many apartments on many floors. I still had a lot to learn about Singapore’s culture and Yi Xing was trying to explain to me what was the difference between HDB flats and condominiums. Once we picked up Ting Yi, she also joined in our conversation and helped Yi Xing to explain more on Singapore’s culture. Ting Yi said, “I think I really need to go with you on a Singapore cultural trip one day, visit all the sights and try out the food! I hope you like durian, Joon Myun! Oh yes, and I also need to give you a class on Singlish one day, you will find it very useful when you communicate with others, especially the old uncles at kopitiams.” Then, I had to ask for more definitions of words as Yi Xing was patiently explaining to me, while Ting Yi was face-palming and becoming frustrated with my lack of knowledge in Singapore culture that she was so familiar with.

This was one of the few topics I had absolutely no clue in, I had never learnt this before when I was younger and I have never known much about Singapore, except in terms of its finance, economy, market, business and in geography. At least I was willing to learn about this and try and understand. Even though I was the oldest among the three of us, I was the one that was asking them and learning from them things. Ironically, this was the exact opposite case when I was in Seoul. In class, students would always come to me for help with homework and ask me things they were unsure of. I was practically the second teacher and as what they called me, ‘a walking encyclopedia’ but I did have a huge amount of pressure, I was afraid that they would ask me something and I wouldn’t know how to answer it. My reputation in school would be ruined! That’s why I started to push people away and I stopped hanging around others, I stopped talking to others as well and so did they. I was really afraid of losing my reputation, as a student, being top in the class and having the most knowledge were the top priorities in life.

When we reached NUS, Ting Yi and I said goodbye to Yi Xing before he drove off. We walked into the campus and got to class on time. I noticed that the class was a bit chattier than usual, waiting for Mr Chan to arrive. Ting Yi turned to a girl that sat in front of her and asked her, “Hey, what’s going on? Is there something special happening today?” She replied, “You never hear the news ah? Mr Chan is going to announce something special today and I think it might be our next step in the teaching course. I think we’re gonna be interns!” Ting Yi said, “Woah, interns already?! So fast meh? Okay then, thanks!” She nods and turns to me and says, “She says Mr Chan is gonna announce something special and I think we’re gonna become interns, do you know what that means?!” She looked scared as she was shaking me with her two arms. I shook my head. I knew what interns were about but so what was the big deal about? She said, “It means…” She stopped shaking me and put her arms down to her side. She continued and said, “We’ll be sent to different schools and be interns for our respective teachers teaching the same subject that we are. We might be separated, Joon Myun. We might go to different schools and teach, we won’t be able to hang out and talk! And we’ll be so busy that we won’t have time to spend together, then we’ll fall apart and I would have lost a friend and –

“Calm down, Ting Yi. Don’t make such a big deal out of it, we live near each other. Knowing the teachers, they’ll pick the schools according to our location. We should be fine, we’ll go to the same school and even if we don’t, we still have our Saturday dates. We can always use those dates to catch up on everything. Let’s just think positive and hope that we become interns in the same school.” I said, while patting her back. She becomes dramatic again and places her head on the table and quietly bangs the table.

Then, Mr Chan comes into the classroom and everyone runs back to their seats. I tap Ting Yi on her shoulder and told her that Mr Chan was here. She immediately stood up and seeing that no one else was standing up to greet Mr Chan, she slowly sunk back into her seat and I saw that her face was red. I looked around and everyone was staring at her. Her face quickly went back to her normal color and just stared at everyone back fiercely, as if saying, “What are you staring at?”. If I was in her case, I would have been so embarrassed that I would dig a hole and bury myself in it for the whole class.

Mr Chan cleared his throat and said, “If you remember correctly, Ms Wu, we don’t stand up to greet the teacher in my class. We just sit down and greet loudly because it wakes up our voices for the day.” Ting Yi sheepishly smiled and said, “I forgot, I’m sorry.” She rubbed the back of her neck with her hand and took out her notebook and pencil case. Mr Chan said, “It’s okay, Ting Yi. Just remember the next time. Anyways, I have a special announcement to make.” Immediately, the class went dead silent and Ting Yi clenched her fists together firmly as she stared at the teacher. I was a bit scared that Ting Yi and I would get separated. It would be very lonely and quiet without her, we just became friends again and I didn’t want to fall apart again. I might even get a worse case of the ‘Talkative Virus’!

Mr Chan spoke, “All of you will become trainee teachers, which means intern teachers. You will be placed in a school according to a few factors, your location, your subjects and your performance based on the recent aptitude test and overall observation.” Ting Yi whispered, “I was right! And you were right about that location thing too, Joon Myun. You think we’ll get into the same school?” I turned to her and whispered, “We had almost the same marks for the aptitude test, 2 marks difference, we live in the same area but we have different subjects. But I think we have a high chance of being in the same school.” After Mr Chan silenced our mummers, he continued to speak, “I will be announcing who will be interning in which schools. Alphabetically.”

I could hear Ting Yi (pretend) collapse on her table and moaned. She was the last one on the list alphabetically and she would be the last to know. I didn’t listen to the first few names from A to I but when Mr Chan got close to my letter, ‘K’, I started to pay close attention.

“Ms Kasey Lim, Temasek Primary.”

 “Mr Kim Joon Myun, CHIJ (Katong) Convent.”

I was praying that Ting Yi would be in the same school but I quickly diverted my attention back to Mr Chan as he soon approached the last few letters of the alphabet. Ting Yi also sat straight and looked at Mr Chan, paying attention to what he said.

“Ms Tan Hui Yee, Jurong East Secondary.”

“Ms Wu Ting Yi, CHIJ (Katong) Convent.”

She gasped and cheered in controlled enthusiasm, she kept saying, “Yes!” and we high-fived each other underneath the table. I smiled as I was really happy that we ended up in the same school. Mr Chan said, “That is all the names, if you didn’t catch it, or if you can’t remember it, I will paste the list on the board. Your internship will start next week on Monday; for the students, their school term will start next week. It will last for a whole 10 weeks. I hope all the training here has been good and you have learnt well. If you need my help or assistance, you can contact me. We will spend this week preparing for your internship and final preparations.” After his announcement, he continued with his class and both Ting Yi and I were focused on the class, writing down essential notes. I was very excited to start my internship next week and I wanted to be fully prepared to teach.

Soon, it was Friday and all of us in the teaching course had to go to our schools that we would be interning at and have a tour of the school, we would also be briefed so that we were familiar with the school’s procedure and rules. We would also be given our schedules, the teacher we were assigned to and much more. Ting Yi and I, along with another person, had to go to the school in the late morning. At about 10am, we arrived at the school and we saw the other person that was also an intern at this school. Ting Yi said, “We should go and talk to her, since she’s all by herself. We are going to be in the same school for a while, we should introduce ourselves to her.” I nodded and we approached her. At first, she looked a bit taken aback that we had suddenly approached her but she remained expressionless. Ting Yi said, “Hi, we’re gonna be in the same school as interns, so let me introduce myself. I’m –

She cut her off and said, “Hi, yeah there’s no need for introductions. I know your names and you may or may not know mine, it’s Jenny Tan, by the way. However, I’d prefer if you leave me alone, I don’t talk much, so…” I saw Ting Yi giving her ‘the face’ and we just walked away from her. I could tell that Jenny didn’t like Ting Yi and Ting Yi didn’t like her very much either. Ting Yi said, “She was a little bit rude, don’t you think? Leave her alone? Well fine then, I won’t talk to you either! Oh wait no, I didn’t mean you, Joon Myun, I was talking about her! I wonder what subject she teaches?” I replied, “It’s fine, Ting Yi. I sorta understand when you’re talking now, I know you were directing it at her, not me. And I don’t know but we shouldn’t be too bothered to ask her since she told us to leave her alone. We’re interning in the same school, I’m sure we’ll find out eventually what subject she’s teaching.” She said, “You’re right, we’ll find out eventually, so no point in asking her.”

We then continued our conversation about our internship and about the school until the teacher in-charge came and showed us around the school. We were introduced to the facilities, subjects specialties and etc. Ting Yi was extremely happy when KC (The school’s name in short that is commonly used)specialized in the arts, they were one of the few schools that offered drama as a subject and Literature was compulsory to take. As for my subjects, I suppose the science was alright, I wasn’t really expecting much and their facilities were fairly alright. After the school tour, we went to a meeting room and we were given our schedules and files about more information on the school and a more in-depth version of the briefing. Ting Yi and I looked at our files and schedule together and we were teaching the same class, 205. Ting Yi would be teaching Drama and Literature while I was going to be teaching Science, specifically, Chemistry.

~Schedule~

Monday: [0900 – 1030] 1 and a half hours of Literature (205)

                  [1230 – 1330] 1 hour of Science (205)

Wednesday: [1100 – 1230] 1 and a half hours of Science (205)

                        [1230 – 1330] 1 hour of Literature (205)

Friday: [0740 – 0900] 1 hour and 20 minutes of Drama (205)

              [0900 – 1030] 1 and a half hours of Science (205)

Classes starts at 7:40 am and ended at 1:30 pm every day, we had classes right after each other, which Ting Yi and I found cute. We also had the periods either after recess or after lunch. However, Mondays were bad for the both of us because we ended at different times of the day and we couldn’t have time to spend together during recess or lunch. Ting Yi had to go for the English and Literature department meeting on Mondays during lunch whereas I had to go for the Science department meeting on Mondays, but during recess. Ting Yi was a bit sad and disappointed but she said she’d live with it. After all, it was just for one day of the week…

After the meeting was dismissed, it was already 2pm. Ting Yi and I headed to a nearby hawker centre to eat lunch. I have never been to a hawker centre before and I was a bit shocked, it wasn’t as clean as I expected. Unlike the usual high-class restaurants I was so used to in Seoul, we had to queue up for own food and find a table. Ting Yi seemed very used to the environment and quickly went to find a table. She found a table quite fast and we sat down. There was a tissue packet on the table but I didn’t think too much of it and neither did Ting Yi.

Suddenly, a man approached us and said, “Eh, that’s my table. You never see the tissue there ah is it? I chope the table one!” I was extremely confused and I guess I had to add more words on my list of ‘Singlish/weird words that I don’t understand’. Ting Yi replied, “You think you can still use tissue packet to chope table? You go and find another table la!” She returned the tissue packet to him and gave him the death glare, while showing her fist and shouted something in Chinese. Sigh, I was so confused.

After the man had stormed off, she turned to me and said, “Translation of what happened just now; he wanted to use a tissue packet to reserve the table but I scared him off with my fist! It’s sort of a culture or trend or whatever you’d like to call it in Singapore to reserve a table with a tissue packet, it’s called ‘chope’ but it’s often used to reserve many other things too now.” I laughed and replied, “That’s definitely a first time for me, I’ve never heard or seen anything like that before in my life! And you’re so feisty and fierce for a girl, scaring a man probably older than you, with your fists! Oh yeah and what were you saying in Chinese to him?” She said, “I’m not fierce or feisty, I am a bit of a tomboy. I was saying to him: 想欠揍啊? In English, it means, do you want a beating?” I almost spilled my milk tea and said, “Oh my, you’re so violent! But that worked, huh?” We both bursted out in laughter again and kept talking while eating our lunch. 

A.N: Hi there, and once again, Singlish has appeared! And another side of Ting Yi is shown. The hawker centre scene was actually an additional scene but I decided to add it in to story to create more comedy. Also, I don't know how this teaching internship works 100%, I am no professional and I don't think it's possible to research on this but I tried my best to imagine what it would be like. I tried to sound as 'professional' as possible for the procedure but I obviously failed miserably! X'D 

1. What do you think Ms Tan's future role in the story will be?

2. So far, I have given a few sides of Ting Yi, which side do you like the most/which side left you with the greatest impression?

3. Should I really have a chapter where Ting Yi and Joon Myun go for a cultural trip? XD 

4. Do I make them seem like they are a couple already? (because I really have no idea...)

5. What subject do you think Ms Tan teaches? 

And that will be all, my readers! Until next time... goodbye!! ^^