Chapter One: Punishment

“You stay after school Ms. Jang. I will decide your punishment then.” The old lady hissed, it was almost like a snake’s. It was clear and loathing. She just glared at RiIn then. RiIn could only look down in ashamed as her hands hold tighter onto each other in front of her. The glares that were emitted from the old teacher’s wrinkled eyes were more menacing with her triangular glasses on, which had chains that circled her thin neck. Her black hair that had a hint of whiteness, which were tied up in a proper bun made her looked menacing with all of her creases. Along with her white blouse and long straight blue pencil skirt made her looked even older than she appeared since she was thin as a stick. The old lady finally left after she felt satisfied with her classic torment on Jang RiIn. The classroom fell silent for a moment before the other students started to whisper among each other. RiIn stood still in front of the classroom, unable to move due to both fear and humiliation. She bit her bottom lip as her eyes closed tight, not wanting to let tears flow across her now rosy cheeks.

“It was not even my fault…” RiIn whispered quietly, it blended perfectly with all the soft noises in her classroom. RiIn’s mind replayed what had happened just minutes ago.

Flash Back

She was just randomly walking to her classroom when she heard something crashed to the floor. The crashed sounded pierced; it was not like the sound of a broken glass nor metal. She was not unsurprised to hear it and slowly went to the corner where the crashed was heard. Along the way, she heard muffles, a mixture of altos and sopranos, girls whispering to be exact. Then the mumblings stopped followed with a series of footsteps, fading. Within seconds, silent devoured the deserted hallway. RiIn gulped when she finally reached the corner, expecting to see a normal abandon corridor. And she did. She let out a relief sighed before turning back to her original route to her class. Only her eyes caught something on the floor before she could turn. She gasped and closed as her eyes widen at the broken object. She understood the crashed sound now; it belonged to a broken vase. The vase of the school; it was a very precious object. The school had protected it for decades. Just then a rushed series of clanking could be heard across the hall; it was the sound of high heels running. Students were only allowed to wear the school uniform; heels were forbidden.

“Oh my…” RiIn immediately looked up when she heard that shocked tenor alto voice. In front of her was none other than the discipline teacher herself. Her wrinkled face was stretched to a surprised expression. Her eyes were down at the broken vase. RiIn saw that she was shaking. After a while, Ms. Hwang looked up with her terrifying eyes that glared at RiIn. Without even asking or investigating, Ms. Hwang’s skinny finger pointed at RiIn and blamed her. She then took RiIn to her classroom and scolded her in front of her classmates. Meanwhile, at the back of the classroom, a group of girls were silently laughing to themselves.

End of Flash Back

Finally after a few minutes of stillness, RiIn forced her legs to move. Thankfully they moved obediently. She walked away from the board to her desk. She kept her head hung low as she travelled, forming a light brown wavy curtain with her hair to hide her still rosy cheeks. As she passed by her classmates to reach her desk, she felt the staring eyes following her. It made her feel uncomfortable as she walked. At last when she reached her desk, she immediately sat down. Eyes were still glued to her as the whispering continued to grow louder. RiIn’s eyes gradually looked up from her wooden desk to the sit next to her. It was vacant. He was absent today. RiIn frowned. She wanted someone to talk to rather than being alone and be stared at. She let out a sighed before closing her eyes and continued to endure her classmates’ watches and mumbles. Out of all the days, her best friend had to be missing today. He is going to pay, thought RiIn. After a few minutes, the door cracked opened and their teacher walked in to resume his lesson.

…

RiIn waited patiently for Ms. Hwang to come to the now unoccupied silent classroom. Well it was not exactly silent, the sound coming from the air conditioner did kept RiIn company and as well as the muffles of students just the other side of her classroom door. She glanced at the square clock just in front of her and sighed, Ms. Hwang was rather late. She then looked outside through the classroom’s square windows and saw other students laughing and excited to finally go home after a day of studying. Some students, RiIn noted, stayed behind for their clubs activities. RiIn sat quietly on her chair while watching the track team running around the school field. She once thought of joining the track team but she has to go home early to do the house chores. In fact she never joins any of the school’s activity clubs.

“Wonder how’s uncle doing?” She thought of her police uncle walking home to the empty apartment surprise to see his dinner is not on the table yet. RiIn’s mom died after giving birth to her. She had a weak body condition ever since she got pregnant. Fate was playing with RiIn’s life before she was born. It was either RiIn’s mother disappear or RiIn. Her father was devastated and concentrated on work hoping to forget it to move on. As a result, he always goes overseas for business. So he decided to put RiIn under his brother care since he is a policeman in Seoul. He thought RiIn would be safe living under the same roof with a policeman who also acting as her guardian. Unfortunately, RiIn’s uncle doesn’t know how to cook or clean the house or do other domestic work. Therefore, RiIn do all of the domestic work as part of her ‘becoming a wife’ training. At least that was her uncle said. All of a sudden, the door opened and interrupted RiIn’s thought. The door revealed RiIn’s teacher who still has a furious face and glared at RiIn. Looks like Ms. Hwang like to keep grudges. She walked with her head held high toward RiIn and explained what was her punishment.

“You are lucky the principle is at a meeting at some far district.” Her eyes continued to torture RiIn by its glare. RiIn wondered how long would those tired eyes stop emitting glares as she listened quietly. “Your punishment is to clean the gym’s supply room,” RiIn gasped to hear her punishment. In fact, hung open in shock. She could not even believe what she was hearing. The gym’s supply room was huge; full of unwanted tools and broken sports equipments. It’ll take her hours to clean it by herself. Moreover it has been unused for several years; probably there were a lot of dusts. She estimated she’d be cleaning till nightfall. Her teacher smirked watching RiIn’s reaction. RiIn’s mouth was still wide opened and her eyes were also enlarged. It seemed like she froze there. “Now go to the gym Ms. Jang.” Her voice sounded satisfied and after a few chuckles, evil chuckles, she left the classroom.

Silent devoured the vacant room and leaving RiIn to melt for a few minutes. First, her knees shook and she immediately sank down to the floor, upset. “I hope uncle can cook for himself tonight.” She talked to herself, staring at the floor. After a few minutes of gathering up her spirit, she stood up, collected all of her belongings and went to the gym. RiIn felt like sinking to the floor again when she saw the state of the supply room. It was bigger and dustier than she had imagined. She was about to cry when she felt someone tapped her shoulder. She turned around to see her friend, who she gave the nickname of ‘mushroom head’ since his hair was shaped like a mushroom. Nonetheless he was cute and younger then her but they were only close friends, almost like brothers and sisters. They met at the beginning of the year when he was a freshman and RiIn was a junior.

“Nuna, what are you doing here?” little TaeMin asked with big innocent eyes, looking around. RiIn let out a heavy sighed and explained everything to TaeMin. TaeMin then had the same face his nuna had right after she explained the situation. He copied her expression really well. “Nuna you are very unlucky.”

“I know TaeMin,” RiIn weakly smile. “Could you go to my apartment and tell my uncle to order some dinner? Warn him not to cook, I don’t want to see a messy kitchen when I get home.” TaeMin nodded and wished her good luck before leaving the supply room. He wished he could help her but he promised his friends to meet them later that evening. RiIn scanned the titanic room again before frowning. “I better start cleaning.” She looked at the dusts and spiders’ webs before grabbing the feather duster.

…

RiIn finally finished and smiled to herself for doing a good job. In fact, she got the feeling of proud; this happened every time she cleaned something. She looked around and the supply room was squeaky clean from top to bottom. She looked at her watch and realized it was 7:20 pm. She was so busy cleaning she did not realized how late it was. She immediately went out but stopped after hearing a ball bounced, the sound echoed in the huge dark empty gym. Who could be in school this late? RiIn questions herself and heard another ball bounced, it reverberation once again. She quietly walked out and peeped from the door. The gym was vacant and dim, which sent shivers down to her spine. RiIn had always hated the dark. RiIn told herself that she heard nothing since no one is there except for her. Suddenly, another bounced could be heard, the sound repeated once more. RiIn tried her best to look at the dark gym and as a result, she finally noticed a figure standing at the middle of the gym. On the figure’s hand was a soccer ball. What is he doing here? RiIn thought and look at the figure. She squinted her eye for a better view of the standing figure; the dark did not help her at all. She could barely see him but she could tell he was around her age. He has short black hair. His skin was pale and flawless. She guessed he was tall too. RiIn sensed he was good-looking but why is he in school at night? RiIn thought for a moment who was the figure but the result was none. There was no one in the school who look completely perfect from head to toe. All of a sudden, the gym door creaked opened and a tall dark physique emerged.

“JunSu.” Another voice could be heard entering the gym…