♥ The Friday Before ♥

On the day of the first snow, huddles of students in oversized grey winter coats made their way into their classrooms. The school had recently experienced a cut in funding and couldn’t repair some of the heaters in the classrooms, leaving both teachers and students bitter about attending class, feeling like their brains and bodies were simultaneously being frozen, no energy or power to even think or concentrate. Students let their minds wander and eyes become fixated on the windows, gazing at the snowflakes falling outside, wishing, wishing, and wishing, that they could embrace the winter by playing in the snow, surrounded by their friends, and ending a perfect white day in a café with a nice ambience, with red and green already decking the halls, and a steaming cup of hot cocoa to warm their weary bodies and hearts.

One student in particular, was wishing to go outside, and he sat right back in the corner of the classroom, mostly sleeping to conserve whatever energy he had mustered by sleeping four to five hours the night before. His class had been the most affected class, since there was no working heater, and they were right up close to the soccer field, with windows supported by wooden beams that didn’t quite manage to fully shut, letting the frost and chill to infiltrate the classroom and its inhabitants. The bickering and good times that evaded the learning environment were subdued by the cold, leaving the students with their arms folded on their desks and foreheads or cheeks pressed against their sweater-covered arms as they either slept or day-dreamed.

BANG!

The sound of a ruler colliding with the whiteboard jolted everyone awake. Expecting to find their teacher fed up with all the hibernation that had been going on in class, they instead met with a Santa-hat sporting, red-vest clad version of their teacher, a smile plastered on his face so big, that those who met him believed that their own cheeks were hurting.

“Wake up, everyone! It’s an exciting time to be alive!”

The cheerfulness of the statement was met with a thunderous groan, but it did not deter nor dampen the teacher from continuing on with his holiday spirit. Like a Christmas elf that pops up from nowhere, he raised his hands holding a paper stocking, with Song Jae Rim neatly etched onto the front in cursive gold. All the girls gasped and looked towards the owner of the name in the back corner and he shot out a lazy smile to all of them while all the other guys groaned about not having the same swoon-worthy charm.

“Yes, this is a stocking. Yes, it has Mr Song Jaerim’s name on it. Yes, all of you have one too, just in case you were wondering.”

The teacher punctuated his statement by showcasing a few of the other stockings. Although it was evident that the desired effect of the following exercise had not come into fruition, he was glad to see at least some of the girls clapping their hands, albeit half-heartedly. Walking to the back of the classroom, the teacher began to stick up the stockings on the wall that had been cleared out and patterned with candy cane print.

“As you all may or may not be aware of, due to your sleeping habits, starting Monday, we only have 12 days left of term before all of you young people embark on Christmas break. So treat this like the Twelve Days of Christmas song and put in warm and fuzzy notes, small gifts or any other nice things in the stocking of the person or people you choose. “

A boy in the front row begrudgingly raised his hand.

“What’s the point of this, seonsaengnim?”

“The point of this is to make others feel warm in their hearts and not just on the outside where the solution is to wear really thick clothes, got it? It’ll be good to do something nice during this festive season, right?”

A collective “Yes, Sir” resounded throughout the room before the bell rang signalling the end of class and the start of freedom for the rest of the afternoon. Girls gossiped as they walked out, talking about who they were going to write messages for and excited about the possibility of receiving gifts from some of their crushes, mainly hoping that it would be Jaerim. Guys roughly grabbed their bags, disinterested but pressured about surprising and impressing their crushes too, hoping that Jaerim wouldn’t beat them to it.

Jaerim inwardly smirked and waited until they all trailed out. He began to pick at the non-existent smudges on his white button-up, when he rummaged through his bag to retrieve a pen and a notebook that should have been used to take down notes in class, but was instead used for doodles and wasting time.

“Scribbling down love notes to your posse of girlfriends?”

He looked up and saw that the owner of the voice was deeply concentrated on wiping down some of the desks at that moment. It piqued his interest as to why she was interested in whether he was writing notes to other girls. Her tone insinuated that she thought he was a player, but when he finally came face to face with her, their class president and resident good girl, he saw just that bit of curiosity in her eyes and in the subtle way her brows were furrowed.

“No.”

Seemingly dissatisfied with his answer, she continued to prod him for the truth.

“Then what?”

Jaerim closed the book he was trying to write in and walked up to her, to which she unconsciously took a step back and held her breath. He leaned in so that their faces were level, and when she closed her eyes, he walked right past her. She quickly opened them when she heard his footsteps pass, and turned to make eye contact with him as he placed one foot outside the door, pen tucked behind his ear, and the notebook lodged between his bicep on the right side, backpack casually slung across his shoulder.

“Just wait and see, Soeun-ah.”

He added a wink just to irk her, and the fact that he referred to her as if they were close with Soeun-ah made her even more annoyed. The way he smiled at her and the way he seemed to be so happy just by looking at her gave her an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“I’ll see you on Monday!”

Soeun didn’t know what made her all hot and bothered by that encounter. She was supposed to hate him. He slept in class even when it wasn’t cold, disrupted everyone by lightly snoring (which was even more peeving to her than if it was loud, because it sliced through the quiet and was akin to an annoying buzzing sound right past your ear, or like static on the radio), he ignored her, thereby influencing all his fan girls when she tried to keep the class in order, AND, her best friend Sojung had the biggest and most annoying crush on him.

Hmph!

It was a meaningless little thing, but she was desperate to find out what was written in the notebook. She smoothed out the lapel of her coat and gathered herself before walking out of the classroom. Making a sharp turn to her right, she bumped into the chest of her one year older sunbae named Jaemyung.

“Eun-ah! You going home now?”

Oh. My. God. Oh My God! He called me Eun-ah! What do I do? Act cool, Soeun. Don’t be stupid. He’s the hottest guy on campus, older than you, and on the school’s dance team that made it to the national finals.

“Y…yeah…I am.”

Soeun mentally slapped herself for stuttering. Didn’t rumors say that he liked eloquent girls? That was definitely not her. While she was musing with herself, she didn’t notice the way that Jaemyung looked over her shoulder, distracted, and then back at her before speaking.

“Can I walk you home?”

Jaemyung grabbed her wrist and began to lead her out of the hallways, without waiting for her answer.

In her silent musings, Soeun also didn’t notice a certain tall sleepyhead watching her from behind the lockers, with his fist clenched.