Akira wasn’t used to being told no. She was used to getting what she wanted, what she asked for. She was good at it now; she just called someone ‘oppa’, or pouted a little, and within seconds, there would be a swarm of people waiting on her like she was someone important, someone prettier, someone better – someone she wasn’t.

However, she wasn’t particularly interested in calling her gym teacher ‘oppa’, understandably.

Akira felt a lot of things, as she looked at her gym teacher. Anger was a big one, but she also felt jealous.

Much like herself, he wasn’t a native Korean. However, much unlike herself, he was fluent in Korean. It annoyed her a little, or maybe a lot, because he had gotten a grasp on the language but she hadn’t yet. How come this foreigner could pick it up so easily, whilst she was struggling to read, or to speak to her neighbours? As such, the two conversed in English; although, perhaps argued was a better word for it.

“What do you mean I’m not allowed to compete in regionals anymore?” Akira glared up at the older man, frustrated beyond belief, but mostly angry. She hurriedly added a ‘sir’ on the end of it, but she didn’t really mean it. She wanted to call him something worse, but refrained.

“You’re cut from the competition,” he states, turning to look at her briefly before continuing to walk across the gym. “Oh Sehun is taking your place.”

“But why?” Akira asked, following him as she demanded an answer, “I want to compete though. I signed up for this months ago!”

The gym teacher let out a sigh, seemingly annoyed, as he halted. “What do you want me to say? I’m sorry? Fine; I’m sorry that Sehun is better than you in every way! I’m sorry that you will never be a star pupil. I’m sorry that he’s faster than you. You know this competition isn’t subdivided into gender categories, so why not enter a boy who can win rather than a girl who will lose?”

“Why won’t you just let me enter? I’ll bring home twice as many medals as Sehun ever will!”

“You’re just not as fast as the boys, Akira!” Mr Thompson screams at her, turning to glare down at the smaller girl, the words bouncing off the walls of the gym and echoing throughout the building – down the hall into the change rooms, and out into the foyer. “We enter to win, not to lose by letting the female students turn this school into a joke!”

He mutters something else under his breath, but it’s not in English and he says it too quickly for Akira to be able to understand it, let alone translate it. He stormed out of the gymnasium, flicking off the lights as he goes, and leaving Akira alone in the dark.

~~~

Akira didn’t tell anybody about the conversation between her and Mr Thompson. She just walked home with her backpack slung over her shoulder and a sullen look on her face. It wasn’t very far, but she’d missed her bus so she had to walk a lot further than usual. She didn't complain though, but did consider running it.

I bet Sehun could run this far, she thinks bitterly. She doesn't run though. 

Instead, she trudges along, through the puddles on the sidewalk from where the pavement wasn’t quite even. And with every step she took, she found this hatred filling her mind. It ate away at her. Her thoughts shifted from hating Mr Thompson to hating Sehun and back again, only to repeat another time, and then another, and another.

She didn’t really like the thought of her hating Sehun. She was just jealous that he took her position in the competition. He hadn’t done anything wrong. And yet, somehow, she found herself wincing whenever she thought about him.

Mr Thompson, however, deserved every bad thought she had. Or, at least in her opinion.

When she got home, she was greeted by the usual. Her father was yet to come home and her mother wasn’t there. She hadn’t expected her to be. It was a Thursday. Her mother was never home on Thursdays. That was the day that she went to catch up on all the latest gossip, over tea and scones at Mr and Mrs Lee’s home, just a street or so away. She claimed that it was just that she was such close friends with Mrs Lee, but every time she returned, she would only gossip about how much Mrs Lee annoyed her during her visit. Mrs Lee was only trying to be hospitable, but it was something that Akira’s mother was not used to, and as such, viewed as irritating. Akira often found it easier to say nothing of it, than argue about how unfair her mother was being.  

Akira slipped off her shoes, throwing them hastily to the side of the door. Her mother was always telling her off for this habit of hers, but Akira rarely cared and her mother’s punishments were rarely enforced, which just resulted in this habit continuing. Akira would just have to clean the whole house later anyway, so she saw no point in being neat about it now and placing them neatly on the little shelves that her father had bought. 

She hurried up the stairs and into her bedroom. ping her bag, she pulled out the many books she’d borrowed from the library, and began to study.

She sighed, turning to the first book, only to feel more upset and ridiculed. Except this time, she was being tormeted by a book. Oh, what little dignity she had remaining. ‘Korean for Dummies’.