Moon and James look at each other before their eyes riveted to the sight in front of them. Moon, especially can’t believe that he is sent to teach at some suburb school in a small town which he doubt people even know it is existed on the world map. He has been wishing that he will be posted to some cool place like Seoul, or Gyeonggi-do or even better Hongdae where music born and his talent would be put in use. Instead the posting mess up and he end up in a place only God know where.

 

The school building which would be his first workplace is a rundown two storey building with peeled off paint everywhere which actually look likes it has been standing for about half of century. The school compound is surrounded by big oak trees which successfully making it look like an abandoned building that you usually would find in a horror story. The place is quiet and calm – too quiet for his liking which makes it even odder for a place full of hormonal teenagers in Moon’s opinion.

 

               “Be positive, Moon. It might not be that bad like what it seemed,” James cheers him up.

He knows what is going on in the mind of his college friend since he spent a large amount of time with that man to know his thinking without telling it out loud. Moon is facing his difficult time now. So he might need some time to adjust himself with the new environment.

 

               “How can I be positive? Look! This town is dead! There’s not even a cinema or a bar here. It’s almost a crime,” Moon says exasperately.

 

               “But this town has good restaurants. And they serve large burger. That’s what really matter to me,” James turns left to a narrow junction which lead to their shared house.

 

Moon gives up. 

 

               “I’m kidding. If you look around enough, you might actually find a bar. I don’t believe that there’s no bar exist in this place. It’s still part of South Korea no matter how isolated it is from the outside world. Or we can drive two hours to the nearest city during weekend,” James suggests to make his friend’s mood better.

 

               “Never mind,” the annoyance in his voice is obvious.

They enter the cabin and close the door. Tomorrow will be a long day for them – extra long for Moon. They will need to save up their energy.

 

 

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Moon walks up the hallway filled with high school teenagers to the office. Several intrigued and curious eyes turn to him as he’s passing by. He didn’t take a heed as he already get used to that kind of reaction, understandably coming from the teenagers of a closed up town where they rarely meet up with wellgroomed people. What surprises him actually is that there are some of the students greet him politely not having the knowledge that he is one of the educator there. He guesses that is one of the privilege being a remote suburban area. The people still keep the courtesy and culture intact so the civilian still got some manners in them.

 

After getting the procedure done, he joins James at the teacher lounge in the staff room.

 

                         “When is your first class?” Moon takes the empty space beside James. He grabs the newspaper and read through it.

 

                         “After this at 10. You?” James who is looking through the newspaper also answers without looking at the guy.

 

                         “Cool. Good luck. I have class after recess. Do you know that we have the welcoming party after school end? The principal is kind enough to get us a warming starting. Don’t miss it. We’re the spotlight this evening,” Moon pats the taller’s thigh several time to ensure that the guy is listening to him as he is too deep into the reading. 

 

                        “Sure,” James off-handedly replies.

The staff room is kind of empty now as most of the teachers of main subjects are out for teaching, leaving the two new teachers there fill in their free time.

 

 

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The class of 2 -1 has always been loud and out of order but today, the chaos seems to be on another level especially coming from the girls part as rumour had been floating around that they will anticipate a new male homeroom teacher. Not even an ordinary boring looking teacher, but it is said that the teacher is some gym maniac who keep his body shape in check. And he is no less handsome at that.

The boys are clearly not amused by the rumour. They keep wondering when they will get a hot teacher who would teach them calculus. Lesson would be much fun then.

 

All girls are hyped up to the news except a girl who sits beside the window at the end of the class and don’t give a about this new homeroom teacher. Lea keeps thinking about the creation of a female whenever this kind of situation come up. Seriously, how far things can get very annoying from this point? Why is she the only one who didn’t see the fascination in this news at all, count the boys out?

 

How the girls can manage to survive up until now with this one way thinking and their simple mind? She is a girl and it is still a puzzle to her, though such condition actually work perfectly fine for a woman nature. To cry, to show emotions, to be overdramatic and to be annoying.

The noise suddenly ceases to exist making Lea turns her head around. Only to meet with a very fine –looking man who in Lea’s concern is too pitiful to end up as a teacher – in a dead town at that. Though she still didn’t see anything special in him except for that ideal manly face only. 

 

The other girls are already drooling themselves out.

James puts his belonging on the table and setting up an introduction for his first class and his first homeroom class too. To be honest, he is quite nervous. The feeling is different when he is in a class surrounded by his own friends and with some complete strangers who eyeing him thoroughly, as if they’re doing some inspection and judging on him. He brushes the feeling off and set himself out.

 

                       “Good morning,” James starts off slowly. He clears the throat.

 

                       “Good morning,” the students answer with enthusiasm which actually helps James to settle a bit.

 

                       “I’m Mr. James Lee. You can call me Mr. Lee. I’m pretty sure you’re well-informed that I’m going to be your homeroom teacher for the next two semester. And also, I’ll be teaching you communication subject which include public speaking and personal communication. So please give some cooperation and I promise you a smooth year ahead,” James smiles his gum smile.

 

Lea groans inwardly. Why did she need to take communication subject when she doesn’t even plan to work with human? She swears that the subject would be really the death of her no matter who teach that subject. Another question that she keeps wondering to herself. How one can easily hold a conversation or even talk in front of so many people? To think that later she would make a body contact or even share her personal space makes restricted.

 

                       “Are you okay there? The one who keeps looking out of the window. Is there anything special happening outside?” asks James. He has been noticed that ever since he entered the class, the girl always has her eyes on somewhere else. She doesn’t look like she presents at the moment. Not her mind at least.

 

                       “Don’t worry, Mr. Lee. She is normal like that. She would rather you stay away from her actually. She kinda has paranoia issue with society and public,” a cheeky brunette girl who sits on the first line answers.

 

Lea breathes in slowly. Never mind. This is not the first case. In fact, it might be helpful to avoid unnecessary attention from the teacher later. They eventually lose interest in an awkward and quiet plain looking girl who would easily merge with the wall in any party. Although, she quite uncomfortable whenever the introduction part happens because all eyes will divert to her no matter how many time they encounter such situation and give her the bothering look. But she will only make her I-don’t-give- face to dismiss them.

 

                      “Well, that’s not actually a good started for communication class, miss Park. You might as well say something nice if you really want to introduce her. That’s the basic lesson,” James calmly corrects his student.

 

                      “Sorry, Mr. Lee.”

 

                      “Okay. Now, why not we introduce ourselves formally as we are going to spend the rest of the year together as a family. I shall not make it a boring introduction. So state your name, your hobby, the thing that annoy you and your ideal career. Let’s start from the further left. Yes, you.”

The student start to introduce themselves one by one. Lea is anxiously waiting for her turn so that she can end it in a matter of time. When it is her turn, she slowly stands and introduces herself with defiant look in her eyes.

 

                     “My name is Lea Kim. I like to observe people. I hate human and my ideal career would be an astrophysicist,” Lea monotonously utters.

There are faint chuckles heard around the class at her introduction. Lea grits her teeth and a big amount of air to calm herself. She hears distinct chatters and snickers although she can’t really see the person.

I. ing. hate. humans! They’re ironically emotional but can’t really be sensitive towards other people’s feeling.

 

                     “You actually got quite – I would say an interesting answer there. Thank you, Lea,” James marks the girl’s name at the back of his mind for further research later. He never expect someone at eleventh grade would still have this early teenage phase problem called inferiority complex. Well, not exactly an inferiority complex to be true because the girl actually can face the class like nothing is happening. This lady here is surely a special case of its own. 

The girl with brownish shoulder-length hair will always run her eyes elsewhere to avoid having contact with his eyes as if she tries to hide something and she doesn’t look like she has any intention to change that in any time sooner as until the end of the lesson, she keeps her head down.

 

 

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After the school end Moon, without any delay, fetches James at his class. They go out with the principal and their colleagues to have dinner and welcoming party at the city. There, Moon properly get acquainted with some attractive teachers from Science department and start to put his baits out. Having a bright personality and being an experienced smooth talker, he easily get the teachers attention. Later in the dinner, they exchange numbers. 

There are some teachers that actually attracted to James, but the guy didn’t seem like he has any interest in the party. His mind aren’t properly present at the event. He rarely give any responds when asked. Or he will just give a decent answer out of courtesy.

Knowing that James is destructing his future love life with that attitude when actually the big guy can come out with bubbly and friendly trait, Moon approaches his friend.

 

                         “What’s with the sullen look, James? We’re here to have a good time. Come on. This is our only chance. Look, there’s actually some nice female teachers that we can get to know, aren’t we?” Moon sits beside James offering a glass of alcoholic drink.

James take the glass and put it on the table.

 

                         “What’s wrong? Do you have any problem with the students?” asks Moon again

James looks contemplated whether to discuss the problem with his best friend or not.

 

                         “Do you have any unique student in your class?” James finally open his mouth.

 

                         “Define unique.”

 

James doesn’t need to imagine what Lea looks like because her image already burnt in his mind since their first meeting this morning. Honestly, that girl doesn’t has any special features on her body or her face particularly to actually make someone remember about her. She has ovally face, her jaw is quite square in shape, her straight brownish black hair is neatly combed to the side at shoulder length, her complexion is quite tanned, her nose is slightly point, she has scar on her upper left thumb, her pale reddish lips are not entirely plump but it looks soft to bite – wait. He doesn’t suppose to notice the details to such extent and to actually think something like that about his own student? He feels terrified of himself. What is he thinks of? 

 

Anyway, the girl is completely plain and bare. Nothing very flaunting about her look. If he were to choose someone from his class, he would pick – there he goes again with the weird thought. He really should stop now. Yet, this Lea girl keep poking his mind.

 

                         “Earth to James,” Moon slaps the back of James’s broad shoulder.

 

                         “Never mind. I’m okay. A little bit tired from the teaching,” James smiles assuringly.

 

 

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“Ah~ why can’t we have communication subject everyday? I want to see Mr. Lee,” cries Irene, one of the top beauty in the class.

 

                        “Do you see how fine his muscle when he flexed his arm while writing at the board? So manly. And not to mention, he’s tall. Completely my style.

Our age are not too far from him. We’re basically only 6 years apart from him,” Sooyeon dreamily blabbers.

 

                        “I like his thick eyebrow and those eyesmile the best. But es, please. Whatever you says, he’s literally mine,” Yunji easily dismiss her friends’ argument as she is the leader of the clique.

 

The other girls only silence in protest.

 

Lea who is ‘accidently’ listening to their small conversation instantly eye-rolls at their narrow thinking. Even if they have crush on the teacher, it wouldn’t be any of Lea’s problem. But when they openly discussing about it and even argue about it, she, as someone who comes from the same gender as them shares the second hand embarrassment. It is just plain embarrassing and stupid.

 

Aside that, she still can’t find the specialty in their new homeroom teacher. Although he is admittedly good-looking with that manly square jaw, gawkable washboard abdomen, the attractive dark skin, the tall lean figure that even wearing plain shirt would make him look y and that gentle eyes that piercing into girls’ heart, he is a man nonetheless who she can easily find on the street. There are not so much difference in them, are they?

 

Lea sometimes will do a little experiment on the other students in the class without they realise. She will watch how the students communicate, talk and jokes with each other. However, she still can’t grasp the mechanism of communication between different genders. Why didn’t they get nervous whenever they face each other? Did they turn blank too when they start a conversation? How did they measure each other’s feeling through the expression?

Lea is suddenly overcame with frustration when she didn’t find the answer she seek for. She will eventually get a headache from the overthinking. 

 

She strides to the door and quietly go out from the class without anyone notice her absence. Not that anyone ever notice her presence.

 

 

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The wind is quite strong on the rooftop. It feels refreshing on Lea’s skin. 

 

She likes that place. It’s quiet and peaceful almost feels like her own personal sanctuary. Most importantly, it has no human. The place used to be the school gangster’s hot spot but later the school authority forbade any activities on that roof causing the space left abandoned.

 

Lea takes a sit on a particular clean spot and taking out her mp3. She plugs in the earphone while lay her back against the wall. The moment the earphone is blasted with Time is Running Out by Muse, she already had her mind wonders elsewhere but the school compound. Little she knows that she is being watched from a far. The small eyes observes her with full interest.