Chapter 2

 

Lea wakes in surprise. She intends to take a nap for a while but apparently she had skipped for the whole third period. Hastily, she collects her belongings and run for the next class without realising that she actually holding a male blazer in her arm.

With gasps and distorted breathing, she stops in front of the door. After taking a deep breath and straightening her clothes, she enters the class with a straight face, ignoring all curious look directed to her. Especially the one that comes strongly from someone unfamiliar who she assumes as her new Music teacher.

                “Mind to introduce yourselves and your business here, suddenly coming in without permission?” the beautifully sculpted face man in black shirt asks with scrutinizing look.

                “I’m Lea Kim. I suppose to be here for Music class,” Lea’s voice small when replying.

                “So why aren’t you here on time? Or are you ditching class for a quick date?” His gaze direct to the blazer on her arm.

Lea doesn’t quite understand the accusing stare but when she looks at the direction, she instantaneously get it.

It puzzles her, and the whole class when they only know that Lea is a total recluse who live in her own closed niche. She is not even interacting with the girls from her class. What more to date a guy. And based on the colour of the blazer, it belongs to a senior.

She tries to run her memory backward, try to remember when and where did she gets this blazer. But nothing from her memory seems able to track the owner of this blazer or the incident where she gets the piece of clothing.

                “I swear I don’t know where this blazer is coming from. I just slept at the rooftop and then I – “she stops on her track when she realises the grim mistake she had done. The class falls in a deep silent making the teacher raises his eyebrow at the statement.

Something is not right. Did this girl commit a crime?

Moon tries to guess.

                “I think you land wrongly. I want to see you after this, Lea. Take your sit. Now I don’t want to waste anymore time. Let’s continue where we left off.”

Lea dejectedly walks to her seat. Some intrigued eyes are following her step but that is the last issue she would care about right now. Large portion of her mind is thinking how in a day her life take so many wrong turns and changing in the process while the other part of her brain is just worrying about the punishment she would face. Yet, there is a fragment of her thought that wondering about the owner of the blazer and the reason he put it on her while she’s sleeping.

Moon’s eyes will involuntarily come back to that late-comer girl’s face at times to check on her expression. And each time he checks, it is the same cold stoic expression she showed.

 

                                                                                                      

---

 

 

The neatly folded grey blazer is put on the table atop of her other belongings. The clock is ticking quickly towards 3 o’clock but Mr. Kim still hasn’t appear. Lea deliberately will check on the clock. She feels edgy on her seat. She afraid that if she return late, her father will get suspicious of her.

The door is opened but the man who entered the room – much to Lea’s shock is not Moon. Instead James comes in with a file with him. His expression is indecipherable but his feature is clearly tensed.

Lea can feel constricted and dry. She can sense that she is in great trouble if her homeroom teacher starts to interfere with the case. The screeching of the chair resonates across the empty space. The silence lingering heavily in the room.

James is so shocked to be told by Moon during lunch that one of his student is caught going to the roof. And the fact that the said student is Lea didn’t make his heart any less ease. His friend thought that it would be fairer if he let the homeroom to handle the case since he himself doesn’t quite familiar with the rules of the school yet. Heck, he doesn’t even know that going to the rooftop is actually a violation of school law. But he insisted to know the progression of the case. Just in case if the school authority asks him anything. Hence, why the homeroom teacher is here with the perpetrator.

James clears his throat before speaks.

                “Lea, you know why you’re here?” asks James. He tries to make eye contact with the student, but the girl keeps running her gaze.

She nodded silently.

                “Why did you do that if you know it is strongly prohibited?” James leans his body forward a bit. He senses the little backing movement from Lea, as if the younger try to merge herself with the chair, if that’s even possible.               

                “I just feel a little bit dizzy in the class. So I go take fresh air there.” Lea plays with her fingers to distract herself from the tension.

                “Why don’t you go to the infirmary if you feel unwell? Are you sure you just taking fresh air? For the whole third period?” James eyes full of doubt.

                “Well – I’m taking nap and accidently slept in the process. But I swear I don’t meet anyone up there. I don’t know where is this blazer is coming from. I’m not doing anything. I’m simply rest there. Believe me,” Lea pleads with red eyes.

                “What blazer?” James didn’t register Moon ever mention about any blazer.

Lea’s face visibly turns pale.

                “Lea, what blazer?” James repeats the question with a stricter tone.

                “I swear I don’t know whose blazer is that! I’m not seeing anyone! I don’t talk to men! I can’t even talk to a man, what make you think that I can date a guy?” Lea turns hysteric. She feels like the room is enclosed around her and eventually would crush her.

James reaches for the distress girl’s hand hoping to calm the girl down. The moment their hands are touched, James can feel tingly jolt on his palm, making him retreat his hand.

                “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Lea, listen to me. It’s not a crime to go out with someone, okay? I’m just asking,” he intentionally raises his voice to overcome the sobbing sound.

Lea nods herself several times and tries to be rational again. She detest herself for letting her lose self-control in front of the teacher.

                “This blazer. I just realise it was with me when I enter the class. I guess someone is with me when I take a nap,” there is still a shaking in her voice though how hard she tries to hide it.

Something in James snaps knowing that someone had been with the girl at her most vulnerable and exposed moment. Imagining every possible things that could happen while she was sleeping make his blood boil. How can this girl act so careless?

                “That’s why you’re not allowed to go to that place. God know how dangerous that place is. How can you let yourselves exposed to such situation?” James didn’t know what make he raises his voice a level higher. Perhaps it is the protective feeling over his student. Right?

Lea is taken aback by the change in her teacher’s attitude.

                “I know. I’m sorry,” Lea says under her breath.

James sighs. He is a little carried away just now.

                “It’s okay. Just don’t do that again. But I’m sorry. It looks like you won’t get away without punishment,” James starts writing something on the red file.

Lea nods in defeat.

                “You’re assigned with voluntary work at the society centre for two weeks under my supervision. Every day for two hours after school.”

If her round eyes can open wider, she would do it at that moment. Hearing that punishment is like getting a death sentence for Lea. Honestly, she doesn’t has any problem with doing physical activities, in fact she likes it as it helps her maintain her body fitness, but working at society centre means she needs to deal with human. More humans.

                “Not that bad huh? You actually can improve your communication skill in the process.”

                “Can I do something else that doesn’t has anything to do with human? I can work with thrash,” Lea pleads with wishful face.

James is caught off-guard with her answer that it cannot contain his laughter.

Did I say anything funny? Lea questions herself.

                “You would rather work with thrash than your own species? You must really hate human, don’t you? You’re really one in a million case, Lea,” James wipes his mirth.

                “But I really hate human,” Lea says with small voice.

James shakes his head.

                “Okay. I get it. You should go home now, Lea. Your father might get worried. Just says to your father you’re having a project to finish. I’ll prepare a letter to inform your father that you need to join a compulsory volunteer work for your additional point. See you tomorrow,” says James while gathering his things.

                “– Thank you, Mr. Lee,” Lea says in low tone but it seems like James is too busy packing his bag that he didn’t realise it.

                “Sorry. Did you say anything?” the big guy turns his head to Lea.

Lea, with face turning red, shakes her head vigorously before leaving for the door.

James looks at the younger in question before his eyes locked on the blazer at the girl’s arm.

                “Oh. And give me the blazer. I’ll return it to the owner,” James directs his finger to the clothing. Lea hands over the blazer. For some reason, she feels a foreign longing feeling looking at the blazer taken away by the teacher.

 

                                                                                                   

---

 

 

James crashes himself on the green sofa at the main living room with a groan. He feels ache all around his body. He must be getting old…

Moon comes in with a mug of hot coffee.

                “Wanna some?” Moon offers his drink. James reaches his hand out to take the mug only to be hit by Moon.

                “Take your shower, first. Then I’ll make you one,” Moons acts diplomatically. Actually he wants to know the details of the session with that exposed girl just now.

He patiently waits for his friend in the living room while pretending that he’s watching the television.

James walks in with a towel to dry his wet hair. He takes the seat beside his friend.

                “Drop the act, Moon. I know you long enough. You want to know what happened back then, don’t you?” James side eyes the shorter.

                “What did she says? Whose blazer is that?” Moon literally jumps next to him to get the juicy story.

James hardly pushes the guy away while laughing.

                “You’re like an aunt, gosh! Okay. Okay. I’ll tell you. She defiantly said she doesn’t know about it. And I believe in her because apparently she said she hates human. So it’s kinda cancel her own statement if she really goes out with someone. Unless that someone is not human. But I doubt it. But hey! You never said anything about the blazer to me.”

Moon grimaces.

                “Do you really believe someone at her age is not dating? Like seriously?” Moon asks in disbelief.

                “Man, she even asked me to change her punishment with some thrash management rather than working at a roofed place with people which I think is a lot easier that the one she asked for. How can I not believe her? That girl is in real hate with human I tell you.”

Moon gawks at James’s story. This girl is really weird.

                “Is she the one who bother your mind during the welcoming party?” Moon guesses. James didn’t reply. Instead he stands and grab a grey blazer.

                “Hey, could you find the owner of this blazer? You taught twelfth grader, right?” James hands over the blazer to his friend and change his attention to the tv.

                “Yeah, sure.” James’s behaviour puzzles him. He never sees James bothered by someone this much. This girl is a formidable enemy for James’s constantly stable emotion. Looks like this Lea girl is a worth- try toy. Moon smirks while constructing a plan to get himself close to the student. At least, he can get some entertainment out of this dead town.

Freaking hate human, eh? The old people said opposite attract. Unfortunately, he really loves human; especially women.

 

                                                                                                       

---

 

 

Lea never had any problem with her family. Nor with her new family. It is just that they have a very superficial relationship. After her mother died when she’s 14, Lea’s father remarried. But Lea never had issue about it too. To her, as long as her father is happy, then she would be happy too.

The new mother is kind and responsible. She does all the house chores herself without asking Lea to help her. She prepares the meal and take care of her father very well. But that is it. She never had a real conversation with Lea. Even if they had a conversation, it would only consist of basic and meaningless words. Not that Lea wants the woman to spoil her, but she just needs someone to spill her story to, someone who able to listen to her and tell her the right way to do something. Now that their family receive a new member, Lea really feels like an outcast. The little attention her father provided for her before are even divided to one more people now. She can’t help but to feel envy for the baby although it must sound stupid especially when she is the one who feels elated by the new angel.

Lea can hear the cheerful voice of her father playing with young Hyunwoo and his mother from her room upstairs. Somewhere in her heart she feels something is piercing through it. Jealousy? Sadness? Loneliness? She didn’t know anymore.

Feeling suffocated in that small room, she grabs her mp3 and dashes out of the house. She doesn’t know where she is going but her legs bring her to the park near the school. The park that usually full at day is empty at night which make it the most suitable place to compose herself.

The aching in her heart slowly dissipated as she deliberately taking air into her lungs. Every time she feels the pain in her heart growing, she will numb it by going to this place or somewhere far from people. And it works like magic every time. She will come home feeling nothing after that.

 

Tonight, even though Lea had recollect herself back, she doesn’t feel like return home yet. Plugging in her earphone, she sways slowly on the swing while closing her eyes.

In the midst of listening to The Cranberries’s Zombie, Lea’s ear capture the faint sounds of footsteps coming from her right side. She opens her eyes in cautious.

Lea almost jumps from her seat when she spots a tall figure with sharp gaze, broad shoulder and overall cold expression standing 10 metre away from her. She can sense the air around her become thinner and she starts to have the urge to run away from the scene.

                “Oh. I never expect to find anyone here,” the man that looks like someone around her age voices first.

Neither do I. Lea replies in her mind. She is ready to leave the place when the guy ushers her to stay longer.

                “Just pretend that I’m not here,” the impassive man voices again.

                “Never mind. I’m leaving anyway,” Lea replies. She decides that it is rude to just walk away.

                “Life is really weird, don’t you think so?” the guy suddenly smiles. He has a deep beautiful dimple on his left cheek.

Lea feels attacked somehow by the smile. She discerns a baffling excitement in her heart that left her body in tingle from the short conversation.

Did she has a conversation with a guy? She is!

The stirred girl tries to hide her smile that it hurts her cheeks. Yet, she doesn’t answer the guy. She doesn’t know what to say.

                “What’re you listening to?” the guy unexpectedly asks. His eyes pointed to the mp3 in her hands.

Lea is contemplated whether or not she continues the chat.

                “The Cranberries, Zombie,” she concludes that she might as well do a little experiment on this guy since he voluntarily starts the conversation and continue it.

                “Oh. I never heard about them. Are they good?” the stranger continues asking.

Lea shrugs off. Honestly, to her, the music is decent.

                “Let me listen to it,” demands the male.

The dumbfounded teenager feels like her heart is bursting from the overstimulation coming all at once to her. She can’t record the data in her mind as she herself can’t really measure the emotion and feeling she has right now. It changes too fast.

Uh. Lea turns around and darts away from the park. She just can’t handle the situation. How is she supposed to react to the request?

Midway, she feels so dumb for escaping the situation. It might be her only chance to talk to a guy. She doesn’t even know that mysterious guy’s name. Ah…She feels like hitting her head many times.

Upon reaching the room, she goes straight to the bed and covers herself with blanket while reminiscing the valuable experience she had just now. It is not even an exaggeration to say that she feels a great sense of accomplish for the breakthrough. She can't help the giggles that coming out of his mouth involuntarily all the way to her sleep remembering the incident. And somehow, the bright smile from her memory manages to make it into her dream.

                                               

                                                         

---

 

 

James notices a slight difference in Lea’s expression today. As if she is excited for something. The girl, although didn’t show her best smile at the society centre but with the glowing aura around her, manage to make her look less intimidating to people unlike her usual self. James is expecting a grumpier and hesitated Lea that evening. Something must had happened today. Did she meet the blazer’s owner? James feels the urge to know the reason behind the unusual change in the air around that teenager.

When it is time to pack things, James approaches Lea and naturally helps her. The girl finishes her work in silence.

                “You’re doing quite well today. Doesn’t really seem like you hate this work. Or rather the people,” while his hand moves skilfully, James says nonchalantly.

                “Am I?” Lea replies with mocked shock. James pulls a grin. She definitely had loosens a bit if she can lively retorts like that.

                “Your mood seemed improved too.”

Lea wonders herself – did she really that upbeat today for her teacher to notice it? Maybe it is the effect of last night incident. She wonders if she had done a good work in chatting with that guy last night. The girl really hope she does. Had she left a good impression to the stranger? She had been running away from him though. She is curious to what the guy would think of her when she pull that stunt in the end. Did he think it is weird?

                “How should I react when having a conversation with a guy?” Lea spontaneously inquires as acts before her brain can analyse the question. !

James is confounded by the question because first, this is Lea that had been asking about guy and conversation in one sentence and second, isn’t she already talking to him – who is an obvious guy?

Realizing that she had act further off –base than her usual self that the homeroom teacher is looking at her as if she grows another head, she quickly brushes it off.

                “Pretend that I ever asks something like that,” Lea adamantly claims out of embarrassment.

                “It’s okay. I don’t find your question weird. It’s just coming out of nowhere that it caught me off-guard. So you ask how to react when you’re talking with a man? Well, I guess you just need to act accordingly. Like how you talk with your girl friends or your family. Female and male are not that different in terms of doing basic things like talking. Sometimes, you don’t need to put so much thought on it. Just follow the flow and sense with your heart. This buddy here – “ James points at his left chest  “is very sensitive towards emotion changes. So you just need to feel. We’re humans too, you know,” James gives his communication lecture in the middle of assembling things.

Lea involuntarily puts her palm on the chest. The heart is beating calmly.

 Looking at Lea’s adorable bemused reaction succeeds to make a certain part of James’ body fluttered.

                “I think we need to pack this things fast. Your father might getting worry,” James quickly divert the topic because he thinks a syllabus of textbook an evening is adequate enough. Lea should learn slowly at her own pace if she really intend to change herself. Also he starts to have weird feeling which he blames on the fatigue and the setting of the place. So he really needs to drop the subject although he is pretty sure his unreasonable feeling has completely nothing to do with the topic they talked about.

After they had finish packing things, Lea warily looking at the darkening sky. The centre had been void of people. The street isn’t look less empty too. James is ready to take off from the place when he notices the hesitant in the girl.

                “Do you want me to you home?” asks James with great concern.

                “No. I think I can manage myself,” Lea tries to convinces the teacher but more likely to convince herself. Plus, wouldn’t it be awkward if she walk with her own teacher? Not to mention, her homeroom teacher needs to travel longer distance than her to return home (information is courtesy of the gossip group in her class). If she were to accept the offer, she wouldn’t know at what time that man will reach home.

James aren’t satisfy by the answer judging from the troubled look in the teenager’s face, but he gives it away since the girl said so. It is quite worrying to left the girl alone especially if he is the last person that communicate with her and he is the homeroom teacher at that but he believes an 18-year-old girl would manage to arrive home safely at a distant of 300 metre. Lea seems like a tough girl to trick.

                “Thank you, Mr.Lee. See you tomorrow,” Lea greets him before turning to the junction that leads to her house.

James is also leaving the ground. Several steps away from the centre, he finds himself 10-metre away from Lea, lurking behind wall. Despite all the argument and rational consideration about that girl’s condition, James still can’t let Lea return home alone. There is almost a tugging uneasiness in his heart that pulling him back to the girl. In his head, he keeps reasoning to himself that he did this out of responsibility as the homeroom teacher. That’s right! He is just doing his duty. There is totally no other prior intention or weird feeling involved.

Nevertheless the girl looked anxious. She keeps looking back as if she can sense his presence around her. James follows her until the girl hurriedly disappear behind the door.

               

                                                                                                        

---

 

 

Lea starts to feel regret for not accepting her teacher’s offer. The moment she sets her foot out on the narrow, quiet street she senses that someone is following her. The presence of someone in the middle of a vacant avenue is just too hard to ignore. Or is it her paranoia mocking her right now?

It not helping either that the fact she is on the desolate alley alone at the most unbefitting time. She really doesn’t has any issue of going out in the middle of dark night, but dusk is the time that she want to be anywhere but outside. It is the crucial time when the tormenting event happened four years ago which had caused a great distress to her and left a jarring experience that she wishes she is strong enough to forget it forever. She still can remember the expression of the stalker when she killed her mother. That vile, wicked smile. The smile that displayed her satisfaction as if she had accomplished some honourable act. She remembers the shiver coursed through her body looking at limped body of her mother– either out of fear or immense anger, she wasn’t sure. From that day on, she must return home before dusk.

Of course that homeroom teacher doesn’t know. Did she need to expose her other weaknesses? No. She doesn’t plan to expose it either although the teacher never ridicule her for her strange response towards men.

She walks rather quickly when her house comes in sight. Upon reaching the gate, she slips in speedily without looking back.