Chapter Two

Desperate Times

          She’s being shoved awake, the shoving is fine but the being waken up isn’t.

         “Five more minutes, Mom…” she mumbles, burrowing further down into her blank which weirdly smells like antiseptic. When did her mother changed fabric conditioners, she wonders.

          The shoving continues with more force this time. She feels the urge to retaliate but decided against it. Sleep is still more important, never mind the shoving.

          “Excuse me...” she hears a sweet voice. That doesn’t sound anywhere near her mother’s loud nagging voice.

          More shoving ensues. She’d associate the voice to a heavenly being if not for the constant shoving. That word has been present in this narration a couple of times more than is necessary (more than one person can endure in a span of five minutes), she decided it needs to stop.

          Sitting up and scrubbing her entire face with both hands, making it obvious to whoever it was that’s trying to wake her up that she’s more than annoyed.

         “An-nyeong~~~~” the girl in front of her makes a big waving motion using her hand. Lee Soo Jung doesn’t recognize her. She realizes that she’s at the university’s infirmary.

         “Who are you?”

         “Music Department’s Jung.Ye.In imnida! I work part-time at the nurse’s office. You’ve been sleeping for almost two hours now and we only allow an hour per student regardless of his or her illness and you really don’t—“

         Lee Soo Jung tuned out whatever the student assistant was saying. There’s just too much blinking and hand gesturing going on, it’s like watching an infomercial. She’s tried to recall the incident that led her to the nurse’s office and decided it’s not worth remembering.

         She wants to hit her head with something hard, if this was a movie she’d probably have amnesia and she won’t have to live with the embarrassment.

         “... you’re over-staying.”

         There was a final shove and the next thing she knew, she was being pushed out of the Health room. She reminds herself to be cautious of tall, cute looking freshmen.

         Walking down the hall, she’s forced to recollect the fainting incident; it’s not a normal occurrence. It only happens when someone named Kim Sung Gyu is in the vicinity. She thinks she has a special ability to look extra stupid in front of perfection. A cure is desperately needed.

         Remembering her last class started a few minutes ago, she made a sprint towards the west wing of the Music Building. Sneaking into class is still possible. She’d most likely get the front row seat because as much as everybody seems to like this class, the professor has a habit of showering saliva on unsuspecting victims of the front row.

         Though this happens frequently and there’s no way of avoiding it, she was always lucky enough to get an 8^th row seat. But that’s less likely to happen now. She stills herself, spit showers or not, this lecture comprises a big chunk of her grade this semester, she needed to get attendance.

~0~

         There’s a cluster students, mostly female, crowding the Introduction to Musicality room. Tapping a random girl who’s unsuccessfully trying to squeeze her way in, inquiring about the commotion.

         “Kim Sung Gyu-sunbaenim is TA-ing today...” the random girl heaved an irritated sigh. “It’s annoying... They’re not even signed up for this class. They’re only here to ogle.” directing her glare at Soo Jung.

         “Ya! Why are you glaring at me? I legit take this class... You’ve been a project partner once... Though I don’t remember exactly what your name is...” Was it Im Yoo-something... or is she Kim Mi—

         “I don’t know you... This is the first time I’m attending Professor Im’s class...”

         Oh.

         The girl (who isn’t Im Yoo or Kim Mi something) walked away from the crowd. That leaves Lee Soo Jung in the middle of rabid girls vying for the attention of perfection. Well, perfection or not she’s not careless enough to sacrifice her grades because of a crush.

         “Aish, this is really bad... I was anticipating today’s lecture with Professor Im. What’s so good about that Kim Sung Gyu person anyway? “

         There was a chorus of gasps and someone from the multitude can be heard hyperventilating.

        “You did not just...” said another girl. That sole person is looking at her as if she’s grown another head.

         If you’ve ever watched a zombie movie where the lead is running away from a swarm of zombies and she just happened to be stupid enough to land in a room chock full of said swarm, you would probably have the slightest idea (only slight because there could only be one stupid person in this story and this author believes the readers wouldn’t be happy to be called one) how things are after Lee Soo Jung made that statement.

         She’s waiting for every girl in the vicinity to foam at the mouth and just randomly say ‘brains’.

         The foaming at the mouth was a possibility and there’d be in all probability a much more sanitary way to seek revenge to someone who has blasphemed perfection.

         Formal speech aside, if Lee Soo Jung dies now there wouldn’t be much of a story. So we’ll just conjure a knight in shining armour to do a rescue.

         “Is there something wrong? The lecture was supposed to have begun a few minutes ago...”

         The swarm of zombies reverted back to being rabid fan girls (not that there isn’t much of a difference) at the sound of Kim Sung Gyu’s voice. It’s a relief to Soo Jung that she’s not the only one who is rendered brainless (heh!) in the current TA’s presence.

         A chorus of ‘I was there earlier, before her and her and her...’ can be heard as the students filed in towards the classroom fighting their way still to get a front row seat.

         “Someone should tell them this isn’t a movie screening and if it was front row seats clearly hurts the eye...”

        “A very nice observation Miss—“

        “Brains...”