REGINADJWW

It was a dreary day and the fact that she has to endure two, excruciating hours of History with the most boring teacher in the whole school wasn’t exactly imporving nor making the day any better. In fact, it made it even more worse that it already was and Gina is now having trouble keeping her eyes and lids peeled as she fights the drowsiness trying to consume her system. She let out a dejected sigh as she looked outside the window. Her bestfriend and seatmate, Jennie was not present, being caught by a nasty flu that’s trending around the campus. Gina was concerned at first, then got pissed in the next two days. Mainly because she isn’t exactly a person who can easily make friends with everyone and Jennie is basically the only one she talks to everyday. And she isn’t here. .

“Miss Gina,” a stern voice echoed through the whole classroom as all eyes turned to her. She cursed inwardly.

The said girl blinked fluteredly before looking upfront and sat straight.  Mr. Hong was looking straight at her and Gina doesn’t like the look on his face.

“Yes, sir?” there was no tremble in her voice, thank god. 

A light-hearted smile ghosted it’s way to Mr. Hong’s face and it most certainly did not help lower her nervousness of being called out in the middle of class, caught in the middle of day dreaming and not actually listening to the damn lesson, she’s bound to be humiliated. She swallowed once more and crossed her fingers underneath her desks, hoping that she knew the question he’d ask her. “This is an easy question, Miss Gina. I’d be gravely dissapointed if you fail to answer it.”

Gina wasn’t stupid. She knew that she was being mocked by her History teacher himself. The tone, the way he formed his sentences, it was enough give away and the girl does not like it one bit. But she has to shut , Gina was already in big trouble enough and if she said whatever she wants to say she’ll roughly land in detention. Hell, what’s the difference? You’ll end up there whether you lash out on him or not.

“The Korean war goes by many names. Will you recite them all to me?”

She stopped her smirk as she stood up with confidence.

“In the United states, they call it the Korean War. North Korea calls it Fatherland Liberation War. And in South Korea, we call it Six-Two-Five.”

“Good,” Mr. Hong commented before crossing his arms. “Now, my final queastion: what was the purpose of the war?”

The color drained out of her face.

Shoot.

This was their lesson today — damn it!

She bit her lower lip as she tried to scrape her brain for something to remember. It was only the second half of their History time did she started feeling drowsy, so maybe Mr. Hong had stated it beforehand. Come on, come on, memory you better work work work . . .

“No answer, Miss Gina?”

Keep it in. Breathe in, breathe out.

“No, sir.” she spat the words out.

Mr. Hong did not answer and merely turned around, checking the time of his watch as he makes his way back to the white board to resume where he left of, not glancing at Gina for the whole time. She briefly looked down before slowly folding her knees, attempting to quietly sit back down.

But Mr. Hong did not let that happen.

“Excuse me, Gina, but why are you still here?”

She was genuinely confused. “Sir?”

He suddenly laughed aloud, the sound immediately silencing the murmurs. “I believe you’re old enough to know where the detention office is — but I guess not old enough for common sense, I presume?” he arched an eyebrow. “Did you actually think you  can sit back down on that chair after failing to answer my question? After indiscreetly day dreaming in the middle of my lecture? Get out of my class Gina, I do not need slackers in here and maybe you’ll find someone who can answer my question for you in the office, maybe you’ll find the damned answer there and MAYBE I’ll accept you one more time in my class.” 

She quietly knocked on the maple door, bold letters that spelled ‘office’in the exact height of her eyes. There was a shuffle and the door immediately opened, revealing Ms. Hwang with her usual green contacts that did not do any justice to her appearance at all. She was holding her glasses in between her left index and thumb as she scrutinized Gina, who was three inches shorter due to the other woman’s stileto heels. “How nice. The top two trouble makers are in detention on the same day, on the same time.”

“Very nice, I agree.” she muttered under her breath as Ms. Hwang turned around, slipping on her glasses. Gina quickly scanned the room and was curious of the boy sitting in the corner, loudly (mostly annoying, to be frank) chewing/pl