Bom

“Look at me when I am talking to you.”

Jin glared. He ing glared at me as if he wanted me dead this instant. The insolent prick.

I stood tall, holding his eyes with a stern look refusing to give him the upper hand. I haven’t taken this job to cower away from disobedient kids like him.

“I thought I warned you about bullying your classmates.” I scolded. “You gave me your word. I am disappointed in you.”

“It’s their ing faults!” He shouted.

“Language!”

Jin scratched his mid-length hair, his big brown eyes looked a little confused. “I meant… They’re the ones who keep provoking me. They wouldn’t stop looking at me in class as if I was an alien.”

“You’re always digging a hole in my face with your eyes. Do you see me bullying you?”

“You’re kind of doing so right now.”

“Jin!” I scolded again getting closer to him.

“I am sorry teacher,” he didn’t look sorry at all. “I will try to ignore them.”

“Not try, you will let it go.”

Jin reverted his eyes to the side not bothering to hide his yawn. I knew all too well that I will get another complaint about him within the day.

Softening up, I took a seat in front of him keeping few inches between us. “I know that your life is too messed up Jin. No high school kid deserves to go through your troubles. Despite your harsh exterior and carelessness about school, I am well aware of how bright you are. Don’t waste your life Jin. Don’t become the parents who abandoned you.”

A shadow of sadness and resentfulness passed the depths of his dark irises but Jin quickly dismissed it. I was afraid he was turning back into his fake rebel teenage exterior so I patted his back. “I am here for you Jin. Don’t hesitate to talk to me.”

Jin searched my eyes with a look of a normal troubled 17 year-old kid. “You wouldn’t understand.”

I smiled warmly at him. “Try me.”

I really wanted to help him. Jin is one of the brightest kids in class. Only he decided to take the wrong road and waste all of his talent. I will stop at nothing to make him see the right from wrong. Jin never had a parental guidance and it pains me to watch him aimless.

Jin shrugged, putting his uniform –or what remained of it– in order while getting up.

“Don’t cause troubles Jin,” I warned. “The director wants to suspend you.”

He rolled his eyes. “That man hates me.”

I tilted my head. “Well, you haven’t given him any reason to love you. Have you?”

Jin shrugged again and went out of the office.

Sighing heavily, I sank to the chair unable to find a concrete affective solution to Jin. He’s not the only pupil in the class I homeroom for but he’s sure the most worrisome. Sometimes I don’t know how the hell I am supposed to deal with him. I should focus on my bright student Hyerin instead. That kid has a dreamy future in front of her.

Opting for a change of air, I opened my laptop and went through the initial draft of the upcoming test. I already revised it this morning but continually checking for a loophole was one of my principles.

After some time of examining and re-checking, I was fairly satisfied. I printed the final copy and marched to the head instructor’s office. I was probably early for tests’ submitting but I wanted to get the load off my shoulder.

“This is neither the time nor the place for such talk!” The head instructor hissed and I figured that I might have landed at a wrong time. I carefully hid by the door’s blind spot, tiptoeing to not make noise with the high heels.

I was never an eavesdropper but it’s very rare to hear the head instructor lose his cool. At the matter of fact, in the few years I was teaching here, I never for once heard him yelling or hissing like he did just now.

“You keep avoiding me. No one avoids me.”

Strands of hair stood on alert and my ears prickled at the darkness of the voice addressing the head instructor. The threatening tone he spoke with chilled me to the core.

Intrigued, I got even closer to the doorframe as if intending to blend with it. I even slipped my head a little knowing that the head instructor’s office was facing the other way. If his mysterious guest was sitting in front of him, no one will perceive me.

Bingo.

I made out the head instructor’s tense back muscles and a tall sitting frame in front of him but I couldn’t perceive his face. One thing’s for sure, I never saw him in this area before. Such a big man wouldn’t pass unnoticed around here.

“So you decided to show up at my workplace?”

“You forced me,” the stranger announced calmly a certain layer of darkness lingering beneath. “If you weren’t an old friend, I wouldn’t be this lenient.”

I flinched at his calmly pronounced threat. How can someone be impossibly unmoved while he’s making threats?

The head instructor released a mocking sound. “You don’t even have the word leniency in your dictionary.”

The stranger stood up and I realised how tall he really was. Which was more than I imagined. He wore an elegant black suit that hugged his lean body. When I reverted my eyes to check his features, he abruptly turned toward the entrance.

Toward me.

!

I quickly retreated hoping like hell that he didn’t see me –no matter how slim the chances were.

Hastily removing my heels, I practically ran down the hall, my heart almost beating out of my chest. I should’ve kept my non-eavesdropping habit. What the hell was I thinking?

Stupid Bom.

I stopped at the corner when I thought I was safe, putting my heels back on. I released a puff of air in relief. Well, that escape wasn’t bad. I just had to make sure not to listen to conversations that didn’t concern me in the future.

I was about to take the route to my office when a finger tapped on my shoulder. I jumped in surprise yelping. I slowly turned my head around landing face to face with the same tall lean framed stranger.

“Yours?”

I raised my head to be captivated by the darkest most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I finally had the chance to see him up close and I didn’t miss it for the world.

The stranger had thick well-crafted eyebrows that could literally become a piece of art on their own. His pointed nose and full lip