- 7 -

Jonghyun's eyes caught mine, and he was smirking, but I didn't think it was funny at all. He waved, "See you at lunch?"

I shrugged, and I walked slowly to the back of the room, regretting even coming to school today.

I walked up to her desk, she was still sitting, and her arms were crossed over her desk. She looked up at me, and I was immediately pulled into her gaze. I was locked inside of her stare, unable to break my eyes away from her gorgeous light brown eyes.

She sighed, and I watched her lips part, and then meet again. They were the perfect kind of pink, and they weren't too thick, but she had the nicest lips I had ever seen. She spoke, pulling me out of my daydream, "You were withdrawn today and you didn't participate in class discussion at all. Why is that, Taeyeon?"

I wanted to tell her because I was having a bad day, and tell her to mind her business, because I did that with everyone else.

But I couldn't do that to Mrs. Jung.

She didn't ask me in a tone that was threatening, but she was most likely curious, and I liked the fact that she had actually taken notice to my absence. But today was just not a good day, and I didn't want to talk to her about this.

I shrugged, "Just having a bad day."

Her eyes found mine again, but this time it was hard for me to look at her, "Wanna talk about it?"

I became curious, why would she want to talk to me about my personal problems? I shook my head, "No, I'll be fine."

She tilted her head, and I could see the worry in her eyes, and I didn't understand why. She didn't know me, I had just started coming to school, she couldn't care about me this much already. She most likely didn't even care too much about some of her students now, like Jonghyun, because he was the student that raised hell and got away with things.

But why me?

I hadn't even been coming to school an entire week yet.

"Taeyeon, I care about my students. Just know that if you ever need to talk, I'm available."

I heard the sincerity in her voice, but she was still my teacher, and I still found myself intimidated by her. She was beautiful, and I was intrigued by her. I liked her, but maybe I liked her a bit too much. It was dangerous for me, because the last thing I needed to do was get attached to someone that could leave me hanging.

I was scared of relationships.

Now I'm not saying girlfriend and boyfriend, or in my case, girlfriend and girlfriend kind of relationships. I was talking relationships in general. Me and Jonghyun were cool, but he still didn't know anything about my personal life.

And I intended to keep it that way.

I nodded towards Mrs. Jung, "Thanks."

She seemed desperate for me to give her more in response, but I didn't. I went to turn and walk away, hoping that I could escape this horrible pain in my chest, and she spoke, "See you tomorrow, Taeyeon."

I looked back, nodding solemnly, "Bye Mrs. Jung."

Then I was out the door, and on my way to the library, not wanting to even go to lunch.

_____

Days started to pass, and my mood had began to get better as the days went on. Mom disappeared again, but it was of no surprise to me. I expected her to be gone when I got home Tuesday afternoon, and she was, and now it was Friday afternoon.

Still no sign of mom.

I was closing up the library and Mrs. Choi walked out of the office, holding an envelope in her hand.