After Lee Seung Gi left for Seoul High, Shin Hye felt almost ready to face the hostility of her dorm.  She searched for a boost of confidence during the walk back, and tensed her shoulders before opening through the main doors.

Hibari would have been pleased by her bold entrance.

She found most of the seniors and some of the juniors huddled in a group at one of the Hibari dining tables.

“Unni!”  Min Hyuk indulged her with one of his sweet eye-smiles and skipped over to her.  His mannerisms were becoming more and more like a girl’s with each passing day.  “Congratulations!  You didn’t win the debate, but everyone was talking about you afterwards!  Umm Unni...”  He lowered his voice to whisper.  “By the way...was that speech about me?  Am I so bad to you lately that I make you cry?”

“Of course not!”  She gave her brother an affectionate punch.  “It’s just that for one second, I was feeling a little bit sorry for myself.  Forgive me and don’t worry about it.  The feeling went away as fast as lightning.  Ignore your silly Unni.  She’s fine now.”

He grinned.  “Good, I’m glad!  Ah...Hibari is not taking the news about you and Seung Gi very well.  She hasn’t come out of her room since Seung Gi’s announcement.  You know, I think I agree with her.  I don’t like him looking at you either.  He’s an idiot and a ert.  Should we go scare him with bats again?”

“That is very tempting little sister, but I think I’ll let him do what he wants for the time being.  He’s given me his word that he won’t touch me.  Besides, he, ah, knows a lot more about me than I first thought.”

Min Hyuk’s smile faded.  “What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you about it later.  So...how’s the general mood of the room right now?”

The pair looked over at the group of girls.  She could see them straining their ears to listen in on their conversation.  Komari stepped forward to speak to her.

“Congratulations on becoming a Hibari girl, and for catching Seung Gi’s eye, Shin Hye,” she said uneasily.  “Everyone is very jealous of you.”

Shin Hye frowned.  “I thought everyone in this dorm might be feeling like that.  Look, if you are all still upset about it tomorrow, why don’t you each try swinging a baseball bat at Lee Seung Gi?  It’s how I got his attention, after all.”

She’d meant it as a half-joke (because the idea of an entire dorm actually chasing Seung Gi with bats had its appeal), but no one was laughing.  One of the juniors started crying.

Komari clasped her hands together.  “I’m sure that we all will get used to the change in time.  However, there is one thing that we need you to fix straight away.”

“Yes.  Shin Hye, the Hibari dorm and the Hibari Four need your help,” agreed Erika.  “Hibari-sama has locked herself in her room and she won’t come out.  We’ve all tried talking to her through the keyhole, but she yells at us to leave her alone.  We are very worried about her.  Can you help us out by using your key and speaking to her?  We thought about getting Teacher Jung to help, but he would probably be very sarcastic with her.”

“Ah,” nodded Shin Hye.  “Of course I will help.  I was going to talk to her anyway.  I saw how she took the news.”

The tension in the room seemed to ease.

“Thank you, Shin Hye,” said Erika.  “I’m glad to hear you say that.”

“I told you that she would do the right thing, Erika.”

“Be quiet, Komari!  Congratulations on your speech, Shin Hye.  It really moved me.  We keep misjudging your integrity, and I’m sorry for that.”

“Mmm.”  Some of the seniors nodded.

“I’ll go and see Hibari now,” said Shin Hye.

“Yosh!” replied the girls, imitating Coach Jong Hyun’s Japanese chant.

“Ah!”  Min Hyuk dug into his skirt pockets.  “Before you go, Unni, I have something for you!  Teacher Jung told me to return some lost property to you.”

“Lost property?  I haven’t lost anything.”

Min Hyuk handed her something round and hard scrunched up in a roll of a lined music sheet.

“Ah,” she said.  “It’s my apple.  He wants to rub it in my face some more.”

She removed the item from its wrapping, and her eyes widened.  It was indeed her apple, but Teacher Jung had altered its appearance.  She put her free hand to , and laughed in astonishment.

“What is it?  Let me see?” demanded her brother.  Some of the other girls ran over to have a look as well.

“I don’t believe it!” shrieked one girl.  “Teacher Jung drew a smiley-face on your apple!”

“Is that correction pen?  That’s so cute!  Your rejected apple is happy!” said Komari.

“Look!  It has a bruise from where it hit Coach Lee! Ha!” said another senior.

“Be careful that there’s no glass sticking out of it, Unni.”

“Wait.  Does this mean that Teacher Jung feels bad about what he did?”

“Maybe, or maybe he’s un-rejecting her.  Can teachers do that?”

“Nah, I bet that he just saw her crying during her speech and felt bad about being mean to her.  Don’t you get it?  This is him giving her back her ‘smile’.”

“Really?”

“But he wasn’t at the debate!” argued a senior.

“How do you know?  Were you looking for him?”

“YAH!!!!” interrupted a very annoyed Yong Hwa.

Teacher Jung was glaring at them from the entrance to his staff quarters.  His blazer was gone, and the top buttons of his crumpled work-shirt were undone, making him look more wild than usual.  “Haven’t you all got homework or study to do?  I have lessons to plan!  So stop wasting time talking about useless things and get learning!  This is a school for crying out loud!”

The students sobered up and hurried up the stairs one-by-one.  They silently dismissed their theories about the smiling apple, and grumbled that it had to be some sort of mean prank.  There was no way that he could or would ever be nice to a student.

Shin Hye didn’t come to the same conclusion.  She still had the image of his worried face imprinted in her thoughts, and she was able to think better of him than the others.  On her way up the stairs, she snuck a look back at Teacher Jung and smiled politely.

His brown eyes met hers without flinching, and there was definitely no smile in return.

Maybe he’d given his only smile to the apple.

As she went to the room she shared with Hibari, Shin Hye stuck her tongue out at the laughing piece of fruit.

“Tomorrow is another day, Teacher Jung,” she challenged.