part 1 ♡ pages 1-11, the beginning

Stepping out of the public transit bus, Wendy spun around to face the school that she would be working at for the new few years. She was excited but she knew deep down that she’d rather be training to become a singer. 

Wendy was always the type of person to just go with the flow and not complain, so with a huff and a rush of determination, she smiled and walked towards the school building.

Clutching onto her briefcase with one hand and her english books with the other, her eyes scanned across the school yard. 

The school was fairly big, with white stone and concrete covering the exterior. There were many windows that lined the building as well as a gate that fenced the school grounds away from the busy sidewalk. The most noticeable feature to Wendy, however, was the giant plum blossom tree that was planted right behind the gate and sprouted up towards the sky. It’s branches hung towards the ground and some of its petals were scattered on the sidewalk below. Wendy smiled and imagined students eating lunch with their friends or confessing to their crush beneath that tree.

Wendy couldn’t help but reminisce back to her old high school days when she realized she wasn’t attracted to boys like most of the girls in her class. Instead, Wendy realized that she thought girls were really pretty. They were nice and their hair smelled good too. Wendy remembered one girl in particular that she thought was really cute, though she never did get the chance to talk to her. She also never learned her name but she liked to imagine she had a sweet sounding name like Mi-Sun or Cupcake. Wendy was quite imaginative as a child.

Looking back, it was more of a one sided secret crush situation where Wendy would try to steal glances at the girl whenever she could without the girl noticing. 

Shaking away those thoughts, Wendy pushed through the front doors of the school building and walked inside.

The school was relatively empty since Wendy wanted to get there super early for her first day. She hated being late so she made sure to wake up extra early even though school didn’t officially start until 8:25am. 

Before school started, however, she was scheduled to meet with the principal and get settled in, as well as get accustomed to the school and see how everything worked. 

As she made her way towards the principal’s office she decided to take her time and admire the school and would occasionally poke her head into an open classroom and look around. Wendy had a habit of getting distracted easily and would often wonder around for hours. During this time, Wendy had noticed that the walls of the school were more beige and brown toned, which was a complete contrast to the pure white walls on the outside of the school. 

As she continued down the halls, her heels clanking as she walked, she passed by some students artwork in the hallway and she stopped to get a better look at one in particular that had caught her eye. It was a portrait of beautiful girl with long brown locks and piercing, yet soft, brown eyes. The girl in the portrait was wearing a fluffy pink jacket and she held a rose to her face. Wendy thought she looked like a supermodel and she could barely suppress the gasp that escaped her lips. 

With a hand pressed lightly across her lips and her eyes locked onto the painting, she whispered to the brown eyed beauty, “Pretty.”

Wendy had been so entranced by the mystery girl who was the muse of that painting, that she hadn’t noticed the principal of the school approach her from behind.

“You must be Ms. Shon.” 

Her tone was harsh and Wendy jumped at the new voice. The woman was petite with curly black hair and she clutched a clipboard in her hands. Thankfully she was staring intently down at her clip board that she hadn’t noticed Wendy’s startled expression so she quickly straightened herself out and turned to face her new boss.

“Ah yes sorry,” Wendy bowed, “i was just looking arou-“

“That’s fine. Now follow me.” The principal cut in, smiling up at Wendy. Her smile had thrown Wendy off because it contracted her tone but Wendy decided to ignore that and smiled back.

“Yes ma’am.” She replied and quickly fell in line behind the principal as they walked through the halls.

“On your left is the cafeteria and there are 4 different bells that will ring throughout the period to signal the lunch changes. As a member of our staff you will eat lunch during the same period as your class so when they dismiss to the cafeteria you will be allowed a lunch break.”

Wendy nodded. She’d already reviewed all the class changes and studied the schedule ahead of time so she didn’t really need hear all of this info again. Instead of listening to her drone on and on, Wendy’s mind focused back to that painting. For whatever reason Wendy just couldn’t stop thinking about who that girl in the painting was. Wendy wasn’t even sure if she was a real person or just a girl created by the artist’s imagination. Wendy hopped it was the former. 

“Alright now here is your classroom. I left you the schedule on your desk and you can ask Mr. Kim in the classroom next door if you have any questions.” 

“Ok thank you ma’am.” Wendy bowed again with a smile. In return, the principal, whom Wendy still hadn’t learned the name of, just brushed past her without a word. 

Choosing to ignore the cold shoulder she felt from that woman, Wendy sighed and looked around at the classroom. Her classroom. Wendy didn’t think she’d ever get used to hearing that.

Walking over to her desk, she set her briefcase down, along with her books and tied her hair into a pony tail to get it out of her face. When she sat down, she noticed the view outside her window of the same plum blossom tree that she’d admired earlier. She smiled to herself and watched the petals blow in the wind. She’d have to remind herself to open up those windows before class started.

“Settling in ok?” 

The voice of a man spoke and Wendy turned her head to see a man with black hair and deep brown eyes leaning against the doorframe. 

“Oh y-yes everything is great Mr...um ?”

“Heechul. Uh Kim Heechul.” He said and walked towards her with an out stretched arm.

Wendy shook his hand and smiled up at him. “It’s nice to meet you Mr. Kim, sir. My name is Son Seugwan but uh friends call me Wendy.” 

“Wendy huh. Alright well, Wendy, since we’re probably going to be seeing each other a lot, let’s drop the formalities. You can call me Heechul.” He smiled and Wendy was glad that his smile seemed genuine. She was happy to be making her first friend since moving back to Korea. Maybe she’d ask to eat lunch with him later. Just as friends though.

“Hey, Heechul, can i.. ask you something.” Wendy was fumbling with one of the many pens on her desk now, this one happened to be purple.

“Sure, fire away.” Heechul said cheerfully. 

“What’s the deal with the principal. Do you think i did something to upset her?“

“Oh Mrs. Lee? Yeahh she can be like that with people like you.”

Wendy was confused, “P-people like me?”

“No no i didn’t mean it like that.” Heechul laughed, waving his hands back and forth to shoo away any of Wendy’s apprehension. “Let me explain,” Heechul was leaning against her desk now. “Do you know how many English teachers we’ve seen come and go before you?”

Wendy thought for a minute, “...No?” 

“Well, to answer that- a lot. And do you know why?”

“Hmmm not sure.. maybe... low pay?” Wendy guessed which enacted a laugh from Heechul.

“Haha no no. You see, hmm how do i put this... ehem well Mrs. Lee is a very traditional "tolerates no funny business" kind of gal so she likes things to be at a certain um.. standard.” 

Heechul shuffled with his hands as he was talking and Wendy assumed he was grasping at the best way to explain the situation. “This means she can be, ah how do i say this, uh ignorant at times when it comes to...-“

“People who aren’t from Korea.” Wendy finished, leaning back into her seat with a sigh. 

“Yep. The last couple of English teachers had been American and Mrs. Lee gave them such a hard time that they resigned.”

Wendy crinkled up her nose a bit at this revelation. ‘.. i haven’t even done anything and my boss already doesn’t like me,’ she thought, dropping the purple pen back onto her desk. 

Placing her hands on her desk, she scooted the chair out from beneath her, “Then i’ll just have to make her like me.” She declared with a sparkle in her eye.

Heechul smiled at Wendy’s determination. “You know what, i think i’m going to like you Wendy hah.” 

Wendy smiled, “You too.”

Suddenly a soft beeping was heard and Heechul looked down at his watch, “Ah it’s about time for school to start,” he said and started walking towards the door, “I’ll see you at lunch.” He smiled and then disappeared into the hallway. 

“Yes you will.” Wendy said to herself, still standing up. Since she had to prepare for the rush of incoming students, she went over to one of the windows to let the breeze and faint scent of plum blossoms waft into the room. 

She was ready to teach her first...-