The next day, the principal found the sheet of paper lying on the floor when he entered his office.     He was quick to go and inform the teachers in the staff room. Luckily, it was a couple of minutes before the first class of the day started and therefore, all the teachers were there to witness when the principal gathered them and read out the unusual resignation letter. Kim sangnim had only written that he had planned for Nancy to be caught with the paper and that Nancy was innocent. He didn't mention why.   Everyone in the room was in utter shock.     "I will ask him why he would do such a thing to the kid" Said Nancy's maths teacher as he took out his phone and dialled his colleague's number.     The number was switched off.   "I can't reach him. What do we do now?" He enquired.     "For now, as we have proof of the student's innocence, we shall call her parents and let them know she can get back to the dorm." The principal replied.
"Come to my office. We will discuss how to deliver the news to the kid's mother" The principal said, turning towards the maths teacher.  
"I'll be shortly there, Gyo Jang sunsangnim" The maths teacher said bowing a little.    
The maths teacher walked out of the staffroom but he didn't go in the direction of the principal's office.
He couldn't tell why he felt he needed to tell his ex-student, Lee Dabin about this.    
He walked into her classroom, all the students greeted him with confusion. After all, he wasn't supposed to be there in the high school seniors' class.
"I am here to talk to Lee Dabin" The teacher declared.  
"she'll be here in a minute. She comes late every day now that she doesn't stay in the dorms." one of the guys responded.     "She will be coming back to the dorm tomorrow," Hyebin said turning towards the same guy.     Right then, the class's English teacher came in and all the students got up again to greet the teacher.   The maths teacher nodded at his colleague, uttering a word of excuse and got out of the classroom only to be greeted by the person he was looking for and Jaehwan.
The two students bowed.  
"Lee Dabin, I have something to tell you," the teacher said.     Yeonwoo went to the Principal's office with the teacher with Jaehwan closely following them and the teacher explained what they had found out just a while ago.   Yeonwoo was beyond pissed.       The teacher and the two students went into the principal's office.   The principal eyed the two students. He wanted to ask what they were doing there in his office when they should be in their class but he let it go. He was too stressed to care about that.
"Her mother will never trust the teacher faculty again. This is such an embarrassment for the whole school" The principal said.      
The principal called Nancy's mother and talked for a while.       "The mother said she will send her ward to the dorm after the completion of the assessment examination. It is understandable that she is not at all pleased with whatever that had happened to her child. She is not ready to send her back just yet. It was only yesterday that we made the kid pack her things and leave the dorm with her mother." The principal said, looking at the teacher and then to Yeonwoo.    
"Gyo Jang sunsangnim, please find out why Kim sangnim would do something like this to his student" Yeonwoo requested.    
"We will send some of your teachers to visit him today." the principal assured the Yeonwoo.  
Only Jaehwan in the room knew Kim sangnim had left Seoul early in the morning.      
"Gyo Jang nim, I want to apologise to Nancy's mother personally. I am also at fault here. It all happened because I had failed to take care of my keys. Can you please give me Nancy's mother's number?" The maths teacher asked, taking out his phone.  
The principal gave the teacher the phone number. And yes, Jaehwan carefully listened to the numbers and repeated it in his head over and over again.
He knew this was useful information.    
Yeonwoo and Jaehwan walked back to their class together. Yeonwoo looked at her best friend who was walking in silence, seemingly lost in his thoughts and she almost felt bad she had gone as far as suspecting Jaehwan had something to do with Nancy's misfortune the other day.
And yes, to her, Jaehwan was still her best friend and she could never bring herself to call him anything more than that even though they were in a relationship now.  
She shuddered remembering Jaehwan trying to drink bleach.
She definitely didn't want something like that to happen again to her best friend.               At the end of the day, everyone in the school had heard the new news. They had their own theories as to why the teacher had done this to Nancy.
Most were of the opinion that the teacher must have had feelings for Nancy which the student didn't reciprocate and that the teacher must have been really upset when he found out Nancy had been getting so close to her senior Sehun. They thought the teacher had planned this whole thing so that he could suspend Nancy from classes for the semester and that would ensure distance between Nancy and Sehun. but then, he wrote the resignation letter as he realised he had hurt Nancy.   Well, at least that was the theory most people bought.         ********       The next day was Sunday and the internal assessment examination was the next day.     Yeonwoo arrived at the school dorm, Jaehwan was already there with Hyebin waiting for her outside.  
"Why're you here?" Yeonwoo asked as soon as she got down.  
"I don't know. I just felt like coming" Jaehwan replied. "Maybe I can help out getting your things to your room?"  
"I can handle that on my own. I didn't bring much since it only a month we're going to be here. And Hyebin is here to help. You should go" Yeonwoo said as she ignored looking at Jaehwan.  
Her mother had taken down her things from the trunk.  
"Honey, don't waste your time and I want you to focus on your studies, alright?" Yeonwoo's mother said looking her daughter in the eyes.
Yeonwoo knew the double meaning behind her mother's words, reminding her of all the threatening words her mother had thrown her way the previous night and the entire ride to the dorm.   She nodded.     "Hyebin na, I hope you two work really hard for the assessment and the final exam. I wish you both the best of luck" Yeonwoo's mother said looking at Hebin. "And the same goes for you, Jaehwan." She said turning towards Jaehwan.
"I'll be going, then" she said and headed for her car.    
Jaehwan was hoping to hear Yeonwoo's mother warn her not to even go near Nancy but nothing he wanted to hear came out of Yeonwoo's mother's mouth.     "Jaehwan, we'll go in. Byebye" Hyebin said walking near Yeonwoo's bags.
Yeonwoo and Hyebin took the trolley and the bags and got into the dorm building.  
Jooe was on her way down the stairs when the two friends got inside.   "Jooe?" Yeonwoo called. She missed talking to her junior.    There was no answer from Jooe as she tried to walk past her two seniors she had been avoiding.
It hurt Yeonwoo.     "wait, Jooe!"
Jooe stopped walking but she didn't turn around.   Yeonwoo went around to stand in front of Jooe.
"Jooe, are you  still mad at me?"  
"A little," Jooe replied after a while.  
Yeonwoo breathed out. "Jooe, can I say something?"
"Nancy will be here after the assessment exam and I think there will be 10 days of class before we sit for the final exam."
"I know that she'll listen to you. Can you please make sure she doesn't talk to Sehun?"  
Jooe shot her a look at that.
"If you can't be together with her then that leaves you with no right to meddle in her business." She snapped.  
"But Jooe-"  
"Just leave her alone. Alright? Just cut her some slack. She has suffered enough. Just let her do what she ing wants for once. I don't know why everyone is set out to give her a hard time. First you and then that ed teacher. I hate all of you!" Jooe yelled.
 "And who she hangs out with is none o