Mr Oh gave Class 1-3 the assignment of painting the portrait of a fellow classmate with only fifteen minutes to observe and memorise the subject. They need not reveal their choice of a classmate at this juncture, as Mr Oh had no issues with more than one person choosing the same subject. This assignment would be assessed based on how much the painting resembled the intended subject matter, so it would be good training on photographic memory.

After the class had settled into their assignment, Mr Oh used the time to grade the works of the same topic by class 1-1, accompanied by his favourite coffee.

“I didn’t know this person existed in my class,” Mr Oh scorned with contempt in his mind.

“Is this a human? Even calling it a monster is an understatement,” a new comment formed in Mr Oh’s head five paintings later. He almost spit out his favourite coffee due to the grossness presented to him.

A breath of fresh air came to Mr Oh from the next painting in the form of Krystal Jung’s portrait. Just the ease at which Mr Oh could recognise the intended subject matter already rated this piece of work as above average. Apart from the insane accuracy achieved in capturing the physical features, the painting radiated Krystal’s joy and blissfulness as she sniffed the bunch of roses presented to her by an unknown pair of strong arms, like a young lady recently in love. Such a masterpiece should be savoured with his favourite coffee, so Mr Oh drank a mouthful from his mug while turning over to the reverse side to find the identity. This time, he literally spit out his coffee upon learning who the artist was.

“That Kang *****!” Mr Oh muttered in between his coughs. While Mr Oh was aware of Seulgi’s talent in art, he refused to acknowledge any of it, to the point of refusing her application to join the Art & Craft Club of the school. His warped sense of logic decided that it was criminal for such immense talent to exist in someone with a tainted background. Fuelled by the humiliation he suffered the week before, a diabolical idea sparked. There were no qualms that it would be executed publicly in front of the students of Class 1-3, who were now looking up to the source of the commotion. Consuming a huge gulp of coffee, Mr Oh coughed out the entire content on the painting. Satisfied with the damage he had done, he asked for the class rep, Shin Jimin.

“Jimin, go to class 1-1 and find out if the teacher can excuse Kang Seulgi for a while. I need to see her now if possible. Otherwise, get that bi… I mean Seulgi, to look for me in the staffroom during break time.”

At class 1-1, the Math teacher was done with her lecturing and the students were working on the tutorial, therefore she was agreeable to releasing Seulgi. Back in class 1-3, Seulgi bowed and greeted Mr Oh out of courtesy.

“Do you know what I am seeing you for?”

“Sorry, Mr Oh. I have no idea.”

Mr Oh slammed Seulgi’s artwork, now covered with a large patch of brown stain, on the table. “Look at the kind of work you had submitted. Are my assignments a joke to you?!”

Seulgi covered in shock and shook her head slightly. “Mr Oh, I really don’t know what has happened. It did not look like this when I submitted my work the other day.”

“Surely the brown stain can’t appear by itself out of nowhere, can it?”

Of course not, Seulgi thought as she stared at the mug half-filled with coffee on the teacher’s table. Mr Oh noticed her line of sight and asked innocently, “Are you suspecting me?”

Seulgi remained silent, so Mr Oh turned to the class and showed them the ruined painting, “Class, did anyone see me spill coffee on this painting?”

Although the answer was obvious, no one dared to reveal what they witnessed a while ago.

“Has everyone become dumb? Say something!” Mr Oh shouted.

“No sir!” The class of 1-3 replied in unison. Seulgi was not surprised by the outcome. Afterall truth and justice is defined by the one with authority, not what actually happened.

“What more do you have to say, Kang?”

“No Mr Oh. I shall redo the piece and submit the work tomorrow.”

“Who says you get to resubmit your work? You are simply getting an F grade for this. In addition, you will need to clean the school toilet during break time later as a punishment. Understand?”

Seulgi clenched her fist to suppress her pent-up anger, “Yes, Mr Oh…”

Just then the bell rang, signalling break time. Seulgi followed Mr Oh to the staff room, where she was led to the discipline mistress Mdm Cho.

“Another ‘volunteer’ for the toilet cleaning duty? At this rate, we may not need to hire a new janitor for the job,” Mdm Cho joked.

“New janitor? I thought all the vacancies were filled.”

“Mr Oh, do you know Mdm Ahn? There was a lapse in her performance, like forgetting to fill up the toilet roll when they run out or not wiping off the stains from the sink thoroughly enough. Guess her age is catching up on her.”

“That widow who still needs to provide support for a spastic adult son, even at this age? Life can be cruel at times. Then again, the school is not a charity. Anyway, I am leaving Seulgi with you. Her offence is for making a mockery of my assignments.”

“Is there such an offence in our policy?”

“Go create one and add it in then,” Mr Oh suggested with a mischievous wink.

“Nice one,” Mdm Cho laughed. “I shall take over Seulgi from here.”

If Seulgi was feeling miserable about being punished to clean the female toilet initially, the conversation between Mr Oh and Mdm Cho had reversed that. On that day, Seulgi would be helping out in Mdm Ahn’s shift. Mdm Ahn was one of the few kind souls in this school who bothered to say “Hi” and have other small chats with Seulgi when the majority of the school population was against her. Therefore, she was glad to help Mdm Ahn in any way that would protect her job.

“Mdm Ahn, let me do this. You can sit over there and supervise me instead. Remember this is my punishment?” Seulgi offered to mop the floor as she was aware of Mdm Ahn’s recent complaints about pain in her knee cap. She emphasized on the punishment part to make Mdm Ahn less guilty.

“This school is blind for punishing such a nice girl like you. Do you know the saying? What goes around comes around. Whoever got you into this will suffer retribution.”

“Haha… I don’t care that much. I am just happy to help a nice person like you with these chores.”

Half an hour later…

The toilet looked brand new, thanks to Kang Seulgi. After ensuring that all the toilet roll supplies were adequate, Seulgi bade farewell to Mdm Ahn. Just then, Jimin and her boisterous clique entered the toilet, leaving behind filthy shoe prints on the floor.

“Oh isn’t that Kang? Heard she got punished for handing in some disgusting artwork to mock Mr Oh.”

“This is also her retribution for seducing Jimin’s fiancée. Remember the incident about Taeyong shielding her from Mr Oh’s cane? Oh gosh, what does Taeyong see in her anyway?”

“She is probably just a fling to Taeyong. Do you know how rich men are like? Having fun outside but go home to their official wife at the end of the day?” The whole clique laughed.

“What are you glaring at us for?” Jimin pointed to the floor. “Shouldn’t you be mopping the floor instead? Look how dirty this is.”

“It’s ok Seul-ah. You have done enough. There are still fifteen minutes left for you to eat something so that you won’t go hungry in your next class. I can clean the rest,” Mdm Ahn offered.

Seulgi felt bad about leaving, but her growling stomach forced her to agree with Mdm Ahn. “Thank you, Mdm Ahn.”

“Getting an old lady to clean up in your place? This is your punishment! Honour it and finish it on your own!” Jimin lifted the bucket of dirty water and splashed the content at Seulgi. The floor, now flooded slightly, was not spared either.

“Eew! This toilet is so dirty, let’s use the one on the next floor instead.”

Fifteen minutes later…

Seulgi decided to stay behind to clean up as the mess Jimin had created was too much for Mdm Ahn to handle alone. In return, Mdm Ahn offered to share some of her toast with Seulgi, thus giving her enough time to rush back to her class, but not enough to get dry clothes from her locker to change into. Back at the classroom, Seulgi could feel leering eyes from the boys on her upper body, translucent against the wet white blouse. Noticing the awkwardness, Taeyong immediately grabbed his windbreaker and draped it over Seulgi, followed by a shot of death glare aiming right back at the boys.

Thankfully, the rest of the day went by peacefully till dismissal time. Taeyong and Ten pulled their chairs in front of Seulgi to watch her pack up her things.

“Oh yes! I need to return your windbreaker,” Seulgi inferred that it was the reason for their strange action and proceeded to remove the apparel.

“No! No! You can have it first to cover yourself.”

Seulgi continued with her packing but their presence and watchful eyes got the curiosity of her. “Now what?”

“To make sure you don’t suddenly disappear after school again,” Ten replied.

“I did not disappear. School ended and I left. Isn’t that the natural thing to do?” Seulgi explained.

“The natural thing should be school ended and WE left TOGETHER,” Taeyong pointed to the three of them.

Seulgi laughed at the comedic duo. If only Jimin realised that the one “seducing” her fiancée was Ten and not her. She might even be supportive of this ship and not cause trouble to Ten.

“Last week, we went to this new eatery and their bulgogi was daebak,” Ten was already salivating as he talked. “Let’s go there again. This time the three of us.”

“That’s nice, but not today. I am meeting someone.”

“WHAT?! Who are you DATING and WHY you never told us about it?” Taeyong and Ten sounded like strict parents interrogating their daughter’s whereabouts.

“You have to show him to us so that Taetae have the fair chance to see what he is up against,” Ten patted Taeyong’s head.

“Wouldn’t that ruin your chance with your TAETAE?” Seulgi rebutted candidly.

Taeyong blushed slightly on hearing his pet name coming from Seulgi. “Ok. Serious business here. Who are you meeting, Seul?”

“Oh, Unnie is our senior from class 3-1. We sort of met by chance. The reason why I did not mention about her is that…” Seulgi shrugged like it was no big deal. “No one asked.”

“Hey, don’t sound like we don’t care about you. We do okay?” Ten reminded her.

“Okay, okay. So, do I still need to present her to get a stamp of approval?”

“Since she’s a female, then don’t bother. In case she’s pretty and start to disturb the dynamics of our clique,” Ten brushed it off.

“What dynamics are you referring to? Speaking of pretty, Unnie is certainly one of the most beautiful people I have ever seen. I think it's the harmony of all the features, the perfect ratio. Her front view is pretty, her side view is pretty, and even her back view is pretty,” Seulgi gushed with admiration when she was justifying Joohyun’s beauty.

“I don’t understand Ten’s meaning of dynamics either. But my heartfelt disturbed already…” Taeyong complained.

“You guys are talking strange today. Anyway, I need to go now. See you tomorrow.”

After Seulgi had left, Taeyong rested his head on Seulgi’s desk. “Her front view is pretty… her side view is pretty… even her back view is pretty. I dislike this Noona already.”

“You should be thankful that Seul is calling her Unnie. That means, she sees that Noona as nothing more than an older sister,” Ten pointed out his observation. “Worst come the worst, you still have me.”