▬ Chapter 7: Ready? Action ▬

For a moment, Sungyeol had to think about how he should respond to the students’ inquiry. He already snapped quite a lot during the last few hours alone especially when he was with Minhyuk so giving in to his usual personality any more than that wouldn’t be good. Although Minhyuk was thankfully oblivious to his remarks, he wasn’t sure the same could be said for these young students.

‘What would Kim Sunggyu do?’ he kept on repeating nervously.

That’s when the moment at the hospital the week before reminded him of one particular trait. From what he could surmise, Sunggyu probably had a shy or more reserved disposition. He certainly acted that way when Minhyul came to visit him that day. Perhaps he should act that way for now until he can get more information about the man. He could even ask L about it later.

‘Hmm, who was it again?’ Sungyeol closed his eyes and sighed as he thought about a similar character he once played in a drama. ‘Ah! Jun from the ‘New Era’ seems like a good fit! He was also a teacher! I’ll just act him out for now.’

“Children,” he cleared his throat and began. Sungyeol straightened his back and eyed the curious faces looking up at him. “Let’s not talk about someone else’s life like that, especially if they are no longer with us. It’s rude. Even if we didn’t like them, let them find peace.”

“That’s such a typical answer coming from you,” one student at the back called out.

The student sitting beside him scoffed. “He’s always been like that though, being all good-natured and all.”

Upon hearing these answers, Sungyeol internally sighed.

“Right?” A female student smiled. “That’s why we like him.”

“Yeah,” the short-haired female sitting right in front of Sungyeol beamed. “You boys are just messing with the guy, saying he wanted to kill the man and ranting about Lee Sungyeol.”

“Honestly,” the female before continued, “just because he may have forgotten some of his memories, that doesn’t mean you guys can just tell him he did stuff like he bad mouthed people.”

Sungyeol’s eyes widened towards the student at the back who accused Sunggyu of saying horrible things about him. “Wait, so what you said before wasn’t true?”

“We got to see you scream though,” he laughed. “But yeah, you’re the type who doesn’t even hurt a fly. Right, Sungjae?”

“Too soft sometimes if you ask me, Sungjun,” the student sitting beside him who had similar features replied. They were identical twins.

“We just wanted to see how much you remembered,” Sungjun added.

Then without missing a beat, his twin replied, “We’re just messing with you.”

“Oh,” Sungyeol internally heaved a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry, but I don’t really remember anything except where I live and work.”

“How did you get all this amnesia so suddenly though?” Jungshin asked. “You were fine the last time we saw you then the next day, the principal said you don’t remember anything.”

“Trauma?” the twins said in unison.

“Doesn’t make sense. What’s he traumatized for? It should be Miss Minhyul and Lee Sungyeol’s family and friends who would be traumatized. Mr. Kim doesn’t even know him personally,” the female student replied then looked at Sungyeol. “I’m Kahee, by the way.”

“Drank too much?” the twins offered again.

“Is that even possible?”

“Now, now,” Sungyeol tried to calm them down. “As much as I’m interested in all of your theories and stories, we should get started with class, right?” Some students groaned while others mumbled under their breaths. “First of all, if everyone can make name tags and put them by their desk, that would be helpful.”

“What are we, in grade school?” Sungjun raised an eyebrow.

“Give the man a break,” one student huffed as he scribbled on a piece of paper, folded it a few times to make a horizontal triangular standee, and placed it by the edge of his desk. It read ‘JR’. “He’ll get our names down in no time, just like the first week of school.”

Sungyeol gulped. He sometimes has trouble memorizing names especially if he doesn’t meet the person often. Don’t even get him started on dates. That’s one of the reasons why he hated History class as a child.

“Thank you, JR. And like he said,” Sungyeol smiled, “I got it down in a week last time so I should be able to do the same this time.”

“Right. You even figured out the twins quite early too,” JR confidently nodded. “And sometimes even we still get them wrong.”

Although he was smiling to not arouse any suspicion, Sungyeol mentally took note to grab an attendance sheet with pictures and hopefully memorize all their names by the end of the week. As he glanced around the class while they also prepared their name tags, he saw the twins looking at him. Once they saw him gulp, both of them smirked.

‘I’m doomed.’

"Stop! That sounds like Jaehyun singing!" A student named Haemi screeched to Sungyeol when a terrible string of notes reached their ears. He was trying to play a song on the baby grand piano at the back of the room.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?!" Jaehyun retaliated.

"Huh, weird," a student named Chen pushed up his glasses. He was known to be the intellect of the whole class. "You forgot how to play too?"

Sungyeol sighed. How was he going to teach these kids when he doesn't even know what to do?

"I—I guess so. I'm sorry, everyone."

"Well," a