(JiHyun’s POV)

When I was called to the principal’s office the day after Mr. Bang and I had kissed my entire body was shaking. I had only ever been called to the office to be notified of awards I would be receiving but I did not think this was such an occasion. When I stepped inside Mr. Choi gestured to a seat in front of his desk. I sat and nervously shook my leg.

“Nam JiHyun, do you know why you’re here?”

“No, Mr. Choi.”

It wasn’t a complete lie. I didn’t know. I ­suspected why I was here but I didn’t know for sure.

Mr. Choi sighed and looked at me.

“JiHyun-ah, I was informed that you were taken advantage of by Mr. Bang.”

“What? He never took advantage of me!”

“Then please explain what happened.”

“We – I – I wasn’t forced. What we did…I wanted to just as much as he did.” My face burned red but I had to let Mr. Choi know that Mr. Bang was not that kind of person

“JiHyun-ah, you know, we all know, that intimate teacher-student relationships are forbidden.”

“Yes, sir. I know. I’ve broken a serious rule and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry but…I’m in love.”

I didn’t want to say “we’re in love” no matter how true that was. Right now I did not want to drag Mr. Bang into this at all. I mean, he was already all up in it but I just wanted to keep him as spotless as I could right now.

Mr. Choi nodded.

“JiHyun-ah, if you were not such a promising student at this school and if I were not so proud of being your principal, I would expel you for putting the school in such a compromising position. Don’t think you can flounce around and do whatever you want because you are being forgiven. You will be watched even more closely. You must be spotless. You are still young but I know you are not foolish. Please, JiHyun-ah, be wiser from now on.”

I nodded.

“Um…Mr. Choi?”

“Yes?”

“Mr. Bang…what is going to happen to him?”

“He can’t stay here, JiHyun-ah. He has to be fired and hopefully, for his own good, he will move away.”

I just stared at him.

“And of course your parents have been informed. I will speak to them separately. Once you have finished your exam, go home.”

I swallowed thickly. My parents. I wasn’t close to them at all. They judged my well-being on my grades. I had done even better in school while being so close to Mr. Bang because I knew they would suspect nothing. But now I had to face their wrath. I wondered if Mr. Choi would tell them I had been forced or that it was mutual? Knowing Mr. Choi he would tell the bare truth.

I was the first to finish my exam even after thoroughly triple-checking it. I gathered up my things and trudged home. I didn’t take the bus. I wasn’t in the mood to be surrounded by people. I wanted, no, I needed to talk to Mr. Bang. It was slowly sinking in that it wouldn’t just be a summer without him. I had no idea if I would ever see him again. My tears started to fall. I felt horrible. He was being fired because he loved me or rather because he had acted upon his love for me. But not even that! He was being fired because we had been caught. My tears of sadness transformed into tears of rage when I thought of that teacher that had walked in on us. I hated him.

My parents weren’t there when I got home. They were probably en route to the school right now. I wondered if they had been told what the reason for their visit was or if they thought I was getting another award. I laid on my bed replaying moments with Mr. Bang in my head, torturing myself. I started to cry again and curled up in the fetal position.

I was woken rudely by a banging on my door. I had barely gotten up when my parents stormed into the room both yelling at the tops of their voices. Well, now I knew what Mr. Choi had told them. I just sat there on my bed. I really couldn’t hear either of them. After about 5 minutes my dad told my mom to let him say whatever he had to say.

“Nam JiHyun! Nam JiHyun! What the hell were you thinking? Such dishonour! You have dishonoured your family, your school, yourself! If you weren’t smart you would be good for nothing! And with the way you’ve shamed us I would think you were an utter imbecile! How stupid can you be to act in this way? How stupid?”

He marched to where my school bag was and shook the contents out of the bag. He picked up my cellphone and threw it against the wall so that it smashed into pieces. He grabbed my laptop off of my desk and shoved it roughly into my mother’s hands.

“We are removing the landlines and getting personal phones for home business. You will contact no one. You come home straight after school. All your extra activities will occur here at home. Your male teachers will be changed to female teachers.” He glared at me as did my mother. “I can’t even bare to look at your face and call you my daughter.”

My parents marched out of the room. Actually, I didn’t give a flying rat what they said. I didn’t care.

I passed all my exams with flying colours. There was no reason for me not to. The work didn’t take so much that my depression prevented me from doing it. Every day I went straight home from school. I had my piano and violin lessons and other activities at home. I didn’t talk to anyone. Not even Hara. I didn’t want to. I was just going through the motions of my life really. Whenever my brain had a spare moment, which was too often, I thought of Mr. Bang. I remembered the way he smelled, the lilt of his voice, his beautiful smile and the way he tenderly touched me. I would feel a weight in my chest and I would start to cry.

Summer began but did nothing to alleviate my mood. Now there was absolutely nothing to distract my thoughts. I had to go to work with either of my parents every day since they didn’t trust me to be home alone. I turned eighteen but it was just another day to me. I daresay it was the longest summer of my life. I was actually glad to get back to school. I hadn’t even realized it but I had an inkling of hope that Mr. Bang would be there. After a week of not seeing him I was once again crushed. When would I ever see him? Where was he? Was he even in Korea? I had no means of finding him. I had no media to use and I had no time to go anywhere to do any research because my parents were always on top of my schedule.

I walked out of the doors of my school with the swarm of students. As usual, I was ready to take the bus home as promptly as possible. Then I saw someone vaguely familiar standing outside the school gates. He looked right at me then at a paper in his hands then back at me. As I got closer to the gates I saw that he was extremely good-looking. He had black hair spiked up in front and he looked about the same age as Mr. Bang. He started towards me through the stream of students. I wasn’t sure what to do but I had a gut feeling I should talk to this man. I stepped out of the flow of students towards him.

“Nam JiHyun-ssi?” He asked, he looked at the paper in hands again and I realized it was a photo. A photo of me. For some reason my heart was beating crazily as I nodded at the man.

“I’m Kim HimChan, YongGuk’s best friend.”

I swear my heart stopped. So that’s where I knew his face from. Mr. Bang had shown me a picture of himself and HimChan when they were younger.

My mouth opened and closed with no sound coming out then all of a sudden I couldn’t stop myself.

“Where is he? Where’s Mr. Bang? Is he nearby? Do you know if he’s alright? Is he –?”

“Hey, hey! I know you have lots of questions but let’s go somewhere.”

I completely disregarded my parents’ warnings and headed to an out-of-the-way coffee shop with HimChan.

“Do you want anything?” He asked me as we entered.

“No, thank you.”

He smiled and we sat at a small table. He ordered an iced Americano for himself and water for me.

“It’ll calm your nerves,” he said. “Now, YongGuk gave me your photo and told me to find you when school was back in session. I know the summer probably killed you but he didn’t want to give me your address from the school records. He figured your parents would have you on lockdown and he didn’t want to have some guy creeping around your house making things worse.”

I nodded slowly, drinking in everything HimChan was saying.

“YongGuk left Ijak-do a few days after he was fired. He’s in Busan now.”

“Busan?”

HimChan nodded. “The air around you two needed to clear. He couldn’t stay in the area for your own good. Rumours would fly between teachers. They would tell your parents. Things would be very difficult for you.”

I hung my head. Mr. Bang had to give up so much for me.

“Yah~ don’t be sad.” He handed me his phone.

“What…”

“Call him.” 

Thanks for commenting so far ^_^ It's nice to know what you guys are thinking!

(pic credit: http://bethanyactually.com/day-4-my-kitchen-windows-shadow/)