I ran downstairs, and found the manager hyung waiting at the entrance with his van. "Sorry I'm a bit late," I said, getting in the van.

"No problem. We have to hurry though," he said, and as soon as I closed the door, he stepped on the gas. We drove dangerously fast, but I was appreciative of the fact that we had gotten to my school in 5 minutes when it normally took about twice as long.

"I'll just quickly go to class and come back," I said.

The manager hyung nodded. "Okay, hurry."

I jogged past the school gates, crossed the schoolyard and was about to enter the school when I heard a "hey, you!" behind me. I turned around to find the vice principal walking towards me.

I kept my hand on the door as I bowed.

"Why aren't you wearing your uniform? Where's your name tag? Not to mention your hair is much too long," he said, noticing my t-shirt and jeans.

"I couldn't make it for the whole day of school so I was just checking into class, sir," I said. Even as I said this, I realized that I didn't answer any of his questions.

"Why do you think that the dress code and rules get bent because of that?" he asked. I didn't have a response for several seconds. I finally opened my mouth to explain my situation at SM, but I never got a chance to start.

"Come to my office," he said, opening the door. Oh god. I had 20 minutes to get back to SM and this could take forever.

"Sir - I'm just - I'm in a hurry, and I worked this out with my homeroom teacher, he -"

The vice principal turned around to face me. "Why is it that you have so much to say?"

I fell silent.

"I'll be sure to talk to your homeroom teacher. In the meanwhile, I want you to wait in my office."

He led me down the hall and opened the door to his office. I stepped inside, and he asked me for my name and homeroom. When I gave them to him, he nodded.

"I'm going to go to your teacher to talk to him after another sweep," he said. I could feel my lips drying. I had hoped that he was simply going to write me up, which would have taken care of the situation much faster.

"Sir - I really have to be somewhere at 2:30. It's why I'm missing school in the first pl-"

"Again," he said, "you're talking back."

"It's really important," I said, disregarding his previous statement. "My manager is waiting outside, sir, you can talk to him."

"Just wait in here," he said, walking out of his office.

"Sir -!" I started again, but he clicked his office door closed.

I ran my shaking hand across my face nervously. There was no way I could make it by 2:30 now. Calm down, I thought to myself. I had several options. I could call Leeteuk or the manager hyung right now and let them know what's happening. I could just count today as an absence and just run out of here... but then again, I had just given him my name and homeroom. Who knows what kind of trouble I would be in later?

I decided on calling the manager hyung, and flipped open my cell phone. To my dismay, there was no signal; the school had blocked it within school grounds. "Damn," I whispered. I guess I had to just walk out of here. I sighed, thinking about the consequences of what may happen later, and moved towards the door. I paused a bit before opening it - I had never disobeyed a teacher so directly before - but then I clenched my teeth and put my hand on the door handle. I pushed, and to my absolute devastation, I found that it was locked from the inside. I swore in frustration. What was I supposed to do now? I looked around the small, grey office, and noticed the phone on his desk. I could just use that phone to call the manager hyung. I peered outside the window into the hallway to make sure that it was empty and that the vice principal was nowhere to be seen. I hesitated a little, then picked up the phone and dialed, at the same time that I was checking outside the window.

"Hello?" said the manager hyung on the other end. Relieved, I started talking.

"Hyung, It's Kyuhyun. I'm in trouble," I said, still glancing outside the window every few seconds.

"What happened?" he asked. "You have to come out right now!"

"I know this is ridiculous. But hyung, I'm locked inside the vice principal's office. I'm really sorry."

"Can you make it back in 5 minutes?"

"Not without you, hyung."

"Okay, I'm coming. Stay put," he said.

"Thanks, hyung. Please hurry," I said, and as I was putting the receiver down, the office door opened. I jumped, but I still had my hand on the phone when the vice principal walked in. I quickly drew my hand away from the receiver and looked to the door.

"Unbelievable," he said, shaking his head.

"Sir, it's really not what it looks like," I said as I glanced at the clock on the wall. 2:18pm. "If you just let me explain -"

"I'll be speaking to your homeroom teacher when the bell goes as not to disrupt class. In the meanwhile, you need to realize how absolutely unacceptable your behavior is," he said. He started a long-winded lecture, but then after about a minute, I realized how ridiculous this situation was. If I just told him exactly why I needed to go, there would be no reason for him to keep me here.

"Sir, please let me explain. I'm a singer," I said when he paused to take a breath, and I went on before he could stop me again. "My group is scheduled for a choreography check at 2:30. It's a big group, and I really need to be there, sir."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

"Get it," he said from behind his desk. I opened the door and the manager hyung walked in with a small bow.

"Hyung," I said with relief. I glanced at the clock again. 2:21pm.

"Hello, sir," said the manager hyung, and shook hands with the vice principal. He then handed over a name card. "I'm Kyuhyun's manager," he said. The vice principal raised his eyebrows. "Kyuhyun was recently added a singing group called Super Junior - you may have heard of it."

The vice principal nodded. "Please continue."

"Kyuhyun told me he had taken care of things at school, so I assumed it was taken care of. This was my fault entirely," he said.

"I thought I took care of it," I said under my breath, and I received angry looks from both the manager hyung and the vice principal.

"I apologize on behalf of Kyuhyun for all of his misbehavior today - he's been under a lot of pressure since being added to the group. Please allow him to deal with the consequences at a later date."

"Kyuhyun, please step outside for a minute," said the vice principal.

"Yes, sir," I said. I bowed and left the room. It seemed like they were going to take a while, and maybe it was worth running down the hall to check into class; I didn't want everything that happened today to go to waste. I looked through the window to check that the manager hyung and the vice principal were still talking, and I sprinted down the hallway and around the corner to my classroom. I opened the door slightly, and I poked my head in. The teacher smiled and looked at me. All of the students also looked at me, perplexed.

"Hi, sir - um, I'm just here to check in. I'll explain everything tomorrow, I'm so sorry," I said, and I closed the door and ran back towards the vice principal's office again. Thankfully, both of them were still in the office, talking. At least something went right today. I looked at my watch. 2:24pm.

I looked through the window again to see that the manager hyung shake hands with the vice principal again, and he soon came outside.

"Okay, let's run," he said to me as he came out. I bowed to the vice principal one last time, and ran outside with the manager hyung.

"Sorry," I said as we ran. The manager hyung ignored me - he was too busy running.

When we got in the car, he started the car and stepped on the gas right away. I looked at the clock. 2:26pm.

"I'm so sorry," I said again.

"You have to deal with this later," he said as he drove. "He wants you to come to his office sometime tomorrow for your punishment."

"Like, a beating?" I asked.

"He didn't say. I assume a beating."

"What did I even do wrong?" I asked, frustrated.

"Don't even try to act like you did nothing wrong," he said.

"Hyung, I didn't do anything except try to check into class. I didn't cut my hair because you told me not to, and I didn't have time to change into my uniform after practice. If I hadn't used the phone in his office, I would still be in his office right now. How is any of that my fault?"

"You didn't take care of it. If you were going to miss more days of school than not, then I assumed you would have let the office know. It seems that the office didn't even know that you trained at SM."

"I took care of it with my homeroom teacher. I didn't know that I had to let every freaking teacher in the school know," I said, still annoyed that I had earned myself another beating. I hardly ever got beatings before a few weeks ago. Now it seemed to happen every other day.

"Don't be short with me," he said angrily. " You're the one who started all this."

I opened my mouth to retort again, but then the manager hyung cut me off. "Can you be quiet now? I have to focus on driving."

"Okay, hyung. I'm sorry," I said, glancing at the clock. It was 2:29pm and we were still a little ways away from SM.

When we finally reached the building, it was 2:32pm.