Summer in Korea is over, and I have to face the reality. I need to go to my job. Before I ran to the taxi, Soojung called out from their balcony. “Taeminnie! Good Luck on your first day in the school! FIGHTING!!” she said smiling, which gives me the strength to surpass the first day. “What about you? Aren’t you coming to school today?” I asked her. She’s in her graduating year now. “My class starts in the afternoon, and it’s still early for me to go to the university.” She explained. “Oh! The taxi’s here. I have to go now. See you later Soojung.” I said smiling, while waving. “Bye Bye.” She waved back. Alright! Now’s my first day so I need to go early to settle things up in the faculty room.

The school I’m going to is an exclusive school. The students there are all children of the elites and middle class people. Oh! I wonder how they’ll react to a teacher like me. I’m going to be an English teacher in St. Matthew Academy.

When I got out of the taxi, I noticed that a lot of students are staring at me. I don’t know why, but I guess it’s because I’m loading in a taxi on my way to their school. Well, I just ignored their stares and go to the guard house.

The guard is young, I guess not too old on my age. I am now 20 years old. He greeted me raising his guard cap. “Good morning sir, may I help you?” he asked. His name is Kim Jonghyun, based on his name plate. “Good morning. I am Lee Taemin. I’ll be a new teacher here.” I explained. I gave him my applications. He looked at it and smiled to me, “Welcome to SMA Sir Lee.” He greeted with a very charming smile. I can’t help but to smile back.

He led me to the faculty room. When I got to the faculty room, everyone stared at me like I was an alien. Then a middle- aged man greeted me. “Oh! Sir Lee, at last! It’s nice to see you here. I am Lee Soo Man, I am the School Director.” Mr. Lee said shaking my hands. “Nice to meet you sir. Please take care of me.” I said, and smiled. I heard some of the lady faculties sighed. I don’t know why.

I went to the first class I’ll handle for the morning. And I was very shocked to encounter students that are very obnoxious. They are very noisy. There are students who place their feet to the desk, while others are chit chatting in a very loud voice. There are some students who played basketball around the classroom and don’t care if they hit some of their classmates. Others are bullying their classmates and the bullied one is just looking at the ground while his classmates make fun of them. They are not like those elite students in US or in England that were very proper and composed all the time. I think this will be a long day for me, for my first day.

I cleared my throat, and everyone stared at me. The girls’ chit chatting stopped talking and looked at me with curious eyes. “Good morning students. Before we start, can you all go to your respective seats? I want to see every one of you.” I greeted, and then smiled. When I smiled, I noticed some of the girls giggled, while the bullying boys earlier go silently to their seats. Well, I guess my smile has some effect on them. Well, what can I say? I have a killer smile. Ha ha!!

“Now, let me first introduce myself. I am Lee Taemin. I will be your English teacher for this year. As you can see, your former teacher Mr. Park just retired from teaching, so the school needs a new replacement for him. So I hope everyone will love me just like how you loved your former teacher.” I said, and then smiled again. Huuuhhhh…. I heard the girls. I can’t help but to smile again, which gives the boys some uncomfortable stare on me. “So I guess let’s start our first class.” I said.

At Last!!! The last bell rang, and that means, class dismissed. It’s very tiring to teach, but I have a very good feeling towards it. What can I say? I really loved teaching.

When I went back to the faculty room, the teachers piled around me and intriguing me. Whoa! Am I a celebrity? “So Sir Taemin, Director Lee said that you came from America, then why are you now starting to teach if you grew up in America?” one of the teachers asked. “Well, I was accelerated three times on my high school and Junior high school years. They said that I have a brain not suited for the year I’m taking, so they accelerated me. So instead of graduating at the age of 23 in college, I graduated at the age of 20.” I explained to them. “Oh.. so it means you’re really a genius. Wow! But why did you come back here in Korea? I mean, why didn’t you grab the opportunity to teach in America? The salary there is bigger than here.” One of the lady faculties asked. “Well, I promised my mom that I’ll come back after I graduate in college there. And I want to share my brain to the students here in Korea.” I explained while blushing because of shame. I’m not used to explaining my reasons for choosing the teaching career instead of other careers. And once again, I heard the females sighed. I guess, I also have that effect even on the teachers. Hmm.. I’m proud of myself. Bwahahahaha!!!

AN: I really like to imagine taemin teaching. Hahahahaha!!!!