*

KIM JONGIN

*

Once at the front office, I didn’t even both to ask the office lady to tell my father I was there. This time I just went straight to the back and busted through my father’s door without knocking.

“Here they are,” I practically threw the two munchkins in the room to which both stumbled inside. I pointed each one out. “That’s Chansoo and that one’s Dongwoo. Turns out, both of them did snitch on us guys to the girls. ”  

They both started bowing immediately to my father, obviously remembering their manners when approaching authority figures.

I moved around them to sit myself down in one of the two chairs at my father’s desk.

My father looked over the two boys, scanning them head to toe.   

“These two boys you had doing your dirty work?” he asked sounding rather shocked. “ Geez Jongin, they look like infants!”

I shrugged, not really caring. Besides, who was he to talk? This was the same man who always had me do a lot of his dirty work as well.

Like father, like son.  

“Excuse me, headmaster Kim,” Chansoo said timidly. “Are we in trouble? If so we promise we won’t say anything to anybody...”

“You boys aren’t in trouble,” my father cut him off before the kid could start babbling too much.

He then stood from his chair and came around his desk to lean against it as he stood in front of the two boys looking down on them. They both looked up at him, seemingly amazed by his size. My father was a rather tall man. It’s where I got my height from.   

“In fact, I would like it if you two were to completely forget anything my son has told you since the start of the school year,” my father told them looking them square in the eyes, almost as if he were trying to put them under a trance, which only seemed more true with the smooth tone his voice had taken on. “Anything he has made you do regarding pranks or the senior girls, anything you have seen, heard, or told is no longer important. You can just forget everything as if it never even happened and in return I promise neither of you will be messed with by any of the seniors from here on out, but first, I must have your word that you will forget everything that you have learned about the seniors since the start of the school year. Do I have your word?”

“You want us to forget everything?” Dongwoo reiterated, unsurely.  

“As in none of  it ever happened,” my father confirmed with a reassuring smile.   

“It never happened,” they repeated back to him like parrots and it was then that I started to wonder if my dad really was doing some kind of mind control work on them.

“Exactly,” my father said one last time before standing up. “Now tell me, do you boys like Lotte World?”

Both boy’s eyes lit up with excitement. “We love Lotte World!” Chansoo gasped.  

I watched my father smirk knowingly. So, that was how we had gotten rid of the two munchkins for a week. By setting them up with a full-paid, weeklong vacation to Lotte World.  

Once the two munchkins had left the room, I asked my father just how the whole vacation plan was supposed to work out without their parents knowing. Attendance record was thoroughly checked. In fact, at Cheonan Academy, parents could always login online to the school’s website and see not only how their children were doing in their classes but could check their attendance records as well. On top of that, if a student missed so much as 3 days of  school,  consecutively, without prior notice, than their parents were called immediately.

This was all done to keep students from thinking they could ditch classes just because their parents weren’t around.

Then, there was the fact that no student could go on a school field-trip without their parent’s approval provided by signature. But it seemed my father had already thought everything all out.

“Their parents already know, Jongin,” he told me. “After you gave me their names the first time I made phone calls to each their parents  and told them that their children were specially selected out of the rest for their academic achievements during the first semester and that their reward is a school-related field-trip.”

He picked up two pieces of paper off his desk and handed them over to me. “I had these two fake slips printed up and faxed over to the parents where they signed their signatures and faxed them back. The two boys should be gone by tomorrow morning.”

Wow. I sat there impressed by my father’s skills of deception. If I was ever going to be in his place someday, I had a lot to learn.  

“So, what’s there left to do now?” I asked.

“Your story for the case,” my father said as he sat back down in his big desk chair and looked at me intently. “We need  a good story that’s for sure going to make you appear more favorable than Minji. Now, I actually already have a pretty good story for you. In fact, I told it to Minji the day I had informed her that you were presenting a case against her. It’ll make you look good and her look bad and those video recordings on her laptop will provide more than enough proof  to make the story seem legitimate, but you would really have to deliver it, Jongin. I mean you would have to put on your best performance in front of the panel that’s judging you both to really make it believable. However, you shouldn’t have to do too much convincing considering the video recordings will incriminate Minji enough as it is.”

For some reason, hearing that my father had altered the story to make Minji look even worse, didn’t sit well with me. Although some parts of me still wanted to get her back after what she had done me, I also didn’t feel the need to go overboard. I wasn’t necessarily out to ruin her life, but with the way my parents acted I wondered if that’s what they wanted.

And it was all just to make me look better...     

“What did you tell her I was making a case against her for?” I asked him, uneasily.

“Gender-based harassment,” he replied simply as if it were no big deal.

I sat there stunned, not knowing what to say. “...wow...that’s a pretty big accusation.”

The accusation of harassment was already a huge issue, let alone harassment on the basis of gender. That was almost considered a hate crime--something serious enough to warrant expulsion for.

I may have been ticked off because Minj had embarrassed me in front of our peers but even I thought the accusation was a bit too harsh especially considering it wasn't even fully true.

For days, I had actually been wanting Minji to just be removed as co-president already, kind of as a way to get my pride back and show her that I wasn’t to be messed with either, but somehow now that the case was taking unexpected turns I wasn’t feeling too well about it.

“Yes it is,” my father said noticing the look of uncertainty on my face. My father sighed. “Your responsibility is to your family, Jongin. Not some high school girl. Your only job is to contribute to the legacy of the Kim name. As long as you’re doing your duty to our family than nothing else matters.”

“Right,” I mumbled rather robotically, a reflection of how I usually felt under the influence of my father who pulled my strings. “Okay, so then what is my story then? What am I going to tell the board on the day of the meeting?”

I figured it was too late to even be thinking of going back now. I would disappoint my father more than I ever had before if I told him I was having cold feet about going through with the case, especially after everything he had done to make sure everything went smoothly for me.

For the first time in a very long time, he looked genuinely interested in me as he leaned forward, looking me in the eyes.  

“Okay, here’s what you need to know. There’s going to be a panel of six judges there to hear out both you and Minji’s cases. Three of them will be faculty members from the school and the other three will be Mrs. Jung, the superintendent, and myself.”

“So all the members from the board won’t actually be there?” I asked, surprised. “Just the superintendent?”

“Yes,” my father confirmed. “When I spoke the the board on the phone they decided that this was mainly a school-related issue that could be handled without getting the entire board involved, so only the superintendent is coming.

“Now, you and Minji will both introduce yourselves before giving your cases to the panel. Then we will look at the evidence and have one final discussion before making our final decision, but of course, you already know what the outcome will be. As long as you do everything  I have told you to then everything will go smoothly, and according to plan.”

“Alright,” I agreed, nodding, even despite the uncertainty I felt in whether or not I wanted to continue with the case. “What’s the story?”

If I was feeling uncertain before, it was the sight of my father smiling at me for the first time that made me forget about everything else. I almost wanted to rub my eyes and look again just to make sure that I wasn’t imagining it. He never smiled! Or, at least, he never smiled at me.  

He leaned even closer to me now. “Here’s what you’re going to say…”

*

“Would the offense please stand before the panel,” the superintendent, Mr. Cho, seated in the center of the six members of the panel, said.

That was my cue.

Standing from my chair, I placed my hands behind my back to look dignified and respectful. The meeting had already started with the panel having already introduced themselves one-by-one, but the only people up there that really mattered to me was the superintendent, Mr. Cho, himself, my father and possibly Mrs. Jung.

However, Mr. Cho was the one I was especially concerned with. He was the main person up on that panel that I needed to impress, him being a member of the board and all.

Once the superintendent asked me to introduce myself, I nodded and began.

“Hello, my name is Kim Jongin, senior male president of Cheonan Academy.”

The superintendent nodded. “And today you are claiming that Gong Minji, female senior president of Cheonan Academy, committed the crime of gender-based harassment.”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Please tell us your side of the story, Jongin.”

I nodded and began. “As of the new school year, it was already known that the all-boys school, Busan Academy, and the all-girls school, Maecheon Academy, would be combined together to form one co-ed school, which we now call Cheonan High, both of which my father and mother have contributed a lot to help open; however, ever since the school was under construction, there has been blatant opposition to the co-ed school opening, some of it coming from parents, faculty members, and even some of the students themselves including, my co-president, Gong Minji.

“Since the beginning of the school year, Minji has made it perfectly clear to me that she is not fond of me or any of the boys from Busan Academy. In fact, based from her actions, one might even say that she hates us. As a result, I believe Gong Minji has been constructing a plan to sabotage the co-ed school in hopes that it will eventually have to be closed down and that both the boys and girls will return back to separate, same- only schools.”

When I paused, I heard the room fill with whispers from behind me. It was mainly parents, teachers and other faculty members that made up the audience with the exception of a couple of students--some of them Minji's very own friends who had come to support her, I guess. I just knew they all had to be glaring at me from behind, without a doubt, wanting to murder me for messing with their best friend.

But in that room, nobody else's gaze could compare to that belonging to the very girl, herself, sitting on the opposite side of the room. The thing was she wasn't even glaring at me; she just sat looking as composed, and as calm as ever, yet, that look alone from her affected me more than anyone else's. Knowing her eyes were on me made me feel uncomfortable and I found that the only way to deliver my case was to never look at her side of the room, for if I did, I knew I would falter.

So I kept my eyes straight ahead on the panel, focusing most of my attention on my father and Mr. Cho.

"The senior males of Cheonan thus, became a target for Minji as she lead the senior girls to perform a vicious prank in order to help achieve her goal of getting the girls and guys to turn on each other," I continued in my speech. "The proof of the prank is provided by the videos extracted from Minji’s very own laptop.”

I gestured to the table placed in the center of the room, all the confiscated materials from Minji's dorm room sitting on it including the laptop, and some of the items the girls had used as a part of their prank including the "Saw" doll, and the tennis balls in the rat traps.

"This prank included making the guys and I ingest laxatives without our knowledge and then vandalizing the senior guy's dorm house to which we all suffered from the very next morning..."

I paused not exactly wanting to go into detail about just what had happened the next morning regarding the prank. I figured the audience could just use their imagination. Mr. Cho seemed to have caught on as he nodded and didn't make me explain any further.    

“I see," he said before casting a rather displeased look over at Minji on the opposite side of the room, then continuing. "Because of the...nature of the videos, the panel will watch them in private during deliberation to discuss over.”

He then looked to the other judges on the panel. "Does anyone on the panel have any questions for Jongin?"

"Yes," Mrs. Jung said immediately, and I knew instantly that whatever she had to say would be in favor of Minji. She started firing out the questions at me. "You said that you believe Minji is out to sabotage Cheonan Academy, not that she is out to sabotage the academy. Did she ever deliberately tell you that she wanted the school to close?"

I was taken aback by the question but I tried not to show it too much.

"No, ma'am," I answered.

"What about hating you or the rest of the males on campus?" she asked now. "Did she ever specifically tell you that or did she ever say anything to you that would make you think that?"

"No, ma'am," I said again.

Mrs. Jung’s eyes narrowed at me. "Then just how did you come to believe that the reason for her pranking you had anything to do with misandry or that she wanted to sabotage the school?"

"It wasn't about what she said or didn't say, that convinced me,” I replied. “It was her actions against all of the males of the senior class that convinced me of this."

"But you still don't have proof of her saying those things, am I correct?" another judge on the panel, asked.

I nodded once. "Yes, you are correct."   

The superintendent then looked over to me. "Jongin, is there anything else you would like to add before Gong Minji gets her chance to speak?”

“Yes, sir," I said, before turning to glance at everyone in the room, and then finally back to the panel ahead. "I would like to thank everyone sincerely for listening to both me and Minji's cases today and would even like to thank M-Minji for her cooperation today."

Damn it. I had slipped up, allowing my nervousness to come out when I said her name.

I had barely looked at her throughout the entire meeting, feeling almost, dare I say it, afraid to look her in the eyes. Because I had been avoiding her ever since the day she  had pranked me in the girl's bathroom, today was the first time I was seeing her in over a week. Somehow, being faced with actually being in the same room as her had me nervous, especially with her staring at me in a manner that was so eerily calm.

It certainly didn't help that she looked so much more beautiful today than even the last time I had seen her that day in Yoona's kissing booth, her now dressed in a formal, but snazzy gray blazer and a pencil skirt to match.

But as I said her name, I cast her a glance for the first time since I began my case, and I swear I almost choked. That’s why I had stuttered.

An uncomfortable feeling, almost like a wave of sickness in my gut, similar to the way I felt back when I had seen Minji and Kris together in the library that one time, came back, but this time it was different.

Back then I was angry, and irritated. This time I felt heavy-hearted, and conflicted.

Within an instant, I averted my eyes from her so fast, I heard my neck snap. I was feeling sicker than ever, and I just wanted the whole meeting to be over already, but once I looked up at the panel again where my father staring at me, fixedly, I knew I had to finish this speech no matter what.

But it wasn’t easy. I felt like I literally had to force the words out of my mouth with every breath.

"Regardless...b-because of her opposition to the co-ed school...a-and her inability to lead as an honorable, responsible president, I do not believe that G-Gong M-Minji is fit to be president of the co-ed academy...a-and would like to ask that she be removed from her...position."

I was ready to throw up by now.

I wanted to beat my head against the table for messing up as much as I had in my final statement. Why was it that those last few words were so hard for me to say? I had practically sputtered out the whole thing.

Minji's eyes had me a nervous wreck.

I got the feeling that everyone in the room was affected by my last statement because the entire room was uncomfortably silent.  

Mr. Cho cleared his throat. "Okay, you can take a seat Jongin."

He was looking at me worriedly which I assumed had to be because of the way I had delivered my final words. I looked down at my hands to avoid everyone’s eyes.

"The defense, please stand," Mr. Cho now instructed.

In an instant, Minji was out of her chair looking more determined than ever. Now that I didn't have to speak anymore, it was easier to look at her.

"Introduce yourself."

"Gong Minji, female senior president of Cheonan Academy." She already sounded way more confident than I'd had and I was the one with all the evidence to make her look bad. She then added, "And innocent of the crimes Kim Jongin claims I committed."

"Really?" The superintendent said not sounding very convinced at all. "So, then you had nothing to do with the pranks against the boys?"

Minji faltered looking taken aback. "W-well...I did, but..." she paused.

"But what?" someone on the panel asked, but I didn’t catch who.

Minji sighed right before glancing directly at me and I felt my insides turn once her browns met my own. "With all due respect, Mr. Cho, Kim Jongin is a liar."

The room erupted into gasps and whispers.

Minji continued. "I did lead the senior girls to prank the boys but I only did it out of retaliation to a prank I found out the guys had played on us during the first week of school, not because I am out to sabotage our co-ed academy."

"So you have always supported the school going co-ed?" one of the other members on the panel asked her. "You have never been against the guys of Busan Academy?"

Minji hesitated now looking conflicted with how to answer. "I wasn't always fond of the idea, but only because I wasn't sure how the boys and girls would get along since we had always been separate. But to say that I flat out hated the boys is going too far. I only began to dislike them after I had found out about their prank on us and the secret plans they had been making behind our backs."

She paused for a moment before beginning again, this time her voice much more tender. "I know how much this school means to everyone, especially the girls because our own was so close to being closed down, so I wouldn't deliberately do anything to try to destroy it."

"You keep claiming that the boys performed a prank on the girls,” Mr. Cho said. “What was this prank?"

"During an on-campus event for seniors, they put medicine in the drinks that causes,” she hesitated for a minute before practically whispering the last word. “...diarrhea."

Sniggers from the audience, could be heard in response and I looked back down at my hands, feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment.

“They then put camcorders in the girl’s bathroom so they could film it with the intention of putting the videos on the front page of the school’s online website.”  

"Is this in reference to that day when the girl's dorm was overwhelmed with a bad case of food poisoning?" my father suddenly asked, critically. "We already established that the reason for that incident was due to poorly prepared food from the cafeteria. Mrs. Jung and I even investigated and found it to be true."

Minji looked shocked but recovered quickly.  "Okay, but that doesn't change the fact that the guys did prank us. Incidentally, I guess it just so happened to be around the same time that the food incident from the cafeteria happened. That's probably why the effects of the medicine was so, uh...extreme..."

Only I knew she had to be referring to the medicine's "explosive" side-effects, but the audience seemed to catch on because there was more sniggering and Minji looked away.       

"Minji, as much as I would like to believe your story, considering the evidence Kim Jongin has provided against you, I'm sure you can understand why it is hard for me to do so,” Mr. Cho said to her. “Do you have any proof at all to support your claims against Jongin?"

Minji’s lips pressed together. "Well...no...at least, not anymore..."

"Elaborate please," he prodded.

"Those recordings of the guys aren't the only videos I'd had on my laptop,” Minji explained. “There were ones of the girl's as well taken from camcorders that had been installed inside the girl's bathroom, but I don't know where they are anymore."

"Well surely they didn't disappear out of thin air," Mr. Cho said seeming more unconvinced the more Minji tried to explain her side of the story.

Minji looked unsure. "No, but Mr. Kim did confiscate many things from my room including my laptop...I don't know if...maybe he..."

"Gong Minji," Mr. Cho interrupted, sounding offended. "Are you insinuating that your very own headmaster deliberately tampered with your laptop to get rid of any possible evidence you might have had against Jongin?"

Her eyes widened. "No...no, of course not. That's not what I...I mean...I don't know..." She looked down, deflated.

"I'd advise you to be careful about what you say from now on Gong Minji,” Mr. Cho warned her. Afterwards, he asked her if she, too, had any final words to say.

"No, your honor," she replied sounding completely dejected by now.

At this, my head shot up as I looked at her with shocked eyes. I would've thought she would’ve at least tried pleading that she was innocent for her final statement, but to not say anything at all?  

Everyone on the panel looked surprised as well.

"Well then,” Mr. Cho said. “If that concludes today's cases then the panel will call for a private meeting in the backroom for discussion. During that time the rest of you are free to talk quietly until our return."

With that said, Mr. Cho banged his mallet against the table and everyone from the panel got up. I stayed on my side of the room, seated in my chair as the room now filled with low chattering. I heard some of the people from the audience gossip.

"Do you think Minji really did all those things Jongin said she did?" somebody asked.

"Yes, didn't you see the way he was stuttering and how upset he looked when he had to give his final statement?" the other replied. “I felt so bad for him when he was giving his final statement. He looked so innocent.”

Oh no. They had mistaken my nervousness towards seeing Minji as me being upset about her “committing” all those crimes I had said she had.

Aside from the people in the audience, I also heard Minji’s friends, Chaerin, Dara, and Bom, trying to cheer her up on the opposite side of the room. They had come up to crowd around her and give their words of encouragement while also shooting me glares hot enough to fry me on the spot which I only caught whenever I glanced at that side of the room from the corner of my eye.

It was for this reason that I kept my eyes downcast on my hands.

Eventually, the door to the backroom opened and the members of the panel filed out, each of them heading back to their seats at the front of the room.

They had finished their meeting rather quickly. I think they had only been back there for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Not that I minded. As far as I was concerned, the sooner this whole thing was over, the better.

The room grew silent again as everyone realized the judges from the panel were back.

Once they were seated, Mr. Cho reconvened the meeting with a bang of his mallet and started.

The superintendent cleared his throat once more before beginning:     

“We, the panel would like to thank both the defense and offense sides for being both honest and respectful while giving their arguments. It shows great character on both sides even despite the situation. However, that being said, after listening to both sides, we the panel have come to our final decision.”

“The defense, please rise.”

I felt my heart start to beat faster as I watched Minji slowly stand up from her chair and wait to hear what the superintendent would say next.

There was a stark contrast in her demeanor from when she first started her case. Now she looked exactly how I felt on the inside.

Whereas before she had looked so cool and collected, she didn’t look so out put together anymore with her large eyes expanded and the rest of her face completely blank.

I knew. She was scared.

Reading from a sheet of paper, Mr. Cho began to give the final sentence.             

“In section A of the Student Conduct Code, we, the panel, find Gong Minzy, senior president of co-ed academy, Cheonan High School, guilty of committing several counts of misconduct, including the following:

Section A-3 which prohibits physical, and verbal abuse, and/or threats, harassment, intimidation, or coercion that threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person.

Section A-4 which prohibits committing ual harassment or discriminatory behavior based on .  

Section A-5 which prohibits damage to property of Cheonan High School or property of a member of the Cheonan High School community or other personal or public property, and lastly,

Section A-17 which prohibits conduct that is disorderly, lewd, indecent, or expression that interferes with Cheonan High School’s primary educational responsibility, or which adversely affects a student’s standing as a member or of the school.

As Mr. Cho read off the many crimes Minji had “violated” the room filled with more gasps and whispers but the whole time I kept my eyes on Minji who seemed to grow paler with each passing minute.

She looked stiff, almost statuesque. In fact, I think she even stopped blinking and I would’ve thought she weren't even real because she was so still. It made me worried.

“With these several acts against her,” the superintendent continued to read. “We, the panel of judges for today’s meeting, find Gong Minzy unfit for the role of senior president of Cheonan Academy and therefore, remove Gong Minzy from her title, or having any affiliations with student government for the remainder of the school year.

“In addition to being removed from her title as president, Gong Minzy will also have to issue a written, public apology to her fellow students and faculty for causing such a disruption. Meanwhile, since the defense could not provide any legitimate evidence against Kim Jongin to support her claims against him, he is found not guilty. Kim Jongin will then continue to remain the male senior president of Cheonan High School along with the female vice president, Lee Chaerin, who will proceed to replace Gong Minzy for the rest of the year.”

The superintendent stood from his chair as he picked up his mallet with his right hand. “This is the judges closing statement. Everything we have said is final. As superintendent, I hereby announce this case closed.”

With one final bang of his mallet on the desk, the trial ended, and the room turned back to its normal noise level as everyone began talking again.

I, on the other hand, was still watching the girl who now looked so completely discouraged that it legit made me want to shout out the truth from the depths of my soul.

I wanted to tell everyone that she wasn’t out to sabotage the school for her own personal gain. That, that was actually my parent’s secret motive in which I was currently a co-conspirator.

That she wasn’t the only one who had committed pranks for she had only done so after me and the guys had cruelly pranked her and the girls, first.

And lastly, I wanted to admit that I was extremely sorry for lying about it all and trying to take away what meant the most to her.

Truth be told, in that moment I was just about ready to do it too. I felt the words on the tip of my tongue just begging to be released but when I heard the sound of my father’s voice call me, my judgement clouded.

“Jongin!” I heard him call causing me to tear my eyes away from Minji. I saw my father with Mr. Cho as well as my mother who must have joined them once the meeting ended.

They were all looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to come over, but I hesitated glancing between him and Minji, repetitively.

With a wave of his hand, my father beckoned me to come over but I was feeling a deep urge within my chest to go over to Minji and for a moment so I just sat there, frozen, completely unsure of what to do.

But when Minji’s friends came to crowd around her again and they each shot me dirty looks I knew I had no right to go over and try to talk to her after what I had done.  

My father beckoned me over again, this time more earnestly, and that’s when I got up and followed.

One thing is for sure. I left that meeting feeling more conflicted than ever not exactly sure what was important to me anymore.

***