SSS 2014: For evilmaknae0927
For: evilmaknae0927
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: Dessert Battles
Pairing: Jonghyun/Taemin (kinda, not sure if accomplished)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None.
Authors’ Notes: I am not very sure how this turns out. I just, uh, Happy Secret Santa! It’s okay if you didn’t like this!
Life isn’t funny. Not at all. Not even a bit.
Kibum is always saying it’s because I am a pessimist with no humor sense, always looking for the weak spots/flaws of everything. ‘You can’t be happy unless you’ve found something wrong in anything’. Which is pretty much true. But it still hurts, nonetheless, having the meanest bitch on earth as your best friend. ‘The way you put it out to be...makes me seem like a jerk.’
When I say something like that, he’d normally huff, or shrug, or do both.
“Well, you kinda are one.”
I would just roll my eyes and ask the heavens above what on earth had I done to deserve such a cruel friend.
“Love you too”
Had he been drinking his usual blueberry smoothie, he would have taken a sip from it and added some witty (yet nasty) comment.
“Of course you do.”
I don’t know, he’s always been quite...himself. His ego is huge, just so you know; it’s like he sweats confidence all over (though a little comment in the right place will shatter him to pieces). He often speaks sharply, and his native accent only worsens things more (it’s as though he’s ) While some people might have found that trait annoying, I somehow understood why he always acted like this.
See, Kibum has always been the social pariah, even when he’s actually the most well-off person I have met in life. His maternal grandparents were trot singers, and very good at that, should I say. They were able to send him to a very prestigious private university, and never saw himself in the necessity of starving himself to afford the textbooks for each semester. He dressed in designer clothes, and overall was very talkative, although a bit hard to approach at first.
But the thing with him is that, his is a single mother. A little slip at age seventeen with her boyfriend and then she had to quit high school and get home schooled by a tutor due the severe bullying she received from her classmates. She later continued studying and got a degree in Mechanical Engineering, when Kibum and I were six years old. I remember my dad treated us to ice-cream while we were waiting for Kibum’s mom to get out of the Professional Exam she needed to pass in order to get her degree.
So, although I only knew him because he lived next-door (so I can’t know for sure how his school-life in infancy went), I guess he had it tough; all the cruel kids gang-bullying him, repeating the harsh words of their parents, must’ve been hard. Parents can be nasty too, but at least most of them know it’s easier when the person they gossip about is not around. Dunno if it is a good or a bad thing.
At first my mom showed some apprehension, too. But she overcame it soon. She’s very cool about this kind of things; she was even cooler about Kibum liking dick than Kibum’s own mother. I like my mom, she’s chill and relaxed.
So perhaps the fact Kibum had to face a lot of challenges during his time at school is the main reason he is the way he is now.
We only went to high school and Uni together, so I can’t really know how he was in Elementary and Middle School. Minho (another friend who claims to know him since diapers) says he wasn’t all that different, not that I care, it doesn’t really matter, anyway.
Now, the day he was outed, that’s an entirely different story. It was epic. In the I-can’t-believe-you-did-that-what-on-earth-is-wrong-with-you kind of way. It was in the year before our last year; Kibum had the tendency to post his photos on a secret Instagram account he had (“And why would you do that? I mean, if you want nobody to know, then you shouldn’t post your weird faggot stuff on the net” “Aish, Jjong. Isn’t it obvious? What if I lose the memory card and someone finds it? It’s easier to post and then delete than having them wasting space in the memory drive, and then having someone find them and have blackmail material against me.” To which I just stared at him with my mouth agape and wanting to cry because I don’t know whether he was being serious or not.), and during the winter break, he got a new cellphone, so he installed stuff and synced his apps and all that useless rubbish you’re supposed to do when you get a new tech toy, and the clever boy had a great idea of merging all his SNS accounts on a single one, secret Instagram account included. Needless to say, three hours after merging all his accounts in a single app, all the photos he had of himself and his nasty businesses were all over his other accounts (So you didn’t want blackmail material, huh? Shut up and help me think of a way to clear this shit up, Jjong.). Everyone was sharing the photos and tagging their friends on them and soon everyone knew Kibum was gay.
Well, knew isn’t the most adequate word, because Kibum was expecting hell to break loose. We (Minho and I) spent the rest of the break trying to mentally prepare him for the worst. But it wasn’t like that, not at all.
As soon as he stepped foot into campus, a multitude of girls swarmed around him, all of them asking him to become their best friend, a guy he’d never heard of propositioned him too. And when Kibum, feeling beyond confused, asked to the whole classroom if they were surprised that he accidentally came out, so far the response was: “Well, didn’t you know you were gay? I’ve known since forever, Kim.”
Of course the usual death threats and petitions signed by worrying parents requesting his quick expulsion from the University came, as expected, but overall, no one was surprised.
And I think I lied because I said life wasn’t funny. Well sometimes it is, specially if your name is Kim Kibum, then your life must be full of funny moments.
But I digress. Where I was trying to get is, I have known Kibum for a very long time, so the fact we studied the same career shouldn’t be all too surprising. Except that we didn’t. Well, more or less...it’s complicated.
I studied Architecture, while Kibum studied Civil Engineering. While you’d think Kibum would go after something like fashion design, he didn’t. That boy was a closet nerd (as in he wore a disguise in every comic con he attended so that no one would recognize him, and his eBay account was under my name because he wouldn’t bear the embarrassment of getting caught with a Star Trek goodie), and he loved mathematics as much as he loved his tribble plush pillow and his never-touched, never-out-of-the-box Uhura barbie doll.
When we graduated, Kibum left to the States to do his postgraduate studies, and I got a job in a high school. Chungdam High School, to be more precise. I am their Technical and Artistic Drawing professor, for freshmans.
At first I thought it would be kinda cool. I could get to be the kind of teacher I always wanted to have as a student, I mean. I would be nice to my pupils and teach them useful stuff and I’d never get exasperated while trying to explain them the things they didn’t understand, the one they could trust and the one who was friendly with them…
Then I woke up. Reality soon hit me and I understood perfect teachers didn’t exist at all because sooner or later there will be one student who makes them want to pull their hair out. Mine arrived sooner than I would’ve preferred, but oh well.
His name? Lee Taemin, now in fifth grade (wherein there is no Technical and Artistic Drawing subject); he used to be in class 410. I met him on a Thursday, the first week of classes.
I was super nervous that day, like, real real nervous. Since I am not required at school during the first three days of the week, I only show up on Thursdays and Fridays, which are the days in which all my classes are scheduled. Class 410 had Technical and Artistic Drawing on Thursdays from 7 to 9 am, which translates to that being the first class I imparted ever in life. So I had the damn absolute right to be nervous about it.
I still have no clue if I ever showed any signs of insecurity or nervousness, but at least the kids didn’t get wild on me. At first I didn’t even notice Mr. Lee, to me he just was the black bowl-cut headed boy who sat next to an empty seat (perhaps all I thought so far was whether he was the outcast of the classroom or not); he just stared at me, nodding only when required. I just thought he was paying attention to the class; perhaps he did pay attention, perhaps (and most likely) he didn’t. Point is, he caused no trouble during that class, so I didn’t mind whether he was zoning out or not.
Around 8 am, while I was in the middle of explaining to my new pupils how I was going to evaluate the school year, I heard a subtle knock on the door. While the sound could reach levels of inaudibility, it was noisy enough to startle both the sleepy/ing students and me.
“Now, guys. Would you excuse me for a sec while you all ginger up for what is coming next?”
I walked over and opened the door. There was a young miss standing behind it; her hair was cut short, some strands of it painted in flashy neon colors, contrasting with her natural dark brown; her eyes were huge, showing off how clever and lively was their owner; overall her face was the perfect balance between sharp chin, high cheekbones and round cheeks. Her nose was medium-sized with a lovely curve on the bridge, and then she flashed at me an adorable white smile that marked cute little dimples on the sides of her lips.
And then I was left a little bit out of breath.
“Good morning!” She greeted. “I take you are the new one?”
Her voice wasn’t high pitched, which is something I’ve always liked in girls.
“Yes. My name is Kim Jonghyun.” I vowed politely. “Please treat me well.”
She vowed back and the offered me a hand.
“Amber Liu. My pleasure.” I took her hand. “Just passing through, to say hi. Oh, and there’s this meeting at five, all teachers must attend. I guess I’ll be seeing you then?”
“Yes, please count me in. Thank you very much, miss Liu.”
She laughed out loud, as if he found it so funny (which she probably did. I must’ve looked pathetic, getting all nervous around her).
“Just call me Amber, dude. See ya later, got some work to do.”
“Oh, Amber. Okay. Thanks anyway.”
“Sure.”
She started to walk away, and then I closed the door. The students had started chattering around, so I decided it would be preferable if I hurried up and finished class already so they could go early and I could grab some lunch.
The rest of the class went smoothly and around 8:20 they were leaving the classroom.
Except Mr. Lee and two other youths; a tall boy with tan skin and a kind-looking quiet girl.
Lee Taemin came over to my desk and then put both hands on it, making an exaggerated pose with the lower part of his body. I resisted the urge to cringe.
“Is there anything you need, mister?” I asked in a neutral tone. With my peripheral vision I could notice how the girl brought her hand to her mouth to suppress a laugh.
“Uh, not really.” He said, feigning nonchalance.
“Then, if you may excuse me-” I tried to stand from my chair and go for something to eat, when he cut me off.
“I just...wanted to wish you sir a good year ahead.”
“Well, thanks.”
“My name is Lee Taemin, sir. And I am hoping we can become close this year.”
The tall man snorted, and the girl pulled the sleeve of his wear shirt, motioning him to get out of the classroom.
“I don’t-”
“Have a nice day, professor Kim. We’re seeing each other.”
Then he stood up, turned around and started walking out, his friends (because I assumed they were?) followed along.
I just stayed there, without the slightest idea of what had just happened.
Lee Taemin apparently was serious when he mentioned he wanted to become close to me. The kid always volunteered to help me put the materials in order once the day finished, or carry some papers and assignments to my car, or any other task I needed someone to help me with.
Now that I come to think about it, the fact he liked me was very obvious (not that he bothered in covering it anyway). The day I went to pick Kibum up from the airport when he came from Boston I told him about this weird kid named Lee Taemin who barely put any attention in class (I will have you know, all his assignments could be anything but the thing I requested.), yet always was around me. On Christmas he gifted me a 20 cm long mug full of candies and chocolate sweets, another day we almost started struggling because he wanted to hold hands with me, while I completely refused. Kibum laughed for seven minutes straight when I told him about the time Taemin tried to kiss me in the hallway leading to the teacher’s lounge. He just had me pinned against the wall and I if it wasn’t because Amber appeared out of nowhere I am not sure what would have happened.
“You see, uh, we only have one class per week. And from what I know, they have free time from 9 to 10:30 afterwards. So the kid came over, and I was like ‘Oh no, not again. I wanna go grab some lunch before my other class starts, why is he doing this to me’, and he always, always, comes around after the class is finished, with some bullcrap question like ‘Teacher, do the color of the lines in the circumscript square have to be complementary ones?’ and I just try not to get all riled up because, holy cow, that was what I had been saying during the whole class and I thought everyone understood that the colors of those lines all had to be warm colors. And don’t look at me like that, Kibum, I do try to be patient and not screw up around the students because I hated it when the teachers were like that with me. I have no idea what’s wrong with him, or whether he does that on purpose or not.”
“You’re being paranoid. Maybe he’s just dumb.” Kibum shrugged, taking a sip from his delactosed, extra sugar added caramel macchiato.
“Either way, it gets on my nerves, like, a lot.”
“You know what I think? He’s got a crush on you. The type of crush Sunyoung had on the PE teacher just ‘cause, and I quote ‘his bum’s totally hot’, it was pathetic and silly. That guy was gross all over, poor girl was soooo blind-”
“Kibum. I have no interest in discussing teacher crushes with you.”
“It’s what that kid has got on you! I dunno why, you’re like, the least person on earth I’d ever lay eyes on, females counting. That kid must be retarded if he thinks you are attractive.”
I just smacked his head. Hard. Sometimes I was grateful that I got to be the one who could talk some sense into Kibum’s stupid blond head.
“That’s not funny. How am i supposed to cope with a creeper like him?”
“Oh, just ignore it, sweetie. He’ll get over you anytime soon.”
“He better does.”
And so I did as Kibum told me. I tried ignoring Mister Lee for three weeks. Once class finished I was the first in stepping out of the classroom, and I made sure I left five minutes before the school day finished so I wouldn’t meet him and experience an awkward moment.
But it seems, Taemin isn’t one to give up easily on something or someone. Rumor has it, he woke up at 3 am to get into school (and the parking lot) by 5. Point is, when I got there, around 6:30, Taemin was already waiting for me.
“Teacher?” he knocked the glass of my car’s door. “Teacher, can I talk to you for a second, please?”
I breathed heavily. Somehow I had a bad feeling on all this.
“Yeah, just wait a little. Gotta get out of the car.”
“Teacher, can I go in instead? It’s freezing out here., and I’ve got no sweater.”
“Yeah, whatever. Come in.”
I was so stupid. I shouldn’t have done that. By now you must be like, oh, Kim Jonghyun is so clever, because no one actually thinks bad of a professor who lets their pupils into the car. Yeah, let me tell you this: Kibum is right when he says I am the most stupid person ever.
Once Taemin got into the car, he leaned in. His nose was touching mine.
“Teacher...I noticed you’ve been avoiding me...” he whispered, his words slightly slurry. I cringed.
“Mister Lee, I have no intention whatsoever to keep allowing such improper behaviour from a student. I ask you to keep your distance.”
“Or else?” he demanded childishly.
“Or else I am afraid I’ll have to file a repor-”
He cut me off by kissing me, and seriously I tried to break off and run away. But next thing I knew was that I was that my lower half of the body was naked and he was blowing me off. I am not going to lie, it was awesome. But there was only one problem. Well, actually, there was two of them:
1) Unlike perverted Kibum or horny teenaged Taemin, I wasn’t gay. I liked girls. Thank you very much.
And
2) I am a teacher. And he is a student. And underage one to top it off with. There were so many wrong things with this.
But somehow I don’t remember saying a word at all while the blow was happening. I just thanked whoever it was who put the dark crystals in the windows of my car.
If someone saw this...well I was screwed.
When Taemin was finished he cleaned himself off with the kleenex pack I had inside. Once he was done, he left without saying a word. My head was spinning, and I didn’t know what to do.
I was mentally preparing myself to say something clever to Taemin once class started (which was about in ten minutes), that is, until something happened.
I saw Amber getting down a car a few meters from mine. With he was a tall man with tiny eyes and big cheeks. They were kissing.
And something inside me cracked.
That was the day I first met Henry, Amber’s husband. And only then I noticed the fancy ring in her slim finger, which made me wonder why hadn’t I noticed it before.
But it didn’t matter in the end, because I was so busy staring at them kissing that I didn’t notice the stairway leading to the Teacher’s Lounge.
And then I fell. Flat on my face. It hurt a lot. Then everything went dark.
I woke up a few hours later, or so they say. To me it seemed decades. I opened my eyes to a cast in my right leg and left arm, and some bruises too. At first I panicked since there were still three months of classes left.
But then I remembered a certain student and somehow all those worries vanished from my mind.
I felt so blessed, not even gonna lie.
-
Today is the first day of classes. It’s 10 am and I am about to enter the drawing classroom because at 10:30 I have my first class. The subject’s called Constructive Drawing and it’s for those in Senior year that want to study a career focused on something to do with plans and construction, like Architecture or Civil Engineering.
Over the course of the past two years I decided it was best to start working hard, instead of weeping about underage rapists.
So this year I am not letting any student trespass the boundary between student and teacher.
And it’s even better because I am almost 90% sure Lee Taemin is not attending that class. As far as I can remember he wanted to be a biologist.
I sit on my desk diligently, waiting for the student to start flooding in, while I am reading Murakami’s newest novel. By the time they start showing in, I am so into the lecture I practically ignore them.
Except when someone pokes my shoulder. I quickly lift my head to see the person in front of me.
Then I think I went white as a sheet of paper.
“Hi teacher! Guess you’ll be having me for another year!” he grins.
And I want to cry.
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: Dessert Battles
Pairing: Jonghyun/Taemin (kinda, not sure if accomplished)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None.
Authors’ Notes: I am not very sure how this turns out. I just, uh, Happy Secret Santa! It’s okay if you didn’t like this!
Life isn’t funny. Not at all. Not even a bit.
Kibum is always saying it’s because I am a pessimist with no humor sense, always looking for the weak spots/flaws of everything. ‘You can’t be happy unless you’ve found something wrong in anything’. Which is pretty much true. But it still hurts, nonetheless, having the meanest bitch on earth as your best friend. ‘The way you put it out to be...makes me seem like a jerk.’
When I say something like that, he’d normally huff, or shrug, or do both.
“Well, you kinda are one.”
I would just roll my eyes and ask the heavens above what on earth had I done to deserve such a cruel friend.
“Love you too”
Had he been drinking his usual blueberry smoothie, he would have taken a sip from it and added some witty (yet nasty) comment.
“Of course you do.”
I don’t know, he’s always been quite...himself. His ego is huge, just so you know; it’s like he sweats confidence all over (though a little comment in the right place will shatter him to pieces). He often speaks sharply, and his native accent only worsens things more (it’s as though he’s ) While some people might have found that trait annoying, I somehow understood why he always acted like this.
See, Kibum has always been the social pariah, even when he’s actually the most well-off person I have met in life. His maternal grandparents were trot singers, and very good at that, should I say. They were able to send him to a very prestigious private university, and never saw himself in the necessity of starving himself to afford the textbooks for each semester. He dressed in designer clothes, and overall was very talkative, although a bit hard to approach at first.
But the thing with him is that, his is a single mother. A little slip at age seventeen with her boyfriend and then she had to quit high school and get home schooled by a tutor due the severe bullying she received from her classmates. She later continued studying and got a degree in Mechanical Engineering, when Kibum and I were six years old. I remember my dad treated us to ice-cream while we were waiting for Kibum’s mom to get out of the Professional Exam she needed to pass in order to get her degree.
So, although I only knew him because he lived next-door (so I can’t know for sure how his school-life in infancy went), I guess he had it tough; all the cruel kids gang-bullying him, repeating the harsh words of their parents, must’ve been hard. Parents can be nasty too, but at least most of them know it’s easier when the person they gossip about is not around. Dunno if it is a good or a bad thing.
At first my mom showed some apprehension, too. But she overcame it soon. She’s very cool about this kind of things; she was even cooler about Kibum liking dick than Kibum’s own mother. I like my mom, she’s chill and relaxed.
So perhaps the fact Kibum had to face a lot of challenges during his time at school is the main reason he is the way he is now.
We only went to high school and Uni together, so I can’t really know how he was in Elementary and Middle School. Minho (another friend who claims to know him since diapers) says he wasn’t all that different, not that I care, it doesn’t really matter, anyway.
Now, the day he was outed, that’s an entirely different story. It was epic. In the I-can’t-believe-you-did-that-what-on-earth-is-wrong-with-you kind of way. It was in the year before our last year; Kibum had the tendency to post his photos on a secret Instagram account he had (“And why would you do that? I mean, if you want nobody to know, then you shouldn’t post your weird faggot stuff on the net” “Aish, Jjong. Isn’t it obvious? What if I lose the memory card and someone finds it? It’s easier to post and then delete than having them wasting space in the memory drive, and then having someone find them and have blackmail material against me.” To which I just stared at him with my mouth agape and wanting to cry because I don’t know whether he was being serious or not.), and during the winter break, he got a new cellphone, so he installed stuff and synced his apps and all that useless rubbish you’re supposed to do when you get a new tech toy, and the clever boy had a great idea of merging all his SNS accounts on a single one, secret Instagram account included. Needless to say, three hours after merging all his accounts in a single app, all the photos he had of himself and his nasty businesses were all over his other accounts (So you didn’t want blackmail material, huh? Shut up and help me think of a way to clear this shit up, Jjong.). Everyone was sharing the photos and tagging their friends on them and soon everyone knew Kibum was gay.
Well, knew isn’t the most adequate word, because Kibum was expecting hell to break loose. We (Minho and I) spent the rest of the break trying to mentally prepare him for the worst. But it wasn’t like that, not at all.
As soon as he stepped foot into campus, a multitude of girls swarmed around him, all of them asking him to become their best friend, a guy he’d never heard of propositioned him too. And when Kibum, feeling beyond confused, asked to the whole classroom if they were surprised that he accidentally came out, so far the response was: “Well, didn’t you know you were gay? I’ve known since forever, Kim.”
Of course the usual death threats and petitions signed by worrying parents requesting his quick expulsion from the University came, as expected, but overall, no one was surprised.
And I think I lied because I said life wasn’t funny. Well sometimes it is, specially if your name is Kim Kibum, then your life must be full of funny moments.
But I digress. Where I was trying to get is, I have known Kibum for a very long time, so the fact we studied the same career shouldn’t be all too surprising. Except that we didn’t. Well, more or less...it’s complicated.
I studied Architecture, while Kibum studied Civil Engineering. While you’d think Kibum would go after something like fashion design, he didn’t. That boy was a closet nerd (as in he wore a disguise in every comic con he attended so that no one would recognize him, and his eBay account was under my name because he wouldn’t bear the embarrassment of getting caught with a Star Trek goodie), and he loved mathematics as much as he loved his tribble plush pillow and his never-touched, never-out-of-the-box Uhura barbie doll.
When we graduated, Kibum left to the States to do his postgraduate studies, and I got a job in a high school. Chungdam High School, to be more precise. I am their Technical and Artistic Drawing professor, for freshmans.
At first I thought it would be kinda cool. I could get to be the kind of teacher I always wanted to have as a student, I mean. I would be nice to my pupils and teach them useful stuff and I’d never get exasperated while trying to explain them the things they didn’t understand, the one they could trust and the one who was friendly with them…
Then I woke up. Reality soon hit me and I understood perfect teachers didn’t exist at all because sooner or later there will be one student who makes them want to pull their hair out. Mine arrived sooner than I would’ve preferred, but oh well.
His name? Lee Taemin, now in fifth grade (wherein there is no Technical and Artistic Drawing subject); he used to be in class 410. I met him on a Thursday, the first week of classes.
I was super nervous that day, like, real real nervous. Since I am not required at school during the first three days of the week, I only show up on Thursdays and Fridays, which are the days in which all my classes are scheduled. Class 410 had Technical and Artistic Drawing on Thursdays from 7 to 9 am, which translates to that being the first class I imparted ever in life. So I had the damn absolute right to be nervous about it.
I still have no clue if I ever showed any signs of insecurity or nervousness, but at least the kids didn’t get wild on me. At first I didn’t even notice Mr. Lee, to me he just was the black bowl-cut headed boy who sat next to an empty seat (perhaps all I thought so far was whether he was the outcast of the classroom or not); he just stared at me, nodding only when required. I just thought he was paying attention to the class; perhaps he did pay attention, perhaps (and most likely) he didn’t. Point is, he caused no trouble during that class, so I didn’t mind whether he was zoning out or not.
Around 8 am, while I was in the middle of explaining to my new pupils how I was going to evaluate the school year, I heard a subtle knock on the door. While the sound could reach levels of inaudibility, it was noisy enough to startle both the sleepy/ing students and me.
“Now, guys. Would you excuse me for a sec while you all ginger up for what is coming next?”
I walked over and opened the door. There was a young miss standing behind it; her hair was cut short, some strands of it painted in flashy neon colors, contrasting with her natural dark brown; her eyes were huge, showing off how clever and lively was their owner; overall her face was the perfect balance between sharp chin, high cheekbones and round cheeks. Her nose was medium-sized with a lovely curve on the bridge, and then she flashed at me an adorable white smile that marked cute little dimples on the sides of her lips.
And then I was left a little bit out of breath.
“Good morning!” She greeted. “I take you are the new one?”
Her voice wasn’t high pitched, which is something I’ve always liked in girls.
“Yes. My name is Kim Jonghyun.” I vowed politely. “Please treat me well.”
She vowed back and the offered me a hand.
“Amber Liu. My pleasure.” I took her hand. “Just passing through, to say hi. Oh, and there’s this meeting at five, all teachers must attend. I guess I’ll be seeing you then?”
“Yes, please count me in. Thank you very much, miss Liu.”
She laughed out loud, as if he found it so funny (which she probably did. I must’ve looked pathetic, getting all nervous around her).
“Just call me Amber, dude. See ya later, got some work to do.”
“Oh, Amber. Okay. Thanks anyway.”
“Sure.”
She started to walk away, and then I closed the door. The students had started chattering around, so I decided it would be preferable if I hurried up and finished class already so they could go early and I could grab some lunch.
The rest of the class went smoothly and around 8:20 they were leaving the classroom.
Except Mr. Lee and two other youths; a tall boy with tan skin and a kind-looking quiet girl.
Lee Taemin came over to my desk and then put both hands on it, making an exaggerated pose with the lower part of his body. I resisted the urge to cringe.
“Is there anything you need, mister?” I asked in a neutral tone. With my peripheral vision I could notice how the girl brought her hand to her mouth to suppress a laugh.
“Uh, not really.” He said, feigning nonchalance.
“Then, if you may excuse me-” I tried to stand from my chair and go for something to eat, when he cut me off.
“I just...wanted to wish you sir a good year ahead.”
“Well, thanks.”
“My name is Lee Taemin, sir. And I am hoping we can become close this year.”
The tall man snorted, and the girl pulled the sleeve of his wear shirt, motioning him to get out of the classroom.
“I don’t-”
“Have a nice day, professor Kim. We’re seeing each other.”
Then he stood up, turned around and started walking out, his friends (because I assumed they were?) followed along.
I just stayed there, without the slightest idea of what had just happened.
Lee Taemin apparently was serious when he mentioned he wanted to become close to me. The kid always volunteered to help me put the materials in order once the day finished, or carry some papers and assignments to my car, or any other task I needed someone to help me with.
Now that I come to think about it, the fact he liked me was very obvious (not that he bothered in covering it anyway). The day I went to pick Kibum up from the airport when he came from Boston I told him about this weird kid named Lee Taemin who barely put any attention in class (I will have you know, all his assignments could be anything but the thing I requested.), yet always was around me. On Christmas he gifted me a 20 cm long mug full of candies and chocolate sweets, another day we almost started struggling because he wanted to hold hands with me, while I completely refused. Kibum laughed for seven minutes straight when I told him about the time Taemin tried to kiss me in the hallway leading to the teacher’s lounge. He just had me pinned against the wall and I if it wasn’t because Amber appeared out of nowhere I am not sure what would have happened.
“You see, uh, we only have one class per week. And from what I know, they have free time from 9 to 10:30 afterwards. So the kid came over, and I was like ‘Oh no, not again. I wanna go grab some lunch before my other class starts, why is he doing this to me’, and he always, always, comes around after the class is finished, with some bullcrap question like ‘Teacher, do the color of the lines in the circumscript square have to be complementary ones?’ and I just try not to get all riled up because, holy cow, that was what I had been saying during the whole class and I thought everyone understood that the colors of those lines all had to be warm colors. And don’t look at me like that, Kibum, I do try to be patient and not screw up around the students because I hated it when the teachers were like that with me. I have no idea what’s wrong with him, or whether he does that on purpose or not.”
“You’re being paranoid. Maybe he’s just dumb.” Kibum shrugged, taking a sip from his delactosed, extra sugar added caramel macchiato.
“Either way, it gets on my nerves, like, a lot.”
“You know what I think? He’s got a crush on you. The type of crush Sunyoung had on the PE teacher just ‘cause, and I quote ‘his bum’s totally hot’, it was pathetic and silly. That guy was gross all over, poor girl was soooo blind-”
“Kibum. I have no interest in discussing teacher crushes with you.”
“It’s what that kid has got on you! I dunno why, you’re like, the least person on earth I’d ever lay eyes on, females counting. That kid must be retarded if he thinks you are attractive.”
I just smacked his head. Hard. Sometimes I was grateful that I got to be the one who could talk some sense into Kibum’s stupid blond head.
“That’s not funny. How am i supposed to cope with a creeper like him?”
“Oh, just ignore it, sweetie. He’ll get over you anytime soon.”
“He better does.”
And so I did as Kibum told me. I tried ignoring Mister Lee for three weeks. Once class finished I was the first in stepping out of the classroom, and I made sure I left five minutes before the school day finished so I wouldn’t meet him and experience an awkward moment.
But it seems, Taemin isn’t one to give up easily on something or someone. Rumor has it, he woke up at 3 am to get into school (and the parking lot) by 5. Point is, when I got there, around 6:30, Taemin was already waiting for me.
“Teacher?” he knocked the glass of my car’s door. “Teacher, can I talk to you for a second, please?”
I breathed heavily. Somehow I had a bad feeling on all this.
“Yeah, just wait a little. Gotta get out of the car.”
“Teacher, can I go in instead? It’s freezing out here., and I’ve got no sweater.”
“Yeah, whatever. Come in.”
I was so stupid. I shouldn’t have done that. By now you must be like, oh, Kim Jonghyun is so clever, because no one actually thinks bad of a professor who lets their pupils into the car. Yeah, let me tell you this: Kibum is right when he says I am the most stupid person ever.
Once Taemin got into the car, he leaned in. His nose was touching mine.
“Teacher...I noticed you’ve been avoiding me...” he whispered, his words slightly slurry. I cringed.
“Mister Lee, I have no intention whatsoever to keep allowing such improper behaviour from a student. I ask you to keep your distance.”
“Or else?” he demanded childishly.
“Or else I am afraid I’ll have to file a repor-”
He cut me off by kissing me, and seriously I tried to break off and run away. But next thing I knew was that I was that my lower half of the body was naked and he was blowing me off. I am not going to lie, it was awesome. But there was only one problem. Well, actually, there was two of them:
1) Unlike perverted Kibum or horny teenaged Taemin, I wasn’t gay. I liked girls. Thank you very much.
And
2) I am a teacher. And he is a student. And underage one to top it off with. There were so many wrong things with this.
But somehow I don’t remember saying a word at all while the blow was happening. I just thanked whoever it was who put the dark crystals in the windows of my car.
If someone saw this...well I was screwed.
When Taemin was finished he cleaned himself off with the kleenex pack I had inside. Once he was done, he left without saying a word. My head was spinning, and I didn’t know what to do.
I was mentally preparing myself to say something clever to Taemin once class started (which was about in ten minutes), that is, until something happened.
I saw Amber getting down a car a few meters from mine. With he was a tall man with tiny eyes and big cheeks. They were kissing.
And something inside me cracked.
That was the day I first met Henry, Amber’s husband. And only then I noticed the fancy ring in her slim finger, which made me wonder why hadn’t I noticed it before.
But it didn’t matter in the end, because I was so busy staring at them kissing that I didn’t notice the stairway leading to the Teacher’s Lounge.
And then I fell. Flat on my face. It hurt a lot. Then everything went dark.
I woke up a few hours later, or so they say. To me it seemed decades. I opened my eyes to a cast in my right leg and left arm, and some bruises too. At first I panicked since there were still three months of classes left.
But then I remembered a certain student and somehow all those worries vanished from my mind.
I felt so blessed, not even gonna lie.
-
Today is the first day of classes. It’s 10 am and I am about to enter the drawing classroom because at 10:30 I have my first class. The subject’s called Constructive Drawing and it’s for those in Senior year that want to study a career focused on something to do with plans and construction, like Architecture or Civil Engineering.
Over the course of the past two years I decided it was best to start working hard, instead of weeping about underage rapists.
So this year I am not letting any student trespass the boundary between student and teacher.
And it’s even better because I am almost 90% sure Lee Taemin is not attending that class. As far as I can remember he wanted to be a biologist.
I sit on my desk diligently, waiting for the student to start flooding in, while I am reading Murakami’s newest novel. By the time they start showing in, I am so into the lecture I practically ignore them.
Except when someone pokes my shoulder. I quickly lift my head to see the person in front of me.
Then I think I went white as a sheet of paper.
“Hi teacher! Guess you’ll be having me for another year!” he grins.
And I want to cry.