“Do you have any memorable students, Eunjo Seonsaengnim?”
(note: Seonsaengnim means teacher)
It was when she was staring blankly at the cherry blossom leaves that flew into her paper cup.
The pink petals that fell into the cup as the light brown liquid moved, whenever Eunjo took a step.
When did it fall?
Was there a cherry blossom tree that bloomed recently?
….I should throw this away.
Eunjo took in a deep breath of the sweet aroma of milk coffee that she had gotten from the vending machine.
“Eunjo Ssaaeem.” (note: short version of saying teacher in korean)
“What?”
Only then she turned her head around and saw Hee-jin waiting next to her, with her index finger on her cheek.
“It seems like I am alone and going somewhere else again, in this case I don’t know who Eunjo is.”
(T/N: Her friend said that because Eunjo seems to be in her own world)
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
Eunjo asked Hee-jin, covering her cheek with her palm.
“Eunjo, do you have any particular memorable students? That’s what we were talking about. You didn’t hear anything, did you?”
Hee-jin said as she pointed to a group of young teachers.
Memorable students, it wasn’t that there were no faces that came into her mind as soon as she heard those words. No, to be honest, only one face came to her mind.
The face that came to her mind often when she saw a familiar resemblance behind her, or when she looked for someone among the many people in a lively club late at night, or even when she woke up in the morning after sleeping alone.
When she thought of that face, she suddenly remembered the child’s sweet lips, teary eyes and their small trembling shoulders in her hand.
Eunjo tried to push out the memories that came to her mind by thinking of other students to talk about to Hee-jin. However, the memories that had already risen like a rising tide occupied Eunjo’s mind and gave her no place to think of anything else.
As Eunjo tried to think of something else, the Chinese language teacher, named Jung-ah, was walking ahead, turned around and said something on behalf of Eunjo.
“Eunjo likes pretty girls. I know.”
“What? I don’t. Huh…”
Eunjo waved her hands in denial. But still, she thought to herself.
Of course, it wasn’t that she wasn’t pretty.
“I can’t forget pretty girls sometimes, okay? They’re all eye-catching.”
Hee-jin said as she pretended to poke her eyes with her index and middle fingers.
“It’s just sometimes, I remember the kids from my first class, when I was their homeroom teacher.”
Eunjo answered bluntly to Jung-ah and Hee-jin questions, while slightly dodging them.
At her answer, Heejin clapped her hands as if she suddenly thought of something.
“Oh, right. We were in Eunjo’s class for our first year. There was a real pretty kid in her class. She was the class president, I think?”
Hee-jin groaned and rolled her eyes.
“She’s tall, her hair was long, her face was white and small as well but her expression was a bit cold…. Her name was unusual as well, but what was it? Kwon…”
“Kwon Se-ah.”
Eunjo felt frustrated that Hee-jin could not remember that name, so she took up the courage and finally spoke of the name she tried to bury at the back of her mind.
“Yeah, Kwon Se-ah. She was so pretty. I often thought of her, too. What does she do for a living? I thought she would become a celebrity but I didn’t hear the news.”
“…No way.”
That kid is a celebrity.
Eunjo recited quietly, as if she was talking to herself.
Kwon Se-ah. Whether her name has become a switch or not for her mind, memories that now came into her mind cannot be forgotten and brought her back to her past again.
Only 27 years old. It was five years ago when she first started teaching, and yet to date, it was still a pretty intense event for her.
* * *
It was Halloween.
Eunjo’s daring costume made her friends stick out their tongues in astonishment.
“No Eunjo, are you crazy?”
“What?”
“You know, you’re a high school teacher, can you even wear this?”
“…Don’t you feel cold?”
She didn’t know what else to say but, it threw her off when they said, ‘Don’t you feel cold?’
A black bustier with a deep cut in the chest with a neck collar and a bow tie from the shirt and odd accessories that seemed to have only cut the sleeves were all worn on her upper body. The short leather pants barely covered up to her ass and had a cute and short whitetail. Underneath the leather pants, she wore black mesh stockings with high-heeled leather boots. She also had big rabbit ears on her head, as if it was natural.
[T/N: this came into my mind UAHSDUD]
“Oh, shut up. I’m going to ask a girl out today, so you guys should go home by yourselves. It’s going to be wild, I’m going to leave now!”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I think I’m going crazy being a teacher, the job doesn’t suit me at all.”
That was exactly what she said.
She was under a lot of stress because she could not adapt to the conservative and strict school atmosphere.
Like a student, she was scolded for many things like: “Your skirt is too short,” “Your lipstick colour is too sexy,” and “Be careful to not to let the students smell the cigarettes. You’re a female teacher.” In addition, as soon as she got the job as a teacher of a public high school, the pressure of going on blind dates added up to her stress. At the end of the day, she was suffering from a love problem alone and was not making any progress. It also tormented Eunjo.
With such things piling up, it was the crazy bunny girl costume that she bought out of impulse when she went to the event supply store to attend the Halloween party at the club.
“Shut up to the nurse in front of me who is currently getting a nursing degree… which part of your outfit is Halloweeny?”
As Eunjo entered the club grumbling away, she was determined to party out of her mind for one day, forgetting about her students, school and unknowingly, her unrequited love.
She never thought she would see that kid, Kwon Se-ah, there.
“Hey, isn’t that uniform from your school?”
The voice of her nurse friend, Min-young, who was with her, woke her up with a few tequila shots.
“What?”
Min-young pointed her finger at the school uniform from the girls-only high school where Eunjo worked at. So there she was, Kwon Se-ah was surrounded by people, as she danced in her school uniform. Dancing was all about raising both of their hands up high, but she had no choice to attract some attention because of her outstanding appearance. Every time Se-ah moved, her black long straight hair flew over her face.
“Wow, she’s amazing. I guess she’s a graduate from your school.”
Sujin and her other two friends that came along said.
It wasn’t a strange scene as a few people were wearing a school uniform look as their Halloween costume. Everyone seemed to think that school uniforms were the breadwinners.
“Not a graduate….”
Eunjo muttered with her mouth open, like a dumbfounded person.
“What? Right? Right!”
She’s a student. She’s a sophomore. She’s in her class. She’s the class president, Kwon Se-ah.
“I’m screwed.”
Eunjo touched her forehead with her hands as if she was in trouble.
She was going to forget all about school for the first time, but to meet a class student in a place like this, whether it was Halloween or what, she had to cover her face and leave the club right away.
However, Eunjo’s small voice has been buried in loud music for some time, making it hard to hear, even with her own ears.
Su-jin and Min-young smiled and made eye contact with each other and grabbed Eunjo’s arms from both sides as if they were plotting something.
“Shall I show Yejin Girl’s High School how pretty their Korean teacher is?”
“But she has just been appointed this year, did you know that?”
“It doesn’t matter. She’s pretty so try to sell her out and make her talk.”
“What? Ya! Ya! Get off me! Are you crazy?”
Eunjo shouted as she tried to shake her arms off them, but she couldn’t pull them out because she was tightly held from both sides.
Min-young and Su-jin dragged Eunjo through the women dressed as nurses, witches, and catwomen.
“Are you crazy? Let go of me! Let go of me! She’s not a graduate!”
However, Eun-jo’s urgent screams were not heard in the lyrics of “Shut up and let me go” from “The Ting Tings”, which was in trend at that time. Shut up and let me go. The lyrics were exactly what Eunjo wants to shout, but it was ironic that it came out so loud and covered Eunjo’s words.
When Min-young and Su-jin pulled Eunjo, she shrugged to put her head down to avoid showing her face. Not a step away from her own two feet wearing leather boots, two pairs of navy-coloured canvas shoes, common in her school, were dancing.
“Ta-da. This is Yejin Girls High School’s Captain Goo Eunjo. Aren’t you her disciple?”
Min-young introduced her by using a funny comment. Then, even though it was not that funny, those two canvas shoes, which were dancing quite hard, stopped in their place.
“Goo Eunjo….Seonsaengnim?”
Sigh…
Eunjo sighed and slowly raised her head.
Se-ah looked up and down at Eunjo with her eyes widened, which usually looked cold.
Eun-jo wrapped her arms around her chest out of unbearable embarrassment when her arms were released by her friends.
“Teacher’s outfit….”
“Is that really the most surprising thing?”
A high school sophomore came to the lesbian club, wearing a school uniform, and met her homeroom teacher, and yet the most surprising thing was Eunjo’s own outfit.
But on the other hand, she thought she would have approached Se-ah on her own one day with her own two feet, even if her friends hadn’t dragged her here. While standing near Se-ah, she could smell the strong smell of alcohol from her. Her clumsy movements and uncoordinated steps all seemed to indicate that she was drunk.
She could not let this go as a homeroom teacher since she ran into a drunk student of hers.
“Let’s talk over there for now.”
Perhaps bewildered by the unexpected development of the conversation, Min-young and Su-jin said, “What is it?” and ” Do you really know each other?”. Eunjo extended her middle finger towards them and pulled Se-ah’s shoulder. The strong smell of alcohol came to the tip of her nose as she did that.
“How did you get here?”
Eunjo looked around for a quiet place, one that was not too crowded. She pulled Se-ah towards the hallway in front of the bathroom.
Avoiding the dazzling lighting of the club, Se-ah stood under the yellow incandescent light bulb as a high school student. She had a young, soft face without makeup and wore a shirt that neatly filled up to the end of her neck, and a tie.
“How did you get here?” There were actually three questions.
First of all, how did she get in as a minor?
Secondly, if she was determined to come, she would have put in a lot of effort into wearing plain clothes. So how did she end up here wearing a school uniform?
Thirdly, did she know what kind of club this is?
“I followed people in while I was watching them and they just let me in.”
….I’m afraid I would need to report this club.
“You know what it’s like here……?”
It sounded like she followed people in here without knowing it was a lesbian club.
“….That’s why I’m here.”
“Why?”
“It’s just…. I wonder if people are comfortable and having fun doing what they want to do here. Unlike me, now….”
As she said that, Se-ah’s big black eyes looked sad.