THE PAST, THE PRESENT, & THE FUTURE, txt ✓

10. Lovesick Fool

"Alright, class, silence!" Nari tapped the desk for emphasis. "I said raise your hands for questions, not shout them!"

They fell silent—for about a minute. "Would you rather I don't take questions?" she asked when she got them to quiet down again. "Come on, guys, work with me. There's plenty time to talk later. I promised half of the class would be for you, but that's only if you behave! And no sarcastic remarks, please."

"Sorry," said the girl she was very pointedly looking at. "I got carried away."

"As I was saying..." she turned back to her lesson, and for once, the class listened. Her class was pretty noisy for a bunch of middle-schoolers, but most of them knew her well from her time as an assistant teacher with them the year before, and knew when she was reaching the end of her patience.

Being a teacher was extremely frustrating at times, but she loved the job. She loved that she was teaching what she knew to students. She loved the feeling that she was helping to prepare from the real world, which was seriously tough.

More than that, she loved the kids. Some of them acted tough, reckless, confident, whatever, but most of them had come to her with many, many problems, and she saw that underneath the image they projected, they were just kids, in pain and aching and needing some kind of direction and guidance.

It resonated with her, reminding her of her own childhood. She did all she could to help them, suggesting meetings with the school counsellor if they didn't want to go a psychologist just yet. It took a bit of work those times, since they needed their parents' confirmation and permission, but she didn't give up any of those times.

She remembered what it was like because she had refused help until she was nineteen. That wasn't something she wanted her beloved students to go through, or anyone else. She had argued with parents, pleaded with them, done all she could. In the end, her efforts always paid off and she was happy that it did.

"Alright, that's it, but wait!" she held up her hands to silence them again. "I want to see those questions answered by Monday. Okay, now go on and do whatever you like but don't shout or scream. Use your talking voices, not your shouting voices."

The class naturally descended into chaos, and she let them off the hook. It was the end of the day, anyway, the start of the weekend. They had worked hard that week and deserved a break.

She sat down to complete some lesson plans for the following week, but her phone rang. She absently picked it up, thinking it was her mother who always called around the end of the school day.

"Hello," Taehyun's voice said, sounding incredibly nervous. "Please tell me this is Kim Nari."

"Well, it is," she made her voice sound dignified, but her face probably looked like she won the lottery. She saw a few of the students start to get excited and waved a hand at them, shooting them a stern look. "But if it wasn't, what would you have done?"

"I don't know, walked inside your class? You look delighted enough."

"What?" her expression changed to confusion and she looked up, and saw what had her students excited. "How—?"

"I asked for you," he said with a sheepish smile outside the classroom. "Though the look on your face is making me regret this, kinda."

She put the phone down and marched towards him, meeting him at the doorway, suppressing the crazy grin that threatened to erupt across her face. "Why are you here?" she demanded, almost reaching out to hug him tightly. "You literally couldn't think of a better place?"

"Hey, you said 'come find me,'" he objected. "I promised to do exactly that."

"Just—why are you so wonderful?" she asked, finally giving in and smiling huge at him.