The bell signifying the period's end rang five minutes ago, but the sir that was teaching them mathematics just wasn't leaving yet. It made everyone in the class groan, but that didn't stop the teacher from going on and on about secants and cosecants and tangents and whatnot.
Who was that person who invented trigonometry?!
Jeongguk wondered how teachers managed to reach their classes right on time even when they refused to leave their previous classes so late.
It was five minutes into their lunch break already, and he was sure their stomachs groaned louder than their throats, but of course, the teacher didn't care. He wasn't going to leave until he finished teaching what he had originally planned to teach that day.
With a sigh, Jeongguk looked out the door of their class just in time to catch his crush and his friends pass their classroom with their heads thrown back in laughter.
That instantly took his mind off the raging hunger and his math misery. All he could think of, from then on, was how he was missing out on his 'crush-staring' moments with every second that his teacher refused to leave.
He whined under his breath and slammed his pen on his desk without realizing it, causing his entire class to freeze and his sir to turn to look at him with his mouth forming a little 'o'.
"Looks like Jeongguk wants to continue teaching instead of me, guys. The board is all yours, Jeongguk, go on, you seem desperate to teach," the teacher, said with a hint of mischievousness in his eyes.
"Huh?! I- wha- I wanna wha- I- no, Mr Kim, no, please continue, I-I'm fine just listening, I'm sorry," Jeongguk spluttered, but the said Mr Kim wasn't having it.
"No, no, Jeongguk, please, come on here, I would love to see you explain how the formula for tan-square-x can be derived."
"S-Sir...I..." Jeongguk paled and looked at his friends, both of who were having the time of their lives stuffing their fists into their mouths to prevent themselves from guffawing out loud like the brutes that they were.
He looked around at his classmates, who looked amused enough at his situation to have forgotten their own pangs of hunger.
"Go on, Jeongguk, we don't have much time!!" one of the guys called out and Jeongguk could hear the poorly disguised excitement in his voice. Shooting him a glare, Jeongguk stepped towards the board.
Mr Kim himself was standing there with his lips pursed, gesturing Jeongguk towards the board like the gentleman that he was.
"I-I'll prepare and come and ex-explain tomorrow, sir," Jeongguk tried to negotiate, but he knew it was going to go down the drain. Their maths sir was known to crave fun, after all. Fun that came from bullying his students the way he was currently 'bullying' Jeongguk.
"Well, I explained the derivation not even five minutes ago, and you seemed desperate to explain it as well, so I'm sure you don't need any preparation," Mr Kim said and walked towards one of the front benches. He gestured for the student to go and occupy Jeongguk's empty seat, and he himself sat down on the front bench, crossing his legs as he did so.
Crying internally at his plight, Jeongguk took a deep breath and picked up the marker that was lying on the teachers' table.
"Are you sure you aren't hungry, sir? I-I'm sure all of my classmates are dying to have their lunch...." he tried one last time.
At that, Mr Kim strained to turn around on his chair and looked at the rest of the students. "Are you, guys? Anyone who thinks lunch is more important than Jeongguk's precious explanation can leave, I won't hold it against you," he said, but no one left. It was as if all of them had their popcorn out and ready for the upcoming drama.
Here was the thing about Mr Kim. As much as the students hated math, and as much as they abhorred trigonometry, they also loved their teacher as much. Well, who wouldn't when their sir was as handsome as Mr Kim was, with a pair of slim spectacles sitting on his nose, making him look like a modern-day Einstein? Who wouldn't when their sir was one of the most funniest teachers when he wasn't teaching? And who wouldn't love those craters on his cheeks?
Mr Kim turned back to face Jeongguk with a smirk. Jeongguk sighed and accepted defeat. He should have known his classmates would betray him in a heartbeat if ever their math teacher asked them a favour. Well, if he were in their place, he would have done the same as well.
Taking a deep breath again, he turned around and wrote down whatever he thought was the most logical derivation for the formula.
1+tan^2 x = sec^2 x
"S-So...as we know here, one-plus-tan-square-x is secant-square-x. If we take the 1 to the RHS, we'll get...."
tan^2 x = sec^2 x -1
"...s-so that's the formula for tan-square-x....LHS equals RHS...." Jeongguk placed the marker down and looked nervously at Mr Kim, who began to clap his hands so hard that Jeongguk winced, fearing his palms were going to hurt.
He knew this kind of clap, though. He knew Mr Kim was being sarcastic, and he knew he was going to be humiliated soon, but what he knew was worse, was the fact that his moron best friends, Yoo Jeongyeon and Min Yoongi, along with other moron classmates of his, had their phones out and were secretly recording the entire thing.
"All hail the next Sreenivasa Ramanujan, everyone," Mr Kim said and stepped up to pat Jeongguk on his shoulder proudly. Before Jeongguk could react, though, his face turned serious. "If you had been listening to my class, you really might have been better than me at explaining this, Jeongguk. You know what to do for tomorrow, right?"
"Yes, sir," Jeongguk looked down and nodded, his teeth ferociously tearing at the skin on his lower lip, "I'll learn the derivation and explain again tomorrow," he said.
"Hmm, good, all of you can go to lunch now. What class do you have after lunch?" Mr Kim asked.
"Scieeeeence," all the students groaned together.
Mr Kim chuckled at them and patted Jeongguk's shoulder once again, jerking his chin towards the empty chair on the first row. Jeongguk didn't waste any time in scrambling to the chair and sinking low on it to hide his face.
"It's Dae Shin sir, right? I'll talk to him and get your class cancelled. Have your lunch in peace and revise for tomorrow's class if you don't want to lose marks in my class," Mr Kim said without looking at anyone in particular, but the message reached the person it had to reach. Jeongguk sunk lower in his seat and nodded with a pout.
Mr Kim chuckled at him again and left for real, leaving the entire class roaring at Jeongguk, who slowly broke out into a grin and turned around to face his best friends, who were honestly having a hard time catching their breath with how hard they were laughing.
"Yo, JK!! I'm uploading this on our school website!!" one of their classmates hollered and Jeongguk rolled his eyes with a grin. "Go on, I don't care!!" he hollered back and joined his friends in laughing at his own embarrassment.
"You sure?!" the guy asked with a grin that almost seemed to tear at his skin.
"I'm sure, go on. I'll have a good laugh at myself too," Jeongguk said and the students around him laughed once again before leaving.
Oh boy, if only he knew how much he would soon start to care about that damned video.
**************
Sreenivasa Ramanujan - A very very very famous and genius Indian Mathematician.
LHS equals RHS - Left Hand Side of the equation equals the Right Hand Side of the equation.
For those who know trigonometry, enjoy that idiotic derivation. For those who don't, and for those who forgot, know that Jeongguk gave an 'aak is paak, paak is aak, so aak paak karepaak' explanation.
