annyeong | im jaebum

1회

I tapped my pen on the desk, hoping that it would magically make the answers pop into my head.

The rest of the class had already turned in their tests. Their beading eyes were all on me, drilling holes into the back of my head in silent hope that I would finish before the bell.

Unluckily for them, I was barely past the second question, and judging by how long I had been staring at it, I would probably die before getting to the third.

At the beginning of the 9th grade, taking Korean didn't sound like a bad idea. I needed two years of foreign language creds to graduate, and the only options offered at my school were French, Spanish, and Korean. Most people were going Spanish, but I had a bad rep with the teacher after I rear-ended her car getting driving lessons, (which ruled out the option pretty quickly.)

I could have taken French but no, I decided to take Korean.

Since my mom was born and raised in Korea and my dad was American, they decided it would be best if their kids could speak both their native languages. So, they raised my older brother speaking both English and Korean. It worked out completely fine, until they had me.

It was so stressful handling two kids between employed parents, especially when one was a newborn, that they gave up the hassle of raising me with two languages. If I lived in America, then English was the only language I'd ever need, right?

Wrong.

Not being able to communicate with relatives, not understanding my own mother when she talks, and being called a "fake asian" were all everyday barriers that I had to live with all because of my parents' laziness.

That's why as I looked down at my electives sheet Freshman year I thought the class would be the perfect way to resolve those barriers. I mean, if I had grown up listening to the language then how hard could it be to speak it myself?

Very hard. Extremely hard. Gut-wrenching, I-want-to-commit-genocide hard. No matter how hard I (didn't) study or how much I (didn't) pay attention, I wasn't advancing at all.

I was now in my second year in Korean and still couldn't fluently read Hangul, nor could I even attempt a Korean accent.

Despite all my struggles with the language, I seemed to be the only one in my class who was really having a hard time. Everyone else seemed to be getting by just fine... and then there was me in the far distance, struggling with introductory phrases.

After deciding that I would likely never be able to pass the test, I filled the rest of the questions in with random words that probably did not exist, and got up to give my paper to the teacher.

As I sat back down at my desk I heard a sigh from behind me.

"Well that took forever."

He was smirking, I could hear it in his voice. I ignored the comment, not giving him the satisfaction of being acknowledged.

Aside from having taken the course for over a year and still not being able to tell the difference between 'Good Morning' and 'Good Night,' the worst part about Korean class was sitting in front of him.

Im Jaebum (also known as "JB" by his friends but come on,) was the biggest fuckboy on the face of this earth. He had an ego larger than Russia, and cared solely of himself.

Though his reputation was far from the stereotypical Asian male, Jaebum was the top student in my Korean class.

Of course, he didn't put any effort into his projects and did his homework in class the day it was due but, I guess when you can already speak the language then you are just in for the A.

I despised him.

"Hey, Eric." He egged.

I rolled my eyes so hard, I could feel them touching the top of their sockets.

I wanted to turn around and scream, "It's Erica," but was interrupted by the teacher, Mrs. Lee, who was now in front of the room.

"Looks like the test took a bit longer than expected so we have less time to start our new lesson, but let's just go ahead and do it anyways, shall we?"

Nobody answered.

"Okay so in our last unit we covered negatives, and how to tell people that there is none of something." Her eyes scanned the classroom, landing on me.

"Erica, how do you formally say to someone in Korean, 'There are no seats left?'"

I froze. "Jwaseok... eopseo?"

Mrs. Lee smiled fakely. "Mm.. Close, but not exactly it. Anyone else?"

I saw a hand go up behind me.

"Yes, Jaebum."

"Nam-aissneun jwaseok i eobs-seubnida." He said fluently.

"Good!" Smiled the teacher.

I could not believe him. One-upping me and making me look like a fool. Wow. Thanks, Jaebum.

She was interrupted by the sound of the bell, concluding class.

"Okay well, I guess that's all for today. I'll have the grades up for the tests by tonight."

I was packing up my things when Jaebum walked up to my desk. "Jwaseok... eopseo." He mimicked, widening his eyes and using a high pitched voice.

I crossed by arms, cooly walking past him. He let out a laugh as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

"Hey, Eric." He called, catching up to me. "Thanks for saving us all from that lesson. If you didn't take so long on that test then she might have had time to assign homework."

I snorted. "Not everyone speaks Korean, you know."

"Loosen up, Eric." He nudged my arm before jogging away to his friends.

Loosen up.

I could only dream. As a student who has achieved nothing less than an A her entire life, it was excruciatingly humiliating to be failing a foreign language class, especially when it was a language that I should know. Until I could boost my grade, loosening up was out of the question.