eidolon | kim taehyung

• three •

zero.

another awful, red, encircled zero.

on her desk was the third zero mark she had received that day, and yesul winced every time she glanced at it.

"ms. lee yesul?"

she looked up, snapping out of her trance instantly. "y-yes, mrs. kang?"

"i said score?" she tapped her pen impatiently at the record as she had called the girl's name repeatedly for almost a straight minute. the class turned their heads toward her slowly, eyes burning at her.

she looked at the crumpled, dirty piece of paper in front of her once more, before uttering a small, "z-zero,"

"zero?" the woman questioned with a loud voice, leaving the whole class to quietly gasp to themselves, and some laughed, some kept quiet, very few felt pity, but none stood up to put a halt to the humiliation.

the woman scanned the marks on her record file, "ms. lee, that's your fourth zero homework in my class." she informed firmly, eyes disappointed. the class had avoided to watch the scene and decided to look down, pretending the ongoing conversation did not exist.

yesul swallowed, staring at the fecklessly answered questions that she had written last minute before checking with no formula whatsoever, "i-i'm aware, professor." she spoke.

"well, if you're aware, then take action!" the woman raised her voice, staring at the student in disbelief. "don't tire your teachers to talk to you outside and resolve the issue yourself, is that so hard?" she put her palms on her waist, anger rising as the room grew quieter and quieter, each pupil afraid to be linked in,

"ms. lee, i asked if that's so hard?!" she walked towards to girl, slamming the tip of her pen on her desk endlessly. "n-no, ma'am," she frowned, finding it difficult to breathe,

"then why do you keep getting low scores every time? if not zeroes, twos, or ones!" she raised her hand in the air, veins pulsating as she scowled at the girl once more, each painful pause weighing her spirit lower and lower.

"i don't understand, yesul!" she shouted in irritation.

"you're not only weak in algebra, you're weak in chemistry, you're weak in trigonometry, yesul, your subject teachers and i don't even know what to do with you anymore!" she yelled.

"at least study, o-or ask someone to help, not, give up and leave everything in chaos at the last minute!" and as the air in yesul's throat grew, so did her confusion because she clearly remembered the day she forced herself to keep her eyes and ears open in one of her classes after a night of trying to shove at least an idea of quadratic functions into her head, but yesul bowed her head multiple times nonetheless.

"i-i'm so sorry, ma'am, i-i just—"

"i'll be reporting this to mr. park. let's see what he thinks about putting you in class A now." she spat, and yesul felt her lungs drop,

her adviser teacher was going to call for a conference.

another call to her mother, another trip to the counselor's office, and another bottle of alcohol shattering dangerously close to her head,

"i-i promise i'll try my b-best, professor," she bowed, and the woman scoffed, closing her record and putting on her table.

"well, your best better be enough to raise your grades before exams, yesul, or else, we're gonna have some problems." she crossed her arms, tapping her foot on the ground as she glared at the student once more.

she sighed loudly, muttering a series of ugly words under her breath before sighing.

yesul wanted to sink, she wanted the ground to open up and devour her right then and there if it meant the nasty glances of mixed pity and ridicule would be gone in one snap, and she had even hoped she had stayed home or spent the day eating ripe apples with taehyung,

cause anything else would feel better than sitting in a room that felt like lava and frostbite forced together.

sadness did suck. it always had.

but yesul did not know whether to feel better or worse when the words, "class dismissed," left the mouth of mrs. kang exasperatedly, but yesul stayed frozen, feeling the red crosses and question marks on the paper glare deeper at her than she looked at them.

"h-hey,"

yesul looked up slowly,

it was a boy.

a hesitant, black-haired, softly smiling boy.

"i know you don't really know me but," the boy retrieved his hand from his back, putting a milk carton on her table timidly.

"t-trust me, i know how it feels." he scratched his nape, his eyes forming small crescents as he chuckled. "i-i, a-are you okay?" he stammered, eyes inevitably showing the boy's nervousness,

"yes," she replied quietly.

"that's g-good to hear," he grinned, "oh! by the way, i-i'm—"

"dude, come on," a girl with wide-framed glasses gestured to the boy, shyly bowing her head to yesul before calling to him once more.

"o-oh, i'm so sorry, i gotta go." he smiled once more before adding, "n-nice to meet you." he waved, before jogging towards the girl.

yesul watched them leave in wonder, before examining the small, rectangle carton he had left,

banana milk, huh?

she smiled slightly to herself, wiping her wet eyes.

she had always thought banana milk was strange. sweetened milk was odd enough, and adding a banana flavoring only took things to a more peculiar route.

but there was nothing wrong with strange,

so yesul loved it.

and with that, she stowed the failed papers under her desk messily, unwrapped the straw of the flavored beverage,

and hoped the day could be as sweet.