Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Fetching the Geography Teacher
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Ten minutes had passed since the bell, but the teacher still hadn't shown up.
In college, class would automatically be canceled by now, but in high school?
"Should someone go get him?"
"What if we miss each other on the way?"
"Just check the staff room. If he's not there, come back."
"That guy's a psycho. If we're not here when he arrives, he'll dock points."
"No way."
"I'm serious. It happened in first year."
"So what do we do? Just sit here?"
"That'll cause a scene too. 'The teacher didn't show, but we just waited.'"
"But isn't this the teacher's fault?"
The voices of the kids, who had been quiet at first, gradually grew louder.
Before my regression, the teacher had never missed a class start time, as far as I could remember. Was this the butterfly effect?
I checked the timetable with a sour expression.
'Of all subjects, geography.'
The fifty-something male teacher who openly favored Do-yeon and had bad public opinion because of it.
What was his name again?
I didn't remember his name, just that he was a total personality wreck.
He'd frequently flick kids on the forehead with his knuckles and humiliate them...
'Everyone who didn't do homework, stand up. Grade A students, sit. The rest, stand until class ends.' Something like that.
He was pretty much the last generation who could keep their rice bowl doing that kind of teaching.
"Ah, let's just wait. He'll come soon."
"What if he gives the whole class penalty points? You taking responsibility?"
"Kang Da-hye, shouldn't you go get him?"
Huh? Me?
I turned toward the voice.
It was Gyeong Se-in's desk mate.
Do Ha-jun.
The same guy who'd done that popularity poll with the girls in our grade last year.
If he were just a bit smarter, he'd have made something like Chasebook to rate girls' looks with stars by now.
Go-go High School's Mark Zuckerberg leaned back and looked at me as he spoke.
Suddenly singled out, I blinked.
"Why me...?"
Do Ha-jun replied as if I were ridiculous.
"You're the acting class president."
"...Me?"
Come to think of it, at the start of the semester, I'd temporarily taken that role just because I was good at studying...
It was only until the class president election, and someone else got elected, so I'd forgotten.
While I reminisced, the kids chimed in like they'd found the answer.
"Yeah, Kang Da-hye, go check."
"Ask in the staff room if the geography teacher's gone up. He'll come right back."
"You won't get in trouble. Kang Da-hye's top grade."
Fine, I'd go anyway.
But it didn't feel great being pushed into it like this.
Sure enough, a few kids were leading the charge.
The ones who'd openly ignored and snickered at Do-yeon. Kids who disliked both her and geography.
Now they probably disliked me too, for helping Do-yeon.
Do Ha-jun snarked loudly.
"Or send U Do-yeon. Geography likes her."
"Hey, shut up. I'll just go."
I sighed and stood up.
That was when it happened.
"Ah, fuck off, you're all so noisy."
Seo Jae-kyeom, who had been face-down sleeping through the noise, scowled and stood up.
Looking irritated as he glanced around, Seo Jae-kyeom said,
"You all hate going yourselves, so you're shoving it on Kang Da-hye. Over fetching one teacher. Are there zombies in the hallway or something?"
The kids shut up instantly at the blatant scolding.
Seo Jae-kyeom shoved his chair back, pulled his phone from his pants pocket, and gripped it.
"Seo Jae-kyeom, what?"
"I'm going out too."
"? No need. Just one teacher."
"Can't stand being with these idiots anymore."
"Ah."
Fair enough, then.
But.
"Jeong Eun-seong, why you?"
I gave a puzzled look to Jeong Eun-seong, who was standing blankly behind Seo Jae-kyeom's shoulder.
"You going too?"
Three people was overkill.
Jeong Eun-seong met my eyes and calmly replied,
"Gotta pee."
"...Now?"
We just said geography teacher's got a bad temper.
"Hold it 38 minutes."
"Got it."
'Why'd he stand up?'
I thought it was urgent since he suddenly said he needed the bathroom.
But Seo Jae-kyeom was already heading out with his phone in hand, so I didn't dwell on it.
Why's he so prickly today?
"Pairs: one A, the other B..."
"How laughable. Is my spirit not dead...?"
The hallway during class only had me and Seo Jae-kyeom.
Teachers' voices and chalk tapping blackboards leaked out occasionally, and faint laughter came from a distant class.
Dust floating in the sunlight from the window sparkled.
Seo Jae-kyeom was quiet.
He walked briskly, staring at his phone in one hand. Not bothering to match my pace, he was slightly ahead.
I wasn't trying to match him or chat, so I just peeked into passing classrooms.
Classrooms, uniforms, sunlight. The teenage years I could never return to.
The kids looked bored to death, but I was the only one feeling nostalgic... ☆
My brief reverie ended as we reached the second-floor staff room turnoff, and Seo Jae-kyeom kept going down.
"Seo Jae-kyeom, where? Staff room's this way."
"Canteen."
"Huh?"
Canteen? I asked again, but he just stared at his phone without responding.
"Hey, still, during class?"
"I'll handle it."
He cut me off tiredly and vanished toward the first floor.
"What's with him."
I shook my head in disbelief and turned toward the staff room ahead...
Halting.
"What're you doing, you!"
I ran right into the geography teacher coming out of the staff bathroom.
"Wandering during class! What year, what class!"
"On my way to get you, sir. Class started, but you didn't come."
I narrowed my eyes, glancing between the bathroom he'd exited and his face.
Serious constipation, huh.
"Ahem, yeah?"
"Yes."
"Should've come sooner. Already 15 minutes late. These kids skipping."
He checked his watch, hurried back to the staff room to grab his textbook.
'Didn't expect to find geography this quick.'
What about Seo Jae-kyeom? I glanced at the stairs to the canteen as I trailed after him.
"Class 2-2, right? Do-yeon's class?"
"Yes."
"You're class president?"
"Acting."
"Ah, you're Kang Da-hye? Friends with Han Ji-su from 1st class too?"
"Yes."
"Seo Jae-kyeom!"
Suddenly, the teacher bellowed.
I saw Seo Jae-kyeom coming up the opposite stairs, looking blankly our way.
We'd met exactly at opposite ends of the hall.
"Seo Jae-kyeom, you punk! Where the hell were you!"
Oh no.
"Sir, no. Seo Jae-kyeom came with me to find you..."
"Came with you, but from that side? Wait, is that a phone in his hand?"
"......"
"You little..."
No one wants to hear an excited middle-aged man's rant, so I'll skip the rest of what geography said.
Long story short, Seo Jae-kyeom had to stay after school for punishment.
The ridiculous part? I got punished too, for "being acting president but failing to stop Seo Jae-kyeom."
"Run, and I'll call your parents right away."
After school.
Geography shoved me and Seo Jae-kyeom into the counseling room next to the staff room, grumbling.
The six-person table with flat pane glass had stacks of test papers printed on gray recycled paper.
"Remember? The pop quiz from first period in geography. You two stay and grade all these. Sort by class, number order. Next to wrong answers, write reason and correct answer. Red pen."
"......"
Grade all that now?
Geography dumped his own work on us as "punishment," emphasized "run and I call parents," then left for the day.
From class 1 to 10. Nearly 300 test papers and one geography textbook sat on the table. I stared blankly.
"......"
Well, I'd forgotten all the geography anyway.
Call it studying.
I sighed, sat, and pulled over the mountain of papers.
'Kids have pride. Is it okay to make them grade peers' tests?'
But Seo Jae-kyeom didn't sit.
I turned to him, standing there blankly.
"What's wrong?"