Please Take Care of Me
Cheongsol High School's main building stood five stories tall. The school had been famous for its academics for as long as anyone could remember. Lately it had leaned more toward job placement than scholarship, and its standing had slipped a notch because of it — but a prestigious school did not stop being a prestigious school overnight.
First-years started on the second floor and climbed one story with each passing year.
I stopped in front of the first-year faculty office. The door clicked as I pushed it open and stepped inside.
"Um... Ms. Shin Haseon asked me to come see her."
I spoke the name of my homeroom teacher. Every pair of eyes in the office swung toward me at once. Only one teacher lifted a hand.
"Oh, over here."
The name had already felt familiar. The face, when I saw it, was exactly the one I remembered.
I walked over to Ms. Shin Haseon's desk.
"Hello, Teacher."
It's been a long time.
"I'm Lee Jiwoo."
It's me...
In my previous life, she had been the reason I hadn't given up on school — the person who had made me work. Because of her, I had stayed on the straight path instead of sliding somewhere ugly. By the time I had gotten my feet under me and gone back to see her, she had already left teaching. I had been sure I would never see her again.
My eyes stung. I almost cried.
"Lee Jiwoo... right? Did you have something you wanted to tell me?"
Her voice was as healthy and clear as I remembered.
"No."
My throat threatened to lock. I cleared it and tried again.
"You texted me yesterday, so I came."
She pulled out a folding chair and nodded for me to sit.
"Thank you. So... why did you want to see me?"
She bent under the desk and came up with more than ten textbooks and a stack of printouts, which she set on the desktop.
"It isn't anything serious. You just couldn't come to school for a week. I heard it was personal, but I still worried something else might be going on. And..."
She screened her mouth with one hand so the other teachers wouldn't hear, and dropped her voice.
"Filming a drama isn't easy, is it? Are you holding up all right? I was worried. You're going to be my student for the next year, after all."
That was her. Shin Haseon took an interest in her students over the smallest things and never hesitated to meddle. Back then I had written it off as useless nagging and let it go in one ear and out the other.
That had been a stupid thing to do.
"And the most important part... I saw the photos, but a student this pretty... you're going to have a hard road ahead of you."
The worry in her voice was real. She meant it.
I had felt it myself more than once. During part-time shifts, eyes had followed me. They had followed me on the walk home afterward, too. In my previous life I had never once felt a gaze like that. That was the first time I understood what people meant when they said women were more sensitive to being looked at than men.
"I'll be all right. I can handle it."
"If you say so, Jiwoo, then that's a relief, but..."
"If there's something you want to say, you can say all of it. I don't mind."
She had been opening and closing her mouth for a while now, the way a person does when a question is sitting on the tip of their tongue.
"No, it's fine. It would be rude to ask something like that this early. I'll wait until you and I know each other a little better."
She shook her head. A real teacher — the kind who put the student first, not herself.
"We're just about out of time."
She checked her wristwatch and stood.
"Shall we head to the classroom?"
I glanced at the office clock. 8:55.
"Yes."
I nodded, packed the textbooks and printouts into my bag until it would take no more, and got to my feet.
"Nngh—!"
It was heavy. Morning training had left every muscle throbbing.
"Is it too heavy? That's a problem... want me to help you as far as the classroom?"
"Ah, I'm fi— thank you."
The bag was too heavy to refuse. It might have been heavier than the rucksack I had humped in the army.
Together we carried it out of the office. I could dump the textbooks in my locker anyway, so at least I wouldn't have to haul them all the way home.
Studying, though — that was another matter. I had workbooks at home, but to solve the problems they printed at school I needed the actual textbooks. And if I was going to catch up on a week of missed classes, the textbooks were not optional.
Should I ask Hoyeon unnie for help?
No. That was out. I had even gotten out of the car a little ways off this morning so the other students wouldn't notice. If Kang Hoyeon showed up, they would figure me out in a heartbeat.
Which meant...
"Teacher? Do you happen to know who the best student in the class is?"
"Why do you ask?"
"If I'm going to catch up on the classes I missed, I thought I should get friendly with someone who studies well and pick up a few tips."
I wasn't planning to steal anyone's method. I had my own. I just needed a little help.
She thought it over for a moment.
"Then you should get to know Kim Woojin."
"Kim... Woojin?"
"That's right. He was first in his whole middle school. Here he lost the top internal rank to a student in another class by a hair, but he still studies very well. You'll be fine if you two get along."
Just before we reached the classroom door, she stopped and looked at me.
"Ah, and Woojin is an acting major, same as you."
"Acting... major? This school has an acting track?"
"It doesn't. It has a theater club, though. He acts and he studies, so the school had no reason not to take him. Club activities haven't officially started, but it is recruitment season. If you're interested, trying out for the theater club might not be a bad idea. That's just my thought, of course."
She never pushed. She only recommended. The problem was that her recommendations always landed — coincidence or fate, they fit as if they had been measured. I had caught myself more than once thinking, If I had only listened to her back then...
"This is the classroom you'll be in starting today."
We were already at the door.
"First-year... Class 2."
I checked the nameplate and started to go in.
"Hold on."
She stopped me.
"I'll go in first. You follow right after."
"Yes."
I nodded. The sliding door rattled open.
The chatter that had filled the room died the instant she appeared.
"Today we have a student who was out for personal reasons. It really is personal, so don't pry too much."
She gathered every eye in the room.
"Whoa... no way."
"That's not even human."
"For real..."
"Eh... it's just the makeup."
The murmuring rolled through the class. Every word of it was about my face. I understood. The first time I had seen this face myself, I had thought the same thing — Can a person actually be prettier than a celebrity?
"Jiwoo, why don't you introduce yourself?"
"A s-self-introduction?"
The request caught me completely off guard. I hadn't prepared a thing. A self-introduction, at this age.
"Do I have to?"
"Everyone did one on the first day. We can't leave you out."
I hadn't even been here that day. If we had all done it together, it would have been less humiliating.
"Hoo..."
I drew a breath and settled myself. A self-introduction was Sales 101 — the most basic of basics. I had already done so many of them greeting senior actors that my mouth had gone sore.
Just do it the same way. Leave out the 'rookie actress' part.
"I'm Lee Jiwoo. Personal circumstances kept me out until today. Please take care of me. And..."
I scanned their faces one by one. Kids who had only just stepped up from middle school to high school. Some still hadn't lost their baby fat. A few were already wearing makeup.
"I hope we can all get along."
When I finished, a beat of silence hung in the air.
"Whoa... shit..."
The curse cracked the quiet wide open.
"Who was that? Who just swore?"
"Kim Woojin!"
The culprit was identified in seconds. Kim Woojin? Hadn't she just said he was the acting kid? If a little atmosphere like this was enough to sweep him under, it was going to get in his way later when he actually had to perform.
"Woojin, come by the faculty office later. Jiwoo, you can take the empty seat in the back."
She pointed toward the rear of the room. The empty seat, as it happened, was right next to Kim Woojin.
I nodded and walked to my desk. The chair scraped as I pulled it out and sat down.
"Hey. Please take care of me."
Kim Woojin looked faintly startled and gave a small wave.
"Uh... y-yeah. You too."
The awkward greeting ended. I pulled a textbook from my bag. A moment later the bell rang, and class began in earnest.
The first period was doable. The real problem was catching up on a week's worth of notes and material — my head took most of the beating. Studying again at my age. I almost cried at the state of my life.
"Can't be helped."
I had to study at least a little. I expected it of myself, and the agency expected a certain level of academics too.
Kim Woojin, sitting beside me, picked up the mutter.
"Can't be helped? What can't?"
"Ah, it's nothing. More importantly... thanks. For showing me your notes."
He had tilted his textbook so I could see what he had written, since I hadn't been able to keep up. I had the printouts, but they were still blank. Filling them in was on me.
"It wasn't anything. More importantly... shouldn't you start running about now?"
"Running? What are you—"
Ah. I understood him a beat too late. I started to bolt up from my seat. By then I was already surrounded.
"Hi! Let's be friends."
"They said you came in late for personal reasons... can you tell us what those personal reasons were?"
"You're really pretty... what makeup do you use? Tell me too."
"W-wait... one at a time..."
Either they hadn't heard a word I said, or they were only listening for the answers they wanted. They wanted ordinary answers, and I hadn't managed to give a single complete one before the bell rang again.
The same thing repeated itself until lunch. Only then did they finally let me go.
"Haa... I'm wiped."
"You did good."
"Ah, right. There was something I wanted to ask you."
Ms. Shin had said he was in the theater club. If that was true, I was curious. It was lunch, and we both needed to eat, so I meant to keep it short.
That was when someone cut in.
"Yo! Kim Woojin! Let's go stuff our faces! And... Jiwoo, you wanna tag along if you're cool with it?"
A boy who was clearly Kim Woojin's friend — Choi Wooseok — shoved his way into the middle of it.
"Ah... no, I'm good."
I really did not want anyone watching me eat.