Chapter 43
Chapter 43
“Teacher Bom! Over here, over here!”
Bom, who had been looking around with her tray, spotted Teacher Jung Jin-hyuk waving his hand. She’d been searching for a while because he was sitting somewhere other than their usual spot. Bom set down her tray and sat in the chair that Seo Hye-sook pulled out for her.
“Teacher Bom, what took you so long?”
“Oh, I was grading performance evaluations, and one student submitted theirs late. I had to wait for it and then grade it.”
“Why work so hard? It’s all just for a moment, you know.”
“Today’s food is really good. Hurry up and try it.”
Bom nodded and picked up her spoon. Today was a special meal day for school lunch. The hayashi rice, bean sprout soup, fried chicken, black rice cheese balls, and watermelon all looked delicious.
Jung Jin-hyuk and Seo Hye-sook, both homeroom teachers for the second grade, had their desks next to each other in the faculty office, so they naturally ate lunch together as a regular lunch crew. Today, Department Head Kang had joined them.
“You’re slow, Teacher Bom. I finished all my performance evaluations ages ago. Now I can finally breathe a little. Sigh.”
Department Head Kang, who had long since finished eating, bit into his watermelon dessert, boasting, and ended up dribbling watermelon juice. Unable to watch any longer, Seo Hye-sook yanked out a handful of tissues and tossed them in front of Department Head Kang.
“Then what do you do during class, Department Head Kang?”
“Huh, sigh. I just put on a movie, you know? Exams are over, there’s nothing else to do. We’ve covered all the material.”
Department Head Kang wiped his mouth and then glanced at Bom, who was carefully spooning her bean sprout soup.
“But say, Teacher Bom.”
“Yes, Department Head Kang.”
“Are you dating anyone these days?”
Cough! Bom choked, put down her spoon, and thumped her chest. Seo Hye-sook jumped up and brought her a cup of water from the dispenser at the back.
“Department Head Kang, really! Asking someone who just picked up their spoon!”
“Well… my apologies. Sigh.”
After swallowing all the water, Bom resumed her meal.
Bom, who was nibbling on a black rice cheese ball, realized that all three pairs of eyes were fixed on her. Bom looked up.
“But seriously… Teacher Bom’s vibe has definitely changed, hasn’t it?”
“You’re right, really. Compared to last year, she’s like a completely different person, you know?”
“See! I told you Teacher Bom was suspicious!”
With all three speaking at once, Bom felt cornered. Her face grew redder and redder. With a flushed face, Bom frantically waved her hands.
“No, really, I’m not. I’m not dating anyone.”
Even as she said it, Bom’s heart pounded. She had kissed Jae-gyu. And not just that, they had been intimate. Just thinking about that day a few days ago made her heart drop. Heat rose through her entire body, and her skin tingled.
These changes felt unfamiliar and frightening. She had no one to discuss it with, and she didn’t want to post it in an anonymous space like the internet only to be ridiculed. She still didn’t know how to act around Jae-gyu. That’s why she’d been ignoring Jae-gyu’s calls and texts for days. Seven missed calls and fourteen unread messages.
“Aw, come on, it’s true. Look how red your face is.”
“I’m really not dating anyone.”
Dating? What did she even know about that man to start dating him? Besides, she didn’t even know how to do a relationship.
“Then how about meeting one of my juniors?”
“Excuse me?”
“He’s a civil servant at the district office, thirty-seven, owns a house, and he’s a real gem, a real gem. While we’re at it, should I set up a date right now, Teacher Bom?”
“Thirty-seven?”
“Oh dear, Department Head Kang. It’d be better to set her up with the prosecutor from Teacher Bom’s class, wouldn’t it?”
They were talking about Choi Yi-jun. Seo Hye-sook, who had been quietly listening, put down her chopsticks and agreed with Jung Jin-hyuk’s suggestion.
“Yes, yes. Se-jin’s brother. He’s perfect! They’d look great together too. You should meet him!”
It wasn’t the first time the Shinsu High teachers had played matchmaker for anyone who crossed their radar.
“If she dates a prosecutor, that’d be amazing. Aren’t they a perfect match?”
“Tell Se-jin to set you up!”
Bom was flustered. Unlike previous times when they’d just mentioned it in passing, Seo Hye-sook, Jung Jin-hyuk, and Department Head Kang were being persistent this time.
“But can you really date a student’s family member?”
Teacher Noh, who had been eating alone behind them, seemed to have been eavesdropping and chimed in. Bom flinched in surprise. It was something Bom had been curious about all along.
“If you worry about all that here, no one would ever date!”
“Exactly. Everyone’s connected by one degree or another here. Do we want to turn her into a spinster ghost?”
“I even married the older sister of a student I used to be homeroom teacher for, you know.”
“Huh, Teacher Jin-hyuk, really?”
Bom’s face brightened, her ears perked up. The fact that he was Han-gyeol’s uncle had been weighing on her mind. It seemed that such things weren’t heavily criticized here. She felt a slight burden lift from her shoulders. Not that she was going to try anything with Jae-gyu, though.
The topic of conversation had somehow shifted to Teacher Jung Jin-hyuk. He said he first met his current wife when he went on a home visit because she wasn’t coming to school.
“Back then, my current sister-in-law had run away from home, and while we were looking for her together, we just hit it off, you know.”
“Did you know? Our Vice Principal apparently met and married his homeroom teacher’s older sister when he was a senior in high school.”
“Good heavens, how much older is she then?! They say he’s completely under her thumb, so there was a reason!”
Bom listened intently to the stories while eating her watermelon. It was cool and sweet watermelon. Through the slightly open cafeteria window, the cicadas’ noisy chirping could be heard. It was now fully a part of summer.
Summer vacation, its beginning, was just around the corner. With the end of these final exams, all tests for the first semester were also concluded. Overall, the school atmosphere was unsettled yet excited. Vice Principal Seok Gwan-su used this time to come up with an idea.
When the stories about the Vice Principal ended and they finished their meal, the conversation turned to that idea.
“Oh, right! About the Bazaar, they said teachers have to bring one item each, but I don’t have anything to contribute.”
“Well, you can just bring some stationery or something lying around the house. The parent booths are the real problem.”
The Bazaar, which required mandatory participation from all students and staff, was being spearheaded by Vice Principal Seok Gwan-su. The intention was good, but as Jung Jin-hyuk said, the parent booths were the issue. The parent committee chair had unilaterally decided to run a snack booth and pre-ordered a ton of ingredients, but now there was no one willing to actually work it.
“Ah, that’s right! It would be great if that person came!”
Teacher Seo Hye-sook, who had been thinking quietly, snapped her fingers.
“Who?!”
“From what I saw at the sports festival, he didn’t seem like a bad person. You know who I mean. Han-gyeol’s uncle.”
Bom’s eyebrows shot up. Mr. Jae-gyu at the Bazaar?!
“Oh, him? No, he’s... a gangster, isn’t he?”
Teacher Jung Jin-hyuk frowned. The others also seemed uncomfortable. Bom, who had been listening silently the whole time, finally spoke.
“He’s not a gangster.”
“Then what is he?!”
“He runs an energy company, and he’s got a straightforward personality and good manners.”
“Oh, really? Are you sure?”
“I even went on a field trip to his company for my club. He really is the CEO.”
Bom calmly defended Jae-gyu. Although she was currently avoiding Jae-gyu, it strangely bothered her when others spoke ill of him. How would everyone react? Maybe she had said something unnecessary. After all, when Jae-gyu had come to the faculty office in winter, everyone had been busy avoiding his gaze.
“Oh, so he was that kind of person.”
“He runs a business and has money, so he’s been donating to the school all this time, huh?”
These were unexpected reactions. And she was hearing for the first time today that he had donated to the school. Apparently, the fence around the sports field had been installed by Jae-gyu for safety reasons.
Department Head Kang clicked his tongue, looked around, and then lowered his voice.
“Honestly, last year, Teacher Hong singled out Han-gyeol and tormented him. If I were Han-gyeol’s parent, I would’ve flipped the faculty office upside down.”
Bom, surprised, lowered her voice and asked.
“Why did he single out Han-gyeol?”
Department Head Kang hesitated to answer. Teacher Noh, who was eating alone behind them, whispered instead.
“It seems Han-gyeol caught him gambling illegally in town. After that, he tormented him.”
“What?”
Why would he torment the student who witnessed his wrongdoing? She couldn’t readily understand it. She felt sorry for Han-gyeol, who had been discriminated against for such an absurd reason.
“Anyway, I was a bit scared of that uncle because of the gangster rumors. But now that I know he’s a businessman, I see him differently.”
“Now that you mention it, Teacher Hong was the one who first said he was a gangster.”
While anger towards Teacher Hong flared up, a sense of gratitude towards the other teachers also rose. It wasn’t easy to change one’s initial impression, so she appreciated them thinking positively of Jae-gyu.
It was all good until now...
“Then he’s perfect for the Bazaar!”
“Teacher Bom. Try to get him to come. The booths are going to be a disaster otherwise.”
Invite Mr. Jae-gyu to the Bazaar’s parent booth? Bom’s face went pale.
'Absolutely not!'
⋆★⋆
“This neighborhood is really run-down. There’s nowhere decent to eat.”
“Then don’t eat.”
“Who said I wasn’t eating? Anyway, you always say such hateful things, Seon Jae-gyu.”
Jae-gyu rested his elbows on the old, polished wooden table and propped his chin in his hands. He gazed blankly at the untouched glass of alcohol in front of him.
“Why aren’t you eating?”
“I don’t have an appetite.”
The earthenware pot was full of pork soup. Steam still rose from the bubbling soup. The broth was a milky white, as he hadn’t yet mixed in the seasoning paste. It was a restaurant he frequented, a known good spot, but he had no appetite for it. Jae-gyu let out a deep sigh, picked up his glass, and downed it in one go. It didn’t even taste bitter.
“Now, answer me.”
“What?”
“Have you thought about what I said? Lee Hee-yeon.”