Chapter 83
Chapter 83
“So what is it?”
“It’s a bit hard for me to say… but it seems like they’ve gotten closer.”
Se-jin gazed at her homeroom teacher’s beaming face as she handed out handouts, then subtly smiled.
‘Our teacher really is pretty when she smiles.’
She was the teacher who had suffered because of Se-jin’s brief rebellion right after the start of vacation. Se-jin had felt a deeper emotion from her homeroom teacher than mere pity for a wandering student.
That’s why, on the day she was caught at the train station, when she hugged her teacher, her tears strangely wouldn’t stop. She liked her teacher for understanding her without words, and she had hoped things would work out between her teacher and her brother, but it seemed that ship had already sailed.
‘Teacher and my brother do look good together, but…’
When she was with Han-gyeol’s Uncle, the teacher shone brightly. More than anything, she looked incredibly at ease, and outwardly, she seemed to suit Han-gyeol’s Uncle, who exuded masculinity, even better.
Her brother was quick-witted, so he must have given up on the teacher with difficulty. He seemed to like her quite a bit, but had he truly moved on?
Her brother, who had changed a little after the incident, was currently preparing to open a law practice after quitting his prosecutor job. Despite his busy schedule, he never failed to check her grades.
Still, there were no unreasonable demands like before, such as dress code inspections or telling her to cut down on sleep. At this point, one might even say he had a touch of humanity.
If he hadn’t been so pretentious from the start, the teacher wouldn’t have been so disgusted… Tsk.
“Kids, did you all have a good vacation?!”
After handing out all the handouts, the homeroom teacher checked her watch and began to speak. As she asked about their well-being and adjusted the screen for the opening ceremony broadcast, the vice class president raised his hand.
“Teacher, I heard you got a new car! Right?!”
“We all saw it. You were driving at exactly 30 km/h.”
Several students, seemingly already aware of the fact, began to murmur together.
“Ah… you saw?!”
“There’s a rumor you won the lottery, Teacher?”
The teacher, who would have previously responded with a poker-faced ‘Yes, no,’ chuckled and crossed her fingers to make an ‘X’ sign.
“It’s not my car, you know?”
“Oh, I thought if you won, we might get some ice cream!”
“I can buy you that even without winning. Later.”
“Oh! Awesome!”
The homeroom teacher, having set the broadcast to the opening ceremony screen and finished the setup, stood at the podium again. While everyone else turned their attention to the opening ceremony screen, Se-jin observed her homeroom teacher.
The teacher scribbled in the attendance book and let out a small laugh. Then she muttered softly.
“So it was a lottery win.”
⋆★⋆
“You leased it?”
Teacher Hong slammed the Coffee Bean Machine and asked Bom, who was sitting behind him.
“Yes, I leased it.”
He had been trying to brew coffee beans for a while, but it seemed he didn’t know how to use the machine, having only ever had coffee made for him by others.
“No, Teacher Bom, you’ve completely ruined your chances of getting married. Other female teachers save diligently and are adored as they get married, but you? You lease a foreign car?”
Bom pretended not to know, typing on her keyboard and only answering Teacher Hong’s questions, but she couldn’t just watch him repeatedly bang on the Coffee Bean Machine, so she stood up.
“How much is the lease? It’s the end of days. If you were my kid, I’d just smack you! This coffee bean machine is already broken. Did they give us a cheap one?”
“Don’t hit that. If the machine breaks, you’ll have to pay for it, and it costs over two million won…”
“Two hundred?”
At Bom’s words, Teacher Hong immediately backed away. Bom connected the cord she had unplugged before vacation, pressed the power button, and then stared intently at Teacher Hong. If the light wasn’t on, shouldn’t he have checked the power first?
“Oh dear, the cord was unplugged. I thought…”
Teacher Hong, who had spoken awkwardly, started to pick a fight again when Bom didn’t respond.
“This is all celebrities’ fault. Driving around in imported cars and just filling ordinary people with false hopes.”
The reason for this was obvious. A young woman driving an imported car to school was an eyesore to him. Teacher Seo Hye-sook, who entered the faculty office late, happened to witness this scene and wrinkled her nose.
“Teacher Bom, a moment please.”
“Yes. What is it?”
Seo Hye-sook, after seating Bom, gestured towards Hong Jeong-pyo, who was noisily slurping his coffee, and quietly asked.
“Is Teacher Hong picking a fight with Teacher Bom about her new car?”
When Bom nodded, Seo Hye-sook clicked her tongue as if she had expected it. She also mentioned that Teacher Hong had sniped at Jung Jin-hyuk for months when he won a subscription for an apartment in the new town below.
“Anyway, he often goes too far, you know? Don’t mind him.”
“The student affairs office is a separate room, but I don’t know why he keeps coming to visit. He even tried to break the Coffee Bean Machine, I really hate it.”
Bom shivered, glaring at Teacher Hong as he walked out with his coffee. Seo Hye-sook narrowed her eyes, watching Bom.
“Teacher Bom, you’ve changed a lot.”
“…Huh?”
“You never used to say whether you liked or disliked something, so I just thought you were a gentle person.”
Bom’s face turned red. She was quiet, but had she changed enough to warrant that comment?
“You look much better now. I was just starting to get attached, so it’s a shame this is your last semester…”
It felt strange to hear Seo Hye-sook, who merely sat next to her and with whom she hadn’t had many conversations, speak with such sincerity. It was peculiar to hear talk of farewells on the very first day of the new semester.
“…Me too.”
Bom had thought Shinsu High would just be a fleeting stop, having no impact on her life. But today, after the start of the new semester and exchanging greetings with the Class 2 students and the teachers in the faculty office, Bom felt a quiet sense of welcome.
‘This is my last semester…’
Bom, who didn’t have a class next period, opened a portal site, then spotted a new post title on a blog she had added as a neighbor and hastily clicked her mouse.
Pre-announcement of Teacher Certification Exam quotas has been made.
She knew that the first estimated number of successful candidates for the Teacher Certification Exam was to be announced today, but she hadn’t expected it to be released so early. As she scrolled down, Bom’s heart pounded.
‘Please, let them hire many…’
Bom had already made up her mind during vacation. She no longer wished to return to Seoul. While she would like to stay at Shinsu High, the fixed two-year term as a dispatched teacher was something no one could adjust.
What she first looked into was an academy. What if she quit her teaching job and opened an academy here? But the issue of securing instructors was a problem. She would have to either poach students already settled in the Rodeo academy district in town or attract new ones, both of which were difficult tasks.
The next thing she considered was an inter-provincial transfer: a one-to-one exchange between an Ethics and Ideology teacher wanting to move from Seoul to Gyeongnam and an Ethics and Ideology teacher wanting to move from Gyeongnam to Seoul.
Bom, who had expected many people would want to go to Seoul and had thus held out hope, collapsed when she confirmed that this was not the case.
What remained was the method of taking the Teacher Certification Exam anew for the Gyeongnam region. Fortunately, her bank balance was ample, so even if she had no income for a year or two, it wouldn’t hinder her studies.
As she scrolled down, Bom stopped at the table compiled by the blog owner and diligently scanned it. But no matter how much she searched, Gyeongnam was nowhere to be seen.
‘Gyeongnam hasn’t been announced yet.’ Bom sighed and scrolled further down, only to be confronted with an unbelievable fact.
This year, the Jeju and Gyeongnam regions have 0 quotas for Ethics and Ideology.
‘Zero people?’
Since there would be many candidates who had been preparing for the exam since the beginning of the year, or even last year, or even before that, Bom had planned to treat this year as a warm-up and prepare in earnest next year.
But if there were zero quotas this year, the situation was serious. That meant more candidates would flock to the exam next year, making the competition even fiercer, and perhaps there might even be zero quotas again.
Bom also checked Gyeongbuk and Busan, which were relatively close. However, the quotas there were also at rock bottom this year, and more than anything, Bom wanted to stay in this neighborhood for a long time.
Should I look into academies again…? Or, for now, in Seoul…?
Her thoughts grew deep and heavy. As she let out a long sigh, Department Head Kang, who was passing by, acknowledged her.
“You’ll make the ground sink, Teacher Bom. I heard you got a new car?”
“Ah, no, that’s not my car.”
“You should get a lover, not a car. What’s the use of getting a car?”
That again. Department Head Kang once again pushed the civil servant, his wife’s acquaintance, whom he had tried to set her up with last time.
“Just meet him once. Just once. Trust me.”
At the interesting conversation, the teachers immediately gathered around. Fortunately, everyone else had gone to class, leaving only the Head of Academic Affairs, Jung Jin-hyuk, and Teacher Noh.
“Shall I show you a picture, Teacher Bom?”
“Ah, hurry up and open it!”
The person next to them was even more excited. Department Head Kang found the messenger profile, zoomed in on the photo, and held it out to Bom. Bom immediately squeezed her eyes shut upon seeing it.
“Oh dear… Well… he’s not… bad!”
Seo Young-ju, the Head of Academic Affairs, who had been the most excited, took Department Head Kang’s phone, checked the photo, and her voice dropped to a low tone. Teacher Noh covered her mouth and held her tongue, and Jung Jin-hyuk left his seat.
“When you look for a man, you should look at his personality; it’s no good if you’re too picky about looks and wealth. If you meet him, you’ll see he’s a real gem.”
“No. It’s okay, Department Head…”
“Just once!”
Department Head Kang seemed sincere. At that moment, Vice Principal Seok Gwan-su, who had been quietly sitting at his desk, slowly approached the group.
“Well, Teacher Bom… she’ll find someone good on her own, so just leave her be. Ahem! Department Head Kang, you shouldn’t push so hard. Understood…?”
“Ah, yes, Vice Principal.”
Department Head Kang clicked his tongue and returned to his seat. Seok Gwan-su called Bom over to his desk, which was a bit further away, and lowered his voice.
“Right, Teacher Bom. You know… with Han-gyeol’s Uncle.”
To a flustered Bom, Seok Gwan-su gave a knowing look and a thumbs-up, as if to say, ‘Trust me.’
‘He must have noticed during the typhoon.’
Seok Gwan-su lowered his voice and promised that if such a situation arose again, he would use his influence to stop it. He also added some unnecessary talk about having a romantic ideal of secret relationships.
“Um, but you know, Teacher Bom.”
The beaming Vice Principal scratched his bald head, gauging Bom’s reaction. What was he trying to say?