Park & Kim

Kim Jae Hwa set her books on her desk before sitting down in the empty classroom. Jae had come to school an hour and a half early in order to avoid having to ride to school with Lee Sujung. Her parents had insisted that they ride together since he was staying at the house. They just didn’t get it. She wanted to have nothing to do with Sujung, and she wasn’t ready to be alone with him in his car… again.

She let her head rest on her arms as she tried to get a few more minutes of sleep before people started to show up. She only had two classes today. Two classes and then she could finally go on the school camping trip, and get away from Sujung.

Jae wasn’t sure how long she sat like that, but it wasn’t long before she heard the creak of the door opening. Without looking at the newcomer she took a glance at her watch. 7:00 am. No one should be here for at least another thirty minutes.

“Yah, Student, why are you here so early?” The voice was low, and it filled the room as she turned to look at who it belonged to.

Ah, Park Jimin.

Jimin was a thorn in her side. The past two years of school had only been made worse by his presence. And his grades. She had to fight tooth and nail to be the top in class. And almost every time she had slid by him sometimes by a fraction of a point. Being the top marked student was her parents’ expectation of her. And by God, she wasn’t going to let that midget beat her out of it.

“Yah! Are you ignoring me?” She looked at him with the deadest glance she possibly could, hoping he would get the point.

Yeah, I’m ignoring you. Jae laid her head back down on her desk. Of course, today of all days he would show up early.

“Student, I don’t appreciate the disrespect you are showing me right now.”

Jae snorted, and without even looking up added, “Student? Jimin, I know you know my name. It’s the one always directly above yours.”

Jimin walked to his desk, kicking hers as he went by. That jerk. She looked back up to see a smirk spread across his face.

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Class started a few minutes late. One of the girls had insisted on eating up some of the professor’s time by going over an extra credit paper he had her write. Jae looked down at her watch, trying to control the growling of her stomach. In her haste to get out of the house, she had forgot to pack her usual nut mix. And now she was paying for it. The boy across the aisle continuously glanced over at her, trying to stifle his laugh.

Ten more minutes. The professor was talking about some writing concept they were meant to have integrated in the last paper, and how half the class didn’t. And blah, blah, blah. Nothing to do with her, she had scored perfectly on the paper. Although she had taken six different classes with this professor over the past two years and she adored him. He was always fair with his grading, and she never felt like other people that didn’t work as hard got the same mark as her. A practice that not all professors seemed to care about.

“Miss Kim? Did you hear me?” Jae snapped to attention and looked at the professor, who was only standing about four feet away from her desk.

“I’m sorry Professor. I must have zoned out.” She could feel the heat rising to her cheeks from the embarrassment of the statement.

“I need to see you and Mr. Park after class.”

“Yes, sir.” Great. What the heck could this be about? Was there some context that she had missed. Did he say anything to hint at what this was all about? Jae looked back down at her watch. I guess my nut mix will have to wait a little longer than I thought.