𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙂𝙪𝙮 | PJM ff

𝙑𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙥𝙩.1

My heart was numb from all the looks that people around me had been giving me because I knew that they're either staring because of my swollen eyelids or because of their annoying curiosity of what's going to happen to me.

I wished I wouldn't get expelled. I couldn't imagine how sad my mum would look and how speechless my brother would get.

I wearily knocked on the hard wooden door.

A moment of silence.

"Come in."

I pushed open the door. I slowly bowed before I walked to the centre of the room. I did not bother lifting up my head.

Pointless.

When I still couldn't hear any voices about starting the meeting, I looked up.

There were more people here than the last time I saw in the staff office. I recognised the wrinkled faces of a few members of the school council, all with faces full of wisdom and power. The teachers were still reading from their laptops, shuffling some papers or talking to each other in a low voice.

What are they waiting for?

Two very clear knocks were heard from the door.

"Oh he must be here." I heard Mrs. Lee whispered. "Come in."

I gasped when I saw Jimin.

Why's he here?

He walked into the room, bowing before he went to take a seat beside the teachers.

A frown was held on my face when I saw Wonyoung entering as well. But instead of following Jimin, she walked and stopped a few metres beside me.

She never turned to me.

"So shall we start now?" Mrs. Lee glanced at the few teachers from the English Department who all nodded their heads now.

She stood up from her chair. "I believe we all know why we're holding this meeting," she stopped and looked at me. "Because we're suspecting that a student from my class, Miss Seohyun, cheated in the latest English test."

"For our school, this is a very major issue because we have always wished to give our students the best education. Not only that, we also want them to grow as unique individuals and most importantly, to become someone that can contribute to the society. Cheating is a behaviour that the world would never accept. We as the teachers have the responsibility to take care of this and hopefully Miss Seohyun would understand and never make such a mistake anymore. That was the original principle of this meeting, hence why we invited our principle, vice principle, chief academic officers and the English Department professors."

Although I had an enormous urge to shout at their pathetic faces, my palms became sweaty. They said it as if the whole situation was unchangeable, there's no going back.

If I was assumed to be cheating, then I am.

"However."

My ears twitched.

"Apparently, one of our teachers from the Science Department has something to say. He believes that Miss Seohyun is innocent." Mrs. Lee clapped her hands together and turned to Wonyoung then to Jimin. She asked, "Mr. Park, before you begin, may I know why you've brought another student here?"

Jimin gave her a smile simply out of politeness and nothing more, in fact, it looked tired, he looked tired and frustrated.

It was now when I noticed the two very obvious dark eye circles on his face.

He spoke with a hoarse voice, "you'll soon know after my explanation Mrs. Lee."

Thousands of questions ran through my head like a racing match.

Is it him who Mrs. Lee was referring to? The one who believes that I'm innocent?

Why is Wonyoung here?

Why is his voice so rough? And the eye bags. What'd he been doing?

Although I hated him, I still cared for him. I never stopped liking him.

Have I actually hated him?

He stood in front of me and Wonyoung. His familiar classy cologne smell instantly reached my nose and took over me.

I had to withstand it.

"Good afternoon Mr. Choi, our school principle, Mrs. Chae, our vice principle..." It was a long list of greetings. "I am Mr. Park Jimin from the Science Department, more specifically I am the biology teacher for the senior classes. I am here to deny the suspect of Miss Kim Seohyun cheating in a test and also to provide a further clarification of the case. The reason for that is because I do not wish to see my students being blamed and punished for something that they didn't even do."

Mr. Choi exchanged looks with a teacher beside him. He asked, his voice was deep and harsh, "I've heard that both of them are your students?"

Them referring to Wonyoung and I.

"Yes Mr. Choi."

Mr. Choi held his chin and gave out a short rumble of noise. "How can we know whether this has something to deal with...anything going on between the two of you? You and Miss Kim. Whether you two have communicated beforehand or-"

Mrs. Chae cut him off when she sensed what he's trying to say, "Mr. Choi, but I'm afraid it's not allowed for our teachers to start any kind of relationship with our students."

"I know but I'm just trying to make sure." For one moment, I almost gave up and told him the truth of Jimin and I being a couple. His wise eyes were so penetrating and nerve-racking.

"We're just a teacher and a student. You can ask the others. I was very disappointed when I knew she was accused of cheating too. I just thought I should speak for her now because I found evidence," Jimin carefully explained.

My lips parted.

So is that why...

"You may begin."

Jimin fished out a white file from his satchel bag. He took out a piece of paper. I couldn't see what it was showing.

"Here's a photo that was taken a few weeks ago just a few days before the English test had taken place. I was taking this picture with my biology students because they had gotten a prize. It was really just a coincidence that Miss Kim came to find me that time too. You can see her at the background. With someone beside her, and that is Miss Jang Wonyoung."

I remained very still, listening to every single word that Jimin said because even me as the one being suspected, still had no clue of what's going on and how to defend myself.

And here he was, defending me.

"You can clearly see that Miss Jang was giving a set of test papers to Miss Kim. The front cover of it looked exactly like the English paper version 1."

The teachers started to fix their sitting postures like they got uncomfortable all of a sudden. Their gazes grew more intense.

I stared at the floor.

I remember that day.

I abruptly mouthed 'no way' when an idea which I had never thought of jumped in my head.

So that set of papers wasn't just a normal set of past papers?

They're...the papers that we're supposed to be tested on.

I turned to Wonyoung who now clicked her tongue and flipped her hair back. That normal resting face of hers suddenly grew darker and more unreachable for me.

"It's you, isn't it?"

Part 2 will be up soon! I got Spanish class tomorrow and I still haven't studied omg so I have to go now:( long chapter! Hope yall liked it! I saw that a few of you guessed it right hehe.

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