Nook in the Forest

VII

Chapter 7: Doubt

Incessant chatter filled the room, bringing Tae Seok to the brink of his sanity. I just want to go home, he thought as he absent-mindedly surveyed the room. He was counting the number of cracks on the concrete wall, when someone interrupted his train of thought (or lack thereof).

"Tae Seok!" Adelaide squealed. Her long brown ponytail swished behind her as she stopped in front of him.

"What?" Tae Seok continued to trace the imperfections in the wall with his eyes.

"You want to hear something funny?" Her grin grew and threatened to fall off her face.

"If practice makes perfect and perfect needs practice, I'm perfectly practiced and practically perfect." Tae Seok's eyes did not leave the wall.

"What!" Adelaide was dumbstruck.

Or maybe she's just dumb.

Nobody could really tell with Adelaide.

Her pretty face, painted with a childlike ignorance, masked her lack of intelligence. She usually kept her stupidity carefully concealed, tucked into the dusty corners of her mind behind perfunctory manners, rote politeness, and a magnetic personality. This time, however, her ignorance had slipped out–in front of the particularly attractive new guy. She shook her head, forcing a charming smile to spread across her face before forging a crafty response to cover her minor slip-up.

"I mean, Tae Seok, you're so funny!" Adelaide giggled. Her head turned from side to side as she confirmed that the whole class saw how popular she was with the new student.

"I wasn't trying to be, but thank you," Tae Seok responded curtly and resumed his current endeavor.

"I would also say you are practically perfect in every way as well." She breathed. Her sincerity stung like a needle to his heart, and Tae Seok thought critically about how to deal with her nicely.

"Okay, bye." Tae Seok feigned a smile and attempted to politely wave Adelaide away.

Thankfully, Adelaide left, reluctant to part with Tae Seok, and her friends followed her.

Tae Seok, once again left alone with his thoughts, prepared himself for class. In other words, he skimmed the section of Romeo and Juliet he was supposed to read the night before but didn't. Much to his chagrin, Jiji's conversation with Benji prohibited his comprehension of the reading material.

Apparently, Benji believed Tae Seok was attempting to "steal Jiji's heart,"which was a sentiment that Tae Seok did not understand, especially since Jiji was the one that was always staring at him.

Once class started, he decided to help Jiji. She always answered the questions in English class, so he thought that today, he would agree with everything she said–just to be nice. However, when she answered the teacher's question about themes in Romeo and Juliet, she was wrong. Blatantly so. What was Tae Seok to do?

I bet she just did that to bait me. If I agreed with her, she could disagree with me and claim that she presented the wrong answer on purpose, just to prove that I agreed just to agree. Validating her would only solidify Benji's idea that I am in love with her. Well, guess what, Jiji, I'm too smart for you!

"Actually, Jiji is wrong."

"What?!" Jiji yelled.

"Juliet compares Romeo to a rose, but simply laments the fact that Romeo is a Montague. It has nothing to do with the thorns," Tae Seok explained. He made eye contact with Jiji, who was fuming. Her reaction gave him the impression that his rationalization might have been wrong, so he attempted to rectify the situation by offering her a good-natured smile.