endless • kth

f o r t y f i v e

• cherishing the harvests •

"immortality is the ability to live forever; eternal life."

•

225 years later

it was an usual morning. the sun shone bright and the breeze was warm with a slight salty taste on it. the beach was just a few blocks away from the school. one could easily see the panoramic view from the highest point inside the school, it was really beautiful, there was no denial of it. the school's building looked exactly the same but just on the outside, some major changes had been done in the previous month. the new school year was just starting and that morning, there was a hubbub in the backyard. most students, females in the majority, were gathered around, pushing each other, some of them on their tiptoes, peeking through the windows of the literature classroom. the gossips were audible but not defined, it was hard to tell the reason of all that riot.

"what happened with professor seunghyun?"

"i have no idea, he's not in his usual classroom"

"who is that?"

"was he replaced?" were some of the few whispers that could be heard. every time there was a teacher replacement, the students would go animalistic. they would gossip about the reasons why the teacher was replaced and some of them would be celebrating, especially if that teacher was not of their liking. 

the bell rang and the big hord of girls gathering outside just broke up and they looked like cockroaches going back to their caves. it was a funny view. some of them had literature class so they rushed towards the classroom to meet the new replacement.

they all went inside the classroom and as soon as their eyes posed on the new teacher, their jaws dropped immediately. greeting with a bow as they took their places quietly. they couldn't help but think the new replacement was definitely an improvement of the previous literature teacher.

after a few minutes the class was all full, all students sitting in their respective chairs and just staring at the new teacher. they were curious about the reasons why park seunghyun would leave the school but they were more curious about his replacement. 

the man stepped forward and sat on top of the desk, looking at the young and fresh faces in front of him. "good morning." his raspy and deep voice echoed in the room. the students looked at each other and returned the greeting with a confused tone.

"it's a pleasure to meet you all, i am kim taehyung... and i'll be replacing professor park seunghyun for this school year. i am the new literature teacher." he said pressing his lips together in a thin line. the students mouths were o's, eyes widened at the sudden news.

a boy raised his hand to ask a question. taehyung's eyes followed him and finally nodded on aprobation, giving the student green light to ask whatever question he had.

"i am sorry professor... but... what happened to mr. park?"

taehyung nodded, understanding the students were probably curious about why his teacher had been replaced. "he left for personal reasons." that's all he said. the boy nodded and soon the students knew they couldn't ask more questions about it.

"any other question?"

"here." one of the girls said, raising her hand. taehyung just nodded.

"where are you from professor kim?" he swallowed hard at the question. he was from daegu, south korea, but he hasn't been there in a long time, actually, he hasn't been in south korea in years, 225 to be exact.