•••
going to school was fun for aera's friends and she could see it right in front of her when they were dragging her inside the premises like she wasn't a human with legs of her own. the girl sighs at her friend, stopping by her new locker which they all got just two weeks ago in their new school. "the golden time" her liked to call it, maybe because they got best faculty who taught in a fun way that was easy to learn things, and especially wouldn't pin out the kids like they did to aera more than just frequently.
for any other kid, maybe it wasn't as much of a torture as it was for jeon aera, considering that she had nowhere to run. the rest could at least go home and be away from their teachers for a few hours, or come to school and be away from their grumpy families if that's what bothered them. although for aera, it as all the same. not one, not two and not even three— literally every face from home was also available at school as her very own teachers.
she wasn't surprised when she came to know that jimin enrolled her in the school he works as a teacher with the rest of the boys, but she was disappointed a little, thinking about what the other kids might say when everyone comes to know that that aera's actually related, well connected— as in shares the same family as the seven handsome teachers from the school. no way. she could face anything but this kind of mockery.
still, the very first day in her new school, she already told her friend about her oppas being teachers here. and all she could pray was for juhi, her friend to still be friends with her and not plea away for the fear having constant attention from the teachers. to aera's relief, the girl never left her side in these two long and torturous weeks, and it confirmed for aera that she got a good friend.
she wasn't worried about juhi, for the girl wasn't a troublesome kid unlike aera herself, who just wouldn't sit quietly in class or try to pull stunts that would eventually end her up in a weird position. she— juhi— was the shy and quiet girl always seen with a hyped one, trying her best to stay in decent shape rather than trying out undefined adventures. she got straight a's and for that, she was often a good reason of discussion among teachers too.
so being caught with aera or being punished wasn't something the girl feared for juhi knowing aera's brothers. on the contrary, she was worried that jimin might reach out to her and ask her to talk and teach some of her maturity and sensible-ness into his sister as well, which irritated aera and made juhi too shy to even speak. oh and— no matter how much juhi recieved compliments about being so well-behaved, academic excellence and maturity that it seemed like there was a generation gap between her and the kids around her age, she never got used to it. her natural reaction was to get flustered and tug her hair nervously behind her ear, which never failed to make the elders smile.
even aera told her that she looked cute like that, but juhi would just shrug her comment off and carry on with her work. even right now as aera's slouching on her seat, playing with the pencil, putting it between her teeth or trying to make it stand on the eraser attached to the back of it, whereas juhi is busy scribbling down her notes from the interactive board in the front.
"why aren't you writing?" she sighs.
aera pouts, showing her the pencil with the broken lead, and juhi shakes her head, giving her another one from her pencil case, "write it or sir will scold you,"
"when does he not scold me?" aera mutters, starting to jot down everything written on the board exactly how it is. she frowns, leaning forward to see a word and fails, thanks to a taller boy sitting ahead. so she turns to juhi, peeking past her left hand and nods, copying from her notebook.
"is everyone done?"
"yes sir," most of the kids chorus together while aera panics, shooting up her head to look at her brother and shakes her head.
when jimin doesn't pay attention to her and is about to move to the slide, probably to teach and write further, aera raises up her hand, "i'm not done! just two minutes please,"
jimin sighs at her, nodding briefly while he uses the time to turn the page of the text book of the kid sitting right in front of him and points at the third heading, "alright, anyone who's left can keep writing. it's almost time for the bell to ring, so let's wind it up here. any questions from the today's class?" he says, scanning around the forty students in the class and smiles seeing the same few hands up, "yes, ahra,"
the girl stands up, glancing at the book and then at jimin, "sir, question number four,"
jimin nods, borrowing a kid's book and hums, reading the question, "what's the problem?" he chuckles, "if you're given two speeds and the distance is already divided in half, just simply find the average of two speeds,"
"oh okay, i was doing it the wrong way..." ahra says.
"it's alright, try it again. and if there's still a problem, see me in the staff room later,"
ahra nods, giving him a smile of gratitude before taking her seat, then a boy from the back raises up his hand, "yes, rehan," jimin smiles, "i'm assuming it's not from today's class,"
"sir," the boy virtually whines, but shakes his head still, "i tried so mamy times, i couldn't get the the value."
"maybe you haven't tried all the ways yet?" jimin chuckles, stalling to boy's seat and looks at his notebook where he has scribbled down some numericals in his miserable handwriting, "when you're trying to solve a circuit, everyone," he speaks to the class and to rehan as well, making him sit down and turns towards the board, "try to do it one by one. if there's a series connection along with the parallel ones, take the nearest ones first. resolve them and move to the next one,"
"can you please solve this one?" rehan mumbles and jimin takes his pen, drawing the figure of the circuit again and cancels out a few resistors, showing the boy how it was not a difficult question just needed some use of the practicality rather than the theory. "wow... okay... the current will be zero in the second arm, right. thank you sir," he smiles at jimin, quickly grabbing another pen and marks the question done in his practice book.
"no problem," jimin says, walking back to the front, "yes maya? any doubts?"
"no sir, i figured it out, thank you,"
"oh that's great," he smiles, patting her head when he passes her and stands in the front, glancing at his sister, who smiles at her notebook and puts down the pencil. then to his surprise, she raises her hand up, standing on her place when he nods in response.
"what is endo-parasite?"
"let's try to break the words," jimin gestures her to sit down and writes the compound word on the board, circling 'endo' with red color and 'parasite' with yellow, "what do you think endo means?"
"inside!" rehan answers.
"and what is parasite?"
"an organism that depends on the host for it's nutrition and shelter,"
jimin nods, "and it also negatively impacts the host. for instance, we know about a ascaris, liver fluke, tape worm. they dwell inside the human body in the alimentary canal."
"yes," the students nod.
"so since these organisations live inside the host and depend on the host for their survival, can we call them endo-parasites?"
"yes sir,"
"right," he smiles and turns to aera, putting the e-pen down, "did you get it now?"
"yes, thank you, sir," she nods with a grin, sitting down and turns to her friend who chuckles at her.
"great, let's call it a day now. don't forget your homework, i'll be seeing it tomorrow and you'll be having a test too. chapters 4 and 5,"
"yes sir,"
the bell rings and jimin walks out of the class, leaving the kids inside to chatter along for a bit while also putting their things in their bags as it's time for their p.e. class now. aera smiles at the thought of beating the boys in basketball today like the last time when she was allowed to play with them. she enters the gym, going to her locker and brings out her red shorts and the white t-shirt, similar to rest of the girls'.
she changes quickly, finding the first empty stall and awaits her friend, dragging her out with her towards the basketball court. however to her dismay, the court is already taken up today. some seniors are playing along with the p.e. coach— jeon jungkook, himself. considering jungkook to be the youngest of the faculty in the school, he often had a great bond with students, especially the senior students. but the younger ones often took him to be strict and commanding.
"good morning sir," aera says in sync with her classmates as they all gather by the court, grabbing jungkook's attention. he nods in acknowledgment, smiling at them and stops after shooting the ball one last time into the net.
"good morning," he responds, "is everyone here?"
"we're here," a boy speaks, grinning at the sports teacher and points at the basketball, "match?"
"no, get everybody here first," jungkook smacks the boy's head, tossing the ball towards the group of senior boys, "wrap it up guys, and back to your classes,"
"sir, you promised another match," one of them says, drinking from his water bottle and wipes the sweat from his forehead.
"i didn't say right now," jungkook chuckles, "go. i've got these kids, and they're gonna work heavy today,"
"that's no fun," another says, "c'mon sir, one match. we were almost winning the last one,"
aera watches the seniors with shining eyes, admiring their frank and friendly nature which jungkook always said was important between sportsmen. letting go of her friend's hand, she steps forward, glancing at the tall group of seniors and chimes in, "can i play with you?"
"you?" the one from earlier cocks up a brow, letting out a chuckle as he exchanges glances with his friends, "do you think you'll be able to play with us?"
"yeah, why not?" aera nods.
"oh, cool," the sond guy sniggers, "don't end up falling and hurting yourself. you're still small,"
a few kids from aera's class laugh at her, making her frown as she turns to jungkook who's also suppressing a smile, shrugging his shoulders, "hey, alright everybody," he clears his throat, stepping in and nods for the seniors to play with aera once, making them sigh as they agree and head to the side.
"yes! thank you!" aera cheers excitedly, following behind the elders, earning looks from them that said 'what is she so excited for?'. jungkook laughs at them, shaking his head and nudges them to not say anything that might hurt the young girl.
"who do you want in your team?" the tall one in the front asks, "i'm yeonjun, that's subin, kai, taehyun, beomgyu," he says, pointing at the ones on his right and then on his left, "he is junwon, then that's heeseung, jay and yugyeom and at last bambam,"
aera pouts, stating at each one of them with her head slightly tilted upwards as she points at yeonjun himself, "you," she says, making the guys laugh they push him towards the kid and he sighs, rubbing the back of his neck, "and uhm bambam and soobin, and beomgyu!"
"you don't even know if you chose the right ones," jay comments, laughing at her.
"i've seen yeonjun oppa play sometimes," she shrugs and yeonjun arches up a brow, "yeah, you're always here and you keep playing."
"okay," he says, grabbing his hair and does them into a small bun on the back of his head, leaving some strands of his hair behind as they're still not long enough to stay put. he claps his hands twice, jogging up to the centre of the court with the boys and aera, "guys, let's start, c'mon!"
"i'm the captain, not you!" aera complains, getting laughs from the opposite team and her brother while yeonjun looks a bit embarrassed.
"you, little girl, are too much," he mutters.
"i'm not little,"
"sure," yeonjun shakes his head, turning her around to make her face the opponents, "if we lose because of you— whatever your name is— you won't bother me after this,"
aera looks up above her shoulder, glancing at yeonjun's handsome face, "and if we win because of me, you'll be my friend. deal?"
"no, why would i be friends with you?"
"of course yes!" bambam chimes, throwing his arm around aera and bumps his fist with her, "we all will be your friends,"
"yes," aera grins, turning to jungkook and nods, "let's start,"
"move aside," yeonjun says, pulling aera to the side and stands in the front, facing heeseung from the opposite team as jungkook is ready to throw the ball up. before aera protests to be the first one, the whistle blows and the guys are already spread across the court, as yeonjun smirks at heeseung, grabbing the ball and passing it to beomgyu on his right.
"up right!" jay shouts and bambam approaches first, standing a few feet behind him and raises up his hand for his teammate. beomgyu dribbles, passing aera, heeseung and soobin then jump up a little, passing the ball to bambam, who instantly hops on his place, putting it right in the basket, scoring an easy point.
aera bites on her lip, glancing at the score board frequently as it keeps increasing for both the teams, gaining cheers from her classmates and even jungkook claps in appreciation at times. however aera doesn't like the game too much for all she's doing is running after the elder boys who don't even bother sparing her a glance.
she huffs when jungkook blows the whistle for the timeout, and walks out of the court, sitting by the pole of the basket with an upset look, "what? done playing?" heuning kai snickers, giving her a hand to stand up, which she smacks away.
"what's wrong?" jungkook approaches them.
"they don't include me in the game! i wanna play too!"
jungkook sighs softly, pulling her up and pats her back, "guys, yeonjun-ah!" he calls, "let her play too. she wants to play with you guys,"
yeonjun nods, giving the coach a thumbs up and motions his hand, asking for aera to go to him, "what?" the girl mumbles, crossing her arms on her chest, "why don't you let me play?"
"i'm sorry, okay?" he sighs, "stay with bambam. we'll play better. we've to win yeah?" aera stares at him, nodding slowly as the smile returns on her lips and stands with them, placing her hand in the middle for their team cheer.
yeonjun kept his words and they did involve aera more in the game, making her happy. she even surprised them by earning a few scores for her team and playing actively like rest of the members. a few more shots later, aera pants deeply, standing outside the boundary line with the ball in her hands and sweat trickling down from her forehead and sides. she gulps down her saliva, throwing the ball towards yeonjun and follows in to the opposite side of the court.
"beomgyu oppa here!" aera jumps to her right, situating herself beside the three point line, ignoring heuning kai's presence behind her as his taller figure, leans over her head, blocking the ball before she reaches out to catch it, and dribbles it away.
"aish!" soobin shakes his head, jogging past them, patting aera's head once, "it's okay,"
she goes between the tall boys, ducking down and sneaks her way in, giggling as she tries to grab the basketball and shoot it on the net which is right in front of her. jay squints at the girl, eyeing his teammates to give the ball away.
aera glances at the side, seeing jungkook, blowing a whistle as he taps on his watch, letting them know that the time is about to get over. and if this team scores a point now, aera will lose. she huffs, biting her lip and glances at heuning kai, who instead of passing the ball, is ready to shoot in the net.
"ow!" aera yelps, falling down and grabs her foot, "ouch! i twisted my ankel!"
the boys turn to her with worried looks, and so does jungkook and her classmates. kai lets go of the ball, crouching down near her as he's the nearest one. she winces when he tries to touch her ankel, "is it that bad?" he asks softly.
"yeah," she nods, standing up slowly and pretends to limp to the side, "i'm okay though... don't worry... ouch..." she walks past him, refusing when he offers some help and stops near the ball, picking it up casually and sticks her tongue at them, shooting it right into the net from the 3-pointer line, "i won!"
the boys stare at her with disbelieving eyes, until they actually realise that they've been tricked by her in their own game. the opponent team scoffs, walking away to the bleachers, while aera's teammates laugh at them, giving high-fives to each other.
"you cheated," jay mutters.
"no, i have brain and i used it," she giggles, looking up at bambam who's hugging her from the side, "friends?"
"beat friends!" he shakes hands with her, laughing at his friends who were in the other team, looking pissed, "you guys suck!"
"we could've won," yugyeom rolls his eyes, turning to jungkook, "it was a clear foul, sir,"
"it's okay," jungkook chuckles, "alright guys, you all back to your classes and aera, stay with your class,"
"i won!" aera cheers again, taking her water bottle and waves at the senior boys, "don't forget your promise!"
"let's meet at lunch okay?" soobin smiles at her, "we all will be there,"
"yeah," yeonjun nods, "it was nice playing with you,"
"thanks," she shakes his hand, making him smile and ruffle his hair, "i'll come later, bye."
"bye," bambam waves back, leaving with his group and aera returns to sit near juhi, breathing deeply after a tiring game.
"you're so cool, aera," juhi says, "i can never imagine talking to the seniors, let alone playing and challenging them,"
"yeah," another girl says, "you were so cool today!"
"they'll have lunch with you!" a guy gushes, "that's the most popular group of boys do you know that?!"
"yeah yeah," aera grins proudly, glancing at her brother who's smiling as well, giving her an impressed look. the bell rings soon and they all head back to the gyms.
before the next class, which is english, aera finds the class president standing by her seat, seemingly waiting for her. she approaches him with a raised eyebrow, "aera, did visit the headmaster's office?" the boy asks, making her gasp as she bites her tongue, turning to her friend with a scared expression. "so i assume you didn't. please go right now, or you might get another detention,"
"god! why me?!" aera stomps her feet, walking out of the class as juhi gives her a nervous smile that says she'll pray for aera.
muttering curses under her breath for sleeping in class yesterday and then going as far as forgetting about seeing seokjin— the social science teacher— was a big mistake aera made. she should've known anything she does would be used against her and put forth right in front of min yoongi, aera's appa cum headmaster of the school.
she takes a deep breath before pushing the door of yoongi's office open slowly and peeks in, finding jin already standing there along with taehyung and namjoon while yoongi is sitting on his chair. aera sighs, entering the room without asking for permission for she assumes it's fine, and it draws the attention towards her.
"who told you to come in?" yoongi voices, eyes sending her an unimpressed, monotonous gaze.
aera stops on her place, looking at the man with unsure eyes and gulps down thickly, "may i come in...?"
"who are you speaking to?"
aera bites her cheek from the inside, "may i come in, sir?"
yoongi nods firmly, standing up from his swivelling chair as he maintains some thick tension in the air, approaching aera. and just by that, she can tell she's in trouble.
"i didn't do anything, appa... i promise..." she mumbles.
"yeah?" yoongi cocks up a brow at her, "so you're saying jin, namjoon and taehyung— all of them are here just to fool around with me?"
"i'm sorry..." aera's eyes search for any chance of negotiations, even the slightest ones in yoongi or the other three males, who sigh, shaking their heads for her to know that it's game over now, "nobody said last warning... that's cheating... jinnie oppa, no,"
"is this a game to you?" yoongi glares at the girl, "look at me when i'm speaking to you, aera,"
aera's eyes fill with tears at his firm voice shaking up her insides, reminding her just how scary min yoongi can be when he's mad. she rubs her eyes, never looking up and that probably angers yoongi more, for his hand makes her head tilt up to him, "stop crying at once," he hisses, "and what exactly is the problem tell me? why can't you just sit quietly in a class and stay out of trouble? jin told me you were sleeping mid-class. then you were passing notes in taehyung's class and you don't do homework in their subjects. what should i do to make you understand that we're not fools here, aera?"
aera nibbles on her lip, wiping the tears from her cheeks as she shakes her head slowly, "i'm sorry..."
"sorry who?"
"i'm sorry, appa,"
"appa?"
aera looks up at him, pouring out more tears and mumbles, "i'm sorry, sir..."
"hm, now you'll stay back and help the librarian arrange the books in the library," he declares, "and once you're done, you can start working on all of your pending classwork, homework— whatever is left, and submit it with your classmates tomorrow. no excuses in that, get it?"
aera nods subtly, not having anything to argue against and stares at her feet, "namjoon-ah," yoongi sighs deeply, turning to face the said male and gestures outside, "you should go, your students must be waiting. and you guys too, aera won't attend anymore classes today, she's staying back here,"
the three nod briefly, heading out of the office and now it's only yoongi and aera here. the girl's still sniffling softly, wiping off the silent tears that flow down from her cheeks frequently along with tiny hiccups leaving her lips.
"sit down, you'll stay here until the last bell,"
aera obeys quietly, rubbing her eyes and looks around for water when the hiccups don't stop. she glances at yoongi's back as he's doing something on his desk. she sighs softly, not saying anything and just stares a her feet, until a shadow hovers above her. she looks up slowly, seeing yoongi holding out a glass of water for her, while his eyes are fixed on the screen of his phone as though he's not the one offering her water.
"thank you..." aera mumbles, taking the glass which was meant for him, "and i'm sorry appa, please don't be mad. i- i'll do all the work and be good, i promise,"
yoongi glances at her for a second, bringing the phone closer to his ear and walks back to his chair, making aera sigh as he returns to his work which maybe he was trying to do earlier. aera stands up from the couch, strolling towards him, praying internally for him not to tell her to go back. yoongi ignores her until she's standing next to his chair, holding his arm in a gentle grip, "appa... i'm sorry,"
"don't talk to me," he says, keeping his attention on the file in his hand. he signs a few pages and puts it down, then picking up the receiver of the telephone and calls for the secretary. a man shows up instantly and aera sighs, walking back to the couch with teary eyes.
yoongi stands up after some time when the previous man returns with her bag and probably all the books inside it, placing it on the couch next to her. she looks at yoongi who's adjusting his wrist watch while he speaks, "i don't want any nuisance. you'll sit here quietly and do your work. i'll be out for a while okay?"
aera pouts at him, shaking her head subtly and yoongi sighs, nodding his for the secretary to leave them alone for a moment. yoongi approaches near aera and kneels down on his one knee in front of her, "stop crying,"
aera gulps down a bigger sob, trying her best to not cry more, but tears flow down from her eyes, "you've really been a bad girl. i kept ignoring the complains since last week, but i guess you don't like it when we're trying to deal with you nicely hm? you knew it too that tae told me and jimin about your behaviour in class and with other students, still you decided to carry on with that. give me one good reason, kiddo, why shouldn't i be mad at you?"
"i'm sorry, appa... i won't do it again, i promise," she sobs, keeping her head low as she rubs her eyes, "rehan and his friends were betting with me and—"
"no, don't even think you can have any justifications here. betting is not good, and people who do that aren't good either. i talked to rehan too about it, he's getting detention as well, jimin will see into that. and with you, i'm gonna handle it,"
"appa..." aera mumbles, looking at his face with a pleading gaze, "i'm sorry,"
"you should be," he nods, "also, tell me one thing, and don't try to lie to me, or else there are going to be serious consequences for you,"
"...what...?"
"you had a test three days ago," he says and aera bites her tongue, breaking into another sob as she realises how bad she messed up this time, "jin was checking your answer-book and surprisingly you had all the answers correct. how?"
"i... i studied..."
"did you?" yoongi arches up a brow, "well then you won't have a problem if i give you some questions right now, will you?"
"no..."
yoongi's jaw clenches in anger, but he decides to stay quiet and opens aera's mathematics textbook and marks some questions for her to do, "i'll take about an hour, and i want them done correctly in your notebook by then. no cheating, get that?"
"i don't wan—"
"yes, you do," he declares firmly, "get started, i'm gonna see how many you get correct this time,"
"no— i— wait appa," she speaks hastily, holding the book in her lap as she stares at yoongi with a scared face, "i don't know it... i copied from juhi in the test... i'm sorry..." she confesses finally, earning a satisfied nod from the elder male.
"you cheated in the test— for what reason?"
"i thought i'll get good marks and make you happy at least once. an-and i was going to study for the next test on my own! i promise!"
"we really need to work on you," yoongi glares, walking to the door, "get your work done, then we'll see what to do,"
aera stares at his back disappearing behind the door, leaving her alone to think what new way yoongi and jimin might introduce to punish her now. she's got detention, been grounded, taken away her electronics and there's practically nothing else left to do. the pout stays put on her lips as she looks down at her book and sighs deeply, taking out a pencil and starting with writing the solutions.
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a/n- my mood these days>>>
i have nothing to say. idk what say sorry, just hang on with me pls 😭
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4.7K words