ALL BARK NO BITE | SADISTIC BEAUTY SPINOFF

Chapter 10

~Literary Review Class, Hanguk University, Daehak-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul

"One week. You all had one week to rewrite your pathetic essays. In the first handout itself, I pointed out common mistakes that almost all of you made-" Minho thundered down on his students, standing in front of the class, flipping through the submitted papers, this batch is truly something else, he thought to himself.

"Out of order introduction of characters, continuity blunders, comma misuse, poor paragraph spacing, the irrelevancy of theme, unsuitable conclusion, wordiness, improper execution of said moral and the godforsaken grammatical errors!" Minho counted off on one hand as his class sat in stunned silence.

"We have gone through the writing process SO MANY TIMES and you all still fail to grasp the technical layout let alone the creative one" he heard a small pfft from somewhere in the classroom and he whipped his head around to look. "You" he pointed to a skinny, dark-haired boy sitting with a smug expression pasted on his face

"Do you have something supremely enlightening to add to my lecture?" he frowned at him. "Professor..." he looked miffed and Minho crossed his arms "You seem too bothered about the essays" he finally let out "Writing is an infinite and complex process. Micromanaging it like you do won't help us as much as you think it will"

"Micromanaging?" he asked incredulously "I'm not micromanaging your work, I'm teaching you the prescribed way to write your essays because that is my job" Minho raged, pointing at the papers. "Regardless of how otherworldly your writing style is, there is a reason people start a book from the beginning and end it on the last page"

"There is a reason why certain allegories won't make sense no matter how ambitiously you put them together" he sighed "Art, like any other language, is first learnt by order and norm and then reworked into your own interpretation of it. When you understand the order is when you can appreciate the employment of it or deviation from it..."

"Woo Haesol aside, every aspiring writer in this room can take it from me that all it takes is one of these STUPID mistakes from you in your work and your WHOLE MANUSCRIPT will be tossed in the trash by your publisher of choice. Am I makings myself very clear?" he scoped the room for any other cocksure kid

"Anyone else wanting to add valuable insight to our discussion?" and was returned with pin-drop silence, Woo Haesol included. "Very well then, kindly use this study hour to assess the corrections I've written alongside your papers and try to be more mindful next time. This is a period of trial and error so make the best of it."

He returned to his chair, sitting down "Also... feel free to come forward if you have any queries although" he crossed his legs, flipping through the papers and pointing at the class in-charge to distribute them "Don't expect me to be any less harsh if you do" he resumed his seat at the teacher's desk and lubricated his throat with some tea.

*

1 HOUR LATER

Byun Minho had a teacher's meeting to attend and he wasn't looking forward to it. They always dragged out for days and he always had to jostle between fellow staff members most of whom were not very friendly with him. Not that it was their entire fault... he knew how harsh he could come across sometimes but oh well...

Atleast he didn't have to talk about some woman's wedding details

In the staff room, he checked his mobile phone and it was cluttered with emails notifying him of pending bills, the bank summoning him for the resolution of loan overdue amount. The screen cut to the incoming caller and he saw an unknown number calling.

The same digits had been calling for a few days and Minho had declined them all since he didn't pick up unknown calls. He put it aside for the time being and thought about what the student had pointed out in class, and Minho felt it was reminiscent of his college days where everyone both approached and avoided him because of his over-critical nature.