TOUGH ROMANCE || scoups || BOOK ONE

35

Hani

The school was less than two blocks away, so I hoofed it. It gave me the time to work up a good head of steam. I was sick and tired of people thinking they could judge someone by their family's behaviour. I'd lived in the shadow of Chae's misdeeds my entire life and I hated that Mimi was facing the same kind of problem. She was just a little girl. She should be having sleepovers, playing games, sneaking unhealthy snacks. Not dealing with the fallout of her mother's reputation.

Worse yet, she hadn't trusted me enough to tell me she was having problems with her teacher. How could I fix a problem if I didn't know it existed?

Riperia High School was a squat brick building in the middle of the town. There was the standard wood chipped playground to the right and the long drive out front where buses loaded and unloaded every day.

The school day had already wrapped up, but I hoped I could catch Mrs Kim in the building.

The front doors were all still propped open from the mass exodus of students, so I headed inside. It smelled like floor polish and disinfectant. It was only the first week of school, but the bulletin boards outside the classrooms were already full of artwork. Except for Room 303. The board was empty except for a calender with a countdown on it and a peice of paper with the name Mrs Kim.

I hadn't met at her at Back to School Night. She'd been out sick, and I'd spent most of the hour gently reminding parents and school staff that I wasn't my sister. I kicked myself for not making more of an effort to meet her before leaving her in charge of my niece.

I spied a woman sitting behind the desk at the front of the classroom. Best guess put her in her early fifties. Her silver streaked hair was pulled back in a bun so tight I bet she got head aches from it. She was dressed in head to toe shades of beige, and her lips were pursed in a thin line as she scrolled through some thing on her phone. She gave off the air of someone who was disappointed in just about everything life had to offer.

I gave a cursory knock and walked into the room. "Mrs Kim, you don't know me, but-"

The woman looked up and bobbled her phone, eyes narrowing behind her glasses. "Don't play games with me. I know who you are."

Gosh. Hadn't the dang grapevine caught up to the teaching staff yet?

"I'm not Chae. I'm Lee Hani. My niece, Mimi, is in your class, and I'd like to talk to you about how you've been treating her."

I'd never been good at confrontations. Hell, I'd squeezed my ass out of a church basement window to run away from a wedding rather than tell the groom I wasn't going to marry him. But in that moment, I felt a fire burning in my chest. Backing down wasn't an option. Neither was retreat.

"How I've been treating her? I've been treating her the way she deserves to be treated." Mrs Kim snarled. The lines on her face carved deeper. "I treat her the way the daughter of a bitch deserves to be treated."

"Excuse me??"

"You heard me."

A movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I realised that I had a much bigger problem than a horrible school teacher.

Seungcheol

I walked into Lock's Glass through the kitchen, twirling my keys around my finger and whistling.

"Someone's in a good mood." Jiwoong, the line cook, observed. I wondered exactly how big of a jerk I usually was that made my good mood breaking news, then decided I didn't really give a shit.

Making sure to school my expression into my normal scowl, I headed into the bar. There were about a half dozen early birds scattered around the place. Yunjin and Kazuha were eating brownies behind the bar.