In A Beautiful Way

Detention 2.0

As much as she wanted to skip detention duty today, Haein decided against it. After yelling at him the other day, she didn't think Hyunwoo would try to talk to her again. He'd probably finally been scared off. She would ignore him and continue like nothing had ever happened. At least she'd have some quiet time to do her homework.

Unfortunately for her, she soon realised that she was sorely mistaken when she saw the attendance list for the day. Shit, why were there so many? What had once been one name had suddenly increased to seven and they were all from the same class. It didn't take a genius to guess that they were all friends and got into trouble together. That meant that they would fool around in detention since they knew each other.

She'd hoped that they would simply skip detention and not show up, solving all her problems instantly, but her hopes were dashed when they were escorted in by her science teacher who already knew that they planned to skip.

"Hong Haein, I hope you keep an eye on these rascals. Don't let them climb over your head." He said laughing.

"Yes seonsaengnim." Haein forced a smile. Seriously? He wouldn't be laughing if he was in her shoes right now. Nobody in the right mind would want to be stuck in a room with a bunch of rowdy teenage boys. Worse still, they were in the same grade as her which meant they would give her absolutely no respect.

Ugh, looks like I'll have to listen to my music at full volume today.

Just as she expected, it didn't take long for chaos to break out. One of the boys had the genius idea of bringing a soccer ball in his backpack which somehow hadn't gotten confiscated by their teacher yet. The moment he pulled it out with a gleeful grin, Haein knew that she was in for a rough day.

"Ya! Sit down and do your own work! You're supposed to be in detention, not in the playground!" Haein yelled angrily. Her eyes glared daggers at them, but the knives bounced off them like rubber bullets.

"You're not the boss of us Hong Haein." One of the boys smirked. "Just do what you do best, which is sit there and look pretty."

Her cheeks flushed in anger. The audacity! She had half a mind to beat him up and slap some self discipline back into him. Sadly, that wasn't an option for her unless she wanted to be suspended. Knowing that they wouldn't listen to her no matter how hard she tried, she decided to save her energy and focus on her work instead. Whatever. If they broke something in the classroom, she would just report them for it. Her job was technically just to watch them anyway, not stop them from doing idiotic things.

It was hard to concentrate with their guffawing laughter that erupted every few seconds and the thumping of the ball against the walls. All the noise was too much to be cancelled out by her mp3 alone and her inability to concentrate was making her blood boil. Frustrated, she tightened her grip around her pen, willing her brain to focus only on what was in front of her which was a particularly tough math question she was stuck at.

Focus, Hong Haein, FOCUS.

Suddenly, a shadow appeared before her, blocking out the light from above her head.

"Ya! What-"

She stopped when she looked up.

Centimetres away from her head was the soccer ball clutched tightly in the muscular hands of Baek Hyunwoo who towered over her. He stood in front of her desk, the back of his jacket so close to her face that she could smell the faint musk of his cologne.

Did he just save her from getting hit in the head by the ball? How could he have done that? No one could notice the ball and teleport here so quickly... unless he was already watching out for her. Casting a quick glance at his blank notebook, she realised that it had been the case.