Win No Matter What

CHAPTER 6 - CLOSE ENCOUNTER

You wake up at dawn and get dressed. I have to say, this dress code is quite slick, you think to yourself as you admire your attire. During teaching hours, teachers can wear any sensible black clothing underneath the very flattering collarless black soft short blazer with coloured trim (feels so nice to touch!). Heads of House have trims in the colour of their shield, while other teachers have a choice of gold or silver. You decide to go with the silver trim. Outside of lessons, teachers wear dark purple ankle-length robes with the Academy crest.

Dressed in a black blouse, black pencil skirt and boots to match, you head down to your classroom in the Daegu wing. You work best in a quiet environment, undisturbed by the hustle and bustle of the inhabitants of a boarding school. Your classroom is well equipped with what you need, but you decide to rearrange the tables and chairs. You're not a fan of conventional rows and move them into a 'U' shape so all students can see you (and more importantly you can see them). After around twenty minutes, with all the prep work done, you head over to the school canteen for a quick breakfast in the main building.

At this time of the morning, the canteen is closed to students, but open to teachers. You plan to take advantage of this in the long-term and you're happy to see not many teachers are here this early. You grab a slice of toast and find a quiet corner to sit with your thoughts. You manage to take one bite of your toast before someone places a tray in front of you. You look up and see Tae Hyung smiling broadly at you.

"Hi Rim Muni, I'm Tae Hyung, I'm not sure I introduced myself to you yesterday," he says.

"It's Min Rumi. Yup, Nam Joon introduced you while you were having a divine vision," you say, trying to sound as serious as you can.

"Oh, great. Mind if I sit down? I like to be up before dawn so that I can draw in the energy from the Divine Cosmos and practice my yoga. My downward dog and warrior work up quite an appetite." he says digging into a full English breakfast.

"So you teach ESD? Wow, you must be super cool and super talented." he continues in between mouthfuls of food which he practically inhales. "I bet all our students are going to love you and don't worry, we put a stop to all those 'teacher's first day' pranking nonsense."

"I'm sorry, teacher's first day what now?"

"No time to explain, I'd better go and polish my orbs before my first lesson", and with that, he leaves.

You look after him, open-mouthed, not sure what to make of Tae Hyung, but you don't have time to dwell on that. Your first lesson of your first day in the Academy starts in 30 minutes and you need to make a move. You walk briskly to your classroom and on the way you see Seok Jin at the staffroom entrance handing out samples of his (never to be drunk) concoction to staff walking in and out. Principal Bang is also there, having what appears to be an intense conversation with Nam Joon. Further down you can see VP Lenzo yelling at students to tuck their shirts in and walk on the left. Out in the courtyard, you see Jung Kook enthusiastically showing some students his Taekwonjudo moves.  You are power-walking, head down, lost in your thoughts (nothing unusual there), and you bump headfirst into someone. "Oh, I'm so sorry," you say as you look up and see Ji Min looking at you bemusedly.

You look straight into his eyes which are bewitching and leave you speechless. While you try to gather yourself, he says in a relaxed and soothing voice, "That's alright, it was probably my fault anyway." He bows and says, "My name is Park Ji Min."

"I know who you are" you manage to splutter out.

"And I've heard all about you Madam Min. If you're free for lunch today...."

You don't let him finish. You quickly blurt out, "Sorry, really busy today, first day, lots of lessons to plan". And with that, you practically run away from Ji Min. You cup your face in your hands which has started to burn up. What is with this guy and your inability to form coherent sentences? Why can't you get your head together when you see him? What must he think of you? Hang on, what do you mean, you've heard all about me?