"Namjoon, can I speak to you for a moment?"
The aforementioned tensed up when he heard his name being called by the teacher. The first and most immediate thought that crossed his mind was that he messed up somehow. He began thinking back to everything he did this week, was there something he did that caused him to be in hot water with the teachers? Namjoon was always a good student, he handed his work in on time, put in extra and unnecessary effort to receive higher marks, and always participated in class.
A hand fell on his shoulder. "Don't worry Joon." It was Hoseok, his classmate, next door neighbour, and childhood best friend ever since they were just eight year old children. "I doubt you're in trouble, knowing you, the teacher probably wants to congratulat or compliment you on your amazing and excelling work."
"I dunno Jung." He only called Hoseok by his last name when he was nervous, like now, his sweaty hands were already a big clue of that. "Poetry and fiction writing are some of my weakest points. I don't understand how some people can just create a whole new world or alternate universe with their words."
Hoseok shrugged and smoothly swiped Namjoon's books and binders away from his arms. "Go talk to the teacher. I'll wait for you outside and we'll walk back to my house together."
"Like usual."
"Of course." Hoseok said without turning around, Namjoon watched as the boy who was barely a few months older than him followed the rest of the students out of the classroom.
Namjoon breathed in deeply and exhaled quite dramatically before approaching his teacher's desk. The elderly woman was sorting through large stacks of crinkled papers from students, carefully putting them into a folder. Her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, but when she saw Namjoon her facial features relaxed and formed a smile.
"Ah, Kim Namjoon." The woman pushed some things away from the middle of her desk with her left arm and took a new bunch of papers. Namjoon could see that it was the latest assignment he handed in, a one to two page poem that was supposed to tell a story. It wasn't a big assignment, it was more like a preparation for their big final project.
Shoot what's wrong with it? Namjoon felt his nerves catch up to him again.
His teacher cleared her throat and pushed her glasses up higher up her nose before speaking. "I'm sure we both know that fiction writing isn't one of your strongest points, right?" Namjoon felt his face heat up from embarrassment. He had the same teacher last year and had done especially bad with poetry projects. Who cared about things like similes, metaphors, personifications, and onomatopeias?
He nodded in response. Namjoon felt his throat suddenly go dry, he was nearly 90% sure that if he tried to speak his voice would crack. Damn, usually Namjoon was very social, but when it came to teachers, especially scary faced ones, he would just lose his ability to formulate words.
"Well." His teacher smiled wider. "I have to admit, the latest assignment you completed was extremely well done. It was a good thing this was an in class assignment, or I would have suspected you of cheating and having someone else helping you write."
A huge wave of relief washed over the young high school student. Namjoon opened his mouth to say thank you but his teacher wasn't finished yet. "It's quite amazing, this poem you wrote. You have seriously improved so much in this category. I never thought you would be such a romantic, writing all this." His teacher teased. "The first meeting, first time seeing each other cry, and sticking by each other was very well written. Very good job." Her eyes sparkled, which only happened when she was happy. "Keep it up, Namjoon."
"Thank you very much." Namjoon laughed lightly to release his nerves. He was so glad that he wasn't in trouble, in fact, he was so relieved that he didn't even realize something was off until after he left the classroom.
