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The students slowly entered the class, some immediately falling bonelessly on their chairs, slouching over their desks, the others making themselves comfortable before opening their phones to check social media.
Some of them noticed the tall young man standing unobtrusively near the podium, watching the students file in one by one.
Even with loose and baggy clothes and a pair of glasses perched on his delicate nose bridge, he had an eye-catching appearance.
He was good looking enough that you could call him beautiful.
“Who’s that? Is he a student? He's not wearing a uniform!” One of the girls exclaimed.
“It's probably one of the fashion department students. I heard they are not required to wear uniforms.”
“Ughhh luckyyy,” one of the girls groaned in envy.
“But this is the vocal and dance department? Is he in the wrong class?”
“No, don't you think he seems to be a bit too old to be a student here?”
“Maybe he's an alumni?” Some students wondered.
“He's a hottie, though. Do you think he'll give me his number?” Some of the girls had already made up their minds to chat up the “hottie”.
It was only when all the students found their seats that the young man opened his mouth.
“Hello students, my name is Daniel Park and I will be teaching you morals and ethics for this year.”
The handsome teacher smiled, brightening the entire room. The class fell silent for a moment, and then the whispers started.
“Woaaah he's handsome! He looks so young I thought he was a student! Is he even old enough to be a teacher?”
“Who cares? I thought I was going to get an old and wrinkly teacher like my sister did during her time here. I did not expect this eye candy!”
“He looks like a pushover though. Does he have anything else going for him except that nerdy face?” One of the boys interrupted the starstruck girls.
“What do you mean ‘nerdy face’?! Not everybody with glasses is a nerd! Besides, what's wrong with being a nerd?” One of the girls who wore trendy glasses herself, retorted defensively.
“Ahem” The new teacher cleared his throat in an attempt to silence the class and make them listen to him.
It did not work.
This was the first day of teaching for the new teacher, and he was already disliked by half the population, while the rest of them had crushes on him to varying degrees.
Ultra instinct is the highest level of fighting ability a person could achieve. It did not just enhance the movements of a person, it also enhanced the senses to a certain degree. Although this enhancement was limited, and often made a person go into a hyper focused state unable to focus on things outside a specific area, with repeated use and practice, it was possible to control this instinct.
Daniel Park had had seven years to hone his ultra instincts. It came as easy to him as breathing. That wasn't to say that he was stressed or tense; quite the contrary, in fact. Compared to his childhood or teens, he was in a much more relaxed state, because unlike those times, he was confident that he would not be helplessly bullied.
Having “life or death” fights with Gun every time he scored badly in his exams meant that Daniel never stopped fighting. And Goo’s habit of randomly attacking him to “check his reflexes” had probably been the biggest reason his ultra instinct became a part of his senses. Both Gun and Goo had decided fighting was the best way to vent and he'd just gone along with it. And if he enjoyed those fights, then that was for him to know and everybody else to wonder.
Though, he'd appreciate it if people stopped having misunderstandings about him and Gun.
Ah, but that's not the point, the point was….
…..Daniel could hear everything. These kids thought they were being discreet. Little did they know that the object of their gossip could hear every single word. It was mortifying, and Daniel wondered if teenagers had always been like this. Did his fellow students back in high school also discuss their teacher like this, while their teacher was still standing in front of them? Well, teenagers were curious about everything. It was the time to be curious.
“Say, is there a way I can lick his hands without seeming like a creep?”
“.........”
Daniel felt like resigning already. Teenagers these days were too scary.
“He looks like somebody who was bullied in school,” one of the boys sneered.
He….was not wrong, technically. He did get bullied a lot back then.
“Who cares? I just want to listen to him speak. His voice is so smooth! Why isn't he a singer?”
“Right, right? Why couldn't he be an idol? I could lick his face through the screen with pride and honor!”
‘Girl, there is no pride or honor in wanting to lick anybody’s face!’ Daniel wanted to wipe his face.
“Students! I know all of you are excited for a new school year, but we must maintain the decorum of the class!” The young and somewhat overwhelmed teacher all but shouted out while slapping the podium.
A hush immediately fell over the class. Maybe they had finally realized that there was a teacher still inside. Daniel briefly wondered whether his other, more experienced colleagues, had the same problem. Probably not.
“Ahem. Since this is the first day of this class, we will start with the introductions,” he smiled as he heard some students groaning.
Ah yes, he could finally feel like he was a teacher!
“You can choose how you want to introduce yourselves,” his gaze moved around the class as he continued speaking, “just sharing your name also counts as a valid introduction here.”
His smile widened as the groaning students perked up hopefully.
These kids sure were a handful.
Knock knock
They were barely done with the introductions when the class was interrupted by a knock. The door opened to admit the principal Gordon Park.
Daniel's smile, which had been an almost permanent fixture on his face, finally faltered in the face of the one teacher who had been there to witness half his black history in high school.
He wouldn't have been so nervous had it been the same principal they had back when Daniel was in high school. However, the previous Principal had retired after finding out that Vasco and the Burn Knuckles had been accepted into the police academy. Apparently, he'd shed happy tears and murmured “I finally managed to throw them down the right path.. ah… I'm so tired, I want to retire…” before leaving the post of the principal to the vice head Gordon Park.
The last he was heard of was when he was planning his healing vacation ‘free of those brats’, and he hadn't been heard from ever since.
It had barely been a few years in the current Principal, Gordon Park’s tenure, that he had to deal with a returning troublemaker.
God knows how unwilling the Principal had been when he'd found that Daniel had been hired as a teacher in J High. He had probably come in to make sure that the young man wasn't corrupting the kids.
“How may I help you, principal Park?” Daniel asked politely.
All the students stared at the Principal with varying degrees of interest and curiosity. Any obstruction to the class was a welcome one, after all. Even if it was their Principal, that hardly changed anything.
“Ah Daniel Park, so it's your class!” The principal smiled jovially, as if he hadn't memorized Daniel’s schedule by heart. “This is just a routine inspection, don't mind me, ha ha,” he lied through his teeth.
Daniel could only look on helplessly as the chubby man chose to get himself seated at the very back of the room. His gaze, trained as it was on Daniel, had the same intensity as that of a hawk looking at its prey.
It was a long first lecture.
As a person with dual degrees, Daniel had his hands full. He was hired to teach both social studies and Ethics classes, and although his workload was the same as (or maybe even less than) the other teachers, with the Principal sniffing around any class he taught, his teaching experience was somewhat nerve wracking.
It was funny. He hadn't been this scared of Gun or the gangsters he fought in his teens or even the special forces instructor and team leader assigned to him during his mandatory military enlistment. But he was deathly scared of one Gordon Park.
Maybe this was what adulting was all about?
It was the last class of the day. The students didn't want to study, and honestly, Daniel himself didn't want to teach either. It had been a long, but fulfilling day, and he had finally managed to get rid of the principal’s watchful eyes. He could finally relax a bit.
“I know none of you want to study, so we'll end today's class with the mandatory introduction. You can use your phones but be discreet and use earphones. Or, if you want, we can play some games to get to know each other better?” He gave them a choice, but he knew which one everybody would choose.
There's no way teenagers with access to the internet would choose anything but their phones, right?
And that was how Daniel's last class on the first day of his new job devolved into a one sided Q&A session.
“Teacher, how old are you?”
“I'll be 26 this year.”
“Woah, you really don't look that old!”
“.......” the young man wasn't sure whether it was supposed to be a complement or an insult. Was 26 too old? Sinu Han was almost 30 and nobody called him old!
“Teacher, teacher! Did you complete your mandatory military service?”
“Yes, I completed it before getting hired here, so you better lose all hope of getting rid of me!” He smiled cheerfully as the students pretended to groan.
He was so glad he was done with it already. He liked sparring sometimes, but genuine violence was never something he could accept. He had already seen so much of it back when he was a teen, he just wanted a peaceful life. However, military service was mandatory.
He'd downplayed his strengths during the enlistment process but somehow, he still managed to catch the eyes of the higher ups. He'd expected to be done with his military service in one and a half years but getting roped into special services ended up extending that duration by more than an entire year.
It was thanks to CEO Hong that he managed to get the job here barely a few days after returning, a fact that no doubt exacerbated the bad impression Principal Park and the other teachers had of him. Well, he had all the time in this world to make them change their minds, now that he was here to stay.
“I guess there are no more questions? And here I thought you'd make good use of this once in a lifetime opportunityl,” he teased playfully.
“Teacher, I heard that you are an alumni of this school?”
“Ah yes. I was a student in the department of Fashion and Clothes designing.”
“Teacher, do you have a girlfriend?”
“That question is way too personal, right? No, I don't have one,” he stared at the girl who had asked the question, anticipating what she was going to ask next, “I don't have a ‘type’ and I'm not looking for one either. Students at this age should focus on their education and career instead of engaging in puppy love,” he declared sternly.
“But teacher, aren't you old enough to have one?” One of the students boldly commented.
“....I suddenly feel like we're not close enough to be having this discussion,” Daniel deadpanned. “Next question.”
“Teacher why does the principal like you so much? Everybody says he followed you for the entire day!”
“Uh…. I can't say he likes me. However, since I used to be an alumni, he's probably more invested in my work? Haha.” He laughed nervously while hoping that tomorrow would be a normal day for everybody involved. He'd rather not have a Gordon Park sized tail, after all.
“Doesn't that mean that we can get to know about your school days from the other teachers?” The students were delighted.
“....why would you do something so useless?” Daniel felt like he'd dug his own grave by accepting to participate in this Q&A session. Well, all those things happened 6-7 years ago. Maybe everybody had forgotten about it? They obviously had more important things to focus on than gossip about an alumni, after all.
He really hoped some of his public “spars” with Zack, Gun, Johan and several others when he was back in college didn't make it to the ears of these teachers. Those had been…. Destructive. For somebody who liked peace so much, he sure had fought with nearly everybody capable of fighting in Seoul.
Well, everybody except Jay, but Daniel was pretty sure Jay was an angel from the heavens out to get some experience™ on earth, so he didn't count.
He was pretty sure the current principal had compiled a list of rules with him as an example of what not to do, and the list was as thick as a book.
“And now we're curious!” Some of the mischievous students exclaimed. These kids were pretty cute. Much better than the students in his first class. He shuddered as he thought about them.
“Then you should study well and maybe I'll share a few anecdotes from my high school days if I'm in a good mood,” he compromised.
The students cheered. The bell rang, but none of the students fidgeted. It seemed like they enjoyed this class. He hoped they'd have the same enthusiasm for their studies too.
“Class dismissed. You can go now,” he smiled at the students as they bid him farewell.
This was how teaching was supposed to be like. He was so glad he chose this profession.
“I'm sure he's got something to hide.”
“He looks like a pansy, though. I don't think he's got the guts to do anything.”
“I can't believe every girl is mad after his face. It's the same as everybody, right? Two eyes, one nose, a pair of lips and a white face. What's there to like? Am I not better looking?”
“I'm going to get the other teachers to talk about him and find out about his black history.”
“Count me in.”
‘Good luck with that,’ Daniel sighed.
Well, he'd learnt to ignore some things. Selective deafness was a pretty good skill to have here. He wouldn't let minor obstacles get in the way of trying his best. Regardless of what anybody said about him, he'd experienced worse.
The reason he chose to become a teacher was the same as the reason why Vasco became a police officer. They had experienced it, and they had overcome it, but others shouldn't have to. The bullying that happened in his school, and the lives that were destroyed because of it, had left an indelible mark on his conscience. If his presence could stop even one more child from straying to the paths the likes of Jiho Park, Jasmine or Olly Wang had taken, it would be a worthwhile job.
Others might say he was foolish to have refused a permanent post in the army, or that he could save more people as a bodyguard or a police officer, but he felt that teachers held more power than people gave them credit for.
These bad impressions and budding maliciousness; he would erase them all and replace them with a strong moral compass that would remain undisturbed in the face of reality. After all, he was a teacher now, and he was here to stay.