second lead. | 정원

chapter 10.

x.

"Okay students, for today's activity I want to kindly ask you all to draw something dear to you. It could be a sketch, it could be a painting. The choice is yours. Art is all about creativity and expressing one's feelings—" The art teacher started rambling about the meaning behind the word 'art' and Mira had heard it a thousand times before.

It wouldn't be an understatement if she were to say she had memorized the whole definition from the number of times Mr. Jung explained it.

Jeon Mira was a pretty decent artist. She knew the secrets and techniques behind drawing but it doesn't mean she was serious about art. If someone were to ask her, "Why do you do art?" She would simply reply with, "I just do." There was no specific reason.

She only does it for fun.

So when the teacher told the class to draw something dear to them, she wasn't confident about what she was supposed to draw. Her mind went blank as she stared off into space.

Before she knew it, art class had ended. The girl looked around, seeing how all her classmates had drawn a draft or a rough sketch on their canvases. She looked back at hers, blank.

"You can leave your canvases at the table in the corner, we'll continue on our next class." Mr. Jung pointed at the long table that had different artworks from different classes collected.

Mira left the classroom whilst looking down at the medium-sized canvas in her hand, disappointed at the fact she wasn't able to draw. She decided to just bring it back home instead of leaving it in the art room. It was blank anyways.

Normally, the teacher would go for a topic such as food, portraits, animals, sceneries, etc. Today, however, was a different situation. She was only able to draw something she was told, but when it comes to her own creativity she's a goner, like that one time she was told to freestyle on dance, she didn't know how to.

Mira was too focused on her thoughts she wasn't looking where she was going, causing her to bump into another girl when she was about to turn a corner and dropped her stationery in the process, her items scattering across the floor.

"I'm so sor—"

"I'M SORRY!" A high-pitched voice cuts Jeon Mira off from apologizing. The other girl quickly crouched down and gathered the scattered art supplies, leaving Mira feeling guilty since she was the one at fault. The student stood up after placing the stationeries back inside the case and shoved it into Mira's arms forcefully, not giving her the time to say thank you before she scurried away.

One thing Mira noticed about the girl was the school ribbon she wore.

Daehwi have this type of system where students are categorized as first, second, or third years depending on the ties and ribbons they wear. All of them have the same base color, which is black, but the secondary color is different for each grade. First years have silver as their color, second years have pine green, and third years have red burgundy.

The person whom Mira accidentally bumped into has the black-and-silver color combination of ribbon signifying she was a first year. So a first year student helped me? She thought, I'll need to thank her later.

Unfortunately, Mira didn't have the chance to take a good look at the girl as she was rushing her actions. All she knew was that the student had wavy waist length hair and she wore a cardigan in dusty pink.

Sighing, Mira continued to make her way towards her last class, being lucky that the teacher was unavailable and no substitute teacher will be supervising. Cheers could be heard coming from every direction from her classmates and she was sure their loud yodeling could be heard by the class next door.

"Hey, let's talk about something exciting!" One of her classmates, Kang Yubin, suggested. A few girls had situated themselves in a circle on the cold floor at the back of the class.

"Like what?"

"Like..." She trailed off before shifting a bit closer and leaning forward, motioning the girls to follow. "Have I ever told you guys that our English teacher is incredibly hot?" She whispered, earning a smack at the back of her head from her friend, Yu Cheram.

"That is disgusting. He's literally—" Cheram paused, counting math with her fingers before resuming, "—he's fifteen years older than you."

"Sure I guess, but you can't deny that Mr. Hong looks like he's still in his early twenties," Another classmate whispered, giggling. "Can't he share his skin routine or something?"

And the gossiping went on for another couple of minutes, talking about their 'incredibly cute and hot' English teacher, as Yubin had described. It wasn't a lie, Mr. Hong was good-looking indeed, but it would be weird for students to think that way about their teacher.

For some reason, the subject had switched from Mr. Hong to boys in an instant. Now the girls were whispering about their crushes. Typical teenagers, you know?

"Me? Well, I'm kinda interested in Park Sunghoon," A girl blushed at the mention of a guy from year three, a senior. "Ah, skating boy Sunghoon? That's expected. He's so well-known in this school," Yu Cheram remarked.

"Ew, why do you like my brother?" Park Yeji gagged, covering her mouth in exaggeration. "You wouldn't like him once you get to know him."

"That's not true!" The girl argued.

Park Sunghoon, a senior in Daehwi High School and also a figure-skater. Well, was. Mira heard the male had stopped ice-skating a few days ago and he had a lot of fangirls following him like little ducklings. Although he never once acknowledged them.

"What about you, Aerin?" Shin Hyejoo, another one of her classmates, asked.

"Me? Uhm..." Aerin felt overwhelmed from the multiple eyes focused on her and she kept stuttering every time she opened her mouth. She covered her face with her hair, unable to answer.

"Aww, you're shy?" Yubin teased, nudging her elbow playfully. "Okay okay, you don't have to tell us if you don't want to. What about you, Mira?" A small smirk formed her lips, her eyes screaming in curiosity.

Jeon Mira, who had only been listening to their conversation (jumping in once in a while to comment) was caught off guard by the sudden question directed to her. The other girls averted their gazes to Mira but she didn't know how to respond.