"Yes, sir..." I murmured into the phone. The conversation was about the wedding and Seonhee's wishes.
"We would have liked to have the wedding over the break as well, but... Seonhee says she'd like to get married before her baby bump gets any bigger." I paused, gathering my thoughts. "Yes, we'll be going on our honeymoon at a later date..."
I continued to explain the current situation. "She's quite sensitive these days since she's in early pregnancy, and we've already sent out the wedding invitations, so... I'd like to respect her wishes as much as possible." I waited for the other party's response, trying to sound as reasonable as possible.
"Yes, sir..." I confirmed, holding the phone. "We would have liked to have the wedding over the break as well, but... Seonhee says she'd like to get married before her baby bump gets any bigger."
I continued, explaining the adjustment to our plans. "Yes, we'll be going on our honeymoon at a later date... She's quite sensitive these days since she's in early pregnancy, and we've already sent out the wedding invitations, so... I'd like to respect her wishes as much as possible." I concluded my explanation with a promise. "Yes, sir, we'll come by to see you this weekend."
Mr kim pov :
I ended the call. "Sounds good. Have a great day, sir."
As I placed the phone down, a sound made me look up. There, standing just inside the room, I saw a pair of black socks and sandals.
I looked up, startled, seeing the person who had just entered. I hadn't even heard the door open.
"Do you always take your calls here?" a voice asked.
I stood up quickly, a surprised exclamation escaping me. "! What are you doing here, Ajin?" I asked, using her name.
I jumped slightly in surprise. "! What are you doing here, Ajin? Shouldn't you be in class?" I asked, my voice betraying my shock.
She stepped further into the room with a SLIDE of her feet. "Oh, I was on my way to the nurse's office and stopped by because I heard your voice."
I felt a sudden awkwardness and quickly tried to usher her away. "Oh, I hope you're feeling okay. I won't keep you--"
"Um... Mr. Kim..." she interrupted me softly.
"Could I speak to you about something if you're free right now...?" she asked, her eyes searching mine.
I stood there, momentarily stunned by the question after just getting off a very personal call. The large clock on the wall seemed to fill the silence, its seconds hand moving with a loud, rhythmic sound. TICK. TOCK.
After a moment, she lowered her head, looking at the floor as she spoke.
"I really regretted turning you down..." she admitted quietly. Then, she added, acknowledging the difficulty of the past situation, "It couldn't have been easy for you to bring it up with me either."
"I think I'm ready to take that step..." she whispered, her eyes finally lifting to meet mine.
I was completely thrown off. My mind raced, trying to process her words against the backdrop of the phone call she had just overheard.
"Wait, I--" I stammered, then forced myself to get the words out. "I'll do anything you want."
She seemed to take my initial reaction as a sign that she was being a nuisance. "Oh, I'm sorry! I feel like I took up too much of your time."
I shook my head, my eyes wide with a mix of surprise and a strange kind of panic. "T-That's great! I'm really happy to hear that, Ajin..." I managed to say. The excitement felt real, but the timing was disastrous.
Then, I remembered the reason she was here. "! Right, you mentioned you were feeling under the weather today. Why don't you head to the nurse's office?" I urged, hoping to get her out of the room so I could clear my head.

She seemed to accept the dismissal, her expression a mix of relief and disappointment. "I will. Thank you again for the chat!"
With a quiet SLIDE, she was out the door. I watched her figure recede down the long, empty school hallway.
I stood there in the room, still reeling from the sudden turn in our conversation, the overheard news of my impending marriage, and her unexpected declaration.
...
The silence of the hallway seemed to stretch out, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
Authors pov:
"That's the last box, right? Twelve volleyballs?" He muttered, checking off the item on his clipboard. "I think we counted everything."
His friend, who was lifting the last box onto a shelf, replied, "Yup. The balls are in good condition too."
He smiled at him. "Thanks for the help. This would have taken forever if it weren't for you."
The friend just waved a hand dismissively. "Haha, don't worry about it."
The boy with the clipboard noticed his friend's distracted expression. "I hope the classroom is okay..." the friend muttered, rubbing his chin nervously.
"What's wrong...?" the boy asked.
"Oh, I'm in charge of... locking up the classroom today..." the friend explained. "...But I couldn't find the lock so I left it unlocked..."
He sighed, concern etched on his face. "You know how the kids in our class are really sensitive about the lock after our classroom got robbed a few times." He continued, explaining his conflict: "But I couldn't stay behind to find the lock because... I'm in charge of setting up the nets for gym class."
"Oh yeah, that's right. You must be pretty worried," the first boy sympathized.
The friend let out a soft GROAN. "I am... to be honest, I've been worrying about it all class..."
The other boy gave him a pointed look. "Are you sure you should be telling anyone about it, though?"
"Huh...?" the friend questioned.
"If the classroom really does get robbed,..." the boy said, letting the thought hang in the air, leaving the friend to worry about the reaction of the kids.
"If the classroom really does get robbed," the boy with the clipboard continued, his expression serious, "the kids will blame you for not locking the door."
He paused, letting the severity of the possible situation sink in, before adding the final, crushing blow. "If the thief never gets caught like last time... they'll put it all on you."
The other boy's eyes widened. "Oh... T-That's true..."
"All I'm saying is that... it wouldn't hurt to be careful," the first boy advised.
Suddenly, a DING DONG sounded through the school—the bell.
"I think the bell just rang. Let's go," he said, turning to leave the equipment room.
The friend, still visibly anxious, fumbled with the light switch. "Y-Yeah, okay..."
They walked out into the corridor just as it began to fill with students pouring out of classrooms. "CHATTER CHATTER" filled the air.
"Ugh, I'm so sweaty," one student complained.
"I hate changing out of my gym clothes," another chimed in.
"What's for lunch today?" someone else asked.
They approached the door marked 2-4. As they neared the bustling classroom, the friend's mind drifted back to the earlier conversation with Mr. Kim.
Looks like Seonhee was... he thought, but the noise of the hallway drowned out his thoughts.
Chaos in the Classroom
The students filed into the classroom, their CHATTER immediately turning to an uproar. As soon as a student spotted the mess, a shout ripped through the room.
A clenched fist slammed down on a desk. "UGH!!! SOMEONE BROKE INTO OUR CLASSROOM AGAIN!!!!!"
The room erupted in MURMURs.
"WHAT?! AGAIN?!!"
"I think our class president got robbed again..."
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
"What kind of a**hole would do this?!!"
Another student, a girl with her hair tied back, entered the room and looked around, stunned. "Someone robbed our classroom again...?"
Meanwhile, a small group of students was focused on something else. "Ugh, who even cares?" one boy laughed, leaning toward his friend. "Ewww, you smell gross!" the friend retorted. "HEHEHE, let me give you a hug!"
The girl with the ponytail sat down at her desk, her attention fixed on the commotion. Looks like Seonghee was in the classroom by herself this whole time.
Her thoughts quickly shifted to Ajin.
"Seriously...? I know I spread the rumor that Ajin was dating the art teacher, but... I didn't really think she'd be in that kind of relationship with him...!" Her expression darkened. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH AJIN?"
She seethed with anger and disgust. "She's so disgusting... HOW COULD SHE ACT LIKE SUCH AN ANGEL IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?!"
She looked around the room. "I wonder where Junseo is..." she mused. Maybe he saw Ajin with the art teacher too and is in shock. She clenched her jaw. "NO... EVEN IF HE DIDN'T SEE THEM TOGETHER, I'M GOING TO TELL HIM EVERYTHING...!! EVERYTHING...!!"
The Stolen Wedding Money
The two boys from the gym equipment room, along with another male student, watched the chaos from the doorway.
One of the boys in the doorway commented with a cynical smirk, "This is quite the racket. We should have brought some popcorn, haha."
The student with the clipboard from the earlier scene, who was nervous about the unlocked door, pulled his friend aside. "--! You took care of the locker, right?" he whispered urgently.
The friend, who was dressed in a white shirt and tie, looked over his shoulder at the chaos. "--! Of course I did. I even set it up so that... the lock will fall off if anyone tries to open the locker."
Meanwhile, the student with the ponytail who had just entered the room looked around in shock. "Someone robbed our classroom again...?"
A frantic girl, likely the Class President, was surrounded by her classmates.
"OH NO... THE MONEY YOU'VE BEEN COLLECTING FOR OUR TEACHER'S WEDDING GIFT WAS STOLEN?!" one student exclaimed.
The other students reacted with immediate fury and disbelief.
"NOOO!"
"We collected a lot of money too..."
"WHY WOULD THEY STEAL THAT?! UGH!!"
"Are you sure you didn't misplace it somewhere?"
The Class President, her face drawn with distress, shouted to be heard over the murmurs. "NO, I DIDN'T MISPLACE IT!! I SWEAR, I LEFT THE ENVELOPE WITH THE MONEY IN MY TEXTBOOK AND NOW IT'S GONE!!!"
Tears welled in her eyes as she defended herself. "I always put it there after collecting the money! IT WAS THERE BEFORE WE LEFT FOR GYM CLASS! I CHECKED...!"
A Crisis in Classroom 2-4
The sudden revelation that the money collected for the teacher's wedding gift was stolen threw the classroom into total disarray. The students quickly turned their attention and blame toward one person: Seonghee, the girl with the ponytail, who had been alone in the room.
The Class President, frantic with the loss, confronted Seonghee. "That's right... SEONGHEE," she said, her eyes wide with dawning suspicion.
Another student quickly joined in, pointing at her. "WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN THE CLASSROOM ALL BY YOURSELF?! WAS IT YOU? DID YOU STEAL IT?!" The accusation echoed in the suddenly hostile room.
Seonghee was instantly defensive, her voice rising to a shout. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL?! WHY ARE YOU BLAMING ME?!"
A boy challenged her with logic. "Then tell us why you were in the classroom by yourself! How did you even get in here when it was supposed to be locked?"
Seonghee shot back, desperately trying to defend herself. "IT WAS UNLOCKED WHEN I GOT HERE! AND I WAS IN HERE BECAUSE I WASN'T FEELING VERY WELL!!"
Meanwhile, a small group of students near the doorway was having a side conversation about the new suspect, Ajin, who was also in the room.
"THAT'S SUPER SUSPICIOUS...! If you were sick, why didn't you go to the nurse's office?" one whispered.
Another student, who was with Ajin at the doorway, defended her friend. "BUT I SWEAR I LOCKED THE DOOR..."
"SEE? HE SAYS HE LOCKED THE DOOR!!" a classmate repeated.
A girl sitting near Ajin grabbed her arm, hissing into her ear, "Yeah! Didn't you tell the P.E. teacher that you were gonna go to the nurse's office?!"
The girl continued, fueling the suspicion against Ajin with a motive. "OH MY GOD... Remember how Seonghee was whining about not having money to go on a date with Junseo? I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE STOLE THE MONEY FOR OUR TEACHER'S GIFT... She should have just borrowed some from Jaero."
Ajin, the focus of the suspicion, pulled back slightly, her eyes wide. "H-HEY!!"
The Teacher's Troubles

The chaos in the classroom was a sharp contrast to the conversation I had just had with Mr. Kim, the Art Teacher, a few moments earlier.
I had been on my way to the nurse's office, feeling unwell, when I heard his voice and stopped. I found him on the phone, discussing wedding plans.
"Yes, sir... We would have liked to have the wedding over the break as well, but... Seonhee says she'd like to get married before her baby bump gets any bigger," I heard him say into the phone. "Yes, we'll be going on our honeymoon at a later date... She's quite sensitive these days since she's in early pregnancy, and we've already sent out the wedding invitations, so... I'd like to respect her wishes as much as possible."
After he ended the call, he saw me. "! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, AJIN? SHOULDN'T YOU BE IN CLASS?"
I explained myself: "Oh, I was on my way to the nurse's office and stopped by because I heard your voice. Do you always take your calls here?"
He quickly tried to wrap things up. "Oh, I hope you're feeling okay. I won't keep you--"
I cut him off, suddenly compelled to speak. "Um... Mr. Kim... Could I speak to you about something if you're free right now...?"
A loud TICK. TOCK. from the wall clock marked the silence before I finally gathered the courage to say, "I really regretted turning you down..."
The Teacher's Secret
I was on my way to the nurse's office, feeling a dizzy headache after gym class, when I heard Mr. Kim's voice coming from the supply room. I stopped by the open door and looked in.
"Do you always take your calls here?" I asked
Mr. Kim was startled, quickly ending his call. "! What are you doing here, Ajin? Shouldn't you be in class?"
I watched him as he finished, hearing fragments of a very private conversation: "Yes, sir... We would have liked to have the wedding over the break as well, but... Seonhee says she'd like to get married before her baby bump gets any bigger... Yes, we'll be going on our honeymoon at a later date... She's quite sensitive these days since she's in early pregnancy, and we've already sent out the wedding invitations, so... I'd like to respect her wishes as much as possible."
He finally ended the call. "Sounds good. Have a great day, sir." He turned to me, flustered. "Oh, I hope you're feeling okay. I won't keep you--"
"Um... Mr. Kim..." I interrupted, my heart pounding at the disaster of my timing. "Could I speak to you about something if you're free right now...?"
The silence of the room was deafening, marked only by the clock's rhythmic beat. TICK. TOCK.
I finally spoke, my voice barely a whisper. "I really regretted turning you down..." I took a breath. "It couldn't have been easy for you to bring it up with me either." I looked up, ready to commit to the step I should have taken weeks ago. "I think I'm ready to take that step..."
Mr. Kim's eyes were wide. "Wait, I--" He visibly forced himself to smile. "T-That's great! I'm really happy to hear that, Ajin..." He was happy, but his face looked pale.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I feel like I took up too much of your time," I apologized, suddenly feeling awkward after the intensity of his phone call.
"! Right, you mentioned you were feeling under the weather today. Why don't you head to the nurse's office?" he urged.
I nodded, feeling a heavy mix of elation and confusion. "I will. Thank you again for the chat!" With a quiet SLIDE of my sandals, I left him there and walked down the long, empty hallway.
A Classroom Catastrophe
By the time I reached the classroom, the bell had rung, and the hallway was noisy with students. I walked into a scene of utter chaos. Students were yelling, and desks were overturned.
"UGH!!! SOMEONE BROKE INTO OUR CLASSROOM AGAIN!!!!!"
"I think our class president got robbed again..."
Then, the true nature of the robbery became clear. The Class President was sobbing: "THE MONEY YOU'VE BEEN COLLECTING FOR OUR TEACHER'S WEDDING GIFT WAS STOLEN?!"
The class was in an uproar, and suspicion instantly fell on Seonghee, the girl who hated me, because she had been alone in the room.
"WAS IT YOU? DID YOU STEAL IT?!" a student yelled.
"WHY ARE YOU BLAMING ME?!" Seonghee screamed back. "IT WAS UNLOCKED WHEN I GOT HERE!"
Another student grabbed my arm and leaned in to whisper, fueling the fire of gossip: "OH MY GOD... Remember how Seonghee was whining about not having money to go on a date with Junseo? I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE STOLE THE MONEY for our teacher's gift..."
The Class President, enraged, pointed at me and the friend who was standing next to me. "OKAY, FINE! IF YOU DIDN'T STEAL IT... SHOW US YOUR BAG AND LOCKER!"
Seonghee was in a fit of rage and denial. "WHY ARE YOU POINTING FINGERS AT ME?! If I show you my bag and locker and it turns out I never stole it, what are you gonna do?
HUH?! YOU'RE SO DEAD ONCE I PROVE THAT I'M INNOCENT!!!"
She ripped her bag off her back and threw it onto her desk with a loud TOSS. "GO ON!!" She then SWIPEd open her desk. "TAKE A LOOK FOR YOURSELF!!"
I backed away slightly as the enraged students descended on the desk. They found nothing.
Then, a harsh voice cut through the air, directed at the Class President: "WHAT NOW, YOU B*TCH?! HUH?!"
The fight was escalating, and I felt sick, clutching my stomach. I knew what I had just overheard about Mr. Kim's secret, and now I was standing in a room where someone was being falsely accused of stealing his wedding gift money. The weight of everything was suddenly too much.
The Failed Alibi
The moment Seonghee screamed, "WHAT NOW, YOU B*TCH?! HUH?!" after proving her bag and desk were empty, the attention in the classroom shifted. The Class President, eyes wide, looked at Seonghee's locker. "WHAT ABOUT YOUR LOCKER, SEONGHEE?".
I stood near the door, my heart pounding in rhythm with the desperate accusation. My hands were clammy. I knew this was bad, but I couldn't have predicted what was about to happen.
"N-NO...?! THERE'S NOTHING IN THERE!!" Seonghee shouted, trying to block the locker.
"PROVE IT," someone challenged.
A boy—the one who was talking about the lock earlier, the one who was supposed to be locking up—stepped forward. "HERE, LET ME HELP YOU," he said, and with a swift LIFT of his hand, he tore the door open.
It was too late. I saw the flash of pink as the lock fell off the locker with a loud CRASH!!. This was the moment the other boy had mentioned—the one who set it up to fall off if anyone tried to open it. But that detail was lost in the ensuing discovery.
The Stolen Items
Everyone crowded around, the initial whispers giving way to stunned silence, then shouts of disbelief.
I could see into the open locker.
"OH MY GOD... ISN'T THAT THE MONEY...?".
A collective gasp swept through the students. "SHE REALLY WAS THE THIEF!".
I stared, completely shocked. It wasn't just the envelope of stolen wedding money that had been collected for Mr. Kim. There was also a phone and an MP3 player.
"WOW... WHAT'S WITH THE PHONE AND THE MP3?".
That was when a chilling thought hit me, and my composure completely broke. My eyes went wide as I finally saw the person who had been standing on the edge of the crowd, observing the whole thing.
Wait, Jaero is here today?! I thought, my mind racing. He usually doesn't even bother coming to school! Why is he here today of all days?!.
Then, the true disaster registered. "SH*T!!! JAERO'S PHONE IS IN MY LOCKER...!!".
I had been so preoccupied with Mr. Kim's secret—that his fiancée Seonhee was pregnant and they were moving the wedding up—and with my ill-timed confession to him that I had completely forgotten about the illegal item I was hiding for my friend. Now, with the students in a frenzy over a locker full of stolen goods, the entire class was going to demand to check every single locker. The theft had been solved, but my nightmare was just beginning.
Chapter 5: The Frame
The Silence of Guilt
The shouts died down as the class absorbed the sight of the stolen goods—the teacher's wedding money, a phone, and an MP3 player—spilling out of Seonghee's locker. I felt a wave of nausea. Seonghee stood frozen, her eyes wide with shock and denial.
"W-WHAT?! NO WAY...!" she cried out. "I-IT WASN'T ME!!".
The students' reaction was brutal and immediate.
"Look at her. She looks so guilty," someone sneered.
"She's a thief!"
"What a piece of trash," another muttered.
"She stole my MP3!!" one boy yelled.
The whispers solidified into a judgment: "Shouldn't we call the police and report her?".
Seonghee was frantically grabbing at the air, trying to make sense of the nightmare. "I DIDN'T STEAL IT!!" she shrieked. "WHO COULD HAVE PUT THAT STUFF IN MY LOCKER?!".
As I watched her face crumble, the image of my own locker flashed in my mind. Jaero's phone was in my locker. A phone is one thing; a stolen MP3 player is another. The stolen goods found in Seonghee's locker had just set a precedent. They weren't just checking her locker—they would check everyone's now. The whole classroom was in a frenzy over the money, and the momentum was irreversible.
My Double Bind
The boy who had helped open Seonghee's locker, the one who was so worried about the classroom being unlocked, looked triumphant. He had been so concerned about the blame falling on him, and now he was safe. His friend had even rigged the lock to fall off.
I was caught between two massive secrets.
First, Mr. Kim, the teacher I had just confessed my regret to, was marrying his fiancée, Seonhee, sooner than planned because she was in early pregnancy. I knew his private life was falling into place even as I had offered him my heart.
Second, a stolen MP3 was the last item found in Seonghee's locker. What if the phone Jaero asked me to hide was not just a phone, but a stolen one?
I had to get to my locker before the mob did. I had to get to Jaero's phone.
As the students closed in on Seonghee, I slipped away from the doorway, trying to be invisible among the chaos.
The noise of the accusations against her—"LOOK AT HER. SHE LOOKS SO GUILTY!"—was all the distraction I needed.
My breath hitched in my throat. If they opened my locker and found a phone that wasn't mine, the theft that just ruined Seonghee's life would pivot right to me.
I began to run, the ding-dong of the school bell a fading memory. I had to secure that phone, or my life—and maybe Jaero's—would be the next thing to publicly crash.
The commotion in the classroom—the screaming, the accusations, the stunned faces—was the most terrifying noise I'd ever heard, because I knew it was all directed at Seonghee, who had been completely framed.
"She stole my MP3!!" a boy was yelling, completely convinced of her guilt.
"What a piece of trash," another student muttered, shaking his head.
"Shouldn't we call the police and report her?" a girl suggested, her phone already in her hand.
Seonghee was still flailing, desperate and cornered. "WHO COULD HAVE PUT THAT STUFF IN MY LOCKER?!" she shrieked. "I DIDN'T STEAL IT!"
But no one was listening. The sight of the cash envelope and the electronics tumbling out of her locker had already convicted her. All eyes were on her, the perceived thief.
I gripped the strap of my bag, trying to disappear into the crowd near the door. The discovery had escalated the situation from a minor annoyance—a stolen wedding gift—to a serious criminal investigation. And if they called the police, the next logical step would be to search every student's locker to see if any more stolen goods were stashed away.
My mind was screaming: Jaero's phone.
It was in my locker. I had agreed to hide it for him weeks ago, but the seriousness of that favor had never felt so real until this moment. My friend's phone was not stolen property, but in this frenzy, a non-school-issued phone hidden in a locker would instantly turn me into the next suspect, another piece of trash caught hiding contraband.
I needed to act now. I couldn't risk the police finding that phone, especially with Jaero himself standing there, watching the chaos with that unsettling, blank look on his face.
I pulled out my key and kept it hidden in my palm, my eyes fixed on the back of the classroom where the lockers lined the wall. I had to get to mine, retrieve the phone, and dispose of it before anyone realized I was missing. I slid quietly out of the classroom, the sounds of Seonghee's desperate sobs fading behind me. Every step I took felt like a betrayal, but saving myself—and Jaero—was the only thing that mattered now.