When Leon began walking to the door, he felt how every head turned, glaring down on him as if he was a murderer.
With a speeding heart, Leon pushed himself forward. Somewhere deep down, he knew this walk was either taking him to the truth he didn't want or the exams he couldn't write to his satisfaction.
When he moved past Vera, he maintained his focus on the open door but still got carried away by Vera's actions.
"Don't worry," Vera murmured as Leon reached the door. "We'll be here for you. Just like always."
This time, he didn't hear her laugh but could see her leaning on Zoe with a grim face.
When Leon reached the hallway, every step he took seemed like a battle with swords.
The teacher didn't speak and didn't wait for him either. The walls of the hallway were so clean that even an ant would refuse to crawl across them.
Nothing was pasted on it, only adorned with monograms of the past students – those who graduated recently. But one monogram was superb.
It had its own glass-and-gold cage, looking almost idol-like. The way it was placed seemed to defy the law itself.
When Leon and the teacher reached a black door, the teacher halted. He swung the handle and gestured, letting Leon enter first.
Then, as the teacher also entered, he sat in his Zenith 360 chair and opened the drawer under the Summit Workstation table filled with books, files, and red envelopes sealed with crimson stamps.
"How do you feel your stay in this school? I mean the last exams you wrote?" Mr. Lee – the teacher – asked, pulling out a file with a photo on it and placing it on the table.
"Sir…" The moment Leon opened his mouth to talk, the teacher's phone rang.
Looking at the sudden change of expression, Leon swallowed the rest of his words and remained quiet, waiting for the teacher to finish his call.
"Give me a minute. I will be back," Mr. Lee said, walking out of the office and leaving Leon alone in the office.
When the door closed behind the teacher, the tension in Leon increased as he saw a photo of someone who looked exactly like his father.
At first, his very attention was on the particular person in the image – everyone else in the photo was blurred to him. But as he rose up and walked to the wall and gave the photo a thorough look, his eyes widened.
The very image he thought to be his father was actually a copy of the same picture in his father's picture album.
And in the photo, Leon noticed the person leaning on his father's shoulder to be the teacher who had called him to his office and left him unattended.
Though the number of people in the photo comprised fifteen people – both male and female – they all seemed distinct to Leon.
Although he had seen the picture before, he had never been able to ask about those in the photo since whenever he tried, his father would use an excuse and lure Leon's mind into something different.
Luckily, the place the photo was hung was closer to the window, so Leon could see everything going on outside.
Even from the angle of the teacher's room, Leon could see Mr. Lee – the teacher – leaning on the open window of a black jeep that had men in black suits standing beside it.
From afar, Leon could tell whoever the teacher was talking to wasn't a mere person. If not, he or she wouldn't be in that expensive car and also have four men in black suits standing beside the car, tilting their heads around like tower lights.
For a while, Leon forgot about the faces in the photo that had his father in it and stood there halfway, staring at the falling leaves and also adoring the car the teacher was leaning beside.
Then, when Leon saw the teacher pointing a hand toward the angle where he stood, a beautiful face peeked out of the open window and stared at him in shock.
Though Leon was not fully staring at them, he could feel a great tension fall on him. He quickly moved from the window when he noticed their lips moving as they stared at him from afar.
…
Leon kept on asking himself questions he had no answers to as he tried to figure for himself why the teacher kept pointing at him or either the direction he stood.
"Who peeked her head out and stared at me in shock?" Leon asked himself as he tried to figure out the owner of the beautiful lady or woman who peaked her head out and looked at his direction.
…
For a while, Leon remained seated, not wanting to be called for a punishment and also not to have a scanned document for the filling of the form.
After ten minutes of being seated, footsteps erupted, approaching the closed door leading to the very room Leon was in – Mr. Lee's office.
A clinging sound erupted, followed by a sharp movement of the teacher as he entered the room.
When the teacher walked to the back to where he had sat earlier, Leon's eyes fell on countless medals – including one that had a small katana sword design.
"Leon, let me take you home," the teacher said, surprising Leon.
'Why? Have I done something?' Leon's thoughts screamed as he saw how the teacher was packing his papers and taking his black coat from a peg rail hanger.
The moment Leon stood up, he noticed the teacher picking one of the black envelopes on the table and placing it in his handbag.
After zipping the bag, the teacher placed the rest of the black envelopes in the drawer under the table and walked toward the door.
The teacher didn't speak, but his reaction alone made Leon feel uncomfortable. Yet, he did as the teacher said and followed him through the gleaming hallway.
As they moved through the hall, every window they passed seemed like a prison gate as Leon noticed eyes looking at them.
But as they neared the main exit door, in one window, Leon saw an eye that had a peculiar look. Leon could see it staring at him even as all eyes drew back from them.
"He's dead!"
As they reached the outside world, a strange voice echoed in Leon's head making him tilts his head sideways.
But wherever he turned his head, he saw no sign of someone speaking. Not even Mr. Lee – the teacher.