Late November, Sae was sitting in his seat reading a book at break-time when an underclassman burst through the door. The commotion made several kids look up.
That boy’s feet screeched to a halt at the threshold. He looked slightly out of breath and a bit shy. The realisation that he was now in ‘upperclassmen territory’ hit him head-on. He cleared his throat and called out to Sae. "Upperclassman Hoh Saering, please come, E-Emi..."
Sae did not expect to be addressed, but the word Emi made him raise his head. "?"
"Emi got into a fight."
"What?!" It was Teo who interrupted, obviously shocked.
What did the little girl do now?
The younger boy at the door tried to get them moving. "Hurry!"
After a moment, Sae put down his book with a pause and stood up to follow the boy into the corridor. Teo moved as well, pulling Minke along, and tiptoed after the other two leaving.
Sae did not need a guide to lead him to Emi's class. He knew the way himself but trailed after the younger boy. It would have been awkward to step around and leave him behind.
A few minutes later, the four arrived at a classroom on the first floor in the western wing. But that was not Emi’s class.
The doors to the room stood open with several kids gathered around to peek inside. Inside, Emi and another girl faced off on opposite ends of the room.
Emi's dark hair was split into two fancy braids with many colourful rubber bands weaved in between. The top of her head though, was tousled and messy. The other girl had a split lip. Classmates loitered around them. Fortunately, there were no teachers in sight.
When Emi saw Sae getting closer, she wailed, "Why are you here?"
Sae did not pay attention. He closed in on her, stopping next to the desk she stood at.
Emi was an eccentric little girl with a big mouth. She asked in a loud voice to no one in particular, "Which one of you called him? Who the hell was it? Show yourself to receive death."
The surrounding kids gave a few looks. After all, Emi did not belong to this class and not a lot of people knew her.
Only a few of these kids had any idea why three senior students barged into the underclassmen’s classroom. The others were left in the dark about who called them. And what they wanted.
Amidst the curious gazes, Teo and Minke shuffled to the side. Minke pulled at the boy's sleeve, wanting to ask, just why did they enter as well? It would suffice even if they stood outside. Less inconspicuous.
The girl with a split lip eyed Sae. She asked, "Who is he?"
Sae glanced at the girl once but otherwise completely ignored her presence.
The girl’s friends elbowed her, then leaned closer to whisper, "Don't you know Hoh Saering? He's our senior."
The girl gazed at Emi and gave a short laugh, "Boyfriend?"
Sae knitted his brow. He could already feel his energy draining.
The girl was obviously very vexed and wanted someone to take out her frustration on. It did not matter who that someone might be. Voice laced with disdain, she drawled, "Aaah, I get it now. You have protection everywhere. Well, I don't care, he's not going to stay beside you every minute of the day."
Emi scoffed. She did not say anything regarding the ‘boyfriend’ comment. It wasn't worth a reply. She pushed off the desk she was leaning to, and said, "Now you talk. I would've liked to hear you give lip five minutes ago."
Hearing this, the other girl moved forward, her smug expression contorting and her cheeks becoming rosy with colour. “Shut up!”
"Ha, I’m so scared." Emi gave a short laugh. "Don’t you find this utterly embarrassing?" She raised her arm and swept it in a half circle making the other lose the last strand of her cool. The girl headed directly for Emi, but before the scene became irrevocable, and before Emi got a single finger laid upon her person, Sae grabbed her arm and stepped before her.
Behind him, Emi’s opponent stopped short. A very interesting situation ensued.
Two fighting girls with a cold, well-known senior wedged between them.
Sae did not seem affected at all. He gazed ahead without a ripple in his expression. To others, this look might be somewhat scary, but to Emi, his expression was infuriating. When Sae stepped ahead just now, he wasn't shielding Emi from the other girl. She did not need any shielding. If things escalated further, the one to get the shorter end of the stick certainly wasn't her. Sae knew this from experience, and so, decided to face Emi.
The other girl only stopped because she truly got a shock, suddenly seeing nothing but broad shoulders blocking her way.
Sae's gaze travelled over the nearby kids with their phones taken out. Some put their phones down, but the bolder ones braved his icy stare.
Minke stood a few steps back, appalled. She pushed on Teo's shoulder, whispering, “What boyfriend? Whose? What kind of situation is this?”
The boy beside her wore an amused expression the whole time but did not react to her probing.
At this point, Sae tried to drag Emi out of the classroom. The little girl did not want to go, however, her resistance was futile. She voiced her protest rather loudly. "Let go of me. Sae, let go! Won't you let go?!" Either way, it did not seem to matter to Sae.
"Ah! It hurts. Sae, you're hurting me."
He wasn't. Both of them knew that Emi only used another technique, trying to make a fuss. The way Sae held her arm was firm, but gentle. He would never hurt her.
Between gawking kids that stood aside, they got out of the classroom.
Sae dragged the little girl to a crook in the hallway, a rather desolate part of the first floor. He stepped closer, examining her.
"What?" Emi scratched the tip of her nose. She didn’t get hurt anywhere. Just extremely annoyed.
Emi stepped back and Sae let her go. He wasn't some overbearing person in her eyes and they were both aware of that. Sometimes, the problem lay in the fact that they understood each other too well. Emi knew that Sae did not like to get involved in others’ business. He was a somewhat closed off person when it came to sharing boundaries with others. He would not have come, but knew what the little girl was capable of.
"I'm listening," said Sae.
Emi sighed. "She pushed me first, okay?"
Sae cocked a brow indicating that Emi could go on.
"I was just chatting with the girls in the corridor when someone bumped into me. I could tell that it was intentional but decided to let it go. Then during another break, I put my bag on the railing for a second and someone pushed it off. It was the same girl, so I asked around and figured out which class she goes to. I went to her class to ask exactly what her problem is, but she grabbed my hair."
Sae did not say anything. As long as Emi spoke, he didn't interrupt. His eyes were very attentive, a rare look to be associated with his person. When Emi seemed to reach a stop in her talk, he asked, "Why?"
The little girl fidgeted. It was evident that she didn't want to say any more.
"Emi."
"She said something about me making a move on the boy she likes. That I kept staring at him at recess." Emi gave a short laugh. "I don't even know who she's talking about. Seriously, I can’t be bothered to make a move. She's delusional.”
"So you didn't?"
In response, Emi looked aside – out of the window they were standing at. Sae flicked her forehead to make her look at him.
"Hey!"
"Were you staring?"
"I... took a glance."
Sae shook his head helplessly. Rationally looking at things... who would make a fuss just for that? Things were never so easy with Emi.
"And that's it? You definitely haven’t done anything else?” asked Sae. “She wouldn't attack you just for that."
Emi was flabbergasted. "You think I'm at fault here?" She held out her arms. "I can't even look at other people now? How will I cleanse my eyes? Don't you think it's pitiful how we, aesthetically sensitive people, have to live like this? Just let my eyes rot? What's so bad about looking…"
Emi flapped her mouth, tipping the conversation further from its main point. "Listen, I didn't hurt anyone, okay. I was happy to fill my eyes with something pretty. Is that a crime now? And if I lose interest in studying and mess up all my exams because my eyes can't be stimulated anymore, what then? You think God planted beautiful people in visually otherwise deteriorating places in vain? They are to be appreciated!"
Sae knew Emi underplayed things. The little girl was so shameless that it made him chuckle. When he really smiled, his eyes curved into tiny crescents. It made his whole face fill with warmth.
“Why is the question what I did?” Emi went on with her bullshit. “Who even attacks others for looking at people? Is he her possession?”
When Emi got into one of her moods, she became too chaotic to deal with. Sae tried to remain calm. “That’s why I’m asking, what else you’ve done. Also, didn’t you say you don’t know who that girl was talking about?”
“I guessed.” Emi kept mumbling, “Because as a teenage girl, the only goal in my life is to get myself a boyfriend." Here, she made air quotation marks with her fingers, followed by a terrible eye roll. Sae gave her a baleful look.
"Okay, fine." Emi cleared her throat. "I only told her my opinion about her assumptions. Maybe... That may have hurt a little? I’m not sure."
How many times did it take one to make trouble for themselves out of little nothings to finally learn from it?
Sae breathed out, and studied Emi’s current state. The little girl looked like she wanted to camouflage herself for bird-watching activities.
He asked, "What year is she in?"
Emi tried to comb her fingers over her nest of hair in an irked manner. "She's in the same year as me. Don't worry, I won't let her off this easy next time."
"I hope there's no next time." Sae was silent for a few minutes, deep in thought. "You should be thankful no teachers were close by. What would you do if this got out? Your mother would get called in. You really don't need that."
Emi gave a drawn-out sigh. Sae reached out. He helped rearrange the stray strands of hair covering her forehead. Two students passed them by, whispering.
Emi glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "There was no need for you to come. I got the situation under control."
"I could see that," Sae scoffed. "What if that girl went to a teacher?"
"She can't be that stupid!” Emi said with the same exasperation, “That'd be so embarrassing. She's the one who started it!"
"Don't be so self-assured. You said so yourself, you went to her classroom. Her friends were around too. When things came down to it, and without a doubt, that girl would get all the support." Emi tutted, so she didn’t hear Sae murmur under his breath. "...so let's hope things won't come down to it."
There were still more than three lessons remaining for the day. If anything got out and into the teachers' ears, it had to happen this afternoon before school let out. If Emi got off scot-free, and the other girl remained indifferent – no one would have a reason to call for her. Even if the teachers heard the kids talk, or saw compromising recordings of the incident... Both girls could play dumb and naturally nothing would come out of it.
The only thing they had to do was to stay out of trouble. As the saying went, out of sight, out of mind.
The bell rang, and Sae urged Emi to hurry to class. "Don't stir any more trouble and wait for me after classes."
Huffing and puffing, the little girl turned to go.
On the way back, someone passed Sae on the stairs, then stopped and took three steps back so their eyes were in line with each other.
Sae raised a brow as if asking, What?
A few seconds, and Shum Deil inclined his head to the side. He looked a little lazy.
The classroom was a mess, as usual, but it didn’t have anything to do with Sae.
“Sae... Saering,” Minke waved him down first thing after getting inside from the hallway. “Since when has Emi become your girlfriend?”
“Since never,” said Sae. He sent Teo a pointed look.
The boy pulled Minke away by the arm.
“Girl, how can you ask that out of the blue?” Teo knit his brows. “Since how long have we known Emi? Since how long have we known Sae, for goodness’ sake?!”
The girl tore her elbow out of Teo’s grasp with distaste. “Don’t give me that. Would I have to ask if you’ve answered any of my questions?”
Teo cupped a hand behind his neck, leaning into it. “Yeah, I wasn’t in the mood for even one out of the three hundred of them.”
Minke left him standing there without another word, her long hair swishing left and right as she went.
Their next lesson was art. As a universally known fact known by everyone, the art teacher was late at least five minutes to every single class he held. Minke felt bold upon this knowledge and stole up on Sae. Leaning closer, she asked in a semi whisper, “Why was Emi fighting?”
Sae’s deskmate eyed them with interest. The boy had not been at his place earlier, so did not know why Sae had left. He let Sae pass to take the inner seat, all the while picking up his ears.
Minke shot the boy a look, and inquired, "Tomo, can we swap seats until class starts?"
Tomo hemmed and hawed, quite flustered. His expression made it seem as though he couldn’t decide whether he got caught snooping or not. A reply lodged in his throat, dozens of words vying to come out and save him. Right then, someone called out to him, putting an end to his deep curiosity about this strangeness in the air.
As soon as Tomo ambled away, Teo sidled up to the empty seat, trying to listen in on the news.
Sae felt too lazy to indulge these two birds, so he trailed his eyes outside the window pane. Voice lacking any interest, he said, “The girl picked on her.” Following that one sentence, he plopped down on the desk’s surface and lowered his eyes.
The other two shared a look. “Sae,” Teo said, “You know this won’t stay under wraps.”
Thought as much.
Sae showed no reaction whatsoever.
“There’s already a thread about it on the school’s forum. It’s good our class doesn’t care about the forum but the lower years...” Teo did not follow up.
Rationally speaking, the younger the students were, the more curious they got about what went on in school. It could be said that they still had a gentle kind of innocence. They wanted to uncover what’s worth knowing about and what’s empty background noise. In the first year, no one knew all that much about school, its teachers, or what upper classes or students to look out for. Thus, they consistently checked the forum once a day, at least for a term’s duration.
Later, that time got diluted to once every two days, then a week, then only if someone recommended or spammed a fresh and buzzing thread. By the time second year started, all classes had their own private groups to discuss anything worthwhile. Slowly, it reached a point where they remembered such a thing as a school forum existed only in their memories.
“Everyone will think Emi’s fight with that girl got something to do with you. Here,” Minke thrust her phone before Sae’s face. “Look at the pictures. It certainly looks like that going by these.”
Sae opened his eyes a crack but otherwise did not move. The desk under him was smooth, emanating the faint scent of tempera; sunlit by a ray of light coming from the windows. A while later, he sounded, “Hmm." It didn’t seem like he cared.
“Hmm?” Minke repeated. “That’s it? Are you sure?” Her glance turned to Teo.
Teo shared a look with her, then repeated after Sae, “Hmm.”
