"Jenn! Is Jenn here?!"
On a gloomy Monday morning, I heard someone shouting for me just outside the classroom. We still had like half an hour to go until the first lesson of the morning started, so it was the so-called 'self-study' time for now. There were studious types who put in earnest work during this period, and there were those who used the opportunity to do something totally irrelevant to the study, such as Miran reading her light novels, but most of us just used the time to chill and chit chat with friends before the day started.
"Who's calling for me?", I asked Jihee as we were just in the middle of the conversation about my good (and bad) day out with Minsu on the previous Saturday.
"You've done something wrong again?", Jihee was being cheeky here.
"Hey, you make me sound like I'm some kind of trouble maker"
Just as I was protesting, I saw Captain Lee trying to enter our classroom.
Why is he here again?
Ajin was quick to notice and walked up to the door, stood in front of Captain Lee, and blocked him.
"Captain, you are not allowed to enter the junior's classroom. Please stop this"
"Jenn! I see you! Please come over here"
Captain Lee ignored Ajin and waved at me as he saw me sitting by the window.
It was good that Hechan wasn't here yet as he might have tried to cause some trouble with the Captain again if he was around like the last time.
I was about to respond but Ajin turned to look at me and gave me a cold stare as if to say 'Don't just go along with this'.
There were whispers around the classroom at the sudden appearance of Captain Lee here. He was a very popular guy, especially for the junior girls, and this was the second time he came around looking for me so openly. So far my only problems were with girls like Soojin and her gang, but I knew if things went on like this any further I'd probably get some other jealous girls to turn against me too.
Welp. Sorry Ajin, but I think I gotta sort this one out.
I stood up from my chair and walked towards the door where Captain Lee was standing.
I had to pass Soojin's seat on the way though and as I was walking by she muttered just loud enough for everyone in the classroom to hear.
"There goes the slut again, jumping between men"
That lit up a brief spark of anger in my chest, but I made a quick decision to ignore it and just walk towards the door to talk to the Captain.
"Hey, you there. What's wrong with you?"
To everyone's surprise, Captain Lee pointed directly at Soojin and challenged her across the room. Soojin was caught off guard, as she was probably trying to bait a reaction from me, but did not expect the Captain to interfere with 'girl's matters'.
"Captain, please leave. I will handle the problems in my class"
Ajin was trying to persuade the Captain to leave, but he was having none of it.
"Get up and come over here"
Soojin was visibly shaken and it was obvious that she didn't know what to do with this sudden development.
:Bump!:
"Oops, I didn't see you there. Captain"
Ouch, this is the worst timing.
Hechan shoulder-bumped the Captain hard from behind as he was entering the classroom. Although Captain was no push-over by any means, a sudden barging on the back caught him by surprise and he almost tumbled to the ground.
"You little piece of-"
Uh-oh. I gotta stop this. This is all because of me now.
Just as the Captain was starting to swing his fist and Hechan was bringing his arm up to guard himself, I made a quick dash and grabbed the Captain's wrist.
"Captain, please, no"
"Thanks, princess", Hechan said with a smirk.
"Bitch", Soojin hissed like, well, a bitch.
The atmosphere in the room got very tense and all eyes were on us.
"Captain, if you need to talk to me, let's talk outside, ok?"
"Right, but I see there are some kids in this class that need to learn some manners. I won't let this pass"
"Captain, let me handle the problems in my class. And Jenn, please go back to your seat"
Ajin said rather authoritatively.
"Hey, but I need to talk to Jenn here"
"Let's take it outside", I thought that would be the best for everyone now.
"No, Jenn, go back to your seat"
Ajin ordered with a tiny hint of irritation in her voice.
"Hey, Ajin. I'm sorry to barge in like this. But please do not interfere, I need to talk to Jenn"
"Interfere?"
"I don't mean to offend, Ajin. But-"
:Bump!:
"Oops, I did it again. But hey, I can't get into my classroom because you guys are blocking the way.
Captain got bumped by Hechan again but he did not react this time. He just gave Hechan a short glare and stepped aside to let Hechan through. But just when I thought at least a potential fight between the Captain and Hechan was not on the card anymore, Hechan grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me towards him as he was walking towards his seat, which was just behind my seat.
"Let's go, princess. Forget about that idiot"
"Not so fast"
Just as I was being pulled away, the Captain grabbed my other wrist.
Oh man, this is really not good. I was like the center of attention from the whole class now and literally in the middle of a conflict between two strong-headed men. What the hell do they think I am?
"Let go"
I spoke firmly to both of them and tried to squirm my wrists out of their grips but to no avail. I might have done it if only one of them was pulling me, but both of them pulling my arms in opposite directions made me weak and I couldn't do much in this situation.
"Let go, Captain"
Ajin had a fire in her eyes and ordered the Captain.
"Why me?"
"Captain, please. Just let go. You are better than this"
That brought Captain Lee back to his senses and I think he realized how ridiculous and childishly both of them were behaving.
"Right. I'm sorry about this"
I managed to yank my wrist out of Hechan's grip finally just as the Captain let my other arm go.
"Tssk. Are you chickening out again, Captain?"
The way Hechan said 'Captain' was just dripping with sarcasm.
"You and I will talk again, kid"
"Anytime, Captain"
Captain Lee was just a tiny bit more mature than Hechan so he let him have the last words and went back to his original agenda.
"Jenn, there's something we need to talk about. Could you please come to the track and field practice area during lunchtime?"
"Oh…okay. I guess?"
"Hey, what's going on here?"
We then all got startled as our homeroom teacher appeared by the door and tried to get into the classroom.
"I'm sorry, Sir, it was my oversight. Jenn, Hechan, please go back to your seat, and Captain, please leave for now"
Ajin seemed to have calmed down and brought order to this chaos, and we all followed as we were told.
Captain turned to leave but mouthed "See you later" to me, Hechan walked toward his seat whistling as if nothing happened, and I sulked back to my seat as Ajin politely bowed to the teacher and stepped aside to let him through.
This really sucks.
I don't know why, but that's all I could think about, and I just knew it was going to be a very long Monday and things can only go downhill from here.