Chapter 2

I stared blankly at the chalkboard as I propped my head up. I tried to listen to the teacher as she pointed at the different continents on the map. It was hard, considering I hadn't slept much the night before.

Even though I had been so tired, I couldn't fall asleep. I lay in bed for hours, rolling from side to side. For some reason I couldn't get comfortable.

"Abukara," the teacher called, "What is the name of this country here?"

I looked at where she was pointing and raised a brow. She was circling a part of Canada.

"Isn't that Alaska?" I questioned with some confusion.

"It is, but what country does it belong to?"

"…The United States?"

"Very good, I guess you were paying attention after all," the teacher stated before continuing on.

I sighed at her remark. I actually hadn't been paying attention at all. I hated the fact that when I was trying to look like I was, the teachers always knew that I wasn't.

When the bell rang, I dropped my head onto my desk. The second last and last class of the day always switched. So every other day would be Geography last and the other days it was History. I scowled down at my desk. I didn't want to go to that detention. I was sure that I was the only girl that wouldn't.

Besides Sana and I, there weren't many that disliked Mr. Taisho. All the other girls thought that he was cute or nice to look at. They didn't care that he was as grumpy as an old man. If he had a better personality, then I was sure he wouldn't have been that bad.

I walked down the hallway to the classroom I knew that would one day kill me. When I walked into the doorway, there were still a few students leaving the classroom and some were going to the back of the room.

"Don't worry about cleaning duties," Mr. Taisho instructed from his desk, "Abukara will be cleaning it instead."

My expression dropped with his words. He didn't need to announce it to everyone. I scowled even more as the remaining students let out little laughs.

'Yeah that's right, you laugh it up,' I thought bitterly, shaking my fist at them.

Punching them would have taught them a lesson…

Watching them leave, I tensed as the room emptied and the last student left. He looked up from his papers and desk then. I winced as his eyes looked directly at me. How could anyone withstand his piercing gaze?

"Good afternoon Abukara," he greeted me.

"H-hello Mr. Taisho…"

"The broom and chalkboard cleaning supplies are at the back," he instructed, "I expect that you will do the job well."

Sighing inwardly, I nodded my head.

'I seriously don't think that I deserve this…'

I grabbed the broom and began to sweep, then realized that I needed to put all the chairs on the desk first.

"Damn it," I muttered to myself, hanging my head.

'You would think that someone would be nice enough to put theirs up…' I thought dully, lifting one onto its desk.

In my imagination, I could see him conspiring and telling students to leave all their chairs down for the entire week. Again I scowled. How could someone be that evil?

As I was sweeping, I frowned at the amount of dirt that I was gathering. Were people's shoes really that dirty?

"Don't forger to sweep under the counters as well," he instructed, not looking up from his papers.

I shot him a small glare. He was going to make me clean the entire room before I could leave… Gritting my teeth, I went back to the counters to find even more underneath them.

"Control freak," I hissed under my breath as I glared at the floor.

I wouldn't be able to do this for the entire week. Not without breaking something.

He made me wipe down all the counters and wash all the tops of the desks. Each one he claimed was dirtied by each student; even the ones that were never used. I then had to organize the books on the bookshelf. All the while I could feel his eyes on my back. Each time I shot him a glare he seemed to be marking papers.

When I finally made it to the chalk board, he pulled a small sponge from a drawer in his desk. My right eye twitched at the sight of the sponge. It was small than my hand.

"You're kidding right?" I asked with a doubtful tone.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" he questioned with a raised brow.

Besides the raised brow, his face was emotionless. He was serious.

"You make all your students use sponges that size?" I ask; frustrated as I grabbed it from him, "Or do you save it all for when I come around?"

"That just happens to be the only sponge left."

My jaw tightened as I tried to bite my tongue. I didn't want to make things even worse.

"Yeah alright," I scoffed before scrubbing at all the left over chalk.

'Maybe he was Lex Luther and I was Superman. That would make more sense for this un-rightful justice…'

I scowled at the black board. I had been cleaning for almost two hours… there was no way that I would be done by that second hour.

'Bastard,' I thought hatefully, trying to scrub faster.

By the time I was done, my shoulders were burning and tired from scrubbing.

"Damn it," I groaned, putting the bucket away, "I have to do it again tomorrow."

'By the time I get home it's going to be dark out…'

"You did better than expected Abukara," the teacher stated as he rose to his feet, "I expect the same amount of effort tomorrow."

My fists tightened. He was seriously pushing his luck. Boarding school would be worth hitting him at least once.

"Y-yes sir," I muttered reluctantly, grabbing my bag to leave.

When I moved to turn around, Mr. Taisho was closer than I expected. He looked down at me, locking gazes. My back went rigid as his hand moved some of my hair to the side.

"Hey what are you-"

"Your eye looks wells," he told me, almost leaning down to be closer, "I hope there wasn't any damage."

It took me a moment to know he was talking about Sana's peanut hitting me.

"Oh… no it's fine," I explained quietly, "Excuse me, but I have go."

I looked down before walking around him to the door. My brows pushed together at what had just happened.

'Did… did he just touch my hair?' I asked myself with confusion.

I ran it through my head as I left the school. It didn't make any sense. He had actually been sincere toward his arch rival.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The more I thought about it, the more confused I became. The thought of it made me frustrated. That was at least until my eyes caught sight of a street sign as I walked. It was a large poster with a giant pair of scissors on it; the words 'Need a Trim?' over them. I had to admit that it wasn't the most original sign, but it still gave me an idea.

By the time I made it home, my little cousin and my uncle had already gone to sleep for the night. My aunt had been making her way there as well.

"Oh Kuae, I was wondering when you would get home," she greeted.

"Yeah, me too," I yawned, dragging my bag into my room.

"Have a bath and go straight to bed," my aunt ordered as she went down the hall, "I don't want to have to wake you up twice."

"Yessum," I agreed, "Have a good sleep."

"You too Kuae."

My mood dropped as I went to the bathroom. Sometimes I had to admit that I was jealous of my little cousin. He still had his mom to tuck him in at night and to say 'I love you'. His mother was still there to read him bedtime stories and play little piggy. I didn't. I would never hear any of that again… not for me. I was merely a guest in their family.

'Do I even really have a family?' I wondered as I looked into the bathroom mirror.

There was nothing special about my appearance. The same long hair as every other high school girl. The same school uniform. The only difference was that I had been granted green eyes instead of the usual brown. Not very many students had coloured eyes anymore.

Reaching into the drawer, I pulled out a pair of scissors. I was going to change something that not many girls my age would. I was going to cut off all my hair. I didn't need it anymore and it only got in the way when I tried to concentrate on something. A nuisance, that's all it was. That's what I convinced myself as I started to cut it all off.

I smirked in the mirror by the time I was done. It didn't look too bad; at least I didn't think so. It wasn't as short as it could be, but it was shorter than what it had been. There was still enough hair to hang at the side of my head.

"Not bad at all…"

Throwing all the hair out, I got into the shower and got ready for bed. I had another long day ahead of me.


I could feel it as people walked past me in the hallway; their eyes were on my back. I knew they were thinking what the hell happened.

"Ku!" Sana exclaimed as she attack hugged me from behind, "What did you do? Why is all your hair gone?"

"I cut if off," I laughed, "Why?"

"It doesn't look the same. I had to look twice to make sure that it was you."

"I didn't like how it looked anymore," I explained with a shrug, "So I cut it when I got home last night."

"What did your aunt say?" she wondered, a small smirk on her face.

"She freaked," I mused, "Gave me shit for it, but she said that it was my hair. It's kind of late for it anyway."

A boy ran up to me with a confused look on his face. He was a close friend of Sana's; one that had become mine as well.

"What on earth did you do?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"You don't like my hair Shin? That's not very nice," I stated as I crossed my arms.

"What? I didn't say that!" he rebelled, his brows pushing together, "Stop putting words in my mouth!"

"No, I don't think I will," I beamed, smirking, "Anyway, catch you guys in class later."

Waving, I made my way to first period.

I thought I would give them time together. I knew that Sana had a crush on Shin. It was something she didn't have the courage to say to him. If they were forced together enough, I figured that it would come up in conversation at some point.

As I made my way to class, I felt another set of eyes on me. I could feel from the intensity whose they were. I turned my gaze in Mr. Taisho's direction and smirked a little. Then I stuck out my tongue before going into my homeroom. I felt pretty good about myself; sticking it to the man. No one said Superman had to be good all the time.

It didn't last long though. History came around and he seemed to find another way to humiliate me.

"Abukara please read paragraph six from the textbook."

"I don't have a book," I stated dully, looking up at him with a slight scowl.

"Then you should have been following along from someone else's text," he told me emotionally, looking down at me.

My brows pushed together at his expression. He never looked at anyone.

"I'm sorry sir, but no one was willing to share," I retorted with some annoyance.

"Fu, give Abukara your textbook."

I shot Mr. Taisho a glare before taking the boy's textbook. I didn't understand why it was necessary to make a fool out of me in class.

'Stupid jerk… control freak…' I thought before reading the paragraph.

There wasn't anything more he could do to me. I was already in detention. The next step was suspension and you couldn't get a suspension for talking back to a teacher.

My head hit my desk when the bell rang at the end of the day. If only there was another hour within the school day… then detention would have been prolonged.

"Are you okay Ku?" Shin asked me as he gathered his things, "That must have hurt…"

"I feel nothing," I stated, lifting my head.

After a moment, I dropped it back down again.

There was a pat on my shoulder.

"I'm sure you can make it through the week," he assured me with a smile before waving, "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Walk Sana home!" I demanded into the wood of the desk.

"Yes ma'am," Shin laughed as he left the classroom.

I groaned as the classroom went silent and I was the only student left. There could not have been anything worse than the thick, taunting silence that filled the room.

The silence was heavy – weighted – through the two of us. I knew that Mr. Taisho was still there. I could feel it in the room that his eyes were lingering.

"Please refrain from damaging the desks Abukara," he seemed to muse from his desk.

I lifted my head to look at him with a dull expression before dropping my head down again. He couldn't stop me from being miserable; he enabled it.

"Are you going to start cleaning, or are you just going to injure yourself further?"

"I'd rather knock myself out," I muttered, looking toward the window.

"Then we would never be allowed to leave," he continued looking up from a paper, "I'm sure you would enjoy that."

My jaw tightened with his words. He knew it was something that would have bothered me greatly.

I rose to my feet with a clear scowl on my face, "Yeah that would be absolutely lovely."

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the nearest chair and started putting them up.

"You look different without long hair," the teacher commented as his golden orbs looked at me, "That style suits you."

'Damn it… why is he complimenting me?'

"People seem to stand on the fence," I stated with a shrug," It's not like I did it to please anyone."

It had been the opposite. On the way home the previous night, my mind kept wandering to his hand brushing my hair to the side. The more I thought about it, the more upset I seemed to become; which brought me to the conclusion to cut most of it off. He couldn't touch what wasn't there.

"I'm not even sure why I did it," I lied, shrugging against as I put up the last chair.

My brows pushed together with some confusion. Why was I even having a normal conversation with my nemesis?

"It draws many eyes," Mr. Taisho said calmly, his tone seeming different than it usually did.

'Yeah, I can see that,' I thought as I started to sweep the floor.

I made my way around the room, steadily cleaning everything. It didn't seem to matter what I did, his eyes still followed. The only time they weren't on my back was when I started to do the blackboard.

"Are you close friends with Lee?" he broke the silence with the random question.

I raised a brow at the question; pausing in my scrubbing.

"…Shin? Yeah, I have been for a while now."

"I believe he has his eyes set on you," he stated, something in his tone making me drop the sponge.

More like throw it to the ground.

It sounded like an accusation; like Shin and I were involved.

"Not likely," I scoffed, giving him cold eyes, "Why would something like that matter to you anyway? You're a teacher."

He seemed to laugh, "A teacher cannot wonder about his students?"

"There's no need to wonder," I told him with some frustration.

Sana liked Shin. There was no way that Shin would rather go for me instead of someone like her. I wouldn't let it happen.

"No need to wonder about any student?" he questioned with a small smirk on his lips, "Or just you?"

That was all I could take about the conversation. It was as if he was trying to insinuate something.

"About any student," I stated, grabbing my sponge again.

If I didn't keep busy then I would do something that I would have regretted… something violent.

"Boys only fall for the pretty, cute girls. They like a person they can look after," I explained, scrubbing, "No guys wants a girl that could kick his ass."

No guy would want someone like me. I made sure of it.

I felt a hand on my shoulder before my back was to the blackboard. I went rigid when my eyes locked with his; as his eyes looked into me. His expression had changed… something was different…

"I've met a man that desires that quality in a woman," he told me lowly, his head leaning closer.

"And where's he from? India?" I asked doubtfully.

"No… he's in this room."

His hand slid through my hair before his lips captured mine. My eyes widened with surprise as my cheeks heated up. He was a teacher… and I was his student…

I tried to find all the things that were wrong with the situation. There were many. He was a person that hated me… and he was doing something like this? What was it? A game?

My brows pushed together as a feeling turned in my stomach. It felt like it was all knotted up inside. I pushed him back; forcing him away from me. I glared up at him with a tight jaw as I tried to make myself do something. I wanted to hit him with all my might, but I knew it wouldn't do any good. The only thing I could make myself do was turn away and leave the room.

End of Chapter