Eyes wide shut

Teacher, are you ok?

***

On the other side of Earth, somewhere in Daegu, Korea, a woman wearing a silk bathrobe just finished gathering on the small, glass coffee table, four steaming mugs.  She carefully placed each of them in front of 2 men and a woman police officer. One of the men, the younger one, had a dark blue suit and didn’t use honorifics while talking to his partner, which meant he was higher in rank and that also made him so full of himself. The other one, even if he was merely a couple of years older, he seemed like a more down-to-earth person, always addressing any questions with a soft smile on his face. 

“Madam if you know where he is you should really speak now!” the younger detective said in an uptight tone.

“Are you insane?? Do you think that I’d still hide that swine?? Not after what he’s done to me!!” the woman in the robe began to fluster. “If I’d only knew where that maggot is hiding, I’d serve him to you on a silver plate!” she almost yelled, absently massaging her plastered arm.

“Of course, we know that…” the older one spoke in a soft voice “It’s just that he’s been missing for almost 7 weeks now…”

 “He never tried to contact you… not even once?” the younger one interfered.

“No” she frankly answered.

“Ok…” he said getting up.

“Is that all?” the woman also stood up.

“You’ve already answered all of my questions once. If nothing’s changed… what’s the point in hearing the same answers again?” he took a short bow before he left, closely followed by his partner and the other police officer.

“Are you sure?” the older detective handed him a cigarette.

“Yes,” he lit it up “I finally got tired... He’s either lying dead in some god-forgotten hole or he’s enjoying life on a tropical island with half-naked women around him and here I am chasing the wild goose on my own. I’ve had enough” he said entering a green BMW; waved goodbye and got off with a screech.

***

It was again time for the English class. In a totally unexpected way, the classroom was entirely full – no one was missing. Anna took a short look around then grabbed her head in her hands when Veronica started talking way too loud about how much she loved the English teacher. She rolled her eyes making her friend angry that she didn’t share the same passion as her. Actually… she did… more than she ever wanted to admit. He was… he USED TO BE her best dream, her most treasured memory, her knight in shining armor, but everything turned out to be a terrible nightmare. At first, she feared that he’ll say something… well even if he did and she’ll admit, people around her still wouldn’t believe it, so basically she had no idea why did she react like that. She was determined to show him a new face today, the same as that day on the beach, so when the door squeaked, she got up as fast as her other classmates to greet him. Well… it turned out to be a lot more difficult than she thought. His perfume invaded all of her personal space when he slowly left the class book on her desk for him to rest his palms on it for just a couple of seconds.

Something seemed off today. Anna quickly checked his immaculate black suit and except for the first unbuttoned button of his cherry-red shirt, nothing seemed wrong. She discreetly rose her eyes to meet his and froze, something was definitely not good in there – the pupils were almost as large as the irises and they looked like they couldn’t find their focus.

“Mr. Kim, are you alright?” Veronica (again) cut her off.

“Mm? Yes… yes… I apologize” he charmingly smiled looking for Anna’s gaze. He knew it was the only thing that could banish the dying woman’s eyes. As soon as he met it he understood that something had given him away and almost revealed his true state of mind so, quickly looked away. He took his book and softly walked to his desk.  “I guess you all like English” he gently laughed sitting on his chair. He felt Veronica’s insistent look which made him even more uncomfortable, so without losing any more time he started reading the names on the class book, avoiding everybody’s look.

 Today’s class was about the verbs and their irregular forms and he mostly made the kids write on the blackboard choosing anyone except Anna or Veronica… his head was too drowsy to deal with them... but even so, he had to admit and acknowledge Anna’s shift. He was also thankful that indeed the nightmare didn’t show its ugly face at all during the entire class, no matter how many times he closed his eyes because of the dreadful headache disguised as a basic non-approval treachery movement for the lack of the pupil’s knowledge.  He never let Anna come near him because right now he was quite aware that if he felt her presence anywhere in his hand-reach he’d just jump in her arms as if he was the young one… this thought made him feel even worst about himself, sending cold drops on his palms that slowly started shaking. He knew what he needed to stop this feeling, but this wasn't a good scenery, nor the best time for it.

Finally, the bell rang so everybody stood up, running and playing around, exiting the classroom one by one.

At first, Jaeuck tried to get up but his heart seemed too heavy to lift up so he simply had to remain seated. As if he literally wanted to pull it out of his chest so he could get up,  he clutched it in his hand, panting.  He closed his eyes in an attempt to calm it down a little, but the gunshots and the glass scattering instantly opened them back, 10 times more scared because he was still somehow aware of his surroundings. He started panting heavily even though he did his best to hide it.