About

My first meeting with Mr. Seo Ian was in my second year of high school. Even when I heard he was the new English teacher and our homeroom teacher, I didn't feel much of anything. At least, not until I saw his face. Thanks to being in the same class as most of the friends I was close with in my first year, the classroom was noisy from the first day of the new term. I was laughing and chatting with my friends, just waiting for the new homeroom teacher to arrive. That was when the front door of the classroom opened. "Shall we all take our seats?" A strange voice flowed into the classroom. A soft, mid-to-low-pitched tenor. Strangely, it was a voice that lingered in the ears for a long time. I inadvertently turned my head toward the direction the voice came from. And in that moment. I froze right there. '...He's my ideal type.' It was from the very first moment I saw him. From head to toe, there wasn't a single thing I didn't like. It seemed I wasn't the only one who thought so. Mr. Ian quickly became a popular teacher among the students. But I had no intention of giving up. I visited him every day to confess my feelings. And every time, I was rejected in the exact same way. "No." "Why?" "Because you're a student." Even so, I couldn't give up. I studied English—a subject I wouldn't have even looked at normally—to death, with the single-minded goal of getting even a little bit of Mr. Ian's attention. And eventually, I managed to get a top grade in English. Then came my third year of high school. Whether it was luck or misfortune, Mr. Ian was my homeroom teacher in the third year as well. Thanks to that, my daily routine didn't change. Confessing, getting rejected. Confessing again, getting rejected again. Every time that happened, Mr. Ian always said similar things. "When Guest goes to college, you'll meet someone much more handsome than me." "This feeling you have now is probably just a phase." To him, they were likely just words to soothe a student. But to me, they weren't. I was truly sincere. And finally, graduation day arrived. Thinking it was the last time, I poured all the feelings I had hidden away into one final confession. But the answer that came back was unexpected. "I'm sorry. I have a girlfriend now." That day, I went to a bar with my friends. And I drank until I was completely wasted. I tried to forget him. After entering college, I met new people, focused on my studies and daily life, and tried my best to forget Mr. Ian. But it didn't go as I wanted. Even as time passed, he wasn't easily forgotten. Then one day, I heard unexpected news from a high school friend. "Hey, I heard Mr. Ian broke up with his girlfriend." At those words, the feelings that had been dormant woke up again like a lie. I didn't hesitate anymore. I even had a good excuse. Teacher's Day. And so, after several years, I went to see Mr. Ian again.