12 Kang Shinhye

Shinhye is from class 10B, one of the classes I teach. That means she's also my student.

She's a smart kid. She performs very well in my class.

No. Rather, she's excellent.

Sure, with my teaching methods, almost everyone can follow the steps, but she can follow easily. Just like some from my advisory class.

Also, she helps her classmates whenever they find the lesson really hard. Basically, everyone's depending on her.

Sure, that puts pressure on, but she doesn't feel a thing. So it's no problem for her.

As much as fun I can get to teach my students, she finds helping her classmates fun. That's when she shows her best smile. That's what I've noticed.

That's why seeing her standing beyond the rail of the rooftop is a frightening view from my perspective.

Why would she take her own life at a time like this?

There has to be a problem. And that's what I'm about to find out.

After saving her from jumping off the building, Shinhye and I are currently sitting on a bench. We've been in that state for a few minutes until she eventually calms down.

I offer her a cup of water from my bottle instead of the Coke I brought. She accepts it and drinks it.

I ask Shinhye, "How did you manage to find this place?"

"I just happened to be here," she says.

"Suspicious."

"Mr. Lee!"

I giggle as she gets angry.

I get to finally ask her the question, "Why did you do that?"

Shinhye looks away. I suspect she doesn't want to answer.

But I have to squeeze the answers out of her in order to help her.

It seems like I'm meddling in her personal life, but…

"Mr. Lee?"

Shinhye calls me and I respond, "What is it?"

"I'm going to tell you everything, but promise me you won't tell anyone. Right now, you're the only one I can speak to."

"Even the teachers?"

She immediately replies, "Even the teachers."

I plan on telling Mr. Yang about Shinhye's story eventually. I might even use his help in case things go beyond my control. After all, something like this is a threat to his funland scheme. Although, I do feel hesitant doing it.

I sigh and accept, "Okay. I won't tell anyone."

Shinhye smiles and responds back, "Thank you, Mr. Lee." Then I smile back.

Now I get to hear her story.

"We were a complete family. My mother, my father and my older brother.

But both of our parents died. My father died of sickness when I was nine, then my mother was killed in a car accident when I was about to enter middle school. So my brother is the only family I have left.

At least that's what I thought.

From the start, my brother was already the short-tempered type, but that got worse when our parents died.

He started to become... violent.

He shouts at me, swears at me, beats me up, forces me to do all the work at home such as cleaning and cooking.

As if he's already sick of me under his care.

There were times he barricaded the door of my room for studying for too long.

There were times he played at my possessions for fun.

And…

There were times… there were times…"

Shinhye starts to stammer. That means she's about to tell me something worse.

She starts to cry once again, heavily. She lowers her head frontward until her chin touches her collarbone while still holding the cup.

"There are times... he used my body for his own pleasure."

Fueled with anger, I almost try to throw my bottle on the ground but I manage to prevent it from happening. I manage to keep my cool.

Goddammit. She was mistreated by her brother, yet she chose to endure. But she eventually chose to jump off the building.

"However, I still needed to endure all of those because he is the one who earns money for us."

"And you did, which brings me to ask you this… Why did you decide to commit suicide at this point in time?"

"This morning, he came up with a new way to mistreat me.

He recorded us having..."

I know what she's going to say so I immediately tell her, "You should skip that word. Do you know what that was for?"

Shinhye continues to sob and answers, "It...it was… it was for his coworkers."

His brother went too far. This is getting infuriating.

"It's because others have already seen me doing lewd stuff that I thought taking my own life would be the only way to get away.

I mean, where should I go when they'll think I'm sorry?"

And then she starts to shout, "What's the point of having this miserable life?!"

This is just messed up. No wonder why she wants to keep her story secret.

But it didn't seem like she was planning on commiting suicide. She was like the Shinhye I always see.

So all this time, she's been masking what's really happening with every smile she shows at school. Is that it?

Shinhye looks at me again and starts to hold back her tears.

"You know what Mr. Lee, school is the only place where I can find happiness. But the best part of that is whenever you step in our classroom.

Not only do you make things easy for us in our lessons, but you also give us a little bit of entertainment with your personality. That makes me feel the happiest.

Thank you, Mr. Lee."

As she thanks me, she shows her smile while still holding back her tears. I smile back as a response.

I stand up from the bench and look at the view of the city.

"Seriously," I mumble. Then I tell Shinhye to look at the view with me and she accepts by doing so.

While looking at the view, she crosses her arms and holds the sleeves of her coat tightly.

I ask her, "Do you wanna be a teacher or something?"

She states her answer, "Actually, yes. I want to be a teacher. I had an unclear future despite my performance at school, but as time went by, I slowly became interested in teaching."

"How so?"

"Is that even a question, Mr. Lee? It's because of you, of course. You made me realize being a teacher can be fun too."

I couldn't agree more. "I know, right?"

I look at the view more and make up my mind.

"At times like this as a teacher, I should be giving you advice and such.

But you know what, screw that. I'm not gonna give you advice.

I'm going to help you get through this problem of yours.

I don't think anyone can help you at this point with how serious your situation is."

That's right. Because of the gravity of the state she's in, she'll suffer more if we leave things as is.

And there's no way others will look at her in the same way one they find out.

That's just irritating.

I hope they'll still accept her even after knowing she's been going though.

I suddenly remember asking Shinhye how she found this place.

"So… you just happened to be here, huh? You ran and then happened to find this building?"