The Garden

Detention was no big deal. The same thing every day, do something I want to, get caught by Mr Gwok, go to the detention room and sit there for an hour, and get discharged. Easy.

This had been happening to me till now. But not this year. This year would be my last year in middle school, and everyone said Mr Kim is the most dreadful and scary teacher in middle school.

Unfortunately, Mr Kim is my homeroom and maths teacher this year. 

Sure, we'll see whether this guy would be able to handle me.

It was not quite a surprise that I was late for school again today. But watching our grumpy neighbour screaming at the sight of blood oozing from his garden hose was too amusing. I wondered whether he knew red food colouring exists.

I reached the classroom and saw it was dead silent with an uncomfortable atmosphere. Mr Kim looked directly at me with his infamous piercing look.

"Ju Min Ki. You are 10 minutes and 43 seconds late."

Impressive.

I just shrugged and headed towards my seat.

“I expect an apology.”

I looked at him with an overconfident look, “Sorry, it’s not my fault school starts early in the morning AND we get so much homework we have to stay up till midnight to finish it.”

He furrowed his brows, “Today’s the first day of school.”

Oh shoot, I shouldn’t have said that.

My face went a light tint of red from embarrassment, but I didn’t lower my head.

“I expect punctuality from you. Please go to your seat.” Mr Kim said in a monotone.

What is he, a robot?

I slumped down on the table nearest to the window and threw my bag on the chair beside me.

We started learning that weird algebraic stuff that I never really understood. 

To be honest, I couldn’t care less about algebra. I put my head on the table and looked outside the window.

I fell asleep pretty quick.

“Ju Min Ki.”

I jerked up immediately.

Mr Kim didn’t look happy. “Please meet me after your classes end.”

~~~

I almost got away from that grumpy guy but he caught me sneaking.

He took me to the detention room- which was empty, as expected on the first day.

Mr Kim walked around the room and stared out from the window.

“Your punishment,” he said without looking away “is to water all the plants in the school garden.”

Water all the plants?!

But I didn’t refuse and went out to the garden.

~

Till today, I had never realized how big our school garden was. After an hour of crouching down and hurting my back, sweating intensely under the blazing sun, I was done gardening.

I went back to my class to report to Mr Kim, who looked at me with an amused look in his eyes and let me go back home.

I had never felt more outrageous before. I worked so hard in the hot afternoon and he was taking the fun of me?

Of course, I didn’t stop being late, nor did I do my homework and slept a lot in class.

And every day, Mr Kim would give me the same punishment- watering the plants.

Why doesn’t he just give me detention instead?

I thought he would get tired at some point- but nope, he always had that expressionless face and told me to water the garden as if it was something that could be done in five minutes.

I possibly couldn’t change my habits in a small amount of time- but I was trying. I’d rather study than do this punishment every day.

But all my efforts were too little.

~~~

It was another normal day, but luckily I reached on time today. Everyone had their books open and were studying, as expected on exam time.

I just sat down on my desk and stared out.

“Class.” Mr Grumpy Guy said, “We have a new student.”

The classroom door slightly opened, and a cute and petite girl walked in and stood beside the teacher.

“Please introduce yourself,” he said in his monotone, which probably freaked the girl out.

She looked down at her shoes, avoiding eye contact from everyone, “Hello, um… My name is Baek Bora… Please be nice to me, thank you!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at her introduction. 

Mr Kim looked directly at me, “Please have a seat with Ju Min Ki.”

My eyes widened.

No way- I was getting a seatmate? Ugh, this is going to be a lot harder. At least she’s cute, I guess.

I waved my hand and she sat beside me.

“Baek Bora? What kind of name is that, LOL.” I couldn’t help but remark.

(Note: “Baek”, a surname, in Korean means the colour white and “Bora”, a first name, means purple)

She just shrugged, “I get that a lot.”

~~~

Don’t ask me how I got punished today, but it has something to do with me trying to make excuses for my incomplete homework.

As I reached the garden I saw someone was already there, watering the plants.

“Um… Baek Bora?” I recognized the cute girl from my class.

She did that light startled jump and looked at me, “Huh? Oh hey…”

I couldn’t help but laugh, “What are you doing here?”

She went back to watering the bush, “I should ask you the same.”

“I got a punishment… I need to water the plants” I sighed.

“Do you get that punishment every day?”

I nodded.

She shook her head, “You’re not doing a really good job then.”

“Well, it’s not that I like to water this stupid garden. I’m just doing what Mr Kim told me to do.”

Bora threw the hose in my hands, “Nope! I’m gonna show you how you do it.”

She got another one and demonstrated how to hold it properly. “You see, you shouldn’t hold it too high.”

I just sighed and listened to what she told me.

Something which I usually did in an hour, I did it in just thirty minutes today.

“Woah we’re done already… thanks, Bora.” I smiled at her. A question suddenly popped into my mind, “You were already here when I came. Do you perhaps like gardening? Or did you get a punishment too?”

She nodded, “Yeah, I enjoy gardening. It makes me feel fresh seeing all the greenery. I was actually heading home but I decided to water the plants as they looked a bit dry.”

“I have to water them every day as a punishment, but I guess I haven’t been doing it right.” I sighed. “Well now that we’re done let’s head home.”

“Hmm, bye! Don’t forget to do your homework this time!” She waved. “Have a nice day!”

I felt myself blushing out of nowhere.

~~~

A few days passed by and Bora helped me a lot. With many things. She would come to my house right in the morning which forced me to get ready fast. She helped me with my homework too. I didn't get punished anymore. But every day, well, most of the days, we both would go out and water the garden. I realized gardening wasn’t so lame after all.

It was almost springtime and the flowers were in full bloom.

Bora and I had volunteered to pick some flowers to make bouquets for the upcoming Grand Ceremony of the school.

“Yo Bora, hand me the bora flowers!” I reached my hand out.

She handed over some lavenders, chuckling “Hey, focus on your work!”

After collecting a bunch of flowers we sat in the middle of the garden and started preparing the bouquets. We divided the flowers to make it easier.

It took a while but we were finally done. 

Even though the both of us were done, we said nothing about getting up and just lied down on the soft grass looking at the sunset.

I looked around me, the bright flowers seemed as if they were glowing slightly, the grass was wet but smelt fresh, there was a beautiful pattern on every leaf that was visible, “How come I never realized how pretty this place was?!” 

Bora leaned towards me- a bit too close to my face and just smiled, “Once you start enjoying something, it all looks beautiful.”

~~~

“And then you said, ‘Just like this garden, you’re pretty too, Bora’.” Bora chuckled, stuffing the pizza in her mouth.

“Oh my god, don’t remind me! I was so cringe back in middle school,” I hid my face with my hands.

“Nah, you were cute,” Bora shook her head. “But seriously though, I was shocked when Mr Kim thanked us and told us he really appreciated what we did. That was the first time I saw him smile.” 

I nodded, “Oh, I had a chat with him a while ago. He said the garden is still green and lovely. We should go visit it one day.”

“Woah, really? It’s been like 5 years since we saw our middle school! I wonder if Mr Kim and our other teachers would be shocked to know we’re dating...”

I chuckled and we ate our dinner while talking.