Roseanne's Summer Vacation- Chapter 16
Roseanne came up to Tae-jun’s room. She took the opportunity as everybody was busy easting. The girl shyly lurked by the door. She even pricked up her ears to hear any noise coming from the inside, but there was none. The encounter with the ugly woman seemed like a good conversation starter.
“Hey, Tae-jun. I just stopped by to say thanks for the warming. You were right. A bunch of crazies live here. Can you believe this horrible, fat cow gave us a random leaflet?” Roseanne silently rehearsed what to say.
Finally, she knocked on the door.
A moment passed, seconds turned into a minute, but there was no answer.
Darn it, Roseanne thought. He’s out! Well, why would a cutie like that stay in a hostel in the evening? Not to mention having a chat with a girl like me. Stupid. I’m so stupid!
“What are you doing, Roseanne?”
***
The girl turned in surprise. Her face was covered in a faint blush. Mr Orville was sitting by a wooden table in the lobby, eating his warped sandwiches.
“Oh, I didn’t notice you were here.”
“You just walked right past me, Roseanne. Why are you snooping around the room which isn’t ours?”
Roseanne put a hand to her mouth to signal embarrassment at being caught red-handed. Resigned, she took a seat next to Mr Orville. “Okay, I can tell you this because I know I won’t tell anyone.” She took a deep breath. “To be honest, I met a boy…”
Roseanne proceeded to tell Mr Orville everything about Tae-jun. How they met, how he looked. It was unthinkable that only a few hours had passed. She kept talking as if she had known the boy for days. She even showed the spick-and-span Instagram profile.
The teacher listened attentively and nodded from time to time. He didn’t want to judge, but his face expressed vivid concern. “Listen, Roseanne,” he started. “We are on a school trip, away from home. Your parents aren’t here, which makes me responsible for your safety. Okay, you met him by accident, you talked at a shopping mall, and exchanged Insta handles. I get it. But trying to enforce more interactions can be dangerous. For all we know, he can be a drug dealer or, knock on wood, a human trafficker.”
Having heard this, Roseanne lowered her head. “I understand what you’re saying, Mr Orville, but I can look after myself. I don’t need fatherly talk.”
Her response made the teacher suddenly feel a whole lot older. Nevertheless, the age difference wasn’t that vast between the two. The year Roseanne was born, Mr Orville was about fifteen years old; he graduated from primary school. Little did he know while walking the streets in 2008 and seeing all those babies in pushchairs that he may end up teaching some of them in the future.
Mr Orville thought: I mustn’t speak like that. I can’t feel like Roseanne’s dad!
He said after a minute, “You know, Roseanne, you shared your secret with me, then I will share mine with you.”
The student turned her head and looked at him. “What is it?”
“When I was little, I thought that I would meet my significant other, that it would happen naturally, sooner or later, but it never did. It made me sad for a while, but just as I learned to live with it, I became a victim of unrequited love.”
Roseanne’s eyes widened at the confession. She never thought about the romantic life of Mr Orville. Well, he had no ring, so it was clear as day he wasn’t married, but nowadays people prefer relationships over marriages. And Mr Orville looked quite young. Students sometimes liked playing the guessing game, and they gave him between 27 and 35 years of age.
Mr Orville continued. “It happened over a year ago. It wasn’t love at first sight. Oh no, I wasn’t thunderstruck when I saw her for the first time. I’ve known her before. Whenever there is winter, my body can’t bear the cold and I get sick. I end up on sick leave for at least a week or two. You may remember this, Roseanne, because then you have substitute classes.”
Roseanne shuddered at the thought of substitution classes. Teachers either didn’t do anything or they did way too much.
“So it was one of these periods when I was really, really sick,” Mr Orville continued. “But two weeks of antibiotics saved my skin. The sick leave was over. I got up to work. The day was rainy. I was sad and bitter, and there she was… A chance encounter. Normally, she would just say “hi” and that’s it, but on that day, she stopped and said it was so good to see me. She was worried because I wasn’t around for a long time.”
“And that’s when you feel for her?” Roseanne could picture the scene in her mind clearly. It played out like that Wong Kar Wai movie she saw on TV—In the Mood for Love.
“And that’s when I feel for her,” Mr Orville said with a hint of grief. “From that day on, I finally knew what love was. I began loving her because of her kindness. Before I realised, I started imagining my whole life with her, writing poems and love letters!”
“Oh!” Roseanne sighed. “How I wish someone could write me a love letter. Boys are so spoiled and immature.” She lamented. “But getting back to you. She didn’t love you back? That’s why it was unrequited love?”
Mr Orville spread his hand to signal helplessness. “It’s complicated. I found myself spending more and more time with her. We became really good friends. Day by day, I struggled with my thoughts. I looked into her beautiful light brown eyes and asked myself: Should I tell her or shouldn’t I? Eventually, I chose not to.”
“Oh my god, why?!”
“Because I was afraid it would destroy our friendship. It wasn’t the matter of her saying ‘no’ and me not handling rejection. I was scared she would see me as a monster who took advantage of the trust we shared together.”
“Excuse me, but that’s a really messed-up way of thinking. You should have expressed your feelings. If she wasn’t in love, then she wasn’t. If she were to go apeshit and break off friendship with you, then she was never really your friend.”
“Well, if I were in your place, Roseanne, I would tell myself exactly that, but you don’t know the details.”
“And what are the details?”
Mr Orville paused for a moment. “Long and convoluted. I told you enough for now.”
“Come on! You can’t stop when it’s so interesting! I told you everything about Tae-jun!”
“Your story was very short. Mine is already too long.”
“But you didn’t even tell me her name!”
“I don’t want to.”
“Not even the first letter?” Roseanne began enumerating the alphabet. “Does it start with an A… B… C?”
“No, no, stop with that. You’re not getting her name.”
“I’m not letting you off the hook so easily.” Roseanne got up and ran to her room. She came back after a couple of minutes, carrying a large package in her hands. She placed the thick envelope in front of Mr Orville.
“There!” she said proudly. “The story of my own unrequited love is written inside, as a novel! I wrote it for a competition, but I still don’t know whether I should submit it or not. I took it with me just in case because the deadline is on the last day of the trip.”
Mr Orville looked gobsmacked. “What do you want me to do with it?”
“Read it, Mr Orville. Read it if you want to. And when you know my feelings, then you can share yours in full. Then we’ll be even.”
Mr Orville didn’t know what to say. He was positively surprised his student had written a novel, yet shocked she decided to share it with him on the spur of the moment.
Roseanne kindly said goodbye and disappeared into her room. As soon as she was alone, she couldn’t believe what she did.
“You stupid pinhead!” she cursed herself. “What did you give him your book?! He will laugh at you! The only normal teacher. The only one whose lessons you liked! He won’t treat you seriously ever again! You should hang yourself on a branch right now!”
“Hey! Are you high or just drunk?” Natasha suddenly emerged from under the duvet, holding crisps and a smartphone.
“I’m just embarrassed. Go back to crisps and Squid Game before your teeth fall out.”
Natasha stuck out her tongue. Roseanne sat on her bed and quickly reflected on what she said out loud. Maybe Mr Orville’s fear of losing the one he cared about wasn’t unjustified. What was Roseanne feeling right now? It was hard to make out the sensation, but easy to put into words: If you are truly attached to someone, you don’t want to lose them.
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