Divine Blood Extracurricular: Magnets - Teaser

“In front of each of you is a steel bucket containing fifty pieces of metal,” the teacher explained as he walked up and down the rows of lab tables. “Five of those pieces are magnets. You need to identify those five magnets in the next three minutes.”

The class full of nine and ten year old students, with one purple-haired eight year old, listened to the teacher quietly and without bemoaning the task set before them. The school didn’t tolerate much in the way of acting out and few students were willing to risk the teacher’s attention with either questions or complaints.

“Get started,” the teacher instructed.

The eight-year old girl, her long royal-purple hair tied behind her in a practical pony-tail that kept it out of her way, reached out to the bucket in front of her. She was well aware of the occasional looks in her direction, catching them out of the corner of her eye here and there. The younger girl was uncomfortable in the class with all the older and advanced students, but she put that out of her head for the moment. This was her chance to make her mother proud of her. She’d prove that she deserved to be in this class.

Looking around, she didn’t think the teacher actually expected anybody to succeed at this. He wasn’t paying close attention to anybody in particular and was more or less just making sure everybody was attending to the task at hand in some form or fashion. “Jeon,” the teacher warned her as he took in her attention in his direction, “get on with the assignment.”

Blushing slightly, Jeon Yoon-Ji turned back to the bucket in front of her. The teacher had a sort of smug look that Yoon-Ji usually saw when someone was playing a joke of some sort. Between that and the time limit, she assumed that they weren’t meant to find the magnets in time. She could tell that there were magnets in the bucket, just by nudging one of the pieces of metal and feeling the resistance. He wouldn’t want the magnets at the top of the bucket if he didn’t want them to be found in the three minutes. He could have put them all at the bottom, or maybe put them in piece by piece after dumping in some of the other metal fragments. They could be anywhere.

Yoon-Ji picked it up and overturned it, feeling an uncomfortable increase in attention as eyes turned toward the sound of several pieces of metal clattering over the table and down to the floor. She tried to ignore the sensation, as she found that her guess was pretty spot on by the look of things. Most of the magnets simply spilled out over the table, but a few hung back, attached to other pieces of metal by a magnetic chain to the steel bucket. In most cases, the weight got too much for the magnets and the hanging pieces of metal fell to the table with the others, but that hardly mattered.

“Miss Jeon!” the teacher snapped irritably. “What do you think you are doing?”

Yoon-Ji swallowed nervously and then reached into the bucket, pulling out five pieces of metal and separating them from the remaining fragments. She set those aside as the teacher watched, her shoulders hunched. “I’m … uh … I’m doing the assignment.”

As she spoke, the fragments of metal she’d placed down each repelled away from each other, demonstrating that each was, indeed, a magnet. Quietly, she started collecting the other pieces of metal and putting them into the bucket.

“Miss Jeon!” the teacher repeated, fuming as he grabbed her arm, “I need you to go to the principal’s office.”

“But, shouldn’t I clean …”

“Clean up this mess immediately and then leave for the office,” the teacher snapped. “The rest of you get back to your work and pay no attention to this slip shod attempt to get out of doing the work the proper way.”

Cleaning up the metal pieces took less than a minute, meaning the other students were still digging through their fifty pieces one by one, looking for those five magnets. Several of the other students sent glares in her direction as they hurried at their tasks, and Yoon-Ji saw that only a few of them had even found one magnet yet.

“Freak,” one of the students muttered as she passed close by on the way out of the class. Walking through the halls in the middle of class time earned her suspicious looks from the few teachers in the hallways. It was rare for a student to be in the halls save at the appointed break times, and it usually meant that there was a discipline issue involved.

The principal was waiting for her. “Miss Jeon, if you would please sit down in my office. We’ll wait for the teacher’s aide to take over for your science teacher while we call your father into the office.”

Yoon-Ji’s eyes widened and she straightened her back and worried about what her father would do as a result of this. Fear spiked through her as she imagined the laughing man getting upset with her for causing trouble in class. Maybe he’d even reverse the adoption and find a better girl to be his daughter. “But I was just doing what he told me …”

The office, like the rest of the school, was very clean and new. It hadn’t yet started to accumulate the dust that older buildings built up over time as more and more people spent time within the walls. The paneling was of beautiful wood, likely imported from Alaska. Alaskan hardwoods were sort of popular for office buildings recently for whatever reason. Most likely the very sturdy desk, built to a style that looked classic without being old-fashioned, was of a similar material. The clothes of the teachers and faculty tended to be high quality as well. Yoon-Ji thought that they were mostly from the same brand or tailor’s shop. Not an obvious uniform, but even if there were small differences in the clothes from point to point, the style and cuts seemed the same. Not that she could sew at all, but she had an eye for patterns. The equipment and computers the students were able to use was state of the art, at least it had been two years ago when the school opened.

“I don’t need to hear excuses, just get in the office, sit down and be quiet,” the man insisted with a tone that suggested she was hardly surprised by this turn of events.

Yoon-Ji bowed contritely, biting her lip, “Yes sir.” Then she walked into the office and sat in front of the desk. The principal moved to the other side and took up the phone as he checked a list of names to find Yoon-Ji and her contact information. Finally she found the desired number and started to dial it up.

“Yes, I was hoping to speak to Jeon Kyung-Suk?” the principal said insistently. “It is in regards to his daughter. We have some concerns with her behavior. Well, when would he be available to meet with us? This is something that we should discuss immediately. That will be acceptable; we will be expecting her shortly.”

Yoon-Ji looked up at the last comment. “Her?”

“Your mother will be here shortly,” the principal explained.

Yoon-Ji nodded blankly and quietly. None of this was fair. She’d solved the problem and she was starting to clean up the mess that came from her solution. The principal didn’t talk to her while they waited, and she knew better than to try say anything to him. She simply covered a sigh and waited, thinking about her other classes.

Everything about the school seemed to hammer in the point that this was an establishment of high standards and while the building was new, it also carried an older and prestigious name that extended back to before the Japanese occupation.

It didn’t seem to take long for the science teacher to join the principal in the room and level a glare in Yoon-Ji’s direction. “Is her father on the way?”

“He is busy with work, so the wife will be coming in his place,” the principal related.

“Her mother,” the science teacher noted. “Then we’ll have to deal with some foreign woman coddling her child?”

Yoon-Ji risked a look in their direction at that comment. That wasn’t right at all and she wondered briefly whether or not she should mention anything or not. She was still considering that when the receptionist stepped politely into the office. “Miss Jeon’s mother is here and waiting to speak to you.”

“Well, show her in and let’s get on with this,” the principal noted.

The receptionist nodded and looked to the side, nodding. A moment later, a young Korean woman with a solemn face walked into the office past the receptionist. The young woman was probably barely into her twenties with a slender form and unsmiling, dismissive face. She had straight black hair of a modest length and firm black eyes that looked from the science teacher to the principal in a considering, searching manner. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am Moon Eun-Mi; my husband has asked me to see what you need.”

She stepped in and sat in a chair across from the principal without being invited to and paid a bare nod of acknowledgement to the standing science teacher.

The principal and science teacher exchanged looks at her appearance, most notably her youth. With a questioning frown, the principal spoke up. “We’ve had a behavior issue with your daugh…”

“I have no child,” Eun-Mi responded simply, not looking in Yoon-Ji’s direction. For all the girl could tell, the woman hadn’t even seen her yet.

“You’re not the mother of Jeon Yoon-Ji?” the Principal asked.

“Are you saying I had a child while I was thirteen and that this purity produced … that?” she pointed toward Yoon-Ji at the end. “No. My husband adopted her,” she responded coolly, staring directly into the eyes of the principal and challenging him to contradict her. “I am not her mother. Now, I have other things to attend to, so perhaps you can tell me what this behavior issue is.”

“She showed a complete lack of respect for the assignment,” the teacher said, taking courage in the woman’s cold manner. “The students were supposed to sort through fifty pieces of metal to find five magnets. Miss Jeon instead dumped all of the metal onto her table.”

“I found the magnets,” Yoon-Ji suggested.

The teachers started to turn towards Yoon-Ji when Eun-Mi cleared her throat. “You are speaking to me.”

“She …”

“The girl is inconsequential,” Eun-Mi insisted coolly. “I don’t need to be an audience for you attempting to correct the child and making her think that such behavior is worthy of attention. I need for the matter at hand, which you demanded my presence for, to be resolved so that I may about my business.”

“I … see,” the principal commented, exchanging a look with the science teacher. “In that case, I believe you can see the issue at hand.”

“I fail to see how such behavior is surprising for a child of her background,” Eun-Mi noted. “Certainly it is your task to correct such missteps as they occur. Can I expect to be called every time she does something untoward?”

“Well, I’m sure you can see how this concerns you, Ms. Moon,” the teacher explained. “This will have an impact on your family’s reputation if you don’t handle it before it becomes a problem.”

Eun-Mi’s lip twitched briefly as she considered the fact that she was being asked to take a personal hand in the eight-year old girl’s daily life.

“In all honesty, Ms. Moon, it is unlikely that Miss Jeon will be able to keep with these older children of pristine background,” the principal noted. “Without resorting to such shortcuts and attention getting nonsense to cut into the time of the serious students. We’d like …”

“Indeed,” Eun-Mi said, standing up and glancing towards Yoon-Ji. “You, stand up and go to collect your things. I am not wasting this money on you.”

The teacher and the principal shared a shocked look and started to stand up. “Now wait a minute, we weren’t thinking of you withdrawing your daugh…”

“I have no daughter,” Eun-Mi insisted firmly, glaring at the man for this second mistake on that matter.

“Ms. Moon, if you wait, we were simply suggesting moving her to a younger class,” the teacher commented.

“How very well-thought up for an emergency parent meeting,” Eun-Mi pointed out sourly with narrowed eyes. “Now, tell me how to turn my sow’s ear into a silk purse and just how much money it’s going to cost my family over your normal fees.” The principal stood flustered for a moment until Eun-Mi nodded and turned to look at Yoon-Ji. “Why are you still sitting there?”

“The principa…”

“Does not matter, I gave you an order,” the woman insisted without raising her voice.

Yoon-Ji glanced questioningly toward the principal and the science teacher. Until now, her mother hadn’t paid her much attention at all. This was the first time Eun-Mi had actually talked to her. Actually, it was the first time that she’d seen her mother interact with almost anybody. The experience was incredible. As terrifying as it was, she couldn’t help but be awed by the way the woman in front of her tore through the situation so succinctly, forcefully and calmly. It was like her words held actual, tangible weight.

Eun-Mi noticed the hesitation and just barely pressed her lips together and turned the corners of her mouth down into a very, very slight frown that Yoon-Ji none the less saw clearly. Suddenly that force of personality which had barely glimmered at her before was beating down on Yoon-Ji with full attention, as if measuring her worth. The girl thought about simply breaking and running, but she couldn’t. There was no way she could. She had to show she was worth this amazing woman’s continued attention.

“Sir, may I go?” she asked cautiously of the principal.

“Go ahead, Miss Jeon,” the principal noted. “I think the rest of what I have to say to your mother should be spoken in private.”

The purple haired girl stood up and bowed to the two teachers and then bowed deeper to her mother before walking out of the room, feeling the weight of Eun-Mi’s attention on her until near the edge of hearing, when her stepmother’s voice came from behind her. “So, you cannot teach her basic manners, and yet you can undermine my authority …”