[Mr. Menard] The Faction

It all started when she was called by one of the Korean teachers to have lunch together. It was not as if she had any sort of strong feelings towards him, either positive or negative. She only wondered why she was suddenly asked to eat lunch with the Korean teacher, whom she was not even close with. Violet, an outgoing celebrity of the school, deferentially sat in front of Mr. Byun with her dish. As soon as she raised her head, she could find quite a few teachers with familiar faces. Once again, she vowed politely.

Anxiously waiting for Mr. Byun, or anyone, to start telling her the “reason” why she could not enjoy lunch with her friends, Violet meaninglessly stared at her rice and smiled awkwardly. Finally, Mr. Byun opened his mouth.

“What are you interested in, Violet?” said Mr. Byun with his usual, pretentious smirk.

Assuming he was talking about what subject she liked, Violet answered in her bright tone, “I like Chemistry!”

Soon Mr. Byun’s face twisted with mysterious facial expression that seemed to be neither pleased nor offended. It was more likely to be “disparaging” or “condescending” than anything else. He murmured some words, which Violet could not catch.

“Why do you want to study Chemistry, Violet?” asked Mr. Byun, once again with his mannered smile.

“It’s fun! I mean, isn’t it so exciting to realize that every single interaction among people is based on chemistry? All the molecules and stuff,” naïve as a lamb and happy as a bee, Violet did not hesitate for a second to claim her interest in Chemistry.

Now almost feeling insulted, as Violet did not get any of his implications on her “interest”, Mr. Byun reproached her in an angry voice. “Listen girl, studying should not be your foremost value. You are a girl. And you are supposed to be interested in how you are going to marry a fine guy! That’s what you should be concerned about!”

Frightened with a sudden attack, Violet asked back, “What did you just say, Mr. Byun?” She wanted to believe it just as a hilarious remark to encourage her to study more, rather than a severely reprimanding one. It's not a Chosun dynasty, nor was it the Park-Jung-Hee brainwashing era.

“Don’t you understand what I mean? Marrying a guy and serving him! as a good wife! That’s all you should want! That’s all for a girl!” Mr. Byun was now so mad that he could have thrown his spoon into the floor if Mr. Kang, another Korean Language teacher, took his side on rebuking her.

“It’s all true, what he has just said. You don’t know this? How come? What kind of parents do you have? Chemistry? Give that crap to dogs.” Mr. Kang yelled at her with evil eyes shining like black holes.

“Okay. I’m not listening to this kind of comments anymore. I leaving” Violet was quite hot-tempered when it came to the topic of unjust inequality. She stood up and left with her plate, which was still full of food.

“What in the world are you doing right now? You want to get detentions? Okay, I’m giving you penalty points for your "not girlish" behavior,” shouted Mr. Byun, “understand?”

Without any hesitation, Violet left the cafeteria as soon as she stood up. On coming Thursday, she received 10 penalty points for her insolent attitude and not following teacher’s direction. She did not regret what she had done, though. She could have gone insane if she stayed in front of those teachers for even one more second.

Ironically, this incident became an edifying lesson for Violet. She learned how to react to those who lack the most basic “Common Sense.”

“It’s a waste of time to even get angry at those people,” she murmured.