The administrators were shocked and furious at the sight of the pictures. The Freedom Wall of the school was barged by comments and reactions from students and parents. They did not expect that such a scandal will rise in their university.
"Student! Teacher! Homosexuals! Augh!"
"They should be punished! The student is not allowed to graduate!"
"Let's not put the student in that kind of situation. It's the teacher who must pay for this! Fire him!"
The board of directors of the university was still in an outrage when the university chancellor and the university president entered the room.
"Take your seats, gentlemen," the university president said, as all of them sat down, "So, what is the main issue of this session?"
"Mr. Jeong Yunho, we plead you understand," began the chairman of the board, "This is a scandalous matter that is currently tarnishing our university's name! Professor Choi San should be sacked immediately!"
"Not only that, Mr. President," added the vice chairman, "The student should not be granted any rights to graduate in our university! Try to understand, Mr. Jeong. A student and teacher? Already a shame! But to add that they are homosexuals! Indecent scum!"
Yunho cleared his throat at the vice chairman's words. The boardroom was completely silent, as the university chancellor stood.
"I am suggesting a solution. I am hoping the board will consider this, as we all know that this is no laughing matter, and that the university is in an embarrassing position."
"What would that be, Dr. Song Mingi?"
-0-
"That's him," said one of the boys at the corner of the gates. The others sniggered as that person screamed out 'Bottom' towards Wooyoung. He did not care, but he rushed inside the school building. The girls were looking at him, then avoided him with murmurs. The usual girls who would ask him on a date, smiled weakly, but avoided him immediately, too.
That's when he felt an arm around him. He was about to push them away, when he heard a familiar voice.
"Don't listen to them," Yeosang said, as he kept Wooyoung close to him, "Jongho is on your right side, so don't worry, we won't let anything happen to you."
Jongho caught up with them, and glared at some onlookers. He then looked at Wooyoung and said, "It's not your fault you fell in love."
Wooyoung looked at them, his eyes red, full of tears.
"Thank you…"
"Now, let's get you to class. You're gonna sit with us."
First period was alright, except for those boys who were homophobic and kept on saying slur words towards him. The professor couldn't do much but to shush them whenever they do. He overheard one of the girls in front saying, "I can't believe I fell for a gay man." Followed by some giggling and sneering.
When the bell rang, Yeosang and Jongho told Wooyoung to wait for everyone to get out before they do.
"Hey, f**got, is your ass available for me?"
One of the boys initiated the insult while the rest joined him. It was a good thing that the professor was still there, and signaled them to go away.
"Mr. Jung, I'm really sorry."
"It's alright, Professor Kim, I'm gonna get used to it."
They were the only ones left inside the classroom. It was a good thing they have a three-hour break, as Yeosang and Jongho started searching who could've posted the picture in the Freedom Wall of the school.
"We can push the narrative that this was photoshopped, Wooyoung."
"Then? What next? How about San?"
"Wooyoung, think of your situation first. Then, we will get to San's. Don't worry, we're not gonna leave him behind." Jongho said, while patting his back.
Yeosang kept on scrolling down the comments and looked for some sort of hint on who could it be. That is when Jongho told him to stop scrolling, and saw at least five accounts with no faces and numbers only as their username.
"Click on those, Yeosang," Jongho said, as they looked into the profiles of each of these accounts.
"Hmm, the accounts were made in one area."
"Huh?" Wooyoung looked up to the two of them, "How would you know?"
"The IP Address of these accounts are the same."
"Wow, Jongho…you really are a genius." Yeosang exclaimed. Jongho smiled and nodded.
"Let's go to MATZ café," Jongho suggested, "That way, we will be safe from those idiots."
"We should contact San, please," Wooyoung pleaded. Yeosang and Jongho looked at each other, and gave their phones to him.
"Call him."
-0-
"Do you understand why we brought you here Mr. Choi?"
San was looking around the office. It was not your usual office for the dean and the others, but it was polished and shinier than usual.
No wonder this is the university president's office...
"Yes, I understand, sirs," San nodded, still having a stoic facial expression as to not give way his emotions regarding the matter. He kept on blaming himself ever since the photo was posted. He kept on thinking that if he hadn't been careless, Wooyoung won't be in danger.
"So, let's begin. My name is Jeong Yunho, the university president, and on the right is Doc. Song Mingi, the university chancellor," Yunho introduced themselves to San, "It is with deepest regrets that we have come to this situation as to have a one-on-one with you regarding the Freedom Wall matter. Your class schedules are given temporarily to Mrs. Lim, our substitute teacher. For the moment, you are in a limbo, floating as we say, in terms of your contract. Nonetheless, we want to hear directly from you the whole story about this issue."
"Prof. Choi," Mingi added, "We don't want to call this as a problem as you and Mr. Jung are of age. The whole situation, however, stemmed from an unfortunate event that you are his teacher and he's your student. On the side note, both me and Mr. Jeong are in no position to judge your preferences in partners, as that is not within our rules and regulations. The issue here is the student-teacher relationship, not the your gender preference nor Mr. Jung Wooyoung's. I will be recording this meeting, while Yunho will take down notes. Shall I take that you understood the proceedings of this meeting?"
"I understand these clearly."
"Good," Yunho smiled, opening a folder in front of him, "Now that's settled, I would like to begin my questioning. What is your relationship with Jung Wooyoung?"
"He is my current student for the ESL program."
"Okay, how long have you known each other?"
"We had known each other since the beginning of the ESL classes."
"Prior to that?"
"Nothing notable, although we didn't know that we were student-teacher on one incident."
"Can you elaborate on that?"
"It was around the first week of January, and then Mr. Jung was with his partner, having a confrontation in my brother's restaurant."
"Okay," Yunho scribbled San's answers, while Mingi pushed the recorder forward, "Anything else?"
"Well, we talked, I comforted him. I let him rant out whatever he was feeling at the time. Even so, there was no talk or engagement of romantic or sexual relations between the two of us. Just two random strangers who were there for the time being."
"Sorry, but I wanted to add this question," Mingi said, "You said Mr. Jung with his partner. Should we assume that he was with a man or woman?"
San couldn't find the words to answer. He knew Wooyoung doesn't want anybody to say anything, but their phone call was the go signal that he needed to tell the truth.
"A man…"
The two administrators nodded their heads and looked at the questions. Yunho then closed the folder and cleared his throat.
"We would like you to tell us who was Mr. Jung with that night."
"Pardon?"
"You heard Mr. Jeong clearly, Prof. Choi," Mingi said, as he smiled and folded his arms, "Who was Wooyoung with that time?"
"Um…"
-0-
Yeonjun was talking on his phone when he saw Jongho approaching him. Yeosang was just at the corner of the hallway. He wanted to run, but the 6th floor unfortunately has a dead end on the other side of the long hallway of that building.
"Whaddya want?"
"We know it's you," Jongho exhaled, his fists were shaking on the side, "We know you uploaded that."
"What's your proof?"
"Your watermark," Jongho said as he lifted a printed copy of the picture. True enough, Yeonjun forgot to erase it before uploading.
"Too weak for a proof, ain't it?" Yeonjun smirked and walked, "Send my regards to Wooyoung. I bet he won't be graduating at all."
"We know also your other pictures, Yeonjun," Yeosang chuckled. Yeonjun stopped by the elevator door, and looked at them.
"Do you want us to upload them, too?" Jongho said as he showed a bulk of printed pictures on his hand.
Yeonjun saw what they were talking about, he rushed towards Jongho and ripped the pictures immediately. Panting and screaming like a maniac, he threw them all in the trash.
"Tsk, too weak. You know that the IP Address that you used is the same computer shop you used to save your pictures of you and the dean?"
With Jongho's words, Yeonjun's expression worsened.
"FINE! I WILL TELL EVERYONE THAT IT WAS FAKE! DON'T RELEASE MY PHOTOS WITH HIM!"
"Ah, even so, what are we gonna do about it, Yeosang?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe we can just surrender this to the university president, Jongho."
"STOP IT! I SWEAR TO GOD, YOU WON'T BE ALSO GRADUATING!"
"How intriguing. How would you do that? Call for help with the dean?"
Yeonjun then grabbed Jongho by the neck. However, he was too slow that Yeosang already grabbed his arm, and pushed him aside.
"Make sure to save San and Wooyoung."