2. Oops! Diary - 007.

Monday, August. Sunny

New Term

Today was the first day of the new term. Over summer break I slept like ten hours a night, but today I only got about six. Getting to school was fine, but as soon as my butt hit the chair I began to nod off. Most of the class was in the same boat. One guy was bowing constantly and another was flat on his desk, drooling onto his homework.

Second period was ethics class. It's tough to focus on ethics even when I've had enough sleep. Drowsiness washed over me. I started slipping in and out of consciousness. I started awake. i forced my eyes open with my fingers and pinched myself. The teacher droned on, his voice just barely audible. i tried holding my breath to stay awake. It seemed to be working. Then I woke up and it was already math class. I realized that I had been dreaming about holding my breath.

Today was a complete wash. I remember nothing. After school, I asked Byeongchae how he stayed awake during ethics. "I didn't" he said.

Thursday, September. Cloudy

Sculpting

For the past four weeks we've been working on plaster carvings in art class. Today we finished. Although I like the whole process, finishing made me especially proud. I did a carving of my left hand. On my first try, I managed to break the ring finger off at the knuckle. I had to start again from scratch. Carving, especially plaster carving, is really fiddly. When I was working around the tips of the fingers, I could barely breathe. Fat drops of sweat ran down my forehead. 

When I finished, the teacher wanted to keep my carving as an example. My best friend Sungjin also liked the carving. He bribed me with a big bowl of ddeokbokki, so I gave my masterpiece to him. A great artist had found his audience!

After class, I was walking by the garbage can when I saw a white chip of something. An ominous feeling hit me. I looked into the can. The palm of my hand was resting on a bed of crumpled paper, surrounded by its broken fingers.