Free Water Lily by Susanna Jones

It’s just the way I am.”
    “You go to school until you’re eighteen, then you go to university—which is the same thing—and then you end up back in a school
     for the rest of your life. In the middle of the countryside with nothing else around. And you go and live right next to the
     school. No escape. I can’t understand being a teacher. If I were you I wouldn’t want to live round here. Do you notice the
     boys in class?”
    “I notice everyone. It’s my job.”
    “You’re laughing at me. What I mean is, how do you look at the boys? Do you think we’re all just kids?”
    “I don’t think about it.”
    “What about me? Do you think of anything when you look at me at school?”
    “No. I don’t know. You’re confusing me. Maybe I do, but I’m not aware of it. Did you follow me here tonight?”
    “No. I came with my friends. I was excited when you appeared. Don’t worry about them. They’re not from school and they don’t
     know who you are. Can we go out together one day? Away from this place, where no one will know us?”
    “We can’t do that. Besides, you’d have to have a car and go all the way to the mountains to be safely far enough.”
    “Have you been drinking with any of the boys before?”
    “No. You’re the only one.”
    “Don’t you have boyfriends? You’re pretty.”
    “I don’t have a boyfriend at the moment.”
    “If you were my girlfriend, it would be even harder at school because we’d have to pretend there was nothing between us, but
     in another way it would be good because we’d have a secret and it would make school life more bearable. Why aren’t you a model
     or an actress? Don’t laugh.”
    “Sorry. I never thought about being an actress. I just sort of ended up being a teacher.”
    “I’ll never understand. What a choice!”
    “It wasn’t exactly a choice. I needed a job. But I wouldn’t want to be an actress or a model. If I could do anything, I’d
     have my own bar. I’d like to work in it all night, every night, and sleep during the day. People would be coming and going
     all the time and I would talk to them all. I wouldn’t be alone for a second.”
    “In the city?”
    “It would be in the countryside with mountains all around, but not here, not anywhere near the school.”
    “I’d like to go there. I’d be your best customer. And when you needed anything done, I’d help you out, if you’d let me.”
    “Jun, you shouldn’t be in a bar. You should leave. It’s wrong for you to be here, and wrong for me to talk to you like this.”
    “I know. I know, but it’s a strange place. There’s no such thing as right or wrong behavior when you’re out here in the hills.
     Did you know that Mr. Onda was seeing one of the girls in my class last term?”
    “I heard a rumor. To be honest—”
    “Teacher, what’s your name?”
    “My name? Wada. You should know—”
    “I do know. Your first name.”
    “Runa. My name is Runa.”
    “That’s a pretty name. Like lunar.”
    “That was why my father chose it. He was an avid astronomer. Actually, he wanted to call me
Moon
, in English.”
    “That would be funny. Why didn’t he?”
    “Too weird. And also, it sounded Korean. My mother said I’d get bullied at school. So they settled on Runa. That’s the story
     my sister told me. I can’t ask him now.”
    “Is he dead?”
    “No. He went senile when my mother died.”
    “Sorry.”
    “Oh, it’s all right. Everyone in my family goes senile, sooner or later. That’s just how it is. He doesn’t know where he is
     anymore but he’s just as nice as ever, so I suppose that he must be quite happy.”
    “Your drink?”
    “Almost finished.”
    “Then let’s go.”
    Runa looked at the boy and saw how he had already turned the school—her whole life, those days—into nothing, just by being
     with her. The most ordinary facts of her life were exciting and dangerous because she was relating them to a schoolboy, and
     in a bar. She was filled