Mifzal opened the shower curtains in his bathroom. He took his towel from the drying rack and stepped out from his bathtub. The interior of the bathroom was steaming. He wiped the vapourized mirror with his hand. The mirror showed his bare skin on his body. With the towel, he wiped his jawline below his face. And then his long neck. His Adam's apple was clearly popping out. His towel continued to travel to his collarbone, lowered to the centre dent of his chest.

After every inch of his body was wiped dry, he wrapped the towel around his waist. He brushed his teeth and did his normal morning routine skincare. He applied the moisturiser on his chiselled cheek, his perfectly shaped nose, and his shining forehead. And then, he blew dried his straight, voluminous black hair.

Mifzal walked out from his bathroom with only his knee-length towel attached to his lower body. A few droplets of water dripped on his abs, which led him to untie his towel to wipe it again. He tossed the towel onto his bed and walked to his closet with nothing on his torso. He took out his undergarments, black socks, black pants, and his grey-buttoned shirt.

After he covered his lower body with the black pants and socks, he raised his arms to wrap the grey-buttoned shirt around his abdomen. His biceps were popped on his arms during this process. He tucked in the shirt inside his pants and buttoned it from the bottom to the top. He buttoned his hand cuffs, took his black belt and applied it around his waist. The shape of his carved chest was printed, visible under his shirt. He locked the buckle of his belt, buttoned the highest button on his shirt, and followed suit by tying his black necktie around his collar. His biceps have stretched the sleeve of his shirt.

He made a last round of fixing on his straight hair, before putting on his face - a rectangular, rimless, spectacles. Lastly, he pinned his name tag above his shirt's pocket square. A black in colour tag, with white in colour text written 'MIFZAL' on it.

Today marked his first day as the new teacher, at SMK Tengku Simpulan Intan, Megaputra, Shahputra, Malaysia.

After he looked at himself in front of the mirror one final time, and fixed the position of his rimless spectacles, he grabbed his briefcase and car keys and left his home for school.

When his car was slowly approaching Tengku Simpulan Intan at 7:30 in the morning, his car travelled swiftly from the gate across the Kegemilangan Assembly Area. Usually, the teacher's cars were parked at the assembly area. But, as the assembly area was being used for the assembly that morning, all teachers were required to park at a free area opposite the school's counselling room.

Mifzal walked out from his car, took his briefcase from the backseat, locked his vehicle, and walked slowly but firmly to the assembly area.

Felisa, Nora, and Anastasia, who just had a brief meeting with their Malay Language Club President, Danial Izzani, were walking to the Form 3 section of the assembly area, when Felisa saw a very handsome man, who was walking towards them.

"Ladies, stop!" shrieked Felisa, extending her arms to stop Nora and Anastasia from walking. "Who is that delicious man?"

It seemed like the handsome man with the name tag written 'MIFZAL' was walking closer to them but eventually not, when he turned left to walk across the stage of Kegemilangan Assembly Area. It was a shortcut for him to reach the teachers' seating area at the assembly.

He walked past Raisa Natalia, who was standing behind the rostrum on  the stage, and when Joash Law was whispering to Danial Izzani's ear while looking at Raisa, at the opposite of the stage, below her.

Felisa, Nora, and Anastasia continued to observe the new hot teacher with sparkly eyes, when he was walking past Raisa Natalia. "Oh, he must be a new teacher," said Anastasia, breaking the silence.

Most chairs at the teachers' area were still empty. Mifzal's eyes were searching around the chairs to decide, which seat for him to pick, until his gaze fell on a female teacher that made him dreadful all of a sudden. Because, he wished not to meet her so early in the morning.

The female teacher had shoulder-length straight hair, parted at the centre of her head. She had well-defined eyebrows and nose, with broad eyes camouflaged with a black cat-eye framed spectacles. She was wearing a shiny loose pink blouse with a big statement collar and long sleeve. It was tucked under her black pencil skirt. A black stiletto heels were wrapping her feet.

She was scrolling her phone, with her forehead frowning, but her eyes looked worried. In the midst of feeling uneasy looking at the Google News app on her phone, she felt someone was staring at her. She raised her head, and saw Mifzal standing four rows in front of her. Her worried eyes turned to anger.

Mifzal quickly looked away. His handsome face looked afraid. He suddenly was fidgeting and chose to fix the position of his rimless glasses to hide his nervousness. He quickly walked to the furthest right of the seating area at the third row, away from the female teacher, who was sitting at the furthest left of the fourth row.

Mifzal sat on the chair. He put his briefcase on his lap. His thigh was shaking. He grabbed it to stop it from jittering. He closed his eyes to calm himself. He assured himself not to feel nervous. Why did he need to feel nervous? He did nothing wrong.

After he calmed his own nervousness, he felt a huge burn of sadness. It had been 13 years and she was still angry. Mifzal felt so empty inside. Because he had no other idea on how to justify himself on whatever that happened between him and her, when they were young at this very school.

A few metres away from the sad looking Mifzal and the angry looking female teacher, at the Form 4  section of the assembly area, Joash Law walked hastily away from Danial Izzani, while Danial was still standing stiffly like a stick. He was standing a bit too far from his class line. Sharmila Priya Mohan, who was still reading her biology textbook, decided to close the book. But, before she could put it back in her school bag, she saw Danial was standing quietly, like he was seeing a ghost.

Sharmila stared at Danial's back with a judging look. She shoved her biology textbook into her bag, and then pinched Danial's back shirt to pull him back into the class line.

"Aaaargh," screamed Danial shockingly. "Sharmila, what was that, I nearly fell!"

Sharmila whispered to Danial breathily, "I know you have a crush on that girl since three years ago, but can you be more subtle, when you want to admire her beauty?"

"I was not admiring her beauty," lied Danial.

"There are other pressing matters other than admiring the beauty of Raisa Natalia. Have you seen the news?"

"I have got no time to read the news yet."

"It's at Dirgantara, outside of the palace..." before Sharmila could finish her sentence, Raisa Natalia already moved her lips near her microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said Raisa softly over the microphone.

"We'll talk later," whispered Sharmila to Danial.

"Ladies and gentlemen," repeated Raisa again. The whole assembly area turned silent. The teachers' seating area was already full. All eyes, the students and teachers of SMK Tengku Simpulan Intan were locked at Raisa Natalia.

"The honourable Headmistress of SMK Tengku Simpulan Intan, Madam Dayang Sheila. The Vice Headmistress of Administration, Madam Adleya Rashman. The Vice Headmistress of Student Affairs, Madam Noor Suhaila Omar. The Vice Headmaster of Extracurricular, Mr. Ishak Nordin, head of subjects, teachers, and students of SMK Tengku Simpulan Intan. Good morning."

"We begin our school assembly this morning with our national anthem, Negaraku and the state anthem of Shahputra."

The two prefects of Tengku Simpulan Intan, smartly donned in the significant maroon blazer, were already on standby at the flagpole to raise the flag of the country of Malaysia and the state of Shahputra. The melody of two anthems started to play from the loud speaker.

Danial sang the anthems clearly with his voice. Danial might not realise this, but as he was singing in front of the teachers' section of the assembly area, his singing voice was clearly audible, as he was singing louder than most of the students at the assembly. The female teacher, who was flashing an angry face towards Mifzal earlier, was cornering her eyes to Danial. She was smiling.

After singing the anthems and the recital of the Islamic doa, Raisa Natalia invited the headmistress of Tengku Simpulan Intan, Madam Dayang Sheila, to the stage to deliver her speech.

Raisa passed the mic to Madam Dayang. Madam Dayang took the mic and smiled at Raisa. Raisa walked to the back of the stage, standing on its stairs.

Madam Dayang looked younger than herself despite the fact that she was already in her 40s. Her hair was straight and tied in a very neat ponytail. She had tanned skin. Her cheeks were shining and glowing. To balance that, she applied a matte soft red lipstick on her lips. She wore the traditional Malay yellow greenish baju kurung made of silk, paired with black block heel shoes . Her baju kurung collar was accessorised with a sparkling brooch at the centre. 

After the usual honorary greetings to the Vice Headmistresses, Vice Headmaster, teachers, and students, she began her speech, "Greetings, all students of SMK Tengku Simpulan Intan. It's Monday, a new day of the week, and I am very happy to see all of your faces."

"Before I begin my speech, I would like to use this opportunity to introduce to you, our new Malay language teacher, Mr. Mifzal Azlan. Mr. Mifzal, would you like to stand, so all of the students can see you?"

Mifzal stood shyly while waving his hands to the huge pool of students. Very far from his location, at the Form 3 section of the assembly, Felisa, Nora, and Anastasia were staring at Mifzal with their mouths fully agape. Anastasia whispered to Felisa, "Danial told us just now right, that we'll have a new teacher advisor for our forum team?"

Felisa's mouth was rounded, "Oh my God, oh my God, it could be him! Hot Mr. Clark Kent is our new forum team teacher advisor."

Felisa, Nora, and Anastasia were giggling frantically until one of the prefects signalled them to keep their mouth shut.

Across the assembly area, at Danial's class line, Danial was looking blankly at Mifzal, who was waving his hands shyly. And then he glanced to his right to see Sharmila, who was gazing at Mifzal... while biting her lips. Danial displayed a shocked expression, before smiling and whispered, "I know he is super hot, but can you be more subtle, when you want to admire his beauty?"

"What, what?" asked Sharmila unsteadily.

"You're biting your lips," said Danial.

"Was I?" asked Sharmila again with a giggle.

"Oh, Sharmila," said Danial while shaking his head.

Madam Dayang continued her speech, "Mr. Mifzal will be teaching Malay language in some classes in Form 4. I am very proud to introduce him to all of you, because he was a former student at our very own school, when I was just a mathematics teacher here. He was a student at this school together with our English teacher, Ms. Zara Jebat."

The female teacher, who was displaying angry face towards Mifzal, but smiling to Danial's singing of the national anthem just now - was frowning again. She would never have thought that Madam Dayang would call her out like that. It was unusual for a headmistress to introduce a new teacher in a huge assembly - even more ludicrous by sharing to the students that he is a former student, and relaying the fact that another teacher went to the same school with him.

"Ms. Zara, will you also stand up, so the students can see both of you clearly," said Madam Dayang sweetly.

In respect to her headmistress, Zara stood up hesitantly and flashed another unpleasant facial expression towards Mifzal. Mifzal quickly looked down on the floor.

"In 2004, Mr. Mifzal and Ms. Zara were Form 5 students here at SMK Tengku Simpulan Intan. Mifzal was our school's star swimmer, just like our head prefect Elment Law right now. For 3 years between 2002 to 2004, both Mr. Mifzal and Ms. Zara spearheaded our school's choir team. Ms. Zara was the choir conductor. Mr. Mifzal was the pianist. For three years in a row, they brought us the Megaputra's choir competition third place cup."

Madam Dayang was proudly smiling and she looked at Mifzal and Zara interchangeably. "With both of them back together, they will revive our school's choir team, as we didn't send a team last year. I believe Ms. Zara already cooked a plan to recruit singers and a conductor. While Mr. Mifzal will act as a music director. Students, if you are interested in singing, please, approach Ms. Zara, to join the choir team."

The audience remained silent. But Felisa, Nora, Anastasia, and Sharmila were still looking dreamily at their Mr. Clark Kent.

After that, Madam Dayang was talking about the importance of studying diligently for Form 3 and Form 5 students, in preparation for their PT3 and SPM examinations respectively. She also warned the Form 4 students, to not neglect their studies even though there was no national examination awaiting for them this year. She reiterated that the Form 4 students should use this year to calculate a long-term plan for them to excel their SPM examination next year, in 2018.

After Madam Dayang's speech, Raisa Natalia as the emcee of the assembly, continued to pass the mic to the vice headmistresses and vice headmaster, to give their speech about everything related to the school's academics, student affairs, and extracurricular activities.

The assembly ended with all students singing the SMK Tengku Simpulan Intan anthem. Once again, Danial's voice singing was clearly audible among hundreds of students singing the same song.