Having commenced her career at a private school in the heart of Seoul, Chaewon had quickly become accustomed to the difficulties and high demands of the education system. Her prime year was a bit bumpy, with a new curriculum that differed from the one she had entirely studied during her studies. She didn't thoroughly agree with the current program, believing that it put too much pressure on the still young children to work hard. Sure, they had to be able to read and write by the time they left kindergarten, but for her, five and six-year-olds should only see school as a pleasure, not as an obligation that would already affect their mental health in a way or another.

To settle in properly required a lot of patience and diligence. For all her passion and determination, she was still a very young teacher with only two years' experience, straight out of a private university renowned for being extremely rigorous and faithful to classical teaching methods. Arriving at a new school in such a desired area as Seocho-gu could be intimidating, and if Chaewon had not known Kwon Eunbi, one of the teachers, through her studies, she would have struggled to make her mark.

While the kindergarten was relatively expensive for families to attend on a yearly basis, the facilities and infrastructure were correctly worth the investment. Despite the urban location, a private sandy courtyard, several play structures and scooters were available around the large black building that stood several floors high, juxtaposed to the police station. Chaewon's classroom was on the third floor, right next to the multimedia room where films could be presented. Apart from the peach-coloured walls, all the decoration was absolutely up to her and her teaching methods, from the choice of having an interactive board or a traditional one to the arrangement of furniture and displays.

Apart from that, her colleagues were amiable, and the general atmosphere was relatively pleasant. The headmistress was distinctly good at listening to the teachers' thoughts, and the activities and services were closely monitored. The locals were always clean, and the food had the advantage of being completely organic, trying to offer a varied catalogue of local food for the pupils and teachers.

In fact, the teachers often met in the courtyard at break time to chat while keeping an eye on the children. Just like Chaewon and her colleague Seokjin right now.

"Could you lend me your planet cards then?" queried the man wearing white linen pants and a light beige linen shirt, always classy and casual, Mr Handsome as the teacher team would call him. 

"No problem," Chaewon said as she stirred the fresh tea she had made before heading out onto the playground. "I'll print up some larger ones if you want."

"Oh yes, that would help me out," replied the teacher as he quickly bounced his moccasins in the air, one leg over the other. "I thought it might be effective for those who still have a bit of trouble with estimations."

"I get it," replied the young teacher. "But I think that estimating numbers should be put aside on this kind of sequence."

Once again, her little rebellious side was showing. It amused her colleagues a lot, the way she had to shape and remix the school programmes in her own way, without really caring about the rules. A bit of a perfectionist, Chaewon preferred to create her own worksheets and exercises rather than picking and choosing from the textbooks. Although the method may have been surprising at first, her colleagues gradually converted to it. Once more, they called her the coolest teacher for nothing.

"I think it's essential for self-perception to have a good, consistent idea of orders of magnitude for them," Seokjin argued, adjusting the massive watch around his tanned wrist, examining the small sandy space where several children were playing. "Not in a mathematical way, just an abstract representation. You know, piles of toys... introduction to money."

Chaewon nodded, pondering her colleague's words before expressing her own opinion, "I agree, but I think it's up to the parents to deal with that."

"You think so?" Seokjin furrowed his brow. "In any case, it must be taught early enough."

"Yeah," the young teacher tucked a lock of her hair behind her pierced ear. "I've been studying the reform curricula and frankly, there are at least half of the points that go straight back to parenting, you know...like cleanliness and politeness, kinda. I think children of all ages are capable of teaching themselves things and that should be...that is a pillar of good learning. You know what I mean. They're smart, and- Soobin, stop eating sand! And...I think it's important for their self-construction that basic concepts like estimations are learned by themselves and not by adult intervention. Even less adults who aren't relatives. You know?"

"From that point of view you're rig-" Seokjin interrupted as he leapt off the bench, jabbing an accusing finger at the sandy-lipped boy who was holding a whole handful. "Park Soobin! Stop eating sand immediately!"

The young teacher giggled at the intervention. This was another reason why she loved her job so much. 

-

Well, sometimes she also cursed herself for having chosen this path.

Especially when five-year-olds would stand up against her.

"Kang Dongyun, there's ten minutes to go before class ends so I'm going to ask you to finish your paper and then, you will play with cars," Chaewon repeated, restraining herself from raising her voice at the short-haired boy who was defying her authority, capturing the attention of all the other pupils to him.

He was the toughest one in the class, a real little brute who especially liked to drive anyone who dared to stand in his way crazy. And for a kid, he had a lot on his mind. On top of that, his parents were downright unpleasant people, and Chaewon still wished she wouldn't have to receive them to talk about their son's behavioural problems. The job also meant dealing with adults who could be even more immature than their children, and fortunately, Chaewon had enough repartee not to let it happen.

"I don't want to!" the little boy chirped as he continued to take the little cars (blue for tens, red for units) out of the wooden box that contained them.

"Kang Dongyun, if I get up from this chair you'll spend all of tomorrow's break cleaning the room," Chaewon then replied, repressing her frustration to not disturb the other pupils already disturbed by Dongyun's snit fit.

"No!" he exclaimed with an ill-bred chuckle, emptying the car crate without even taking the time to play with it, only to go against the rules and his teacher's words.

"Look, kiddo, you'll decide what you do when you have all your teeth and an extra metre," Chaewon lost her patience, getting up from the chair she was sitting on around the Africa table where an intimate group of pupils were practising simple calculations with their hands. She pointed to a corner of the classroom, her gaze fixed on the little boy who immediately lost his smile. "Until then, I'm the one who decides and you'll start by cleaning up the Kaplas until the bell rings."

Instead of a glare, she offered the boy her most insolent smile, bobbing her head contemptuously as he rose disgruntledly, shuffling his feet towards the Kaplas covered carpet. Oh, he wanted to play, she could be a good player, five-year-old or not.

"Thank you, young man," she concluded. "If you finish before the bell, you can play with the cars tomorrow."

Very important; always keep things in perspective as a teacher. Children, like teenagers and adults, have desires, moods and tastes that must be taken into account. Even if the small and unbearable Kang Dongyun was sorely lacking in education, the role of the school was to provide him with good social skills, but this could only be done by respecting his character and personality. Chaewon could attest to this; having been a bad student all her life, if the teachers had taken a little more interest in her character, they would've recognized the potential they didn't notice in her.

Therefore if Dongyun was no longer in the mood or interested in his writing exercises, then Chaewon knew that there was no point in forcing him to do them; again, for the children's personal development, it was important to her that they didn't associate school with something unpleasant. Alternatively, she preferred to make some kind of compromise, a middle ground between her own will and the boy's opinion, or at least his state of mind. For Dongyun's next group calculation exercise, she would replace the football goals with laps around the track in Formula 1.

"Teacher Chaewon?" a gentle voice called out to her. As might be expected, it was the Europe group, the quietest and most well-behaved of the class who were colouring, as they had been doing every last hour of class since the beginning of the week. "I'm done!"

Chaewon clutched the drawing in her hands to admire the petite brunette's work as she waited impatiently for her teacher to return.

"Perfect!'' She smiled, proud to see how diligent the little one had been in not going beyond the black lines of the colouring, choosing pretty colours that went rather well with the England theme, depicting Tinkerbell alongside Peter Pan. "I'll hang it with Jungwon and Jisuk's! Minjeong, are you almost done?"

"I'm colouring the hair," replied the brunette, dressed as well as she had been the day before, wearing a little pair of blue denim overalls over a pink T-shirt, a few flower and heart scrunchies decorating her tawny hair tied up in pigtails.

"Okay, I want you to make the loveliest Alice," she told the girl who nodded, focused on not going overboard with her yellow pen that coloured the hair of Alice in Wonderland, another of Europe's, and especially England's, most famous tales. It was the Europe group theme for the week.

Nevertheless, a question had been on Chaewon's mind since yesterday, and for the second time in Minjeong's presence, she somewhat forgot her professionalism and the famous motto "don't mix private life and work."

it. A hottie like that is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

"Minjeong?" she moved closer to the little girl, careful not to disturb the other students around the table. They were too focused on finishing their colouring anyway.

"Yes teacher?" the little girl raised her eyebrows, surprised by the sudden proximity of the young woman.

"Your aunt..." Chaewon hesitated for a moment, considering her words so that they wouldn't be too out of place, even if the intention itself was already far from professional. "Do you know if she's going to pick you up any time soon?"

"Yeah, today, teacher," the little girl shrugged, whispering to mimic her mistress' low voice. 

Chaewon struggled to hold back a grin.

yes.

She glanced at the clock, then checked her phone screen before clapping her hands to get the pupils' attention. The end of the school day would come in a few minutes, just enough time for everyone to get the classroom in order, and especially for her to have time to put on some more perfume and swallow a piece of gum. Because...you never know. 

Like...maybe she and the pretty aunt would kiss right here and now, in front of the whole classroom, and oooo, not so fast.

Plus, this time she wasn't wearing a damn deer Onesie, and she intended to make a better impression on the gorgeous brunette. 

-

The bell rang loudly throughout the building. It was a soft little tune that wouldn't rattle the kids, and it gave the littlest ones a gentle wake-up call just in case. The clock showed three o'clock, and parents were beginning to file into the corridors to collect their children from classes.

As usual, Chaewon made sure that all the children had their little activity booklet to do in the evening for the next day. She knew that back then, the idea of doing homework in kindergarten would have seemed completely inconceivable to her, and for good reason, even as a middle school student, she never opened her notebooks while back at home. No need to mention her undone homework. So, to make sure that her little pupils would love learning, she would always do different funny exercises, on topics that even the parents could be interested in.

The children sat at their tables waiting for their mother and father to arrive, talking to each other about role play games they were playing or cartoons they were watching, while the more garrulous ones fought for the teacher's attention.

"Hello!" a new woman came to the opened door of the classroom, and Park Seyoung jumped out of her seat, throwing herself around Chaewon's legs before running to her mother. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Chaewon nodded, holding the hand of another little boy. Although a few of the students' parents could be a real pain in the , yes, most of them were relatively friendly. Park Seyoung's mother, for one, was particularly pleasant and would always check on her. "And you, had a nice day?"

"Well... pretty good," the relatively young woman replied, running an affectionate hand through her daughter's hair. "I apologise again for Monday's absence. I didn't have time to prepare a statement."

"No probs'," Chaewon placed her finger on the little girl's pink, bouncy cheek. "The important thing is that the little miss right here is back and healthy."

"Right," the mother giggled before waving her hand, accompanied by a comforting smile. "We shall go, have a good evening, take care!"

"Likewise!"

Then, she waved to two other children who were leaving with their parents, carefully holding their little activity books in their hands.

"Teacher Chaewon?" the little boy whose hand she was holding drew her attention by pulling on her fingers. "Teacher, can I tell you a secret?"

Chaewon crouched down to be at his level, presenting her ear to the boy who quickly stuck his hands to it, whispering something. Once again, children's imaginations always amazed her, and little Jungwon was not lacking in them.

"Is that lie true?" she giggled before the boy started whispering in her ear again, bumping against his own words, talking about going to eat ice creams.

"Promise?" He finally asked.

Chaewon stood up slowly, presenting her pinky to him. "I promise. Take mint chocolate for me."

"Yes, teacher!" The little one offered a last goofy smile that was missing a few teeth before running off towards the door where a parent must've been waiting.

Nevertheless, when Chaewon turned towards the door as well, she had the more than pleasant surprise to sight a very familiar figure. And when the brunette stopped following the movement of the boy and his father, resting all her attention back to the teacher, the latter's heart skipped a beat. Even two.

"Hello," the girl said, leaning against the doorframe, one hand holding the strap of her purse.

"Hi." Chaewon returned the same look, one eyebrow slightly raised, not being discreet as she checked the brunette out, once more.

Even prettier than the day before, if that was possible.

She was wearing a small white blouse, which the front was neatly tucked into skinny jeans that made her legs look long and slender. Her perfumed scent emanated from her to the whole classroom -at least for Chaewon-, and her makeup made her gaze even more penetrating.

"I expected to see you in some kind of costume," the brunette smirked as her gaze slowly returned to the face of the mistress who couldn't help but roll her eyes, biting her tongue to restrain herself from smiling too much.

"I told you," she held the older girl's lascivious gaze. "Not every day."

"It suited you, tho, but I must confess that..." Once again, Chaewon felt herself being ogled up from head to toe, like a piece of meat facing a predator, like a statue facing an art lover. "You look good like this."

Boom. 

Papoom. 

Eheh.

"Really?" Chaewon raised her eyebrow a little higher. "Let's just say I was sure you'd come back."

"Auntie Min!" The two young women suddenly came out of their bubble as Minjeong rushed to her aunt, immediately encircling her legs with her little arms. "You're here! let’s see Meow!"

And as if the universe was witnessing the lack of professionalism, a new wave of parents arrived in front of the classroom, cutting short the rather tense little moment between Chaewon and that brunette who was definitely making her heart pound and her stomach rumble.

"Well," the young woman greeted anyway, taking her niece's hand and giving her one last explicit look, accompanied by a smile that would turn heads. "Goodbye, teacher."

"Goodbye," Chaewon returned the look, making it the more explicit possible that code red code red, she was maaad into her, then put on her professional facade as another child hugged her before joining her father. She was still at work, even if the small conversation with the cutie felt like a dream.

Only, barely a minute later, Minjeong showed up at the door again, a folded piece of paper in her hand that she held out with a big, slightly confused smile. As soon as Chaewon grabbed it, the child ran out as fast as she had come.

Chaewon waited until there was no one in front of the door anymore, and no children left in the room to sit at her desk. With one leg over the armrest, she slowly unfolded the small paper.

A pretty -bad drawing of a deer,

A phone number,

And finally; 

I think you’re really cute so... feel free to text me if you want :)

-KMJ (Minjeong’s aunt)