"ms. moon? i love ms. moon - she's so pretty and nice and she's a really good teacher, too. i can tell she knows what she's doing and she loves what she's doing, you know?" - seo joori, 2nd year

 

"oh, hwari ssem is super cool. she's kind of awkward sometimes, though, and then other times she gets crazy about creative writing, but she's chill. lots of kids like her. i like her. shrugs." - hwang kangjin, 2nd year

 

"laughs. this kid used to like her in first year." "shut UP, bro, no i didn't!" "hey, man, young love, no shame!" "whatever, dude. the way she gets into her teaching is really...charismatic, okay? - min jaemin and joo youngmin, 4th years

 

"oh, ms. moon loves her job and she loves her students and she really invests so much time in them - she's super easy to talk to and will honestly really listen and try to help and she helped me a lot through high school - i love her, she's such a great person!" - oh saera, alumni

 

"moon hwari is way too good for her own sake - and if you have anything to say against that, you'll have to go through mE THANK YOU VERY MUCH." - hae sorim, close friend

 

"ms. hwari is very hard-working and talented - this school is very lucky to have her and everything she contributes - which is a lot! all the students have very good things to say about her and i never doubt her skills or instinct." - head principal of seoul high school of liberal arts

 

"ahh, hwari-ssi? i mean, personally, i think she could lighten up a bit. she's very shy, outspoken...she declines pretty much all of our invitations to go out after work, she doesn't go to company parties for too long, she doesn't accept our drinks...it's kind of unnerving and disrespectful at the same time." - joo nara, fellow petty co-worker

 

 

a little country bumpkin is born unto the moon family. the girl's name is decided to be hwari, moon hwari. gwangju welcomes her, embraces her, treats her well. she's a growing girl - eating a lot, eating often. babies are always fat, but for hwari, it didn't seem to just be a phase. she continued to gain weight, growing into more of a country pumpkin than anything. hwari went to school and, of course, got made fun of for being oversized. lame, middle-school nicknames are all she remembers of those days - dwaeji moon, huge hwari, any other spontaneous titles she was called. it was definitely detrimental to her social skills and mental state. hwari didn't really have any friends (quite the opposite, actually - if she really thinks about it, she had a very miserable school life - getting left out and bullied) throughout school, all the way from elementary to high school. thankfully, it didn't stop her from getting good grades and many acceptance letters to great colleges - hwari was an excellent student, especially in english, language and writing classes (that sort), most likely because she loved being able to let her feelings flow from her mind through the pen and onto the paper in the form of eloquence and vernacular that captured her emotions perfectly. she especially loved creative writing - the ability it gave her to essentially create a different world where she could be anyone she wanted to be - which was anyone but herself. hwari went through lots of struggles with self-worth and satisfaction in who she was as a person and confidence in her own identity, so in the transition from high school to college, she went through a complete transformation, fueled by her passion for revenge on those who looked down on her and her determination to have self-confidence.

 

 

5:30AM hwari wakes up, getting ready for her day with a simple yet effective skin care routine. maybe she'll finish up grading some papers last minute or add the last touches to a lesson plan, but after washing up, she throws together an outfit in about 5.7 minutes and is out the door, her school supplies and a small breakfast in her hands.

7:00AM the school day officially starts - hwari's been in her classroom pretty much the whole time, nibbling on a granola bar ( or something bigger if she isn't too lazy to go out or if sorim brings her something or maybe even yunbin or minjae !! ) and leaving herself available to students who want to chat or ask questions or get homework help. the day goes by in a breeze or slow as a snail, depending on the kids and their attitudes, but hwari always tries her best to stay consistent and positive and interactive with them.

3:00PM hwari usually leaves school not too long after it ends, unless kids need to stay behind to make up tests or the sort. she likes to walk home, enjoying the late, bustling afternoons of seoul life - sometimes it's hard if her school load is big, but she's a strong woman.

6:00PM hours pass until hwari decides to eat dinner - in those hours, she'll do whatever. go grocery shopping, meet up with sorim, watch tv, make assignments, take a nap, write a story draft, clean the house, try to find a hobby. it's at times like these where hwari realizes how quite mundane her routinal life can be, and she desires, more than anything, something to spice it up, whether it be a trip around the world, a luxury vacation, or simply a significant other.

8:00PM after dinner, hwari exercises for about an hour and a half before showering, washing up, then climbing into bed with a small table to finish up grading or such. this means she's bare faced, so she doesn't like going out after 8 if she doesn't have to ( which means sorim will bring chickenxbeer through delivery and with only one bottle of beer because this is moon hwari we're talking about. also, minjae is going to need some good thesis if he's gonna get her out of that bed. )

SOMETIME USUALLY BEFORE 12 sleep.

 

TRIVIA

ONE hwari has a "jeollanam-do gwangju baby!" satoori, but, obsessed with running away from her past, studied hard to get rid of it. she only uses it around her family, and it'll occasionally slip out when she's scared or super excited.

TWO she may exercise often, but that doesn't mean she's lost her appetite. if anything, her fit body gives her the sense of more freedom - the point is, she still has as big of an appetite as before, and people are always surprised to see how much she can eat in one sitting.

THREE hwari has a gray furred, green eyed cat at home, her only companion. his name is dalnim (because moon in korean is dal!) and he is the only other dstinct male in her life, but he's a little . half the time, he's haughty and won't come to her when she asks, but the other half, he won't sleep unless she's cuddling him.

FOUR hwari is quite pure - many mistake it for being naive and prude, but she just has morals that she strongly sticks by. that means no swearing, no drinking, no smoking, etc. this is a huge reason as to why she rejects a lot of her coworker's requests to drink after work, and she is definitely not a big fan of company parties. whenever her friends swear, she'll either glare or smack their arm, and when she walks by cigarette smoke, she'll kind of just. not. breath...

FIVE going along with the above, many people think she doesn't drink because she thinks she's too good for it, but she just...doesn't like the taste. thus, she doesn't know her limits, and is actually scared to drink because she doesn't know her tolerance.

SIXshe doesn't really have many teacher friends bc she lowkey has an image of being stuck up ( and sorim is infuriated by this because "yOU LOWLIFES JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE DOESN'T DRINK YOU THINK THEY CAN'T PARTY ME AND THIS GIRL HAVE HAD OUR OWN SHARE OF WILD NIGHTS WITH FRIED CHICKEN OKAY" ), but she really wants to make friends with her co-workers, she just doesn't know how to start a friendship.

SEVEN lots of moon shaped accessories and presents bc she's miss moon moon : )

EIGHT she always feels bad because she tends to say 'bless you' very quietly but when she sneezes the whole darn class is like bLESS YOUR SOUL HWARI SSEM

NINE she really ,,, likes ,,, white rice ,,, she can honestly just eat a whole bowl of plain rice as a snack, a messy bun on her head as she grades papers late into the night

TEN she also likes cute stationary !

ELEVEN more tba !

 

hWARI ma R rry m E                                     hae sorim, 26 y/o, civil works officer

                                                         what    sorim and hwari have been quite the best of friends since they met in

i lOoooOooOoOOovvEe yOu ;' '))                 their first years of university - the phrase 'opposites attract' is basically

                        sorim it is 1 in the morning    the epitome of their relationship. sorim is headstrong, blunt, and speaks

                                  what are you doing    her mind when she believes it's right (which is all the time rip anyone

                                    are you drunk ???    and everyone who co-exists with sorim), and is the polar opposite of

                                              sorim ?????    outspoken, quiet, modest hwari. but in their differences, they find a

h Ey This Romaane nov e l                           balance, and find that they can not live without the other. they live

is goo ooD !                                                   about 5 minute walking distance away and eat dinner together 

hEY i t''s YO U REs                                       whenever they can and are just together whenever they can be. their

mO oon                                                         surface relationship is probably the weirdest you'll see - two girls, one

h wa                                                             in calm, pastel colors, the other in her quirky, vibrant clothes, laughing

rI                                                                    as loud as ever (only with each other), wasting their money on street

                            oh goodness hae sorim    food and dragging each others drunk little selves home (even though

                         i don't know why you are   sorim is always the drunk one)...but their relationship is definitely much

                   drinking and reading my stuff    deeper than that. their differing personalities allow them different

                         at 1 in the morning but i'm    perspectives and allow them to balance each other out in the good and

                              coming over right now    bad and be the best partners in crime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                          ahahahah oh you make me

                                            laugh seunghee

 

ah! yes. uh...her dodgy eyes glance at all the cameras and she lets out a hesitant one-syllabled chuckle.

hello, viewers. the word 'viewers' awkwardly leaves , unfamiliar. she bows her head slightly.

my name is moon hwari, and i'm the creative writing teacher at seoul high school of liberal arts. nice to

meet you! the last part is mostly directed to the interviewer. 

 

mmm...hwari presses her lips together. i think it's mostly the kids. they really give me purpose as to why i do

this and i've always had a...a desire to work with children, and this job allows me to share my passion with

these kids and hopefully impart something meaningful to them through the years we have together. she

 

 

hwari's eyes slightly widen at the question - one she's never really thought of before. if i wasn't a

teacher? oh, wow, i don't know...i mean, i'd probably still be writing. she chuckles, then goes back

into deep thought. or maybe even something to do with children...that's not teaching. she nods.

since, well, teaching has to do with children, as much as the kids don't like me calling them that. she

laughs quite heartily, a sparkle in her eyes as she talks about her students. but yeah, writing or...child

growth and development. she nods. 

 

she smiles as a 'you're welcome' when the interviewer says thank you, then looks away to think. well,

to my students, let's hope that you'll listen to me more since i've been on tv now! you guys are learning

from a celebrity here! she chuckles, inwardly cringing at her awkward self. uhh, to those aspiring

teachers out there - or anyone aspiring to do anything, really - don't give up ! it'll be hard, tribulations will

come your way, but work hard and let's all achieve our goals !

she thinks they first see each other in the streets of seoul - his band is having a busking event in the streets, and she's pulled in by their emotions and evident passion for their music. but he knows better - he knows her. moon hwari, his in-class science project partner, back in the second year of high school, who had been so obviously broken, but also tried hard b yherself to repair, if not simply cover up those cracks. he admired that about her, and she was always on his mind. only when college came around did he realize that he truly liked her - her, dwaeji moon, who everyone ignored and started to care so little about that the bullying came to a stop. their relationship seemed to come to a stop, too - after a full high school career of at least one class with her every year, minjae realized that he liked dwaeji moon - he actally liked her. but what to do now, she seemed to have disappeared. until that night in seoul - all these years later, with his band now well-recognized, he's doing what he loves, and life is great. but the moment he sees her, he knows it could be better.

 

they find out that they live in the same neighborhood ( with minjae freaking out over this fact because hOW DID I NOT KNOW ALL THESE YEARS ), and from there it simply escalates. they say hi in the mornings if they pass by each other, then start to initiate longer conversations, and soon, bigger changes happen. minjae's always been shy and quiet, sort of folded in on himself, but maybe it's because hwari's just as shy and awkward or because s enthusiasm is rubbing off on him, but he starts to become more playful and initiative in his relationship with hwari. he tries harder to spend time with her, inviting her to their performances and making her promise to wait for him in the mornings so they can walk to the bus stop together. he feels like he's gone back to his high school days - seeing even the littlest things and thinking of her, looking at her and wanting to know more about her. s notice the change, too, and they love it. they knew minjae had it in him to be more outgoing and initiative, and they're grateful to hwari for bringing it out of him, and start to treat her more seriously like a sister-in-law.

 

the whole time their relationship is progressing, the two have quite different viewpoints on it. minjae is building up on a high school crush, but hwari sees this as a fresh relationship. he wants to tell her their past together, since he thinks she has the right to know and it feels weird with him feeling like the only one with these memories, but as more time passes and their relationship gets more and more intimate, he can't seem to bring it up. she sees him as someone she knows as this new hwari, while he looks at her and remembers dwaeji moon - and while it may be nice to reminisce on for him, he grows to know her more and realizes that bringing this back won't be as affectionate a memory for her. he sees it in her, feels it when they're together - she's tried so hard to run away from her past, her painful past that she tried to emerge from as better person, but instead became more cowardly. it still bites at her existence,  still pricks her in the back when she thinks of it. and he knows that, he knows so much about her, but he doesn't know how to break it to her.

 

as he's going through this inner dilemma, the two are still growing closer. they spend lots of time together and their close friends have seen the change in them. they're starting to see it themselves, too, and are both thinking about getting serious in terms of their relationship. minjae knows, however, that he has to tell her about their history beforethey o any further in their future, and so he does. ( you can do this however ! they're eating dinner together or he just goes over to her house at midnight or whatever ) he's scared, she's uncomfortable, but she soon realizes that she would've had to face reality sooner or later, and she wouldn't have preferred to hear it from anyone else.

COMMENTS is thiS OKAY ??? i feel like everything was sorta ,,, vague and pLAIN what am i doing i will maybe add songs to the love interest section later but lmao i'm a mess. this is actually pretty horrible pls love my child - hwari's v shy, but i hope she will be able to make more teacher friends through this fic because i'm sure there are better people out there than joo nara lmao

ONE hwari drinks with minjae !! bc she trusts him that much !!

TWO hwari goes to a 5live concert and they sing a song called 'you were pretty' and the lyrics just hit her...there...and she's kind of crying and minjae sees and lowkey breaks down and everyone is freaking out bc legendary cheolbyeok is ?? ???

THREE minjae drops off breakfast or something to hwari when she's in school and everyone is like HWARI SSEM IS THAT YOUR BOYFRIEND and some boys are crying

he enters the room, and hwari's first reaction is surprise. when she heard she was getting an assistant, for some reason she had been expecting an older-looking boy, preppy and prepared, eager to get to work, dressed for the job in slacks and a tie. instead, she got to lay her eyes on a dingy looking, awkward kid in sneakers and a flannel. the head of hwari's department brought him over and patted him on the back. the boy stood up straighter as a result. "will this be good enough for you?" the head chuckled. another teacher walked by. "he may not look like it, but he's a smart one!" hwari looked at the boy, his eyes crinkling as he smiled and slightly bowed. she smiled back. "i think he'll be just fine."