Location: Yongsan International Elementary School, Seoul

Jinhyun was a six year-old ball of fluff that was rather eager to start school. Because his parents had some financial hardships, they couldn’t send him to preschool. But, his mother read to him every day and taught him how to read and write rather well. Finally, they managed to get him into a pretty good international elementary school in the area.

His mother worried as a mother would on the drive to the school. This would be Jinhyun’s first day of class, and the boy was cheerily hopping in his seat, trying to see out of the car window that was still a bit too tall.

They arrived at the school. Mrs. Lee led her son to the classroom which would be his homeroom from that point on. Mrs. Lee spotted his teacher and went to talk things over with him. She instructed him to just wait in the hallway with the other kids who were already there. Jinhyun took in his new surroundings; kids were screaming, running around, playing hand games, you name it. Some were attached to their parents while others had no parents in sight.

Jinhyun himself stayed near the wall, hugging his bag for comfort as he just watched on with meek eyes. He was excited, but he couldn’t really bring himself to just spring into this environment so quickly. Soon, it was time for his mother to leave, as class was starting soon. Jinhyun’s mother went over to her son and scooped him up into her arms, earning a protesting cry from him.

“It’s time for me to go, Jinhyun. Be good now. Is your bag packed with your favorite books?” Jinhyun cutely nodded. She squeezed him once more for good measure and as if on signal, the school bell rang. Kids started to file into the classroom so the boy drifted with the rest as if riding on a current. Jinhyun kept looking around even as he stepped foot into the classroom.

The classroom was small albeit simple. Everything looked like it had been shrunken a bit like in Alice in Wonderland. The walls were adorned with colorful banners and cutouts that even six year-old Jinhyun could recognize as the English alphabet. He started reciting which English letters were which, and then his eyes wandered to the giant map of the world hanging. Then he spotted the giant green chalkboard and looked down at the wide, colorful mat with Hangul letters.

The lady that his mother was speaking to earlier, the sole adult in the classroom now that all of the kids’ parents had left, had walked over in front of the large mat on the ground and instructed the students to sit. Everyone scrambled about and sat. Jinhyun continued to hug his bag in front of him as his teacher introduced herself.

“Hello everyone! My name is Mrs. Park and I’m going to be your kindergarten teacher starting today. I hope we can all have a lot of fun while learning. I want everyone to stand up one by one and introduce yourself. Please say your name, where you are from, and one of your interests.” She gestured to the kid on the far left in the front row. Jinhyun was near the back row so he had a while to go.

Kids started introducing themselves and Jinhyun felt his stomach tie in a bundle. What was this feeling? He didn’t really want to talk out loud. But he had to do it. Hopefully he could find others to talk to later. It finally boiled down to the boy next to him, then it would be Jinhyun’s turn to speak. He listened intently to this boy’s introduction.

“Hi, my name is Jeon Wonwoo… I’m from the Yongsan-gu area. Um… I like reading.” The boy nodded at his own words. He sort of spoke softly, Jinhyun noticed, but it was his turn to talk. He saw Mrs. Park beam at him and gestured to him. Timidly, the boy stood up and cleared his throat.

“Hello, my name is Lee Jinhyun. I’m from Hannam-dong and I like drawing. And reading.” He saw the boy next to him called Wonwoo look up at him when he mentioned reading. His teacher smiled and it was over.

His teacher had another activity for them after everyone was acquainted. Mrs. Park pointed to the shelves of interesting-looking books. She told the children to pick up two books, one in Korean and one in English, and bring them to the desks. They could read them however they liked, she just wanted them to read. Everyone started to get up and raid the shelves, but Jinhyun figured he would just read his own books his mom packed for him. He waddled over to a desk and sat, taking out his books.

Meanwhile, Wonwoo was scrutinizing the shelves for interesting reads. He was a bookworm already even in this young age. His mother worked at the local library and always borrowed books, resulting in him reading a wide variety of books, even above his age level. He chose two books and went to a desk. He noticed the boy he had sat next to on the mat and sat next to him.

Little Wonwoo lazily looked over his own book because he had read this particular book countless times before. He was just tired of looking for a new book because he did read a lot of the ones he stumbled upon. Well, at least the Korean books. Wonwoo couldn’t really read the English books yet. And that’s when he noticed the book that Jinhyun was reading. It was in English, and it piqued his curiosity. Unintentionally, he started leaning in closer to view the book. Jinhyun noticed the boy peeking over and he giggled.

“Do you know this book?” He asked innocently. Wonwoo felt his face flush scarlet. Wonwoo was a bookworm, and he knew all of these simple kiddy books. At least, he thought he did. He felt his bookworm pride inflate and scrutinized the pictures on the pages. It was a small girl with little wings perched on a flower of sorts… Was she that tiny? Wonwoo gulped and nodded his head. Jinhyun seemed to buy this, because he smiled brightly.

“I love the story of Thumbelina too, it’s my favorite.” Wonwoo tilted his head. The name sounded foreign in his ears, well it was kind of expected considering this book was in English. But Thumbelina? Yeah, he did not hear of this character before.

“Do you really know this book?” Jinhyun questioned, narrowing his eyes. Wonwoo started to panic a little and nodded more fervently this time.

“Yes I do!” He replied indignantly. Jinhyun was still suspicious, so he decided to quiz the boy.

“What is Thumbelina about then?” He put his hands on the book as if to block it a little.

“Well… it’s about a girl who got shrunk down very small and lives in a garden.” Jinhyun snickered at Wonwoo’s preposterous response.

“Wrong!” Wonwoo simmered quietly in embarrassment, but his curiosity for knowing what the story was actually about started to brew. He didn’t know how to ask the other boy. Suddenly, their teacher appeared behind them and chided them lightly, asking the two boys to focus on their own books. Time passed until Mrs. Park clapped her hands, garnering attention from the students.

“All right, did all of you bring your school supplies? If you have colored paper, markers, and crayons, please take them out. You are going to write your names and decorate them however you like. If you look over here,” their teacher pointed and the students followed the direction, “there are cubbyholes for each student. You can pick whichever cubbyhole you want. We will put all our work that we do in class here and other things too. So your job is to decorate a nice name tag to put on your cubbyhole to let everyone know that it is yours. Can we do that?” The students all chanted yes in excitement.

“After you finish, make sure to place a book or two that you grabbed from the shelves into it. You can take it home at the end of the day to read.” The children got to work immediately.

Jinhyun’s mind went wild when he took out light blue construction paper and markers. He was going to make his name tag very nice and everyone will know which one is his. Wonwoo looked through his bag and realized with horror that his mother didn’t pack markers. Jinhyun noticed the boy’s hesitance and asked him what was wrong. The boy told him.

“Here, we can share.” Wonwoo was surprised that Jinhyun was being so open and generous to him. Wonwoo was not very artistically creative, so he wrote his name in large lettering on white paper and stared at it. He didn’t know how else to decorate it. His eyes started to wander to Jinhyun’s work again, and his eyes widened. Jinhyun was like a miniature artist.

“Pokemon,” Wonwoo pointed out, blurting what the other boy was drawing. Jinhyun paused, looking at Wonwoo curiously.

“Do you like Pokemon too?” Not wanting to be embarrassed by the boy again, Wonwoo didn’t reply and picked up markers, absently staring at his name tag again. Jinhyun laughed and made Wonwoo red in the face.

“Why aren’t you drawing anything?” The boy pressed on.

“I don’t know how to draw,” He replied simply. Jinhyun was going to continue talking when Mrs. Park came by again.

“Jinhyun-ah, please don’t disturb others and focus on your own work,” she chided. The boy made a disappointed sound and set to work again. Wonwoo side-eyed him and tried to draw. He drew a cat but instantly felt dissatisfied with it. It looked so plain compared to Jinhyun’s drawings.

“Aww! That’s cute!” Jinhyun exclaimed when he saw it. Wonwoo remained quiet. The boys finished up their tags and was about to go to the cubbyholes when Jinhyun grabbed some of his books. Wonwoo paused and went to grab his books too. They reached the cubbyholes and Jinhyun insisted they have neighboring cubbyholes.

Wonwoo grabbed tape and posted his work on the bottom interior so that his tag hung. Jinhyun did the same. Wonwoo slipped his books into the cubbyhole, finally pleased with his work. Jinhyun also did the same, but Wonwoo was caught off guard when he saw Jinhyun place Thumbelina into his cubbyhole.

“Why are you giving me this book?” Wonwoo asked curiously.

“You wanted to read it, right? So I’ll lend it to you,” The other boy replied cheerfully.

“I never said I wanted to read it…” Wonwoo responded. However, panic flashed in his eyes when he saw Jinhyun’s expression dampen.

“Okay, I’ll take it home,” He caved. Jinhyun grinned, and the boys returned to their seats.