Liana propped on a table and looked at him how he lead the children where he wanted and how good he made them respond to him. She realized she knew absolutely nothing about him; she just called him ‘Mr. officer’ but only because o Mark and Luisa. She smiled for herself thinking that she could picture and describe every muscle on his upper body but she really didn’t have any idea of his name.

‘Did he introduced himself today?’ she thought when his eyes pierced her and she jumped up as if he could’ve read her mind or something.

They both smiled and he continued his talk with the kids.

She tried to calm down her heart that nearly jumped out too. Without letting anyone notice she took a deep breath and just when it was almost safe to use her legs again, the phone buzzed inside her pocket. She checked it and took another hidden breath to cheer on her own, but Seunghyun saw it and smiled when she touched his shoulder with the most mother-like face ever.

“It’s ok now” she laughed softly “your time has passed”.

She turned towards the kids and used their language:

“Well, that was it. Did you have fun today, kids?”

“Nae!!” she had the surprise to hear them shout all at once.

‘Where was I when they learnt that??’ she looked at him briefly and he answered with the most innocent eyes.

“…Ok… Now say goodbye and…” she begun talking in the same time with him:

“Ok, kids, now let’s say goodbye…”

They both laughed and she gestured him to continue.

“Anyoung hee gyeseyo! This means ‘goodbye’ “Seunghyun said taking a deep bow.

He couldn’t really understood what they were saying but he could proudly see that they were indeed trying to copy him: they were all quiet and bending from waist down. He looked for Liana’s eyes and smiled at her.

As if something hit her, she quickly bowed too mumbling an “Anyoung hee…” making him laugh.

“W… wae… wae… What are you doing??” she grabbed his arm when he passed by her.

“Uh…?”

“You gonna leave me now?” she asked when Hell seemed to break loose and everybody around started welling, laughing or running around the tables.

“An… aneyo…” he answered lost in her begging eyes.

“Yah! Kids!” she (too) suddenly clapped her hands to make everybody stop. “Mr. Officer said that he’d like to have lunch with us.”

All the children shouted a very loud “yes” allowing him to understand that this sudden joy had something to do with him. The buzz in his pants though made him smile a little awkward and turned his back at them just a little. He checked it at once – 2 messages and 4 lost calls.

“Aish…” he hummed.

He looked for Liana again. At first it was a little impossible to find her in all that chaos but he spotted her when an annoying, long screech drew his eyes to a crowded place.  He smiled and quickly replied at the “Where are you??” message: “I’m sorry. I’ll be late. Talk to you tonight.” He ended the message with a smile and turned off the phone.

“What are you doing?” he startled Liana when he landed a hand on the table she was trying to move.

“Since we can’t decide who gets to share a table with you, we’re all gonna sit at the same table…” she answered dragging the table making that dreadful noise again.

‘’Whaaa! I’m quite awesome, huh?” Seunghyun laughed grabbing a corner of the table.

“Yah!” she yelled freezing him. “I don’t need your help!” she whispered pointing towards his shoulder.

“Gwenchana… I’m ok! I can use my right hand really good actually” he  said helping up.

In less than 10 minutes all the tables were nothing but a long row of noise and laughter.

“Are you tired?” Liana whispered to his ear.

“Ani. Wae?”

“Good!” she suddenly changed her tone. ‘Because after this we’ll go to the park” she smiled blinking really fast to let him understand that he  won’t get rid of them too soon.

Seunghyun smiled and ruffled her hair.  

“Nae! I’ll come too!” he said waiting for her to slap his hand, but she just looked at him with wide eyes.

Since she wasn’t going to say something anything soon, he decided to try and answer the questions coming from all the sides.

‘Is he doing this because he’s really enjoying himself or… is he trying to impress me?...’ Liana thought still staring at him. Without realizing she sighed quite loud and that made him turn around to face her.

“Wae… why are you looking at me like that?” his voice startled her but she only blinked faster twice or three times, understanding that if she’ll change her posture right now, she’ll give herself away. Instead she brought her face in her both palms, continuously staring at him.

“I was just wondering…” she said in low voice.

“Mwo?” he smiled.

“How come you are so good with kids? Do you have a lot of younger brothers?  Or kids?...”

“Mwo??” Seunghyun laughed. “I only have a nephew…” he answered. “I’m not even married…” he wanted to keep on talking, but Liana suddenly stood up, hitting the table with both of her hands.

“Ooookey! Are we done eating?” she laughed at Seunghyun’s reaction. “Mian…” she whispered when he looked at her without even blinking.

Absolutely everybody shouted a loud “Yes!!”, but Seunghyun couldn’t help to notice that their plates were the only ones still untouched. He simply smiled too and got up when all the children did.  He tucked his hands deep inside the pants’ pockets and silently eye-followed Liana as she gathered everybody around her.

“You know… you really didn’t have to do this…” Liana said when the last one of the kids ran towards the curly slide.

Before he could even answer, she shouted:

“I don’t want any of you to get outside the playground! If I see one foot outside, we’re off to the hotel! Arraso?!...” she bit her tongue sneakily glancing at Seunghyun who smiled at her, but the next second she pretended she didn’t said anything.

“Everybody understood?” she shouted again still ignoring his gaze.

Seunghyun laughed and shook his head as if he was looking guidance from God above, but his eyes widened and he froze in place for a couple of seconds.  He quickly checked on Liana – she was still ignoring him.

“Yah, kids!” she shouted suddenly making sure Liana won’t raise her eyes above him. “What do you say if we all go to…” he walked up to the children in front, succeeding in making Liana to follow him so she won’t notice the huge poster on the building behind him.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“…You wanna go bowling?” he kneeled before Luisa,  ignoring Liana.

“Yes!!” the little one shouted when he explained through gestures what he asked. “Can we go? Please Ms. Teacher!!” she turned to Liana grabbing her hand and begging in their language.

“Um… what do you think you’re doing?” Liana whispered to him again.

She was about to turn around and leave, but he grabbed her arm so she’d face him:

“We can’t possibly keep an eye on everyone… best to keep them inside somewhere… I’ll pay… Ok?”

“Aish!” she said after she lost the short staring competition between them. “Fine! Let’s go!” she whispered to them and then called on all the kids.

It was really not an easy task to pay attention to 40, 7 to 10 years old noisy, hyperactive restless souls. She sighed and gathered them in a long line of pairwise. She did a last checkup after she counted them:

“Ok, everybody has a partner?”

“Yes!” they all shouted.

‘Aish… move already…’ Seunghyun started to become anxious with all of her turnings round and around.

“Ok, we’re ready to go” she startled him.

“Oh, nae, nae…” he smiled and ran in front of the row. “Everybody just follow me!” he shouted signaling the children to walk after him.

Liana also gestured that they should indeed follow him.

As soon as they exited the playground, Seunghyun started a silly, but very amusing, game of walking around like a snake. He slalomed between the parked cars, he went around some trees, everything to the maximum joy of the laughing kids who followed him strictly.

“Yah! The grownup kid in the front!” Liana shouted after a while.

“Huh?” Seunghyun stopped making the row behind him to suddenly stop and bump one on the others.  

Everyone burst out laughing and holding their bellies.

“How far along are we?” she shouted again from the tail of the row.

 “Nae?” he shouted back making the children to turn and look at their teacher.

“Do we need to walk more?” she yelled.

“Aniyo!” Seunghyun answered. “There it is!” he raised a finger to the building in front of them.

“Finally…” she whispered for herself, then shouted: “Fine! Move faster and walk straight!

“Nae, Teacher!” he yelled back and started walking directly to the bluish, one storey building.

They helped all the children to change into their bowling shoes and them took over all of the 10 tracks inside - 4 of them at each one.

“You know you really hadn’t had to do this” Liana said after she put his glass of orange juice on the table.

“Uh?” he took a big sip with the pink straw just to allow himself a short time to conceive his speech again.

“Why did you bring us here, really?” she asked without taking her eyes off of him.

“Well…” he started after he smiled again at the pink straw “… there were four gateways, just the two of us and 40 of them. Really, what were YOU thinking?” he would’ve continued but her eyes pierced him so bad that he almost choke so he quickly took another big sip just to avoid her stare.

“We… we really couldn’t have done it… jeongmal…” he mumbled with the straw in his mouth.

His eyes doubled their size and his mouth forgot how to close when she bent over the table to reach his sitting height. She opened to speak but a squeaky, loud voice called her name:

“Ms. Teacheeeer!”

“Nae?!!” she shouted back startling poor Seunghyun who even lost his straw.

“Mark won’t let me throw!!...” the voice answered.

“Aish!... This kids…” she regained her straight posture.

She looked at his big, wide eyes once more, then she left without any other word:

“Maaark! You should let others play too…” she said as she was walking away.

‘Aish..” Seunghyun exhaled all the air he had been holding in. “If I’m doing this a couple more days I’ll turn grey before my time…” he said, carefully laying back on the chair. He smiled thinking at Liana’s close eyes and at how he managed to stop her see his face on the giant poster announcing the great BigBang concert.

“Ok, where were we?” Liana came back but he didn’t react. “Yah… are you ok?” she slowly touched his arm when she even waved her hand before his eyes and he still didn’t react.

“Huh? What?...” he looked at her and smiled. “Nae! I’m ok… Gwenchana…” he answered after she asked again.

“But… what happened?...” Liana insisted when he wouldn’t even change his posture on the chair, he would just sit there and stare.  “Do… do I have something on my face?...”

“Ani… no” he answered smiling. “Nonun aluum dahwo”.

“Huh? That’s new. What does that mean?” she frowned a little before smiling.

“Nothing…” he answered lowering his eyes in the juice bottle again.

“Yah! You just cursed me, didn’t you?” she  slowly hit his arm.

“Ani! Animnida!” he quickly waved his hands.

“Yah! Excuse me, sir!” she pretended to shout over to the boy at the entrance. “What does ‘non alun…’ something mean?”

“Nonun aluum dahwo” he completed her. “Means ‘you are beautiful” his voice froze her