“Chaerin…”

“Mom…”

“I love you, darling…”

“Don’t go…”

“I love you, Chaerin…”

“Don’t go…”

“Don’t go…” – Chaerin woke up with the sound of her own voice.
She had had that nightmare again. It had been years, but she would never get used to that.

She got up to bath.
There was nothing a cold bath wouldn’t cure. From heat to hangover, it was the best medicine.

When she left the bathroom, wearing a towel and nothing else, she bumped into Thunder.
The towel almost fell.

“Er…sorry.” – he said, looking away.

“It’s okay…” – Chaerin said, looking at him.
He was probably going to take a bath…the hot material under those penguin pajamas would be refreshed by the cold water…

Chaerin held a smile.
Her body was cold and Thunder’s was hot…

“What?” – Thunder noticed the situation.

“Nice pajamas, teacher.” – Chaerin laught, heading to the bedroom.

It had been a month and she had not yet stopped teasing him. She’d call him “teacher Thunder”, making a childish voice whenever she wanted to annoy him, that is, at least twice a day.

“Hurry and change.” – Thunder spoke, entering the bathroom – “We have a lot of work to do.”

The teachers’ day was close at Happy Cookie Kindergarten.
They really took things serious at Thunder’s work, which meat Chaerin had a lot of paper to cut… a lot of drawings to put on the walls… and that meant more eighty days of torture at Evil Cookie Kindergarten.

And to start the day with a smile, swimming classes.
Chaerin had unwillingly been going to that school for almost a month now, but not once she had entered that pool, nor done anything. She would basically throw small paper balls at the students when Thunder wasn’t looking, and mess up their crayons.

That morning, though, when they drove to work, Thunder said the words Chaerin didn’t want to hear: “Did you bring your bathing suit?”

When she pretended to have forgotten it, he told her to open his book bag.
Thunder had bought her a bathing suit, 80’s style.

“Good morning, teacher Thunder!” – nearly every single woman greeted when they arrived to Happy Cookie Kindergarten. They would always greet him with a smile, but would never even look at Chaerin.

At the pools area, many mothers waited for the class to start, that means they were actually waiting for teacher Thunder to appear on his black swimming shorts, showing his abs and chest…
They smiled when the teacher finally entered the pool area, unaware of the uncountable pairs of eyes that watched as he leaded the students to the pool.
He smiled brightly, just like the kids. Chaerin, on the other hand, frowned.

Although Thunder’s group of students was composed by only six kids, there were more than sixteen mothers at the pools area. Thunder was not the only teacher to have a lesson at that time, on that area. There were other two lessons at the same time, and both teachers were men, but the mothers didn’t seem to be much interested on them.

“Ok, let’s warm up!” – Thunder told the kids. A smile always on his face.
They soon started walking around the pool.
All of them, minus Chaerin, and of course that blond woman, wearing black jeans and a black shirt close to the pool, would be noticed.

“CL, you’re not running!” – Thunder said, crossing his arms.

Chaerin yawned.

“You do know I’m the one who’s gonna write a report stating that you did what you should, right?” – he spoke, walking close to her, while the kids continued the exercise.

She knew he was talking about the community work.

“Just shut it.” – Chaerin said, taking her shirt off.

Thunder smiled.
The other women in the pool area frowned.
It seemed like just now they had noticed Chaerin’s existence. Well, a woman standing close to the pool, taking her clothes off would be noticed for sure.

Chaerin took her jeans and her shirt, revealing her beautiful figure and her 80’s swimming suit.
The two teachers by the other pools watched with their mouths open.

It was like one of those body lotion ads: A beautiful, curvy woman taking her clothes off, exposing just some small pieces of flesh, making everybody curious and dying to see more… it all in slow motion.
Even Thunder stared. What differentiated him from the other two teachers though, was that doing his work properly was more important that staring at a beautiful woman wearing swim suit.

When Thunder entered the pool slowly, helping the kids one by one, Chaerin jumped on the water, making a small tsunami. The kids loved it, of course. Their mothers, not so much.
By the end of the class, Chaerin had become “teacher CL” ,for the kids and “Miss Lee”, for their mothers. And she liked it oh, so much!
Her heart was filled with that thing… how do we call that? Is it happiness… Joy…?
Well, it’s not important… what matters’ that she really had a great time.

“Excuse me, I was thinking…” – Chaerin heard from behind. It was one of the other teachers.
She knew what he’d say just by the way he looked at her.

“Sorry, I’m busy.” – she said dryly, walking away.

Because the teachers’ day was way too close, the kids could go home after the swimming class.
For Thunder it was a shame they couldn’t be working on their animals masks, for Chaerin it was great that she could go home to sleep a bit more.

On their way, Thunder started a conversation while driving:
“You were really great, today.” – he said. His eyes on the road.

“I had fun” – Chaerin spoke without thinking. It took her almost a whole second to notice the smile she had. She frowned instantly.
“I had to do what I had to do.” – she said dryly.

Thunder nodded. He knew she had liked it.
The following weeks had proved so.
Chaerin wouldn’t throw paper balls at the students anymore, she would teach them how to make paper planes; she wouldn’t mess up their crayons, she would teach them the colors in French. She had really changed, and not only with the kids. She wouldn’t eat everything that was in the fridge, leaving nothing for Thunder; she wouldn’t watch tv until very late at night, because she knew he would have to wake up early, and he slept on the couch…

She had changed a lot. From water to wine.