GA IN 

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End 2027.

In life, I’ve done many things. One thing I’ve not done is attend a parent teacher conference though. That’ll change in a few minutes time.

“You must be Sangryul’s mother,” says the young lady, Ryul’s teacher, in a very amiable manner.

“Has Ryul been a good boy?”

She smiles, a genuine one, which I interpret as a good thing, “You know, I wish I had a son like yours.”

I do a commendable job at keeping my laughter in, because she’ll have no idea why I find her statement so funny, and I’m not about to tell her.

“Please, Ms. Lee, just speak comfortably.”

“No, really. I have nothing bad to say about your son. He’s as smart as a whip. It’s obvious that he’s ahead of the class, but I can’t go any faster. Not when so many students are not doing fantastic.”

I definitely got that impression; he always says that school is boring.

“He’s such a pleasant boy. Smart kid, but doesn’t flaunt his intelligence or disrupt the class. In fact, after he finishes the extra homework that I’ve assigned, he’s as nice as to help the weaker students along.”

It seems that she expects some sort of reaction, for which statement exactly I’m not sure.

She laughs awkwardly, “You see, he finishes his homework in half the allotted time, so I assign him extra to keep him occupied. Then he still finishes ahead of time.”

Again, I don’t see what in that statement is so worthy of a reaction.

“I see.”

“He’s a fine boy, really. You’ve done a fine job raising such a good child.”

Gender stereotypes at work! He has a father who does the other fifty percent of the work, but somehow people like to seem to attribute the credit mostly to me. Ridiculous, really.

“Out of curiosity, did Mr. Oh and you send him for any preparatory tuition or anything of that sort?”

It’s the women who bring up the children, but the fathers who pay for the tuition.

“No, we don’t believe in it.”

That takes her by surprise, “He’s really bright, your son.”

Definitely didn’t get it from me, since I’m completely unacquainted to the feeling of being this intelligent.

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End 2028

“Mummy!” Byul and Ryul chorus as I open the door for them.

“So how was school today?” I ask as I bend down to kiss them on the forehead.

“Boring,” squeaks Byul, “I wish we would do something more interesting for class.”

I don’t even know what to say to that. She’s just like her brother, I got very similar comments from her teacher when I went to the parent-teacher conference just a few days ago. Except that the teacher said that Byul was really a model student.

Ryul is acting very antsy today. Almost as if he has something important to tell me, but obviously is unwilling to do so in front of Byul, since he’s not saying anything.

“Mummy, I’ll go and bathe first?” Byul innocently suggests, and troops off to the bathroom.

Which really is perfect timing since it opens up an opportunity for Ryul to say what he wishes to.

He sits down on the sofa.

I ruffle his hair, “What’s up with you today, Ryul?”

Ryul looks nearly apprehensively at me, and pulls out a big brown envelope from his bag which he hands over to me.

“What’s this?”

“I don’t know, Mummy. They called us to the general office today, and handed