“I’m home!” Hara hollers, closing the wooden door behind her. She slips off her black leather heels while two small feet appear just above hers, stomping into a happy tune.

“Welcome back, noona,” 9 year old Hansol greets.

“Hello, young man. Did you give eomma a headache while I was out?” Hara teases, fully aware that the younger Goo does not like it when he is accused of something.

“Of course not! When did I?” Hansol sticks a tongue out and carefully takes her bag. “I’ll bring this to your room.”

“Thank you. Where’s eomma?” Hara asks, wriggling off her coat and hangs it by the coat rack fastened onto her left.

“In the kitchen, cooking dinner.”

Hansol grabs her coat instead and takes it, along with her bag upstairs.

Hara smiles at the sight of her brother but lets out a sigh after remembering everything that had happened on her first day at work. She knows that once her mother opens , it can never be closed until she is satisfied with the details and so, Hara starts mentally composing answers to some expected questions Mrs. Goo will surely ask, feeling the cold floor under her pale feet as she makes her way to the kitchen.

“Thank you for the food!” The three say in unison before they all dig in.

“So, how was your first day?” Mrs. Goo asks Hara as she puts rice in her bowl, eyes twinkling in excitement.

Hara frowns, a sour expression etched on her tiny face and Mrs. Goo reacts accordingly. Nothing good happened, she knows.

“The school was okay. It’s huge and clean and the employees were nice and friendly too.”

Hansol eagerly looks up, a piece of rice playfully clings on his chin.

“And?” Mrs. Goo urges. Hara puts down her bowl and sighs.

“The students..I mean my students..weren’t that nice at all.” She whines.

“Noona, you’re cute.” Hansol interrupts, earning a giggle from his mother and a face from his sister.

Mrs. Goo clears . “I’m sorry. Okay, continue.” She hushes down Hansol who quietly obeys and went back to his food.

“They did not harass me physically but oh God they looked and acted horrible! Almost everyone has piercings and some have tats. They even greeted me in a rude way!”

Mrs. Goo puffs, not sure if she heard it right. “Students like that exist? Did you mention that to the higher ups? What was their reaction?”

Hara reaches for the pitcher of water and Hansol gladly helps her. She downs a whole glass in one go before continuing her story.

“I don’t know. My co-professors looked bothered when I told them what class was assigned to me so I had a bit of an idea that something wrong was waiting for me. It seems that they were aware too of what’s going on.”

“Did they insult you verbally, like calling you names?” Her mother worriedly asks.

“Hmm no, they did not. Their choice of words were ju