Krystal closes the car door and giggles when Jessica dashes inside the child-care centre without waiting for her sister. Locking the car, she walks towards the doors and greets a couple of parents sending off their children before signing in for work. One of the reception workers, Wendy, informs her that she needs to perform a few errands and she groans; errands require walking around from one place to the other. She doesn’t have time for that, she’d rather look after kids.

As she steps inside the classroom, Krystal notices a small figure waddling forward and clinging onto Luna’s legs from behind. Realising that her friend is waiting for the child to show herself, Luna lightly ruffles the girl’s hair and the child lets out a loud whine before poking her head out of the side for a brief glimpse and quickly hiding herself again. Grinning widely at how playful the girl is being, Krystal crouches down and looks around Luna’s legs.

“Boo.”

She giggles as the child squeals happily in delight and begins to run around excitedly in circles. Smiling warmly, Krystal scoops the girl into her arms and smooches her all over with kisses.

“Hi Taeyeonnie,” She greets, giggling when Taeyeon leans her cheek in for more kisses.

“Hi Soojung-unnie,” She mumbles, protruding her lips and giving her the best puppy eyed look she can muster. It completely wins the woman over and she goes back to pecking the child all over her face.

Unfortunately, someone stands there seething in jealousy and Krystal yelps when she feels a force crash into her legs.

“Stop kissing my Taengoo!”

After placing Taeyeon down on the ground and watching her waddle off with her sister, Krystal returns to the front office to collect a few worksheets for the children. She accepts a few papers from Irene, another woman working at the desk, when Victoria decides it’s a good idea to sneak up behind the woman and scare the living daylights out of her by blowing in her ear.

“Yah!” Krystal squeals, accidentally throwing her papers in the air and swatting her hands at the teacher. Victoria throws her head back and cackles; the reaction is too funny that she ends up clutching her stomach out of pain from laughing. Krystal just glares at the woman and drills holes into the back of her head as she bends down to pick up the papers she had thrown into the air out of shock. When Krystal stands upright, she notices the glint of mischief in the older woman’s orbs and rolls her eyes before she notices Irene trying to stifle a giggle behind her computer monitor.

“What do you want?” Krystal asks, deciding to spare the receptionist from her wrath and instead focusing her attention on her playful friend.

“I just met Boa and she said that today is Luna’s evaluation day,” Victoria answers, chuckling when Krystal’s hands slip and she drops her papers again.

“Are you ing serious? yes,” Krystal says, fist-pumping the air. She’s quickly hushed by Irene and Victoria, who send her warning looks with wide eyes as they subtly nod their heads towards a woman walking down the corridor. Turning her head in that direction, Krystal gives them a sheepish grin when she realises that Boa may have heard her excitement.

“Oopsies.”

The first thing Krystal and Victoria notice as soon as they enter the classroom is eight children standing behind Luna’s legs as they refuse to stand in front of Boa - which isn’t surprising given her commanding appearance and her role as the child-care’s director and head teacher. Krystal frowns; whilst she was scanning the intimidated children's’ faces she realises that there’s one child missing from the group of girls standing behind Luna. She’s about to call out for that child’s name when she notices the girl is sitting cross-legged a couple of metres away from Boa with a look of amazement and befuddlement on her face.

Taeyeon blinks with wide open as she stares up at Boa and Krystal starts to wonder if something’s wrong. She’s about to ask the girl what she’s thinking when Taeyeon blurts out something very unexpected.

“How are you so pretty?”

Krystal isn’t the only one in shock; Victoria and Luna look at each other with surprise written all over their faces. What shocks them even more is when Boa crouches down and stares at Taeyeon with a pout on her face.

“Taeyeonnie, I thought I told you I’m not pretty,” The woman says modestly.

“But but you’re the pretty-unnie; you let me call you that last time as your nickname,” Taeyeon insists, jutting out her bottom lip the furthest that Krystal has ever seen her do. It’s the most incredibly sulky look she’s ever seen that she’s quite surprised the pout is directed towards Boa, someone who Taeyeon probably has never met before.

“What the f-,” Krystal begins to say, only to have covered by Victoria’s hand to stop her from swearing. Pulling her friend’s palm away from , Krystal crosses her arms in front of her chest and huffs.

“Yah Taeyeonnie, I thought you said I’m the pretty unnie.”

“But but this is the pretty-unnie I speak to every day and at the supermarket,” Taeyeon confesses, turning her head to look at Krystal with large, confused eyes.

“When on earth did you meet Boa-unnie at the supermarket?”

“I met pretty unnie last week! Pretty unnie gave me gummies and poppies and snakes and-.”

“I buy you all of those and more!” Krystal protests before she realises that she’s making it very obvious that she’s jealous of the girl’s friendly interactions with the director. Just to add salt to the wound, Victoria mutters the word ‘whipped’ under her breath and softly sniggers. She looks over at Luna and sighs when her friend shrugs at her, not sure how to approach the situation. When she meets eyes with Boa, she feels the embarrassment begin to seep in tenfold but continues to hold her gaze.

Unfortunately for her, because Taeyeon’s only three years old, she can’t understand complex emotions that well and cannot decipher the difference between displeasure and jealousy.

“But but pretty-unnie bought me choccy!” Taeyeon says innocently, her eyes returning to Boa with a twinkle in her orbs. She squeals cheerfully and claps her hands animatedly when Boa smiles softly at her and reaches out to ruffle her hair.

“I thought you just like gummy worms,” Krystal grumbles, unconsciously pouting at the look of admiration Taeyeon has for Boa and the close relationship the two share - heck, Taeyeon pouts at her when she ruffles her hair so why is she all smiles with Boa?

“Taeyeonnie loves gummies and poppies and snakes and choccy and chippies and -”

“Basically diabetes inducing food,” Victoria mumbles to herself, shaking her head at the silly child.

Boa pinches Taeyeon’s cheek, giggling when the girl adorably moves her head along with the motion.

“I have an announcement to make,” Boa declares to the class, letting go of Taeyeon’s cheek and standing up to look at every child in the eye. Unfortunately, her commanding presence makes the girls shrink back behind Luna’s legs and they clutch desperately onto each other out of fright.

“Today, Luna will be teaching you and I will be observing the class,” She reveals, trying not to laugh when the fear disappears from the group’s faces and is replaced by confusion.

“Teacher, does that mean Teacher Krystal and Teacher Victoria won’t be teaching us?” Seohyun asks, not noticing the weird stare she receives from Sunny who registers the number of times she’s used the word ‘teacher’ in a sentence.

“That’s correct Seohyun,” Luna confirms, jumping when Sooyoung lets out a loud whine.

“Awww, that’s not fun! That means less playtime!”

“What was that?” Boa asks sternly, making Sooyoung cower from her glare.

“I’m sorry Teacher,” She mumbles, shielding herself further behind Luna’s legs for protection.

“You are here to learn; not to play,” the head teacher scolds, continuing to stare in Sooyoung’s direction. She gives her a warning look before returning her attention to Luna.

“Good luck,” Boa says, nodding her head at the children before giving Taeyeon a gentle smile and sitting down at the teacher’s desk. Victoria nudges Krystal’s elbow as a cue to leave the classroom and she quickly waves at the girls whilst she exits the room.

Sighing, Luna gathers the group of girls and ushers them over to their desks whilst she hands out the worksheets that Krystal had received from Irene before the class had begun. Krystal takes this as her cue to leave so that the evaluation can commence and she grabs her bag from the teacher’s table.

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” Krystal announces, waving to the kids before ruffling her sister’s hair and warning her to behave herself. She just manages to take one step towards the door when she feels a tiny body cling onto her right leg. Turning around, she smiles when Taeyeon’s endearing puppy eyes look up at her.

“What’s wrong Taeyeonnie?” She asks softly, removing the child’s fingers from her leg and crouching down so that she’s eye level with the child. She squeals in surprise when Taeyeon climbs onto her lap and wraps her arms around her neck.

“No go,” Taeyeon mumbles adorably, burying her face into the teacher’s neck. Giggling, Krystal pats the girl’s back to comfort her.

“You’re not letting me go?” Krystal says, continuing to chuckle when Taeyeon nods furiously into her neck. She lightly pries the child away and tucks loose strands of hair behind her ear before lightly tugging her chubby cheeks.

“I have some errands to run Taeyeonnie.”

“No go!” Taeyeon whines, latching tightly onto the woman again. Sighing, Krystal picks the child up and carries her around the room to pacify her. It seems to do the trick because Taeyeon’s arms loosen themselves around Krystal’s neck and she sniffles, snuggling her head into the woman’s neck. Smiling softly at how adorably clingy the girl is being, Krystal holds the child out in front of her and bumps noses with her.

“If I come back and play with you, will you let me go?” She proposes, laughing softly when Taeyeon frowns and thinks very hard about the question, a look of bemusement beginning to appear on her face. She decides to be the nice person she is and adds in another offer.

“What if I come back, buy you candy and play with you? Will you let me go to do my errands?” She asks again, waiting patiently whilst Taeyeon mulls over the question. It takes the girl a few more seconds before her head bobs up and down and she agrees. Krystal smooches Taeyeon all over and places her down on the floor, ruffling her head and pinky promising her before waving goodbye and finally leaving the classroom.

Taeyeon continues to stare at the door until Luna calls her over to rejoin the rest of the girls for the lesson.

“Okay girls,” Luna says claps her hands together to finally get the attention of the class. She smiles softly when nine curious faces look up at her.

“Today, we are going to do some colouring,” She continues, trying to hold her laughter in when she sees Jessica’s eyes dramatically roll over before she places her head on her arms and stares at a blank spot in front of her. Shaking her head at the child, Luna returns her attention to the other girls and panics when she sees Sooyoung and Hyoyeon tug on either ends of a worksheet.

“Girls! What are you doing?” She exclaims, removing the paper from both their hands. Sooyoung somehow musters enough strength to pull the worksheet towards her and stares in shock when the paper tears right in front of her eyes. She looks up at Luna and the teacher counts till three seconds until the girl’s bottom lip juts out and Sooyoung begins wailing.

“My paper!” She cries, whimpering as she looks down at the ripped sheet of paper on the desk.

“That’s mine, you giant!” Hyoyeon retorts, glaring hard at the girl.

“It’s mine!”

“No, it’s mine!”

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