It was approaching six o’clock and Jooheon still had three children left. And this was fine, their parents had paid for the whole day, they were entitled to wait until the end of it to pick them up. What was worrying Jooheon though was the fact that the three children still in the room were the three children most likely to be picked up late. And if he didn’t get out right on time there was every chance he’d miss his bus. It was Friday and the bus always turned up when it should on a Friday. If he missed it that would mean standing around for another twenty minutes at the bus stop and it was much too warm for that. They were experiencing a mid-May heatwave and he was not appreciating it. It had meant they hadn’t been able to take the kids outside for as long as they usually would and a room full of 3-5 year olds who hadn’t had the chance to run off their excess energy was no fun at all. Getting them to focus when they hadn’t had as much outdoor time as they needed was nigh on impossible.

He felt like he’d been trying to keep the lid on a pre-schooler uprising all day. He’d had to constantly be ready to intervene before things descended into chaos. He’d had to stop Taehyung from pulling out every single art resource when they already had three activities set out on the table, stop Jungkook from using the tunnel on the indoor slide as a superhero base and banning all other children from entering, stop Chaeyoung from setting up her own hair salon with the craft scissors, stop Jaehyun from grabbing Doyoung in a headlock every time tried to steal his Lego bricks…  it had been a nightmare.

All he wanted to was go home but it was now three minutes to six and he was still sitting on the sofa with a book open, Chaeyoung on his left, Doyoung on his right and Yerin, the one and only child who hadn’t tried to destroy his sanity yet that day sitting on the floor in front of him with a book of her own in her lap. As an impatient Doyoung elbowed him in the side and he turned the page, murmuring a perfunctory ‘be kind’, he heard the door open behind him and turned, desperately hoping that would be all three of the parents he was waiting for.

Chaeyoung’s mum… that was one… Doyoung’s grandpa… that was two…

And that was it. The door was closing behind them.

Trying not let his disappointment show at being presented with two parents and not three, Jooheon closed the book and stood up, offering them both a welcoming smile. “He ate all of his dinner today,” he said as Doyoung ran across the room and launched himself into his grandfather’s arms. “So you don’t need to worry about feeding him when you get home.”

“And did you eat your dinner?” Chaeyoung’s mother asked, having to walk across the room towards her daughter who still hadn’t moved from the couch.

“Yes!” Chaeyoung chirped, hopping to her feet.

“She ate her bread.” Jooheon amended. “She wouldn’t touch the pasta. But I made sure to give her some fruit to tide her over until you can get her home.”

“You like pasta…” Chaeyoung’s mother chided but before Jooheon could step in and point out a lot of people lost their appetite when the weather was warm the phone on the wall started to ring.

It was one minute to six and Kihyun, his manager and the only other member of staff still in the building was calling upstairs. That could only mean one thing he thought, only just managing to stay professional and hold back an exasperated sigh. “Excuse me…” he said, making his apologies and heading for the phone.

And yes, he was met with the words, “Sorry Jooheon, but Yerin’s mum is running late. She got stuck in a meeting and she’s going to be another ten minutes.”

“Thanks for letting me know.” Jooheon told him, waiting for Kihyun to tell him he was welcome before hanging up the phone.

And then he was turning back to Chaeyoung and Doyoung’s parents. “It’s been rather warm today so not everyone has eaten as well as they usually would. But we’ve been making sure we’ve been drinking enough water, haven’t we guys?”

“Water is good for your brain.” Chaeyoung contributed, expression deadly serious.

“We played in the water too.” Doyoung added. “We put lots of glitter and sand in it for the whales.”

Ah, Jooheon had forgotten about that one. It was only supposed to have been glitter and tipping and pouring containers today but Doyoung and Jaehyun had had other ideas.  They’d wanted to make a beach for the sea animals which had been fair enough and a smart plan but it had taken an age to clean up when they were done. “He’s been really into sea animals lately,” Jooheon told his grandpa with a smile, deciding not to mention the clean-up operation they'd had to undertake afterwards.

Then he was assuring Chaeyoung’s mum that they’d do their best to encourage her to eat next week and telling Doyoung’s grandpa that Doyoung had brought new sandals today not his trainers and they should be under his peg and they were gone.

And it was just Yerin left. Yerin who was looking up at him now expectantly from her spot on the floor.

“Mummy will be here soon.” He assured her, walking back over to the book corner and the couch. “Do you want me to read a story while we wait?” He asked, nodding at the book in her lap.

“I can read it to you!” Yerin suggested, immediately brightening up at the suggestion.

“Good idea.” Jooheon said with a smile, sitting down and patting the couch cushion beside him. “Come and show me.”

And Yerin hopped up from the floor and scrambled up onto the couch, book clutched tightly in one hand.

“So…” She said slowly, opening the book up to the first page. “… this is Albie and he doesn’t like shopping.”

“Oh really?” Jooheon asked, making sure to sound surprised. He’d read every book in the building at least a dozen times but Yerin looked so excited to tell him about it that he thought feigning ignorance wa the best way to go.

“Nope. He hates it. But his mum takes him anyway.” She informed him turning the page. “But this shop is not a ordinary shop…”

~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

By the time Yerin’s mum made it through the door they were on book number three and Jooheon was struggling to stay awake. The first time he’d caught his eyes closing he’d offered to do the reading but Yerin had turned down the offer. She couldn’t actually read yet but she was a very enthusiastic storyteller and was set on doing it herself. So yes, the sound of the door opening made him jump slightly, his head which had been starting to droop snapping up.

“I’m so, so sorry…” Yerin’s mum breathed as she rushed across the room, thankfully not noticing that he’d been close to falling asleep. It was what she said every time but she always sounded so sincere when she said it that Jooheon could never be annoyed at her.

“It’s okay.” Jooheon said, satnding up to greet her properly. “We’ve been having fun reading stories, haven’t we Yerin?”

“Bed time stories.” Yerin confirmed, dropping the book onto the couch beside her and standing up herself. “Mr. Jooheon was really tired so I was helping him go to sleep.”

“We were pretending.” Jooheon said quickly, before she could