To say Sunmi was regretting all the life decisions that brought her here, would be an understatement. She was already completely drained, wanted to go home and sleep until new year’s, drink a pool worth of wine and never accept suggestions like this ever again, and they didn’t even leave the clubroom yet. Today the chemistry club would be going on a field trip, they had been invited by a pharmaceutical company to visit their factory and see how real life chemists do their magic first hand. The kids were incredibly excited when the invitation arrived, and now that they were about to leave, Sunmi was really considering quitting right then and there.

The saving grace was that Nayeon, Jeongyeon and Jihyo were giddy but weirdly well behaved, maybe it was because they didn’t have to work together and just enjoy the trip. Regardless, it was creepy to see them not at each other’s throats, and Jihyo was suspiciously away from the other two, not enough to be noticeable, but the trained eye could spot it immediately. The teacher wasn’t complaining, if that meant her three biggest headaches weren’t going to act out, she was taking it. Once their transport arrived, she ushered the kids out, the company sent a bus to get them, and it seemed they got held up in traffic a little bit. 

The whole way to the lab was a repressed memory, all Sunmi could recall was curling up at the very front of the bus and praying to get there fast. Once they arrived, everyone was given a protection suit and gear, not that they would really be in contact with anything dangerous, but it helped get the kids in the mood, plus, it also helped prevent contamination of the areas they were going to visit. Everyone was happy, well, everyone who wasn't Sunmi, that is. A representative arrived and began their tour, a young lady who introduced herself as professor Yun, she took the students through the production line, answered questions and they arrived at an empty research lab where the kids were allowed to explore however they wanted.

Professor Yun explained this lab had been emptied in the past week, and now they were waiting for the next project, so the kids could touch anything their hearts desired. This was their last stop before lunch, and a scientist would arrive soon to talk a bit more with the students, this was Sunmi’s saving grace, all the kids were confined in a room where she didn’t have to worry about them breaking anything because their guide was the one who said they could do whatever. A tall man, then, entered the lab, he was interesting, tall, with a thin nose, full lips and tan skin, a thin goatee and thick glasses completing his looks. 

“Hello, kids. I’m doctor Minatozaki, it’s nice to meet you.” The man greets.

There is a chorus of ‘Hello dr Minatozaki’, the scientist chuckles and gestures for the kids to settle down before he speaks again.

“I heard professor Yun has already told you everything about this place and what we do here. So I’m here to answer questions and then take you to lunch.” He finishes with a chuckle.

The students get very excited, but dr Minatozaki manages them very well, it’s impressive, really, Sunmi is just glad she didn’t have to run after anybody. The conversation moved through lunch and soon after it was time for them to leave, most kids headed out, but her problem trio and a few others were still too engrossed with the scientist to have even heard her when she said they were leaving. Dr Minatozaki was also not paying attention to anything around them, and kept indulging the students to their hearts’ content. But they should get going if they wanted to get back to school on time, and Sunmi definitely needed to be there before the school day was over.

The ride back was worse, the teacher really needed that wine now, and a nice bubble bath, maybe she would go dancing tonight, who cares if it’s just wednesday, this field trip was absolutely not what she signed up for and she was definitely not being paid enough. They get back to the club room, Sunmi takes attendance and gives her students an essay about their visit and sends them home. She does notice how the problem trio is acting weird again, but it was not her problem and they never came to her about it, so she dashes to the teachers’ lounge to leave as soon as she can. But if this was Sunmi’s day, we wouldn’t be talking about it at all.

On the way out, ms Lee was stopped by the vice-principal asking her to report about her field trip. She just wanted to be out of there, but this wasn’t something she could get out of, so they went to the vice-principal’s office and Sunmi spent the next hour recounting her day, once she was about to leave, a call from dr Minatozaki came in and they began a conference call with the scientist about a future visit to the school to talk to the whole student body. By the time everything was said and done, it was already dark and Sunmi just wanted to crash in bed and sleep until the next week, so obviously, she was called by the janitor, asking her to accompany him to her club room, there was an acid spill and he needed her to deal with that before he could clean it up properly.

Once she had made sure the acid was properly handled and was able to actually be on her way home, Sunmi got a call from an old friend, inviting her to dinner claiming they hadn’t talked in too long and she was already out in town anyway. Reluctantly, the teacher made her way to the restaurant, the meet up quickly turned into third wheeling her friend the the husband, at least they were paying, so Sunmi ate and left as fast as she could. Nothing against her friend or the husband, but after such a tiring day, the last thing she needed was to be reminded of her non-existent love-life. Now, sure, she could have just gotten home and gone to bed, but today is absolutely NOT Lee Sunmi’s day.

Just as she was approaching her driveway, Sunmi saw her neighbor, mrs Kim, an old and grumpy woman who never really liked her and made sure everyone knew it. The old woman was standing in front of her house, looking like Sunmi had kicked one of her cats, with a young man next to her looking like he also didn’t want to be there. She stepped out of her car with her phone in hand and 112 already dialed and waiting, last time mrs Kim came by things went really bad really fast. The woman started screaming as soon as she saw Sunmi and nobody could understand a word that came out of . Sunmi didn’t waste a single second, she remained far enough from the woman and made sure to not move from her property and not lose sight of mrs Kim, a cruiser came soon enough, but all the other neighbors had already gathered around to watch, mostly to make sure Kim wouldn’t try to beat anyone, as she liked to do.

Turns out, the old woman had been convinced Sunmi was trying to seduce her grandson, the young man beside her, and had gone there to teach the ‘seductress’ a lesson about not trying to mess with her family, Sunmi got a restraining order against mrs Kim out of it, so it wasn’t so bad this time. Finally entering her house, our exhausted teacher thought she could take a nice, hot shower and just sleep, but she found out she forgot to close the windows when she left in the morning and entered her living room to find a raccoon and a grumpy looking cat playing tag inside her house, he couch had been destroyed and trash spread all over.

Sunmi took a deep breath, screamed for the animals to get the hell out of her house, which they did immediately, and proceeded to snap a picture of the room to send to the principal, asking to get the next day off. The principal complied and wished her luck on getting everything fixed, he had spotted the broken shelf before she had, honestly, Sunmi only noticed they had broken one of the shelfs when it quite literally collapsed, breaking the other shelf underneath it and all the things they contained. She walked to the window wordlessly, closed it and headed to her bedroom, having decided on ignoring the destruction in her house until the next morning.