As usual, when all the children had left, Chaewon took a few minutes to sip herbal tea, sitting across her desk chair with her feet thrown wearily over the armrest. If the kids, or worse, the parents were to see her in this position, they would be probably sceptical about giving her their child every day. Teachers should always set a good example, be guides and role models for the children they help and encourage to move upwards by acquiring the knowledge necessary to experience a fulfilling life. This is why Chaewon loved her job.

Who would have thought that the nonchalant and mediocre student Kim Chaewon would one day end up in the place of those she despised as a teenager? Certainly not her, and yet here she was, ten years later, teaching children how to use their fingers to count and gently learn to draft the letters of their names. She couldn't explain the trigger or even the unknown reason why she decided to become a school teacher, and yet, at 23, she possessed the pleasant reputation of being the coolest teacher in the school.

And not because she never sat properly in her desk chair.

But because she knew how annoying school could be when you didn't enjoy learning. She had experienced it and made it her goal to make these children love knowledge, explaining to them the joys of addition, the amusing difficulty of writing, the pitfalls of reading, and good social behaviour.

Her classroom was furnished with hundreds of drawings, hanging on the walls amidst coat racks and shelves filled with educational games. Her piano sat in the music corner of the room, surrounded by small maracas, xylophones, and other beautifully arranged instruments and free to use when the children gathered every Tuesday and Thursday to learn a rhyme.

Chaewon knew how to combine work with pleasure. As a music lover, she had made her passion a full-fledged activity for her pupils. While she played the notes on the piano, the chosen ones had to work on their sense of rhythm, listening and respect by trying to match the notes sounded by their teacher without the whole thing ending up in a cacophony. The other children would stand, tapping on their thighs rhythmically while reciting a rhyme, always with a smile on their faces.

In another corner of the classroom was the reading section. Several narrow shelves surrounded colourful rugs and footstools, where the quicker pupils would go after finishing their work, discovering unusual and amusing stories, whether they were just pictures or not.

A few round tables filled the centre of the room with their little chairs and labels bearing the names of the continents making up the group of pupils for the week. The idea of organising her work tables in this way had occurred to her as she recalled those long and tedious hours spent in geography class learning maps of megacities and major trade routes. Chaewon was one of those who spent more time colouring in the parts of the map than learning them and to ensure that her students were not bored in the same way, she sought this a fun way to introduce them to the subject. Hence, each week, groups would change, moving from one table to another, from one continent to another, and each time the small group would have activities to do according to their location.

Anyway.

Oh, she almost forgot.

"Minjeong?" she called out, locking the screen of her phone before nonchalantly tossing it onto a vacant corner of her desk. "Is Nanny, Mom or Dad going to pick you up?"

The petite brunette with medium-length hair in a cute yellow beret lifted her nose from her drawing paper to nod fervently. Without wishing to show favouritism, this little Kim Minjeong with her plump cheeks and lovely dimples was one of Chaewon's favourites. She was lucid, well-behaved, curious and relatively discrete.

So discreet that Chaewon had completely forgotten about her.

"We'll give it another fifteen minutes, then I'll bring you to daycare," Chaewon walked over to the girl, taking the opportunity to tidy up the arts and crafts corner where a few tubes of paint and chalk were still scattered. "Okay, sweetie?"

"Yes, teacher," the brunette agreed without reluctance, her gaze once again focused on her drawing sheet filled with doodles that formed a sort of mushroom-shaped house or something like that. "This is Sergeant Keroro's house."

"Sergeant Keroro?" laughed Chaewon as she properly replaced the chairs around the tables, gathering up the used sheets left on the craft tables. The particular situation wasn't all that bothering, actually. She never came home right after school, preferring to work at school rather than at her place to be sure to be productive, and Minjeong was particularly mature for her age. Almost to the point where her presence wasn't intrusive, on the contrary, her pencil on the paper enlivened the silent room a bit. "I used to watch this when I was little, I didn't know it was still airing."

"I watch in the morning," the girl explained, laying down the red pencil to pick up a green one after some thought. "I made his house."

"Let me see," Chaewon intimated as she sat down on the edge of the table.

Minjeong nodded as she coloured the inside of her mushroom a little faster. The teacher smiled at the concentration and then giggled as Minjeong stuck her tongue out to keep from sticking out. After a few seconds of careful finishing, the child proudly presented her drawing to her teacher.

"Wow!" Chaewon smiled, impressed by the scribbles, which, according to her acute command of abstract art, looked more or less like a frog sitting on a red mushroom. Being a school mistress was sometimes akin to acting. "That's the most beautiful Sergeant Keroro I've ever seen!"

"I made it!" the little girl smiled proudly, revealing a gaping hole where one of the canines had been.

Chaewon chuckled, taking the drawing in her hands, "Do you want to keep it or should I hang it up?"

"Hang it!" the little one gave her another beaming smile before shaking her head, regaining a serious look, making her little pigtails flutter. "No, I'll take it!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Minjeong nodded this time, brushing aside a few strands of her face, picking up the red pencil again to add a few and arabesques.

There was also this part of the job that Chaewon liked. In a society seized and divided into generations, it was relatively easy to forget that some of them do, in fact, exist. For example, it is not customary for a 23-year-old to associate with five-year-olds outside the relative circle. And yet they, likewise, have ten thousand things to say and many stories to tell. Despite their small size, they all have memories, tastes and questions that are worth listening to. And Chaewon enjoyed that, she liked to exchange with these children who had a lot of things to say.

And for the same reason, she truly appreciated some of her students, even feeling a slight personal affection towards them. Kim Jeongsob, for example, the son of a stewardess and a pilot. He had travelled more times in five years than Chaewon had in her whole life and after each trip, he would bring some souvenirs and objects to show the class and photos of magical landscapes. No less than the past week, he had brought several Chilean pesos to add display on the American table. 

There was also Cheon Taebin who was fascinated by dinosaurs and had several models and books that he showed the class to learn more about the planet's past. Or Park Seyoung, an energetic and lively little girl who never failed to make her teacher laugh, and Kim Minjeong, who was uniquely sweet. Chaewon liked to see the good in every student. Of course, some were tougher than others, but all in all, they behaved quite well and she was not the coolest teacher for nothing. Anyone who dared to rebel would get a snarky  remark in return. Despite her position, Chaewon kept her pride, and it wasn't a 5-year-old kid who was going to stand up to her.

Anyway.

The fifteen minutes were now largely over and Minjeong had dozed off on one of the footstools in the reading corner, thumb in mouth, curled up in a ball, an open book covering her legs. Chaewon glanced at the time on her phone; it was way past the end of classes. The classroom was perfectly tidy, and she even took the opportunity to write tomorrow's date on the board and draw a sun on it.

Reasonably, she opted to take Minjeong to the daycare connected to the school’s building. She didn't really worry about it, many parents were still at work by those times and most of them would leave their children at the daycare. So, she closed and put the book away before putting her arms under the armpits of the little girl who let herself be carried without complaint.

"Come on, sweetie," She said, slightly shaking Minjeong in her arms, holding her comfortably. For a five-year-old, she didn't weigh that much anyway. "Let's go to the Day’C."

Minjeong merely nodded before burying her head in her teacher's neck, and while this gesture softened Chaewon's heart, the young woman at the front door of her classroom simply made it miss two beats.

She took a few seconds to regain her composure, "Hello..?"

"Oh, uhm, I'm Minjeong's aunt," the brunette stammered. Only then did Chaewon notice the equally surprised look on her face, and how her cheeks were slightly tinted a hot pink, "My sister couldn't make it... Sorry for being this late."

"Oh," Chaewon couldn't help but ogle the brunette from head to toe. She had long brown hair tied up in a low bun, matching the black long-sleeved shirt that gloriously hugged the curves the teacher couldn't help but notice. "Hello."

"Hello," the girl seemed amused all of a sudden. "Nice outfit."

Chaewon became self-conscious all of a sudden.

.

.

Too busy checking out the aunt of the sleeping kid in her arms, she had forgotten her own outfit.

Why, pray tell, did this have to happen on the one day she was dressed in a deer suit?

"Uh..." she put the little girl down, and the latter hurried to her aunt's side. Chaewon noticed how the tall brunette put an affectionate hand on the little girl's shoulder while keeping her gaze fixed on her, a little smile on her face. "I don't dress like that every day."

"You don't?" the young woman raised an eyebrow, and Chaewon returned the look.

"What do you think," she couldn't help but sound a little bit too amourous for the circumstance. Even with a more than gorgeous girl in front of her, she was still a teacher in her class, and attempting to flirt with the kids’ relatives was not really professional. "Educational purpose only."

"Teacher sang like the deer!" Exclaimed Minjeong, pointing at the latter. 

"She did?" The aunt asked the little girl, a more teasing smile on her lips as she looked back at the teacher.

"Yes!" Minjeong giggled as she the soft fabric of Chaewon's deer suit, making the latter’s ears heat. Not because the little one was touching her onesie, but rather because her aunt was ogling her as well.

Wait, what was there to ogle in a deer onesie?

The thought amused her, and when the half stranger’s eyes finally came up to her face, she couldn't hold back the little smile that threatened to escape.

"Like the costume?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Minjeong, signalling her presence as the adults just stared into each other's eyes. It was a good thing she reminded them that she was there.

The brunette shrugged, miming a small maybe, then smiled one last time before turning back, taking her niece's hand. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye Teacher!" Minjeong waved her hand, smiling with all her teeth -except the ones she had lost. They walked away down the hallway, and Chaewon regretted watching them leave when the pretty brunette glanced at her before disappearing at the end of the corridor, grinning.

Damn.

She could’ve at least chosen something more appealing than a deer onesie.

Honestly, science class for 5 years old.

-

After a good half-hour walk, Minjoo and her niece, Minjeong, finally arrived at the little girl's flat. Minjoo was used to the place and not only did she have a spare key, but she also had several of her stuff stored in a guest room. Their parents lived several hours from Seoul, and Jisoo and her husband's appartment was near an underground station that led straight to the university campus.

As soon as she got home, Minjeong ran to the beige labrador sleeping on the couch and threw herself around his neck.

"Minjeongie," Minjoo called out as she hung her purse on the coat rack, before adjusting the ventilation so that the temperature would be pleasant when her sister and brother-in-law returned. "Take off your shoes."

As quickly as she'd dashed into the living room, the petite brunette raced back into the entryway to remove her small white converse, making sure to place them on the shelf filled with shoes. Taehyeong, her father, was kind of a neat freak and a sneaker addict, so it showed.

The flat was ideally located in a residence of Seocho-gu district, not far from Gangnam-gu. Situated on the fifth floor, the kitchen's bay window offered a breathtaking view of the surrounding skyscrapers, cutting the landscape into countless concrete blocks with tinted windows. If you looked closely, you could even see the Seoul National University, where Minjoo was studying law.

"Snack!" exclaimed the little girl as she walked back into the large room with a shiny grey floor, matching the white walls and black kitchen furniture. "Auntie snack?"

"Yep yep!" Minjoo said as she headed for the kitchen. "Chocolate, bread or cake?"

While Taehyeong was a shoe and anything remotely related to kitesurfing lover, Jisoo was a real organic and healthy food freak. It would always amuse Minjoo because every time she brought the leftovers from her student studio back to the family home, Jisoo would have a heart attack. The mere sight of industrial instant noodles was enough to make her swoon in veritable horror.

Anyway, faced with the lack of response, Minjoo grabbed the packet of organic grape cakes, rye bread and 90% pure cocoa chocolate. She still regretted not stopping at some grocery store to get something industrial that they could have enjoyed in a hurry before Jisoo and Taehyeong got home.

"Can you put Miraculous?" Minjeong asked, sitting comfortably on the couch, wedged between a large pillow and the still-sleeping dog.

"When was the last time we watched?" Minjoo scrolled through the TV replay programme, looking for the cartoon in question.

"When it rained and Nanny Yujin didn't come," the little girl replied, puffing her cheeks. 

Nanny Yujin, or simply Ahn Yujin, was the daughter of one of Jisoo's colleagues who would usually take care of Minjeong after school. She didn't live very far away and was only responsible for picking up the child, having a snack at home, doing some homework and then her mother would pick her up on her way home from work. However, when she was not able to do the job, Minjoo would take over. Still, this was on rare occasions.

"Let's go with this one," Minjoo pointed to the first episode available on the replay. "Have you seen it yet?"

Minjeong shrugged, and Minjoo started the cartoon before joining her niece on the couch, taking the opportunity to unwind from her long day of classes. Fortunately for her and Minjeong, her last lecture ended at two o'clock, otherwise the girl would have truly gone to daycare.

"Didn't see it," Minjeong finally announced, a few minutes after the cartoon had started.

"Cool," Minjoo replied, mouth full of chocolate cocoa and rye bread. It tasted very, very bad, but when your stomach is crying out for food, even a twig will do. At least, this was her philosophy.

"He's a bad guy," the little girl commented.

"He's the bad guy," Minjoo swallowed another piece of toast.

"Soojin has a miraculous ring," Minjeong gently the labrador's head.

"When is your birthday?" asked the college girl.

"Thirteen June," the little one replied.

Minjoo nodded softly, trying to visualize a little mental note that said "don't forget to remember this gift idea for Minjeong." She could have written it on her phone, but it was too far away for her to reach it by only holding out her hand.

They stayed like that for a long time, going from episode to episode. Jisoo had called to say that Taehyeong would arrive first and that he would take care of the meal. Therefore, in the meantime, the niece and the aunt kept watching the adventures of Lady Bug and Chat Noir, along with the dog, Meow, who was as sluggish as the two girls. 

"Minjeong," the tall brunette called out to the shorter one, this time completely sprawled against the dog, changed into her pyjamas.

"Hm," the little one hummed, dazed by the television that had been showing cartoons for over an hour now.

"What's the name of your teacher?" she asked, vaguely remembering the seemingly young woman's doe eyes and charming smile. She was perfectly her style, and Minjoo may or may not have been thinking about their little conversation ever since they left the school. She didn’t want to assume anything yet, but sometimes eyes don’t lie, nor the many rings on the teacher’s fingers…-No stereotype though. 

"Teacher Chaewon?" the girl asked, looking up slightly to see if her answer was the right one.

Minjoo smiled. Chaewon.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow," she announced to her niece who beamed with all -some were missing-teeth, waving an arm in the air in pure contentment.

"Yeay!" Minjeong giggled. The dog wagged its tail, and she turned around to lay her head on her aunt's lap, instead of the lab's belly. "Thank you!"

Now that Yujin was old enough to pick Minjeong from school and Minjoo was working more for uni, these moments between niece and aunt had become relatively rare. Hence, the news could only make the little girl blush in excitement, and for a certain reason, Minjoo kind of expected tomorrow to come. 

And so Minjeong fell asleep, quickly followed by Minjoo, lulled by Miraculous' voices and the repetitive movements of her hand in the little one's hair.

🦌

hii

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