That day was your first school day, as a sophomore (tenth grade in high school). Fortunately you didn’t have to carry much burden in your bag and you were in one class with your confidant, Suzy, in school; with the person you believe and feel close most from your previous school. She came directly and put her bag right on the chair beside yours.

                Suzy directly told you about what happened to her before that day, and also her awkward feeling as a newcomer in high school. You told her that you feel the same and that you feel glad to sit beside her, lucky to see her smile. You chit-chat along the time with her before the first bell rings. While chit-chatting, some newcomers came to you, introduced themselves and joined your chat.

                When the bell rings, as there’s no orientation period in Korea, the whole class was curious about who would come into the class, that meant he would she would be the class’s ‘parent’. Then directly the door was opened and the whole class stood up to greet.

                You directly felt your body paralyzed. One who came to the class was Cha Seung Won.

With that Athena’s Son Hyuk’s look but Dokko Jin’s confidential manner he came into the class and smile (like protecting his own image) in front of the the students. He also bow and greeted the whole students, before allowing to sit. Then he introduced himself, meanwhile he wrote the hangul of his name one the whiteboard.

“Has anyone ever heard about me?”

“NO!”

“Ah,” Mr. Cha grunted, “I’m not popular here. OK, let me introduce myself more. I’ve been teaching here for 14 years. But last 6 years I quitted teaching here. And I came back by the calling from this school right before your first year here, this year, started. They said that I need to return teaching here for returning disciplinary in this school. So this year is my fifteenth.”

The whole class shouted ‘wah’ as they were impressed, maybe no one thought he had experienced teaching here for that long period.

“Any questions?” Mr. Cha asked with a grin like Dokko Jin. Seems like he thought many will ask about him. Then you saw Hong Ki raising his hand.

“Yes, but excuse me, what’s your name?”

“Lee Hong Ki, Seonsaengnim.”

“What would you ask?”

“What is your relationship status?”

The whole class hooted at Hong Ki and Mr. Cha, waiting for answer. Mr. Cha grinned and took a deep breath. You looked at Hong Ki for a while and he smiled at you.

“Well. I’m merely single.”

The class fell into chaos. Many students, especially the girls, didn’t believe it. Your confidant stared at you and you understood what she meant.

Damn, you thought, what a greasy hair and look he has, like Son Hyeok, who you hate in the drama Athena: Goddess of War. Then you tried to look at his fingers. There is no ring around his ring finger. You sigh as you thought that it meant that he was still unmarried.

“Look, there’s no ring on his finger,” you said to Suzy.

“Which kind of woman who wants to marry a shabby and beastly man like that?” said one of your two new friends behind with joking tone, luckily four of you sat at the back of the class that day so you can gossip, “But in some points of view he looks charismatic.”.

Your confidant also thought the same, and she told you that she had ever seen him in your previous school sport event that you missed for your homework. She told you that he screams a lot in the event (like when Dokko Jin shouted ‘I am Dokko Jin’) and he teased a lot the girls in his team, from the school you were this time. You were really annoyed with that story and said that you could see that trait from his way to smile to whole of the students and fellow teachers. But you tried to calm down your friend by saying let’s wait and see what happens later, at the same time you decided to give yourself mind control, like what Dokko Jin did, but in your case you did it very silently inside.

“May I know how old are you?” asked Lee Hong Ki again bravely.

“Try to guess,” answered Mr. Cha.

You looked at Hong Ki with surprise. You remembered that asking about age was the most impolite thing. You stared at your confidant and gave sign as you predicted that he was over forty.

“You may know it. If you can guess it correctly, you’ll get free lunch from the canteen tomorrow.”

Again, this man made this class full of chaos. Your confidant gave the sign asking you to try guessing. Then you raised your hand.

“Yes, Kim ___________?”

“I guess you’re about 40”

“Ding dong!” Mr. Cha said, “Come here, to the front!”

You walked greeted by the applause from the whole class. You saw him taking something from his pocket on his shirt, then he took out a piece of paper. As you came, he smiled and looked at the whole class.

“Look, seems like this class has a descendant of Joseon shaman, doesn’t it?” said Mr. Cha while pointing his hand at you.

You shook your head of embarrassment as you felt that you’re not that high. You bowed to the class to thank them.

“She’s very down to earth,” said Mr. Cha, “Here is the canteen voucher for you.”

He gave the canteen voucher to your hand and shook your hand. Both you and him smiled each other and you bowed to him as gratitude.

“Gomapseupnida, seonsaengnim!!” said you happily.

Mr. Cha nodded and asked you to return to your seat. You ran to your seat as Suzy had been curious about the voucher. You looked at the voucher and your confidant did, as both of you later got surprised : 100.000 won? You realized you can buy  5 box of gimbabs in the canteen (20000 won per box, 1 box contains 20 gimbaps), enough for one class (your class contained 40 students) plus your cute older sisters.

“I told you. Today as your special day, your first day to return to your routine of going home night, the school canteen is opening with lots of special menu that can be afforded by voucher given by the teachers who entered the class in first hour.”

“Let’s buy 5 boxes of gimbabs then!” said you and your confidant together, and both of you laughed. Then you suddenly stopped, “What about the other students from other classes who wanted kimbaps?”

“Hope that the canteen cooks made many gimbabs today.” Said Suzy

“Give this class treat!” screamed one of your new friends.

You nodded as you’ve planned to do so. You saw Mr. Cha laughed happily along with your class. Then he gave a sign to ask the whole class to listen again.

“Ok, now I’ll tell you the teacher’s agreement about this lesson. For those who come late for the class, forgot to do the homework or bring the books, the first time will be forgiven. But for the second time, you’ll have to do the homework outside if you forgot or explain the previous chapter if you forgot to bring the books. And for the third time, you got to get out of this class and do 40 push-ups or sit-ups or scot jumps in a minute!!”

“What?” said the whole class in shock.

“Has this man just come from finishing military service? Seems like he has, hasn’t he?” said Suzy.

                Haha, you laughed, “His muscular arms showed the possibility of it. I admit, his arms are really well-shaped. Not bad, his shoulders aren’t too broad; he keeps looking slender in clothes. But his moustache, oh no, please…”

                Suzy laughed, “I know, you’re a type of girl who hates thick moustaches. But in this school it seems hard to find a type of boy that you’ll like. You’re over perfectionist about men’s faces.”

                “Yeah, that’s I am,” said yourself, “sometimes thick moustache makes people who see the owner feels that the owner’s face has changed so much.”

“Do you feel it military like? Well, I’ve finished military service for 2 years before I started teaching here, and that time I was asked to do lot of exercises tougher than what I asked to you as punishment.”

The whole class grunted, including you. You started getting irritated with this over-perfectionist rule. But you decided to tolerate as he had done good thing to you and this can be applied for good purpose. Just for growing good disciplinary.

“More than 3 times, you have to do two times than what I asked. So if you don’t want to have to do it, again, keep yourself discipline! Understand?”

“Yes, Sir!” the whole class shouted.

“Well, this year, I’ll be teaching you on sports and physical education. And I will teach you one more lesson, but it will be a surprise.”

At the same time, you felt guilty for that large quantity of the voucher’s amount. How can he get that much to offer? Suzy saw your confusion.

“I thought I should spare some gimbaps for him too. Shouldn’t I? I’m afraid if I do so, some people here may feel it like a bribe.”

She patted your shoulder and she nodded as a sign of agreement.

“You should do it. He is a good person. And additionally, he is actually our class ‘parent’”

“How did you know it?”

“I saw it on the announcement board when seeing the class division, maybe you don’t see it.”

You decided to spare some gimbabs for him too. When the bell rings, directly you rush into the canteen. That day you had 30 minutes of break time. Luckily you saw that today the special menu was the gimbab, so the whole canteen was filled with gimbab with many variants.  The cooks had prepared many gimbaps, and many students ordered gimbaps. You directly exchanged the voucher with 5 boxes of gimbab with mixed fillings. Suzy , your 2 new friends and Hong Ki helped you to bring the boxes of gimbab. Then you with those 4 friends came to the table where your whole class had booked for this special feast.

The whole class greeted you happily when you bring the gimbab. They embraced this special first day.

“Ah, we forgot to introduce ourselves each other,” said one of your other female classmates who you haven’t known, then she started the introduction. Not only mentioning her name, but also where she lived. Then the others, including Lee Hong Ki also introduced themselves in order one by one after the first. While listening, the others who weren’t talking ate the gimbabs and the introduction was colored by laughs. Suddenly you saw Mr. Cha coming to the table, and you and whole class greeted him as gratitude for the voucher.

“You could sit, Seonsaengnim,” said Hong Ki.

“Komapsumnida. I feel so lucky to be given this wonderful class to teach. I hope we can be like a big family here.”

“Of course, Sir!” said one of your other classmates.

“Anyway, how could you come here, Sir?”

“The other teachers allowed me to eat with all of you.” Said Mr. Cha.

“Seems like the other class will be envious to us,” said Hong Ki.

“Anyway have you introduced each other?” said Mr.Cha, “Sorry if I forgot to give you time to do so.”

“Of course we have,” said Suzy, “And we were doing it now!”

“Ok, continue it, I’m listening.”

And the introduction continues, Mr. Cha also ate some gimbab, and some among the introductions makes laughs exploded in your class. That day, your class was felt like heaven. When the break time finished, your classmates who sat near the dustbins threw the empty boxes. Luckily the class decided to leave you 8 gimbaps for you and your 2 older sisters. Mr. Cha walked together with your class as after the break time, he still had one more hour for your class before going home. You, Hong Ki, and your confidant approached him.

“Seonsaengnim, how did you get that much amount of voucher?” asked you in whisper, while your confidant also listened.

Mr. Cha smiled a while, then he answered “Actually all the teachers who get into the class in the first hour today were given vouchers to offer to the students in the class, but I don’t know have the other teachers used those vouchers or not.”

“Whoaaa, thank you very much, Sonsaengnim!” said Hong Ki, you, and your confidant together. Mr. Cha only laughed.

That day was your first day in the 16 year old class and to go home at 10 p.m. It was filled with introduction to everything in school, and learning process would start the next day. You got sports for the first lesson next day, then continued with math, science, and moral education.

You saw that your eonni’s bakery had been closed. But it was a lucky day. You walked home happily, bringing a little box of eight gimbabs. You sang the song Happy Happy from My Girl film soundtrack. Hyo Jin unni walked out of the house seeing you singing while walking.

“_____________ Dongseng!” screamed Hyo Jin eonni.

“EONNI!!! Look what I bring for two of you!” screamed you while running carefully to the house.

Hyo Jin took the box from you and brought it into the living room. She put it on the table while you were calling your Sun-Ah Eonni to take a look. Sun-Ah unni came quickly to see as Hyo Jin opened the box, and she was glad to see there were 8 big pieces of gimbab.

“How could you buy this?” said Sun-Ah Eonni, “Usually you’re the most stingy person to spend your money.”

“Hmm, I could never buy this if it’s not because of my teacher, Mr. Cha Seung Won.” You smiled but at the same time you gave straight face.

Both your sisters exclaimed and Hyo Jin noticed your expression. She understood that you don’t like man with thick bushes on his face.

“I could understand your expression, but just wait, see, and learn how Mr. Cha teaches. But what a lucky first day today is.”

“At the same time I feel grateful to him,” you said, eliminating your dislike of his look, “today was the introduction day, and he introduced himself. Then, one of my classmates, named Lee Hong Ki asked about his relationship status and his age.”

Both of your older sisters looked at you with shock. They looked at each other and Sun-Ah shook her head and grunted about how impolite it was.

“But Mr. Cha seems like that he wasn’t angry. He mentioned that he is merely single.”

Hyo Jin who wanted to take a piece of gimbab stopped for a while. “Single?” she asked.

“Yes. And about the age, he asked the whole class to try to guess. And I tried. I guessed about 40, and I never thought that he would say that I’m correct. As the reward, he gave me a canteen voucher with amount of 100000 won.”

“Wow. What did you do with that voucher?”

“Of course I gave a treat for whole class including him, by buying 5 boxes of 20 gimbabs. The class left 8 gimbabs for both of you. When I asked about how he got the voucher, he said that each teacher who taught in first hour were given vouchers to offer to the class.”

Again Sun-Ah and Hyo Jin eonni stared at each other. They complimented what Cha Seung Won sonsaengnim had done as treat for his class.

“Look, he is such a good person right?” said Sun-Ah Eonni.

“We should thank him someday, right?” answered Hyo Jin to Sun Ah Eonni. Sun-Ah nodded to Hyo Jin about it.

“My teacher in my old times, ironically he is only ten years apart from me,” said Hyo Jin.

“He was my senior, 6 years older than me,” said Sun-Ah, “So for me he was sunbaenim. We were in same school and we met when the school was preparing a musical. I was a little sixth grader when he was third grader in senior high. The next four years he disappeared, then he appeared again in the school as my teacher, when I was a tenth grader like you.  He became the youngest teacher that time.”

You saw Sun-Ah smiled as she remembered about him, and Hyo Jin unni noticed her enthusiastically. You got confused as you thought how charismatic Mr. Cha was at your sister’s time.

“I still remember, that time I was still 15 to 16, and he was 22,” said Sun-Ah again, “And he was prominent for his well-shaped arms, you know what I mean. Not only arms, but also his body. He used to be the school’s special student as unlike the other popular students who are well-known for bringing school’s victory in basketball, soccer, or mathematics competitions, he was the school’s main parkour athlete if there were parkour competitions. Not many schools had parkour athletes that time.”

“That’s why he became our sports and physical education teacher,” added Hyo jin, “You knew that parkour isn’t an easy sport. It needs strength, flexibility, accuracy, speed, and focus. I entered your high school 4 years later. He was often chosen as the school’s ambassador, to gain relation with the other schools.”

You wondered as you just knew that it meant, Mr. Cha was one of the most influential people in the school.  You never thought that he was a former parkour athlete.

“I remembered that he had ever been scolded for growing thick bushes on his face, between his nose and his mouth.” said Sun-Ah, “I saw the incident when I was walking to my class.”

Yeah, I know, his moustache, you said in your heart to yourself.

“And I remembered too, he was the womanizer in my unit,” said Sun-Ah again, “He was one of the naughtiest boys in the whole school. I heard it a lot from my friends as I rarely met him, as he is much older than me.”

Oh gosh, you said to yourself, hidden by your grin while you shook your head.

“Anyway, how’s the bakery?” you asked.

“Don’t worry, we got enough earnings from this morning.” Said Sun-Ah.

You blew out breath in relief. You knew that luckily, Sun-Ah  was one of the best bakers in your neighborhood.

“OK, it’s already late at night now, so let’s sleep,” said Sun-Ah.

Sun-Ah had prepared the bed for three of you sleeping that night before closing the bakery. Then three of you brushed teeth and slept.

P.s : I'm deeply sorry for much grammar, vocabulary, and spelling issues :D