I woke up as soon as my alarm clock went off. I barely got any sleep because I’ve been a little anxious about my new job. You see, I got a new job as an assistant at a kindergarten, my friend Kai knew how much I needed it and put in a good word for me with his mom, the Principal. I’ve never worked with kids before, but my skills at drawing and hand-crafting actually paid off; and I was really thankful that they accepted me even though I had no experience whatsoever.  I was behind my rent and I needed to pay for college, since my parents were having financial problems and sending me money was out of the question, so getting this job was a true blessing.

Since today was my first day, I got there a little bit earlier to ask Mrs. Kim for directions. She told me I would be the assistant for the pre-kinder, and that basically my job consisted on helping the teacher keeping the children quiet, helping them with the assignments and stuff like that. As I got to the classroom I could see someone was already there, it was a petite girl, probably around my age, or maybe 2 or 3 years older. I knocked on the door and introduced myself as the new assistant. The girl looked up from a book she was reading, and as she noticed I was just standing there awkwardly, she stood up and introduced herself as well, “My name’s Kim Sooyoung, you must be Mary, then?” I nodded and took a seat beside the desk. We had some small talk, and I learned that Sooyoung was 24 years old, she’s Kai’s cousin and she had been working here for the past 2 years as a teacher.

It was around 7 o’clock and the parents started arriving with their children. Sooyoung and I greeted them and took them to their respective seat. It was almost 7:30 and there was still one empty seat. Since Sooyoung was preparing the activities for the day she told me to wait by the door for the last girl, apparently she usually comes late. As I stood there, I could see a handsome young man, with soft blonde hair and boyish looks approach the classroom, with a little girl in hand, he seemed quite in a rush. As he neared the door he gave me a questioning look, probably wondering who I was, but since I greeted him with a warm smile he returned it with one of his own. “Good morning, I haven’t seen you around, you must be?” he asked. “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m the new assistant, my name’s Mary” I awkwardly held out my hand and nervously laughed. He shook my hand with a nice firm grip, “Nice meeting you, I’m here to drop little Min off, I’m really sorry we’re late again, I promise this will be the last time, please don’t tell Miss Sooyoung” he said with a pleading look in his eyes. I was about to open my mouth to say it was okay, when Sooyoung neared the door clearing “She won’t have to Mr. Lu, I heard it all. You know the school has a big policy about punctuality, this’ll be the last time we take her in; I’m letting you go off the hook one last time.” He thanked her and walked away, I walked Min to her seat and soon the bell rang.

Time was passing by fast, taking care of children isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when there’s one that gets the rest riled up. His name is Minhyuk. I don’t know where this kid gets his energy. He’s been jumping around the classroom ever since he arrived, and he likes to bother the other children, stealing their toys, hiding their sippy cups, pulling their pillows from below their heads during nap time, I can’t even finish telling you all the things he did. Sooyoung says his parents don’t give him much attention and it’s usually his nanny that comes to drop him and pick him up, they are busy people and own one of the most important trading companies of the country.

Noon came and all the children were patiently waiting for their parents to arrive, except for one, Minhyuk. He was again running around the classroom and this time he decided to bully Min, who had been making a drawing with her brand new crayons. While she was patiently working, he grabbed everything and threw it on the floor, stomping all over the crayons and the drawing. Sooyoung quickly grabbed Minhyuk and took him to the Principal’s office. I stayed with Min, trying to rescue what was left of her drawing, but the paper was all tampered, and her crayons were broken in half, she was just standing there looking at it as tears began forming in her eyes. I couldn’t help but feel bad for her, she hadn’t done anything to the other kid, but there he was messing with her. I’m not good at comforting anyone, I’m usually very awkward when I get stuck in a situation like this, but I tried my best to make her stop crying, I told her I would help her make a new drawing tomorrow, and that she could borrow my crayons, it kind of worked, but she still had that sad look on her face. “Come on sweetie, give me a smile! I bet your daddy won’t be happy if he sees you like this.” With that she looked up at me with confusion on her face, “My daddy?”

“Yes, your daddy! Now come on, let’s wash up your face” I got her all cleaned up, and gave her some cookies and juice to keep her calm.

The clock struck 12 and the parents started coming to pick their children up, I sat there patiently waiting for each one to get picked up, and sent them off with a “goodbye” and “see you tomorrow”. I also introduced myself to some of the parents I hadn’t had the chance to in the morning, they probably want to know who watches over their children.

Half an hour later Sooyoung had come back with Minhyuk and once his parents arrived she spoke to them about today’s events. An hour passed by and no one came for Min, I was starting to wonder what the blonde haired man did for a living, why was he in such a rush, why didn’t his wife come to pick up the girl, maybe his a single parent and has to take care of her all by himself. I was starting to feel sorry for the girl, maybe her parents were like Minhyuk’s and didn’t really care about her, and just dropped her off here to be taken care of. Sooyoung saw the look on my face and told me not to worry about Min and that Mr. Lu would be coming to pick her up soon, he always came around 1-2 pm. I felt sorry for Min, having to wait all that time, poor girl, and I couldn’t help but think about the reasons why it was like this.

Sooyoung had a doctor’s appointment and had to leave a little early, so I had to stay with Min until Mr. Lu came to pick her up. It was almost 2pm when I heard a knock on the door. It’s about time, I thought to myself, what was up with this guy, coming to pick her up so late, it even made me feel a bit angry. I opened the door just to be greeted by Mr. Lu with a very apologetic smile, “I’m really sorry for coming this late Miss Mary, I don’t even know what to say, I bet you have better things to do and I just can’t help but feel guilty for making you stay past your work hours.” I just stared at him, I wasn’t actually expecting him to apologize, I opened my mouth to say something but he interrupted, “I can’t promise it won’t happen again, I wish I could, but the circumstances don’t depend on me, I’m really sorry for causing you trouble.” I just stood there, listening to him apologize for about 10 minutes, when he finally stopped talking, all my anger had subsided, how could I stay mad to him, I barely knew the guy, but he seemed like a hard working parent, and when Min saw him, she ran up to him and gave him a big hug. Such a sweet scene, his face lightened at the sight of the girl and his eyes turned into crescent moons, he looked around my age, I noticed how his lips twitched into a smile as he heard the girl talking about her day, he then noticed me staring and apologized again. “It’s okay, Mr. Lu, she didn’t cause any trouble, I actually wanted to tell you about an incident that occurred earlier today with one of the other kids, Minhyuk, you must know him.”

“Oh, I do. What did he do this time?” he asked, so I assumed this wasn’t the first time he bullied Min. I proceeded to tell him what had happened. He heaved a sigh and thanked me for helping Min out.

“No problem Mr. Lu, that’s what we’re here for and please try to come earlier tomorrow, you know the rules.” I gave him a polite smile.

He chuckled at my formality, “Yes we won’t be late… oh, and please call me Luhan, you make me feel so old, you actually look around my age, can I call you Mary?”

I was surprised by his forwardness, but simply nodded, “sure, actually everyone calls me that.”

He smiled one last time and grabbed Min’s backpack in one hand, and held her tightly with the other one, “say goodbye to Miss Mary, will you?” She turned her face towards me and smiled as well, “good bye Miss Mary.”

“Goodbye Min” I waved back at them.

Luhan looked back and said, “Don’t I get a goodbye, Mary?” and pouted at me.

I stared at him with my mouth slightly open, I couldn’t believe how childish he was. Seeing that I had no reaction, he said, “knock, knock! Earth to Mary!” I had to hold in my laughter, he was actually kind of cute, I smiled at him and said “Goodbye Luhan, see you tomorrow!” and with that they left.

I made sure everything was in order before I finally left. My first day was finally over, and I already felt attached to those kids and their families, especially Min and Luhan. I don’t know what it was about them, but they looked so close to each other, not most families have that nowadays, it just made me cringe as I remembered my own family, how close we used to be, and how apart we ended up. 

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A/N

So, here's the first chapter.. hope it was fun, and that you like it as much as I liked writing it, comments are nice :D