Last day of the camp week!

The kids were wound up. The first-graders sang in high, chirpy voices all the way to the country-club pool-nonsense songs that Jae had been teaching them. I felt as if I were being bused in a cage of birds.

Nichkhun found me at the pool that morning and wanted to talk about Jessica, but I had to keep an eye on every one of my little angels. I waved him away. “Call me,” I said.

Twenty minutes later one of Nichkhun’s friends showed up interested in the same topic. I told him the same thing as Nichkhun, rattling off my phone number. Later, two girls with skimpy suits and pop-up chests caught up with me as I was herding the kids to the bus.

“Darla!” the tall one called out.

“Darcy!” her friend shouted, waving at me.

I didn’t reply. I was busy watching 3 of my first-graders uproot a row of country-club flowers. I hurried toward the kids, but before I could rescue the flowers, the 2 girls pu themselves squarely in my path.

“We’ve heard you’re good friends with Jae,” the tall one began.

“And we’ve been wondering if he has a girlfriend,” her friend continued.

Despite their height difference, they reminded me of twins. They both had perfectly manicured fingernails and blue butterflies painted on their toenails. They wore bikini tops that tied with little bows and had the exact same way of holding their heads high.

“Does he have a girlfriend here in Seoul?” the tall one asked.

“Does he have a girlfriend back in Japan?” her friend echoed.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know…Lay, Thunder, Yuri, get out of the flowers.”

“Is he interested in dating?” the shorter one asked.

“What kind of girls does he like?” the other one wanted to know.

“Tall?”

“Petite?”

“I don’t know,” I replied a second time. “I said leave the flowers alone!”

“Well, where do you guys like to hang?” the short girl asked, playing with the bow on her bathing suit.

“We don’t.”

“I thought you were friends.”

“We work together, that’s all. Listen, I’ve got to go now.”

“We’ll call you,” the tall one said. “I’m SooYoung. This is Tiffany. What’s your number?”

“I’ve really got to go.”

“Does Nichkhun have it?” she persisted.

“Please listen, I’m telling you what I told the others. I know nothing about Kim Jaejoong.”

“Well, said Tiffany, “maybe you could ask a few questions…”

“Bu there’s nothing I want to find out,” I replied, and then turned away, ending the conversation and herding the kids toward the bus. On the way I slipped my hand around the shoulders of one of my three flower bandits, turning her little face up to mine. “Yuri, sweetheart, you need to breathe. Take the flower stem out of your nose.”

**

The first-graders and I arrived back at the camp 10 minutes late. The second-graders were waiting for me, bounding with energy. We walked and pranced and danced to the playing field.

“Okay, we’re bunnies,” I shouted, and everyone hopped.

“Okay, we’re deer, use long legs, long legs…”

The kids raced.

“Now, we’re chickens. Run, run, run on your little stick feet! Uh-oj, watch out, here comes the fox!”

That’s how we passed beneath the shady hillside on which Jae and his class sat – a flock of little chickens and a loping, lip-smacking, small fox.

“Hey,” shouted G.O., “we’re the foxes, you’re the chicken.”

“Okay,” I said.

They attacked me from all sides.

Lying on the grass, with a pile of laughing foxes collapsed around me, I looked up at the shimmering field of sky, and then turned my head toward the hill on the right. The Wild Bunch, Lee Joon and his third-grade mates, were spread out beneath the old trees, quietly working on their drawings. A nice music drifted down to us. Jae was kneeling and talking to two of the kids. Amber, the little girl who wore the gazillion glittery barrettes, came up from behind and hugged him.

“Hi, Goddess Coachie,” Lee Joon called to me softly.

Jae looked down the hill. I gazed back at him. I wasn’t sure if the long, easy smile was for me or the little kids.

For a moment I wished I were a kid. I wished I was sitting up on that peaceful hill, listening to Jae’s music, and discovering ways to color summer. But my little foxes were wriggling around me, and I had to get them off to the playing field.

At lunch that day, CL, Jae and I were off duty. We got some pizza from the cafeteria, and then each of us staked out a corner in the office, claiming our favorite piece of worn furniture. CL was reading a magazine. Jae was thumbing through his tablet