It was a sunny Friday morning, teachers and students from Happy Sunshine Preschool  are starting to gather at the school open area as they await for the two private coach buses to arrive.  Some parents volunteers are there as well, guiding their children to line up to their classes accordingly.

 

Jiyong and Dara just arrived and they went directly to Minah (the school principal) to report to her. They found her at the start of the line, busily talking to some parent volunteers.

 

“Good morning Miss Mina” Dara warmly greeted the woman in her early fifties  and bowed to her. She greeted the other parents ‘good morning” as well. Jiyong stood beside her.

 

“Anneonghaseyo” Jiyong greeted to everyone and bowed.

 

“Oh hello! Good morning Miss Dara!” Miss Mina put her arm around her shoulder and lightly hugged her. “I see you brought your dear friend Jiyong” she smiled warmly at Jiyong. Jiyong smiled back and bowed to her again.

 

Miss Minah let go of her shoulders and offered Jiyong a handshake. Jiyong immediately shook her hand.

 

“Jihyun (Dara’s mom)  is right, you’re a very handsome boy!” she laughed. The other female parents expressed their agreement and laughed with her.  Jiyong feeling embarrassed, ran his hands through his hair and smiled shyly. “Thank you for volunteering, I sincerely hope you’ll have fun!” she added sweetly.

 

“It’s my pleasure” he answered timidly.

 

“Dara, you partner with Jiyong today. I will assigned to you the triplets, Naeun and Jae Hwa. Is that okay with the two of you? … Sadly their parents couldn’t make it today” Miss Minah explained .

 

Dara and Jiyong quickly looked at each other and both nodded to Ms Minah.

 

“No worries Miss Minah, we’ll take care of them” Dara smiled.

 

“Okay, I think they’re with Bom right now. She’s over there!”  Miss Minah pointed the end of the line.

 

Dara and Jiyong once again thanked her and then headed to Bom’s direction. The triplets, Naeun and Jae Hwa enthusiastically jumped up and down as soon as they saw her. They kept on shouting “Songnim! (songsaengnim)” as Dara walked closer. She enthusiastically waved her arms to them and  immediately gave them a tight hug once they reached them. Jiyong stood smiling at the kids.

 

“Jiyongie! Glad to see you again!” Bom cutely greeted as she high-fived Jiyong.

 

“Hi Bom” Jiyong playfully smirked.

 

“Bom-tori, what time did you arrive?” Dara asked

 

“I think half an hour earlier. you?”

 

“We just arrived 10 minutes ago, I have to wait for Jiyong at the bus stop”

 

“Ahh, Is that so? Well, I couldn’t stay with you guys.  Two of my students parents couldn’t make it so I have to stay with my group. Have fun with the kids today!” Bom handed the five kids to Jiyong and Dara.

 

Bom furtively nudged Dara with her elbow as she passed her by and gave her a  wink. Dara gave her a sharp glance and rolled her eyes. Jiyong didn’t notice because the triplets were bugging him.

 

“Star! star! I want touch star!” Manse asked Jiyong as he held onto his shirt and tried to tiptoe to reach his shirt neckline.

 

Jiyong was wearing a gray Givenchy t-shirt with white star prints near the neckline and a black Thom Browne cotton jersey shorts. He had paired it with Vans shoes and socks.

 

“Oh, you want to touch the star?” Jiyong  crouched down so that Manse can touch and count it. Soon after, Minguk, Daehan and Naeun were gathered around Jiyong as well and followed what Manse was doing. Jiyong laughed as he let them be. He looked up at Dara

 

“How old are they?

 

“Two and a half years old”

 

“Ahhh” he uttered and grinned as he looked back at the kids. He then noticed one boy holding Dara’s hand.

 

“What’s his name?”

 

“Jae Hwa. He’s kinda clingy to me, I don’t know why”

 

Jiyong smiled at the boy and greeted “Hello!” Jae Hwa pouted his lips and hid behind Dara. Jiyong’ smile vanished. “I guess this boy will be a hard one to crack” he thought.

 

“Okay, children can we introduce ourselves to Jiyong Ahjussi ~~?”

 

“Neh! ~” the children happily replied. Jae Hwa just continued to hide behind Dara.

 

“Daehan!” first of the triplets cutely jumped and raised his hand.

 

“Minguk!” second of the triplets cutely jumped and raised his hand.

 

“Manse!” third  of the triplets cutely jumped and raised his hand.

 

“Naeun!”  the only girl in their group, cutely jumped and raised her hand.

 

Dara turned to see Jae Hwa and asked “Jae Hwa do you want to introduce yourself to Jiyong Ahjussi?” Jae Hwa shook his head and bite his fist while looking at Dara.

 

“It’s okay” Dara smiled and ruffled his hair. Jae Hwa then held on to her hand while Naeun held on to Dara’s other hand.

 

Jiyong stood up and held on Manse and Minguk while Daehan held onto Minguk’s hand.

 

“Okay! Parents, Volunteers, Teachers and children please listen up!” Miss Minah shouted. Everyone attentively listened to her except for the kids. The adults tried to shush them.

 

“Once inside the ‘Farm Friends Zoo”, you can go anywhere you like with your group. The time now is…” she looked at her watch “8:00am and the bus will be arriving in 5 minutes time. We will be reaching there at about 8:40am so you got plenty of time to explore with the kids at the farm. We will meet up again at the rice field to catch grasshoppers at 11:00am and then head back together to the farm canteen to eat lunch.”

 

“Kindly please stick with your own group during the whole trip. We will be giving away Yellow strapped  ID’s so that we can easily spot the children and adults who are with us. Please wear it at all times!” Miss Minah and other teachers started to distribute them. Dara went to her to take theirs. Everyone is wearing casual clothes. Dara’s wearing a white baggy t-shirt, skinny jeans and sneakers. She tied her hair in a bun. She also has a flap over cross body bag.

 

“Okay here you go” Dara gave some of the yellow strapped IDs to Jiyong and both of them helped the children under their care to wear it.

 

“Here’s yours” Dara handed Jiyong his ID as soon as they finished. His ID was labelled  ‘volunteer’ while Dara’s ID was labelled as ‘Dara Sonsaengnim’ in korean.

 

Atlast the the two coach buses arrived. There were about 50 students and 15 adults (volunteers and teachers) who joined the field trip. Dara and Jiyong helped the kids go up the second coach bus. Bom’s group went to the first.

 

Daehan and Minguk sat next to each other while Manse and Jiyong sat opposite to them. Naeun sat with another kid while Jae Hwa and Dara sat in front of Jiyong and Manse. Dara passed the “Farm Friends Zoo” map to Jiyong so that he can be familiar with the place.  Manse kept on playing with Jiyong. The triplets were very comfortable with him. Sometimes mistakenly calling him “appa”. Jiyong smiles every time they call him that.

 

After more than half an hour, they finally reached the place. It was a countryside. They were welcomed by the farm staffs and they started to walk around the farm with their groups. .

 

They went to the horses grazing over the grass and the kids tried to climb the wooden fence while looking at the horses.

 

“Kids, what’s the sound of the horse?”Dara asked.  The children cutely imitated the sound of a horse. Jiyong imitated as well but with more exaggeration. Dara and the children laughed at him.

 

“OH!” Daehan shouted and pointed to the horse taking a dump.

 

“the horse is pooping! quickly let’s run away” he immediately climbed down the fence and walked away while looking back from time to time.

 

“the poop is so big!” Manse’s eyes grew wide as he looked at the poop. “Minguk the poop is so big!” he told his brother who’s beside him.

 

“I want my poop to be as big as that” Naeun replied. Jiyong burst out laughing.

 

“Okay, tell the horses annyeong~~ “ Dara said after a while. She  put down the kids from the fence after they bade goodbye one by one. The kids ran to Jiyong’s side. He’s now standing beside Daehan.

 

Their groups headed to the cows sections and they were lectured about ‘where do milk comes from?’. The children were then given each packet of milk to drink. Afterwards they went to see real cows.

 

The children were so happy and they kept on imitating the cows by sticking out their forefingers on their heads and running around saying ‘Mooooo~~”. Jiyong played with them as daddy cow and chased them around. The children were screaming and laughing.  Jae Hwa refused to play and just held on to Dara’s hands.

 

Soon, it was time for their group to go to another station. Their group  started to walk out of the cows section. Jiyong asked the kids to stop chasing him and hold hands.

 

“Ahh-sshi (Ahjussi) look ~~” Naeun pointed at her shoes. The shoestring was untied.

 

“Oh, your shoestring is untied... Please wait…” Jiyong calmly said as he crouched down to help Naeun. Dara, oblivious to what’s happening kept on walking and followed their group.

 

The moment Jiyong crouched down, Manse shouted “COOOWWWW!!!!” and lunged himself onto Jiyong’s back.

 

“AHHHH!!!” Jiyong was caught in surprise and hit the ground, in a lying down position. In a split second, Daehan and Minguk  screamed excitedly and immediately lunged themselves too on Jiyong’s back.

 

“Oh... my... g..… I’m ...gon...na ….die”  Jiyong gasped as he tries to breathe from the weight of the triplets on his back. Dara, hearing the children scream, immediately turned around. The other people in their groups were now far away to hear the commotion.

 

“OH MY GOD! KIDS GET OFF NOW!” Dara went running to rescue Jiyong from the triplets. She immediately pulled them off from Jiyong one by one. Jiyong sat up and catches his breath.

 

“Daehan, Minguk, Manse say “Bianhe” (sorry) “ Dara told the triplets

 

“Bianhe Ahh-sshi…” each of the triplets cutely apologized. There faces still shows mischief and they smiled playfully at Jiyong.

 

Jiyong smirked at them, he couldn’t resist their cuteness and ruffled their hairs.

 

“ok! Ka-jja! (let’s go!)” Jiyong stood up and held on the triplets hands. Dara finished tying up Naeun shoes and held her hand with Jae Hwa.

 

“They’re too far away now. I guess we’ll just have to do by ourselves” Dara informed Jiyong.

 

Jiyong shrugged his shoulders “It’s  fine with me” he said and continued walking with the kids.

 

“Jae Hwa, please give me the map~~”  Jae Hwa handed Dara the map he’s swishing around. Naeun is holding Jae Hwa and Dara’s other hand is free.

 

“The goats and sheeps are found here” she looked at the map and pointed to the left.

 

“Let’s go!” Jiyong said enthusiastically and walked together with the kids  towards where Dara’s pointing at.

 

They reached the goats and sheeps section after 5 minutes. The animals were barricaded with a wooden fence as well.  Naeun and Jae Hwa quickly ran near the animals. The farm staff in his mid-sixties gave them some grass to feed the animals. Dara assisted the two kids in feeding the animals.

 

The triplets hesitantly walked towards the wooden fence. They wouldn’t let go of Jiyong’s hands.

 

“Baaaaaa!!~~~ Meeeeee!!!~~~ Baaaaaaa!!~~~” the animals cried.