Chapter 1 || The New Teacher

Sangmi just couldn't believe it.

Today, on this absolutely beautiful and picturesque autumn day, Sangmi was supposed to have the greatest day of her life. Today in particular was supposed to be the exact definition of perfection any way you looked at it— the 26 year old even woke up on the right side of the bed today for Pete's sake.

So how was anything supposed to even come close to soiling her day today? What could possibly ruin the high she was currently on?

Well, hitting someone with her car could probably do that...

Stranded in a state of absolute shock, Sangmi's jaw was left unhinged, eyes practically popping out of their sockets and her fingers locked into place around her steering wheel at 10 and 2. “Oh my god... Oh my god!!!” Now running on a massive amount of adrenaline that suddenly shot through her veins, Sangmi ripped her seat belt off of her body and had burst out of her car door.

Frantically dashing towards the front of her car, Sangmi heaved out a longtime stifled sigh of relief. Thankfully her 'victim' was actually still alive and was sitting upright on the pavement—though he did look a bit battered up from the impact and fall.

“I'm so incredibly sorry! Are you okay?!” Sangmi wildly questioned, hands and knees trembling in unison. She extended a hand out to which the man hesitantly grasped onto. Pulling him up onto his feet, Sangmi instantly recognized that this man wasn't actually a man at all, but a boy.

She watched on as he wordlessly dusted away at the remnants of dirt and pebbles left on his denim jeans and black fleece jacket. Though he was considerably taller than Sangmi was (but then again, most people were since she wasn't blessed with tall genes), Sangmi could obviously see the face of what looked like a teenage boy no older than 17. Are you kidding me right now? I practically hit a child with my car? Great, I can already smell a lawsuit from a mile away..

“I'm fine.” Sangmi blinked, almost startled by the teenager's low voice suddenly bursting through her deep thoughts. His eyes, which were rather blank in appearance, stared Sangmi down; his full lips set in an indifferent line. For a kid, his stare is kind of intimidating... Sangmi thought but would never admit out loud. The boy placed a hand over his left shoulder. “You hurted my arm though.” He added.

Sangmi didn't respond.

Did he just say... 'hurted'...?

Assuming it was still the dying hysteria from earlier messing with her hearing, Sangmi awkwardly replied, “Oh... Once again, I'm sorry. But I'm glad you're not seriously injur—“

“Don't you know how to drive, grandma? Are you stupid?”

And just like that, Sangmi's gracious smile took a nosedive south.

“Wha... grandma... stu... HOW DARE YOU??!!!” Sangmi exploded, causing the boy to recoil back a step in shock. “First of all you little twerp, I'm in NO way a 'grandma'! Secondly, how old do you think you are to be talking to someone older than you with such disrespect?! Third, why aren't you heading to school right now? What, are you bunking?? The nerve of you high school students nowadays wasting your life away! And FOURTH, whose fault do you think this is anyways?! You were standing in a damn parking lot, in a parking space— MY parking space! Why in the world were you even standing in a parking space in the first place, HUH?!!!”

A silence held itself in the air between the two strangers. The boy didn't say a word in response, appearing to still be recovering from the explosive outburst and temper of Sangmi. Finally catching up with reality, the boy turned around and pointed a finger upwards. Following his gaze, Sangmi got a look at what exactly caused this whole fiasco in the first place.

A tree.

Honestly, there was nothing extraordinary or fancy about the tree though. Sure it had a bit more red leaves sprouting out here and there than any of the other trees standing beside it, but it wasn't like it was anything to marvel at, especially during the fall season. Anyway you look at it, it was just a damn tree— leaves, twigs, bark and all.

“You stood in someone's parking space, practically risking your life... to look at a tree?” Sangmi slowly processed aloud. The boy turned back around to face her, nodding in response.

“Wow... that's... the stupidest thing I've ever heard.” The teen furrowed his eyebrows at Sangmi, obviously offended. “Listen tree hugger, there are plenty of other trees around here that you can fawn over— trust me, they're everywhere. In fact, there's loads of them at the park that you can look at all day long. For free too!”

Beep beep beep

Peering down in unison, the boy slid a hand inside his jacket pocket and pulled out his iPhone. An alarm? Sangmi thought, anything but subtly leaning over to get a peek at his phone. Holding his phone up away from a nosy Sangmi, the boy gave his phone's screen one hard look.

Sangmi waited— waited for him to turn his alarm off so she could continue but he just wouldn't shut the darn phone off. It almost looked as if he was way too concentrated staring at his phone than to turn off that increasingly annoying beeping.

Finally after a whole 27 seconds (yes, Sangmi counted) he at last slid a finger across his screen and turned it off. “I'm assuming you're gonna run off somewhere now?” Sangmi question, arms crossed over her chest. Rolling his eyes and stuffing his chilly hands into his jean pockets, the boy walked past Sangmi and made sure he bumped shoulders with her in the process. Sangmi turned around and glared sharp, poisonous daggers into his back as his figure descended into the distance. With an angry huff, Sangmi stomped back towards her car.

“By the way,”

Sangmi pulled her sights up from the door handle, only to see the teenager looking over his shoulder and locking eyes with her. What does he want now??

“You're a .”

And with that, he walked off.

Sangmi was left standing there, mouth hung agape and thoughts literally being whisked away in the autumn breeze. The word 'bewildered' didn't even scratch the surface of how she felt at that very moment. She was literally stuck in that suspended state of disbelief for a good ten seconds before she was finally able to crawl back into the reality of what he just said to her.

“That... that little punk!!” Sangmi wailed, fingers curled tightly into her palms. “I swear, next time I see him I'll make sure it won't just be his arm that he's gonna complain about being 'hurted'. Ugh, I can't stand teenagers... Good thing I teach third graders and not high school students.”

Peering down at her leather quartz wristwatch, Sangmi gasped. “Five minutes until the students arrive?? Oh no, that jerk better hope he didn't make me late for my very first day.”

Despite that messy and completely uncalled for run-in this morning, things were finally beginning to look up for Song Sangmi. Straightening up the last pile of multicolored folders on her desk, Sangmi turned around and did a full scan of the classroom—her own classroom.

Sure she was just a replacement teacher for someone who had quit not too long ago, but Sangmi preferred not to delve into the details and to just marvel at the big picture here. After all those years in college striving to get her teaching degree and those grueling student-teacher internships, Sangmi had finally reached the end of her path and was now the elementary school teacher she had always dreamed of becoming.

“Ms. Song—third grade teacher. Has a perfect ring to it to me.” Sangmi chuckled to herself, excitement waltzing through her words.

Just then, the familiar school bell echoed throughout the classrooms and hallways, alerting Sangmi of the moment she's been waiting for. Smoothing down her clothes and quickly fixing her hair, Sangmi stood up tall and proud and put on the biggest and brightest smile she could manage; eyes staring onto the opened door like a hawk.

Soon, little rambunctious children began to scurry inside the classroom one by one with their brightly colored clothes and adorable sized book bags bouncing on their backs. Sangmi didn't hesitate to give out welcoming smiles and chipper 'Good morning!''s to each and every student that filed in. First impressions are everything after all, especially with children this age.

Sangmi was soon pulled out of her welcoming routine when the distinct sound of crying could be heard from the hallway and approaching the room. Not a second too soon, two young boys entered the room with one of them bawling his little eyes out. Quick to respond, Sangmi approached the two children.

“Come on Tao, don't cry.” His friend comforted, though he looked a bit more embarrassed by his buddy than consoling. “We're men after all and men don't cry. Plus, you look really ugly when you cry.”

“Sehun, you're so mean!!” Tao blubbered, shoving Sehun in the shoulder. Sehun only blew out a sigh with the shake of his head.

“Excuse me, young men.” The two both paused in their conversation and looked up at the ring of Sangmi's voice. “Hey there you two. What seems to be the problem here?” Sangmi asked with a tilt of her head.

“Sometimes Tao cries because he misses his mom when she drops him off.” Sehun promptly answered, his eyes and full attention strangely centered on Sangmi more than necessary.

“You miss your mom?” Sangmi asked, crouching down to look Tao at eye level. Tao nodded, wiping his runny nose on his sleeve. “Well Tao, I'm sure your mom wouldn't like to know you were crying in school. She'd want you to be happy and ready to learn.” Sangmi leaned in close and whispered behind her hand, “And don't worry, I'm not one of those boring old teachers like the ones down the hall.” Tao gave a small chuckle, at last appearing to have cheered up a bit.

“Are you our new teacher?” Sehun piped up. Sangmi smiled and nodded to which little Sehun grinned back in returned, almost excitedly. And with that, the boys scurry off to their seats nudging and whispering who knows what to one another. Just before Sangmi could return to her desk, one last student made their way into the classroom.

“Good mor...” Sangmi's voice trailed away from her at the sight in front of her.

Standing at the doorway was him—the boy from earlier.

Their eyes immediately honed in onto one another with the younger, much like Sangmi, fixed in place and consumed by a horrific mixture of pure shock and confusion. “Hey, you're not Mr. Lee.” Sangmi's sights shot downward, only to see a small and undeniably adorable child standing beside the highly unwelcomed stranger.

“Huh? Oh... Mr. Lee um... decided to take a break from teaching. I'll be your new teacher.” Sangmi uneasily recovered, beaming at the young boy. As she was staring down at the child, she could obviously feel the most judgmental and unpleasant stare burning into her from the older punk standing beside him. What the hell is this tree hugger doing here??!! Sangmi furiously thought. “You can call me Ms. Song.” Sangmi added, still miraculously managing a calm and pleasant tone.

“It's nice to meet you Ms. Song. My name is Do Kyungsoo.” the little boy smiled, bowing his head politely. Such a well-mannered little boy. “And this is Kim Jongin.” He said, gesturing to the older. So that's what this creep's name is huh? Sangmi gave a quick glance and nod to Jongin, even dreading that half second of looking at him.

“Kyungsoo, is this your brother?” Sangmi asked.

Kyungsoo shook his head. “He's my friend.”

“Friend? Oh! A family friend?” Sangmi halfheartedly chuckled, as she gingerly pulled Kyungsoo a step away from Jongin. “Well, thank you very much... Jongin... for taking the time to drop Kyungsoo off.” Sangmi graciously thanked. Jongin kept his silence—even showing a hint of an entertained smirk creeping it's way up his face. Was he finding her obvious 'nice act' amusing??

Kyungsoo reached his hand over and wrapped his fingers around Jongin's. “Come on Jongin, let's go to our seats.” the eight year old called out, tugging on the older's larger hand.

“H-hold on Kyungsoo!” Sangmi quickly intervened, stopping the two. “Kyungsoo, sweetie, it's alright. Your... friend doesn't need to come sit down with you. I'm sure he must have other things he has to do himself.” Like going to go get hit by cars. “Mr. Kim, you don't have to worry—Kyungsoo is in good hands now.” Both Kyungsoo and Jongin looked onto Sangmi, giving her a look that made her feel as if she was missing something that was supposed to be incredibly obvious.

It was at this point that the once bustling classroom was now covered in a blanket of silence, as all the other students watched on closely like a speculating crowd. To break the awkward air, Sangmi gave a nervous chuckle. “Mr. Kim or should I say Jongin, you're still a high school student right? As a teacher, I can't help but ask: shouldn't you be heading to school now?”

“He is in school.” Called out Tao from the other side of the room.

“This is Jongin's classroom too.” Kyungsoo added. “Jongin is in third grade just like all of us.” Sangmi stopped, eyes widened.

He's... in the third grade...?

Oh god, how long has it been since I posted the foreword??????

Well anyways, I know this update kind of randomly happened but it was bound to get posted one of these days and today was the day!!! So how is it? Is it what you all expected? No?

I know it'll probably be difficult imagining D.O, Tao and Sehun as 8 year olds but I know, as my talented readers, you gals can probably manage it. But if it's really too difficult, I suggest looking up childhood pictures of them- doing that really helped me in the writing process :-)

Also ahhhh I love writing about Sangmi~ There's something fun about writing older, angry characters lol

EDIT: Forgot to mention, Jongin is 17!!! So he's fully grown but D.O, Sehun and Tao are 8 years old. Just had to mention that in case anyone was confused