(Still 8th November)

“Hello? Can I get Kimyung’s mother?”

Sujeong frowns in irritation and disbelief, “not really?”

“Oh, I’ll call back another day then!”

“Hang on! You won’t ever be able to get his mother. She’s no longer around. I believe I had the school records updated. I’m his guardian, you can speak to me.”

 “Ah, oh, right. I’m so sorry for being impolite,” comes the flustered reply, “I sincerely apologise.”

“It’s okay. Is anything the matter?”

“It’s not really a serious matter,” Sujeong’s face is indeed very doubtful upon hearing that, because why would a teacher—or someone she presumed to be a teacher, because she seemingly accepted it when she brought up the school records—call for no good reason, “but his grades have not been up to par.”

Sujeong did know that, “is it a lack of effort or a lack of aptitude?”

“He’s a hardworking boy. I just think that something isn’t clicking for him.”

-

Sujeong✩ : This is ridiculous. Kimyung’s teacher just called, and asked for his mother. I did update the school records. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that she goes around dropping so many hints that Kimyung needs tuition. What good are you as a teacher then? You receive pay to teach these kids, not to ask them to go to cram school or something! Seriously.

Hwajae∞: Clearly, noona is smart enough so that no teacher has ever told your parents that they should consider sending you to tuition.

Sujeong✩ : You mean that actually happened to you?

Hwajae∞: I’m really not the brightest kid there was around, you know? Yes, it did happen, it’s not that abnormal, really.

Sujeong✩ : Unnie and oppa were against the whole idea of tuition and cram school…

Hwajae∞: Evidently, your family has smart genes.

Sujeong✩ : No teacher who can’t even be bothered to check the school records can tell me that Kimyung to attend those ludicrously expensive tuitions. It’s not like I have the money to, okay, maybe I do now, but what happens if other teachers start calling and telling me that they need tuition too? How am I supposed to be fair to them?

Hwajae∞: But noona, you can’t just leave things as they are?

Sujeong✩ : I guess I’ll have to do some coaching myself.

-

“You’re going off early?” Hyojin asks as she catches Sujeong in the corridor with her bag. Hyojin was one of those people who did stuff for both Agen and NOEL.

“Yup.”

“Why? Is everything okay?”

“Got to go meet the kids’ teachers today. Then one more time next week.”
“Oh wow, okay, good luck?” Hyojin wishes, though it comes out rather befuddled. Sujeong laughs.

-

“You’re back!”

Sujeong chuckles, “I guess I am.” 

Kimyung approaches Sujeong hesitantly, eyes glued on the floor.

“So, how did it go? Oh, and I took the liberty to order in,” Hwajae gestures at the food sheepishly, “the kids were screaming of hunger.”

She considers the matter for some time, “I think it went just fine,” she bends down to address Kimyung, “don’t worry, the teacher didn’t have anything bad to say about you.”

“My results?”

“Don’t worry, they’ll improve if you keep working at it. They’re improving.”
“Noona, really?”

Sujeong conjures up a reassuring smile and nods to Kimyung, who accepts this and goes back to doing his homework.

“I’m so hungry,” Sujeong grumbles as she retrieves the last box of takeout and crashes on the sofa to dig in, “but I got to tell you the kind of treatment that I get.”

“Hmm?” Hwajae hums in curiosity as he takes a seat too.

“You know, you have to wait outside before you get to see the teacher right, then the other kids parents stare at me like I’m some nutcase. Like you can literally see the thoughts in her head, something like, she’s awfully young to be here at a parent-teacher meeting! How you do you think she was when she got pregnant?”

“Noona, I think you’re overthinking it,” Hwajae attempts to swat her thoughts away dismissively.

“I thought I was, but then when I really went to see the teacher whose name I don’t remember, she really stared me up and down. Then said, you’re really young, oh, it’s like I