It was quite funny to hear phone calls from the school multiple times for Irene. Majority of the time it would be Wendy's teachers, mainly her music teacher, calling to inform her how wonderful she is doing academically but won't stop talking in class. Sometimes its the nurse calling to pick up one of the girls because they felt "sick". Once in a blue moon, it would be for Yeri peeing her pants...again.

On rare occasions, she would get a call from the principle for two reasons and two reasons only:

 

1) Wendy is asked to represent the school once again for an upcoming event.

 

Or

 

2) Joy or Seulgi managed to get involved in a fight again.

 

Which was such an irony since Irene's name means peace in greek.

 

Today, in the middle of work, Irene received a call from a number she practically has memorized by now, once again.

 

"Which one is it, Mr. Lee?"

 

She says in a monotonous voice. She's so used to these calls with the same message of how one of her kids did something again. She twirls her pen between her index finger and middle finger, waiting for the elderly man to reveal the child's name. He even sounds tired of calling Irene just as much as she did when receiving the call.

 

"Seulgi."

 

She quietly sighs and rubs her temple.

 

'Not again'

 

"I'll be there soon sir."

 

She ends the call and grabs both her purse and jacket. Irene tells her colleague Chorong that she needs to leave early again.

 

"Which kid is it this time?"

 

"Seulgi."

 

"Oh man."

 

"Yep. Well bye Chorong."

 

Chorong gives a sympathetic smile and waves a goodbye as Irene exits.

 

---

 

When Irene entered the school, she saw Seulgi sitting on the bench that's outside the principal's office with her head down while swinging her legs back and forth. As Irene got closer, she didn't see the uneasiness in Seulgi like she usually saw when Seulgi knows she's in big trouble. Irene found this odd since her first child was known to play as rough as a bear but have the heart of righteousness and purely fragile as a flower on the inside. Seulgi would be frowning right and biting her lip down hard but not this time. Maybe it's because it's that age where they careless and don't feel as guilty as they should anymore. She is turning into a pre-teen next year anyway.

 

"There you are Ms. Irene. Please step into my office."

 

She takes one last look at her daughter and enters the room. She takes a seat in front of Mr. Lee and waits patiently for the news of the day.

 

"Let's cut to the chase shall we. During fifth period, your daughter’s class was attending their gym class period. Twenty minutes into the class and she is throwing basketballs at a few males and ended up straddling one to fully beat up their face brutally. In other words, I am suspending Seulgi for a couple of days from school."

 

"Aw man! How bad was it?"

 

"Majority gained a migraine, I think three of them got a nosebleed and a black eye. Oh! One kid, ha ha, he, ha ha, lost his teeth!”

 

“Oh Lord.”

 

She hides her face in her hands, shaking her head side to side. She’s already hated enough by majority of Seulgi’s classmates’ mothers for an unknown reason but this just adds fuel to their hatred. (They hate Irene for looking so young and fresh even after having 4 kids). Suddenly the door bursted open, revealing an angry 30 year old woman.

 

“Speaking of mothers, hello Mrs. Park-”

 

“You!”

 

The woman was giving Irene the most vicious scowl she has ever seen in her entire life, as she fully enters the room. It was times like these Irene truly wished she was invincible.

 

‘Why couldn’t I be a snail?’

 

“I, including the other mothers, are tired of your daughters interrupting our children’s education for their poor behavior and self control! Please do something about them before we do!”

 

Irene stared at her hands as she bit down her tongue. Someday she’s gonna explode right back, just not today. She feels it coming soon though. Not now though.

 

---

 

Once they entered the car, it was uncomfortable silence. Irene wanted answers but was waiting for Seulgi to spill the beans like she usually does. But she didn’t get that. At every red light she’d take a glance at the girl, waiting patiently until she said something but not a single peep was heard. Somethings wrong. She feels it.

 

“Wanna go grab some pizza and talk about it?”

 

Seulgi shook her head no and continued looking out the car window. That usually did the trick but I guess not today either. So they continue the ride back home in silence until they reached to the house garage. Irene had finished parking the car and was about to unbuckle her seat belt until Seulgi spoke.

 

“Mom...how do you know you’re in love with someone?”

 

Irene’s eyes widened as she froze in her seat. She was not prepared for this. They never talked about this in the parenting book. Or maybe those were what the torn pages in the book was about.

 

“Uhm. You know...You know...you’re in love once...you see them in the arms of someone else that isn’t you. Also you suddenly have this urge to protect them with all your heart and to be with them forever. You should feel at peace when you’re with them. Why the sudden question Seulgi?”

 

Seulgi was very instilled for a few seconds. Irene could see opening and closing, hesitating whether or not to come clean to her own mother.

 

“I got into a fight today.”

 

Irene chuckled. “Yeah, I know.” That lightened up the mood for a little bit but soon after it went back to it’s tense atmosphere.

 

“I got into a fight because Chanyeol and his friends wouldn’t stop teasing this cute, bashful girl named Joohyun for the way she talks and for being so quiet. I figured she never bothered to speak in class because of this so called ‘flaw’ hence why she is so quiet. I assumed that she has been bullied or teased about her satoori in the past. Today she unintentionally revealed her secret flaw as she got excited when she found a packet of gummies bears in the pocket of her jacket right before we went outside for gym. The boys heard her and were all up in her face teasing her, so I told them to stop and to leave her alone or I’d beat them up if they laid one finger on her. Chanyeol insisted and decided to play dumb and lay both hands to push her to the ground. That’s when I decided to throw the closest thing to me which so happened to be the basket full of basket balls. Chanyeol was successful in dodging him them though so I ended up tackling him to the ground and I beat the crap out of him till his face was swollen. Some of his baby teeth got stuck on my knuckles which caused a huge bloody scene. By the time I was wiping my hands, Mrs. Shinyoung pulled me away from the guy and I was sent to the principal's office. I don’t regret any of this, by the way.”

 

“And what does this have to deal with-OH!”

 

Irene was connecting all the dots. was twitching up to smile and her eyes were wide open. She turns to Seulgi to see her rubbing her nose and scratching the back of her skull. People wondered how in the world Joy got her mischievous characteristic from. Well now you’re about to find out.

 

“KANG SEULGI HAS A CRUSH ON A GIRL IN HER CLASS NAMED JOOHYUN! SEULGI AND JOOHYUN SITTING ON A TREE! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

 

“MMMMOOOOOOMMM!!”

 

Irene couldn’t contain her loud obnoxious laughter. This was too cute and innocent, she can’t help but laugh at how deep Seulgi’s crush for this girl was.

 

“What a doofus! She fell in love with her classmate and now she’s suspended for protecting her even though this girl probably doesn’t have a single clue who you are!”

 

“I’m leaving.” Seulgi said as she tried opening her car door but couldn’t cause it was locked by her own mother.

 

“Listen, Seulgi. That was very sweet of you. You did the right the thing for sticking up for that girl but you did it in bad way. This doesn’t mean you won’t be punished because that Park kid’s mom exploded on me today and embarrassed me real bad. BUT! I will cut you a tinsy bit of slack. For this entire week, you won’t be able to watch your dramas or cartoons but instead you’ll be watching the latest new show with me “Iron Chef. A show where they compete to be claimed the master of ironing.”

 

“But ma-”

 

“Ah! I am not done yet! You’re not allowed to go outside or play any of your games both on the PC or by TV. And you’ll be sleeping with Joy for the next three days. Be grateful that I’m only giving you three days with Joy instead of an entire week.”

 

Seulgi groans as Irene taps her to get out the car and to wash the dishes left in the sink from this morning. Irene smiles to herself at the thought of her eldest bear like daughter in love.

 

“Joohyun, huh?”

 

 

---

 

Seulgi was in her room, unplugging all her consoles and packing her set of clothes for the next three days. It was as though she was being sent to military school but in reality she was being sent to the bedroom next door aka hell. Wendy simply watched her with a beaming smile as she sat on her bed.

 

“Hey Seulgi.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“What’cha  do with that extra packet of gummie bears?”

 

“I gave them to a classmate. Why?”

 

“WOW! THE KANG SEULGI WHO NEVER SHARES ANYTHING BEAR RELATED SHARED HER EXTRA PACKET OF GUMMIE BEARS TO A SIMPLETON??”

 

“Shut up Wendy!”

“She’s not even close to being a simpleton,. She’s an angel.”