Note: Somewhere in the story there is a misspelling of the word 'graduate'. I just want it to be known now that it was on purpose.

So, without further ado, this is...

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Setting Sail

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Sandara watched as her students, all 21 of them between the ages of four and five, pushed their sailboats into the waters. It was a simple exercise, a sort of ‘rite of passage’ if you will that she’d taken upon herself to bestow upon them as their parents or older siblings, or even both, stood and watched from the sidelines. They wore their tiny celebration caps that had been made and decorated in class as they watched the boats floating on as one in the park pond and smiled to themselves. Soon, she stepped forward and stood before the group with a smile upon her face.

 “It all went by so fast!” she exclaimed almost childishly and the children nodded and smiled in agreement, the presence of their parents being outshined by that of their kindergarten caretaker. “You all look so much more grown up now.”

 A few parents chuckled while others smiled at the energy radiating off of the young teacher.

 “I can still remember everything from the very beginning, you know. How yellow teddy-shi used to be with Yoseob for every game, how Youngmin and Kwangmin used to sneak away and trade shirts in the corner behind the cubbies when they wanted to switch tables without me knowing, how Na Eun wouldn’t talk for the first three days until I asked what kind of candy she liked, how Suzy used to cry for an hour every day after her mom would drop her off to school.”

 Her eyes were glazed over a little as she reminisced with a smile and both Yoseob and Suzy blushed, slightly ashamed of the childishness they had displayed.

 “I remember it all as if it just happened, and it makes me that much happier to see that you’ve all become such good girls and boys,” the children all nodded and beamed with adolescent pride and she smiled in response. “First grade is coming soon, and I know you’re all gonna keep growing and growing and becoming better and better. You’re going to be good for your ummas and appas and keep on listening well to your noonas, unnies, oppas, and hyungs, right?”

 She received a loud ‘Deh!’ in response and the parents and siblings laughed, each plotting their own way to remind the children of this in days to come.

 “Okay then everyone, this will be my last lesson for you all so listen well and come a little bit closer,” she commanded in a hushed voice as her eyes lit up and she motioned for the students to close some of the gap between them as she herself squatted down to be closer to their levels.

 At the sight of the way the children rushed forward with little more than a wave of her hand, the parents began to wonder exactly how this girl of a mere nineteen years old had been able to train their own children better than they had.

 “You see those boats over there? The ones we just set sail a few minutes ago?” she asked in a hushed tone, and even the bystanders found themselves leaning more closely to listen in out of curiosity. “Those boats stand for each one of you. You started off for the first in that classroom with me as little kids either this year, last year, or the year before that and painted and decorated these boats in whatever ways you wanted to. Even if some of them are the same colors, each one is as different from each other as me and you. They have lots of different decorations and some of you even gave them names, like Myungsoo’s ‘L’ and Hana’s ‘Zinger’.”

 The children glanced between Sandara and their boats with eyes widened in both surprise and enlightenment.

 “I remember when a few days ago some of you told me that you didn’t want to sail your boats. You said that you wanted you boats to stay pretty and dry, that you’d much rather take them home along with the other stuff we’d made in arts and crafts, but I told you that we couldn’t. We had to see them sail at least once together before you all were finished here.”

 She glanced from face to face and some of the perpetrators broke the shared eye contact, knowing that that they had been among the group.

 “Does anyone remember why?”

 At first everyone merely looked among each other until a small hand in the back, one belonging to a small boy with strangely feline eyes. She smiled at him and nodded, giving him the signal to speak.  

 “You told me that, since the boats were made to be on the water, we had to let them go and do what they were meant to do because none of us would like being held back and kept from doing the things we really wanted to. You said that if we were the boats instead, like if I was ‘Key’ instead of ‘Kibum’, we would probably be really sad if after all that time it took to build us, we never got the chance to go out and sail even once.”

 The smile that covered her face at his response was, by all accounts, breathtaking.

 “That’s exactly it,” she nodded, a sense of pride filling herself as she resisted the urge to run over and hug the small boy, instead standing up to her full height. “So now that we’ve given them the chance to sail, what do you say we walk to the other side, pick them back up again, and take home this last art project to finish up our graduation?”

 The children all gave off cheers of approval as they began running over before being stopped in their tracks by a single question slicing through the happy atmosphere.

 “But Noona,” her own younger brother separated himself from the group and interrupted the happiness. “You said that this was the last lesson.”

 “Yes, Sanghyun, I did.” She nodded in her confirmation before he brought up a point that none of the others had considered.

 “But then, doesn’t that mean that starting today the rest of them won’t get to see you anymore?”

 Instantly, all merriment was gone as the children widened their eyes in realization and she instantly began to hate the fact that her brother was so thoughtful.

 “Yes, Sanghyun, that can mean that too, but it doesn---”

 “But I want to come back and play with Unnie again!” this time, a cute girl with big eyes spoke up.

 “Hara, this doesn’t mean---”

 “If Noona isn’t going to teach us, then who will?” a boy who was normally always smiling now inquired confusedly.

 “Jinyoung, you’ll have---”

 “Unnie, why didn’t you tell us?” another girl immediately fired off her question.

 “Bora, I tho---”

 “I don’t want another noona!”

 “Jaehyo, you don’t me---”

 “Dara-noona is the best!”

 “Unnie, please don’t make us leave.”

 “I don’t want to go, Dara-unnie!”

 “Noona, you’ll let us stay won’t you?”

 “Dara!”         “Sandara!”         “Noona!”         “Unnie!”         “Seosangnim!”

 Chaos ensued for a full two minutes as the class of soon-to-be first graders surrounded the young teacher, tugging at her dress in various places, pulling on her hands to beg for attention, some beginning to tear up at their sudden misunderstood feelings of betrayal, others hugging onto her legs in an attempt to not be forced to leave and, above all else, all asking questions and calling out to her in loud and indistinct little voices while Sanghyun struggled in his attempt to force the others to stop mistreating his sister.

 She tried her best to hush the children and begin explaining what was happening, but it wasn’t until one child’s statement gave her the push she needed to end the craziness here and now before the parents and older siblings unfroze from shock and unintentionally made the situation worse.

 “If I have to leave Dara-shi, I don’t ever wanna gradulate!”

 Those words struck a chord deep inside of her and her brother stepped back with a knowing look as she did the one thing she had never done to or in front of any of the children before:

 She screamed.

 “YAH!”

 It was amazing how with a single syllable the entire class was struck silent.

 “Quiet down and listen to me.”

 Her eyes scanned the surprised faces of the students as she took in a deep breath to control her sudden rage and began speaking to them once again in the soft tones that they were used to.

 “I don’t ever want to hear any of you say that you don’t want to graduate again,” there was an edge to her voice the kids weren’t familiar with, an edge that made them dead silent. “Do you understand me?”

 “But unni---”

 “No ‘buts’, Jiyoon,” she cut the girl off immediately. “If you don’t stand here and behave yourselves and promise to me that none of you will say that again, then you haven’t been listening to me and you haven’t learned my lesson.”

 A solid silence took over as the children slowly and collectively unattached themselves from their teacher’s body, each patiently waiting for the explanation they knew would come.

 “You, boys and girls, every single one of you is like a piece of wood on one of those boats that we just set sail,” she paused for a moment to gather her thoughts before continuing. “If you stay here, with me, forever, then it’ll be like I’ve only taken that piece that you already were, added another extra piece of wood to it, and then kept you inside my stuffy classroom without giving you the chance to go to other people who will finish building you into the boats that I know you can become.”

 She paused a moment to look each of her kindergartners in the eyes before continuing.

 “It’ll be like I didn’t give you the chance to sail, and I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to be the one that keeps you from becoming the great men and women that your parents and I know you can be. So, after this graduation, you have to be good little boys and girls and keep on going to school and graduating and building your boat so that when your time comes, you can set sail too.”

 She bit her bottom lip and took a deep breath as she closed her eyes, finding herself becoming much more emotionally invested than she had originally intended. These kids, they meant so much more to her than they would ever know and, as she opened her eyes and glanced at them one more time, she forced on a smile as she the heel of her foot and took the first few steps around the lake before realizing that none of them were following her.

 All still held a feeling of guilt for their collective thoughts and were staring at the soil around their shoes as though it had suddenly become the most interesting thing in their lives. Even more so than Doraemon, so it would seem.

 “What are you waiting for?” she called out to her class in the same familiar manner she had done countless times before. “It’s time.”

 “Noona...” a little boy began hesitantly before quickly finishing. “...time for what?”

 She smiled gently before answering the boy she recognized as Chanhee, “Time to pick up our boats, give me one last hug along with that pinky promise, and go home with your families.”

 “Can we...” this time from a girl. “Can we still come back to see you sometimes, unnie?”

 At the hesitation and the stunning realization that this child had actually thought that she might get a ‘no’ for an answer, her heart just about broke before she nodded her head slowly with a soft smile as a few tears managed to escape her twinkling eyes.

 “Of course, Sunmi,” she sniffled as she wiped them away quickly. “You, Rebecca, Alexander, every single one of you who’s ever called me ‘noona’, ‘unnie’, or ‘seosangnim’ can come back and visit me whenever you want...”

 He voice trailed off and cracked as the strong front she tried to keep was finally shattered. The tears finally broke through with soft sobs because, after all, she had been watching some of them for over three years and it really did hurt to say goodbye. At the sight of their teacher crying, the children rushed over and wrapped her in a group hug, one she gladly accepted before suddenly finding herself laughing.

 “See? The graduation isn’t over yet and you’re already starting to grow,” she thought aloud as she wiped her eyes, stood up, and smiled at them all appreciatively. “You don’t need this seosangnim too much anymore, so it’s time to move onto the next one. Arasso?!”

 Her last word gained her a roaring ‘Arasso!’ from her class as together they rushed to gather their boats, each gave her their individual hugs and pinky promises, and joined their family members at their sidelines.

 “Thank you,” she spoke to them at the very end as she bowed the complete 90 degrees. “It was an honor watching your children.”

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Well...I guess that's it!  lol

Seriously though, I hope you enjoyed this story and the message behind it and that once you click whatever link or icon to get away from it that you take something meaningful away from it...and even if you don't that you at least thought it was nice in it's own unique way. Also, because I got sick of re-reading everything over and over again while I was writing, I never really did a full final editing review of my work, so let me know if there are any major errors or mistakes or confusing things. I would also really appreciate it if you'd let me know what you think of everything. From thoughts, feelings, ideas, reactions, suggestions, compliments, criticims, anything in between, please feel free to let them be known through either a comment or pm or two. Ooh, and also, feel free to to subscribe to either me as an author or one of my other works in progress. 

Thanks, and be safe! ( ^ _ ^ )

[-] DoMeSi