Chapter Text
Yongbok held on to his mother’s hand tightly. He didn’t want her to leave yet, no matter how excited he was for the first day of school. Letting go would mean being alone. He was scared that maybe his knees would buckle, and he would fall on the floor paralyzed as soon as his mom left the room. He other kids were already in the classroom, running around and yelling while a bunch of adults were talking to each other in the corner. One of them excused herself and came over. “Mrs. Lee!” she exclaimed excitedly. “How wonderful to see you! I bet this cool boy here is Yongbok, huh?”
Yongbok gave her a timid nod. His mother crouched down next to him. “I gotta go home to your little sister, sweetie, but I promise you’re going to have a good time. Miss Cho is going to take good care of you, okay? I’ll pick you up right after school.”
“Okay,” he said softly. His mom patted him on the head and smiled at Miss Cho before walking off, her leather bag bouncing against her hip rhythmically.
“So, Yongbok,” Miss Cho said. “Shall we?”
She took him into the classroom and introduced him to a boy named Chenle, who was busy talking to a teenage intern while sipping on a carton of chocolate milk. “…and this is my daughter. She helps out around here. I’m sure you’ll get along just fine. Come to me if you need anything, yeah?”
“Are you Yongbok?” Chenle asked, speech a little slurred around his straw. “My mom said I had to look for you because she knows your mom.”
Yongbok nodded, fidgeting with the strings on his bag. Chenle seemed nice.
“What’s your favorite dinosaur?” Chenle asked again. His Korean was a bit wonky, accented maybe. “Mine is the Carcharodontosaurus because it’s even bigger and stronger than the T-Rex! Did you know that dinosaurs actually had feathers? I know that because my dad bought me a book about dinosaurs for my birthday. I’m actually only five, but I’m allowed to go to school already. You’re quiet. Do you not talk?”
“I do,” Yongbok said with a frown. “I just don’t know what my favorite dinosaur is. I never really thought about it. Are you from Korea?”
“No,” he said. “My mom and dad are from China but we moved here. Your Korean is good. But have you decided yet what your favorite dinosaur is?”
Yongbok hummed. “Maybe… I think my favorite is the Elasmosaurus because it looks funny and it swims.”
- - - - - - - -
It was sunny outside, and Yongbok was glad they got to go to the playground during recess. Before, when they’d eaten in class, he’d shared cookies with Chenle, and now they were standing at the sidelines of the football cage across from the playground. A bunch of kids were wrapped up in a game, and Chenle was busy egging one of the girls on—his neighbor, as he’d told Yongbok.
Throughout recess, he managed to befriend another boy named Eric, who had passionately told Yongbok about Korean baseball players. Eric was nice, he decided, just like Chenle. The rest of the day, the three of them stuck together like Velcro, only being brutally ripped apart when Chenle tried to eat grass at the end of recess and had to get picked up by his mom because he was throwing up. Then, it was just Eric and Yongbok. They still had a fun time, though. And that was how his first day at school was: definitely more fun than he’d expected.
- - - - - - - -
The next day, he couldn’t wait to go to school again. They’d be starting with Korean, and he was excited. He couldn’t wait to write his first flawless letter to his grandparents. What he was looking forward to even more, though, was physical education. His older sister was always complaining about PE, but for him it was just another reason to love school. Why wouldn’t he love running around and playing sports for an hour or so?
It turned out that PE was, indeed, the highlight of the day. The entire class was ushered into the gymnasium by Miss Cho, who then proceeded to explain that they were going to use the big colored parachute. Yongbok ended up between Eric and another boy that hadn’t introduced himself yet.
Recess that day was spent in the schoolyard. Yongbok, Eric, and Chenle went to climb the jungle gym. It was high, and the metal was hot. Despite that, they made it to the very top, and sat there while Eric and Chenle jokingly pushed each other around. A fourth, smaller boy was climbing up. Yongbok recognized him as the boy that was next to him during PE. The boy stretched his arms up all the way, trying to reach the next bar. A single misstep, and he tumbled right down to the ground.
The boy started crying, and Eric and Chenle stopped pushing each other. Yongbok was the first of them to jump down the jungle gym, landing on the tiles and running to the crying boy. “Are you okay?” he asked.
The boy looked up at him with big, teary eyes. His face was a little puffy and round.
“I’ll get Miss Cho!” Chenle yelled, sprinting off with Eric in tow.
“I’m okay,” the little boy said, though the scrapes on his hands and knees begged to differ. Not knowing what to do, Yongbok just patted him on the head.
“Jisung!” Miss Cho called, rushing over after Chenle and Eric. “Oh no, are you okay?”
The boy—Jisung, nodded softly, but he winced when he tried to stand up. Miss Cho sighed and said, “Yongbok, can you please take him inside to my daughter? She’ll
take care of his scrapes, but I need to stay with the other kids right now.”
“Okay,” Yongbok said, jumping up and down on the spot a few times. Jisung stood up and limped after him as they went into the building.
Miss Cho’s daughter—Ahyoung, was busy cleaning tables in the classroom. “Noona!” Yongbok yelled. “Jisung fell from the jungle gym!”
Ahyoung looked up, scanning over Jisung’s knees and hands. “Oh sweetie,” she said, “Come, we’ll get you cleaned up.”
She gently rinsed Jisung’s hands and gave Yongbok a wet paper towel to dab the blood off his knees, which he did as gently as possible. A few band-aids were placed over his knees, and then Jisung was all done. Recess was almost over, so they stayed inside, where Ahyoung let them help clean the last few tables.
“Thank you,” Jisung said to Yongbok as the other kids started streaming in. “But what’s your name?”
“I’m Yongbok,” Yongbok said with a bright smile, that Jisung returned. “Do you wanna be friends?”