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"Do you remember to give yourself praise everyday, right? Whenever you achieve something good, even if it's a small thing, you can hug yourself or give yourself a pat on the head like this. 'Pat pat~ You did a good job today, Hunjinnie', just like that" the teacher explains as she demonstrates how she caresses her own hair, and the whole class follows her action, mumbling praise words to themselves. Hunjin smiles as she sees everyone enjoys doing it, and she lets them do it for quite longer before proceeding with the lesson.
"Now, who wants to be the first to share their achievement with the class?" She offers and instantly, the students raise their hands with excitement, shouting 'me!' to get picked. The teacher has to calm them down first, giggling in between, before finally making a decision.
"Yes, Jihan. You can go first" she points out at the curly bob hair girl. The little girl gets up from her seat to answer while her classmates turn their body to look at her.
"Last week, my mommy taught me how to tie my own shoes. I finally got to do it right today!" She cheers and shows off her brown coloured shoes, where the shoelaces are neatly tied. The students that sit nearby make a long 'ooh~!' to show that they are genuinely impressed. Hunjin cannot hide her motherly smile.
"That is very good, Jihan! I'm proud of you too! It's not easy to tie a shoelace and you did really well! Everyone, give your thumbs up to Jihan!" She encourages while showing two thumbs up to the little girl. The students imitate her right away, all of them excitedly shows the good handsign to Jihan, making the little girl to giggle in embarrassment while taking a seat. Right after that, a boy immediately raises his hand to get chosen next.
"Seobin, you want to go next?" The teacher acknowledges his enthusiasm and decides to give him an opportunity. He gets up with full pride, his face has the widest grin the teacher has ever seen he made.
"My new achievement is that I helped my mom lift up the grocery bag to the car! I've turned into a big strong boy!" He hollers with his loud voice and makes a pose like a body builder. This time, his classmates are gasping and chanting 'woah' like they just witness a superhero upon them. Yongbok who sits close to Seobin instantly reaches out to touch his bicep and he is more than glad to flex it for her.
"You are a big strong boy, Seobin! Well done! I'm really proud that you use your strength to help people! Everyone, let's give thumbs up to Seobin as well!" Hunjin encourages the little boy as well and just like before, everyone gives him thumbs up. He bows to different direction as a way to say thank you before sitting down again. Yongbok is still busy with Seobin, she reaches out to grab the boy's arm again, so occupied that she doesn't realise the teacher is watching her.
"Yongbok, you want to share your achievement with the class?"
Yongbok flinches in surprise, and wastes no time to stand up when everyone is already looking at her. She forgets what she is about to share because she is still surprised, so she takes her time, looking away to remember her story again. Her new achievement. Oh, right.
"I finally get to use a knife when I play restaurant with Mama and Papa!" She shares with full excitement that her eyes sparkle. Hunjin almost loses her smile because she is taken aback.
"S-Sorry?" She puts an awkward smile, trying not to make a negative reaction. But seems like Yongbok is too happy to notice any expression changes.
"Before this, Mama and Papa wouldn't let me use a knife because it is too dangerous, but now I've grown up, I can use the toy knife. Not the real one, the real one is still dangerous but a toy knife is still an achievement!" She yaps fastly and eagerly, then the whole class stays silence. Jihan looks at the teacher, searching for the right reaction. Jinhyun only gets to process her best friend's story, so she looks at Yongbok on her left side.
"You never use your toy knife when you play restaurant? Then, how do you cut your vegetables?" The little girl asks. Yongbok turns to her right and looks down to meet her best friend's eyes while she answers calmly.
"Mama bought me a toy guillotine"
"Guil-" The teacher chokes on her own saliva. Another student already interrupts with his curiosity.
"Guillotine? What is that?" He asks and Yongbok turns around to see him at the back.
"It's actually a device back in the 1700s that people used to behead-"
"Woah, Yongbokkie!" Hunjin hollers right away and claps her hand, so loudly that she startles her students and makes all attention change to her. She puts a fake encouraging smile so they don't get suspicious.
"You must be such a big big girl! Now you can use a knife too, I'm really happy for you as well! Class, let's give Yongbok a thumbs up!" She summarizes things up quickly.
And while the class is giving Yongbok thumbs up, Hunjin decides to drink water and calm herself a bit, because she refuses to hear that... her student owned a toy guillotine to play restaurant.
- The End -
Bonus :
"But, Bokkie-yah. I'm curious about something" Jinhyun started a conversation when the two best friends were colouring the pages their teacher gave just now. Yongbok stopped her movement to look at the other little girl.
"Hmm?" She answered, unconsciously adorable. Jinhyun reciprocated her eye contact.
"Why is your hair blue?" She asked. Yongbok took a few seconds to answer, her face looked serious, with a slight (attempted) mysterious aura. She turned her whole body to face her best friend, and she explained, in a slower voice, almost like a whisper.
"There was one time I ate blueberries when my parents were sleeping although they didn't allow me to do so, and I woke up with blue hair. It's a forever curse for lying to our parents and no one can break the curse even if we apologize" she made it sound like a thriller story-telling. It worked on Jinhyun, because the girl gasped and looked panicked.
"Eeek! I ate watermelon behind my parents too before! Is my hair going to be red?" Jinhyun shrieked in panic.
Smack!
"What did I tell you about telling lies and scaring your friends?!" Minho scolds with a silicone spatula in her hand. Seungmin gives her a back hug to stop her from approaching their daughter.
"Babe, calm down-"
And in the corner, Yongbok is standing facing the wall, holding the back of her head, groaning at the pain caused by the smack of the spatula.
"I- I'll apologize tomorrow..."
The End <3