Episode 161. Company Daycare (1)
“Today, all of you will be acting as one-day teachers for the Kkoddam class.”
“Us?”
Bright yellow aprons and tulip-shaped name badges were handed to us one by one as we stood there in a daze. This was bad. Our kids were cool-toned.
And on top of that, the Kkoddam class.
It was a class that felt distinctly out of place for men with an average age of 19.3 and an average height in the early 180s to be part of.
“Does anyone remember going to daycare?”
“Do people normally remember that?”
“You don’t? We did an English play recital. I played ‘Prospero.’”
“What’s that?”
“A nobleman from *The Tempest*.”
Lee Cheonghyeon explained kindly, but not an ounce of interest could be seen on Choe Jaeho’s face.
I wasn’t much different either. I simply thought, ‘He was amazing even as a kid….’
“Does anyone here happen to have a younger sibling?”
The daycare teacher asked a simple question. Choe Jaeho, Lee Cheonghyeon, and Jeong Seongbin raised their hands.
“You three, what’s the age gap with your siblings?”
“Four years.”
“We’re two years apart!”
“We’re twins, so we’re the same age.”
The three answered in turn. Unfortunately, none of them had an infant or toddler for a sibling.
The one with the four-year gap might have been the most likely to be familiar with children, but that guy was Choe Jaeho. I gave up on expecting anything.
After receiving simple precautions, the children’s names, and the daily schedule, it was time for the kids to arrive.
Wailing that sounded like they might faint began to be heard from outside the front door.
“What do we do…. Looks like they don’t want to be separated from their parents….”
Bak Juu was on the verge of tears.
But hold it in. If you cry too, this daycare will have to undergo leak repairs.
Still, the children were brave and courageous. After sending off their busy mothers to work, they took off their outer clothes and walked down the hallway with determined steps.
But the moment they saw our faces, they burst into tears again.
“Waaaah!”
“Hey, everyone step back three paces.”
You could tell just from the crying. That wasn’t a sign of sorrow.
It was complete rejection.
“Shouldn’t we bring rabbit masks or something right now?”
“Wear them all day?”
“It’s better than making the kids cry all day.”
Gang Giyeon muttered seriously.
“Sungbin-hyung, you try going.”
“Me?!”
“You’re the only one we can trust.”
Backed by Lee Cheonghyeon’s boundless trust, Jeong Seongbin carefully approached the first child.
“Uh, hi…?”
“Waaah! Mommy!”
And he failed spectacularly.
I’d forgotten for a moment. Jeong Seongbin was only a sweet, handsome guy among us.
In the cold, harsh real world, nobody saw Jeong Seongbin as a gentle pretty boy.
While arriving children sobbed and clung to the regular teachers, someone among us strode toward the children.
It was Choe Jaeho.
“Hey, what are you doing!”
“Hyung, hurry back inside…!”
Despite the whispering between me and Bak Juu, he didn’t care.
Sure enough, one young friend began to wail.
*I should’ve put glasses on him at least.*
If I had, a barrier would’ve been built, and it would’ve been fine.
Leaving me with regrets, Choe Jaeho knelt down in the hallway.
“You already know how to take off your jacket by yourself?”
At the out-of-nowhere question, we all opened our eyes wide. The crying child was no different.
“I saw earlier that the other kids had teachers help them. But you hung up your clothes well all by yourself.”
“I’m a hyung, so….”
“How old are you?”
“Five….”
“Five? You really are a hyung.”
Perhaps happy to be acknowledged as a hyung by Choe Jaeho, who looked every inch the older brother no matter who saw him, the five-year-old child stopped crying.
“Teacher is new here, so I don’t know well. Which class are you in?”
“What class are you the teacher of?”
“Kkoddam class.”
“I’ll show you. Follow me.”
The child got up bravely. Then he grabbed Choe Jaeho’s hand and took the lead toward where the Kkoddam class sign was posted.
He can talk so nicely to kids, so why did he act like that with us?
Words reached the tip of my tongue, but I held back. At least he speaks kindly to children.
As if asking if we’d seen, Choe Jaeho’s triumphant expression was haughty.
* * *
After many twists and turns, all the friends in Kkoddam class successfully arrived.
We had a simple self-introduction time too. They said ‘Giyeon Teacher’ and ‘Jaeho Teacher’ well, but they couldn’t properly say ‘Iwol Teacher’s’ name. I can’t change my name again.
Should I just have them call me Teacher Kim? If I did that, it felt like it would become a one-day teachers’ office experience instead of a one-day daycare teacher experience.
Fortunately, there was no filming of SPARK’s One-day Elementary School Challenge.
Because no one came near me.
The child friends would run away with quick steps even when coming toward me.
Forget being called by name—it was questionable whether I could even make eye contact with a child.
“Sit down for a bit. Don’t stand there like a telephone pole.”
Choe Jaeho spoke, with one child draped over(?) each shoulder. Did gold mines flow from that guy’s shoulders……?
From behind me as I sat awkwardly, Gang Giyeon's clear, melodious voice rang out.
It was truly a ‘clear and melodious’ voice. It was a tone I’d never heard in my life, but it was real.
“They made a DdalddalPang doll too? It turned out really well.”
“Teacher, you know DdalddalPang?”
“Of course. Teacher likes the MiniPang series.”
“I know over a hundred MiniPangs!”
Gang Giyeon was inserting himself into conversations with the children using the big data he’d accumulated all this time.
The reaction was heated. Children with all sorts of ribbon character hair ties in their hair flocked around Gang Giyeon.
Pointing at a character plastered large on a children’s wristwatch, Gang Giyeon asked.
“What kind of Pang is this friend? I’ve never seen them before.”
Whenever a character that Gang Giyeon didn’t know was discovered, the scene heated up even more.
“It’s JjapjjalPang. You don’t know, Teacher?”
“There was a friend like this? Is it new?”
“It first appeared in the fifth MiniPang story.”
“MiniPang already has a fifth story? Teacher has only seen up to the third story.”
This scene reminded me of something.
That is, something I’d seen before……
≫ ??? Why is my TL so behind, what did Giyeon drop?
└ Giyeon's concept photo dropped~
└ What, why'd you all reveal it without me??
≫ When is this Giyeon photo from??
└ It's from the Mini 2 special stage~ The audio is X-fucked so I recommend muting and just watching the performance~
└ If you like this kind of outfit, maybe try sampling Giyeon from the Music Festival too......? It's the revolution of burgundy shadow
└ Leaving the link to Flower Giyeon made by Giyeon's fansite master...... pitter-patter
I remembered. It was exactly like veterans spoon-feeding a newbie to recruit them.
Bak Juu also enjoyed explosive popularity. It seemed his brilliant sky-blue hair reminded them of characters from transformation anime.
The sight of him not knowing what to do yet struggling to answer the question, ‘Teacher, did you dye your hair BitterPang color?’ was pitiful.
It would’ve been nice if it stopped there, but ribbon hairpins began to be stuck into Bak Juu’s hair one by one.
“Teacher, look here! So pretty!”
“With just this, Teacher can become the Fairy King too. I’m specially lending it to you!”
Bak Juu, who had gone from two braids to thirteen pigtails, looked miserable.
Nevertheless, the person in question, Bak Juu, looked peaceful.
“My cousin noona used to do this kind of thing often….”
Thanks to his cousin noona’s early education. No wonder the items he chose during mock fan signs were all high-level.
Heart-shaped jewel earrings dangled from both of Bak Juu’s ears. It was a sight befitting an idol role model.
Thus, the ones left out were only the E’s.
Jeong Seongbin tried to herd the children like sheep, saying they had to wash their hands first, and made two cry, while still no one dared approach me.
At least Lee Cheonghyeon was the hope for the E’s, but it wasn’t easy.
“Teacher, do you know how to play the piano?”
“I’m good at playing everything. What should I play?”
“Play ‘One Flower’ for us!”
“I’ve never heard of that…… Could ‘The Trout’ work instead?”
Schubert’s *Trout* flowed through Kkoddam class. However, it couldn’t satisfy the child audience.
“Can’t you play by ear? You have perfect pitch, Cheonghyeon.”
“Everyone sings different notes, so the combinations don’t work……”
And so Lee Cheonghyeon failed to recreate ‘One Flower.’
I think that MBTI thing is wrong. At least here, me, Jeong Seongbin, and Lee Cheonghyeon had become the ultimate outsiders.
* * *
At lunchtime, we engaged in the advanced group activity of making sandwiches together.
While Choe Jaeho, Bak Juu, and Gang Giyeon watched the children, Jeong Seongbin, Lee Cheonghyeon, and I prepped ingredients like crazy in the kitchen. My heart nearly burst worrying we wouldn’t finish in time.
“Watching children really isn’t easy.”
Lee Cheonghyeon spoke as if in admiration. The hair he’d neatly styled at the shop was a complete mess.
“But compared to Juu, your hair is aristocracy.”
“That’s true.”
We turned our heads to look at Bak Juu in the playroom. An unattainable splendor overwhelmed us. Bak Juu looked like he might receive an invitation to the fairy kingdom at any moment.
“I figured Giyeon would match their conversation level, but what’s up with Jaeho-hyung?”
“He’s on the same eye level as the kids.”
“Aha.”
We threw in some dissing of our fellow members in between. If we didn’t, the ingredient prep team would have zero footage usable for broadcast.
“Cheonghyeon, didn’t you say you often played with your younger sibling?”
Jeong Seongbin asked. Lee Cheonghyeon, who was closing the bread bag, paused.
“‘Often’ is a stretch; it was similar to any other siblings.”
“Is your sibling’s personality similar to yours?”
At my question, Lee Cheonghyeon shook his head.
“He’s completely prickly. The exact opposite of me. If hyung saw him, he’d think, ‘Ah, so Cheonghyeon really was a good kid!’”
“To that extent?”
I couldn’t imagine it. Maybe because the Lee Cheonghyeon in my head was too much of a ‘giant dog who loves people.’
“What about your older brother?”
Jeong Seongbin, who knew the members’ family relationships well, asked again, but this time too Lee Cheonghyeon made a disgusted face.
“Hyung is even worse. Sungbin-hyung, not all hyungs in the world are like you.”
“I don’t think I’m a good hyung to Jeong Seongjun either….”
“It’s on a completely different level from that.”
Then the two of them fried eggs and blanched sliced ham while heatedly saying things like ‘so-and-so’s younger sibling has no manners’ and ‘so-and-so’s older brother has murderous eyes.’
“Come to think of it, I’ve never heard about Iwol-hyung’s siblings.”
Lee Cheonghyeon tossed out the words. The hand that was opening strawberry jam slipped.
Seeing that he didn’t use the word ‘family,’ he seemed to be considerate about my birth parents.
“Hyung? Are you an only child?”
The two of them turned their gazes toward me. Sweat beaded on the hand that was trying to open the lid.