⟢ preschool.

@✧ rang miyeon Minjun watched the reunion with a fond look he often had whenever watching guardians dote on their kids. It was heartwarming to see the genuine joy families had when they were together, and he could tell Minji came from a loving home despite the little incident they had that day. He watched as the young girl settled into her seat, briefly startled by Miyeon bowing before him in greeting. Any time someone older than him did that, he always felt the urge to bow deeper or wave his hands to get them to stand up faster.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, too, Miss Rang. Not the circumstances I expected us to meet under, but a pleasure nonetheless!" He greeted warmly as he took a seat near Ms. Moon, smoothing out the apron he was still wearing from their arts and crafts session earlier.

Compared to the put together woman across from him, he probably seemed like a bit of a mess, curly hair haphazardly framing his face as it normally did by the end of a school day. Some of his students were highly energetic, and it could be hard keeping up with them. He reached up to smooth over some of the wild locks while readjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

He did his best to focus on the explanation that Miyeon was providing, but his attention kept straying to Minji, making silly faces at her so she wasn't too focused on the meeting at hand. If that afternoon was anything to go by, the little girl was very smart, and he didn't want to add more stress to Miss Rang's plate if Minji decided to repeat the story for someone else to hear. He did jolt back to the conversation, though, at the mention of punishment, his face balking at the very idea of issuing punishment to one of his students beyond a little time in time out, and that was mostly just so students could explore self-reflection and have a one-on-one discussion with him when they were ready.

"Punished? Oh no no! I think, while not ideal or the lesson I had planned for the day, the students learned some valuable tools today. We discussed why bad words shouldn't be said and how to get rid of them or choose better words if we're feeling frustrated. I don't see the issue continuing, but you are her guardian, so at the end of the day it is your call," he laughed a bit awkwardly, scratching his cheek, "Children are like sponges. It's a bit mind boggling just how much their tiny brains can retain, so it was only a matter of time before one of my students decided to share their more...colorful vocabulary."

@✧ roh minjun One would think that Miyeon would be more embarrassed seeing the face of the young preschool teacher who had to pick up the pieces of Miyeon’s mistake, but she was actually much more embarrassed seeing Minji’s face as the girl ran towards Miyeon for a hug. “M’yeon!” she greeted in excitement, with the older Rang ruffling her hair before hugging her back tightly. During the hug her expression warmed but it was quickly cut and turned back into shame as she made brief eye contact with Ms. Moon and slightly longer eye contact with Mr. Roh. With Miyeon’s now-default set of expressions, it looked almost as if she was disgusted at the eye contact. She was but it was for herself.

“Hello, Little Rabbit.” she spoke softly, trying to turn her attention to Minji and pecking the top of her head before letting her settle in the lower chair beside her. “Hello, Teacher Roh, nice to, uh, meet you. I’m Rang Miyeon.”

She stood up to bow to him, head down and quickly sitting after a moment. Miyeon was always dressed to the nines, wearing a pastel blue button-down and a pale brown sweater vest, with tan slacks to match. Crisp and classic, every part of her outfit, manicure, hair, and makeup was done beautifully, but her facial expressions didn’t match the calm luxurious energy her outfit evoked. One would assume she’s a rich young parent (an annoyingly similar mirror to her own mother in her youth) even by her and Minji’s visual age gap, but at that moment she was an older sister in trouble.

Looking uncharacteristically frazzled and embarrassed, Miyeon bowed from her seat at both adults, before Ms. Moon was able to get in a single word. Minji sat there clueless, but only knowing from her teacher that those words were bad, not even really questioning why it seemed her responsible older sister was in trouble.

“I am so sorry, I…” she trailed off, ashamed knowing that she needed to give full context on how Minji learned all that colorful language. Ms. Moon had known her for the majority of her life, both women being mainstays in the town even before Miyeon left for Seoul and her personality shifted, so Miyeon’s timid energy akin to her past self was unsurprising. A newbie in town would never expect this person to be the uptight, slightly grumpy and occasionally snappy guardian of the town library.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a deep breath. “I think Minji heard me curs– um, complaining to a courier company about some important packages and she parroted me. I thought she was asleep in my bedroom, it turns out she was listening a little too well.” Even just explaining the situation, an honest mistake as it was, felt like a sin. Miyeon hoped that this wouldn’t reach her mother and that Mr. Roh was competent enough to get those very adult curse words out of the kids’ systems.

“Is she going to get punished? Do you need me to make sure her lesson is learned at home with me?” she added in quickly, her words spouting out fast while she looked between Ms. Moon and Mr. Roh. There was a tinge of panic in her. The only other person in her family that would accidentally teach Minji curse words were… Well actually, everyone. Her mother cursed like a sailor when upset, her dad always cursed under his breath when outside the sight of his employees, and Minhee was seventeen, of course she’d curse like it was breathing, and Soojin probably taught Miyeon the curse words the latter passed down by accident to the seven-year-old. But Miyeon wouldn’t allow herself to be found out as the /first/ in her family to taint a child’s mind with poison words. It was too early for Minji, and she didn't know the meaning of eighty percent of those words.

@✧ rang miyeon While he always described his job as never having a dull moment when he caught up with his parents, Minjun didn't mean catching one of his students teaching curse words to her classmates within the preschool bathrooms. He should have found it suspicious sooner considering just how long it was taking for the kids to return to the classroom to work on their craft. Frankly, he was a bit too preoccupied with setting up the different sheets of paper and coloring utensils that time just slipped away from him a bit.

The hushed giggles were the first indicator that something was amiss. Minjun was well accustomed to the sound of laughter in his classroom. It's frankly what kept his kids engaged in whatever he was teaching that day, and in turn, kept the parents happy. But quiet laughter was a clear sign something was going on that shouldn't have been.

When he approached the bathroom and first heard the colorful language one of his favorite students was enlightening her classmates with, he had to take a moment to himself, the back of his hand pressed against his lips to stifle his own laughter. He wouldn't be providing a very good example if he just laughed along with them, and although he couldn't control what happened at their homes, he could do his best to remedy the behavior at school.

"Alrighty, preschool pause," he spoke up eventually, knocking on the door to have the kids come back out to the classroom, "Sounds like we've learned some yucky words. You guys know what we do with yucky things, right? Yep, they go in the trash bin. Let's all take turns throwing out those yucky words, okay? Shake them out of your hair, pull them out of your pockets, wherever they're hiding. And then we'll learn some better words to use when we're feeling frustrated."

Instead of a pleasant afternoon of drawing pictures of the children's dream vacations, Minjun created a new lesson on vocabulary that he hoped would keep his students from carrying their newfound knowledge from their classmate home with them.

As they finished up the day with free time to play with whatever toys they'd like, the young brunet finally allowed himself a moment to chuckle as he recounted his day and the panicked email correspondence he had sent to Ms. Moon. It wasn't often that he had to report such things, maybe the occasional tiny fight he would have to break up so the parents could be informed, but he couldn't say he was entirely surprised Minji was the student of interest this time around. Her and her best friend always seemed to be more energetic than their classmates, but he would never complain. His job wasn't boring.

"Well done today friends! Make sure everything is cleaned up before you go and tell your parents I said hello. We have a lot of fun things to do tomorrow, so make sure you eat a nice dinner and get plenty of rest," he spoke up as he noticed the time, helping the students clean up their things, "Minji, we're gonna walk together to see your older sister, okay? And you can tell her how glow sticks have to break and snap to glow brightly, but it's best to do so at nighttime where the glow can be appreciated, yeah?"

Taking the young girl's hand in his own, Minjun guided her out of the classroom to the office, joking with her the entire way, and knocked on the door to announce his presence before poking his head inside. "Hope I'm not interrupting, Ms. Moon and Miss Rang, but here's Minji."

@✧ roh minjun CW / Lots of cursing.

–––––

. . . One Week Earlier. At Miyeon's House.

Miyeon, while still living alone and away from her parents, was tasked with dealing with her mother and father’s post-Christmas, pre-Lunar New Year gifts that they always send to their friends all around South Korea and of course within Gohyang. She never had a problem with it, even with her tense relationship with her mother being a supposed hindrance. The two of them silently understood that the distance between them physically was helping mend their relationship, communication would be dealt with later as the oldest daughter of the family had somewhat evolved into a variant of her own mother without realizing. This could be seen with how angry Miyeon was at the delivery company for losing half the packages that contained the expensive gifts her parents tasked her to send. Little did she know that her younger sister Minji, whom she was babysitting for the weekend, was awake early from her afternoon nap and was listening intently to her older sister insulting another person’s life and history.

“Listen here you ing son of a , I have had these stupid ing packages ready since goddamn September–” Miyeon paced around her living room, her neck and forehead veins tensing up from stress as she was trying her best to be kind but with stress from work it was very hard to keep a calm and collected state. “You bastards should have kept track properly, I have been your client for the past 5 years and you guys are treating me like – no– don’t redirect my call to your superior. You idiot bedbug, stop relying on your boss.” She started making really aggressive hostile hand gestures that no one would see.

“You better stay on this ing line or I am personally filing a complaint against your company, you crazy unprofessional motherers– I’m sorry. .” She flopped onto her sofa, exhausted as she realized she was ultimately wasting her energy. Her insulting 10 different people individually for the past 30 minutes (they kept passing the call around in fear) drained her. “Just find the ing packages, please… Update me through email or call, or you s will have to talk to the individual shops to give my family a refund.” The person on the other line, clearly panicking for the reputation of their company, complied and said they will handle things immediately. Miyeon hung up after that last shallow reassurance, her mumbling “Ah, these stupid jerks.”

Five minutes pass and Miyeon jolts up from the sofa, hearing something in an adorable voice. ‘Oh no,’ she thought.

“You ing son of a ! jerks! Crazy unprofessional mothere–” Minji’s mouth was immediately covered by Miyeon, causing the 6-year-old to giggle, patting her sister’s hand. The older Rang sister’s eyes grew wide as it hit her that Minji had basically heard her entire phone call, copying and parroting her tone, in her sweetest voice.

“Unnie!” Minji piped up behind Miyeon’s hand and the older immediately let go, kneeling to be at Minji’s eye level to squish her cheeks, smiling even with her panicked expression. The little girl almost spewed out another string of profanities before Miyeon put her index finger to her lips, making a shushing noise.

“Don’t say those things, okay? You can’t say those in public, it’s rude…” she trailed off, wondering how she could handle this since Minji has parroted her before. She cursed herself for not knowing the kid was awake. “Y-you can only say these when you’re alone okay? You can say it in the bathroom, not around people! Don’t call people those names, alright Minji?”

“Not even ?!” The sound of the word with an innocent young voice shocked her.

Miyeon sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes with her palm in frustration. “No, little rabbit… not even that word. Don’t repeat the new words you heard to anyone!”

“Okay, okay!” the younger Rang replied, hopping in place because of Miyeon’s rabbit nickname for her.. Miyeon believed that would be the last she’d hear of this.

–––––

. . . Present Day. At the Preschool.

It was an oversight on Miyeon’s part, how she gently and lovingly corrected Minji. In her panic, she may have phrased her scolding in a way that Minji took too literally. A few hours after the incident a week prior, Miyeon could hear Minji repeating her curse words like a child’s nursery rhyme as she did her hair with bows in the bathroom connected to Miyeon’s bedroom. She thought it would be over after that.

“Yes, I’m… I’m coming soon… see you, Head Teacher Moon. Apologies to you and Mr. Roh, even if we haven’t met yet.” Miyeon dragged herself out of her workspace that day, marking the library as closed early as her head hung low in shame. She had not told her parents after it happened as she thought this would blow over, and she was relieved the school had called her first before her and Minji’s parents.

‘Miss Rang Miyeon, can you please come over as soon as possible? Classes have finished and we have to ask you about Minji’s… colorful language.’ echoed in her mind. Ms. Moon was always so nice to Miyeon, both of them having lived in the town for a long time and getting closer as Miyeon was accompanying Minji to her school half the time.

It was a rare moment for Miyeon to look embarrassed, her sheepish expression unfamiliar to her cold, pretty features. She was bowing politely as she walked down the halls of the preschool, greeting Minji’s other teachers with an awkward smile. She stood in front of the head teacher’s office for a moment, eyes shut tightly as she stared at the name on the glass before opening it. “Hello, Ms. Moon… You said that Minji was saying things in the bathroom with other kids around?” The librarian’s steps were slow and timid before she plopped onto the bright green plastic chair that matched with the rest of the office and the school. The closest comparison one could make for this sight was a puppy with its tail between its legs.

The older woman adjusted her glasses, trying to keep her composure and not laugh at such a sibling mistake Miyeon committed. “Yes, Teacher Roh caught her playing with other kids in the bathroom and sharing the words with them. It seems she wasn’t insulting her classmates but it has been spreading in the afternoon classes. Minji will be here soon with her teacher Mr. Roh, she’s just helping clean up the toys with her class group.”