Of course, that day, needless to say, the school was turned upside down.
It’s a problem when troublesome parents visit the school, but if the superintendent points out a specific teacher’s faults, that’s something even more laughable than troublesome parents.
It was math class during the third period, but given that our homeroom teacher still hadn’t arrived…
‘Must be getting shredded right now.’
Looks like they were getting absolutely roasted to the point that three hours weren’t enough.
In the end, the gym teacher came to our class and informed us that math class would be self-study, so we ended up having a full hour to ourselves.
Even if it’s called self-study, where would you find elementary school kids sitting quietly doing their own work?
Naturally, friends gathered around chatting, or just repeating the cycle of talking and playing like it was recess.
Some even brought the board games from the back of the classroom, gathered the desks, and spread out the game board.
When the noise got too loud, a teacher from the neighboring class would come over and remind us to be quiet.
In the end, our homeroom teacher didn’t return until school ended after the sixth period.
Serves them right, a fitting result.
When you bully the weak with a rotten heart, it comes back to bite you.
“The cleaning duty students should clean and come to the teacher’s office for inspection.”
Just like the gym teacher informed us during math class, the gym teacher also took over the homeroom teacher’s duties.
Since I was on cleaning duty yesterday, there was no way I could be on cleaning duty again today, so I grabbed my backpack hanging by my desk.
As February was coming to a close and March was starting, people’s outfits began to get lighter.
As I returned home after exercising, I suddenly noticed the green plants in the flowerbeds, which I hadn’t paid attention to at all.
It was only when they started to peek out that I realized the weather had warmed up.
While heading home with Siyeon, I felt the vibration from my smartphone.
[Looks like I won’t be able to make it today, sorry.]
A message from Ji-eun arrived via the messenger app.
After our trip to America, Ji-eun seems to have gotten quite busy.
It might be because of wedding preparations, but the sudden visit from that monster during the last holiday must have kept her department busy too.
Although they explained it as “a violation of orders by some monsters that strayed from regulations,” it seems that some citizens are raising petitions, mentioning “safety.”
‘Safety? It’s probably just about house prices.’
I muttered in my heart at the obvious intent as I entered the house.
After carelessly tossing the plush toy that I had stored in my pocket into my room, Gomteng flew over to the cushion on his own.
It was a mascot I hadn’t really carried around since the ceasefire, but considering the holiday and all, both Siyeon and I had been carrying it until recently.
Of course, if the kids in class found out I was carrying this-sized plushie around all the time, they’d undoubtedly tease me, so I didn’t take it out while outside.
“What should we, eat, I wonder….”
With Ji-eun not around, I guess you could call it a long-awaited situation where we have to figure out our own meal.
As I opened the refrigerator to see what was there, I mumbled to myself, breaking my sentences like an old song.
Then suddenly, I noticed some refrigerated items making their presence known inside the fridge.
‘Huh?’
There were unopened cheese tteokbokki rice cakes, Busan fish cakes, and a pack of Vienna sausages.
As long as I had gochujang and gochugaru, I had enough ingredients for tteokbokki.
Like a homemaking master, Ji-eun had put the gochugaru in the freezer corner.
The other sauces were already in the fridge, so it seemed quite feasible.
“Siyeon, should we make tteokbokki?”
With the ingredients ready, I took out a rather heavy wide pot and placed it on the induction stove.
My heart had already tilted towards making tteokbokki, but I thoughtlessly asked for a reaction.
“Tteokbokki?!”
The reaction seemed to suggest that I didn’t need to hear a separate answer.
I immediately turned up the heat and, before the water even boiled, poured gochujang into a wide ladle and sprinkled half a spoon of thick gochugaru.
Then, a big ladle filled to the brim with corn syrup.
I stirred continuously in a clockwise direction to prevent the corn syrup from clumping in the bright red soup.
“Tteokbokki~”
“Can you open those packs for me?”
“Sure!”
Siyeon eagerly volunteered to help since we were cooking food she liked.
Receiving the opened pack, I first dropped in the cheese tteokbokki cakes, which were shaped like little hot dogs.
It was a must to carefully look inside the bag and ensure no preservatives fell into the soup.
I pinched the thin packet from inside the bag and tossed it in the trash before dumping in the rice cakes all at once.
The rectangular fish cakes, whether my hands got greasy or not, were layered and chopped at an angle with scissors, then lightly tossed around in the red broth.
Finally, I tossed in the Vienna sausages, free of preservatives.
Just like that, it would look like decent tteokbokki, but the soup’s viscosity was lacking compared to the ones sold on the streets.
‘Cornstarch, cornstarch….’
For times like this, any kind of cornstarch would do.
I poured some cold water into a small bowl and mixed in a spoonful of cornstarch, stirring well until it turned into a cloudy cornstarch liquid.
Then, I mixed it in thirds evenly into the pot.
Every time the starch settled to the bottom of the pot, I gently stirred it before adding it back to the tteokbokki pot and kept it boiling.
Why does it cost 20,000 or 30,000 won once you go outside?
It took less than 30 minutes to complete a sticky tteokbokki filled with rice cakes, sausages, and fish cakes that wouldn’t even cost 20,000 won in total.
‘How much do they end up wasting usually?’
I moved the tteokbokki to a suitably wide bowl while mumbling discontent as a consumer.
The two bowls filled generously were for Siyeon and me, with the last bowl designated for the mascots’ taste test.
I placed the bowls on the table one by one and called out towards the cushions.
“Come and eat, you feathered beasts.”
“Yes!”
“Did we have any portions?!”
“It’s more trouble to make less than this.”
After quite a while since the holidays and the trip, it was a long-awaited shared meal with the mascots.
As soon as I called them, they hurried over, flocking towards the low table.
I understood that Siyeon’s mascot, which originally had no hands, would bury its face in the bowl to eat, but Gomteng, despite having hands, doesn’t use the fork I brought.
“It’s not that spicy, huh?”
Gomteng’s review of the food followed.
Street food can be spicy, but our home is on the milder side.
“It’s just that outside food is too spicy.”
With that feedback, I spat out a complaint about the Korean palate that is obsessed with spicy food.
When I eat something with a slightly red hue, I often have the experience of it being so spicy that it’s hard to even take a bite.
While some kids can handle spiciness, I wish they would cater to those who can’t.
Besides, as the bowls have gotten bigger recently, the low table now feels cramped.
That table used to be spacious enough to hold rice bowls during 1st grade but now feels narrow even with just two wide bowls of tteokbokki.
‘I might have to get rid of this and buy something new.’
With such housewife-like thoughts, dinner ended up filling us up with nothing but tteokbokki and sausages.
Since tteok also uses ground rice, was it not a healthy meal including rice?
The next day, the tteokbokki leftover, which was an awkward amount to finish between the two of us, could be turned into ramen by adding water for a neat two servings.
Thanks to the weather getting quite warm, I wore a light jacket instead of a padded coat that had been stuffed with wind pockets on the way to school in the morning.
For students who have nothing to worry about other than school and private academy, it always felt the same…
However, the atmosphere of the teachers, as seen from an adult’s perspective, felt quite different.
In particular, the attitudes of several teachers towards me.
“Hey, hi Mari! No kids bullying you, right?”
“Yes? Yes….”
While it’s normal not to see the homeroom teacher, some teachers I ran into in the hallway remembered my name and lightly tossed questions my way.
Especially asking if I was uncomfortable or if there were any friends bothering me.
I felt like I was being treated like one of those special service soldiers you hear in military stories that seem too familiar.
I thought about why even teachers who used to ignore me were suddenly like this, and after a brief moment…
‘Oh, no way.’
I reached a conclusion related to the recent event.
While I couldn’t ask anything during my time at school without my smartphone, I immediately called as soon as I got it back after school.
I asked if he had mentioned anything specifically to the school, and the congressman replied proudly.
“Of course, I told the lowerclassmen to take good care of Mari and Siyeon at that school. Why?”
‘So that’s why.’
“Oh, no… I just want to say thank you.”
Given that it had already happened, I couldn’t say it felt burdensome to the congressman who spoke as if he had genuinely accomplished something.
“Yeah, yeah! If you need anything else, feel free to ask!”
I trailed off, and just expressed my gratitude.
It seemed the news had already spread among the teachers, and asking them to treat me more casually now seemed impossible.
During elementary school, I thought I had gained a good backer.
At least now, I didn’t have to worry about being treated unfairly, right?
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