But first, what happened yesterday, on Sunday: I had bought a train ticket to Cheonan, the town where my church is, but I was going to have to wait an hour for it to leave. I was feeling grumpy because I can usually get a train within 10-20 minutes of arriving at the station. Now I was going to have to wait and miss most of church because of the gap in the train schedule. I stepped out to get a coffee, and returned to the train station with my Americano-two-sugars in hand.
As I opened the door to step back into the station, I thought I saw a familiar fluffy head and blue jacket. A child was riding around on his bike in the parking lot across the way, and it looked like Seongwonnie from a distance. But I wasn't sure, so I just walked inside and started climbing the massive staircase to get to the waiting area.
As I climbed, I thought "What if that actually was Seongwonnie? What if he follows me in here? What will I do about my Americano-two-sugars when he inevitably tackles me?" You know you're a middle school teacher when you're developing contingency plans for what you'll do in the event of being tackled on the stairs while holding coffee.
And I did hear steps behind me, hurried steps that sounded too heavy to be a kid. I thought it might just be another traveler, but then I felt hands grabbing my waist through my coat and knew who it was. Grabbing with no words is Seongwonnie's standard greeting. I was already standing firmly on a step, so there was no falling or spilling of coffee. I rubbed his head and he smiled at me and we walked up the stairs together.
Inside the station's waiting area, we chatted in mostly-Korean about where I was going. I showed him my ticket, but he still pretended to "order" me a ticket at the machine by pressing in my departure locale and my destination. He took a sip of my Americano-two-sugars and found it too hot for him. I asked where Inha and Yeongchang were and he said he didn't know, before taking another sip of my drink and finding it not as hot as before.
I patted his head some more and he just looked at me with wide, sparkling eyes like he knew he was 100% loved. He seems so neglected at times, it means the world to me to see him happy and cared for, even for just a few minutes. We ended our chat, and he said goodbye to me while absconding with my Americano-two-sugars.
So I set loose a very caffeinated Seongwon upon the streets of our town, but even though I could have stopped him--he was specifically giving me time to tell him to give the coffee back--I wanted him to have my coffee as he went back out into the cold. What's mine is yours, kiddo. Just maybe next time what's mine might be orange juice or something genuinely good for your health.
And I think that's why the Lord let me be late/unable to find a fast train that morning. If I had left on time, I would have missed my boy.
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2 PM: It has also come to my attention that since Cardsharp-Minsu is nearsighted, he might not have seen me when we passed so close the other day. He also might not have even heard me properly when I said "hi" because I've been told that nearsighted people sometimes focus their hearing in such a way that if someone they can't see says hello, the lack of visual input creates some kind of auditory interference.
Well. I want to give Minsu the benefit of the doubt. You're no longer in the red, dear.
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8 PM: This morning, Seongyo was back. He said he was at a church event on Saturday and that was why I didn't see him.
I couldn't do my planned activity with just Seongyo, so when he set up the Monopoly board, I just joined him. And then, 15 minutes later, Fox-Jinsu rolled in! I hadn't seen him for days upon days, and I knew he was feeling un-engaged and not wanting to enjoy anything, so I restarted me and Seongyo's game to include Jinsu.
Jinsu kept up his cool demeanor and poker face for a while, but soon he was eagerly grabbing the dice and looking anxious over the outcome of every turn.
THEN Yosep, Yoonmo, and Grasshopper-Jeongmin come along. I tell myself this Monopoly has got to stop so we can do our camp activity, but the latecomers are totally invested in watching, and Jinsu doesn't want to leave the classroom even during break. So we played on. The game stretched to fill almost all of our time, but at the end, I got in some English--I told them that to get their candy, they had to write five words in English, then wait for me to try to write them in Korean.
It was marvelous. They stayed in class after the bell rang, and they were all chattering to each other, trying to figure out the best words. Yosep predictably picked "goat meat" and less predictably, "monkey brain". I learned the word for goat out of this. And Yoonmo taught me the word for "bone". Grasshopper-Jeongmin wrote down brand names like Adidas, Northface, and Nepa, so I had to guess at the hangul spelling for those, and my mistakes had the boys in stitches.
I fed them all bread, Jinsu was happy, and life was good. Daesung came into class to visit us, as usual. He let me share his earphones and listen to a Big Bang kpop song I didn't know. Then he showed me has Japanese homework and I made a big fuss over him.
Saw Deokryong in the hallway; smiled and waved. And then I actually saw Byeongyoonie on my way out of school! He was walking toward school, and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen him in two whole weeks, after seeing him basically five days a week for four months. We were on opposite sides of the road so he couldn't hug me, and but once he had passed by I said, "I miss you!" He yelled back, "I miss you, too!"
Annnnnnd I went to Daejeon and bought a pink guitar! Because I want to learn. So I shall. :-)
