i. modern day 2017

"King Taejo was born in 877 to a prominent merchant in Songdo which is now known as Kaesong, who controlled trade on the Yeseong river."

"That's very good of you, miss Chu. I hope you do well also in your Chinese class." Miss Bae told me.

It's true. I always did well when it came to History but never in Chinese. It was always difficult for me to understand all the characters. Heck, I couldn't even write my own name in Chinese.

"Please do well next time in your Chinese class, alright ms. Chu? You won't be able to be a curator in a museum." Ms. Bae said.

It is true. I wanted to become a curator of a museum. My grandfather left his legendary works in the National Museum of Korea. Before he died, I promised him to show everyone his works.

Grandfather, I won't fail you.

The bell rang. It was now time for lunch.

I left my belonging in my desk and went to stand in line for my own tray of food.

"Hey Eunsol!"

An arm slang around my shoulders. It was my best friend Bora. Bora was the opposite of me. She was very good in Chinese while she was bad in History.

"What do you think will they be serving us today?" Bora asked as she took glances on the trays of the other students.

"I hope its not all greens again. Do we look like goats to them?" We both laughed at my joke. As the line made progress, I realized that my joke was true. They were serving us greens today. All greens except kimchi, rice and the small bottle of milk they had for us.

Bora and I took our trays and occupied a seat in the middle of the dining hall. I groaned at the sight of my tray. Does our school nutritionist think were all fat?

"I think I'll pass the greens today. I'll just have this kimchi and rice." Bora spoke and removed the bowl of green vegetables away from her. As much as I dislike vegetables, I couldn't ignore the food. Still, I was always thankful whenever someone served me food. And in the end, I ate my vegetables.

As lunch time ended, Bora and I made our way back to the room for Chinese class.

"Hey, Chu Eunsol. What do you think will mr. Kim teach us today?" Bora asked.

"I'm not sure. I just hope we get back to basic Chinese greetings. That was much better and I got good grades learning the greetings." I huffed out a breath and rested my back on my seat.

"I hope we'll learn some really useful ones. Who knows, we might end up having Chinese boyfriends?" Bora laughed and blushed at the same time. Seconds later, Mr. Kim entered the room and all the girls went quiet.

"For tomorrow's class, we would be taking an outdoor activity to take a visit on the works transferred in the National Museum of Korea." Mr. Kim announced. All the girls made cheering souns and raised their hands up in the air in excitement.

"After visiting the museum, please make a reflection paper about the works inside the museum. Paper is due the day after the outdoor activity.

"Ne! (Yes!)" All of us spoke in unison.

After that, mr. Kim continued to lecture us about Chinese formalities in which I dreaded in the back of the room.

🌸 🌸 🌸

It was a bright sunny day in Seoul. The summer is finally kicking in and there would be days wherein the temperature would be very hot. Times like these would be times wherein my mother and I would always head out of the house to enjoy popsicle sticks or indulge on Matcha or Strawberry Cheesecake flavored patbingsu, travel to Busan to enjoy the waters in Haeundae beach or if ever we feel the need not to go outside of the house, we'd just be in the living room watching Western movies with popcorn or play cards while sipping drinks of carbonated milk or Kool Aid drinks.

But never the less, I was very excited for tomorrow's outdoor activity in Chinese class.