ESL ~ Section III

    By Nerin

    Beginning, Previous Section, Section III

    Chapter Eighteen

    Posted on 2009-06-07

    The next day Janelle was determined to keep her head high. Coming to terms with Mark's desertion had been almost as bad as actually breaking up with him, but she had a life to get on with and a job to do. On the walk to school she gave herself an inner pep talk, reminding herself that she loved children and had taken this job for that very reason, not to meet interesting men.

    She was aware of Elissa's solicitous glances on the walk to the school. Every now and then her sister would look at her, perhaps trying to catch signs of an imminent breakdown. Janelle didn't acknowledge them. She greeted her coworkers cheerfully and sat at her desk to prepare for her day.

    When the bell rang she entered Saturn and was instantly tackled around the legs. "Ms. Johnson!" exclaimed the little boy breathlessly. "It's my birthday!"

    "Wow, that's great, Jun!" Janelle smiled, tousling his hair. "Are you excited?"

    "Yes! My mom is bring cake!"

    "Bringing cake."

    "Yes! And everyone has presents for me!"

    "Really?" Janelle looked around at her other students.

    Grace, with her oval-shaped face and large eyes, was considered the beauty of the class, and for that reason ruled them all with an iron fist. Kyle had once referred to her as the Don Corleone of the group. Beside her, in sharp contrast, was Judy, who unfortunately was the mirror image of her older brother David. Judy, intelligent and kind, was not nearly as popular as Grace. Jun, who was now vigorously shaking the present Judy had given him to discover what it was, was a charismatic boy with a penchant for mischief and curiosity: he had once come into school with half an eyebrow, having discovered his father's electric razor and decided to experiment*.

    Sitting quietly at one corner of the table was Andrew, who wore glasses and had a way of answering questions correctly even when he didn't seem to be paying attention at all. Currently he was absorbed in his fingernails. Next to him sat Sophia, a favorite with all the foreign teachers because of her sweet, loving nature and twinkling brown eyes. Kylie, still chubby with baby fat, sat beside Sophia and giggled. Kylie was always giggling.

    Janelle took a deep breath and banished any thoughts of Mark from her head. This was why she was here.

    "I'm sorry I didn't know about your birthday, Jun. Can I bring you a present tomorrow?"

    "Okay!" he said happily. "And you can eat lunch with us too! My mom is bring pizza! And chicken!"

    "Bringing pizza, Jun."

    "Okay!"

    "Everyone, it's Journal Time," Janelle announced. "Please get your books from your locker and turn to page twenty-three."

    With some help the kids found their pages – a few of them were still shaky on number sequence – and began to fill in the lines that said Yesterday was ____. Today is ____. When they reached the empty lines, they looked up at Janelle expectantly.

    "Since we're studying Community Helpers this month, I want you to write about what you want to be when you grow up," Janelle told them. She walked to the board and wrote I want to be a ________. "Tell me why you want to be this helper, and what you would do to help other people," she elaborated. "You should have at least three sentences. When you're all finished you can share what you wrote with the class."

    Jun raised his hand, and Janelle called on him. "I want to be a pilot! My dad is a pilot! He can fly…"

    Janelle hated to interrupt students, but when Jun talked for a full minute with no end in sight, she had to butt in. "That's wonderful, Jun, but I'd really like you to write all of that in your journal, okay?"

    "Okay!"

    Everyone worked quietly for about two minutes. Then Andy found a scratch on his finger that hadn't been bothering him, but must now be immediately taken care of. In vain did Janelle point out that just seconds ago he'd been working happily with no thought for his scratched finger. No, Andy said, the finger didn't hurt, but he needed a bandage all the same. Rather than pick a fight over something so trivial, Janelle sent him to the school nurse.

    Though she always tried to look on the bright side of things, Janelle was determined to be bright and cheerful today, and she succeeded so well that only Elissa seemed to notice anything amiss. Janelle was glad that she'd agreed to eat lunch with her class for Jun's birthday; she didn't want to talk to Elissa right now. Instead she helped herself to pizza and fried chicken, honey-filled rice dumplings, and sesame noodles, and ate a moderately large piece of cake.

    The children presented Jun with their birthday presents. Each posed for a picture, and then Jun politely thanked the giver and placed the present in a pile next to him.

    "Why don't you open them, Jun?" Janelle asked.

    Jun looked distressed. "I can't!" he said.

    "What do you mean? You're supposed to open birthday presents."

    "No! Not now!"

    The Korean woman helping to serve the food leaned close to Janelle's ear. "In Korea it is not good manner to open presents at party."

    "Really?" Janelle asked in surprise.

    "It's…ah…greedy. We think. Korean style."

    "Oh!" Janelle blushed. "Thank you. What's your name?"

    "I'm Yoon Teacher," the older woman smiled.

    In the teachers' room, Janelle told Elissa about the birthday party. When she mentioned Yoon Teacher, Kyle, who was unashamedly listening to their conversation, smiled.

    "Man, Yoon Teacher is the best, isn't she?"

    "I haven't met her yet," Elissa replied.

    "No kidding. I guess she was on vacation for a while, and it's been pretty crazy around here lately."

    "She seemed very nice," Janelle said.

    Kyle shook his head. "She's a saint, more or less. Wait till you get to know her. You've never met anyone like her."

    "She wants to eat dinner with us tonight," Derek said suddenly from the desk next to Elissa. "Dalkgalbi."

    "Wait," Elissa said, scrambling through her Korean notes. "Dalk is chicken and galbi is ribs…chicken ribs?"

    "I don't know what part of the bird it is, but it's fantastic. I hope you ladies come along," Kyle wheedled. "Otherwise it'll just be the guys and…what did you call them, Elissa?"

    "The Doublemint Twins," Derek answered.

    Elissa turned beet red. "I hope they never hear you guys say that."

    "Us?" Kyle said indignantly. "You started it!"

    "Yeah, but you've kept it going."

    "Kept what going?" Paula asked as she sailed into the room for her afternoon shift.

    "Nothing!" Elissa, Kyle and Derek chorused. The three of them turned back to their desks and immersed themselves in work. Janelle shook her head and watched as Elissa and Kyle tried very hard to keep from laughing. Derek tried very hard not to stare at Elissa.

    Janelle started as realization dawned. She watched Elissa and the head teacher closely for the next two minutes, and saw that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. Elissa, oblivious as ever, was scribbling away on a lesson plan, but Derek's pen moved much more slowly, and his eyes kept straying from his paper. When the bell rang and Elissa immediately moved toward the door, Janelle saw Derek relax considerably.

    Well, thought Janelle numbly. How about that?

    *True story!

    Chapter Nineteen

    Posted on 2009-06-14

    When the day was over, the teachers waited for Yoon Teacher to finish her work and be ready to leave. She joined them in the teachers' room and they all left together for the dalkgalbi restaurant. They walked a short way down the main street of Kwangpo and climbed to the second story of the building that housed the movie theater.

    Yoon Teacher had called ahead to secure a few tables, and it was good that she had. The restaurant was packed with people, and the ten or so people sitting on stools by the door looked at their group rather resentfully as they headed directly for the two round tables pushed together.

    The restaurant itself was a mix of Western and Korean styles; on the left side of the restaurant were round grill tables with stools, and on the right were low tables where customers sat on mats on the raised floor. Yoon Teacher was leading them to the regular tables, for which Elissa was extremely grateful. She doubted she'd ever get used to sitting on the floor.

    The meal was brought out to their tables within minutes of sitting, so Yoon Teacher had clearly ordered ahead as well. Maekju was offered, but since it was a weekday most of the teachers declined. Elissa took a glass for her water and smiled at the logo: "Let's Richis."

    "Any idea what 'richis' is?" she asked Kyle.

    Kyle and Derek shared a smile, and Kyle picked up his own Let's Richis glass and swirled the beer in it as if it were a fine wine. "The concept of 'richis' is difficult to explain," he said in a haughty tone. "Few things can be described as truly 'richis,' but this dear restaurant is one of them.

    "'Richis' is just the right combination of class and crudity, refinement and fun. 'Richis' is anything wonderful, exciting, and enjoyable."

    Elissa shook her head. "You're making that up."

    "Seriously, I think it's 'rejoice' spelled really badly," Derek interrupted with a grin. "But we've adopted 'richis' into our vocabulary and given it a meaning of its own."

    Elissa looked between the two smiling men and, for the first time, was struck by the similarity in their appearances. Until now she hadn't noticed because, personality-wise, they were different as night and day, but when they were both relaxed and smiling the resemblance was uncanny. "Are you two related?" she blurted out.

    "Cousins," Kyle answered, "on our mothers' side. It's not something I brag about."

    "Ha, ha," Derek muttered darkly.

    "How long have you been here?" Elissa asked Kyle.

    "Two years."

    Elissa was stunned, unsure why she'd never thought to ask about Kyle's period of stay. She'd just assumed he'd come at the same time as Jessica and Paula. The Koreans weren't nearly as deferential towards him as his cousin. Then again, she thought, Kyle didn't exactly inspire awe, whereas Derek did nothing to invite familiarity. Still, this explained a lot about their relationship. She'd often wondered how Kyle could get away with his constant ribbing and teasing without drawing the wrath of the head teacher.

    "You're staring at us, Elissa," Kyle pointed out with a grin. "Never knew two such handsome devils could belong to the same family, did you?"

    Elissa blushed. "I was just thinking that this explains so much."

    "It does?" Derek looked confused.

    "Yes," Kyle said dramatically. "It explains why she can't choose between us. We could make it easier for you," he continued with a wicked grin. "We could strip to the waist and fight over you."

    Elissa rolled her eyes. "Would you? I need a good laugh."

    Derek turned very red. "Shut up, Kyle," he growled, reaching for another piece of chicken.

    "This table looks like fun!" Jessica trilled as she squeezed a stool between Derek and Elissa. "Wow, is that all there is left?" she asked, looking at the nearly empty pan of food.

    "You're late, Jess," Kyle pointed out. "You're lucky to get this much. You know better than to be late to dalkgalbi."

    "It doesn't matter, I guess," Jessica smiled. "I'm determined to drop a bathing suit size before July."

    Elissa covertly eyed Jessica's not-too-thin, not-too-fat figure and wondered what she could possibly have to complain about. She caught herself when she realized that this reaction was exactly what Jessica had hoped to achieve, at least as far as the guys were concerned. Elissa hated games, but she was good at playing them all the same. She was female, after all.

    "Really?" she teased. "I'm hoping to go up a few. I'd love to be able to do that thing in movies where you do a cannonball and all the water comes out of the pool."

    Kyle and Derek both snorted into their drinks, but said nothing. Jessica looked perplexed. "Is that even possible?" she asked.

    "I'm gonna find out," Elissa shrugged, and reached out to take a large bite of chicken.

    Elissa was glad to be distracted by Yoon Teacher, who started asking her questions about her family and home. Yoon Teacher was a very small woman, with the kindest face Elissa had ever seen. She spoke in broken but competent English, and smiled widely as she told Elissa and Janelle how happy she was that they'd joined the staff. She complimented Janelle's beauty and Elissa's smile, and asked if they had boyfriends. She seemed disappointed to hear their negative replies, and started offering the men on staff as possibilities.

    Kyle heard his name mentioned and looked up. "Yoon Teacher, you're not trying to marry me off again, are you?"

    Yoon Teacher smiled and waggled her finger at him. "You need to get married. You are getting old!"

    He looked offended. "I can't help it that you're already married! If you weren't, there wouldn't be a problem."

    The older woman just laughed. "You are joking!"

    "Of course I am. There would be a problem. I'd still have to fight Derek for you."

    "Do you always decide who gets the girl by fighting?" Elissa asked.

    "Always," Derek deadpanned.

    "Once we sold tickets," Kyle added.

    Elissa shook her head. "You're worse when you're getting along than when you're fighting."

    Kyle looked sideways at his cousin. "Are we getting along?"

    Derek shrugged. "I thought we were about to fight over both Elissa and Yoon Teacher."

    Jessica, who was turning an interesting shade of puce, turned the conversation by saying, "You're both ridiculous. You never fight." She smiled at Derek. "You're too much of a gentleman."

    "Not if he really wants something," Kyle smirked.

    "Well, he doesn't want either me or Yoon Teacher, so Jessica probably has a point," Elissa said.

    "Thank you," Jessica sniffed, and reached for a potato from the pan. Elissa turned away to talk to her sister, who had overheard most of the end of the conversation, and who spotted again that odd, earnest, arrested look in the head teacher's eyes as soon as Elissa's back was turned.

    It wasn't often that the teacher meeting brought good news, but in the last week of June the teachers received news that promised to relive a lot of their stress from their grueling schedules. Peter announced an imminent field trip to a place he called "Jungle Land," which drew a smile from the usually somber Derek.

    "What is Jungle Land?" Janelle asked.

    "It's an indoor playground," Peter explained. "This is our most popular field trip. You should wear comfortable clothes and bring water to drink, but nothing else is necessary. We'll be gone all morning, and the parents provide lunch for the teachers."

    "So the kids just play all day?" David asked. When his initial jet lag had worn off, David had proved to be a cheerful, enthusiastic person – not quite as engaging as Mark, Janelle had noticed wistfully, but very nice all the same.

    "Yes, and you should play with them."

    "No way!" David exclaimed happily. "That's great!"

    "What does Jungle Land have?" Elissa asked, picturing vines and lagoons.

    "It's like a big McDonald's play place," Derek explained. "There's a ball pool and several slides, plus some ropes to swing on, a trampoline, and a spider-web-thing of ropes."

    "We will leave Friday morning at about 10:15. All the students will stay in their buses, so you can choose a bus to sit in. It only takes about fifteen minutes to drive there. I would like to ask a favor for Elissa," Peter added, "the five-year-olds are so much smaller than the others that they sometimes get hurt. Please help her keep them safe."

    Everyone murmured their assent, and then the meeting was adjourned. Instead of walking out immediately, Derek hovered near Elissa's desk. Elissa glanced up at him.

    "What is it?"

    "How's Gina doing?"

    Elissa's lips compressed as she thought about the two sessions she'd had with the silent, brooding teenaged girl. It was a challenge she'd willingly, eagerly taken on, but that didn't mean she was ready to discuss her frustration with a young woman unwilling to open her mouth for more than three syllables.

    "That well, huh?" Derek said morosely when Elissa didn't answer him. "I'm sure it'll get better. I didn't expect her to magically start talking or anything."

    "Can you tell me what happened to her?"

    Derek fidgeted, looking uneasy. "I can't. I mean, I know it would help, but honestly I can't. I've promised a few people that I would keep quiet about it, most importantly Gina herself. I hope she'll open up to you enough to tell you herself, but…"

    "That's okay," Elissa said. "I wouldn't want you to get in trouble or anything."

    "I can tell you that it involved someone she trusted. She doesn't trust anyone now. You'll have your work cut out for you building her trust."

    "I gathered that," Elissa sighed. "When I told her we'd do something – a pizza party for a month of completed homework, whatever, she looked at me like I'd just promised her the moon and she knew there was no way I'd deliver."

    "Just make sure you do," Derek said seriously. "I know your intentions are good, but…"

    Elissa stood up and turned to face him. "I know."

    "Good."

    "Okay."

    They stood face to face; an inexplicable expression suddenly flickered in Derek's eyes and Elissa started to feel a little warm. Obsessed with despising him for the first couple of months, she'd somehow lost sight of the fact that Derek was a really handsome guy. First there were his big dark eyes – Elissa had always loved great eyes – then his neatly cut and well-groomed dark hair. He didn't seem to use any product; Elissa hated it when guys coated their hair in gel.

    "Did you need something else?" she asked.

    "Uh…no," he answered, though he made no move to leave. Elissa couldn't quite walk away either.

    "Lissy?" Janelle's voice broke in just as Elissa was starting to admire his cheekbones.

    "Huh?" she blinked and looked past Derek's shoulder – nice, broad shoulders – to see her sister watching her with an uncharacteristic smirk on her face.

    "Are you ready to go, or do you need a little time?"

    "I'm ready," Elissa said quellingly. She reached back behind her and grabbed her laptop case. "Bye, Derek," she said, sparing him another glance. She felt his eyes on her back as she walked out the door. "Cut it out," she whispered fiercely to her still smirking sister.

    "See something you like?" Janelle whispered back.

    Elissa glared at her and refused to say anything else until they were on the street. "Even if I did, he's not interested in younger women, remember?"

    "People change their minds."

    "I don't think he has, otherwise he would have said something by now."

    "Not if he's shy."

    Elissa eyed her sister speculatively. "What are you talking about?"

    "He looks at you all the time."

    "People look at lots of stuff."

    "Fine," Janelle threw up her hands. "God knows I shouldn't be advocating another Korea romance. But the next time you decide to undress each other with your eyes in the teachers' room, at least close the door."

    Elissa let out a most Derek-like growl and sped up, leaving her chuckling sister behind.

    Chapter Twenty

    Posted on 2009-06-28

    At 10:00 on Friday morning, Elissa and Janelle approached the school and saw the yellow buses in a line in front of the building. Usually by this time they'd been at the school for half an hour, but they'd taken the opportunity to sleep in since they weren't teaching any kindergarten classes.

    "Miss Johnson!" shouted numerous high-pitched voices. Both women started and stared at the buses. Janelle smiled when she saw Saturn hanging out of the windows of bus number five, waving frantically. She waved back and headed toward the bus to take a seat. Elissa searched for Venus and finally found them in bus number one. The toddlers bounced in their seats, speechless with excitement as Elissa climbed in and claimed a seat next to Robin.

    When 10:15 approached, Derek popped his head through the open door, met Elissa's eyes, nodded, and walked away. She watched him as he looked in all the buses and then stood on the curb, checking his watch every few seconds. He looked pretty impatient. The time to leave had come and gone, and still they sat in the buses, which were getting pretty hot. Derek was still waiting impatiently on the sidewalk.

    At 10:20 a flash of blond hair caught Elissa's eye and she turned to see Jessica trotting down the sidewalk with a brilliant smile on her face. The smile dimmed a bit when she saw Derek's stony visage, but she tossed her hair and climbed gracefully into a bus. Derek shook his head and headed for the bus at the end of the row; within a few seconds the caravan drove off.

    Elissa had rather hoped that the children's speechlessness would last, but after a few minutes they were all chattering at full speed, some in Korean to the helper teacher and some in English to her. Elissa felt a headache coming on when, blessedly, they turned into a large parking lot. The children began cheering, and Elissa was kept busy trying to keep them in their seats until the bus had come to a stop.

    They piled out of the bus and walked in a line as orderly as possible to the entrance of Jungle Land. The classes sat in neat rows, and Venus took a seat at the back of the group. The children watched avidly as Mrs. Song explained to them the hazards of the jungle gym and demonstrated how to play safely. The speech was punctuated with long guttural sounds and a lot of exaggerated charades so that the children would break into fits of laughter every few seconds. Elissa had to admit, grudgingly, that while Mrs. Song might need to improve her management skills, she certainly knew how to entertain. The principal's demonstration of what could happen if a child played too soon after eating brought screams of laughter from the students and grimaces from the teachers. Elissa smirked as she realized that there had probably been more than one upset stomach on this field trip.

    Finally everything was in order and the kids ran to the massive play area. The teachers were ready to release weeks of tension and joined the children with happy abandon. Even Jessica was dressed comfortably and frolicking in the ball pool with her six-year-olds. The kids in Venus were fascinated by the huge slides and spent nearly the whole morning sliding down in long trains and then running around to do it again.

    Kyle had stationed himself at the bottom of the rope spider web; he entertained students of all ages by reaching up through the ropes to snatch at their feet as they struggled across. Derek was supervising the trampoline. The teachers weren't permitted to jump with the kids; they'd had too many accidents in the past.

    By the time lunch came around, the kids were happily exhausted, most of them red-faced and sweating. They sat on the floor with their Korean helper teachers and pulled bags and boxes of food out of their backpacks. The teachers sat on the other side of the room and tucked into the kimbap and sandwiches the parents had sent.

    When lunch was over, the kids were made to sit quietly for fifteen minutes before a last-minute attempt to play as much as possible. Finally at two o'clock they all piled back into the buses and headed back to the school. Elissa was relieved to see that her students were too tired to talk; in fact, most of them dozed off and had to be awakened when they arrived at the school. They then had to switch buses to go home. The teachers waved the students off and then walked reluctantly into the building to prepare for their afternoon classes.

    Elissa took a deep breath before entering Galaxy to teach Gina. This would be her third session with the girl and, staring through the window at the young woman bent over a book with her long hair falling over her face, she couldn't quite bring herself to look forward to it. She opened the door with a bright smile on her face.

    "Good afternoon, Gina!" she said cheerfully as she put her books on the table. "How are you today?"

    Gina shrugged. "Fine," she mumbled.

    Elissa slid a piece of paper across the table. "I thought you did a really good job on your book report. Did you like the book?"

    The girl took the paper, carefully folded it in half, and placed it in her backpack before she answered. "It was okay."

    "We're going to start a new book today," Elissa said, and showed her the cover. "It's called Sideways Stories from Wayside School*. Have you ever heard of it?"

    Gina shook her head and looked at the cover of her new book. It featured an older woman with a forked tongue, a monkey, and various other things that didn't look as if they belonged at a school.

    "I'm warning you," Elissa continued, "this book might be too funny for us."

    In her desperation to reach the girl, Elissa had chosen a book that she'd loved as a child, a book that was silly enough to amuse but had just enough real life lessons to be called educational. She hoped it would be a pleasant change from the biographies and essays Gina had been reading. When Gina, who was staring at the front cover, didn't even crack a smile, Elissa decided to dive in anyway.

    "Let's read the first chapter together, okay? I'll go first if you want." At her student's non-committal shrug Elissa launched into the first chapter, which was about a teacher who turned children into apples when they annoyed her.

    As she and Gina took turns reading paragraphs, Gina's voice slowly began to show more emotion, and when they reached the end of the chapter, when the children tricked Mrs. Gorf into turning herself into an apple and then watched helplessly as the yard teacher ate her, Elissa even heard a soft snort of laughter come from under the curtain of hair. Instinctively Elissa didn't comment on this novelty, but asked Gina to pick out words she was unfamiliar with.

    They spent the rest of the class discussing vocabulary words; Gina was fairly good at figuring out the meanings from the context, but she still needed help. Elissa didn't have an extensive vocabulary, so she always brought a dictionary to her higher-level classes. For the first time, when Gina said a polite "thank you, teacher" and walked out of the classroom at the end of the period, Elissa didn't want to bang her head on the table in frustration. It hadn't been a major breakthrough, but she'd heard a laugh.

    Still happy with her success, she entered the teachers' room to collect her bag and Janelle. Janelle wasn't there; only Derek remained. He was still dressed casually in jeans and a polo shirt, and Elissa suddenly wondered if she ought to follow Janelle's advice and close the door. He looked up and saw her.

    "Janelle went to look for Peter," he said. "She'll be back in a minute."

    "Okay," she answered. After a few seconds of silence, Derek rose and left the room, muttering about the bathroom.

    Elissa, deciding she might as well check her email while she waited, took a seat at the computer Derek had just vacated. She clicked on the minimized internet window and started guiltily when she saw Derek's own email account already on the screen. She was about to open a new window when her sister's name jumped at her from the print.

    You were right, man. I guess I was getting too close to Janelle. You said she probably wouldn't want to do the long-distance thing and you were right. I suggested we step back and she agreed without any arguments. I didn't want to believe it. I thought she cared about me but I guess you were right.

    There was more, but Elissa couldn't see anything more, as her vision had suddenly turned a blinding red. Hastily she minimized the window and rose from the computer so that he wouldn't see her reading his mail. Hot tears had sprung to her eyes and she had no idea why they were there, exactly. She was such a mix of emotions that she couldn't decide which one was foremost: anger, incredulity, disappointment.

    Derek had been talking to Mark about Janelle! And apparently it had been his idea to "step back," not Mark's. What reason could he possibly have? Why was it any of his business? Why would Mark listen to him if he really cared about Janelle? Most importantly, why was she so horribly upset about this?

    Because there's no way…no way…I can fall for someone who hurt Janelle, she thought miserably. To make matters worse, she knew that she'd been in danger of doing just that. Recently she'd been noticing his attractiveness, but she knew he had other qualities, too. He was hardworking, patient, dedicated, and loyal. Now she had, in the interests of honesty, to add presumptuous, inconsiderate and careless to that list. He could have had no way of knowing her sister's feelings; she doubted it had occurred to him to care. He'd doled out advice without knowing the whole story.

    She paused in her mental rant. What had happened to all of Janelle's emails? Mark couldn't possibly believe she wasn't interested anymore if he'd gotten them. Just another mystery, she thought grimly, determined to find out, if possible.

    Derek returned from the bathroom and looked as if he was about to say something to her. At the sight of her grave face and red eyes, however, he refrained. When Janelle entered a moment later, Elissa stood, swept up her bag, and left without a glance in his direction.

    She considered telling Janelle what she'd discovered. She debated it during the walk home and in the elevator, and all the way into her bedroom. Finally she decided that Janelle had suffered enough at the hands of Mark Clifford. She didn't need to know that he was spineless on top of everything else.

    *Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar is one of my all-time favorite books. It's hilarious for kids and adults alike.

    Chapter Twenty-one

    Posted on 2009-07-04

    If Derek Foster had been asked to name the most frustrating person of his acquaintance, he would have named Jessica Clifford, followed closely by Elissa Johnson. He'd been less than impressed during her phone interview, when she'd come across as just another twenty-two-year-old college grad with a liberal arts degree and no job prospects, ready to make a quick buck. Though if he were honest with himself, he couldn't tell anymore if she'd really come off that way, or if he'd just assumed it all.

    He'd seen her talent early; when the sisters had arrived he was already looking for a replacement for Gina's class. Janelle had at first impressed him with her steady, sweet temper. She never raised her voice in class. He'd seriously considered her for Gina, until he saw Elissa reaching, entertaining, and teaching students that Jenny, a talented teacher in her own right, had never been able to crack. Even her junior class was showing signs of gradual improvement.

    From there it had become easier to notice more and more things to admire about her. She was young, of course, but not immature or flighty; she was decidedly pretty; she was intelligent and witty without being overbearing or abrasive. The only off-putting thing about her was her behavior to him, which changed so quickly that it sometimes left him dizzy.

    At first she'd been indifferent, and while he hadn't quite appreciated being regarded as another piece of office furniture, he could accept it. When they'd inhabited the same apartment he'd been fairly preoccupied fighting his growing attraction to her, so he couldn't say for sure how she'd felt then. But a few weeks later her attitude toward him had dripped with scorn and disdain, and he didn't think he'd ever forget their conversation in the salsa bar when he'd learned that…that…man…had returned to Korea.

    He didn't think he'd been imagining the warming of her manner to him over the last week or two, though. Their eyes had met on a number of occasions and she hadn't looked away immediately; she had blushed more frequently and had seemed unsure of what to do or say around him. All signs had indicated a positive change, and while he wasn't sure why it had occurred he was glad.

    So he was thrown for a loop again when she suddenly turned cold so quickly that he thought he might get frostbite. Every time he tried to talk to her and got quick, almost sharp, answers, he searched his memory for something he might have done that could justify this behavior, and came up blank. After a particularly short and uncomfortable conversation about summer vacation, when she'd stalked out of the room, Kyle turned to him with a bemused look on his face.

    "What'd you do to her this time?"

    Derek shook his head. "I don't remember doing anything."

    Kyle thought for a minute. "You don't think that's the problem, do you?"

    "Huh?"

    "Well, she's been sending some fairly strong signals for a couple of weeks and you still haven't asked her out, have you?"

    Derek stared at his cousin. "Asked her out?"

    "Oh, come on, man," Kyle chuckled. "It's not like it's a secret that you like the girl. Be a good cuz and ask her out tomorrow, will ya? I've got ten bucks riding on it."

    "Y-you're kidding," Derek protested, his mouth dry.

    "Not really, no."

    "You really think that's why she's mad at me?"

    "Maybe."

    Derek thought about it and then shook his head. "She doesn't seem like the type to get mad just because a man didn't ask her out. She seems more like someone who'd think it was his loss."

    "It would be," Kyle pointed out. "Mine too. I wasn't kidding about those ten bucks."

    Derek glowered at him.

    As June turned into July, Elissa wondered if Derek and Kyle had both lost their minds.

    No matter how dismissive and curt she was with Derek, he hovered about her constantly, asking about her plans for the vacation and trying to impart his own. He jumped into every conversation she attempted to hold with the other teachers, and tried to draw her into his own discussions. Meanwhile, Kyle had decided that his mission was to make her talk to his cousin again, and every conversation included a variation of "You know, Derek knows a lot more about this than I do. Why don't you ask him?"

    As summer vacation approached, Elissa grew delirious with joy over the prospect of not having to talk to either of them for an entire week. She, Janelle, and Carla – who had begun her job at Mr. Cho's school just before vacation – had made plans to rent a suite of rooms in the middle of Seoul and spend the week visiting places of interest. Both women missed Carla; since Mark's departure Jessica had gradually stopped trying to be Janelle's friend, a defection that at least bothered Janelle very little.

    On the first day of their vacation, the three women left their hotel room early and headed for Gyeongbokgung, the largest of the major palaces. They paid the admission fee and walked along the wide, beaten pathways around the colorfully reconstructed buildings. Families sat on the grass next to the gravel paths, eating and chatting while the children ran around. It was really a rather idyllic scene, Elissa thought, as long as one didn't think about the fact that the children weren't really supposed to be climbing the trees or feeding the carp in the lake squid-flavored snacks. In the middle of the palace was a large reservoir, near the back of which stood a pavilion built in the same style as the other palace buildings. Elissa pictured the richly dressed monarchs of dynasties past holding elaborate parties on that pavilion.

    The condition of the palace as nearly all reconstructed, not original, underlined for them the tragedy of the Japanese invasion and occupation, and all the other invasions before and after that. Nearly all of the cultural landmarks in the city had been almost completely destroyed over the centuries. In Seoul there had been only one still standing: Namdaemun, the Great South Gate, but in early 2008 a disgruntled farmer had set fire to the gate, nearly burning it to the ground*. Currently there was a giant mural around the site, where construction workers were laboring to restore it.

    But the South Gate was not their destination today, though Elissa was determined to visit both it and its famous outdoor market. Instead they walked from Gyeongbokgung to Insa-dong, an old-fashioned cobblestone street with souvenir stores, antique shops, art galleries, and tea shops on either side. Carla had insisted on going on Saturday, since the streets were closed to cars on the weekends and shopkeepers were free to place their wares on the sidewalks for better perusal.

    They spent the better part of the afternoon wandering up one side of the street and down the other, buying the occasional souvenir for their families and admiring wistfully the items they could never afford. Elissa could have spent the entire day in a store that sold lacquered wooden furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl, while Janelle was entranced by hand-painted paper fans.

    Finally, exhausted with strolling around, they retired to a grill restaurant down one of the alleys and treated themselves to a delicious dinner. They headed back towards their hotel and wandered around until they had found a hopeu – a bar with booths and tables and a relaxed, quiet atmosphere – at which to sit, chat companionably, and drink maekju until they were ready to head back to their beds.

    All in all, Elissa thought happily as she drifted off to sleep, it was turning out to be a wonderfully relaxing vacation. Unfortunately, she was awakened in the middle of the night by a loud clap of thunder, and had to let the sound of falling rain lull her back to sleep.

    Carla huffed the next morning when she looked out the window and saw the rain falling down in sheets, accompanied by the occasional flash of lightning and growl of thunder. "Serves us right for trying to do outdoor stuff during the rainy season," she grumbled. There was no way they could go to the outdoor market today.

    "Cheer up," Janelle said from her laptop at the suite's desk. "We can always go to one of the museums. The War Memorial Museum sounds interesting."

    The others agreed to Janelle's plan, and soon they were on a subway train headed for the museum. It was a large, impressive building, both inside and out. It was more than a memorial for the Korean War, which had never quite ended; it featured exhibits about the history of warfare on the oft-invaded peninsula, as well as dioramas depicting famous battles. Elissa couldn't help but find the dioramas amusing; she stood transfixed before one scene of a water battle, which resembled nothing so much as a badly performed puppet show.

    Elissa couldn't help thinking of Mark as they wandered around the museum. With his love of history, he would have been devouring every single tidbit of information; it probably would have taken them three times as long to get through it if he'd been with them. She glanced at her sister to see if Janelle had made a similar connection, but her sister's face was so smooth and serene that she couldn't tell.

    All in all it was an agreeable second morning on vacation, and they were ready to adjourn for lunch. As they approached the exit, Carla did a double take and started waving, a large smile on her face. Janelle and Elissa followed her gaze, and Elissa just managed to swallow her groan.

    There, coming out of the museum gift shop, were Kyle and Derek.

    *2008 Namdaemun Fire

    Chapter Twenty-two

    Posted on 2009-07-12

    "Fancy meeting you ladies here!" Kyle said as he and his cousin joined the group. Derek didn't say anything, but nodded at their greetings. "Did you just finish?"

    "We were going to find some lunch," Carla replied.

    "You should come with us. We're going to a burrito place just up the road."

    "I don't remember agreeing to that," Derek interrupting. "It's pouring out. If the place is crowded we'd have to eat outside."

    "They expanded last year; it's not nearly as crowded anymore," Kyle informed him, a wheedling note in his voice. "If it is we can just go to THUNDER Burger."

    Elissa laughed. Kyle had said the name in a dramatic tone, as if it were all capital letters.

    "I hate Thunder Burger," Derek reminded him, but he was clearly giving in.

    "Are the burritos good, then?" Janelle asked.

    "The guy who owns it lived in Mexico for a while. They're the best burritos in the city."

    They hailed a cab and zoomed up the street, and soon Elissa found herself sitting across a table from Derek, who was watching her…not quite intently, but steadily. She sipped at her Coke and hoped lunch would be over quickly.

    "I didn't know you planned on going to the museum," he said conversationally.

    Elissa gulped her soda. "We didn't." She had an uneasy feeling that she remembered him mentioning the museum as part of his own plans. "We were going to go to Namdaemun, but with the rain we figured it wouldn't be a good idea."

    "There's a great arts and crafts store there. It's perfect for buying presents and class supplies. I could show it to you if you want," he said offhandedly.

    "Oh…uh…actually I don't know if we're…"

    "It's supposed to clear up tomorrow, with some showers in the afternoon. It'll be enough to keep most people away from the market, so it won't be nearly as crowded."

    Elissa felt herself about to give in. She really wanted to see the market, but she wasn't wild about crowds. If he was telling the truth…

    Derek, probably feeling that he wasn't getting anywhere trying to convince Elissa alone, turned to Carla. "What do you think about trying the market tomorrow?" He explained the forecast again.

    "Sounds great!" Carla enthused. "And we can go to the Alpha Store."

    Derek looked momentarily thrown. "You…know where it is?"

    "Of course I do. I bought my box of 120 Crayola crayons there. Also my window markers. It's awesome."

    "Well, that's good news for you," Elissa said to Derek. "You don't have to show me after all."

    "Well…yes, but I…"

    "Namdaemun's too much fun to pass up." Kyle came to Derek's rescue. "If you ladies don't mind, I propose we do some stuff together. Bigger groups are always more fun."

    Carla and Janelle agreed happily, but Elissa couldn't have disagreed more, and if the look on Derek's face was any indication, he didn't exactly agree either. Sighing inwardly, though, she consented. Carla and Janelle would ask awkward questions if she didn't. And she didn't mind Kyle so much, when he wasn't throwing Derek at her.

    Sunday dawned gray and humid, but there was no rain in sight yet. The three women made their way to one of the gates of the market, where they'd agreed to meet the men. Even with the threat of rain, and quite a few stalls closed on Sunday, there were still plenty of people around, and lots of strange merchandise to see.

    The market itself was like a giant maze, with smaller alleys leading off the main ones. Some shopkeepers sat quietly in their stalls, while others stood in the street, clapping their hands for attention and shouting about their wares. The group of foreigners would have felt that they'd been hurtled back a few centuries, if it weren't for the knock-off Coach and Dolce & Gabanna bags, the cell phones, and the remote control vehicles.

    Everywhere they looked were contrasting elements. One shop specialized in hanbok, traditional formal wear, while the one next to it was overrun with Christmas decorations. A Buddhist monk wandered down the street, offering prayers at the tents that served ddeokbokgi and roasted seafood. Every now and then, a delivery scooter would labor mightily to fight its way through the crowds, honking as unperturbed shoppers continued their leisurely pace. Elissa's personal favorite was the man who pulled a cart piled high with broken-down boxes. In front of him walked a small dog of indeterminate origin. The dog had been trained to bark at people who walked in front of the heavy cart, warning them to get out of the way.

    The sisters followed the others to the Alpha Store; they had one or two branches of the franchise in Kwangpo, but none of them were this large or expansive and, as Carla pointed out, they didn't have "Crayon Corner." "Crayon Corner" was instantly recognizable by the large Crayola sign over it, and it contained almost every Crayola product ever made.

    Finally they'd made all their purchases and adjourned for lunch. Before they parted ways, Kyle invited the women to join them for drinks that night in Hongdae.

    "Don't you hate Hongdae?" Elissa asked Derek.

    Derek looked surprised. "Not really. The meat market bars should be avoided, but there are some nice places, too."

    What had he meant by that comment so long ago, then? Elissa thought about it as they got ready for the evening. The men were going to show them some "chilling" bars, as they called them, so she hoped there wouldn't be any dancing. It would be best to avoid a situation like Mark's goodbye party.

    The bar was good for sitting and talking, but Elissa, dizzy from the cigarette smoke and uneasy with Derek's continued observation of her, soon headed out onto the small balcony to get some fresh air. She breathed deeply, hoping she could get through this night without exploding. Every time she looked at Derek, she saw that email in his inbox.

    "You okay?"

    Elissa jumped at the sound of his voice, and tried to hide her irritation that he'd followed her out here. "I'm fine. I just wanted some fresh air."

    "I…" He took a deep breath. "I wanted to talk to you." Without waiting for her answer, he plunged ahead. "Look, I don't date much. At all, really. I haven't gotten involved with anyone over here because it never seemed like it would last. And a lot of people here are closer to your age than mine, so we're usually looking for completely different things in a relationship."

    His words from the welcome party, talking about dating kids, suddenly intruded themselves on her memory and stoked her irritation.

    "I've tried not to, but I like you a lot. I know you're younger than I am, but you seem mature enough. We might not have much in common besides teaching, but I've decided we could give it a try anyway." He stopped and looked at her expectantly.

    She stared at him. That was it? That was his idea of asking someone out?

    "Wow," she said with a short laugh. "I am almost without words."

    His forehead wrinkled. "Excuse me?"

    "You've tried not to like me? I seem mature enough? You've decided we could give it a try? When did you plan on consulting me about this decision? Or is my opinion completely irrelevant here?"

    He looked more confused than ever. "So…you don't want to go out with me?"

    "Shocking as it may seem, no, I don't," Elissa snapped. "Maybe you'd know that if you paid more attention to what other people might be feeling or thinking. Or if you just asked them."

    "But…"

    "You're not all-knowing, you know. Contrary to what you seem to think, you can't just assume that you know how a person feels!"

    He frowned. "Why do I get the feeling that we're not talking about you anymore?"

    "I'm talking about Janelle," she said, and had the satisfaction of watching his face lose a little color. "What were you thinking, telling Mark she didn't care about him? And telling him to test her? Tell her he wanted to back off when he didn't? What kind of twisted logic is that?"

    "Where exactly are you getting this information?" he interrupted, now looking very angry.

    "I…I saw your email. By accident."

    "And then you read it? By accident?" he mocked. "Very respectful."

    "Oh, I beg your pardon," Elissa sneered. She fought the urge to curtsey. "I forgot what happens to people who don't respect Mr. Head Teacher."

    "And now we're back to him, I guess." Derek shook his head, suddenly looking no longer angry, but disappointed. "I thought you had more sense, Elissa."

    "Clearly you didn't, if you thought I'd ever go out with you!"

    "You shouldn't believe everything he tells you, and as for Mark and Janelle…"

    "It doesn't matter what he said about you, it doesn't matter what you did or didn't do to Janelle," Elissa interrupted, close to tears. "Did you even hear yourself? Why on earth would I go out with someone like you? You're arrogant, you're overbearing, and you're selfish. That pathetic attempt to ask me out just clinched it for me."

    Derek tried to interrupt her.

    "I kept hoping you'd be different. You're such a good teacher, you care so much about Gina…but maybe you don't care. Maybe you were tired of trying to break through to her. Maybe that's why you gave up."

    Elissa saw his hands clench and knew that she'd either gone too far, or hit the nail on the head. She kept expecting him to reply. He opened his mouth to reply and closed it several times. In the end, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the bar without another word.

    Elissa stood outside alone, taking deep cleansing breaths, and then walked in to excuse herself back to the hotel. She couldn't handle the thought of staying out any longer.

    Chapter Twenty-three

    Posted on 2009-07-19

    Elissa pretended to be asleep when Janelle and Carla came home. She kept trying to really fall asleep, but Derek's expressions from the balcony kept playing in her head over and over again. Sometimes she wanted to cry in disappointment, other times she wanted to scream and pound something in frustration. Finally, just as the sky was beginning to turn light gray, she drifted off to sleep.

    A few hours later, she awoke and saw that the other two women were still sleeping, so she headed for Janelle's laptop to check her email. As soon as she opened the inbox she saw a new message. It was from Derek's email account, and the time stamp said he'd sent it at two o'clock that morning. Elissa took a small amount of pleasure in the knowledge that he'd obviously not slept well either. She was ready to delete it, but the subject line, which simply read "Please read this," gave her pause.

    She clicked on the message and began to read.

    Elissa –

    Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you out again. You made your feelings perfectly clear. But I have to reply to some of the things you said last night. Since we can't seem to really talk without arguing, I figured I'd write it all down and let you read it at your own pace.

    I know what email you were talking about. Mark told me I was right about Janelle not caring about him, and that she hadn't put up a fight about backing off. I was surprised to read that. I thought it was an incredibly immature thing to have done, and I replied to his email to tell him so.

    I think Janelle is beautiful, personable, and a talented teacher. I just wasn't sure what to think of her otherwise; Mark has a habit for falling for pretty faces on a regular basis. The fact that she seemed to be close friends with Jessica didn't bode well. Jessica is Mark's cousin, but other than that they have nothing in common. It's almost impossible to be friends with both. However, I haven't seen them together recently, so I might be wrong.

    When Mark left, he told me that he felt he could be "serious" with Janelle. I felt that I ought to warn him that a young woman like Janelle wouldn't want to wait for an unspecified length of time in a relationship. I advised him to find out about how she felt about long-distance relationships. I didn't think he'd do something like this. However, he mentioned that he hasn't received any emails from her at all since then. I have to admit that I would take this to mean that she doesn't care for him. As you pointed out, though, I am not all-knowing.

    As for Gina, I have to tell you that I thought long and hard about telling you her story. It's really not my story to tell, but at this point you need to know so you can continue to help her. Her story is unfortunately linked with Joel Kingston's.

    Joel Kingston was hired at Kids Institute in my second year. He was likable and entertaining in the classroom, which made him a popular teacher. For about six months he was the school's example of everything a teacher should be. I was fooled for a while too, until I took over one of his afternoon classes. I'd known the students since the year before and I was looking forward to teaching them again. Imagine my surprise when I found that their English had actually gotten worse since I taught them last. Their pronunciation was terrible, and they spent every class period shouting for a "game" instead of paying attention to their work. They told me that their class time was usually spent filling out the book pages as quickly as possible, and then playing bingo or hangman for the rest of the period.

    When I confronted Joel about all this, he laughed and reminded me that results don't matter in this business, just the appearance of results. Unfortunately I couldn't argue with his logic. Most of the time that is all that matters to parents and even hagwon owners, but I don't like hearing teachers talk that way. Still, I was willing to let it go. Mrs. Song wouldn't care as long as he kept students, and the debate would have given me a headache. I reminded myself that not everyone who comes here is dedicated to the job; sometimes they're here for the experience or the money.

    Joel had such a good reputation – undeservedly – that when Gina's parents moved to the neighborhood they offered to pay an obscene amount of money for private lessons with him. Gina was Korean-age sixteen at the time, I think fifteen by our system. She started the lessons with him and everything seemed to go well for a while…until I walked by the bathrooms and heard someone crying in the girls'. I sent Yoon Teacher in and she came out leading a red-eyed Gina, who couldn't even look me in the face. Yoon Teacher made me leave while she talked to Gina; she was nearly hysterical.

    Elissa, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to write. There are so many stories in Korea's media about "foreigners gone wild," so many false reports and rumors and unconfirmed stories. We have to fight against prejudice and discrimination every day on this job. But one way to do that is to take action against the very few who do go wrong. I thought I'd done my duty as far as that went but apparently I failed.

    Gina didn't want to go to class because Joel had been acting inappropriately toward her. She said he was always telling her how beautiful she was, inviting her to go dancing and to dinner, and once tried to convince her to visit his apartment so he could lend her a book. She refused each time, and she said that each time he grew more insistent.

    Mrs. Song was ready to fire him on the spot when she heard about it, but I insisted on talking to Joel first. No matter how bad of a teacher he was, he didn't deserve to be unfairly labeled as a predator. I'd heard of schools being ruined by unfounded claims. So I talked to him.

    He didn't deny it. In fact, he said she'd left out quite a bit. When I asked him what he'd thought to accomplish, he pointed out how rich her parents are. He'd planned to have her meet him somewhere and then ransom her "honor." I can almost hear the words "statutory rape" screaming from your brain. You probably don't know this, but the legal age of consent in Korea is thirteen. If she went with him willingly, nobody could prosecute him. He insisted that he'd never intended to do anything to her; he only wanted to make her fall for him a little so that he could make some extra money.

    Instead, he ended up scaring her. She'd heard all the stories, fact and fiction, of evil waygookin* doing unspeakable things to young Korean women, and she was terrified. She was so sure that he would try something in class that day that she was refusing to go.

    I took her statement, as well as Joel's, to Mrs. Song. She was furious. It was one thing to waste time in class; it was quite another to attempt a kidnapping. There was a very long, very loud discussion. At the end of it, Joel was fired. He was to pay for his own plane ticket home. Luckily for him, he'd passed the six-month mark so he couldn't be held responsible for his ticket here. He was ordered to move out of school property by the end of the day. The next thing I knew he was gone. I advised her to flag his passport, and it wasn't until Mark's goodbye party, when you told me he was back in the country, that I found she hadn't done it. Gina's parents considered pulling her out, but they calmed down when Joel left. I inherited Gina's class, but she was so terrified of male foreigners now that I couldn't do anything with her. That is why I gave up, as you so eloquently put it tonight.

    I did give up because I knew I couldn't get anywhere with her. No matter how patient and kind I was to her, she would suspect me of ulterior motives. He hurt her terribly, destroyed her trust. So I started looking for someone who could help her with that. It had to be a woman, and she had to be kind and compassionate, as well as lively and affectionate without being smothering. It wouldn't do to frighten her again.

    So I chose you. I thought – and still think – that you were ideal for the position. I hope you continue to make progress with her, and that she will learn to trust foreigners again. Some of us might be unpleasant people, but we're not all evil.

    I'm telling you all of this so you can continue to help her. Also I think it would be wise to distance yourself from Joel as much as possible. Reputations have a habit of spreading here; there's a definite culture of guilt by association. Living and teaching in Korea can be really rewarding if you do it right, and I want you to experience as much of the positive, and as little of the negative, as possible.

    If you've managed to read this far, thank you for your attention. I know some of it was difficult to learn, but I never thought you were one to shy away from a challenge.

    Have a great vacation.

    Derek

    Chapter Twenty-four

    Posted on 2009-07-25

    For a few terrible minutes, Elissa wished she'd deleted Derek's email when she'd had the chance. Once she began reading it, it was impossible to stop, and she read it two or three times, her emotions more and more of a muddle with each repeated perusal. She read the few paragraphs about Mark in humiliation. As much as she would have loved to blame his defection on Derek's faulty advice, she should have known that someone as steady and almost painfully honest as Derek would never have suggested such an underhanded scheme in the first place. Now that she thought about it, it sounded much more like something Jessica would have suggested.

    The mystery of Janelle's undelivered or unanswered emails intrigued her, but as there was nothing she could do to solve it at the moment, she moved on to contemplating the other half of the email. She resolved, though, to think about it at length later.

    Gina's story oppressed and horrified her, and added to all that was the humiliation of having actually dated Joel, albeit for a short time. She'd trusted him enough to believe his reasons for leaving Kids Institute, though not for long thanks to Janelle's interference. She'd known after a little while that something was up with him, that he was a little too good to be true, but she'd never suspected him of anything like this. How could anyone concoct such a plan against an innocent girl like Gina? He might not have been bold enough to truly seduce her, but he'd destroyed her peace all the same.

    The fact that Derek had insisted on giving Joel an opportunity to defend himself surprised her. He'd known Joel was a less than perfect teacher, and probably had little reason to trust him, but he'd gone to him anyway. All too often, Elissa knew, the smallest hint of an accusation of harassment could end someone's career – in any country. Derek was clearly loyal to his colleagues.

    Furthermore, his compliments to her, his confidence in her abilities, his belief in her dedication, and his concern for her reputation were enough to make her want to cry. After the insulting way he'd asked her out the night before, and the even more abusive way she'd answered him, she never would have expected him to be so courteous. Clearly she'd never known him at all, and she wondered why she'd ever thought she had.

    The rustle of sheets behind her startled her, and she quickly closed the browser window and tried to nonchalantly lower the screen of the laptop. Janelle was emerging, sleepy-eyed, from the hideaway bed and smiled drowsily at her sister.

    "Good morning," Elissa said in what was meant to be a cheerful voice. "I was just checking my email; I hope you don't mind."

    "Of course not," Janelle answered. "How long have you been awake?"

    "Not too long," Elissa fibbed. "Did you have a good time after I left?"

    "Pretty good. Kyle took us to another nice bar and we sat and talked for a while. He really is very nice."

    "Yeah," Elissa sighed and rose from her seat before the computer. "I'm sorry I ran out on you guys. I just really didn't feel like being out anymore."

    "Derek left around the same time you did, not long after he followed you outside. What happened?"

    Elissa bit back a swear word. She should have known Janelle would have noticed, and she wasn't sure she wanted to tell her sister in front of Carla, even though the latter was still sleeping. She shrugged.

    "I guess neither of us felt like being out."

    Janelle eyed her sternly. "I'm hungry," she said. "Let's leave Carla a note and go have breakfast."

    Elissa sighed. "I'm not really hungry," she tried.

    Janelle stood, swept her hair into a quick ponytail, and slipped on her sneakers. "Let's go," she said firmly.

    Elissa knew there was no point arguing with her older sister at times like this. Some people thought Janelle was a pushover but sometimes, Elissa thought grumpily, she could be really bossy. Then she smiled because that thought had felt so childish. She scribbled a note for Carla and followed her sister out of the door.

    "So where'd you disappear to last night?" Kyle asked.

    Derek flushed. "Just felt like going home."

    "Alone?"

    "What?"

    "Elissa left right after you did."

    "Coincidence."

    "Oh, really?"

    "Leave it alone, Kyle," Derek said, a note of real warning in his voice.

    Kyle stopped flipping through the television channels and looked at his cousin. "Are you okay?"

    "I'm fine."

    "Yeah, you sure sound it," Kyle mocked.

    "Did you have a good time after I left?"

    "Yeah. Janelle and Carla are a lot of fun." He scowled at the TV. "Mark's a real jerk to have left her hanging."

    Derek shrugged. He really didn't feel like talking about anything regarding the Johnson sisters for a while. "What's on Discovery?" he asked, to change the subject.

    Kyle eyed him warily from the couch. "You want to watch Discovery? Are you sure you're feeling all right?"

    Derek grabbed the remote control from him and changed the channel. "Good. 'Dirty Jobs*.' Always makes me feel better about ours."

    His cousin snorted and allowed him to change the subject.

    *"Dirty Jobs" does not belong to me, but it has afforded me much amusement while here in Korea.

    Chapter Twenty-five

    Posted on 2009-08-10

    The girls ordered their breakfasts; Elissa got cups of water while Janelle arranged chopsticks and spoons on the table. As they waited for their meals, Janelle folded her hands on the table and raised her eyebrows at her sister.

    Elissa took a deep breath and recounted the events of the evening, leaving out everything about Mark. She kind of enjoyed watching Janelle's face throughout the story; Janelle was a wonderful audience. She gasped and squealed at all the right places, her eyes grew wide and her hands flew to her mouth. When Elissa was finished relating the whole asking-out fiasco, Janelle looked like she was between laughing and crying. In the end she decided to laugh a little.

    "I'm sorry," she said at Elissa's offended look. She moved her hands off the table to allow room for the dishes of food. "But I was just picturing Derek's face…and yours. I'm sure it was terrible. It sounds terrible, but the mental picture – standing toe-to-toe, spitting mad – I'm sorry."

    "Well," Elissa said grumpily, "you won't be so amused when you find out what he told me about Joel." She told him everything in Derek's email that related to Gina and Joel. This time, when she was finished, Janelle showed absolutely no inclination to laugh. Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes.

    "I have no idea what to say," she said finally, moving her food around on her plate with her spoon. "I always knew something was fishy about Joel's story, but this is just terrible. How could he do something like that?"

    "I have no idea," Elissa sighed. She toyed with her own breakfast. "I feel like such an idiot."

    "It wasn't your fault," Janelle said quickly.

    "Not entirely, maybe," Elissa said. "But I can't believe the way I talked to him. I mean, I can't believe I talked to anybody that way, but…I was starting to like him."

    "That probably made it worse," Janelle said gently.

    "Probably." Elissa shook her head. "Definitely. He looks like somebody you'd see in a romantic movie. Why couldn't he sound like one too?"

    "Mark seemed like the nicest, most considerate guy in the world. Look how that turned out."

    As much as Elissa would have liked to disagree, she couldn't, especially after Derek's email. Mark had definitely revealed himself to be immature and thoughtless, even if he wasn't deliberately cruel.

    Janelle looked at their plates and smiled. "I don't think either of us is hungry after all. Carla's probably up by now, and she's set on going to the traditional village today. We'd better go if we don't want to hear from her."

    Elissa wasn't sure what was worse as they walked through the tiled houses: Janelle's sympathetic, almost-pitying glances or Carla's questioning gazes. She gazed intently at the houses and the furniture that had been placed inside them. Several houses had been moved from their previous locations to form the village, and a picturesque lake and garden had been added to make it seem more natural.

    Carla laughed out loud as they neared one compound. Cardboard figures had been set up, painted in traditional hanbok, with their faces cut out, as if they were on a boardwalk somewhere.

    "Come on," she cajoled the sisters. "One of you will have to be the man, but it'll be great!"

    "Forget it," Janelle said with a grin. "I'd rather try on the real thing." She pointed at the house, where other tourists were looking through a rack of brightly colored robes and dresses. Inside the house, the people already dressed in the robes were getting their pictures taken.

    "Go for it, but you're on your own," Elissa smiled. "I'll take your picture."

    Janelle hopped up onto the porch and handed the woman in charge a five thousand won note; the older woman smiled and gestured to the garments. Within minutes Janelle was sporting a voluminous pink skirt, a white long-sleeved blouse, and various other trappings that actually looked quite ravishing on her.

    "Rats," Carla grumbled good-naturedly as Elissa snapped the picture. "I keep hoping we'll find something that makes her look ridiculous, but it's impossible."

    Elissa smiled proudly. "That's my older sister: making all the women of the world insecure one day at a time."

    "Oh, whatever," Carla scoffed as Janelle left to take off her finery. "You're the most self-confident person I know."

    "Don't make it sound so much like a virtue," Elissa replied.

    "Isn't it?"

    "Not when I end up making an idiot of myself."

    "Ah. So now we're talking about whatever happened with Derek." Carla gave Elissa a searching look.

    "No, we're really not." Elissa turned away, hating that she was blushing.

    Carla shrugged. "You're the one who brought it up. It's not like I'm surprised, though; you guys were always firecrackers waiting to go off."

    Janelle walked up and led the way to the central courtyard, where several old-fashioned games were set up. Elissa, ready to work off some stress, jumped on one end of a board set up like a seesaw, trying to dislodge Carla from the other end. Janelle threw feathered sticks, trying to get them to land in shallow metal cups.

    Finally, they followed a winding cement path down into a deep basin, where a time capsule had been buried a few years before. They read descriptions of what had been buried in the capsule, which would not be dug up until Seoul's thousandth birthday. By the time they headed back to the hotel, Elissa had almost forgotten that anything had happened with Derek.

    Unfortunately, that email was still sitting in her inbox when she returned to the hotel, ready to remind her of everything that had somehow gotten so messed up.

    Chapter Twenty-six

    Posted on 2009-08-29

    By the time vacation ended, Elissa thought she might have been more relaxed if she'd been working that week. The odd hours when she could forget about how badly she'd treated Derek were bliss, but they were few and far between. Near the end of the week she transferred her worries to Carla, who had enjoyed her vacation immensely and would have to return to Mr. Cho's hagwon that coming Monday. Elissa would have expected to hear a little more complaining; she knew that she would have plenty to say, but Carla was determinedly cheerful.

    On Sunday afternoon the three women returned to Kwangpo and prepared to return to work. Peter had warned the Kids Institute teachers that mid-term reports for the kindergarten and elementary students would be due at the end of August, and recommended that they plan out what they were going to write before they received the actual forms.

    The sisters spent most of Sunday doing just that, writing down strengths and weaknesses of their students, and recommendations for improvement. Elissa was grateful for the distraction, because she was really dreading going to the school the next day. She didn't doubt that Derek would be perfectly civil to her, but she didn't really deserve sympathy.

    And she hadn't answered his email, either. It was a task she really wasn't looking forward to, but it had to be done. With a very reluctant spirit, she sat at her laptop and opened a new message.

    Derek,

    Thanks for telling me about Gina. Now that I know what she's been through I'm sure I can be a better teacher for her.

    Elissa drummed her fingers on the keyboard. What on earth could she say about that night? About the way she had talked to him? About how much she had started to like him before he'd opened his mouth and sounded like a giant jerk? She was still staring hopelessly at the message when an instant message popped up on her screen. Her heart skipped a beat when she recognized the screen name: it was the same as Derek's email ID.

    DFoster: Elissa? Are you there?

    She toyed with the idea of not answering, of pretending that she had wandered away from her computer and forgotten to log out, but she'd been rude enough where Derek was concerned.

    ElJay: Yes, I'm here. I was just writing to you, actually.

    There was a long pause.

    ElJay: You still there?

    DFoster: Yes. Why were you writing to me?

    ElJay: I don't usually let emails go so long unanswered.

    There was another long pause.

    DFoster: So you didn't delete it?

    ElJay: No, I didn't.

    DFoster: I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about Saturday. I don't think I said that in the email.

    ElJay: I'm sorry, too.

    DFoster: What do you have to be sorry for? I don't think you said anything that wasn't true.

    ElJay: Even if that was the case, I should have been nicer to you.

    Elissa didn't mention that she was surprised that he acknowledged that she might have been right.

    DFoster: I honestly don't know what happened with Mark. He insists he hasn't gotten any calls or emails from Janelle.

    ElJay: She called or wrote him every day until she got that email from him. I wonder how he got her reply if he didn't get any others?

    DFoster: I'm no Hardy boy. I just know that what you've told me and what Mark's told me don't add up.

    Elissa thought for a minute and decided that this was a problem they could think about another time. After all, it wasn't like there was anything either of them could do about it.

    ElJay: Look, about Joel…I haven't believed him for a while about why he left Kids Institute, and I haven't even talked to him in a long time. He did say some pretty awful things about you, though.

    DFoster: I know. I don't know exactly what he said, but I remember that he had a talent for twisting things around to his advantage. Not that I need any help coming off as a jerk.

    Elissa, for a split second, was tempted to agree, but decided against it. After all, he was doing the self-flagellation thing just fine.

    ElJay: I hope we can work together after this without any, y'know, awkwardness.

    DFoster: Me too.

    ElJay: After all, we've still got several months left to work together.

    There was a long pause again.

    DFoster: Actually, my contract is up at the end of August. I was going to renew, but now I'm not so sure.

    Elissa's heart dropped. He couldn't mean that he would flee Korea because she'd refused to go out with him.

    ElJay: I hope it wasn't anything I said.

    DFoster: I've had a few other offers I think merit looking into. There are some university positions open, as well as an administrative position at a public school.

    ElJay: That sounds important.

    DFoster: Actually, it sounds like being a head teacher without teaching. I'm not all that excited about it, but it's a step up the ladder, so to speak. There's little enough opportunity for advancement in this career as it is.

    ElJay: Well, you'd still be in Korea, too, and I assume you like it here.

    DFoster: I do…but I've also been thinking that a change of scene might be called for. I've been here a long time.

    ElJay: How long?

    DFoster: Five years. I earned a Master's in an online course during my first few years. That's how I got the offer to teach at a university.

    ElJay: Well…good luck making a decision.

    DFoster: Yeah. Thanks. I should go; I've still got a few evaluations to figure out. Have you started yet?

    ElJay: Yeah.

    DFoster: A word of advice: forget about writing anything negative on them. I'm serious. They'll just ask you to be "nicer" and do it all over again.

    ElJay: That doesn't seem like a real evaluation, but I guess I'm not surprised.

    DFoster: Ha. Last year there was a kid who was nothing but a bully, but the teacher had to write that he had "great leadership abilities."

    ElJay: That's terrible! lol

    DFoster: You get used to it, though I hear there are actually schools out there that want real evaluations.

    ElJay: Sounds like an old wives' tale to me.

    DFoster: More like a fairy tale.

    ElJay: Well, I guess I have a lot of rewriting to do. See you tomorrow.

    DFoster: Bye.

    How was it, Elissa wondered as she logged out, that she could feel better and worse at the exact same time?

    Chapter Twenty-seven

    Posted on 2009-09-06

    When his conversation with Elissa ended, Derek didn't return to his evaluations. Instead he stared at his laptop, thinking. He opened the internet browser, went into his email account, and pulled up two emails, reading them both through carefully. He searched for all the emails Mark had sent him since he left Korea and read through them all again, and thought. He read through all the emails a third time, jotted down some notes, and thought some more.

    By the end of the evening, he was convinced that the disappointment of two people could be explained by a mixture of equal parts deviousness and pure chance, not to mention a certain amount of stupidity on one side. Mark, he was beginning to think, was not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

    The next morning when he entered the school very early, there was no one else there. He sat in the teachers' room in the dark, enjoying the quiet, and wondering how on earth he was going to tell Elissa what he suspected without inflaming her admittedly short temper. He had been angry enough when he put the pieces together – most of them anyway – and it wasn't even really his problem. Right now he was waiting for someone; he'd left an email that should have induced her to show up.

    Sure enough, the elevator bell dinged, the clack of high heels sounded in the hall, and the door opened.

    "Derek?" Jessica called. "Why are you sitting in the dark?"

    "I like the dark," he answered. "The lights hurt my eyes sometimes."

    "Oh," Jessica shrugged, sinking into the chair next to him. "Suit yourself. You said you had something to talk to me about?"

    "Yeah," Derek cleared his throat. "Have you talked to Mark recently?"

    "Sure, we've emailed a few times."

    "I tried to call him the other day and he didn't pick up. What's up with that?"

    "Oh, he got Caller ID finally. He ignores all out-of-area calls; says he feels bad hanging up on telemarketers. You have to email him and tell him what time you're going to call so he can be sure to pick up."

    "Mark can't operate anything more high-tech than a toaster," Derek pointed out. "Why'd he get a Caller ID?"

    "He asked me for advice; they're really easy to use, y'know." Jessica shrugged. "He likes it."

    Derek wondered if Janelle knew about this and filed the information away in his head to revisit later.

    "Has he mentioned anything about Janelle Johnson?"

    Jessica's face twisted a little. "He's still hung up on her, as far as I can tell. I don't understand what he sees in her. She's beautiful and sweet and everything, but really…girls like that don't go for men like Mark. She was toying with him."

    Derek counted to three and then replied, "In my experience girls of all kinds routinely go for Mark."

    "But none of them are serious, and anyway, Mark has great things coming to him. Janelle would just hold him back. I was so glad when he told me he'd given up."

    "When did he say that?"

    "Oh, a few weeks after she agreed they should step back."

    "What about all those emails she sent him?"

    "Oh, they were pathetic," Jessica snorted.

    "Mark showed them to you?"

    "Yeah," Jessica said hesitantly, "he wanted to know what I thought. I told him she was playing him."

    "Weird," Derek said, trying to keep his voice calm. "He told me he never got any emails from her."

    Jessica froze, and she glanced at the clock. "The other teachers should be here soon."

    "You deleted Janelle's messages," Derek said curtly. "How'd you get his email password?" Jessica didn't answer, but he put the pieces together for himself. "You set up his email account for him."

    "They're both the same," Jessica said suddenly. "Pretty little butterflies…Elissa too. You deserve better."

    "I don't recall asking for your opinion," Derek said coldly. "If you're telling the truth, Mark did, so he can deal with his own stupidity when I tell him what's going on." Jessica stared at him in disbelief. "He's supposed to call tonight; I told him it was important."

    Jessica stood up abruptly. "I didn't mean any harm. I was just trying to protect him!"

    "I'd like to meet the man who wanted to be 'protected' from Janelle," Derek said shortly. "He'd have to be a total idiot."

    The elevator bell sounded again and Jessica hastily walked to the front of the room and switched on the lights.

    "Tell Mark what you did," Derek said warningly. "If you don't email him by tonight, I'll know about it. I'll tell him. And you might want to have a talk with Janelle, too."

    Wordlessly Jessica went to her own desk, where she sat silently fuming as the other teachers walked in. Against his better judgment, Derek looked up and caught Elissa's eye as she entered the room. She smiled tentatively as she took the chair next to him.

    "Good vacation?" she asked conversationally.

    He shrugged, hoping he'd managed to look pleasantly nonchalant. "Decent."

    "Good. Mine too." Smiling, she turned to her desk and started opening files and books, preparing for her day.

    Despite the rather unpleasant start to the morning. Derek found himself looking forward to the rest of the day.

    Elissa was fairly satisfied with her first day back at work. She and Derek had managed to be pleasant, yet distant throughout the day, and she was even looking forward to her junior class, especially since Carl had opted not to return for the winter semester. She entered the room and was instantly pounced upon by the irrepressible Sally Kim.

    "Did you have a good summer vacation?" Elissa asked when she could get a word in.

    "It was wonderful! My family went to a hotel and a restaurant and Seoul Land!"

    "That sounds like a great vacation," Elissa agreed.

    "And I met a wonderful person. He is in the chat room I told you about. He is so nice, and he thinks I am very smart! He wants to be my friend."

    Elissa looked up, frowning. "I'm sure he does, but you need to be careful, Sally. Did you tell your parents about this man?"

    Sally stared at her with an expression that she sometimes used, as if Elissa had said something completely impossible according to all known laws of physics. "If I told them they would be angry." Her eyes grew wide. "You're not going to tell them, are you?"

    Elissa counted to three to keep herself calm, and then said, "You should always tell your parents about new friends, Sally. If this person is your friend he won't mind."

    Sally planted her hands on her hips. "If you tell them I will never forgive you! Never, never!"

    Elissa fought against the urge to roll her eyes. "I just want you to be safe."

    "I am safe," Sally said haughtily, and huffed off to her seat.

    Her good mood almost completely evaporated, Elissa approached Peter when the class was over. She expressed her concern over Sally's new internet friend, and was less than impressed with the interpreter's response.

    He hemmed and hawed for a long time before finally saying, "I am sure Sally's parents know. They are good parents."

    "She said she didn't tell them," Elissa insisted. "There are a lot of bad people out there who would take advantage of Sally."

    "I'm sure she will be fine," Peter said, shaking his head. "You shouldn't worry so much. Have a good night," he concluded, and hastily exited the room.

    Elissa shook her head in disgust and switched off the lights in the teachers' room before heading out the door.

    Chapter Twenty-eight

    Posted on 2009-09-12

    When Elissa exited the elevator in her building, still unhappy about her conversation with Peter, she found someone she hadn't seen in front of her door in a long time.

    "Jessica?"

    The blonde started and looked at Elissa, fear and guilt flickering in her eyes. "I was just…uh…is Janelle home?"

    "Yeah," Elissa frowned, "isn't she answering the door?"

    "Oh." Jessica looked back at the door as if she hadn't been staring at it a few seconds ago. "I haven't knocked yet."

    "Well, come in," Elissa said, opening the door.

    Jessica backed up a couple of steps, seemed hesitant, and then squared her shoulders and nodded. She followed Elissa into the living room and smiled cautiously at Janelle, who looked back from the couch.

    "Hi, Jessica," Janelle said. "Do you need something?"

    "I just need to talk to you," Jessica replied, glancing at Elissa nervously. "Can we maybe talk alone?"

    Elissa watched suspiciously as Janelle led Jessica into her bedroom. She sat on the couch and flipped the TV to an English-language channel showing an episode of NCIS and wished she could eavesdrop on the conversation. The look on Jessica's face made her think that fireworks were about to ensue, and she consoled herself with the conviction that Janelle would tell her everything once Jessica had left.

    Officer David was about to kick some major butt – again – when Jessica exited Janelle's bedroom and walked out of the apartment without saying a word to Elissa. Janelle came out too and fell onto the couch beside her sister.

    "What's going on?" Elissa asked, looking at her sister's stony face.

    "I don't know. I'm trying to figure that out," Janelle answered.

    "What did Jessica say?"

    "She said that she's been deleting my emails to Mark."

    "She what?" Elissa jumped to her feet.

    "Calm down, Lissy. She told me that she thought I was just toying with Mark."

    "Why would she think that? You talked to him every day!"

    "She didn't know that."

    "The hell she didn't." Elissa walked around the living room. "Why was it any of her business?"

    "She is his cousin," Janelle pointed out. "Maybe she really thought she was protecting him."

    "Protecting him is one thing. Stealing his mail is another," Elissa retorted. "I can't believe you're not angry about this!"

    "I'm furious," her sister said calmly. "I don't think I've ever been angrier in my life. But Jessica isn't the only person responsible, and I'll have plenty to say to Mark the next time I talk to him."

    "When will that be?"

    "Jessica told him to call me tomorrow night. He'll probably apologize."

    "Then you can pick up where you left off."

    "I don't want to do that. We were nowhere, nothing when he disappeared. We hadn't even decided if we were going to be exclusive or ever see each other again."

    "So what are you going to do?"

    "Elissa!" Janelle exclaimed, exasperated. "Why do I have to have all the answers right this minute? I have to think about it, and you asking me all these questions isn't helping me!"

    "I'm sorry." Elissa sat down again, contrite. "I just want to help you."

    "Everybody wants to help," Janelle said a little snippily. "I'm honestly getting a little tired of people trying to help." She looked at her sister, who looked very hurt. "I'm sorry, Lissy, but I really need to be alone right now." She stood up and walked into her bedroom, shutting the door a little too firmly.

    Later that night, in her own room, Elissa opened her laptop and logged into her email service and instant messenger. She saw Derek's screen name and sent a message.

    ElJay: So the Mark Mystery has been cleared up.

    DFoster: Really?

    ElJay: Jessica was just here and told Janelle that she was interfering.

    DFoster: Well, that's good.

    ElJay: Good? I've never seen Janelle so angry.

    DFoster: At least you know that Mark wasn't toying with Janelle, and that there isn't some weird cyberspace black hole eating all of her emails.

    ElJay: He's supposed to call her tomorrow night.

    DFoster: What's she going to do?

    ElJay: I don't know. She's pretty mad.

    Elissa stared at her screen and pondered the Sally situation. She knew that Derek would at least have good advice.

    ElJay: I have a problem. My student Sally is hanging out in a chat room and has been talking with some foreign guy. She hasn't told her parents.

    DFoster: Are the conversations inappropriate?

    ElJay: She hasn't said, but I don't trust people in chat rooms, especially men who chat up young girls.

    DFoster: Did you tell Peter about it?

    ElJay: He blew me off.

    DFoster: I'll talk to him tomorrow. He won't be happy about it, but if he doesn't do anything I'll go to Mrs. Song.

    ElJay: I don't want Sally to get in trouble; she's not doing anything wrong. I just want her to be safe.

    DFoster: Unfortunately she might get in trouble anyway, especially if her parents are conservative. If you want her to be safe, though, you'll have to risk it.

    ElJay: She'll never forgive me.

    DFoster: Something you'll have to live with. Her safety is more important than her pride.

    ElJay: Thanks.

    DFoster: No problem. I hope Janelle works everything out.

    ElJay: She will. She's stronger than a lot of people think.

    DFoster: Good night.

    ElJay: Night.

    To Be Continued . . .

    © 2009 Copyright held by the author.