Chapter 3: Tears of a Teacher

I was a transfer student.

During the summer of 1977, my parents decided to move in with my grandfather, who had expressed a strong desire to spend the last several years of his life under the same roof with his eldest son and grandchildren. He had even built a new house for this purpose in one of the booming towns near the outskirts of Seoul. I was a fifth grader with a year and a half left till graduation from an elementary school.

I clearly remember the first day that I met my teacher, Miss Kim Myung-Sun. My mom and I were in the backseat of a car that was taking us to my new school. Even before I started attending this new school, my mom had managed to intimidate me with all these horror stories about what would soon become my new school.