Three of kind

Part 8

It's almost dinner time when Minjeong comes home. Karina is still at work and she has just finished a 48-hour shift with only 4 hours of sleep in between. The unusually long winter is causing not only adults to feel unwell but children as well. Panicked parents flooded the ER with their babies and toddlers in addition to other emergencies and the doctor was grateful that she managed to get those 4 precious hours of sleep.

Needless to say, she is exhausted and she can't wait to take a hot shower, relax and get her well deserved rest.

Unfortunately, that rest would have to wait.

From the moment she walks into the quiet living room and sees Karina's cousin—their most trusted and most reliable babysitter—sitting on the couch alone, she knows that something is up.

"Where's Erica?" she asks the young woman.

"In her room," replies Karina's cousin as she gets up to greet Minjeong. "She's been there since she got home from school."

"Really? That's so unlike her," says Minjeong with a frown. "Did something happen at school?"

"I don't know. She wouldn't tell me anything. But her teacher apparently told her to give you this." She takes the small envelope from the coffee table and gives it to Minjeong. It's addressed to Erica's parents.

The doctor raises her eyebrows, unsure of what's going on and anxious about what the teacher has to say.

After a long and thorough discussion with Karina and her family, both of them had recently decided to move Erica to another school, an international school, to be exact.

The decision came about after they found out about the girl being bullied at school for being half Korean and for not having a father.

They thought that an international school would be a better environment for the girl because of the diversity and the more open-minded and global view of society in general.

It took quite an intensive research but they finally made their choice. Erica passed the entrance test so she could start there as soon as the school year ended.

She's been there for a couple of months now and she seems to be adjusting well, no longer as reluctant to go to school as before. Overall, her mood has also significantly improved. When they asked whether this school was better, she said yes because she was no longer the only kid who's not 100% Korean by blood.

So it comes as a surprise to Minjeong when she reads the short message from Erica's teacher.

It contains a request for Erica's parent(s) to give the teacher a call or come by the school so they could talk. Erica has been doing well in class and her classmates like her but the teacher says that she wants to get to know her parents so she could understand the girl and help her better in school.

To Minjeong, it definitely sounds like something has happened. They have told the principal about Erica's background and their family situation and the man was supportive and welcoming, citing that there are other students there with similar, if not more complicated, family background.

She sends the babysitter home and quickly dials the number written in the note, too worried to wait for Karina to come home.

After explaining to the teacher that she is Erica's other mother, she listens to the woman who carefully reveals the events of that day.

Erica had apparently written a very good composition on family. It was so good that the teacher asked her to read it out loud in front of the class.

Her story elicited questions from some of her classmates who aren't used to the idea of an adopted child being raised by two mothers instead of a mother and a father.