The Invasion (Part 2 of the KaiSoo Fanfic Series)

Chapter 6

Working gives Kyungsoo an outlet for his mental stress. The work he does from day to day is always different and that keeps him from thinking about Jongin and all the fears he has concerning their relationship. Kyungsoo finds a lot of similarities between his job as a caretaker and his job as a giver, but unlike in The Dome, he feels more at ease with what he's doing, where he is, and who he's with. Ahyoung gets to stay with him during the work day, too, so that's something he considers an additional plus. He figures that since Jongin is usually reserved all day, he has to be the one to make sure she grows up well. After all, having one parent, even if it's not a biological connection, is better than having two guardians that don't know how to love you. 

Another one of his jobs as a giver is working with the handful of children that live in Kohara. It was a job that every giver did at least once a week, but Kyungsoo volunteered to take the whole job for himself before his first day doing it was over. Apparently, as he found out from Key, it isn't so uncommon to have freshly escaped refugees show up with children in their arms because They do a lot of experiments with genetics in The Dome and the ones that are found out in the desert are the failed experiments. That's probably why all of them are girls, is what Kyungsoo thinks. But despite the many theories that may never have proper answers, Kyungsoo finds a great passion for teaching to the girls. It's the one thing that keeps him happy to wake up in the morning, even if he wakes up with no one beside him.

Despite having no formal training in how to do so, he does his best to teach them how to write and read, which requires him to think back to the time he was in school learning. Now granted, the education of a nine-year-old boy in The Dome is drastically different from that of even younger girls in Kohara, maybe even too different, but Kyungsoo doesn't see any harm in teaching her and the other girls what he learned as a young child. He is in Kohara now, after all, the one place in the whole world that he's truly free to follow his heart.

"Good, you're doing very well, sweetie," he says to one of them as he kneels beside her to check her work. "But you don't want to hold your pencil so tight, okay? Just hold it lightly like this in between your fingers." He takes the pencil from her and positions it correctly in his hands, showing it to her and watching her face to make sure she's seeing it. "That way," he goes on, giving the pencil back to her and helping her hold it the right way, "it will last longer and everyone can see how pretty your handwriting is."

The girl smiles up at him after Kyungsoo removes his hand from around hers, saying, "Okay!" as cheerfully as she possibly can. Kyungsoo laughs at this and then moves onto the last girl. 

"How are you doing?" he says, kneeling down again so that he's a bit lower than her sitting height. 

"I think this is right," she says, lifting the small piece of paper off the desk and holding it up for Kyungsoo to see.

"Let's take a look," he says and takes it from her hands gently. "Oh, this is very good, Eunjung-ah. All of your letters are nearly perfect."

"Really?" she asks him and Kyungsoo nods, smiling at her proudly as he hums.

"You should be very proud of yourself." He lays the paper back on the desk, patting it once as he stands up. Eunjung smiles up at him with excitement and he ruffles the top of her head before walking back up to the front of the class. "Alright, ladies," he says in a loud enough voice that catches their attention and silences their chattering, "you are all doing a very good job at writing out the alphabet and you should all be proud of yourselves. We'll come back after recess and finish off the day with a craft. How does that sound?"

"Yeah!" the five of them cheer, the sound of their excitement bringing a smile to Kyungsoo's face. 

"Okay then all of you can head outside, but remember, stay with each other so that no one gets lost," he says and they all jump out of their seats and scurry outside the moment he's done talking. He chuckles a little as he watches them, checking to make sure the older girls carrying Ahyoung outside with her doesn't need his help. Once they're safely outside, he begins collecting the papers on their desks and laying them on his before joining them outside. He sits there in silence as watches them run around and play as if they don't have a care in the world.