Sweet Summer
Sweet Summer
Before I knew it, time had flown by and it was June.
Between restaurant preparations, Qtube activities... and attending school, I'd been keeping pretty busy,
but the thought of not having to go to school for a while somehow put my mind at ease.
This time as well, my exam results were described as not exactly diligent, but not negligent either—just enough marks to earn that kind of evaluation.
Roughly where would I put it... maybe around a B?
Exactly the kind of grades that let you qualify for the National Scholarship.
Of course, in my case, I was in the 10th income bracket...
and on top of that, because of my wife A-ra, an unimaginably large amount of assets was tied to my name, so I couldn't receive the scholarship.
For a guy like me, thinking about getting a scholarship was probably not a good idea.
It was a shame, but there was nothing I could do.
The reason I suddenly brought up scholarships was because I had overheard classmates and seniors talking about National Scholarship Type 2.
Apparently, the Type 1 scholarship that ordinary people get is applied as a reduction when you pay your tuition.
But Type 2 was a format where they refund the scholarship amount you'd paid upfront.
So there were supposedly bad students who would quietly sneak it away without telling the parents who paid their tuition.
Well, maybe you couldn't call it bad since it was a scholarship they received...
But if my parent—my mother—had paid my tuition, I think I would have absolutely never been able to pull a trick like that.
"Have you guys ever gotten a scholarship?"
I asked Lee Min-ho, sitting in front of me, and Jeong Hwan-yi, sitting next to me.
The two of them shrugged, smirked, and then spoke up.
"I had a full two-year scholarship, actually?"
"So a guy with that much money went to school for free too, huh. Then from junior year on, you paid tuition?"
"Of course I paid it. With money I earned myself—that's what I'm saying!"
He seemed proud that he had paid his tuition with money he earned himself.
Well, since plenty of students pay their tuition with their parents' help, a chaebol like Lee Min-ho paying directly with his own earnings was something to be proud of.
This time I turned to Jeong Hwan-yi.
As if he had never received one before, he shook his head from side to side and let out a sigh.
"I never got one. What was it called? Income bracket 10 or something?"
"Same for me."
"Well... if we could get a scholarship, wouldn't that in itself be a problem?"
Unless it's a merit-based scholarship, it would be a problem for us to receive a scholarship meant for students below a certain income bracket.
Didn't some people oppose free school meals for similar reasons in the past?
"Well, scholarships aside... shouldn't we think about 'that thing' we have to do over summer break first?"
"Huh? Ah.......... that thing?"
The 'that thing' we had to do over summer break.
If you're a Social Welfare major, the thing you have to do even if you don't want to is none other than...
Social Welfare Field Practice.
"We need to pick a good institution to go to. Somewhere we can finish in 120 hours."
Social Welfare Field Practice requirements can be set by the institution anywhere from a minimum of 120 hours up to 160 hours.
Doing more doesn't raise your grade anyway, so the priority was finding a place with a low requirement, finishing fast, and enjoying summer break.
At 8 hours a day... that's about 15 days.
Just two weeks and one day of field practice, and everything would be over.
"In that case, aiming for a children's welfare center seemed like the answer."
"Or else we could go to a disabled workers' workshop."
"They probably won't take male practicum students there, or they'll take fewer. I'm telling you, heading toward children's welfare is better."
Where you did your field practice was the very first thing employers checked when you looked for a job.
But we didn't have the slightest intention of graduating and heading into social welfare work, so we planned to pick a place where we could do it easily.
For me, holding a regular job was already out of the question.
The same went for Lee Min-ho, and Jeong Hwan-yi was already employed, so there was no point in even considering it.
"In that case... children's welfare really is the answer..."
"But are you sure you'll be okay?"
"About what?"
When I tilted my head, Jeong Hwan-yi gave a wry smile.
He seemed to be worried that I might go to a children's welfare facility and cause trouble.
"I'll be fine. They're just kids."
"Hmm... well, if you say you're fine, I guess you're fine."
"Then shall I look into children's welfare places? My mother sponsors some places."
Lee Min-ho's mother sponsored several places here and there.
Naturally, she also sponsored children's welfare facilities, which apparently meant she could find us a suitable place for our field practice.
That worked out well, actually.
Finding a place on our own would have been a hassle and would have felt daunting.
I really did have good luck sometimes.
"Then I'll take care of finding the placement... want to do it right after finals? Or before they end?"
"Wouldn't it be better to do it right away and then rest?"
Personally, I was the type who preferred finishing classes early, even if it meant taking 9 a.m. classes.
Other people would be horrified, but I agreed 100% with the theory that it's better to take your lumps sooner rather than later.
That was why the thing I hated most was having no morning classes and only afternoon ones.
In those cases I'd even thought it might be better to just take the F and not attend.
"Then we'll do it right after finals..."
"You two okay with that?"
"Us? We're just following you, man."
"I'm happy to get it over with fast and have fun too."
How could they be so generous...?
I was truly glad these guys were my friends.
"Then I'm heading out. Good luck on your exam tomorrow."
"You good luck too. You do know that if you get an F this time, graduation is mangled, right?"
"I've still got one chance left the semester after next, you know?"
That guy Lee Min-ho.
Because he got an F in the mandatory elective English Conversation, he was in danger of not being able to graduate.
***
The place we arrived at by car was a large building from which I could hear children's voices.
No—it wasn't quite as big as I'd thought.
At most, maybe you could call it about the size of a large preschool?
It was the kind of place that came with a small playground attached.
"Shaolin Temple...?"
"Unusual, right? They say the director is someone who really likes Chinese martial arts."
It gave me the feeling that going inside wasn't a good idea, but to graduate I had to go in and do my field practice.
Fine... anyway, if I just worked hard for two weeks it would be over.
"Lee Min-ho, you take the lead."
"Yeah, you bastard. You must have expected this when you were planning to drag us to a place like this, right?"
"Hey! You think anybody knew we were coming here?"
Because of the name Shaolin Temple attached to the building, the children's voices sounded less like the sounds of playing and more like training sounds.
On top of that, I could only hear girls' voices, which made my suspicions feel all the more plausible.
"This isn't that kind of place, okay?"
"I know."
Of course, there was no way a children's center would teach martial arts.
I stopped my strange imaginings and headed inside.
The interior of the building was a little different from what I had expected.
Usually, places with the name 'center' gave off a stiff feeling, but this place was decorated with things children would like—candy, clouds, and such.
Maybe it really wasn't all that different from a preschool?
"A children's center is like an after-school program, you know."
That was right.
A children's center and a child protection center were founded with entirely different purposes.
A child protection center was a place that temporarily sheltered children who suffered domestic abuse or who were lost, in coordination with the police,
whereas a children's center was a place operated with the feel of an academy.
Of course, being a welfare facility, the majority were centered around children of low-income earners.
As I looked around the first-floor lobby, a staff member came out from the office right next to it.
The man, who wore a very kind-looking expression, saw us and slightly tilted his head before asking a curious question.
"Hello. What brings you here?"
"We're students who are scheduled to begin our field practice at this facility starting today."
"Ah! Now that you mention it, the Center Director did say so. Please come inside the office."
Smiling brightly, the staff member told us to come in, and we followed him inside.
Though it was only early June, the air conditioning was on, so I slowly walked through the cool interior while looking around.
The office was quite large but seemed to have only a few people in it—should I call it a sense of dissonance?
"If there's anything you're curious about, feel free to ask at any time."
"Why are the desks spaced so far apart like this?"
"The empty seats belong to our fieldwork teachers. You probably won't get a chance to see them during your field practice period."
"Ah-ha..."
You might wonder why a children's center would need fieldwork staff, but in the welfare sector, fieldwork positions were actually plentiful.
What's more, there was a shortage of people, so sometimes one person handled multiple roles, and I'd heard there were even those who doubled in office and fieldwork duties.
What was it they said?
That they were satisfied because the pay was good?
We entered the conference room at the far end of the office, where a round table and several chairs were set up.
The staff member told us to sit down and wait a moment, then left.
"If you take out all the fieldwork positions... at most there are four people?"
"I bet it's five including the Center Director."
"So that means there aren't very many staff?"
I knew that in welfare facilities, the number of employees was set according to the number of residents.
If the facility had a total of five staff, that meant there were no more than 30 residents at most.
"Lee Min-ho-nim. I had faith in you."
"I had faith in you too."
"Earlier you were saying a name like Shaolin Temple was weird, weren't you?"
"Hey, the name was like that, so I just thought it was weird."
Jeong Hwan-yi and I had completely shifted our attitude and were rubbing our palms together.
Because the fewer the number of residents, the easier it was for us doing our field practice.