CULTURE & ARTS
44 Gwangju Writes
No More Lies
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
February 2022
By J.D. Wabe
M
rs. Jones spruced up all the desks in a semicircular line-up and began the first day of class with an ice-breaker activity. “What does your father do?” was the name of the game, a task in which one student gives clues regarding their father’s everyday affairs and the rest will guess the occupation. Laguna Creek Elementary was a very prestigious school. Built in one of the most affluent areas on the outskirts of the city with the only aim of nurturing the knowledge of the rich and gifted children of this upper-class neighborhood. Since this was their first year of operation, they were all strangers to one another, including Mrs. Jones, who had just recently been hired. The school had superior standards of privacy, so she wasn’t given any of the students’ profiles. She only had a small list with the names of nine juniors that included their age and last name but no further details. Her initial-day activity had been vetted by her superiors with the condition that she would only ask for their parents’ profession; she could not ask for locations, names, or anything else that might be intrusive.
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The game began from left to right, and it was going smoothly. The newly arrived students appeared to be enjoying the challenge of identifying clues and playing detective, as well as providing ambiguous information to make the game more exciting. So far, there were a banker, a lawyer, a professor, and even a stay-at-home dad married to a prosecutor. The kids giggled at the stay-at-home vocation, but Mrs. Jones immediately reprehended them. Bullying and lying were to be avoided throughout their school year, she reminded them. The youngsters, acknowledging the light scolding, simultaneously replied in chorus, “Yes, Mrs. Jones.” When Mrs. Jones got to the middle of the semicircle, she squinted at the list in hand and asked the next pupil in line to stand up. Brandon Walker, a tall, slim, good-looking boy with a stylish hairstyle that rolled back on top and was short on the sides, stood up with a dull expression on his face. His white-frame glasses made his honeycomb eyes beam, and his brows knitted as he looked straight at Mrs. Jones.
2022-01-24 �� 1:25:36
