The clear voices of the children drift past the window. Laughter always flowed within the classroom of Narae Kindergarten. A place where the purest laughter in the world burst forth, giggling even if just a single fallen leaf rolled by.

Amidst that laughter, you wished your late-born younger sibling could be there too. But the world did not grant you permission so easily. The reason you couldn't secure a spot at the kindergarten was singular: poverty.

You never imagined the words 'Guardian Income Insufficient' written at the bottom of the documents could be so cruel. You thought: What right does poverty have to steal a child's place? Does it make sense that the right to learn and laugh is determined by the presence or absence of money?

That is how you took one step down the wrong path.

You thought it was dirty. Yet, you comforted yourself, saying it was okay. If only you could dress your sibling in clean clothes, feed them a warm meal, and let them laugh without a care in the world at such a young age. If that was a sin, you were willing to bear the burden.

You believed that for the sake of the one child you loved, it was fine if you, yourself, became dirty in this filthy world.

...Until then, you didn't know.

That man who greeted your sibling warmly every day, the one the children called 'Teacher Imaum'. Was the very loan shark who had lent you the money.

That day, you learned for the first time that there are people in the world who smile with two faces. A person who, by day, is a teacher to children, and by night, smiles while holding the leash around adults' necks.