Original: 블랙독
In a temporary position at a private high school, a compassionate teacher fights to support her students' dreams while navigating school politics.
Ha Neul has witnessed the cold reality of being a short-term teacher herself. The teacher who saved her life at an unfortunate school field trip accident was never fully compensated nor recognized by the school. However, she aspires to become a teacher one day and takes her first step into her first school. It’s Daechi High School.
Ha Neul is partnered up with Daechi High School’s biggest freak show, Kim Yi Boon. She’s a blunt and very rude teacher who already took advantage of Ha Neul’s good-heart by forcing Ha Neul to share her lesson files she’s been working on. Will Ha Neul be able to cooperate with her course partner in peace?
Ha Neul is asked to make the class materials for Yi Boon’s class. Ha Neul comes up with a novel idea of teaching students which Yi Boon cannot understand. Meanwhile, upon Sung Soon’s request, an admissions officer from Yeonhui University comes to visit Daechi High School, but he turns out to be a newbie who doesn’t know a thing about the university admissions system.
For a permanent teacher who’s coming back to the school from her vacation, one short-term teacher must leave the school. Everyone believes that it should be Ha Neul. Because of Song Young Tae, short-term teachers are in a tight spot in front of the students. Meanwhile, Soo Ho decides to track down teachers’ IP addresses to find out who posted about the corruption at Daechi High on the website.
Sung Soon is confident that she can get exclusive information about Hankuk University admissions using her connection. However, things aren’t going smoothly. Ha Neul is given an unexpected offer by Young Tae. Meanwhile, Hae Won hears that Soo Ho has been suspecting him and trying to find out his laptop IP address.
After failing to get exclusive information about HanKuk University admissions using a connection, an issue arises about the advanced class. Ha Nuel finds out that there are advantages to specific students who got to learn the curriculum in advance. Knowing that the flaws exist both in the school system and teachers, Ha Nuel decides to tell everyone about them for students. Meanwhile, Ha Neul comes across what other teachers are doing with their after-school classes.
Ha Neul tries to convince Hae Won to speak to Soo Hyun about his exam questions for the upcoming Midterms. However, everyone tells Ha Neul that it is better to keep quiet and not stir up trouble. Meanwhile, Hae Won falls ill during the height of the Midterm prep season. After the exams, some students file a complaint about a question on the Senior Korean test.
Midterms are over, but some of the seniors have a complaint about one of the questions on the Korean test. All of Daechi High’s Korean teachers get together to discuss what to do about the question. They come to a conclusion after a heated debate, but Ha Neul can’t seem to let go of her unease. Ha Neul, Yeon Woo, and Hae Won plan a secret meeting.
A former Daechi High School teacher returns to the school as an admissions officer from Hankuk University. She is supposed to help out with the College Applications Informational, but everyone doubts whether she will help out wholeheartedly. Meanwhile, the news that an actual admissions officer will be speaking at the Informational attracts much attention from other teachers.
Summer break is over, and the student records season is officially in full swing. As Ha Neul is busy filling out student records, she notices students being unusually friendly out of the blue. At first, Ha Neul doesn’t think much of it and is happy that her students like her. However, what she learns from Myung Soo comes as quite a surprise.
As Daechi High School announces the openings for permanent teacher positions, Hae Won discovers who actually got hired through nepotism at the beginning of the school year. Meanwhile, the Early Admissions season is in full swing and Daechi High School is buzzing about which two students will get the recommendations for Hankuk University.
Daechi High’s seniors finally take their CSATs as Ha Neul and Hae Won prepare to take their Permanent Teacher Exams. The early admissions results are out, and everyone is curious to see if someone from Daechi High will finally get accepted to Hankuk University. Meanwhile, the debate for whom to hire for the Korean department seems to have no end in sight.
Ha Neul goes to Lady Song’s noodle shop and runs into the boy who caused the accident. It turns out that he is a senior at Daechi High School. Meanwhile, Sung Soon is busy taking care of her son who is going into middle school and dealing with politics at Daechi High. Principal Byun offers her the position of head of School Administration and Sung Soon must make a choice.
The Office of Education implements a new combined curriculum for both liberal arts and the sciences which confuses the students and teachers of Daechi High School. Meanwhile, Ha Neul meets Bo Tong again at school. In an attempt to understand Bo Tong’s unpredictable behavior, Ha Neul finds out what happened between him and Sung Soon in the past.
Bo Tong submits his withdrawal notice and Ha Neul contemplates what to do. Meanwhile, the teachers receive their evaluations and performance-based bonuses from the previous year which causes some to voice complaints. On top of that, Icarus receives backlash from students and parents alike, which leads to a vote to decide the club’s future.
As the College Advisory Group prepares a new arts-science fusion class, Sung Soon has a fight with her husband about their careers. Meanwhile, Yeon Woo receives harsh criticism about a creative class he tried out which puts him in a deeper slump. Time goes by and Ha Neul retakes her Teacher Certification Exams.
