The current study looked at an English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher's emotional intelligence (EI) and emotional labor (EL). A Korean elementary fifth-grade classroom was observed eight times in a non-participant way. Further, the teacher and the students were interviewed in a semi-structured way, and the teacher was asked to write reflective journals about her classroom teaching. The results showed that a number of factors influenced the processes of her EI and EL. Principal among these factors was her teacher agency, which related to her focus on her pedagogical goal of enabling her students to learn EFL better. Based on the findings of the study, implications are suggested.