Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: A Childish Promise
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"Ga-eun, just suppose. Really, just suppose. If you'd had to handle this on your own, what do you think you would've done?"
"Me, on my own?"
Ga-eun rolled her eyes at my question.
"Well... I probably just would've snuck out of academy without telling Dad. Then I'd get caught and he'd shave my head. He always says he'll do that if I mess up."
"Would that at least let you quit academy?"
"No way! Dad's the type who'd wait right at the school gate when classes end, shove me in the car, and drop me off at academy himself."
"Like Seo Jae-kyeom's mom?"
"She didn't hit him, though."
"......"
"I'd probably end up telling my little brother to pick me up after academy and giving him five thousand won each time... but that punk would just pocket the money and waste it at a PC bang playing games instead of coming."
"Can't you tell Mom?"
"I'd just get in trouble for fighting with my brother."
"......"
"If it wasn't Se-in, maybe I'd call Su-a and figure out how to get home while talking on the phone, but Se-in had tutoring then, and Su-a's house is strict too. Ah, whatever. I have no idea what really would've happened. If you hadn't been there."
"Yeah. Let's not imagine it. And let's not even bring it up."
Because it never happened in this timeline, since I regressed.
"I probably would've whined to Mom with this excuse and that, begging her to come pick me up... Ah, it's Mom."
Our mom wasn't much better. Ga-eun picked up the call, smirking sarcastically.
I'd felt it last time too, but for parents who cracked down so hard, Ga-eun's folks didn't seem all that interested in their daughter.
What time was it now, and they were only just calling? You'd think they'd come pick her up at least once, but never.
Even so, she must've been worried today at least...
"What? Where am I supposed to buy a hamburger at this hour! Tell him to go out and buy it himself!"
-How's your brother supposed to go out at this hour!
"Then let him starve! She won't let me eat anything after 7 because I'll gain weight! Tell him to suck it up too!"
-Aish, fine! Playing big sister over a stupid hamburger... I'll buy it, I'll buy it!
"...Mom has no idea what I went through today!"
Ga-eun abruptly hung up and chucked her phone onto the sidewalk blocks.
"This sucks..."
I pretended not to notice the tears mixed in her angry muttering.
I picked up the phone and tucked it into her pocket. After hesitating, I added one thing.
"How about we skip school lunch tomorrow and get some tteokbokki instead?"
"...Add a hot dog."
"Sounds good."
I gotta go take a dump quick. You went to the bathroom earlier, right? I whispered in Ga-eun's ear so Jeong Eun-seong wouldn't hear, and only then did she laugh.
"Oh, Da-hye, you haven't gone yet?"
Just then, the director pulled up in her car.
I bowed again in greeting and got in the taxi with Jeong Eun-seong. We told the patient driver—who'd waited all this time—our address, and as we set off, a solemn silence flowed between us.
Surprisingly, Jeong Eun-seong spoke first.
"She'll probably... brag about it to friends and relatives later. That her daughter grew up without ever causing an accident. Never gave her any grief."
"How do you know?"
"My uncle's like that. Meanwhile, my cousin sister got so fed up with him that she moved out for independence the second she turned twenty."
"Ah."
Yeah. To become that grief-free daughter, who knows how desperately the kid flailed behind the scenes? Ga-eun's parents probably never knew and never will. They wouldn't care either.
The adults who built a society where kids can't rely on grown-up protection are probably sleeping soundly right now, legs stretched out...
As if they'd earned it! With society like this!
"Jeong Eun-seong, I think I get why idols sing so many social critique songs."
"Why?"
"That's teenage sentiment."
Locked in the prison called school just for the crime of being a student, wearing the inmate uniform called a school uniform...
Watching how society works and wondering why adults act like that, why can't we all just live righteously?
This dirty society, this is unfair, that is unfair, when I grow up I'll never live like that, burning with passion.
But once you become an adult, reality soaks you through, and before you know it, that flame dies out.
You learn what it means to choose the lesser evil instead of the best.
You even forget you ever thought that way.
Looking back, I was the same.
No time to blame others.
"Sigh."
Jeong Eun-seong cracked the window open as I sighed. Fresh air came in, easing my chest a bit.
"Anyway, thanks so much for today. But Jeong Eun-seong, how'd you even get here?"
"You told me the address."
"And you came right away?"
"Yeah. Seemed like something happened. And."
"And?"
"I don't trust adults."
"True."
So that's why she couldn't trust the cops either.
"That director lady earlier? She's the only adult who's acted like a real adult since I became a high schooler."
I laughed seeing Jeong Eun-seong get serious.
"Yeah, she's a rare breed of adult for sure..."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Driver, keep the meter running and wait here. I'll drop this kid off and be right back."
"It's fine."
"I'm fine too."
I'd told Seo Jae-kyeom to go ahead since taxis are hard for him to catch, but with Jeong Eun-seong, I chose to walk up the alley to my place together.
Partly because she beat me to it, but weirdly, it didn't feel embarrassing at all.
Not the narrow, dirty alley. Not even the rundown villa at the end.
As we walked, I said,
"Didn't realize it, but I guess I have some trauma."
"Trauma?"
Trauma from the day of the college entrance exam, when some random old man grabbed my hair and ruined it.
"Seeing that guy grab and shake Ga-eun earlier... my vision went red, and my body just launched before I knew it. No calmness, no nothing. My mind went blank."
"That can happen. Being calm there would've been weirder."
Dark alleyway, yellow streetlamp, steep and slippery stairs broken in spots.
The alley that usually scared me into constantly looking back felt nothing today.
"Kang Da-hye, I figured out why the air up there's warmer."
"Why?"
"Not telling."
"That's so last season."
"Not by much."
Maybe because of Jeong Eun-seong's nonsense hitting me whenever I was about to forget.
"Come to think of it, Jeong Eun-seong, I've been wondering."
"Yeah."
"Was it you who left the mint choco on my desk by any chance?"
We stopped dead.
"Jeong Eun-seong?"
"Not telling."
"It was you."
I thought it was some gutless punk... I muttered and casually turned to look at Jeong Eun-seong.
"......"
Jeong Eun-seong stood there, ears beet red.
Her ears, neck, cheeks, forehead—her whole face flushed, visible even in the dark. Covering her mouth with the back of her hand, Jeong Eun-seong stammered incoherently.
"Just so you don't misunderstand, that was just camaraderie from being trapped at school together the day before."
"I know. You hate me second-most, right?"
She even jumped off the second floor because she hated being with me more, didn't she?
I'll absolutely never misunderstand...
I'm not crying...
"We're here."
"Yeah."
Even so, being walked right to my door made me tense.
I glanced at Jeong Eun-seong in front of the villa packed with cars in every nook and dog poop everywhere. Was she good at managing her expression, or did she just not care?
"Oh, right, here's your clothes back."
Leaving Jeong Eun-seong—who looked not just uncaring but bored—I dashed inside, grabbed the clothes, and came back out.
The uniform she'd lent me.
Jeong Eun-seong took it casually and turned right around.
"I'm off."
"Jeong Eun-seong."
"What."
"I won't become one of those adults you hate."
I don't know when exactly the flame I'd carried as a teenage Kang Da-hye from the past fizzled out.
But I turned back time. So I'm going to regress my mindset to teenage years too.
Back to the days when I believed I could change the world.
"When we grow up into adults worth trusting... if you, me, and our friends become those adults first. One by one like that, eventually there'll be more trustworthy adults than not."
"......"
"Let's become great adults together. Adults who change the world."
Especially you can. You'll become super famous, loved by tons, with huge influence.
"Later, when you're an adult, even if you forget me, remember we had this talk today, okay?"
You'll be so busy and popular, you probably won't even remember I exist until we reunite at 29...
No. I won't live this life exactly like before, so we probably won't meet again after graduation anyway.
"Promise you'll become a great adult."
At least remember this fleeting promise we made in passing.
I held out my hand with a smile.
Jeong Eun-seong stared down at it for a bit before extending hers.
"...Yeah. Let's do that."
We pinky-swore our promise.
Super childish, like little kids.
"Seal it."
"Okay."
"Copy that too."
"...Yeah."
"Sign."
"Cut it out..."
That was when.
"Kang Da-hye!"
The landlady, coming down the stairs with a watering can, called my name.
Her hair pinned up with rollers at the back, she alternated wide-eyed stares between Jeong Eun-seong and me holding hands.
The landlady's eyes slowly narrowed.
"Oh my, Da-hye... is this your boyfriend?"
"......"
We're screwed.
That lady's mouth runs faster than anyone.