Orphanage Volunteer Day
Thanks to careful management, Yeoncheong's sneezing had eased off day by day, and thankfully Suyeon had managed to return to treating her more or less normally.
Time went by, and soon enough the weekend arrived.
It was the day they were heading out for club volunteer work at the orphanage.
Since nobody knew what they'd be doing, comfort came first. Dressed in her athletic tracksuit, Yeoncheong arrived at the meeting spot and looked around.
“Yeoncheong! Over here!”
Suyeon waved, having spotted her first.
As Yeoncheong walked over, Suyeon held out a ticket as if she'd been waiting for exactly this moment.
“Here, I got yours in advance too.”
“Thanks. It was over there? I had no idea.”
Yeoncheong's blue eyes swept her friend's unfamiliar look up and down.
Suyeon, it turned out, had been thinking much the same thing — she didn't look all that different from Yeoncheong herself. After all, she'd vaguely tried to find her way through the crowded terminal while picturing the clothes Yeoncheong usually wore, so of course she'd missed her.
Noticing those blue eyes sizing her up, Suyeon squirmed.
“What? What's wrong with me?”
“Nothing, it's just... I don't think I've ever seen you in a tracksuit before.”
“You see mine at school all the time?”
“That's different from this.”
Realizing she'd been worrying over nothing, Suyeon gave an awkward laugh.
“...Well, it's true I don't wear one often.”
“It shows. Doesn't look like you exercise much.”
Puffing out her cheeks slightly, Suyeon gave Yeoncheong's arm a couple of playful punches.
It was true that she didn't work out much, but she was still at that lively age where a new layer of skin grew over any wound with barely a breath taken.
Besides, at an age when they got nagged about how nothing but studying mattered, how many people — boys or girls alike — actually set aside time to exercise outside of PE class?
And no matter who the jab was aimed at, it wasn't one anyone could answer with a straight face.
To Yeoncheong, who was milking the punches with exaggerated whimpers of pain, Suyeon fired back.
“Don't think I don't know you don't work out either. You're in no position to give me grief — you're not Nayun.”
“Okay, okay. Sorry.”
Having taken the attack full-on herself, Yeoncheong apologized with a laugh.
Seems like she's fine?
Suyeon hadn't completely put the festival incident behind her either, so she'd been picking at the scab on purpose, just to tease her a little.
At this level, it seemed safe to chalk that day up to a small mishap born of festival fever.
“Ahh~ my arm hurts too much, I don't think I can walk with you~ What ever shall we do?”
“And how hard do you think I hit you? Quit the theatrics and come on.”
Suyeon shoved Yeoncheong along, dragging her by the arm.
The two of them looked perfectly fine.
For now.
Their destination was on the outskirts, well away from the crowded city center.
“Is this the right place?”
“Let me check the map.”
Yeoncheong searched for the orphanage on her smartphone, confirmed it was within walking distance, and started off at an easy pace.
As the two of them wandered through the quiet neighborhood, the distinctive laughter of little children gradually reached their ears.
Yeoncheong quietly slipped her phone back into her pocket. A better landmark than any map had just told her where the orphanage was — right beside her.
Guided by the laughter growing louder and louder, Yeoncheong and Suyeon realized they'd arrived.
The moment they stepped onto the playground, the eyes of the children who'd been romping around together all turned to them.
“Hey! Hey, everyone! Wait a sec!”
“Oh, oh. Careful...”
The kids swarmed the two of them, firing off questions in a mad rush.
Just as the children's overflowing energy and not-yet-broken high-pitched voices were turning the air into total chaos, making it impossible to tell who was saying what—
“WAAARGH!”
A man with salt-and-pepper hair came sprinting toward them, bellowing a strange battle cry.
Startled, the children shrieked and scattered. Having tidied everything up in one clean stroke, the man introduced himself as the orphanage director and guided the two inside.
“They startled you a little, didn't they?”
The man's voice was gentle as he led the way. The fact that he kept using polite honorifics even with two people so much younger than him quietly spoke to his character.
“Not at all. It seemed lively — in a good way.”
“Being out on the edge of town, we don't get many visitors making the trip all the way out here... so I suppose they're all worked up for the first time in a while.”
“Ah, I see.”
Even while following the director, the two of them kept craning their necks to take in their surroundings.
There were elementary-school-aged kids gathered in one spot studying, while the very littlest ones had staff members hovering at their sides.
From the look of it, the children old enough to wander around on their own but not yet in school were the ones playing outside.
“It's the weekend, so we have more children than usual today.”
Following the director, who explained without so much as a glance around, Yeoncheong and Suyeon were led to his office.
A brief procedure confirmed that they were indeed the people the staff had been expecting, and then—
“Well then, we're counting on you for the day.”
“No, no. The pleasure is ours.”
The orphanage director bowed his head. Startled, the two of them bent their own waists in reflexive reply.
After a quick rundown of how a day at the orphanage flowed and introductions to the staff, Yeoncheong and Suyeon were handed their assignment almost immediately.
Thrown out onto the playground without warning, Yeoncheong licked her lips.
“Suyeon, is this... right?”
“Well... I didn't exactly see this coming either.”
No wonder there wasn't a single other adult out on the playground...
Apparently the kids had thrown a tantrum demanding to play outside, and permission had been granted — but the staff were clearly short-handed.
When asked if they were young and therefore fit, they'd dumbly answered “yes,” and been promptly booted out of the building with orders to entertain the children.
“Well, at least wearing the tracksuit was worth it, huh.”
“Ugh... it's kind of windy today...”
Suyeon grumbled that her tracksuit was a little thin, rubbing her arms over her sleeves.
Yeoncheong glanced at her friend before asking,
“You cold? Want to borrow mine?”
“Is yours thick?”
Whether the festival memory had resurfaced or not, there was a subtle note of expectation threaded into her voice that matched the upturned corner of her mouth.
Instead of answering, Yeoncheong pulled down the zipper of her hoodie to show what she was wearing underneath.
As the zipper slid slowly down, a clean white T-shirt — a stark contrast to the outer layer — was revealed.
The shade in the playground made her hair look darker than usual, and the mischievous little show-and-tell on top of it—
Mm, this has its own merits...
Suyeon, drooling internally, shook her head vigorously and snapped back to reality.
Dressed in an outfit that made her want to scold her, Suyeon too chose to communicate with action rather than words.
Smack.
“Ow! What was that for?!”
“Aren't you cold? Zip it back up. Now.”
Leaving Yeoncheong rubbing her arm behind her, the two emerged from the building — and the children who spotted them came running up one by one.
“Miss, what did you come here for?”
“Mi... Miss?”
It was a word she'd never been called in her life, and Yeoncheong faltered.
It was a completely different feeling from when Senior Seoyun demanded to be called “Unnie.”
Suyeon found the whole thing so funny that she covered her mouth and snickered.
“Hm? Are you not our Miss?”
“No... I mean, technically yes, but...”
At the little boy's innocent question, Yeoncheong nodded with a doubtful look on her face.
Suyeon, keeper of the secret, only gave up her giggling after pocketing one good episode to share with their friends back home.
Bending her knees to bring herself down to the children's eye level, Yeoncheong licked her lips.
“We came to play with you.”
“Huh?”
The adorable little boy had already forgotten his own question, so she said it again.
“You asked what we came for, remember? The two of us came here to play with you.”
Only then grasping the situation, the children threw themselves at Yeoncheong and Suyeon without a moment's hesitation.
Perhaps it was because everyone at the orphanage carried honorifics on their lips at all times.
And at an age when children soaked up everything they saw and heard like sponges, they spoke with a politeness and grace well beyond their years.
Although, even the adults who served as their mirrors had limits to what they could manage...
“Yeoncheong. Save me...”
“Suyeon... I don't have the strength to save anyone.”
Stretched out flat on the dirt, the two friends panted for breath while staring up at the sky.
These were children at the most energetic, most active stage of the entire human lifespan — the kind who'd bolt away the moment you stopped playing with them.
And the ones facing them were two high school girls who spent nearly half of every day at a desk.
The gap in sheer energy was staggering.
“Suyeon, you don't think they sent us here on purpose, do you?”
The two had finally, finally ended an endless game of tag, and were taking a breather after talking the kids into a pause.
“No way... I'm choosing to believe that's not true.”
Just as Suyeon was averting her eyes from the red flag waving right in front of her—
“Misses! Are you done resting?”
“...Huh?”
Suyeon and Yeoncheong lifted only their heads to look back at each other.
It was the first time the sight of a horde of children charging at them had ever been this terrifying.
“Has it been ten minutes already?”
“Yes!”
As the two of them clung to each other and heaved themselves up, a single name surfaced in both their minds.
If I'd known this would happen, I would've brought Nayun along.
What would they be asked to do this time? Yeoncheong swallowed dryly.
Even more than when Nayun used to mock her, she was now feeling, viscerally, the importance of exercise—
when one of the children came up holding a soccer ball.
“Misses, do you know how to play soccer?”
“Of course we do! Obviously!”
The two of them nodded without a single second's hesitation.
Whatever it was, it had to be better than tag — all that nonstop running around.
Correction.
Whatever it was, it had to be better than soccer. Especially for Yeoncheong.
Thwack.
The moment Yeoncheong kicked the incoming ball with all her might, it went flying off in a completely different direction, as if she'd performed some kind of trick shot.
A soccer ball traveling in a straight line was actually the rare outcome, and Suyeon too — perhaps having forgotten her own soccer lessons — had regressed to her past-life form.
The kids were hardly old enough to judge whether someone kicked well or badly, so Yeoncheong figured she could just carry on with the game without worrying about it, but...
“Whoa! It flew sideways again!”
Every time Yeoncheong merely touched the ball, the children gasped in awe, marveling at her.
It was a reaction nothing like what she'd expected — and that reaction was exactly what tormented her.
Hadn't someone once said it?
Nothing in the world was as pure and untainted as a child.
“You're amazing at soccer!”
“Do it again! Do it again!”
Yeoncheong knew perfectly well how wretched her soccer skills were.
And yet here the children were, genuinely convinced she was pulling off trick shots and begging for an encore. It was pure, sincere praise — which somehow made it more mortifying than outright mockery.
If it were just the kids, she could have mustered some shameless composure.
“Pfft... k-khh...”
But with Suyeon beside her, covering her mouth and fighting laughter with every fiber of her being, the embarrassment doubled.
Oblivious to the truth, the children crowded in around Yeoncheong.
“Miss, this time can you make it go zoom! off to the right?”
“Kids, it doesn't exactly work on comm—”
Just as she was drowning under children latching on from every direction, a voice of salvation rang out from far away.
Someone needed help preparing lunch — just one volunteer.
Yeoncheong reacted like lightning.
She crouched down, whispered something to the children, and in an instant they all went sprinting at Suyeon.
“MISS!!”
“Wh-what? Kids, why—?”
Seizing the opening while Suyeon was swarmed, Yeoncheong bolted for the building, declaring she'd be the one to help.
“Hey! Hey! Ha Yeoncheong!”
At the sound of her name, Yeoncheong stuck her tongue out at her friend — an apology, of sorts.
Naturally, Suyeon, trapped behind the wall of children and left alone, fired off a blood-chilling warning, words that were never supposed to pass her lips hanging right on the tip of her tongue.
“Ha Yeoncheong, you are DEAD later!”