Not Four, But Five
Not four — five.
Beep… beep… beep… beep…
The sound of magnetized student IDs being scanned drifted over. I hadn't known this, but at Cheonji High, they allowed students off campus for lunch exactly once a month under the banner of a Special Off-Campus Meal.
Fair enough. No matter how much cafeteria food had improved these days, kids still got the itch for something different every now and then. Rather than have them vault the wall in secret, the school left an official channel open to keep the grumbling in check.
"Senior, you're not scanning your student ID?"
"Uh… I only transferred recently, so mine hasn't been issued yet."
"Hasn't it already been three weeks? Wonhui, do student IDs usually take that long?"
"I've never lost mine, so I wouldn't know?"
Fortunately, this lie slipped by without a hitch as well. Once we stepped outside the school gates, I saw that Eunju's group wasn't the only one who'd chosen today for their March Special Off-Campus Meal — the street in front of the school was packed with kids.
I looked around carefully…
I was scanning the crowd hard, half-afraid Harin might be mixed in among them. Wonhui took the lead and marched the four of us toward the tteokbokki place.
Ah — more precisely, not four. Five.
Tokki Bun-sik
It was a made-to-order tteokbokki joint with a rabbit character slammed onto the sign like they didn't give a damn about copyright. The interior was fairly clean, but at the end of the day, setting a burner on every table wasn't all that different from when I was a kid.
Thankfully, Harin wasn't there. I let out a breath of relief and pulled off my mask, and Eunju asked,
"Senior? Do you usually wear glasses?"
"Huh? Oh! I normally wear contacts, but my eyes were feeling a bit dry today."
To avoid repeating yesterday's mistake, I'd gone to an optician and even picked up a pair of thick-rimmed frames. The excuse was airtight, so the kids wouldn't push any further…
Poke, poke…
That was when it happened. Mokhwa, sitting beside me, suddenly raised a finger and started jabbing at empty air — specifically at the exact spots where the lenses of my glasses ought to have been.
"…?"
Wasn't Mokhwa the type so shy she handled every conversation with little finger pokes? Did it make any sense for a timid kid like that to start poking a senior she'd only known for two days right in the eyeballs?
"Glasses… with no lenses?"
Thanks to that, my lie was immediately exposed to Eunju. My ears went bright red as I scrambled for some kind of excuse, but nothing came to mind.
"I got it! Harin said she likes guys who wear glasses, so you're deliberately wearing fashion frames, right?"
Fortunately, Wonhui supplied a reason on my behalf. The only problem was that the reason was completely unacceptable.
"Haa… Yeah, they are fashion glasses, but it has nothing to do with Harin. I already told you everything yesterday, didn't I?"
"When people really like someone, they try to hide it, don't they? That's why Harin said no, and that's why you're saying no too, Oppa — right?"
"…?"
Is that how it works? Should I have boldly stepped forward and claimed innocence instead? Eunju tried to rein Wonhui in.
"Wonhui, why are you like this? Senior says it's not true."
"Then why is he suddenly asking about Harin's boyfriend and wearing lens-less glasses? It's totally suspicious!"
"There could be circumstances we don't know about…"
But even Eunju seemed to be struggling to keep shielding me, and her gaze drifted away. At this point, I figured I should wrap it up myself.
"Haa… Fine. The truth is, it's because of a friend of mine. He's really into Harin, but he's insanely shy, I guess? He asked me to look into things for him."
"Who is it?"
"Wonhui? You're not seriously thinking I'd sell out a friend, are you?"
"Who on earth is it, though?"
Wonhui didn't push any further. That didn't mean she'd completely dropped her suspicions about me, though.
"Anyway, enough about that — let's pick a menu. Don't worry about the price. Order whatever you want."
"What? Senior, are you really treating us? Wonhui was just joking around."
I changed the subject before anything else could come out of left field. But Eunju's eyes went wide at the idea of accepting that kind of generosity.
"It's not like this is expensive. I'll just get it."
"But with four of us eating, it'll still add up…"
"Oppa said he's paying! Let's get the mala rose. First add glass noodles and shrimp balls and so on and so forth…"
Wonhui clamped a hand over Eunju's mouth, telling her not to kill the mood, and busily selected extra toppings. Conscientious Eunju, though, looked uncomfortable — she'd tagged along uninvited and was now getting a free meal on top of it.
But come on — I'm thirty-four years old. There's no way I can go Dutch with a bunch of teenage girls. And more importantly, something I'd been wanting to say for a while now…
It's not four. It's five.
"I made pretty good money from my part-time job over break, so don't feel too bad about it. If you really feel bad, you can treat me next time or something?"
"We definitely will."
Eunju made the promise with a firm look in her eyes, as if she needed to settle the debt one way or another. Since I wasn't going to be eating with them again anyway, I figured I might as well put her mind at ease.
Poke, poke…
Meanwhile, Mokhwa jabbed Eunju in the side again. Eunju smiled and answered.
"Okay. Let's add cheese too."
"…"
One of these days, I am absolutely going to crack the code of that poke-poke language.
Sizzle, sizzle…
The tteokbokki was cooking away, filling the air with that sharp, numbing mala fragrance. I pulled out the utensils and plates myself and set each place.
"Sorry, Senior. We should have done that first…"
Eunju apologized again, saying she was sorry. Wonhui and Mokhwa, for their part, didn't seem to think much of it.
But that was fine. I did this every day at the company anyway.
Even Eom Chaewon, who's six years older than you, just plops down her own utensils and dives straight into her phone — so the fact that this kid at least said she was sorry made her look all the more endearing.
"Did you see Dogs & Picks yesterday?"
"No? I came back from hagwon, washed up, and went straight to sleep. Was there something fun posted?"
While the tteokbokki cooked, a conversation unfolded that was pure teenage girl. Naturally, I couldn't even insert myself into it — for starters, I had zero idea what this Dogs & Picks thing even meant.
Poke, poke…
"…?"
All of a sudden, a massive sense of wrongness hit me. Judging by the poke-poke sound, Mokhwa had started up again — but weirdly, I felt the exact same sensation in my own side.
Poke, poke…
That was the second time. Since Eunju wasn't responding at all, wherever Mokhwa was poking, it wasn't her.
I turned my head just in case, and sure enough — Mokhwa was staring straight at me, jabbing me in the ribs.
"…"
Had she developed a sense of familiarity with me overnight? Meanwhile, I still didn't understand a single word of their poke-poke language.
"Ah… Senior, did you check Dogs & Picks yesterday too?"
Only then did Eunju catch on and interpret for me. Having the mystery solved was a relief, but that didn't mean I could actually answer the question.
"Uh, well… the truth is, I don't use Dogs & Picks."
"For real!? No way!"
Wonhui was so shocked she nearly dropped her phone. Just what was this Dogs & Picks that it caused this much of a stir? Even Eunju's eyes went wide, as if this was genuinely surprising.
"That's amazing. I've never met anyone around me who doesn't use Dogs & Picks."
"I-is that so? It's probably because I'm from the countryside. At my old school, the people who used it were the rare ones."
"Ah… I guess that could be."
She said that, but the way she whispered something with Wonhui made it clear they were treating me like a weirdo. Once I parted ways with these kids, the first thing I needed to do was figure out what Dogs & Picks even was.
The meal wrapped up fast. Everyone was so serious about eating that the time spent devouring the food was shorter than the time it took to cook it.
"That was great! Huh? But why am I still not full? Oppa, you ate everything, didn't you?"
Wonhui patted her protruding lower belly and asked. Did she seriously think I could work up an appetite sitting in this supremely uncomfortable seat?
Aside from the first plate I'd been served, I hadn't touched a thing. Blaming me after polishing off five bowls was one thing — but more than that, you guys were the ones who ordered a "small" amount from the start, weren't you?
After paying the bill, we left the tteokbokki place. Ten minutes until lunch period ended. Time to send these kids off and head home myself.
"Alright, let's split up here."
"What? Senior, you have to go back to school too, don't you?"
"Huh? Uh… the thing is, if I don't have ice cream after a meal, I can't digest properly. You guys go on ahead."
They were girls — they'd need to hurry back, brush their teeth, and handle a million other things, so ice cream was out of the question for them. Wonhui, of course, agonized over it quite a bit.
"What do I do? Ice cream… brushing teeth… ice cream… brushing teeth…"
"If you don't go in now, you won't get to brush, Wonhui. Thank you for today, Senior."
While Wonhui fretted, still caught in the thrall of ice cream, Eunju offered a polite goodbye. Mokhwa jabbed me in the side with a poke-poke too — roughly translating to "thanks for the meal," I figured.
"Yeah. Uh, but… can I ask just one last thing?"
"What are you curious about?"
"Why don't you guys ever talk to Eunchae?"
"Eunchae? Who's Eunchae…? Wonhui, do you know?"
"No, I don't?"
Poke, poke…
Mokhwa's pokes seemed to say she didn't know either. But this made no sense.
"You guys are joking, right? Or do I need to say it clearly — Song Eunchae, second year?"
"Ah… that Eunchae? But why are you suddenly bringing up Eunchae, Senior?"
"Why? We just ate together. So why are you treating Eunchae like she doesn't exist?"
"What!?"
Eunju, Wonhui, and Mokhwa all wore expressions of complete incomprehension. Left with no choice, I raised a finger and pointed at the "fifth member" no one had mentioned this entire time.
"She's right there."
"Huh? Eunchae, how long have you been there?"
It was Wonhui who raised her voice in surprise. Were these kids running some kind of group hidden-camera prank right now?
"What are you all talking about? She's been with us the whole time, ever since we came over to Eunju earlier. I naturally assumed she was your friend?"
"W-why didn't we notice?"
"…"
How was this possible? The girl wearing a red name tag that read Song Eunchae.
From the moment we first met until now, she hadn't left our side even once. She'd scanned her student ID with us and walked into the tteokbokki place with us.
Sure, nobody paid attention to her bowl, so I'd scooped food for her myself — but she'd polished off three plates of tteokbokki with enthusiastic chomping and even ordered herself a cola on her own!
And. Yet. Other than me, not a single person had noticed. Only then did Eunchae open her mouth and make a sound.
"Waaah! Oppa, then we're going to get ice cream, dayo?"
"I-ice cream? Don't you need to brush your teeth or anything?"
"Uuung…? Can't I just brush after I go back in, dayo?"
"…"
Her way of speaking was a little unusual. Things like "uuung…" and attaching the suffix "-dayo" to the end of nearly every sentence.
This kid's cuteness factor was off the charts. Eunju and her friends looked a bit flustered as they glanced at each other.
"We should probably head in, right? We need to brush our teeth and get ready for the next class…"
"Y-yeah, let's!"
And with that, the three of them left a light goodbye for Eunchae and headed into school first. But wasn't this a bit much?
It was already shocking that they hadn't noticed a same-grade friend had been stuck to them for nearly an hour — and then they just dump her on me and take off by themselves?
I understood not wanting to be late for class, but they could consider my position too. Left with no choice, I walked into a nearby convenience store with Eunchae.
"Waaah! Oppa, Eunchae wants this one!"
"…"
And just like that, she pulled a Häagen-Dazs straight out of the freezer. Do you even know how much that costs?
"F-fine, if you want it, eat it. But Eunchae? Why are the kids acting like that? You were together for a whole hour — why are they acting like they didn't even know you were there?"
"Uuung… I'm not sure, but Eunchae has kind of low presence, dayo. But how did Oppa notice, dayo?"
"You're right there in plain sight — how could I not know? No matter how low your presence is, not noticing to this degree is…"
"Uuung… But next time, can we eat something else, dayo? That mala rose was seriously gross, dayo. Without the cola, I don't think I could've eaten it, dayo."
"…"
I still didn't understand why the kids hadn't "noticed" this girl's existence. But I could tell in an instant that Eunchae herself was a very "oblivious" kid.
Normally, even if something tasted bad, you'd show some courtesy to the person who treated you, right? But here she was, grabbing Häagen-Dazs first thing and immediately launching into a full roast of the menu.
Classic no-filter type — brain-to-mouth with the safety off.
"R-right, let's do that next time. Assuming there even is a 'next time,' that is…"
"Waaah! But Oppa, you really don't use Dogs & Picks, dayo? Did Oppa come from the total sticks, nang? Why are you so country, dayo?"
"You're right! It was really rural. Honestly, I don't even know what Dogs & Picks is — I was too embarrassed to admit it, so I pretended I did. Think you could teach me?"
I could look it up in a second, but hearing it directly from a teenage girl's mouth seemed better. Of course, that kind of luck wasn't in the cards for me.
"Woooong! Look at the time already! I have to go in, dayo!"
Whoosh~
Leaving only those words behind, Eunchae took off toward the school with the Häagen-Dazs in hand. She must have finally realized, belatedly, why the others had gone in first.
Zero social awareness. And she said the most atmosphere-killing things without batting an eye. Across all of history, unchanged — the textbook definition of a pure soul.
Hmm… Maybe it wasn't that Eunchae had no presence. Maybe her presence was so overwhelming that everyone unconsciously avoided her?