Golderia
In the end the bell rang just like that, and once again I never got the chance to bring it up.
Of course the day wasn’t completely over, so there was still an opportunity left. But I had been thrown into considerable confusion by an entirely different problem.
Why had Eunju lied to me? Between the two completely contradictory testimonies, the winner had ultimately been Eunju.
Just today, the fact that the one who had stabbed me in the back was not Jihye but Eunju had come to light. She had even admitted it to me herself.
Honestly, there wasn’t a single person left I could trust. How could she deceive me with that innocent face without so much as changing her expression?
I had been a fool for thinking, because of her unusually polite demeanor for kids these days, that I wanted to take her as a daughter in Harin’s place. As expected, I still hadn’t managed to become a real “adult.”
Jingle!
Whatever the case, I still had my own work to do. Right on time at four in the afternoon I stepped into Syndrome.
“…?”
But there was no one. I had been certain they would hold the after-school meeting here again today, so where had everyone gone?
Ah, of course it wasn’t completely empty.
“Uh, Eunchae? Where did everyone go?”
“Uwoong? Eunchae doesn’t know either?”
Eunchae was sitting there all alone holding down the fort. Looking closer, this kid must have come with the exact same idea as me, yet for some reason today no one…
“…“
Thinking about it, today was the day Eunju went to academy. Last week when I had run into her by chance in front of the house, it had also been a Wednesday just like today, hadn’t it?
Of course on Monday she had gone to academy after the meeting finished, but thanks to me she had gotten a breather, so she was taking today off. In the end that meant I would have to wait until academy ended again…
“Uwaang! Oppa, let’s play just the two of us.”
“P-play? Sorry, Eunchae, but I’ve got a schedule, so that might be a bit much.”
“Uwoong? Oppa, didn’t you come to join the meeting? Then why do you have a schedule?”
“…“
I had forgotten this kid was also a graduate of Cheonji High’s proud logical-speaking course. Well, it wouldn’t make sense unless I had double-booked from the start, would it?
In the end I had to leave Syndrome with just Eunchae. Since Eunju was untraceable until academy finished, I still needed to kill time somehow.
But didn’t I have to prepare dinner for Harin? Of course I had made it and left it, yet it was different from a meal Dad himself set on the table…
“…?”
Fortunately I wouldn’t become an irresponsible dad who didn’t even prepare a single meal. But this was a little strange, wasn’t it?
This was the first time Harin hadn’t used the library as an excuse. Not that she had found a new one either.
Last week on this same day, Harin had said “today’s fine” and joined the meal at Aunt’s place. In other words, Wednesday wasn’t a day she met her boyfriend, so there was no need to manufacture an alibi.
Could this mean she had become a little more honest with me? Looking at how she had prepared breakfast for me this morning and even properly reported her schedule, something had definitely changed.
“Uwaang! Harin and Thuy?”
“What!?”
Shashak!
At the mention of Harin I immediately dropped into a prone position and lowered my body. But wouldn’t this make me stand out even more to other people?
“Uwoong? Oppa, why are you suddenly doing that?”
“M-my legs suddenly went numb… So where is Harin right now?”
Eunchae stretched a finger toward the opposite side of the street. Sure enough, just as she said, Harin could be seen entering a café called Bubble together with her group.
One of them was a face I knew. Mok Jihye, the third-year who had suddenly butted into the conversation earlier in the day and at the same time delivered a massive truth.
And following right behind her, the mixed-blood… no, the multicultural-looking student was Thuy. I had only ever heard the name; this was the first time I was seeing her in person.
Exactly as the text Harin had sent said. Just like Eunju’s team grabbing one café and preparing for the election, that side was moving in the exact same way.
Chatter chatter…
Harin’s expression while she was with her friends looked bright. She wasn’t the talkative type, but at least she looked comfortable the way she did when she was with her nieces.
Ha… What were they talking about? They were the same students as Eunju’s group; they wouldn’t just hold meetings for hours straight, right?
Naturally boyfriend talk might come up. No, if she was going to cosplay as a high-school boy anyway, she could have gotten close with them instead of Eunju’s side, couldn’t she?
I desperately wanted to eavesdrop on the conversation, but that would be impossible, right? I knew it was a ridiculous fantasy, yet at times like this I really wished I could become invisible and go over there…
“…?”
Wait—but I knew someone with that kind of ability, didn’t I?
Exactly Eunchae. If it was Eunchae, whose presence was so overwhelming that being ignored by kids had become a passive skill, she could walk into that café without them noticing.
No, looking at how Eunju’s group operated, even if she sat right among them no one would realize she was there, right? If I shoved that Eunchae in as a spy…
Shake shake!
What the hell was I thinking? Just to dig up one secret of my daughter’s, I was going to turn a fellow high-school girl into Mata Hari?
How was this any different from an uncle who steals his nieces’ diaries? I had been driven so far to the edge lately that I had lost all leisure in life.
“Hoo… Let’s just go, Eunchae.”
Stop with the useless thoughts and go. First I needed to figure out how to get Eunju to withdraw the pledge…
“…?”
But Eunchae had disappeared. She had definitely been right beside me until a moment ago—where had she gone?
With a “maybe…?” thought I checked Bubble again. And sure enough…
That Eunchae kid had somehow naturally slipped in among Harin’s group and taken a seat. That one, the moment she saw only people she knew, she just shoved her butt in first and claimed a spot.
But this wasn’t right, was it? Eunchae was clearly engaged in industrial espionage right now.
Moreover, since she had zero friend-or-foe distinction, she might spill every last bit of Eunju’s side’s information too.
In the end I had to wait anxiously until the meeting finished. When seven in the evening rolled around, everyone must have gotten hungry, because they left the café.
“Eunchae! What are you doing?”
The moment Eunchae came out alone I called her right away. Eunchae, who didn’t even seem to realize what she had done, just beamed.
“Uwoong! I played with friends?”
“Uh… I don’t know about that? Those friends probably don’t think of it that way? Leaving that aside, you said you’d play with me?”
“Uwaang! I forgot. Is Oppa mad?”
“Ab. So. Lu. Te. Ly. You didn’t teach them our meeting contents, did you?”
“Oong? No! Why would Eunchae betray our team?”
At least she seemed to accept Eunju’s team as “ours,” so that was a huge relief. But there was one thing she was mistaken about. I was not part of “us.”
“What did they talk about?”
Even knowing I shouldn’t, I couldn’t stop my curiosity. Maybe I would finally hear the Harin talk I had been so desperately wanting.
“Uuung… Eunchae is hungry.”
“…“
Seemed she had no intention of telling me empty-mouthed. Well, I had to eat too, so let’s hear it slowly.
She said she wanted a hamburger, so I took her to Golderia. Eunchae got the Korean-beef bulgogi burger set, and I got a single deluxe burger.
“Uwaang! Oppa is a total cheapskate? Eunchae wanted to go to McHonaldu?”
“Th-that… later when we get closer let’s go to McHonaldu once. Anyway, Eunchae? Won’t you explain what happened there earlier?”
“Chew chew… Why are you curious about that?”
“Well… originally election battles have a dirty backside, right? If we know the opponent’s strategy it’ll be much easier for our side to respond, don’t you think?”
“Uuung… It feels like Eunchae is doing something bad?”
“Ab. So. Lu. Te. Ly. If things go wrong later I’ll take full responsibility. There won’t be even a speck of harm coming to you.”
Even if you eavesdropped on other people’s talk, no one would care anyway, right? Eunchae soon seemed to make up her mind and put down the hamburger.
Then she picked up the cola and gulped gulped… picked up the hamburger again and nom nom chomp chomp…
Only after she had completely cleared the tray did she start the story.
“Harin, what will you drink? Unnie’s buying, so don’t feel burdened and just order.”
At Jihye’s question Harin checked the menu for a moment. Come to think of it, what drink did Harin like?
“I’ll have… peach iced tea.”
Unexpected. As someone who had been to high-school-girl tea parties myself, I had been certain she would like those high-sugar carb collections loaded with cream or sugar just like the other kids.
But here she went with plain peach iced tea? Check that for now. On the way home later I should buy a bunch of iced-tea bags.
“Earlier who nguyen?”
It was Thuy. Because she was mixed… no, a multicultural student, her speech carried a foreign awkwardness, she said. At the sudden question Harin blinked her baby-cat eyes.
“Earlier who?”
“Huh? I saw it too? Who were you chatting with earlier? Could it be that rumored boyfriend?”
Shiver! Unexpectedly, right from the start the content I wanted came out. Harin got greatly flustered and waved both arms wildly in the air.
“Ah, no? It’s not like a boyfriend or anything. Just…”
If not a boyfriend then a crush, right. Expanding her pupils like that and even her ears turning red while roughly covering it up—do you think people will believe that, Harin?
“Hehe… You can tell me slowly. Then Thuy, what will you drink?”
Was that the end? No, if a kid doing election campaign together got caught secretly chatting with an unidentified guy, wasn’t it a high-school girl’s duty to dig in persistently?
But it really was the end. Not that the three people’s conversation had ended—Eunchae’s story ended right there.
“W-wait, Eunchae? That’s all? You were there for almost over two hours.”
“Uuung… Eunchae was on her phone so she couldn’t hear everything?”
“…“
Well, she had the transparent passive herself, but her memory and concentration weren’t superhuman. But did she really not know what I wanted?
Of. Course. Since I had never told Eunchae, she wouldn’t know. Still, ending like this was a bit…
“Uwaang! That’s right? They said they’ll do that pledge there too?”
“That pledge… you mean the ‘Casual Clothes Day once a month’?”
Eunchae nodded saying yes. First the bulgogi sauce stuck on her mouth kept bothering me, so I wiped it for her. Swipe swipe…
“Uwaang! Weird? How can both sides put out the same pledge?”
“R-right? It’s like ghosts are playing tricks. Eunchae, from what you saw, did their prep seem to be going better than ours?”
“Uuung… We seem to be doing better because Oppa is there. Over there it seemed like Harin alone prepared a lot?”
“Harin did?”
This kid who spread logarithms open in the library and went out to play with her boyfriend every day was surprisingly sincere about the election campaign? Still, it felt good that my daughter was getting praised wherever she went.
But that wasn’t the problem. As expected the other side had put out Casual Clothes Day as their main pledge, so when election campaign started next week it would clearly become a problem as pledge plagiarism.
Of course a more important fact was that Harin hadn’t even told her friends about the existence of her boyfriend—or crush.
But was this simply because she was very shy?
You haven’t forgotten, right? Kang Harin’s man was, along with Hyeonji, a prime suspect as the owner of the Marlboro Red.
But Hyeonji had actually shown herself buying cigarettes with her own money, so the real culprit was more likely that guy.
The allowance I gave Harin was at most about two hundred thousand won a month. Getting peach iced tea from an unnie she knew and opening a big cup at the convenience store was the most she did—so where had the rest gone?
In the end I could only think it was being exploited and wasted as that guy’s entertainment expenses. This bastard…
Rather than taking a flea’s liver, how could he strip the daughter of a 2.2-million-won take-home shitty office worker? When I found out who it really was I wouldn’t let it go.
“Uuung! Oppa, what do we do now?”
“Us? Uh… We ate, so shouldn’t we head home soon? Your parents will worry, right?”
“Oong… It’s fine! Mom and Dad like it when Eunchae plays with friends.”
“Really? What do you usually do when you play with friends?”
“Uuung? Like earlier, I listen to friends’ talk.”
“…“
That meant she had no friends. You might think you were listening to their talk, but they didn’t even know you were there.
Come to think of it I was a bit curious. Since when had this Eunchae been living this kind of life?
“Eunchae? You said you have no presence. Since when did you feel that way?”
“Uwoong… From when I went to middle school? Eunchae originally was an idol trainee from elementary school…”
“You were an idol trainee!?”
“Uuk… M-my head hurts…”
“…!?”
The moment Eunchae spilled the shocking past she clutched her head and complained of pain. It was so painful she even shed a few tears; it was by no means acting.
“U-Eunchae, are you okay?”
“Uuk… It’s a bit better now.”
“…“
Eunchae shook her head vigorously as if the headache had subsided a little. But this looked a bit dangerous.
What kind of headache gave pain enough to squeeze out tears in such a short time? And now she was nonchalantly crunching the remaining ice in the cola.
In the end I couldn’t ask any more. No—I felt like I shouldn’t ask.