Singun Palace
That was how I ended up piggybacking Hyeonji the entire distance of two subway stops on foot. The girl was already taller than most women, and built mostly of muscle, so she weighed a lot more than she looked.
Honestly, if I hadn’t spent years at sea forging these dense, practical muscles, I would have dumped her on the pavement more than once along the way. And though I hated to admit it, Saiyan Syndrome played its part too.
By all rights I should have been a wreck of a man in his thirties after all the smoking and drinking, yet my physique was still as solid as a twenty-year-old’s, so I somehow managed to hold out.
Phew… phew…
But wasn’t this girl sleeping way too comfortably, completely oblivious to my suffering? Just having her arms locked around my neck was uncomfortable enough, and every time she let out those rough breaths I wanted to dig into my ears.
Swish…
Wondering what she was up to, I turned my head. All I could see was her pride and joy—those silky, cascading locks. Whoosh~ For all her tomboy act, a thick shampoo scent came pouring out.
Sniff sniff…
Had five glasses of somaek already gotten me drunk? Without realizing it I was sniffing at the scent.
Hmm… Come to think of it, how long had it been since I’d shared this kind of physical closeness with a woman? And Hyeonji was no ordinary girl.
Her personality was a bit rough, but she had that high-class look with a striking T-zone. Just imagining those plump, kissable lips hidden between those soft strands of hair…
Shake shake!
What the hell was I thinking? She was a minor—and on top of that, my daughter’s upperclassman.
Even if I was a clueless guy in his thirties who only aged on paper, I still needed to pick my targets carefully when it came to desires.
With Sehee or Teacher Eunju it might be different, but just imagining that about this girl was a crime in itself. The destination wasn’t far, so I should just focus on walking.
At last the full view of Singun Palace came into sight. Compared to her sloppy clothes, her home was openly luxurious.
Well, clothes were just her personal style, but the headphones hanging around her neck looked pretty expensive.
More than anything, I’d found it strange how freely she smoked and drank—things that should be a real burden for a student—but of course her allowance itself was generous.
That made it even clearer that Hyeonji wasn’t the owner of the Marlboro Red pack that was extorting Harin. I really needed to take care of that boyfriend soon so I could quit this tiresome high-school-boy cosplay.
“How can I help you?”
True to the name “Palace,” the security was tight. Unlike the Nobel Townhomes, where any Tom, Dick, or Harry could come and go like it was their own place, a security guard blocked the entrance right from the start.
“My friend lives in unit 3805. As you can see, she’s pretty drunk. Could you contact them for me?”
The security guard immediately called through the intercom. Only a few seconds later he came back out, shaking his head.
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s home. Got any ID on you, kid?”
“Even if you ask, this is my first time here.”
“Then we’ll open it with her fingerprint. Follow me.”
I followed the guard inside. We stopped in front of what looked like the common entrance, and he pressed Hyeonji’s thumb against the scanner.
Whirr!
A confirmation tone sounded and the door opened. The guard handed me a Visitor Pass and let me through.
I rode the elevator up to the thirty-eighth floor. Hmm… how much money would you need to live in a place like this?
Thirty years on a boat still wouldn’t be enough. Harin would probably never even get to look at a place like this her whole life.
Suddenly the girl on my back felt hateful. We were both dealing with family conflict, but compared to Harin wasn’t she living way too large?
Honestly, if you lived somewhere like this, shouldn’t you just let that kind of stuff slide?
We reached the thirty-eighth floor. I found the exact unit number, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to press her finger to the pad.
Bzzz!
I rang the doorbell and waited, but there was no response. Her father was probably working day and night to maintain a place like this, but the stepmother she hated so much—shouldn’t she at least be home keeping the house?
Beep!
In the end I pressed Hyeonji’s fingerprint and opened the door. The moment we stepped inside, the dazzling entryway lights blazed on.
All I could see was an endless hallway that looked long enough to run a hundred-meter dash. Selling just this foyer alone would probably buy the entire townhouse complex I lived in.
Still, I couldn’t just wander freely into someone else’s empty house. Without taking a single step past the entryway, I set Hyeonji down on the floor.
Thud! Ouch!
The girl was so dramatic that the second her butt hit the floor she let out a scream. She usually put on that rough, tomboyish low voice to act cool, but the moment she was in trouble a pure female squeal came out all on its own.
“Wh-what? Where am I?”
Only then did Hyeonji come to her senses and look left and right. When she spotted me standing in front of her, her eyes went wide.
“You crazy bastard… where the hell did you bring me?”
“Where do you think? Your place. Singun Palace, unit 3805.”
“Ha, fuck… How did you even know that?”
“I have my ways.”
“Did you ask Park Eunju? You said you two weren’t anything.”
“I asked Teacher Eunju. How would Park Eunju even know your address?”
“…”
Hyeonji had nothing to say to that and just looked away awkwardly. Anyway, I’d successfully completed the delivery, so it was time to head home.
“Wait.”
“Ah, what now?”
“Give me your number.”
“…?”
Hyeonji stopped me as I was about to leave and held out her phone. What was this? Was she actually trying to get my number right now?
“Uh… do we really need to exchange numbers or anything?”
“I need to check my wallet and call you back, so hand over the number.”
“What the hell… Do I look like the kind of guy who steals high-school wallets?”
“How am I supposed to know what kind of guy you are? Number. Now.”
“…”
I had no choice but to type it in. Hyeonji took her phone back and asked,
“What’s your name?”
“…”
This was getting a little dangerous. Giving a fake name to anyone else might be fine, but was it really smart to do it with Hyeonji?
Cheonji High kept the grade buildings strictly separated. Whether it was to prevent school violence or not, students from different years were completely banned from entering each other’s buildings.
So even if I revealed my identity to Eunju or anyone else, they would never be able to come looking for me. But Hyeonji could show up anytime she wanted, right?
“Uh… just save it as Timo.”
“Tell me your name.”
“I really just want to study quietly at school. If you come looking for me it gets complicated…”
“I won’t come looking. Name.”
“…”
Was she serious? I’d never actually watched Hyeonji’s school life, but from what I could tell she usually skipped out before lunch, so she probably wouldn’t go room to room hunting for me.
“Fine. But if you want to see me, text or call first. I don’t want you showing up at my classroom.”
“Fuck… Why do you talk so much? Just give me the damn name.”
“Chulgyu… Ban Chulgyu…”
“You joking? That’s the Class 3 homeroom teacher. Ah… or is it not Class 3? Which class is it…”
Chulgyu was a third-year homeroom teacher? Noted.
“It’s really my name. That’s why I asked if the nickname for that teacher was right when you mentioned it. Anyway, let’s try not to run into each other at school.”
It was a little risky, but what else could I do? Even if Hyeonji found out I wasn’t actually enrolled, she didn’t seem like the type to go report me to the teachers one by one.
“But there’s nobody home. Your dad works late, huh?”
“Probably out doing some entertainment thing. Like those dirty old men stuffing cash into room-salon girls’ chests.”
“He’s your father—calling him a dirty old man is a bit… But someone else lives here besides you, right?”
Hyeonji seemed to hate talking about her stepmother so much that I asked in a roundabout way. She let out a snort—her usual cocky laugh.
“Must’ve gone out to meet some guy. That slut…”
“R-right, maybe it’s better if I just don’t listen. Anyway, get some rest and don’t be late for school tomorrow.”
“I’ll go when I feel like it.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Come out of school at lunch. Hangover food.”
“What the hell… Why do I have to go with you for hangover soup?”
“This is your fault, isn’t it? Come out.”
“…”
I wasn’t going to the company tomorrow anyway. But I wasn’t free enough to go grab hangover soup with a high-school girl in the middle of the day either.
“Just contact me first. Anyway, I’m leaving.”
Still, Hyeonji might have information about Harin’s boyfriend, so for now I’d play along. With those words she flopped! right over onto the entryway floor and fell asleep.
Sigh… For the first time in my life a girl had asked for my number. And that girl was my daughter’s upperclassman.
A long day was finally over. Now I could go home, stare at Harin’s locked door for a while, sigh a bit, and fall asleep.
Of course, before that I should let Teacher Eunju know the quest was complete.
The fact that she replied right away meant she’d been fretting alone the whole time, waiting for it to be finished. In contrast, Eunju still hadn’t answered my earlier text—maybe she was sulking because my reply had been a little late.
Texting with Teacher Eunju in the middle of the night—how could anything be this fun? It was so fun that I completely stopped watching where I was going, and that was my undoing.
“Sunbae?”
“…?”
I was just leaving the complex when a familiar voice cracked my skull open while I was still buried in my chat with Teacher Eunju.
With a sinking feeling I looked up—and there she was.
“O-oh, Eunju?”
Of all the people I least wanted to run into, of course it had to be her. She must have been out for a walk; she was wearing light training clothes.
Hmm… I’d never seen her like this before, so she looked ridiculously cute. Completely unaware of the nonsense running through my head, Eunju pulled out her AirPods and asked,
“Did you go somewhere nice today?”
Then she immediately pointed out my outfit, which was far more carefully put together than usual. I rubbed the bridge of my nose awkwardly and answered,
“My cousin’s wedding. Do I look too much like an old man?”
“A little… yeah?”
“Uh, how much?”
“You dressed way too mature for your age. Kind of like something the bride’s friends would wear?”
“Ah, then that’s fine.”
“…?”
In the end that just meant I’d dressed like a man in his thirties, right? But Hyeonji and Eunju both thought I was nineteen, so they only felt a sense of dissonance.
Sniff sniff…
Then, suddenly, Eunju started acting strange. She leaned in a little and began sniffing.
Putting aside how heart-stoppingly cute that was, it seemed like she’d noticed something. Of course—after downing five glasses of somaek with no snacks, there was no way I didn’t smell.
“You… smell like alcohol?”
“It was a wedding, you know? My uncles kept saying I was an adult now and pushing drinks on me. I couldn’t really refuse.”
“Don’t weddings happen during the day? If you still smell this much…”
“Actually my dad has nine brothers. Grandpa was really old-fashioned and took a second wife. One drink from each of them and it was already nine glasses, so I got drunk without realizing it and slept for ages before I finally woke up.”
“I-is that so? Anyway, what were you doing here?”
I managed to get past the alcohol smell, but that still didn’t explain why I was here. And I had no idea what excuse to use.
Saying I’d randomly found a drunk Hyeonji and taken her home wouldn’t be hard. But I got the feeling Hyeonji herself wouldn’t want that revealed.
“Well… I came to apologize.”
“To who? Wait, do you mean me?”
“I was really busy yesterday so I didn’t see your text. Today I finally sobered up enough to reply, but you never answered, right? I figured you must be super mad, so I came to apologize in person.”
That should be enough of a reason to be here, right? Eunju clearly hadn’t expected that explanation; she looked away awkwardly.
“I just heard you were going to visit the graves and got a little curious—it didn’t mean anything. You didn’t have to come all the way here…”
“I’m sorry. Still, if you’re going to apologize I thought you should show some sincerity. Well then, I’ll just—”
“Let’s go somewhere quiet and talk.”
“…?”
I’d already apologized—couldn’t I just leave now? But Eunju was so big on formality that she insisted we find a proper place to talk.
Just when was I ever going to get home?