Chapter 74 (Se-hee, Shin-bi, Yoo Ye-na)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 74 (Se-hee, Shin-bi, Yoo Ye-na)
'Contraceptive pill.'
Si-woo stared blankly at Shin-bi for a long while, unable to speak, the words she had traced onto his palm leaving him in a state of utter confusion.
A flurry of questions that he couldn't quite organize swirled through his mind.
Did Se-hee Noona really have a reason to keep the fact that she was taking birth control a secret from him?
And if she wanted it to be a secret, why did she have to take it right in front of him, almost as if she were flaunting it?
If she had truly intended to hide it, she wouldn't have called Shin-bi Noona to the house in the morning and received the pills right before his eyes.
Se-hee Noona’s contradictory behavior made no sense, and Si-woo’s thoughts were becoming a tangled mess.
Then, a single phrase suddenly flashed through his mind.
That phrase was...
'Sex Diet.'
At the ominous thought of those words, Si-woo’s chest felt heavy, as if he were being suffocated.
In a corner of his heart, the words "No way..." repeated like an unconscious mantra.
However, that one phrase seemed to explain most of Se-hee Noona’s inconsistent actions.
The tight knot in his chest seemed to melt and settle into a heavy sediment once again.
"...Are you going to do it?" Si-woo asked Shin-bi Noona cautiously, as if confirming the answer to a grim riddle.
Shin-bi Noona nodded silently.
"You too, Shin-bi Noona?"
Si-woo’s voice was laced with a mixture of despair and resignation.
With a pained smile and a shy blush creeping up her face, Shin-bi Noona nodded once more.
* * *
After finishing their preparations, Si-woo and the Noonas left the house to head to their respective academies.
Se-hee Noona and Shin-bi Noona walked ahead, chatting affectionately.
They talked about where they wanted to go after school and what they wanted to eat...
And occasionally, they exchanged secret whispers that Si-woo couldn't hear.
Si-woo followed behind them, watching their backs like an outcast.
Ever since he heard that Se-hee Noona and Shin-bi Noona had decided to go on that diet, he hadn't been able to say a word.
'You really have to keep it a secret this time~!!?' Shin-bi Noona’s final words echoed in his mind.
It felt like she said that because she knew he had flaunted the secrets she’d told him to Se-hee Noona on the subway yesterday.
If so, what was the point of keeping it a secret now?
Had Se-hee Noona intended to let Si-woo know the secret through Shin-bi Noona from the very beginning?
Or did she simply not care whether he knew or not?
Questions followed questions in an endless loop.
Why did she choose to let him know in this specific way?
Was it because she thought Si-woo wouldn't listen even if she tried to persuade him with kind words?
Or was it a form of consideration, meant to end their relationship without leaving any room for her innocent younger brother to have delusions?
But if that were the case, the oral sex Se-hee Noona had given him in the changing room this morning had been far too provocative.
It seemed that the new secrets between Si-woo and Se-hee Noona from last night hadn't been passed on to Shin-bi Noona yet.
Probably...
Perhaps Se-hee Noona was hoping that their new secret would be relayed to Shin-bi Noona through Si-woo.
Disjointed, chaotic thoughts continued to stir in Si-woo’s head.
"Hey~ Yoo Si-woo! Aren't you coming?!! If you keep dawdling, I'm leaving you behind on the street!!"
Se-hee Noona, who was walking ahead, glanced back and called out to him.
"O-Oh, okay~!!"
Si-woo gave a half-hearted reply and ran toward the Noonas.
It felt as though the initiative in their relationship, which Si-woo had held last night, had now completely shifted back to Se-hee Noona.
* * *
Before they knew it, the three of them arrived in front of the Noonas' academy.
Just as they were about to say their goodbyes, Shin-bi Noona called out to Si-woo.
She stepped closer to him.
"Don't forget that you promised to do me a favor~!! Got it!!!?"
Shin-bi Noona spoke in a low voice, just quiet enough so Se-hee Noona wouldn't hear, a playful smile on her lips.
The favor she had asked for in exchange for telling him Se-hee Noona’s secret.
Before Si-woo could say anything, Shin-bi Noona turned around and quickly ran toward Se-hee Noona.
—It seemed she had no intention of waiting for his answer.
In the end, Shin-bi Noona didn't tell him what the favor was.
She simply confirmed the fact that a promise had been made and moved away.
Shin-bi Noona and Se-hee Noona entered the academy doors and disappeared into the crowd of other students.
With a heavy heart, Si-woo slowly turned his steps toward his own school.
* * *
Si-woo arrived at school and entered his classroom.
It was before the morning assembly.
As soon as he walked in, he heard the boisterous voices of Cheol-jin and his friends.
"They opened an academy right in front of the station~ It's in that big building, you know?"
Cheol-jin was surrounded by classmates, talking excitedly like a salesman pitching a product.
Several photos were spread out on the desk where Cheol-jin was sitting.
"Apparently, she's quite famous in the industry~ Her skills are top-notch, and her looks are out of this world. She's incredibly popular."
Cheol-jin was busy explaining someone to his friends, adding cliché superlatives as if he were unrolling a bundle of goods to sell.
Curious, Si-woo approached Cheol-jin’s seat.
Looking closer, the photos on the desk were close-ups of a beautiful woman performing a magic show.
"Yo~ Si-woo, you're here?"
Cheol-jin greeted him as he saw him approaching.
"What's all this?"
Instead of a greeting, Si-woo pointed at the photos on the desk.
"Ah~~!! You want to see too?"
Cheol-jin said, showing Si-woo a video on his smartphone.
Cheol-jin had once been punched so hard by Si-woo that his molars nearly broke for secretly taking photos of Se-hee Noona.
—Though he claimed he did it out of concern for Se-hee Noona, he seemed to have stopped following her around after that incident.
Lately, he had been causing Aunt Gyu-ri a lot of worry with his mysterious whereabouts, but it seemed he had found a new hobby to obsess over.
"You know that magic academy that opened a few months ago in front of the station? The one they sometimes advertise on TV... The director there~!! Isn't she gorgeous?"
For some reason, Cheol-jin was rambling about the director of the magic academy that Si-woo was scheduled to visit today.
"Her name is Yoo Ye-na! She's in her early to mid-thirties? According to friends interested in magic, she was quite famous from the moment she first appeared."
Cheol-jin was excitedly relaying his prepared information to Si-woo, who had approached with curiosity.
"Is that so?"
Si-woo replied half-heartedly, seeing how hyped up Cheol-jin was.
"Apparently, she has a lot of innovative magic tricks~ But no matter how much I dig, I can't find any info on her family, education, or where she lives! This woman is a complete mystery! Even though she's such a beauty~!! She seems fluent in foreign languages, and with her exotic looks, she might be mixed-race..."
Cheol-jin continued, adding exaggerations to pique the interest of the kids around him.
The "investigation" Cheol-jin spoke of was likely just tailing her to take secret photos or scouring the internet.
Si-woo thought to himself that there was no way the personal information of a private citizen running an academy—like her family relations or education—would be publicly available on the internet, no matter how famous she was.
According to what he heard from Se-young, Teacher Oh Ye-rin was also working as an after-school teacher at the Beginner Academy Se-young attended.
There was no way a "mysterious" person could be an after-school teacher at an Beginner Academy.
"It's hard to believe, but there are rumors she's a real psychic~ Some say she's the mistress of a famous tycoon~ And there's even talk that she brainwashes the kids at the academy to use them for prostitution..."
Cheol-jin suddenly lowered his voice, as if leaking secrets that should never be told.
At Cheol-jin’s ridiculous exaggerations, Si-woo felt the need to intervene.
Whether this Yoo Ye-na was a psychic hiding her powers or a tycoon's mistress was none of his business, but it was a different story if she was the director of the academy Se-young was about to attend.
And child prostitution...
Cheol-jin had clearly crossed the line.
If he let these occult-obsessed ramblings slide, weird rumors about the academy might spread, which would be troublesome for him as Se-young’s older brother.
"Hey! Wait, wait! I'm going to that academy today for a parent-teacher meeting as my sister's guardian~!! And that Yoo Ye-na person is an after-school teacher at Se-young’s Beginner Academy!!! Stop talking nonsense~!!!"
At Si-woo’s sharp rebuke, the kids gathered around began to murmur.
"How can you guys listen to such absurd stories? My sister goes to that academy, so don't say anything weird anymore!! Come on, break it up~!!"
As he spoke, Si-woo pushed his way between Cheol-jin and the other kids, dispersing the crowd.
He felt a bit bad for Cheol-jin and the others, but he felt he had no choice for Se-young’s sake.
The kids returned to their seats at Si-woo’s interference.
Feeling a slight pang of guilt, Si-woo looked at Cheol-jin.
"You're going to the magic academy today for a guardian meeting?"
However, Cheol-jin was looking at Si-woo with sparkling eyes, seemingly more interested in what Si-woo had just said.
And that was how Cheol-jin ended up visiting the academy with Si-woo and his sisters after school.