Meeting Ma Yeonseo
It was around the time I was in elementary school. Suddenly, for some inexplicable family reason, I had to transfer to Seoul in a hurry.
“Whoa! Kang Yuchan, you're going to Seoul?!”
“Lucky...! I wanna go to Seoul too...”
“I've been there—Seoul's nothing special.”
My friends were super envious watching me head off to Seoul.
Is this really a good thing?
I just felt uneasy about it.
An unfamiliar neighborhood, an unfamiliar school, unfamiliar faces.
No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't find a reason it'd be any better than now.
Above all, the way my mom was frantically preparing the move sealed it. She looked just like someone fleeing in a panic.
“Yuchan, you'll get along with your new friends, right?”
“Yeah.”
“...Good... If anything happens, you have to tell Mom, okay?”
For some reason, Mom's face was incredibly anxious back then.
Was it because my lifelong housewife mom suddenly had to find a job? Or maybe because that 'uncle' who occasionally visited our house had gone missing?
Either way, it was obvious Mom was tense about our new life in Seoul.
So, not wanting to worry her more, I put on a brave front.
“Don't worry, Mom!”
And then.
“Hey. That kid's got no dad.”
The bullying started at my new school.
“For real?”
“I saw it on the teacher's desk. Single-mom family!”
“Whoa, that's insane.”
“What's a single-mom family?”
“No dad, dummy!”
“Oh... holy crap!”
Whispers. Whispers. I could hear them gossiping about me.
Part of me wanted to jump up and deck someone, but then I thought of Mom, who'd just started working as a cashier.
She already had enough on her plate—I didn't want to add to her worries.
Don't cause trouble, Kang Yuchan.
Luckily, there was no physical bullying, but no one talked to me either.
Fourth grade dragged on boringly like that.
“Ugh... same class as him.”
“Parentless bastard's back.”
“Ruins my mood.”
Things didn't change much in fifth grade.
I ended up in class with the same kids who hated me for the dumbest reasons.
And among them were the popular ones who set the class vibe.
Thanks to that, even by April, I still had zero friends.
Fine. Might as well study.
Being the positive type, I took it as an opportunity.
Playing around was fun, sure, but reading alone wasn't half bad either.
“Yuchan, how's school life? You doing okay?”
“It's alright, pretty fun.”
When Mom or my homeroom teacher checked in, I'd answer brightly on purpose.
“Yuchan, just out of curiosity—do you have any close friends in class?”
I was a kid who knew there was no upside to giving a bad answer.
“Hmm. Kinda close to everyone, I guess.”
“Uh... okay...?”
“Yeah.”
We somehow kept those peaceful days going.
Then one day.
“We have a new transfer student coming to our class.”
A transfer student showed up out of the blue.
“She used to live in this neighborhood but was in America for a bit, so everyone be nice to her.”
““Yes!””
“Why don't you introduce yourself to the class?”
The transfer student—who'd actually come from America—stepped forward without a hint of nerves and said calmly,
“I'm Ma Yeonseo. Nice to meet you.”
Ma Yeonseo. She was as pretty as her name suggested.
“Whoa... she's really pretty.”
“She's tall too...”
“Her clothes look super expensive...!”
Unlike when I'd transferred in, boys and girls alike were all super welcoming.
Ridiculous.
I was secretly jealous.
“Yeonseo... why don't you sit next to Yuchan there.”
Ma Yeonseo got assigned the empty seat right next to me.
It'd been empty because no one wanted to sit there.
I'd unintentionally become desk buddies with the star transfer student.
“Where're you from?”
“You really lived in America?”
“Then did you go to the New York Tower?!”
“How tall are you?”
“Where do you live?”
The second break hit, and kids swarmed her with questions.
Watching it all from the side—the clear difference from my experience—I was speechless.
Really ridiculous.
Right then.
“Ha.”
Ma Yeonseo, who'd been ignoring everyone, suddenly let out a deep sigh.
Sweep. With an annoyed glare at the kids, she said,
“Get lost.”
The classroom fell silent in an instant.
“Uh...”
“W-what...?”
“Did I hear that wrong?”
The kids were pretty thrown by the unexpected reaction.
Ma Yeonseo, looking like she couldn't care less, pulled out her textbook and said,
“Don't bug me. Get lost.”
She wasn't your average crazy bitch.
What the hell is her deal?
Ma Yeonseo seemed to want to get isolated.
First kid I'd met with such blatantly antisocial vibes.
The other kids quickly gave up trying to approach her because of her consistent rudeness...
Thanks to that, the negative stares aimed at me started to fade a little.
Not that it got me any friends, though.
She likes books too, huh.
Like me, Ma Yeonseo spent non-class time reading.
Classic friendless kid trait, maybe.
So we'd bump into each other in the school library at lunch sometimes.
“......”
“......”
We barely ever talked, so we always pretended the other didn't exist.
Anyway, that's how I got used to life with Ma Yeonseo around.
Oh. New book.
Like always, I headed to the library and spotted a new arrival.
[A chronicle of the first raiding party to conquer the Towers]
It was a book related to the Towers.
Towers were those bizarre structures that had appeared worldwide decades ago.
Enormous black cylinders, dozens of meters wide, sprouting from the ground overnight.
Humanity called them Towers.
These multi-story behemoths connected to different dimensions on each floor, crawling with all sorts of dangerous monsters...
And at the same time, humans with superpowers started appearing one after another.
People who wielded the mysterious power called mana to unleash incredible abilities.
Those who'd awakened these powers were called Awakeners.
They used their abilities to wipe out the monsters spilling from the Towers.
Eventually, they even started seriously conquering the Towers themselves.
Tower's Path was a book chronicling one of the very first raiding parties to tackle a Tower.
Sounds fun.
These days, decades later, Awakeners had celebrity-level fame based on their ranks.
Like a lot of kids, I was interested in Awakeners, so the short blurb on the back caught my eye.
Gonna read this today.
Excited, I turned around—and
“Ugh, shit! You scared me.”
—bumped right into a girl standing there blankly.
Black hair tied back simply, a pale and pretty face.
Our class nutjob. Ma Yeonseo.
What the?
For some reason, she was staring intently at the book in my hand.
From the looks of it, she'd been after this book too...
Not my problem.
“Coming through.”
I sidestepped her and headed straight to the counter.
I'd finish it in a day or two; she'd get her turn after.
Hehe. This'll be good.
I got back to class early, sat down, and dove into the borrowed book.
...This is insanely gripping.
All the books I'd picked this time were hits.
Especially Tower's Path, which I'd snagged right out from under Ma Yeonseo—it was so immersive I wanted to sneak reads during class.
Good call not yielding.
I turned the entire afternoon into personal reading time.
Right before end-of-day homeroom.
...Am I imagining it?
Ma Yeonseo, who usually never glanced my way, kept sneaking peeks at my desk.
“......”
More precisely, at the book sitting on one corner.
She wants it that bad.
Scratching my head, I hesitated a bit—then mustered the courage to talk to her.
“Hey.”
“......”
“Ma Yeonseo.”
Sweep. She finally met my eyes when I said her name.
There was a subtle contempt in her gaze.
This girl. Definitely not your average nutjob.
“You were gonna borrow this, right?”
I held up the half-read Tower's Path. Her eyes flicked straight to it.
“......”
Way softer look than when she met my eyes.
“I'm almost done. If you want it, borrow it—just bring it back after.”
I slid the book over casually. She stared down at it blankly.
After gazing at it for a while, not sure what she was thinking, Ma Yeonseo...
“I'll give it back tomorrow.”
Snatched it up and quietly tucked it into her bag.
Looked like thanks weren't on the menu.
Rude as expected.
I shrugged it off and started packing up to head home.
“Oh. Right.”
Then I remembered something I'd forgotten to mention.
“Dog-eared it a bit in the middle? That's where I was at, so leave it.”
“I'll handle it.”
Sigh. So rude.
She was a kid whose face matched her attitude perfectly.
The next day.
“I'm off.”
“Okay! Do your best today!”
“You too, Mom.”
“See you at dinner!”
I left home timed to Mom's commute like usual and headed to school early as always.
First place again today.
I was usually the first from class to arrive...
“Morning, Teacher.”
“Morning. Yuchan, you're second today?”
Someone had beaten me there for once.
Huh.
Ma Yeonseo.
What? She always comes right on time.
She normally timed her arrival perfectly with the bell.
But today, for whatever reason, she'd come first and was already reading.
“You're early.”
“......”
I'd just been curious, but her ignoring me was expected, so I sat down without a second thought.
That's when.
Sweep. Ma Yeonseo quietly set something on my desk.
[A chronicle of the first raiding party to conquer the Towers]
The book I'd lent her yesterday.
“You finished it?”
“Told you I'd give it back today.”
“Fast.”
I'd planned to read till homeroom anyway, so I roughly flipped to my marked spot.
But then.
Thud. Something thin slipped out from between the pages.
Huh?
It was a bookmark.
Thin metal with fancy decorations—not some cheap thing, clearly.
“Yeonseo. What's this in here?”
I pulled it out and asked her. Without even looking, she said flatly,
“Don't dog-ear books. Use that.”
“...For me?”
“Don't want it? Give it back.”
She stuck out her hand, glancing over with scary eyes.
I flinched for a second at that vibe but gripped the bookmark tight and said,
“Thanks. I'll use it well.”
Deep down, I thought maybe she wasn't so bad after all.
“Ah... forgot where I left off.”
“Page 223.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
From that day on, we'd sit side by side every morning and read together.