Bitter Summer (3)
Bitter Summer (3)
"It burned down quite spectacularly."
How was I supposed to take that first remark that slipped out of A-ra in front of the building?
It was so matter-of-fact that even the police officers and reporters listening let out bitter smiles.
I'd heard that A-ra owned multiple buildings just in this area alone,
and I began to wonder exactly how many buildings my wife actually owned.
It wasn't a large building, just a small one with only one tenant per floor,
but since no one was hurt and it was arson, not an accident, apparently there wasn't much reason to lament it.
"Would you like to take a look at the CCTV footage?"
"That's fine. My husband says it's someone he knows, so wouldn't finding them quickly, before they destroy evidence or try to stow away, come first?"
Others could accept A-ra's words, but for me, the person directly involved, they were very hard to accept.
She'd said it was much better than wasting time for no reason, and asked the police to investigate thoroughly.
"If you need any additional materials or need to get in touch, please contact our manager.
"Here you go."
After watching the manager hand over a business card, A-ra put her sunglasses and mask back on.
I'd heard she was busy with a shoot today, so it was amazing she'd even made it here.
"Seong-hwan-a. I'll see you at home then."
"Get home safely. Manager noona! Drive safely!"
"I know! I told you, you don't have to say it anymore."
Even though she'd gotten caught speeding before and got slapped with a huge fine.
Still, she said she doesn't speed anymore, so I had no choice but to trust her.
A-ra got into the large van she'd arrived in, sat down in a plush seat. After confirming the door had closed automatically, she rolled down the window and looked at me.
"Husband, work hard."
"You work hard too, noona."
"But Seong-hwan, why are you here? Is your practicum site here?"
"The building next to noona's building is the practicum site."
"Aha."
A-ra smiled brightly, as if her curiosity was finally satisfied.
Finally, after the manager rolled down the window and told me they were leaving and that I should stand a bit back, I waved goodbye.
Just as they pulled away and got a little distance, A-ra poked her face out the open window and started shouting loudly.
It was hard to hear clearly over the wind and car sounds, but I could just barely make it out by straining my ears.
"Seong-hwan-a, there's one thing I didn't tell you!"
"What is it!"
"The building where your practicum is, that's noona's too!"
Now I couldn't even muster a bitter smile.
Just how many buildings did A-ra have?
***
It hadn't even been a day since the building next door burned down, but we were currently inside our building.
Even though there were no children, we were on the same level as the staff, so we had to come to work and do things like cleaning and organizing supplies.
However... it seemed like for a while, there would be neither a reason nor a need for us to do those things.
With no children around, there was no need to clean, and no reason for things to get messy.
"Haah... Still, with the center closed, there's no work, so it's nice."
"Is it really okay? Whether our practicum hours will actually be filled even if we don't work..."
"It can't be helped. We already started the practicum, but the center is closing for a week because of a problem related to the practicum site."
The Sorimsa Center next to the burned building was closed for a week.
It was partly because the playground next door was heavily damaged, but the center director closed it down, judging that it wouldn't be good for the children's respiratory health if the debris from the completely burned building next door wasn't cleared away.
So, we had no work but still had to come to the center and zone out for a week.
I couldn't even imagine how I'd endure it without my phone.
I was just grateful for the advancement of technology.
"What if they make an issue of it later?"
"If you're that worried about it, just call the professor in charge or something."
"Yeah, I should."
Lee Min-ho probably said it in a 'do it if you want~' kind of way,
but I nodded, took out my phone, searched for the professor's number, and pressed the call button.
An outdated ringback tone played for a long while, and then with a click, the call connected.
"Hello, Professor. This is Yoo Seong-hwan, class of 2017. Our practicum site is currently..."
Since we hadn't caused any trouble, I explained everything.
That a practicum student from another school had set fire to the building next door, which also damaged the practicum site building.
And that because of that, the practicum site was scheduled to cease operations for a week.
After hearing that, the professor was probably nodding along, even though I couldn't see him.
And he was likely stroking his chin as if touching a nonexistent beard.
- That's a serious problem.
"Pardon?"
- The social worker license is only issued upon graduation, and to graduate, you need to complete all your practicum hours.
For a moment, I didn't understand what the professor was saying.
That was because, deep down, like Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho thought,
I'd believed that whether we assisted with work or not, the practicum hours would be fulfilled.
- How long has it been since you started your practicum?
"It's been since the first day of the end of the semester... so it's been a week now."
- Then by the time the center reopens, Student Seong-hwan's practicum will be about to end... First, I'll contact the qualification center and then call you back.
"Uh..... Yes... Thank you."
And then the call ended.
Had Lee Min-ho and Jeong Hwan-yi caught on to some extent from my reactions and expressions during the call?
I set my phone down on the table and collapsed into my seat, and the two of them began their barrage of questions.
"What is it, what did the professor say?"
"Well..."
"Ah! Just spit it out!"
"I think we might be in big trouble."
I didn't know the details yet, but we might be facing a situation where
the week of hard work we'd put into our practicum would be nullified and we'd have to start over from the beginning.
*
"Ah... No matter what, not from the very beginning!"
Lee Min-ho was already angry about being in this ridiculous situation, and he was now fuming at the prospect of having to start over from scratch even though it wasn't our fault.
He was kicking the perfectly innocent desks and chairs, so you can imagine how he felt.
....I talked as if it were someone else's problem, but I was just as dumbfounded.
Starting over from the beginning like this was nonsense.
We had to protest this.
If it were our fault, that'd be one thing, but it was ridiculous that we should suffer a loss when it wasn't our fault.
However, it would be enough to protest after we received proper communication.
How should I describe these two, who were already baring their fighting spirit when we still didn't know anything...
They were so full of confrontational intent that if they'd been born in the past, they might have been active as 'Résistance' members.
Even though they didn't care whether they got the social worker license or not.
They were probably acting that way just because they were annoyed about the wasted time.
"I'm going to go call my mom."
"Ooh... If the chaebol head herself shows up, our grievances will be as good as resolved, I tell ya."
"Hey, calm down. We don't know how it'll turn out yet."
"Do you think our professor in charge has only managed undergraduate practicums once or twice? Similar things must have happened before for him to say something like that!"
".........Is that so?"
Was awakening the instinct to fight really the priority after all?
Was the right move to just do it first and think about the consequences later?
.....No.
It seemed I'd been rubbing off on them a bit from hanging around with these guys.
At the very least, I had to remain the one person with common sense in this bunch.
"Huh? Wait a sec."
".............."
".............Hah... Fine, I got it."
I stopped Lee Min-ho, who was about to call his mother, and sat him back down.
If I'd been just a little later, I almost would have witnessed the chairwoman of a major corporation meddling in the internal affairs of the Social Worker Association.
Until we got the call, we decided to focus our minds, facing each other and closing our eyes.
Wondering if there was any decent music, I searched through a music app and found a calm, tranquil OST from a Japanese anime, so I played it.
"Phew... This is calming."
"I had made up my mind to smash everything to pieces... to think it could be lulled to sleep this easily... Seong-hwan, you're amazing, you know that?"
It really was effective.
I looked at the two guys, who had become noticeably docile, and smiled bitterly.
***
"Still, that's a relief. They said you don't have to start from scratch and just showing up to work counts toward the practicum."
"It felt a bit unpleasant, like they were talking as if they'd granted us a special favor for something that should have been obvious."
"What!? Our Seong-hwan felt unpleasant!? Do you want noona to smash them for you!?"
"No... if you smash them, I won't be able to get my social worker license."
Was this what they called putting the cart before the horse?
If A-ra got involved, it would just be a ruin ending.
After receiving the call from the professor, we grinned brightly and returned home.
That was because if we just repeated the cycle of coming to work, zoning out, and leaving for a week, our practicum would be over.
If there was one annoying thing, it was the attitude of the civil servant in charge who had contacted us separately.
She had so little manners and common sense that I wanted to slap her across the cheek if she'd been next to me.
I thought to myself, how could someone like that manage to be a civil servant?
"Then when the practicum is over, let's go on a trip together, noona."
"Where should we go? Now that's the real dilemma."
"Is there even anything to think about? We'll just go on another trip to Japan, it's been a while!"
Had it already been two years since we went to Japan for our honeymoon?
It was about time the idea of going again started coming up.
If we did go this time, I'd want to go to Osaka or Tokyo, not Fukuoka.
Last time we took a boat, so this time we'd take a plane, get there fast, and have fun.