Chapter 152
Chapter 152
"......."
"......."
A man I'd never seen before was staring at me intently.
His appearance wasn't foreign. But from what I'd learned, he wasn't the foreign one—his wife was. Su-a was simply their daughter.
"......."
Su-a was fidgeting between the two of us.
She had every reason to be.
We'd gotten permission to stay over, but running into each other like this hadn't been part of today's plan.
According to Su-a, her parents were busy. On weekdays, it was hard to even see their faces. She'd said that when she was out of the house, nobody knew except the housekeeper.
And so, here I was, face-to-face with Su-a's father.
...Well, Su-a might not have expected it, but I had.
Because no parent would fail to show themselves when their daughter's friend was staying the night.
Hadn't even Mother rushed over the moment she learned I was staying with friends? The staff had said she'd stopped by the mansion this morning, too.
Though it didn't seem like she'd come by today.
"So you're Sara."
The first to speak wasn't Su-a or her father.
It was the blonde woman standing beside them.
Hadn't they said she'd originally worked as a model? I'd heard she contributed to the business side after marriage, but seeing her now, it wouldn't feel strange if she still modeled.
"I've heard a lot about you from Su-a."
Her Korean didn't sound awkward, though a few of her pronunciations carried an accent that sounded almost English. Maybe because of that, even though she spoke quite fluently, a sense of foreignness still lingered around her.
Well, looks-wise, she appeared more distinctly foreign than Su-a did.
I set my travel bag upright on the floor and bowed politely to Su-a's father and mother.
"Thank you for allowing me to stay here."
"You're Su-a's friend. Make yourself comfortable while you're here."
"Thank you."
At Su-a's mother's words, I gave another polite thank-you.
"......Yes. Treat it like your own home, then go."
"Yes, thank you."
Su-a's father only spoke then. It felt less like he'd been waiting for a moment and more like he'd been sizing me up.
...Hadn't Su-a said he'd opposed her getting close to me?
Though the whole running-away business was essentially over now, he had been the cause of Su-a's leaving home in the first place.
And Su-a's mother, who looked so kind in person, was actually someone so busy that even Su-a had a hard time seeing her face.
...Thinking about it now, how was that any different from Mother?
No, maybe it was still a little better than Mother. Mother had deliberately kept away from me. She'd visit once a quarter and make a show of being family, but that was truly all it was. Family had been nothing but a pretense.
Maybe that display was also just an act.
The house was far bigger than So-hee's place where I'd stayed yesterday, but it looked far lonelier.
And I'm sure it wasn't just my imagination.
I felt like I understood why Su-a had come up with all sorts of excuses to stay over at my mansion.
*
The yard at Su-a's house was much smaller than the one where I lived.
But honestly, living in a house this size in the middle of Seoul was proof enough of being wealthy. They probably owned more houses than just this one too.
Just having space to run around and play with a dog made it a remarkably large home for Seoul.
"That one can't run anymore. Too worn out for that."
In other words, the dog was old.
Having never raised a dog myself, I couldn't really tell if it looked old. Looking closer, its fur was patchy and its legs were stick-thin, so I'd just accepted it when I heard the comment. A dog's fur doesn't turn white with age or anything.
...Or does it? I'm not sure. I was never allowed to raise anything.
I crouched down in front of it and gently stroked its head.
Despite the fur that looked a bit coarse at a glance, it was very soft.
The dog had its eyes shut, but it quietly opened them as if sensing my hand.
Then it looked up at me with those black eyes.
How many years do dogs live?
I'd heard that about ten-something years is elderly in human terms. This one was probably about that age.
"What's its name?"
"Choco."
"Choco?"
"Yeah, Choco."
Did they name it after its fur color? A very straightforward name.
It was kind of cute, too.
The night was growing late, and maybe because it had just woken up, the dog didn't seem to have the strength to stand. After looking up at me for a long while, it closed its eyes again.
For a moment, I felt a flash of alarm—wait, is it...?—but thankfully, the place my hand rested stayed warm, and its nose twitched slightly.
"When I was little, I used to talk to it a lot."
"When you were little?"
"Yeah. I didn't have any friends."
My eyes went wide at that.
I'd never heard that before.
Ah, of course, it wasn't like I'd been particularly interested in other kids. Back then, I'd thought that if I took an interest in someone, Mother would deal with them somehow. It was less out of great altruism and more like I'd simply given up.
But even so.
From what I knew, Su-a's relationships had almost all been restored. After that person took control of the school, there was no longer a reason for Sara to harass me or anyone else.
People naturally started gathering around Su-a again. Every time I went to her class to meet her, Su-a would be sitting among a bunch of kids, smiling with an awkward expression.
So I'd just assumed she was a fairly popular kid.
"No."
Su-a shook her head.
"My looks just stand out too much wherever I go. Whether I was abroad or here."
"......."
I thought Su-a was pretty, but separate from that, she did carry both East Asian features and Caucasian features.
That was probably why she'd been ostracized.
"So... I'd come home and talk and talk to this one. My father wasn't home, and neither was my mother. They were both too busy."
"......."
Su-a, crouched down beside me, placed her hand on Choco's head. Her hand moved naturally, gently stroking its head.
Choco opened its eyes again. And with a pleased, half-lidded gaze, it looked up at its owner.
"Seems like it likes you."
"Yeah."
I'd just thrown the comment out because I didn't know what else to say, but thankfully, Su-a smiled faintly and kept stroking Choco's head.
Her eyes were soft, like she was looking at something truly precious.
...But even to my untrained eye, Choco's time seemed to be running short.
If Choco passed on, all the stories Su-a had shared with it back then would remain a secret between the two of them forever.
"......Friends."
I spoke up suddenly.
"Hmm?"
"Being friends."
I looked at Su-a and asked.
"How did you make them?"
Su-a had been in a similar situation as me. If you compared who had it better, you could say Su-a was a bit better off, but that didn't change that we were both victims.
Su-a's parents should have been grateful to her. Because their daughter had grown up properly without becoming twisted like me. Because she'd found the courage to move forward without fixating strangely on something.
Or maybe they should be grateful to Choco here.
But I was curious, too.
How had she made so many friends? How had she managed to overcome that situation?
How, in the same circumstances as me, had she ended up so different from me?
Maybe my question had come out of nowhere, because Su-a stared at me for a while with wide, round eyes.
Then, looking embarrassed, she ducked her head low.
"......It's nothing special."
"Nothing special?"
It was something I couldn't do, though.
Ah, sure, maybe it could seem that way to other people. To people who'd lived a normal life like everyone else, people who'd had someone precious right beside them.
But I was different. Su-a was different, too.
That's why I wanted to know.
"I was just... a coward, that's all."
"......A coward?"
I could barely speak to other people, so it was hard to understand how Su-a, who had so many friends, could call herself a coward.
"......."
Su-a kept quietly stroking Choco's head for a while, then gently took her hand away.
Choco, which had been looking up at her, closed its eyes and slipped back into sleep.
After a moment of silence, as if she were mulling something over, Su-a lifted her head.
Illuminated by the light spilling from the living room window, her face held an expression like she'd steeled herself for something.
"It won't be a very interesting story, but I'll tell you if you want to hear it."
"Yeah, I really do."
At that, I nodded.
The night was long, anyway.
And there wouldn't be anyone in the room but the two of us.
Having that kind of conversation, the kind you can't have with anyone else but a friend, didn't sound so bad.