The Girl Next Door, the Girl at the Next Desk

It all started innocently enough — right after I finished moving, when I stopped by a nearby convenience store for a moment.

I'd bought an ice cream and was heading back to my new apartment when I spotted a little kid crying in a corner of the path.

"WAAAAAAAH!"

"...?"

Even for a kid, the child was remarkably good-looking, with a head of gray hair.

Six, seven years old, maybe?

At first I considered just walking past, but the crying only grew louder and louder.

Worse still, there were hardly any people passing by, and every single one of them skirted around the kid with that shallow little thought — someone else will handle it.

Maybe it was because I felt that refusing to help a child here would make me disqualified as an actual human being, but before I knew it, my feet were already carrying me toward the kid.

The child kept right on crying even as I approached.

I lowered myself down to the kid's eye level.

"Hey there, kiddo."

"WAAAAH—*hic*...?"

Whether it was the effect of my approach or not, the crying stopped for a moment, and the kid looked up at me through hitching sobs.

Meeting the child's gaze, I felt an odd sense of familiarity.

Something about this kid looks really familiar.

...Hmm.

Who was it?

I was sure they resembled someone, but the name wouldn't come to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me. Not that I could afford to stand here wracking my brain over it.

I gave the kid a friendly smile. My features run on the sharp side, so even though I'm not a bad person, I hoped it wouldn't scare the child off.

"Why are you crying, kiddo? Do you want your big brother here to help?"

"*Hic*... hewp me...?"

"Yeah, I'll help."

"Weally...?"

I could see the child's face brighten.

"Yep. So can you tell me why you were crying?"

"*Sniff*... *hic*. Um... I got sepawated fwom my noona... She said she was going to the mawt weal quick, and then she was gone... *sob*."

Halfway through the explanation, the sadness must have come rushing back, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠because the kid burst into tears all over again.

"WAAAAAAAHHH!"

I was at a loss.

Honestly, you'd need actual childcare experience for this. Helping a kid crying in the street was a first for me.

Deciding the priority was stopping the tears, I tore open the wrapper of the ice cream I'd just bought and held it out.

"Here. Eat this and dry those eyes, yeah?"

"...*Hic*."

Astonishingly, the kid took the ice cream and stopped crying.

I couldn't help the thought that children are wonderfully simple creatures — one tasty treat and the waterworks shut off completely.

Then again, that simplicity was exactly what stopped the crying, so I supposed I should be grateful for it.

While the kid munched on the ice cream and calmed down, I seized the window to keep asking questions.

The child's name was Kim Hyeseong. I'd guessed around seven, but he was actually younger — six.

"Hyeseong, do you happen to know your mom and dad's phone number? Or your sister's?"

He shook his head side to side.

"You don't, huh. Then do you know where you live, Hyeseong?"

Mouth full of ice cream, Kim Hyeseong pointed a finger in one direction.

It was the direction of the apartment complex I'd moved into today.

"You live in that apartment building?"

He nodded.

"Do you know which building? And what unit number?"

"*Sniff*... don't know..."

"You don't?"

"No..."

So he didn't know.

I wondered for a second how a kid couldn't know his own address, then remembered that Kim Hyeseong was six, and it made sense. Six-year-olds could easily not know that kind of thing.

Be that as it may, with Kim Hyeseong unable to tell me where he lived, things got tricky. Should I take him to the apartment security office for now? Someone there might recognize him.

But if I left the spot, and this so-called sister of his came looking after the fact only to find us gone — that would be a genuine disaster.

I'd really rather not become an accidental kidnapper.

While Kim Hyeseong was still occupied with his ice cream, I was turning the problem over in my head when I noticed something.

There was something hanging around his neck.

What's this...?

On closer inspection, it was a necklace with a guardian's contact number written on it.

There were two numbers on it, though... I picked one at random and dialed right away.

The call ended.

"Hyeseong, your sister says she's coming right away."

"Weally?"

"Yep. So can you wait just a little longer for me?"

"Okay!"

As I kept Hyeseong company while we waited, it wasn't long before I spotted a woman sprinting toward us from one direction.

Gasping for breath, she skidded to a stop in front of Hyeseong.

And then...

"Kim Hyewon?"

What was she doing here?

It was her fault. Plain and simple, an unforgivable lapse.

Kim Hyewon bit down hard on her lip.

Who could have guessed that after picking Hyeseong up from kindergarten right on schedule like always, a quick trip to the mart was all it would take to lose him?

When she realized Hyeseong was gone, her mind had gone completely blank.

He didn't even have a smartphone yet — there was no way to reach him.

The kid had a stubborn streak a mile wide; he'd never manage to find his own way home.

What if someone snatched him away?

A chill shot down her spine. That could never, ever happen. Which meant she had to find her little brother, Kim Hyeseong, this instant.

And so she began to run like a woman possessed.

The nearby park. The mart. The back alleys.

She tore through every corner of the neighborhood, searching.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd run herself ragged like this.

But.

"Haa... haah... where are you...!"

Hyeseong was nowhere to be found.

Just as she started to fear that something truly terrible was about to happen, her phone rang.

The caller's voice felt strangely familiar, but she had no room in her head to wonder about that. She was already sprinting toward where Hyeseong was waiting.

And then.

"Kim Hyewon?"

There stood a boy towering past 180 centimeters, with sharp features and a strikingly handsome face — the desk neighbor she'd spoken to only a handful of times.

"...Baek Seojun?"

Why was he here? She barely had time to fix him with a questioning look before Baek Seojun held out Hyeseong, who was inexplicably eating an ice cream.

"You're this kid's sister?"

"...!"

It really was Hyeseong.

He hadn't been taken. He hadn't been lost for good. She swept her little brother up into her arms on the spot.

Relief came flooding in.

But the moment of reunion between sister and brother was a brief one.

"...Thank you."

Blunt as ever, she offered Baek Seojun her thanks — but she meant every word of it.

"It's nothing. A little kid was crying all alone out here. I couldn't just leave him be."

"...I see."

What he'd done was, by his own account, only natural.

But knowing full well how many adults in this world couldn't be bothered to do even that much, she couldn't help feeling genuinely, deeply grateful.

"Well then — shall we all head our separate ways?"

"...Yeah, okay. Thank you, really. I'll pay you back someday."

"You don't have to do that."

He gave a small laugh and waved it off.

"No. I will pay you back."

She bowed her head. At the sight of it, he scratched his cheek awkwardly.

He'd only done the decent thing, and now she was insisting on repayment — he seemed to find the whole thing a bit much.

Watching him, Kim Hyewon decided he was a good person. Truthfully, given his family background — judging from his face and the rumors that circulated about it — she'd never have expected kindness from him.

It felt like discovering an unexpected side to the not-particularly-friendly boy who sat next to her in class.

That was when it happened.

He raised a hand first.

"I'll get going then. See you at school tomorrow."

"Yeah. Thanks, Baek Seojun."

"Bye-bye, mistew!"

And with that, the two of them set off in what should have been separate directions.

Except...

Walking toward the apartment complex, they were still together.

Entering the same building, still together.

Riding the elevator, right up until the moment they pressed their floor buttons —

"...?"

"??"

— ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they were still together.

What is this?

I was bewildered.

Thanks to Kim Hyeseong, I'd known that Kim Hyewon lived in the same apartment complex I'd just moved into.

But no matter how you sliced it, could things really overlap this much?

Same building? Same floor?

And since this apartment wasn't a corridor-style building — the units faced each other directly across the hall — that made Kim Hyewon, quite literally, my next-door neighbor.

The girl at the desk next to mine... lived right across the hall from me?

Kim Hyewon seemed to be thinking exactly the same thing, because she spoke up first, a little stiffly. Kim Hyeseong, meanwhile, was staring up at me from below with wide, fascinated eyes.

"...Baek Seojun, do you... live here?"

"...Yeah."

"I see...? Funny, though — I've never seen anyone come out of that unit until now..."

"That's because I moved in today."

"Moved in?"

She tilted her head.

"Yeah. I had a place I was renting before, but for various reasons I've been relocating here as of today."

"Oh, I see..."

"Mistew! You're our neighbow?"

"Yep. Looks like I'm the one who lives next door to you, Hyeseong."

"Wooooow..."

Kim Hyeseong let out an awed little gasp at who knows what.

But regardless of his wonderment, I found the whole situation a touch awkward.

I'd figured that even living in the same complex, we'd be plenty far apart. Instead, we were this close.

It made the goodbye we'd exchanged at the convenience store minutes ago feel suddenly mortifying.

But the awkwardness didn't last long, either.

This time it was Kim Hyewon who said goodbye first.

"We'll head in now. See you later, Baek Seojun."

"...Huh?"

See you later? What was that supposed to mean?

Before I could even get the question out, she had her brother in tow and disappeared inside their unit.

I scratched my head and went into my own place as well, chalking it up to a mishearing — surely she'd meant see you tomorrow.

But.

Ding-dooooong—

I'd just gotten home and settled in when the text came flying in — and the doorbell rang at the exact same moment.

I hurried over and checked.

"...?"

Kim Hyewon. There she was, waiting at my door in completely different clothes than before — dressed for comfort now.

...Comfort that was, notably, rather on the revealing side.