Chapter 14
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 14. That's Not It, Actually...! (6)
"Chaeyi didn't come to school?"
Without realizing it, I approached Blue Phosphor and asked her that.
"Huh? Ah, you are..."
Blue Phosphor looked down at me with a start, then discovered Soi following next to me and became a little flustered.
"Lua. Soi."
The teacher spoke to us gently.
"Would you mind going back to the classroom for now? This is a conversation for adults to have."
Soi and I looked at each other.
We're curious. And we were worried too.
1st period has just barely ended. If something had happened at home and she didn't come to school, there would be no reason for Blue Phosphor to come argue with the teacher like this, which must mean Chaeyi did leave the house in the morning.
"This kid really, that's why I told her so many times to take the car..."
Hearing a muttering sound as if she were anxious, I ended up staring up intently at Blue Phosphor.
It seems she was trying to speak quietly in her own way, but it wasn't very successful. The unique complaints and grievances of people who don't need to walk on eggshells around others.
"...Huh?"
Receiving my gaze, which was practically glaring, Blue Phosphor became even more flustered.
Has she never encountered a child looking at her with such eyes until now?
"Now, now, Lua, Soi. Let's go back to the classroom."
The teacher said while stepping in between me and Blue Phosphor.
"But Chaeyi is..."
"Don't worry too much. I'm sure nothing's wrong."
Could nothing really be wrong?
Isn't this an era where you can easily track someone's location as long as they have a smartphone? Seeing as Blue Phosphor couldn't find her and came all the way here, doesn't it mean Chaeyi disappeared leaving even her smartphone behind?
But even so, it's true we couldn't interfere any further.
Because us interfering wouldn't change anything.
Because, in the end, we're just kids. Rather, if the two of us needlessly do something weird and cause an incident, we would only end up hindering the matter.
"Lua."
Soi also grabbed my hand and pulled it.
"Let's go."
Soi's eyes looking at me were completely filled with worry.
Of course, she might be worrying about her friend Chaeyi too, but right now it's probably a gaze worrying about me more than that.
Ultimately, weakly led by Soi's hand, I had no choice but to return to the classroom.
That day, we didn't see Blue Phosphor again after that.
As soon as 2nd period ended, Soi and I went to Chaeyi's class again, but Chaeyi was still absent. Even when we asked the kids, naturally there was no one who knew.
It was the same during the next recess, and during lunch time too.
Ultimately, until classes ended, I remained anxious continuously.
Is it my fault?
Rationally, I know it isn't. What on earth could I have done to make Chaeyi not come to school? Even if something happened along the way, it couldn't be said to be something I caused.
However, even if I think that way rationally.
I'm the one who forcibly approached Chaeyi when she said she hated it. Because I couldn't do it alone, I even completely dragged Soi into it and forced us to become 'close'.
And the more we did, Chaeyi somehow grew intimidated. The kid who was cold but confident at first, needlessly started talking less after that, became timid, and kept her head deeply bowed.
Even if she looked a bit dark, since Chaeyi's original personality was on the timid side, I thought she would quickly bounce back if we got close like this.
Did she hate it that much?
"Lua."
Soi spoke.
"Let's go find her."
"Go find her?"
"Yeah. Chaeyi."
"..."
Would that be okay?
I'm not sure.
When I was an elementary schooler, I ran all around the neighborhood playing, and Soi did too.
But going around searching for a missing child was a slightly different story from roaming around playing.
What if we go too far out by any chance. And end up losing our way because of it.
If something happens to Soi too because of my greed.
"Let's go."
But Soi pulls my hand just like always. Because she's the Soi who smiles and says it's okay whenever I hesitate.
Truly, like a kind older sister treating her younger sister.
I feel pathetic being comforted by that action of Soi's. Furthermore, gaining courage from that action and ending up answering "Yeah" without realizing it too.
"Good! Then where should we go?"
Soi asked as we came out of the school gate.
"I read it in a book. They say when you're looking for someone, you're supposed to roam around centering on the places that person used to go."
Wouldn't adults have done that?
If there's a child walking alone on the street on a weekday morning, if there's a child walking on the street instead of going to school even though they're wearing a backpack on their back, at least one of them would ask where they're going with a worried voice.
It would be the same from the police's perspective too.
And yet, for them to not have found her means...
But, even so, because I wanted to feel at ease. I nodded my head at Soi's words.
We searched around the school diligently in our own way. A convenience store we occasionally dropped by on our way home with the kids. A snack bar famous for its delicious tteokbokki. A fancy stationery store, or the ice cream shop we went to.
She wasn't in a single place. We occasionally met kids from our school and exchanged greetings, but that was it.
"...Ugh, she's not here..."
Soi said, tilting her head as if disappointed.
"Any, anywhere else. Are there any places that come to mind?"
"Hmm."
I searched through my memories. However, the period the two of us dragged Chaeyi around here and there wasn't that long, so there was no place that came to mind other than these. It's not like she would have come to our house, though. If she had, they definitely would have contacted the school.
"...Ah."
Then suddenly, there was exactly one place, a place that came to mind.
What if Chaeyi has never been able to live comfortably at the house she was adopted into. What if that person named Blue Phosphor was truly a trashy human being.
From Chaeyi's perspective, where is the place she had no choice but to think of as 'safe and comfortable'?
"There's exactly, exactly one place. But is it far?"
"There is? Is it far?"
Soi asked back, tilting her head.
I see.
Because Soi doesn't know which orphanage I came from. And she doesn't know how close I was with Chaeyi either.
"Let's go."
But Soi said that without hesitation.
Without purposely asking me what she was curious about.
Is that trust? Because she knows I will answer her later even if she doesn't purposely ask?
"...Yeah."
Every time running around without a thought. Forcefully dragging me out when I say I don't want to go out, roaming around here and there playing.
Why does she inevitably become mature all of a sudden at times like this.
I feel pathetic about myself, and also sorry, and thankful.
Holding back the stinging in my nose for no reason, I pulled out my smartphone.
It was a place you had to go quite far to on foot, but fortunately, it was a place that took less than 20 minutes if you went by bus.
The orphanage where I spent my childhood.
I hadn't visited again other than the one time I went right before entering elementary school, yet it looked so exactly the same as back then that it gave me the illusion that I had just visited recently.
"..."
Soi must have anticipated it to some extent too. Ah, I mean, rather than anticipating that I would come here right now, she must have at least known that I was from an orphanage.
Because I am the child Aunt Yujin 'brought in'. Even if she didn't know at first, wouldn't she have anticipated it after learning the concept that such places exist.
Perhaps, at the point I came here, she might have already known why I wanted to get so close to Chaeyi.
"Lua?"
The teacher was startled when I visited suddenly, but recognized me right away.
The teacher, who looked a bit older than back then, was even more flustered by my question asking if Chaeyi had come.
"No... Chaeyi hasn't come. Did something happen by any chance?"
"Ah, no, it's nothing... I just came by because I thought of it."
At my words, the teacher's eyes turned into ones looking at a pitiful child.
Seeing me visit for the first time in years and looking for Chaeyi again, she must think I absolutely couldn't forget her.
The teacher asked if I wanted to come in and rest for a bit before going, but I shook my head.
I bowed politely side-by-side with Soi and turned my back again.
"Is it okay if we search around here?"
Actually, I don't think the probability is very high. It was merely an impulse of mine remembering the connection with Chaeyi.
But, still, I didn't want to give up.
It was greed. Even if something truly did happen, if I tried this hard, it would at least be a self-satisfaction that I tried my best to find her.
So...
"Yeah. Let's look for her."
As I was hesitating with my head bowed, Soi smiled brightly and nodded her head.
"She'll definitely be nearby!"
Words spoken with absolutely no basis, solely to comfort me.
Whether it's okay for me to be comforted by those words or what, it's hard to judge anymore, but.
Just in case the orphanage teachers might worry, we called Chaeyi's name while circling the vicinity.
Actually, even if she were hiding, I thought no answer would return, but.
"Lua...?"
Not long after we started searching like that, we heard a voice answering.
"...Chaeyi?"
There is a small park near the orphanage. There's a playground inside the orphanage too, so we didn't really have many occasions to purposely go all the way out there to play. In the first place, they didn't allow the kids to go out and roam around carelessly either.
On a bench in a place that could be considered a corner even within that park, Chaeyi was sitting quietly all by herself.
Looking at us with an extremely bewildered expression. While hugging her bag.
Now that we actually found her, it's a bit bewildering.
Soi and I froze for a moment looking at Chaeyi, then met each other's eyes again.
Chaeyi said she avoided adults.
She thought someone would definitely come looking for her since she didn't go to school, so to not get found.
If she saw police, she avoided them, and if an adult passed by, she walked confidently as if she were a kid living in this neighborhood.
Though fundamentally she only roamed around places without people.
"Let's go back, Chaeyi."
"...No."
At my words, Chaeyi shook her head.
"I want to stay here."
A young child's unique stubbornness.
Soi plopped down and took a seat next to that Chaeyi.
"Why did you come here?"
And she asks Chaeyi kindly, in the tone she uses with me.
"..."
Chaeyi kept her mouth shut and deliberated for a moment before stealing a glance at me.
And she answered, deeply bowing her head.
"Because I liked it here."
She must be talking about the orphanage.
"You like it here?"
At Soi's words, Chaeyi nodded her head.
"Because there are no adults making me study, no adults making me do stuff like training, and they give us snacks."
And, stealing a glance at me again.
Ah, she remembered after all.
An apologetic feeling washes over me, far greater than joy.
Ultimately, I didn't seek Chaeyi out. I just thought her situation might be rather better since she was adopted by someone else. Since it was a hero's family too.
I didn't keep my promise either.
"..."
After deliberating for a moment, I held my hand out to Chaeyi.
"Chaeyi."
And with great determination, I spoke.
"Could we, be friends again?"
"..."
Chaeyi quietly stared at my hand, then—
"No."
She answered, sticking her lips out in a pout.
Eh.