Chapter 8
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 8. You Can't Recognize Me...? (3)
The children didn't just blindly welcome me.
We hadn't seen each other for a year, and perhaps my aura had changed a bit while living in a foster family.
Because say what you will, my life had become incredibly comfortable.
Even if they recognized it was me, they would exchange a few words and step away, or just stare from afar.
Weren't they instinctively aware that I had become someone in a different position from them?
My clothes weren't hand-me-downs from someone, but famous brand clothes bought for me by Aunt Yujin and Mister Dohyun. Clothes bought from the same brand to avoid discriminating against Soi. Because they were clothes at a price that would have shocked even my past self if I saw it.
Even if they didn't know the brand, they could probably recognize it right away looking at the material and cut of the clothes.
I also have a smartphone. As expected, it's the exact same latest model that Soi has. A smartphone priced so high that buying it in a lump sum would completely blow away the monthly salary of a new employee at a small or medium-sized company.
It's weird to think the kids would like seeing me wearing such clothes and wearing such a thing around my neck.
Who wouldn't be envious?
Even if I had met Chaeyi here, would Chaeyi have looked at me with the same eyes as before?
"Lua."
After looking around the orphanage once, the teacher saw me become a bit quiet and spoke.
"Thank you for coming to visit again."
Perhaps mindful of the children's reactions, the teacher squatted down, met my eyes, and spoke.
"The kids were definitely happy to see you too. It's just awkward because it's been a long time..."
I nodded my head silently. Because it was somehow hard to look straight into those eyes, I kept my gaze lowered.
The teacher firmly grasped my shoulder once, let go, and then gently took my hand again.
"Let's go."
I nodded my head again.
"Hmm..."
Inside the car heading back.
On a road that was congested for some reason despite being the middle of a weekday, Aunt Yujin tapped her fingers resting on the steering wheel, as if searching for something to say.
"Um, the timing is a bit ambiguous..."
Aunt Yujin, who had been gauging my mood through the rearview mirror, smiled with her eyes slightly when our eyes met through the mirror and spoke.
"It seems it'll be about time for Soi's kindergarten to end by the time we get back, so shall we eat something delicious nearby and go home together with Soi?"
I nodded my head.
I had nothing to say other than nodding. What could I say? Should I burst into tears saying I'm sad because the kids wouldn't play with me?
Me leaving the orphanage was an unavoidable matter. Because a superhuman, especially a young child who has a hard time regulating emotions, is like a bomb that could go off at any moment.
Someone had to take me in, and if there was no one to take me, I would end up entering a special educational facility. Aunt Yujin had simply offered me the best option within those circumstances.
But, as a result, it ended up tearing me away from my childhood.
Even though she shouldn't need to feel guilty, she ends up gauging the mood of such a small pipsqueak.
I wish I could just show a bright attitude too if possible.
Unfortunately, I don't think I had that cheerful of a personality.
The car stopped.
Getting out of the car with Aunt Yujin's help, what I saw was a hamburger joint.
Aunt Yujin effortlessly lifted me, hugged me in her arms, and strode into the store. Though my body went stiff, it was still a bit better than when Mister Dohyun hugged me.
The surrounding gazes immediately gathered on us. Aunt Yujin was already a famous hero, and even if she weren't, she was pretty enough to grab people's attention.
Perhaps because she was out with a child, I didn't see anyone explicitly strike up a conversation or ask for an autograph.
"What does Lua want to eat?"
Aunt Yujin smiled and stood in front of the kiosk while still holding me.
We appropriately ordered a kid's meal that came with a toy. Actually, even if she bought something bigger, it would have been too big for me to eat myself anyway.
We sat side-by-side in a slightly cornered seat in the store.
Watching me push the food placed in front of me into my mouth little by little, Aunt Yujin carefully opened her mouth.
"Lua and Soi are going to elementary school starting this year, right?"
I froze at those words.
I looked up at her.
Devoid of any other emotion, she just had an expression saying I was cute, which made me feel a bit embarrassed.
When I nodded my head while moving my mouth again, Aunt Yujin smiled brightly and said.
"Is there anything Lua wants to do when you go to elementary school?"
Something I want to do?
Did I ever think about what I wanted to do while going to elementary school?
It was so long ago that I can't even remember.
Hmm, if I had to say, I do have a thought I had when entering high school.
I lived obsessed with manga and anime in middle school, so I thought I wanted to experience a school life exactly like what happens in them when I went to high school.
Of course, there was no such thing.
I barely managed to enter a co-ed school, but regardless, I was... um.
Since I wasn't exactly a popular person.
"..."
Hmm?
No, wait, thinking about it, that shouldn't exactly be the case in this life.
I was feeling a bit down since earlier so I briefly forgot, but I am pretty in this life. To what extent am I pretty? To the point where there wasn't a single kid at the orphanage, regardless of gender, who disliked me.
The story is a bit different now, but that's not because of my appearance.
In that case, wouldn't the story become simple?
"Popularity."
"Huh?"
When I mumbled my answer, Aunt Yujin's face drew closer.
Ugh, it's getting a little embarrassing to answer.
It's just, kind of, something is something.
I wasn't like this in front of the orphanage teachers, so I wonder if my past life's personality is slowly coming out now of all times.
"I want to be popular..."
Exactly.
Anyway, I just have to become a person loved by everyone.
I might not be able to become a person loved entirely by everyone, but anyway, if I remain someone with a good reputation and a good impression to anyone.
Even if I meet Chaeyi again later. Even if Chaeyi ends up not remembering because it was a promise from too young an age.
Even if I have to build our relationship again from the beginning—
Still, wouldn't she be able to look favorably upon me?
"Is that so?"
For some reason, Aunt Yujin's expression brightened greatly upon hearing my words.
And then, she hugged me tightly and aggressively stroked my hair, as if doing so to the cutest child in the world.
Though I belatedly felt myself going stiff and quickly pulled back.
Still, it doesn't feel bad.
"I see. You want to be popular."
Aunt Yujin chewed over my words for a long while before nodding her head.
"That won't be a problem. If it's Lua."
"Yes?"
"If it's Lua, you'll have no choice but to be popular."
As expected, is that so.
Then again, it's an appearance that has no choice but to be.
Because the reason she could be so annoying early on in the original work was due to the setting of her being pretty. It was even described that there was an atmosphere where just squeezing out fake tears and whining would get half the people on her side.
So all I have to do is just behave a little kinder than in the original work.
Not dragging Soi down a bad path, studying hard, and, well, helping people out a bit while I'm at it.
I don't think I'll be able to do hero work with my level of power, but as long as I don't become a villain, wouldn't that be enough?
After thinking like that, my heart felt a very tiny bit lighter, and the hamburger I held in my hand felt a little more delicious for no reason.
Just as she drove a normal domestic car despite living in a large house, the elementary school Soi and I were going to wasn't some incredible private elementary school or anything.
I was a superhuman, but because I hadn't caused any problems at least for the moment, it was said that I was permitted to enroll in a regular elementary school.
Well, the most important thing was that my guardians were none other than a famous hero couple.
"Ooh."
Soi looked around the auditorium with sparkling eyes.
It was an ordinary public elementary school, but the facilities were quite neat. If you looked closely, there were traces that it had been built a while ago, but because it was cleaned neatly, there was no impression of it looking old.
The surrounding kids' eyes were also sparkling brightly.
Is it a given since we couldn't be with this many kids in kindergarten? Perhaps it's the first time in their lives seeing this many people gathered in one place.
And, above all.
The gazes directed at me and Soi.
It was partly because of Soi's parents, but the kids glanced at me and Soi much more often than that.
"Heh."
That's a given.
Because, I am pretty. To the point where I'm constantly surprised every time I look in the mirror.
The growth rate at this age is fast. Because we grow taller rapidly every year.
Of course, the difference between a kindergartener and one just entering elementary school isn't a difference that makes you look like a full adult, but still, the 'promise' is already visible.
"People keep looking at us."
"It's because we're pretty."
"Ooh!"
When I answered, Soi's eyes sparkled again.
Because Soi incredibly loves being praised. Not that she goes around begging for praise, though.
Perhaps the promise of a hero is already visible.
Although the proportion of the superpower Soi had in the original work was so abysmal that I can't really remember what kind of ability she actually possessed.
"I'm looking forward to it!"
"Yeah. Me too."
I nodded at Soi's words too.
Ultimately, I couldn't find out which elementary school Chaeyi ended up going to or anything like that. If Aunt Yujin or Mister Dohyun hadn't been heroes, I might have been able to find out by pestering them a bit, but those two were people who absolutely had to uphold the law.
But, it's okay.
If I study hard, play hard, diligently develop my abilities, and wait.
It will be easy to get close to Chaeyi again when we meet again at the academy later on.
Throughout watching the entrance ceremony, I inwardly made that resolution.
—There was a time I thought like that.
There were a few trivial problems.
First, that I was originally someone with quite severe social anxiety.
You might say why am I saying that now of all times, but thinking about it, in my past life too, I used to run around and play perfectly fine with kids I met for the very first time.
However, as I reached the upper grades of elementary school, and became a middle schooler and high schooler, my words gradually decreased and striking up conversations with others became a bit difficult.
I thought it wouldn't be like that this time.
Because I am pretty. Because other people feel a certain degree of goodwill as soon as they see me.
...But, well.
If it were that easy, I would have had that many friends in my past life too.
And, above all.
"Lua? I don't really know a name like that."
Chaeyi, narrowing her eyes slightly, saying that to me who had mustered up my courage to say hello.
It was definitely Chaeyi. Even after becoming a 4th grader in elementary school, her pink bobbed hair was exactly the same, her face still retained the features from those days, and I even heard the uncommon name Chaeyi from listening to the kids talk.
Above all, Chaeyi was a celebrity from the moment she transferred.
Though perhaps not 'more than' Aunt Yujin, she was the daughter of a hero 'as' famous as Aunt Yujin.
The person who took Chaeyi in, was that kind of person.
I, who had already been considering the possibility of Chaeyi forgetting me from that young age—
"You can't recognize me...?"
—That's right.
Unfortunately, I ended up receiving a tremendously huge shock from Chaeyi's cold words.
So, it's like that.
It means the cause of my loner-like personality in my past life wasn't just entirely due to my appearance complex alone.