You Want to Look Good to Adults, Don't You?
Kim Eun-ha called Min-ah.
To Min-ah, Eun-ha had been someone who'd brushed past her for all of ten minutes. But Min-ah was sharp. She had locked onto that voice with complete certainty.
Eun-ha's manner had gone thoroughly soft and friendly, and that was exactly why Min-ah wound herself tight on the inside. When someone you barely know suddenly starts acting like an old friend, there is always a reason.
A bland, noncommittal answer. But Eun-ha had not served as General Student Council President for nothing — her instincts were fast. She caught the faint wariness in Min-ah's voice.
Min-ah's brow furrowed, just slightly.
What's with this woman? Why is she poking at me like this? She already got what she wanted — so why?
Eun-ha launching into a lecture on social survival out of nowhere. Min-ah couldn't make sense of her at all.
Min-ah said nothing. But the words had struck her dead-center.
Dad. Cha Eun-hyeok. He was the only one who existed for her. No one knew that. She had hidden it from everyone, completely and without exception. And yet... how did this student council president, who'd only seen her for a moment, know?
Remarkable observation. That was it, exactly. As a person, Tae-min was no pushover — but as a man, he fell infinitely short of Min-ah's father. The gap, she had decided, was the difference between an adult and a child. And this woman, Eun-ha, had read that subtle feeling right off her.
Min-ah swallowed, her throat dry.
Like brother and sister, neither of them is easy to deal with.
Eun-ha was installing herself in the perfect position of power — the one who held all the cards. By the time Min-ah realized it, it was already too late.
A long sigh from Min-ah, then a brief silence. Eun-ha waited without a word.
A faint smile touched Eun-ha's lips as she held the phone.
Min-ah was bewildered. Why, all of a sudden? Her, as class rep?
Min-ah's tone had gone thoroughly polite, and a satisfied smile formed on Eun-ha's face.
Only now did Min-ah understand. Eun-ha wanted to use her to keep a runaway little brother under control.
A first meeting. And she was handing this off to a freshman girl who'd laid eyes on her little brother for all of ten minutes?
What an... incredible person.
Min-ah was astonished by Eun-ha. Until now, almost no one had ever seen through what she kept inside. In a conversation of barely ten minutes, Eun-ha had completely exposed her heart. It was enough to inspire a kind of awe. And in reverse, the part of Min-ah that had been looking down on Tae-min shrank, just a little.
At Min-ah's slightly overwhelmed reply, Eun-ha decided to give her heart a little nudge.
General Student Council President. That was it. A university's general student council was said to exist on a completely different level from a high school student council. The real world of adults. For a moment, greed flickered through Min-ah.
Adults. The fact that Dad had turned her down a few days ago... looking at it one way, it might have been because she didn't understand adults well enough.
Min-ah said nothing. A final review before accepting the offer. What she stood to gain, and what she stood to lose, if she took this on. She thought it through.
Min-ah had intended to just quietly go to school. Becoming class representative would make that impossible. The time she spent with her dad would shrink, too. But she could learn about adults. She could analyze them more closely. She could be seen as an adult — not a child.
Eun-ha's lips, which had gone dry from a faint tension, began to grow moist again.
Someone older. Eun-ha intuitively knew who Min-ah liked. What she didn't know was that the person was Min-ah's father.
Min-ah's voice was trembling, just slightly. It was excitement. A thrilling sensation she couldn't quite name. Was it the anticipation of being able to show her dad more of her charm as an adult? Or was it something else? What was it? Even Min-ah herself didn't know this strange emotion.
Fortunately, it didn't rain on the last day. A-rin and I were able to land at Gimpo Airport right on the time we'd wanted.
We barely spoke the whole way. A-rin had simply leaned against me for the entire flight, and I didn't mind it at all. It was warm. It felt as though someone had been carefully, stitch by stitch, sewing fine cloth over the ragged half of me that had been torn away by force — the place that had been fluttering in tatters.
"The trip's over."
"Yeah."
"But this isn't the end of us."
A-rin smiled at me. A thoroughly easy, natural smile.
"Starting next week, you'd better brace yourself. Sun. Bae. Nim."
A peck. She pressed her lips over mine, catching me completely off guard. The arrivals hall of a crowded airport. She didn't care about any of that. I stayed still. Because, honestly, I liked it too.
"I have something to take care of, so I think we'll have to part ways here."
"Huh...? Where are you going?"
A-rin grinned, her face full of mischief.
"That's a secret."
Right. It's not like we're even dating. There's no reason for me to ask where she's going and why, every little thing.
"Guess it can't be helped."
"Are you suspicious of me? That's cute."
My face burned at her light provocation. A-rin had completely changed before and after the trip. The tomboyish, easygoing, simple-hearted girl she'd been had transformed into a fully mature woman. How could she be this different? Had she been hiding it? Or had something even she hadn't known been set free?
"A-anyway, get there safe."
"I'll see you at the hospital next week."
"R-right."
"You're allowed to look forward to it."
Just a little. She let the valley of her chest peek out from inside her coat, angling it toward me.
"...Y-you! What are you...!"
"Shh!"
She winked.
......
She's terrifying. Genuinely terrifying.
Home. I was home. Something felt incredibly unfamiliar.
I'd lived in this house for over ten years. My hideout. The place I loved, the place I knew by heart. So why did it feel this strange?
...Was the trip that good?
Yeah. I couldn't deny it. Just thinking of it, my heart started racing all over again. I had come to know the feelings A-rin had been holding. It was the feeling of love — something I had forgotten for a long time. Her heart had awakened mine, which had been stopped. It had given a new driving force to a man who had spent his life looking only at his daughter.
My daughter would leave someday. And then I would have nothing left at all. Thinking about that had, in truth, made me terribly lonely. But now there was no reason for that anymore.
It wasn't certain yet. But I would come to know. My daughter disliked it now, but she would understand in the end. A-rin had said she would work on helping my daughter accept it. I would work at it too.
A new beginning. This awkwardness might be my body's reaction to the fact that the life I'd lived until now, and the life from this point on, were going to be different.
"Oh, really? That's wonderful! That's my girl!"
Min-ah was satisfied. The fact that she was becoming class representative. She'd thought her dad, Eun-hyeok, would hate it — on the grounds that it might interfere with her studies. But he was so happy that a smile began to spread across Min-ah's face.
I knew it. Because he's an adult, he likes it.
She'd been wrong, and Eun-ha had been right.