The Minor's Number
I answered the police officer’s question.
“This is a bit embarrassing to say, but Winter is trying to cut ties with her past.”
“Excuse me? Cut ties with her past?”
The middle-aged officer repeated my words as if he’d just heard complete nonsense. Then he glanced at Winter’s delinquent-style outfit and nodded to himself, seemingly convinced. Winter’s appearance—pure delinquent from head to toe—gave my nonsense a surprising amount of credibility.
“She hasn’t actually committed any crime, but there could be rumors later, so she needs to pay for a settlement and film a video to keep mouths shut. It’s for her future career path. That’s why we were on our way to meet the kid she used to hang out with.”
“…A settlement.”
“Oh, right. You asked why I was carrying cash, didn’t you? She said if she transfers it through a bank account, there’d be a record, so it has to be cash. That’s why I put the money in my wallet and was carrying it around.”
“…That girl is pretty sharp.”
“She really is. Her useless little brain works way too well for the wrong things. Haha.”
The middle-aged officer must have bought my nonsense, because he looked at Winter with a strange expression. Success. Winter, seemingly impressed by my acting, could only open and close her mouth wordlessly.
Looking at her, the officer asked, “Student, is this true?”
Winter rolled her eyes as if weighing something in her mind, then spoke with what looked like resolve.
“…Yes. I am the human trash known as Han Gyeowool.”
The kind-hearted middle-aged officer gave Winter a long lecture about how dangerous the “delinquent” label could be.
He also shared a helpful tip: to leave as many photos as possible as evidence of the settlement, and to keep them long-term.
“Yes, I’ll make sure to leave as much evidence as possible. So I can have the upper hand if it ever goes to court.”
“…Good grief, I don’t even know what I’m teaching a kid. One last thing, student. The scary part about going off the rails isn’t the immediate consequences. It’s that even if it seems wrapped up nicely, it could explode like a landmine later and ruin your entire life!”
The officer turned as if to leave, then added one final remark.
“Live properly! Not for others—for your own future.”
“…Thank you for giving sincere advice even to trash like me. I’ll live properly from now on.”
Winter spoke while nodding her head in an unnatural, dead-eyed manner. From the perspective of someone who had worked in the entertainment industry, it was closer to terrible acting. Even I could do better than that.
From the status window I’d glanced at earlier, her acting talent seemed to be around B-rank, so I had no idea why she was performing like this. However, the middle-aged officer seemed satisfied with that crude acting. He left behind only a perfunctory promise to file a lost property report before heading off with his junior officers.
“They’re gone.”
“They are.”
The incident had been roughly wrapped up. Since there wouldn’t be any contact with her guardian, Winter would be able to take the audition without issue tomorrow.
What remained now was to rely on the future where I had never seen Winter debut in the previous round. I wanted to set up a meeting with Cheon Jonghun right away, but with CH’s audition right in front of us, it would be difficult to arrange. Therefore, I would have to bring up Cheon Jonghun’s story only after her trainee life had fallen through.
Of course, it would take some time for her trainee life at CH to collapse in any way, so this would have to be a long-term plan. For now, I should leave my contact information and continue our interactions while pretending to be a kind neighbor. After all, I needed to snatch her up the moment her trainee life was ruined.
The problem here was that to keep in touch, I had to get this minor’s number. If I said the wrong thing, the image of a good Samaritan I had built up could instantly turn into that of a creepy old man hitting on a kid. I couldn’t bear to see that happen.
“…Um, mister.”
While I was pondering how to get her number and continue contact, Winter must have found the silence awkward and spoke up.
“Yeah? What is it?”
“…Well.”
“Are you trying to thank me? There’s really no need.”
What I needed was her number. Not some pointless gratitude.
“No, it’s not that. I don’t have anywhere to sleep tonight.”
“…”
“…I lost my wallet, so I don’t have any money either. Could you let me stay for just one night? Even if you just give me a blanket, I can sleep in the hallway. I’ll curl up in a corner so I won’t be in the way.”
Was this kid even thinking about the fact that we had only known each other for thirty minutes? I felt some instinctive reluctance at the idea of bringing an outsider into the house. However, when I calmly thought it over, it seemed like a surprisingly effective way to get her contact information and maintain long-term communication.
Right now I lived alone with my sister, so I only needed my sister—the head of the household—to agree. So, how would my sister react?
I ran a simulation in my head.
‘Sis, can I let one girl sleep over?’
‘Of course not, you idiot. Why the hell would she sleep at our house instead of getting a motel?’
This wasn’t looking good. Ever since we were young, my overly soft personality and my sister’s near-individualistic nature had caused us to clash a lot. In the previous round, I hadn’t understood. I had thought it would be nice if my sister could just show a little more tolerance toward others.
Now I understood completely why she had to be that way… but even so, convincing a sister like that to let someone stay over didn’t seem easy.
“Um… I’m sorry, but that seems difficult.”
At my answer, Winter began to tremble like a newborn fawn. Big, round tears began dripping onto the floor.
Why is she like this?
“…You said it was okay even if I asked for help.”
Winter spoke in a tiny, squeezed-out voice. Honestly, it was so quiet I couldn’t hear it.
“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you because of the cars passing by! Could you say it one more time?”
“You said that even if I don’t have anyone to help me right now, you would help me! You said if I couldn’t think of anyone, you would help! I don’t have anyone like that! I don’t have friends, I don’t have acquaintances, I don’t have a mom or dad, I don’t have anyone at all! Hwaaaang—.”
Winter burst into sobs and grabbed onto my pant leg.
“Heuuung, help me! Please help me!”
She was half-kneeling, begging me. It looked like she was about to bang her head on the ground. It was a sudden, dizzying escalation. I had thought she was fine, but she seemed even more cornered than I realized. Worried that this could turn into a real problem, I comforted her with the mindset of a medic treating an emergency patient.
After five minutes of mindless agreement and praise, Winter finally calmed down.
“So what I’m saying is, it’s not that I don’t want to help you. It’s that the owner of our house probably won’t allow it, so I had to refuse.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Let’s call right now and ask.”
It was a long shot, but if my sister was in a good mood, maybe she would allow it. I turned on the speakerphone so Winter could hear and called my sister.
“Hey sis, it’s me. I have a favor to ask.”
“…”
“It’s nothing else. There’s this really pitiful girl. I was wondering if she could stay at our house for just one night. She came up from the countryside and just lost her wallet, so she has no money. She doesn’t have any friends or acquaintances, and she says there’s no one who can help her. She looks like a good kid. Let’s help her for just one night.”
“…Do you think people are puppies you just pick up by the river? You still haven’t fixed that habit from high school.”
What exactly was my high school habit again?
“Are you trying to turn our house into a runaway shelter again?”
Ah, that was it. I used to let anyone who looked even a little pitiful stay over.
“I have no intention of letting even a single dog into our tiny house, so just quietly send her to a jjimjilbang or a runaway youth shelter. And what time is it right now, you little—”
It looked like unhealthy words for a minor to hear were about to pour out, so I quickly hung up the phone.
“She said no.”
“…It seems so.”
We cooled our heads while facing the cold wind blowing in from the river. Nothing in this world is easy.
“But you didn’t really come up to Seoul without any plan, right?”
Seeing her ask a stranger to let her sleep over without hesitation, the girl named Winter did seem a bit lacking in forethought. Still, I didn’t think she had really come up from the countryside completely unplanned. At the very least, she must have reserved a place to stay.
“You didn’t make a reservation?”
“I did make a reservation, but I only paid the deposit. I haven’t paid the full accommodation fee yet…”
“Don’t you have a card? Or an online account like Toss or Kakao Bank?”
“My emergency card was in the wallet I lost, and I don’t know how to use those online accounts… Hic… Sniffle, I’m sorry. Hiccup.”
Winter must have been frustrated with herself too, because she couldn’t hold back her emotions and started crying again. I handed her the entire pack of tissues I had been giving her one by one. She then demonstrated impressive efficiency by holding the tissues with both hands, blowing her nose, and wiping her tears at the same time.
Once her tears had mostly stopped, her swollen eyes and smudged eyeliner created a truly pitiful sight. She wouldn’t be able to go to the audition looking like that, so she would need to wash up and get some sleep somewhere. I decided to make a bold investment.
I took two ten-thousand-won bills—money that felt like my own blood—from my wallet and handed them to her.
“…What is this?”
“What else? It’s blood money. One hundred thousand won. Take it and use it to pay the full accommodation fee for the place you reserved. You can also use some for transportation when you go back home.”
Winter looked at me with trembling eyes as I offered her the money.
“Wash up, get some sleep, and do well on your audition.”
Winter, who had been carefully watching my expression, finally took the money as if she had made up her mind.
“Then… could I have your phone number?”
I cheered internally. I had succeeded in getting her number without looking like a creep.
“Why, to pay me back? It’s fine. I’m not exactly rich, but I can afford to think of this as just helping someone out.”
In a much better mood, I spoke as gently as possible. Think of that hundred thousand as a down payment on a contract.
“Still, I think I should repay what I’ve received. You said that to some people, a debt might be nothing more than a small act of kindness that doesn’t even feel like a debt, but that doesn’t mean I can just act irresponsibly.”
Steadying her trembling voice, Winter spoke with firm conviction.
“So please. Give me the chance to repay this grace that isn’t a debt to me.”
The way she held out her smartphone with both hands reminded me of myself before my regression. She was choosing to trust someone. It was a naive attitude. She would probably need to get scammed once before she learned her lesson… Well, since we were only going to see each other for a short while, it wasn’t my place to interfere.
I nodded and entered my phone number into Winter’s smartphone. Worried that I might have given her a fake number, she immediately called the number I had written down. When my phone rang, she smiled brightly.
“Alright, I’ll be going now. Do well on your audition. I used to work in the industry, so take my word for it—you’ll get good results as long as you don’t do anything too weird.”
In the idol industry, the most important talent was, after all, appearance. And Winter’s appearance was outstanding.
“Yes! Thank you so much! I will absolutely, definitely repay this kindness!”
I watched for a moment as Winter walked away energetically with her bulky bag that looked like a hermit crab’s shell, then turned around.
Han Gyeowool’s favorability has increased significantly.
The long-term plan is progressing smoothly.
The next day, I had stayed up late organizing my luggage and fallen asleep late. I was woken by my smartphone’s ringtone, which showed no sign of stopping. At first I ignored the first couple of calls, thinking they were from an insurance company or telecom employee working diligently from early morning. But by the third ring, I realized it wasn’t normal. I forced my heavy eyelids open, got up, and picked up the phone.
The number displayed was Winter’s.
My sleepiness vanished instantly. I cleared my throat three times, steadied my voice as much as possible, and answered.
“Hello?”
“…Mister, hic, sniffle.”
“Yes, Winter. What’s wrong this time?”
“Hiccup… Sniffle. Mister, I’m ruined.”
My heart pounded. It seemed something had gone wrong with the audition in some way. The completion of the quest flickered before my eyes. However, I needed to stay calm at times like this.
“Even if it feels like the world is ending right now, most things turn out to be not that big a deal when you look back. So take a deep breath and think about it calmly from a third-person perspective. Are you really ruined?”
Winter audibly took a deep breath so I could hear it through the phone, then began thinking carefully. About thirty seconds later, she started crying again.
“Heuuuung, I’m really ruined!”
“Where are you right now? I’ll come right away, so stay put.”
If she had judged herself ruined after thinking calmly, then she really was ruined. I smiled brightly and rushed out.
Wait for me, my ticket to employment.