Chapter 224: Problem Child-2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 224: Problem Child-2
The woman kept her hand pressed against my forehead, tilting her head in confusion.
Unable to bear the awkwardness, I pulled my head back.
Perhaps realizing her reaction was a bit much given my uncooperative response, she raised both hands in apology.
"Ah, sorry..."
She pulled her stool back to create some space.
A distance of about thirty centimeters—though it felt like the psychological gap between us was much wider.
Taking her hand off my forehead, she pulled a set of textbooks out of her bag. Thick volumes were piled onto the desk.
Thud. A book with a blue cover slid toward me.
I assumed it was the one I was supposed to use. The title on the cover read Mathematics (Vol 1).
"Am I studying with this?"
When I asked, she muttered as if venting to herself.
"You're the one who says you lost your textbook every single time. That's why I'm the one carrying it around."
Her voice was laced with a hint of irritation and resentment.
Reacting to her prickly tone, I pouted slightly and picked up the book.
A textbook... I wondered how long it had been since I’d held one of these.
After getting a job, I’d practically built a wall between myself and studying.
I glanced at the table of contents.
Polynomials, equations and inequalities... geometry.
Concepts that felt familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time entered my vision.
Wait... was the curriculum always like this?
"Alright, let's start the lesson."
While I was busy flipping through the pages, the woman spoke in a voice completely devoid of expectation.
"Ah, hold on a second. I need something to write with."
It wouldn't make sense to participate in a lesson with nothing to write with.
I scanned the cluttered desk and picked up a black Monami ballpoint pen that was rolling around in the corner.
"...What are you up to now?"
When I looked at her with the pen in hand, she frowned.
"What? You said let's start the lesson."
I protested, my eyes wide with feigned innocence.
"I mean... you're actually going to listen to the 'lesson'?"
"Why? Am I not allowed to? This is... private tutoring, isn't it?"
I briefly wondered if it was tutoring or homeschooling, but tutoring seemed much more likely.
Faced with my confident attitude, the woman pressed her fingers against her temples.
It looked like she was developing a headache.
"Phew... endure it, Yun Si-a."
Through her muttering, which sounded like a form of self-hypnosis, I learned her name.
Yun Si-a.
After squeezing her eyes shut and massaging her head for a long moment, she returned to a calm expression.
"Fine. Since you said you'd listen, no taking it back, okay? No walking out in the middle or lying down on the bed to sleep like last time."
Just what kind of life had the original owner of this body been leading?
Recalling the disastrous state of the room, I could take a rough guess.
Once the lesson was over, I’d have to investigate as much as possible.
*
My high school life hadn't been particularly fun. Because of the immense pressure regarding grades, I couldn't enjoy studying for its own sake.
In that sense, 10th-grade math—approached as simple knowledge without any pressure—was actually quite interesting.
Yun Si-a’s lesson was like reaching deep into the library of my memories, pulling out knowledge, and blowing away the thick layer of dust settled upon it.
"Try solving this problem."
She pointed to a page titled 'Basic Concept Review.'
I picked up the Monami ballpoint pen.
Problem number one... a simple factorization problem.
Having finished the calculation in my head, I touched the pen to the paper.
'(x+4)(x+2)'
No matter how much time had passed since I graduated high school, this was far too easy.
"......."
I could feel Yun Si-a’s gaze fixed on me as I breezed through the problems.
It took about five minutes to finish all the basic questions.
"Hmm..."
I saw Yun Si-a’s eyes darting back and forth as she graded the work with a red pen.
The more red circles she drew over the answers, the more her suspicious side-glances increased.
After the two-hour lesson ended, Yun Si-a glared at me while packing her bag.
"Kang In-ho, what are you plotting?"
I knew exactly what she was asking.
If a normally uncooperative student suddenly changed their attitude and sat through a lesson in a single day, a teacher would be more likely to suspect a scheme than to think the student had turned over a new leaf.
"Nothing. I just felt like listening for once."
I didn't bother with the "I'm going to live a proper life from now on" line; she wouldn't have bought it anyway.
It was better to brush it off as a whim.
"Is that so?"
Whether my choice was right or not, I saw her expression brighten slightly.
Once her bag was packed, she stood up and folded the stool.
"I hope that interest continues."
"Well, I wouldn't know about that."
When I gave a bratty shrug, Yun Si-a looked at me with an "I figured as much" expression.
"Since you told me to leave it... I'm leaving the textbook here, okay?"
Confirming it one last time, she left the book on the desk.
I walked out of the room with her.
As we went from the second floor to the first, I took a look around the house.
It was a large, nice home.
"I'll be back on Wednesday. Do your preview and review... if you're still interested."
She put extra emphasis on the word 'interested.'
"Goodbye."
When I bowed to her at the front door, she tilted her head as if things were truly bizarre.
"Did he eat something wrong?"
"I can hear you, you know."
When I glared at her with a flat, unimpressed look, Yun Si-a looked back at me as if she were the victim.
"I mean, even you have to admit it's funny. Until just a few days ago, you didn't even treat me like a human being... I don't get your intentions for suddenly acting like this."
"...No comment on that."
"Ah... wait, In-ho, you!"
Yun Si-a clapped her hands and pointed a finger at me.
Her movements were exaggerated, as if she had just uncovered a massive truth.
"You got caught by your father and beaten, didn't you?"
"No, I didn't."
Though, who knows? It might actually be true.
"What... no? Then what is it...?"
She looked lost in thought the entire way out of the house.
Ah, I meant to ask how she had a key, but I forgot.
*
The first thing I did after sending Yun Si-a away was change the passcode on the door lock.
I reset it from the inside and changed it to a number I knew.
As for the main gate, it seemed to require a physical key, which I managed to find in the room.
"Now... let's check the phone."
After scouring the room like a detective, I found a mobile phone under the bed.
I tilted the black screen to catch the light, looking for fingerprints. I could see long streaks where fingers had swiped.
I deduced the most common pattern from those tracks.
After a few attempts, the phone unlocked.
"Let's see..."
I sat on the edge of the bed and opened KakaoTalk.
There were a massive number of messages. I entered the chatroom with the highest unread count.
Hmm...
Just as I was thinking I’d possessed the body of a real piece of work, a message arrived from someone.
Jeong-ah♡:In-ho, are you awake? Jin-tae scored some booze today. Let's go drink at the karaoke bar.