A Journey in Search of Crepes
"Haaaah..."
Maru looked worn out. Was it because of what had happened yesterday? Well, if a new hire got caught by her boss mid-mischief, that expression made sense. I bore some of the blame, so she hadn't been scolded all that much, but her heart must have dropped straight through the floor.
"Hana, have a good day at school!"
"You too, Maru!"
The car under Maru's hands wandered and lurched; it was dangerous. From the passenger seat, I might as well have been riding in a race car. From what I'd heard, once she landed the job she had poured the entire remaining week into learning how to drive.
Sure enough, a week of lessons showed. Her skill left a great deal to be desired. Still, a few more days on the road and she'd improve, wouldn't she? I would have liked to take the wheel myself, but sadly my legs were too short to reach the brake or the accelerator.
The only thing I could drive was a kick scooter. My proportions were favorable—my legs ran long for my torso—but that was still the limit of a body only four feet five inches tall.
Thump, thump, I arrived at the school gate with my bag on my back. I waved to the fierce-looking guard and went inside. Some of the kids in the yard were playing soccer, friends training in hopes of becoming players someday.
When I reached the classroom, Jiyu and Yumi greeted me. I'd come to school right on time. I sat down, we talked a little, and before I knew it class was about to begin. Fortunately, being elementary students, our periods lasted only forty minutes, and breaks ran a generous twenty. High school, as I recalled, had been fifty minutes of class and ten of rest...
And so I focused on the lesson.
"Hana, let's go get dessert today!"
"Want to?"
School had ended early, leaving time to spare before the car arrived. Jiyu was plastered to my side, chattering away. Yumi must have been hungry too; she didn't so much as quibble. Getting hungry again not long after lunch was simply what elementary kids did.
This stomach of mine hadn't been in service long, so it was sturdier than an adult's. Even so, I couldn't eat like a mukbang YouTuber. I ate little, and often.
"I know a really good crepe place!"
Yumi said it with her hand in the air. She loved sweet snacks, so following her lead was unlikely to be a loss.
"Let's go!"
I flung my own hand up as I answered. I liked sweet things quite a lot myself. People might call it a child's palate, but I was a child, so the remark hardly applied.
Bags on, we scurried out. We had to ride the subway two stops, she said. Jiyu, Yumi, and I stuck close as we went. We couldn't afford to get separated.
To escape the sunlight, which had grown a little sharp, we took the escalator underground. It was an awkward hour of the afternoon, and there didn't seem to be many people. Once we reached the underpass, though, a fair number came into view, and they kept glancing our way—probably because the Byeolbit Elementary uniform looked a bit unusual.
"Didn't the math teacher seem weird today? He looked like he was full of spite."
"I heard his wife chewed him out yesterday."
"Really? That would do it."
We traded idle gossip while we waited in front of the screen doors, and with the announcement the train rolled in. I opened the map app to check where we were headed. Yumi knew the way, but I still needed a screenshot of the destination on my phone. That would make it easier for Maru to drive over. Rather than squinting at the scenery and describing it in vague terms, sending a captured map was far faster—and much easier to recognize.
Inside the train, empty seats caught my eye. They were meant for two, but only by adult standards. For small elementary schoolers like us, a two-person seat could comfortably hold three. There was no need to worry about that, though. As we strode toward the seats, the people who'd been about to sit stood up and stepped off the train.
We settled into the newly emptied seats. The doors shut, the car clattered, and then it slowly pulled away. It was my first time riding the subway in this body, and my heart pounded. New surroundings always had a way of setting a heart racing.
"Um..."
A young man beside my seat had spoken to me. What was this? Bora had said that men who approached you with strange eyes shouldn't be regarded as human at all. Not even wolves—just beasts beneath humanity.
But he didn't have those strange eyes, so I answered.
"Yes?"
With a troubled look, he pointed at the seat next to me. My hair, left long, was lying across the chair. It grew to whatever length it pleased, and at random; today it had grown especially, tremendously long. Flustered, I hurried to gather it. I'd tied it so that it hung long and low, spreading like a stingray, and that was the trouble.
"Oh, I'm sorry!"
I swept my hands, lifted the hair strewn over the seat, and piled it onto my lap.
"Thanks~"
He said he was glad, at least, that he hadn't sat down on it.
"Hana, you should cut your hair like mine!"
Jiyu pointed at her own style as she said it. Next to my long hair, hers was a bob—not as short as a pixie cut, but short all the same. Yumi, sitting beside us, wrinkled her nose.
"No! Long hair suits Hana!"
"I've had long hair too, Yumi! A bob is way, way more comfortable~"
The two of them launched into a squabble. I let it go and took out my phone. Yumi and Jiyu arguing was an everyday affair, and once the fight was over they would link arms and walk along as if nothing had happened.
And so we arrived at our stop. Looking around, I saw nothing but adults. I had to tip my head back to see their faces. I held Jiyu and Yumi close and stepped off the train, and arm in arm we wove through the crowd. There were so many people that one wrong step and we might lose each other.
Beep!
Child!
That was one of the good things about being a child. I could ride public transit for an absurdly low fare, and I was looked after wherever I went. On the bus, if there were no seats and I was left standing, people sometimes made room. I was too short to reach the hanging straps and ended up wobbling; I must have looked pitiful.
We crossed to the exit and rode the escalator up out of the station, and crowds worthy of a marketplace came into view. There really were a lot of people. We'd only come two stops, and the world around us had changed this much.
"Hana, Jiyu, it's just a short walk from here!"
Yumi caught our hands and pushed on through the crowd. We seemed to be the only children there.
But Jiyu's memory appeared to be off. Holding her hand, we arrived somewhere with nothing of the sort. There were shops, yes—clothing stores and the like.
"Huh? There used to be a crepe truck here!"
Jiyu looked rattled, glancing all around. Her memory couldn't be wrong, so the truck must have been moved. A shop couldn't be relocated at will, but a food truck only needed its engine started.
"Mister! Mister! Is there a crepe shop around here?"
While Jiyu was asking a man passing by, I had no choice but to endure an uncomfortable stare. A young woman beside him, who looked like she might be his daughter, had turned her eyes on me, and they were sparkling. As I stood there hesitating, she crouched down until our gazes met, then smiled and spoke.
"How old are you? And what's your name?"
"I'm ten. Hana..."
"Wooow... Were you a child actor?"
"Ah... no!"
"You're so pretty and cute. Have you ever been on TV, Hana?"
"No..."
"I bet people tell you you're pretty all the time. And I bet you've got a boyfriend, too!"
"I dooon't..."
Under that unrelenting gaze I hurriedly hid behind Jiyu's back. Seeing me like that, the woman smiled.
"You're so cute! I want to touch Hana's cheeks!"
Fortunately, she didn't.
By the time Jiyu had asked the men around and we'd made a full circuit, we learned that a crepe shop had opened. The owner seemed to have made more money than I'd expected—enough to abandon the truck and set up shop inside an actual building.