A Peaceful Day (5)
A Peaceful Day (5)
We finished the second foreign language exam, then split up to go see our families.
Dad had been waiting for me in the car. The moment he spotted me he came sprinting out, just like Roy and Rosa at Grandpa's place.
"Daaal! Did the exam go well?!"
"So-so. I think I might've missed about one question."
"Really?!"
"Dunno. We'll see when the scores come out."
Dad and I wandered around the area, hitting a karaoke place and doing some shopping, then met up with Ji-hoon's, Da-yeon's, and Tae-oh's families.
Thirteen of us all together, sitting down for a meal.
Kim Dong-hoon looked surprisingly chummy with Lee Jin-seok.
Made sense. Unlike Lee Gi-seok, Lee Jin-seok never talks down to people, even if they're his subordinates.
If anything, he treats people with so much respect that it's practically ingrained in them that they're business partners.
If you're used to that approach and start taking it for granted, he'll drop the hammer on you without mercy, but...
The reason it was thirteen people was... Jeong-yeon and Tae-jun were there too.
"It's been a while, huh?"
Jeong-yeon greeted me brightly.
"Heyyy~! I really enjoyed the drama~"
"Ahaa."
He said he'd been crazy busy with college life lately, but this was the same Jeong-yeon who'd given Da-yeon his full support throughout her exam prep.
When they were little, Da-yeon had been the smarter one. But Jeong-yeon had honed himself dozens of times harder than Da-yeon, and the result was a guy sharper than any kid I'd ever laid eyes on.
No, seriously. It was like he'd had some kind of epiphany after what happened with Oh Tae-hyeon. Jeong-yeon had trained himself until anyone would call him a genius. Starting in high school, he'd made a habit of sleeping only four hours a day—every day except Saturdays—and practically lived with a book in his hands.
There was even a rumor that on Saturdays, which he called his rest day, he either played the violin or did absolutely nothing but sleep.
No one could dismiss the effort Jeong-yeon had put into practically turning himself into a machine.
Not even Lee Jin-seok, the man who runs Hanseong, is any exception.
Kim Tae-jun took one look at Tae-oh and said he couldn't lose to his little brother, so he doubled his training load—
and the trapezius muscles visible even through his clothes announced that fact loud and clear.
While we were eating, Jeong-yeon plopped down beside Da-yeon and started piling grilled meat onto her plate.
"Oh, right. Si-yoon, your birthday's coming up, isn't it?"
"Yeah?"
"Mm... is there anything you want?"
"Not really. Nothing I'm dying to have right now."
"In that case, you wanna come visit my school this time?"
Jeong-yeon's school was Princeton University.
It's one of the bigger campuses among American universities, and I'd heard it was insanely huge—I was kind of curious.
"Sounds good. I'll swing by with Da-yeon soon, then."
"Guess I'll have to get things ready~"
After we ate, we peeled away from the adults and went to see the new hero movie that was coming out.
A hero movie heavily skewed toward a male audience... and Da-yeon absolutely loves that stuff.
I do too, obviously, but Da-yeon and I are especially into the mechanical engineering heroes.
"He's as cool as three... three thousand men..."
We watched the movie, goofed around taking pictures, and then neatly headed to our separate homes.
One day, while I was gaming with Dubu, a text came in from Da-yeon.
— Si-yoon! Did you check your score report?!
— Ah? I'll look. Thanks~
— Okay!
— Did you do well?
— I did amazing!
— Oh?!
I got the feeling Da-yeon couldn't fully convey her mood through text.
I called her up right away, and the high-pitched voice I'd only heard a handful of times before pretty much spelled out exactly how Da-yeon was feeling.
— "Si-yoon, oh my god!!! I seriously got every single one right!"
"Hah, our Da-yeon really pulled it off!"
Da-yeon, who hadn't even hung out with me and had spent the whole year fixated solely on studying, had finally snagged the title of perfect scorer on the college entrance exam.
While I was still on the phone with Da-yeon, I checked my own score—and there was not a single wrong answer in my Si-yoon dictionary, either.
Dubu, who'd been playing a horror game with me where we were turning on a generator together, asked:
— "What's up? Something happen?"
"Ah, a friend of mine got a perfect score on the college entrance exam."
— "For real!!!? Are you for real!? What about you?!"
I casually hung up with Da-yeon and refocused on the game.
"Me? Same as always."
— "Wow... that is obnoxious as hell..."
Time passed, and I arrived at the driver's license testing center with Da-yeon.
I handed her the booklet, saying it was to prep for the written test, and Da-yeon studied even that with the same insane intensity.
"Just search it up on the Green Window and bang out the ones it shows you..."
"No! I have to do it properly."
I skipped the questions I didn't know, scribbled in answers as I went, and landed right at a 90. Da-yeon ended up with a 100.
Da-yeon and I headed straight to the skills test lot so we could get our Class 1 licenses.
Under the blazing sun, Kim Seon-hwa and Dad were waiting for us, chatting in the shade of a tree.
At the instructor's direction, I got into the truck.
Beside me, the instructor carefully explained every single thing twice, and it was getting more and more annoying.
Driving is freestyle.
I was about to step on it right from the start—when the instructor next to me slammed on the brake in a panic...
"You have to... take it slow..."
"Slower than this? I'm not even doing 15 kph."
"Take it slow."
"Yep."
There was no chance Da-yeon and I were bad drivers.
We were the same two people who'd spent every spare moment racing at Lee Gi-seok's family estate. It would've been harder for us to be bad at driving.
As I was cruising the car along nice and slow, I caught sight of Dad and Kim Seon-hwa sitting on a bench waving at me.
Maybe my skills were better than I thought—we went straight into parking on the very first lesson. I mastered it immediately and moved on to the next test.
During the gear-shifting section, I started having fun on my own and picked up speed, and the instructor grabbed the oh-shit handle tight.
Da-yeon and I breezed through the skills test, and the next day we did the road test—two days total, and we had our licenses.
"Heh heh heh... we're adults now too."
"Ooh hoo hoo hoo..."
Three days later.
The official license came through, and I immediately got into the first car Dad had ready for me.
The latest Maklaren I'd picked out as my first car... It had been sitting in the parking garage, and on its first official drive, those sleek lines were an absolute showstopper.
Dad, who'd tagged along claiming it was a driving lesson, kept glancing at me from the passenger seat all nervous.
"Want me to drive...?"
"What're you talking about, it's my car. Don't even think about touching it."
"Still... driving in your school uniform... don't you think that's a little...?"
"When would I even change clothes? Gotta get behind the wheel right away."
Dad had wanted my first car to be a Lammerghini Urus like Da-yeon's, but there's no way I'm crushing my supercar dream.
With this car, I can't even drive to Grandpa's place or clear a speed bump, but my name's Si-yoon—I gotta have some style. Life's a sports car.
Nowadays when you reverse, the rearview camera shows you exactly what's behind you. It really hit me how much the world has advanced. I started easing onto the accelerator.
Watching my natural movements, Dad nodded, as if the ride was more comfortable than he'd expected.
"Si-yoon, your mom was an amazing driver too, you know~"
"Knowing what Grandpa's like, how could you be bad at it~ Mm-hm."
"How do you even know what your maternal grandfather was like? Even Marie didn't know."
"Dunno. I just remember, okay?"
"..."
Can't have a moment like this without hip-hop...
I put on one of Dad's songs.
"Si-yoon... you need to concentrate when you're driving for the first time..."
I got right onto the Hannam Interchange and started picking up speed, and Dad grabbed the grab handle in a panic.
"Slow down!!! Slow down!!! Cut your speed!!!"
"Shut up! That's how accidents happen."
I wanted to feel the zero-to-sixty on my very first drive, so I gunned it to 200 kph while looking at Dad, and I nearly got slapped in the face by him for the first time ever.
Satisfied with the car's overwhelming zero-to-sixty performance, I reduced speed and settled in behind the wheel with plenty of composure.
With my small, delicate-looking frame and one hand on the wheel, Dad still looked uneasy.
"Si-yoon! Both hands on the wheel...."
The same scene played out... at Da-yeon's place too.
Da-yeon took a ride in my car and got insanely jealous.
The Lee Jin-seok household had said absolutely no small cars like mine for a first car.
Da-yeon, her eyes sparkling after watching me drive, asked me to teach her.
So, as soon as school ended, I walked over to Da-yeon's Lammerghini Urus, which Team 5 had brought around.
Da-yeon was scurrying over on tiptoe to stick a beginner driver sticker onto the rear window, so I hastily stopped her.
"Why...?"
"If you stick that on, other people will look at you like you're a total noob."
"But still... shouldn't I put it on?"
"Look, if the super-expensive car in front of you has an 'Absolute Beginner' sticker on it, how do you think the driver behind feels?"
"Mm..."
"The split-second an accident happens, the other driver's head spins. So they're gonna end up driving all freaked out, right?"
"I... guess so?"
"Exactly~ the car in front of you has a bull logo on it, and you stick a beginner driver sign on there—that's a straight-up thriller movie right there, don't you think?"
"Is it...?"
I picked up Da-yeon's letter sticker and grinned.
"And anyway, if you're gonna stick one on, it shouldn't say 'Absolute Beginner.' It should say 'King Beginner.'"
"Huh?"
"That way, the guy behind you thinks the car in front of him is a piece-of-trash lost cause and steers clear way in advance."
"Ah..."
I slapped on the King Beginner sticker, and Da-yeon got into the car.
Da-yeon adjusted the seat to her height and fastened her seatbelt.
The seatbelt pressed in across Da-yeon's right breast... hmm... I made a point of ignoring it and watched Da-yeon drive.
"Oh... you're pretty good, huh?"
"Yeah!"
Da-yeon drove with both hands gripping the wheel tight.
As expected, Da-yeon's a good driver.
Except her field of vision on the road maybe wasn't that wide yet—Da-yeon showed her beginner colors by leaning around to check her surroundings.
Still, watching how fast she scanned everything around her, I didn't think an accident was likely.
"Doesn't your back hurt? Lean back while you do it."
"I'm still a little scared..."
"It's fine. If you bump into someone lightly, without any casualties, you just pay 'em off."
"..."
"If we cover it a hundred percent, the other guy gets a brand-new car for free—he'll be happy, y'know?"
"...Is that so...?"
Thanks to my advice, Da-yeon started driving while slowly leaning back.
There's one important fact—maybe this was the King Beginner effect,
but within a fifty-meter radius of the Lammerghini Urus we were in, there wasn't a single other car.
We arrived at Lee Gi-seok's house and started driving practice in earnest,
and I practiced drifting in a racing car.
"... Si-yoon, what're you gonna do with that skill...?"
"Might come in handy sometime, no?"
"..."
From quick gear shifts to running the course in reverse, I practiced for a long time before starting parking practice with Da-yeon.
"Isn't the order... a little backwards?"
"Parking's whatever—you're gonna do it in a wide-open space anyway~"
"...Is that so?"
When it was time to go home, I peeled off the King Beginner sticker and got into the driver's seat of Da-yeon's car.
Unlike my car, Da-yeon's insurance covers it even when someone outside the family is driving.
When I drove, Da-yeon shot me a look of pure admiration.
"Wow, you're so good~"
I casually demonstrated the kind of smooth merge she had trouble with, and Da-yeon watched me with sparkling eyes.
At a rest stop off in the distance, I briefly considered busting out the drift I'd been practicing—but I held back.
From that morning on, Da-yeon and I started driving our own cars.
Da-yeon with Tae-oh riding shotgun. Me with Park Ji-hoon in the passenger seat.
I pulled up in front of Park Ji-hoon's house.
Park Ji-hoon came out in his school uniform and, cringey as hell, started showing off his body out in the open.
I was leaning against Blackie and watching Park Ji-hoon.
Blackie was the pet name I'd given the Maklaren.
The second he spotted me, Park Ji-hoon came running.
"Ohhhh! What the hell! Damn, look at this car, absolutely insane~"
"If you buy a Maklaren, you're dead."
"Why?"
"People are already being little shits trying to tie us together as a couple. It's disgusting, so don't buy one."
"Ah, fair enough."
"Fair enough my ass, who the hell do you think you are to call it disgusting? You should be thanking your goddamn lucky stars."
"Bullshit. I know better than anyone how rotten you are inside."
"Don't talk crap. Honestly, even in the past, I was pure, dammit."
Park Ji-hoon ignored me and got into the car.
"Ah, why's it so cramped."
"Think about the size of your damn body for once and quit running your mouth mindlessly, you fat pig."
I fastened my seatbelt, put on my sunglasses, and took the wheel.
The moment Park Ji-hoon saw me gripping the steering wheel, he opened his mouth.
"Yo, I'm dead serious not even joking, this feels exactly like watching an elementary schooler drive."
"...You're dead."
"Your seated height is tiny as fuck too—can you even see over the dash? Eugh."
"Get out."
"Sorry."
My legs are disproportionately long for my body, so I'm already small, but my seated height really is way shorter than other people's.
The second he sat down, Park Ji-hoon started blasting music.
Unlike Kim Tae-oh, Park Ji-hoon loves hip-hop, so he put on some Western rap.
The two of us were on our way to school, banging our heads hard to the beat.
I locked eyes with a driver in the next car over, and their mouth started falling open.
After that, I drove nice and quiet.
When we got to school, we realized we weren't the only ones who'd gotten our licenses and driven in with our own cars.
Unlike usual, the parking lot was packed with cars of every shape and color.
The only thing was, the number of people who'd pulled an obnoxious money-flex on their very first car like us was extremely small.
Still, maybe because this place is full of kids from moneyed families, the parking lot was a spectacle.
One lone motorcycle parked among the sea of cars in the lot.
A black motorcycle that looked more expensive than the average car, with the name Han Jong-su engraved on it in English letters.
Park Ji-hoon got out of the car, walked up to the motorcycle, and said,
"Why'd he park it there?"
"Who the hell knows what goes on in his head?"
"Yeah, fair. He seriously is on a whole different wavelength."
One thing that really made me appreciate how convenient the world had become was the link between my car and phone: as long as I had my phone on me, I could unlock the doors, and the engine started by fingerprint.
I let out an appreciative noise at the advanced tech without even thinking.
"Let's go check out your friend's face at least."
"You want me to call him over?"
"Do you even know what Da-yeon looks like?"
"I introduced them before."
With the college entrance exam over, the school had turned into a total free-for-all.
Especially Han Jong-su—he'd started hanging out with the friends he hadn't been able to play with while he was studying, and he was way more over-the-top about it than usual.
Squirts who looked like they'd never goofed off once in their lives were actually having more fun than I expected.
Enough that I snorted at one of the running gags flying around while I was messing with Da-yeon's fingers.
Park Ji-hoon brought his friends over, and the little squirts flinched the moment they saw me. Da-yeon awkwardly accepted their greetings.
"Hey...?"
The squirts were way better-looking than I'd imagined. The tall one was Min-jun. The short one was Ju-won.
"Whoa... are you seriously friends with Ji-hoon...?"
"Who? Ji-hoon? He's my errand boy."
"Can I be your errand b..."
Maybe it's because he's Park Ji-hoon's friend, but the squirt named Ju-won didn't seem like someone with a normal thought process.
"So, how do you guys know each other?"
"We go to the same gym. And we both wanna apply to HSW!"
"Oh..."
If they go to the same gym as Ji-hoon, no wonder they were both in such good shape.
Probably because Park Ji-hoon worked them into the ground and then worked them again.
Lately, if you say you want to work out with Ji-hoon, Park Ji-hoon will look at the weight I'm lifting and start to say something, then bite his tongue. If that's how he is with me, what do you think he's like with normal people?
Even when homeroom teachers walked in, nobody tried to shut us up. We were practicing our essay writing since we were aiming for Hanguk University.
Da-yeon wants to get into the business administration department, so I decided to go into the same major.
The problem is, Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh are dangerously close to the cutoff line.
Even if they show dominant results in the special admissions track, their grades are falling way shorter than we thought they would.
Da-yeon looked at me with a pitiful pout and cautiously opened her mouth.
"Si-yoon... should we... go to Oh-se University... or Goguryeo University...?"
"If you say that to Da-yeon's dad, Tae-oh's getting cut loose immediately, you know that?"
"Aww... but everywhere else is so far..."
"These two morons are really putting you through it, huh?"
"No..."
"Then let's apply to both Oh-se University and Goguryeo University~"
"Okay!"
In the Republic of Korea, how many people out there can get into Hanguk University and still choose not to go?
Kim Tae-oh's and Park Ji-hoon's grades weren't good enough for Hanguk University, which is why we were having this conversation.
But thanks to Lee Jin-seok's polite but firm opposition, in the end Da-yeon and I applied to Hanguk University, and Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh applied to the highest-ranked schools they could get into.