SIYUN - In her brain.
SIYUN - In her brain.
Time passed, and just as I was lazing around at home with Dad, a delivery arrived.
"Dad, did you order something?"
"Nope."
"You go get it, Dad."
"Too lazy~ You go, Si-yoon."
"Eek! What if an assassin pretending to be a delivery guy jumps me?! I'm just a little kid!"
"That'd be dangerous for me, too."
"Ugh~ I don't wanna~ Alpha and Beta just won't get off me~"
Dad teased me a bit more before getting up and going out to get the package.
Dad brought the package in.
"It's a painting."
"A painting? What painting?"
Dad tore open the wrapping, and I took the letter he handed me.
"Huh?"
I opened the envelope and checked the contents.
After seeing who it was from, I read through it, wondering if every painter had such terrible handwriting.
- To the artist Kim Si-yoon...
This is Professor Ahn Jun-tae.
I truly wished to keep this painting you said you would give me, but I simply found myself unable to accept it.
I do not know who the woman in the painting is, but a work like this is not something to give away...
For the past fourteen days, I have done nothing but gaze at this painting.
The emotions I felt within this painting are beyond my ability to explain.
It has truly been a long time since a painting has made me feel so emotional...
I consider the cost of the paint more than covered by this experience.
I have heard about you from the artist Go Min-su.
He said you possess too many talents. Like the artist Go Min-su, I, too, wish for you to paint.
But I also know that people like us must do what they desire most intensely.
However, may I ask just one thing of you?
Please... do not give up on painting.
Ahn Jun-tae (Seal)
While I read the letter, Dad silently looked at the painting.
"Why? How do you feel, Dad?"
I realized my mistake the moment I asked.
Dad's eyes were already starting to redden...
And of all things... Amy Allen also had the same short hair as Mom...
It looked like I'd hit my grown-up, overly sentimental dad's tear switch, so I quickly spoke up.
"I drew it without thinking about anything, so don't read anything into it."
Ah... already too late.
Sure enough, tears started streaming from Dad's reddened eyes.
"...You too, Si-yoon... even if you pretend otherwise, you've missed her all along."
"No, I haven't!"
"It's okay. You promised you'd tell Dad these things."
"I said no! Stop crying! I'm telling you, that's not Mom!!!"
Dad had gotten it into his head that I'd drawn it while thinking about Mom.
During morning assembly at school, my homeroom teacher called me out.
Ji-hoon was smirking at me from the side. He probably thought I was being hauled off for a scolding.
Out of the teacher's line of sight, I flipped him off before following the teacher.
"What is it?"
"I heard you won an award. Must be a pretty big deal, huh?"
"Ah, you mean the painting award?"
Then the principal's office came into view. My homeroom teacher saw me off and left to attend to other tasks.
When I opened the door, I saw the principal, and beside him was Teacher Go Min-su.
"Ohhh... You're Si-yoon, right? I'm truly a fan."
"Isn't that a crime, though?"
Without thinking, I'd thrown out the kind of joke I reserved for close friends right in the face of a principal I'd just met.
"Pffft."
"....."
Go Min-su spilled his coffee.
To change the mood, I smiled and said,
"I won an award?"
Go Min-su smiled and answered.
"Yes, the Grand Prize. Now, if we go out to the international competition and aim for an award in Australia, your work might begin a world tour starting from Australia..."
"What about the certificate?"
"You're scheduled to receive it next week. They're requesting an interview there..."
"I'm not doing it."
"....."
Go Min-su must have already spoken to him beforehand, because the principal nodded.
"Then, could you write down a description of your work for us?"
I took the pen and wrote a description for 'Work No. 137.'
Work No. 137 was the most striking scene I had experienced while living Kim Si-yoon's life.
I wrote in the description field.
- A Diamond Spoon Life.
"".....?""
I nodded as if it were a perfect description.
But Go Min-su was focused on my handwriting.
My brushstrokes, in which that tranquility, that desperate longing, was invisible.
My brushstrokes, which, while depicting cold water, let you feel leisure and evoked a cozy emotion in a dark, cold space.
Perhaps the single phrase 'A Diamond Spoon Life' made it all click for him.
Go Min-su abruptly fell silent and stared down at my writing.
"Can I go now?"
I sprang to my feet and headed back to the classroom.
My footsteps were lighter than ever.
Park Ji-hoon was learning kickboxing and showing off his talent for it, dedicating himself entirely to working out these days.
"You seem to be growing pretty fast, don't you?"
Park Ji-hoon had gotten about 5cm taller than me.
"Don't girls usually grow faster?"
"Heh... these are superior genes..."
Park Ji-hoon's dad was 192cm tall.
"What bullshit, for a shrimp."
"....."
I swept my hair up with an expression full of arrogance, as if emphasizing my face, and said,
"Now these... are superior genes."
"Says the one without a dick."
"...?"
"I'm gonna tease the hell out of you every single time you're on your period~"
After hearing Park Ji-hoon's words, I began to feel the gravity of the situation.
Secondary sexual characteristics... With my (X, X) chromosomes, I couldn't escape them.
I looked at Park Ji-hoon with a grave expression.
"...What?"
Park Ji-hoon got scared preemptively after seeing my face.
"You... you started it first?"
Park Ji-hoon's words, which had sent me worrying about the future, brought me back to reality.
And I gave Park Ji-hoon a look as if I were staring at a bug, and said,
"I'll have to tell your mom you said that to me."
Park Ji-hoon suddenly grabbed my arm.
"...No, uh, Boss? Let's settle this between us..."
"Three punches to the jaw, deal?"
"No, for fuck's sake, you started it!"
"Is that the same as this!? Huh? You fucking pervert."
Upon hearing me call him a fucking pervert, Park Ji-hoon distanced himself from me and said, completely straight-faced,
".....? So, calling me shrimp is a totally normal comment?"
"What's the matter? I like shrimp burgers."
"Wow... you're insane..."
"And I'm looking forward to you going to the army. Gonna tease you ruthlessly."
At my words, it was now Park Ji-hoon's turn for his expression to shift to one of sudden gravity, and he looked at me with a trembling gaze.
"...The army... I have to go again?"
"...My bad."
"Why are you doing this to me, for fuck's sake? You didn't even go back in the day!"
"Sorry... still, they say the army's gotten a lot better these days..."
Park Ji-hoon looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.
"Is the army still not the army? Even back then, they used to say it had gotten better by comparing it to when they dragged people off to Vietnam!"
"That's because you... went and joined the Marines to look cool, dumbass... of course it was better—everyone ranked Sergeant First Class or higher was a combat veteran..."
"Wow... in the army, in the winter, I left half a spoonful of rice at meals and got dunked in the water once per grain, 120 fucking times..."
"That's the 21st time I've heard that one."
"They called it eating your seniority, and I had to eat out of the slop bucket!"
"You tell that one every time you're drunk, so I've heard it 84 times..."
"My senior asked me if I could fight, I said yes, and they jumped me!"
"That's the 43rd..."
"Because I didn't salute a cat properly, they made me hold a 5kg plate on my wrist in the salute position for an hour!"
"132nd..."
"No, they asked me if I wanted to join the soccer club, I said no, so they said they'd make me think about it and pelted my head with a soccer ball for two hours!"
Smack!
I smacked the back of Park Ji-hoon's head.
"Knock it off, you bastard! I've heard your army stories so many times I feel like I've served!"
"...Go back... to that place...?"
Ji-hoon suddenly started laughing.
"They're all dead, just try me... Sergeant Kim, you son of a bitch..."
"You idiot, that guy's dead and gone."
"What if we find him, though?"
"Huh? Sure, maybe... wait, is a ten-year-old supposed to throw down with an old man in his seventies or eighties? Are you actually crazy?"
Park Ji-hoon, who had been smacked in the back of the head, suddenly looked at me seriously.
"What are you looking at."
"I decided to get double eyelid surgery."
"...? Out of the blue?"
"My mom told me to get it?"
"Sure, well, the techniques these days are good."
Since this was a private elementary school, today's lunch was bread-bowl pasta and steak, so we headed to the cafeteria instead of the snack bar.
I received the certificate and trophy from the principal, and it was broadcast on the TVs installed in every classroom.
The video ended after showing us shake hands.
Since it was pre-recorded, I was sitting in the classroom watching it.
"Must be a big deal, huh?"
"What, the painting?"
I showed him 'SIYUN - In Her Brain 137.' on my phone.
"...No way."
The number displayed was 754,000, and the symbol after it was '$'.
"Mind-blowing, right? I feel it too, all the people out there just throwing money around these days."
Morning assembly ended, and I grumbled while walking out to the field for PE, which started first period.
"What kind of PE is this, this early in the morning? So annoying."
Once I got to the locker room to change into my PE uniform and was taking off my clothes, a little kid came up to me.
"Hi...?"
"Yeah, hi."
"I saw you in a drama!"
"Thanks."
"You were really, really pretty..."
"Thanks for that, too."
As I was pulling my head through the PE top, the kid pulled it down for me from behind.
I pulled out my long hair that had gotten tucked inside my clothes, then tied it up with the string I had on my wrist.
"Thanks~"
"It's nothing! This much is no big deal..."
The kid blushed.
She must have wanted to get close to me, because she followed me around.
We were about to play dodgeball in PE, but when the teacher saw Ji-hoon and me together, memories of the past apparently made him switch activities.
The teacher brought out a soccer ball, apparently about to make us play soccer.
After separating the boys and girls, he glanced at me while asking whether any of the girls wanted to play soccer.
The teacher, clearly conscious of me, breathed a sigh of relief when I showed no interest in soccer.
"...?"
He gave the girls other activities, but since I wasn't interested in any of it, I just sat on the field steps.
In my past life, the only ball sports I'd ever played were golf and table tennis, nothing else.
Though I had played foot volleyball once when Jae-hyeong got bored after seeing a soccer ball and wanted to play.
Back then, I beat the holy hell out of Jae-hyeong because he was being an annoying fuck as he juggled the ball freely.
Even now, that same bastard was pulling off stepovers against the other kids, likely wanting to feel superior in the middle of a bunch of brats, and seeing that, I had a feeling I'd end up fighting him, so I avoided it.
I sat in the shade with my chin in my hand, watching Ji-hoon mercilessly crush the other kids at soccer, when the kid from earlier came over.
"I'm Lee Ji-yeong."
"Uh-huh."
"I want to be friends with you."
She was a lot more direct and bold than I expected for a little kid.
"I'm not fun, though?"
"But you're pretty."
"Yeah? You're pretty, too."
Judging a little kid's looks was ridiculous, and I'd mostly just said it offhandedly, but the kid in front of me opened her eyes wide and bright at my words.
"Liar."
"What's the use of a little kid being pretty—she's gotta eat well and grow up well."
"But you're pretty?"
"I could get uglier later."
"Is that how it works...?"
"It's how it works."
Looking at my genes, the odds of that happening were extremely low, but...
The kid named Lee Ji-yeong watched Park Ji-hoon flying around all by himself on the field and was impressed.
"Wow... he's Ji-hoon, right? Your friend."
"He's my lackey."
"...? What's a lackey?"
"My minion."
"Minion?"
"Squirtle."
".....?"
While I was having this unhinged conversation with a little kid, the way she tilted her head was like a puppy and pretty cute.
I looked at the kid named Lee Ji-yeong.
"Why aren't you going there to play?"
"I don't think sports are fun."
"What is fun, then?"
"The piano..."
So she was a kid who liked the piano. I nodded, and as we watched the soccer, Ji-hoon scored a goal about once every three minutes.
'That bastard could cut them some slack at least once in a while.'
While I was watching the pathetic Park Ji-hoon, Lee Ji-yeong looked at me.
"You... you're really amazing at the piano too... I'm jealous."
"Hmm... you think so? I'm just playing."
"Is there anything you can't do? You're good at swimming, good at drawing, good at acting... good at your studies... and good at fighting..."
The kid was counting them off on her fingers.
The last bit about being good at fighting did catch my attention in a bad way, but I listened to her.
"My mom was super jealous of you..."
"Ignore it. Just do what you want to do. It seems like in this day and age, you can make a living no matter what you do."
"...But she's still my mom. Should I really ignore what she says?"
"I ignore what my dad says too. Today he said he had nothing to do and would stay at school all day, so I told him to get lost."
I hadn't actually told my dad to get lost, but the kid looked shocked.
"...? You can do that...?"
"You shouldn't talk to an adult like that, but what would Dad even do at school?"
"Hmm... I don't know..."
The kid named Lee Ji-yeong started following me around after PE class.