Still, cutting ties here would be rude.
Since the location has been decided, there’s nothing to be done now.
Anyway, now that the group meeting schedule has come out, I sprang up and scurried over to Siyeon’s room to spread the news.
Without any awkwardness, I barged right in without knocking.
Siyeon was sprawled on her bed, merely staring at her phone.
With the door swung open, she lifted her head like a puppy and looked in my direction.
Without hesitation, I fired off a question.
“I heard the group meeting is in two weeks. Are you going?”
“Where is it this time?”
The venues change every time for the Magical Girl group meetings, as is customary.
Curious about where we’d be gathering, Siyeon fully pulled her gaze from her smartphone to ask.
“It’s in Cheorwon, Gangwon-do, but you still have to ride the bus for a couple of hours.”
“Hmm, I’ll go!”
After hearing Siyeon’s answer, I nodded in understanding and returned to my room.
I started casually browsing for transportation options without much thought.
When going to an unfamiliar place, a map app is essential.
It shows everything from transportation methods to the estimated costs; what a wonderful world we live in.
I should just take an express bus from the terminal.
…Or so I thought, but that was a mistake.
There was something off about the indicated travel time.
‘3 hours and 46 minutes?’
Didn’t it take around the same time to get to Sokcho?
Feeling something was odd, I decided to double-check the distance.
Distance from Incheon to Cheorwon: 96.5 km.
Distance from Incheon to Sokcho: 190 km.
Despite the nearly double distance, the map app still estimated around 3 to 4 hours of travel time for both.
Why would that be? As I examined the route…
‘What is this? Why is the transportation so ridiculous?’
There was indeed a reason for that.
When heading to Sokcho, there’s an express bus from Incheon to Sokcho, but Cheorwon?
It’s like a graveyard for soldiers—unfriendly transportation included.
You only need to ride the bus for two hours, but it’s a local bus, not an express one.
Plus, you need to take the subway for an hour and a half to get to Seoul beforehand.
‘What the hell.’
I never imagined the transport would be this terrible.
No matter the worries, time flows equally for everyone.
After holding hands and walking to school, it was the usual classes.
Listening with one ear while letting it flow out the other, and enjoying lunch with tasty side dishes.
Then, after spending what felt like an eternity for lunch, the scheming began among my close friends.
“Are we going to the PC room today?”
“Nana, Mari, of course, but is Siyeon coming too?”
Dongha’s suggestion slipped in as Sunhyuk pushed, subtly dragging Siyeon and me along.
“Who says I’m going?”
At this age, when middle schoolers have anywhere to go, it usually means going to someone’s house, a karaoke joint, or casually hitting the PC room.
It seemed the PC room was the chosen location.
More than that, I wanted to express my annoyance at the way those guys had already decided my next actions in advance.
Of course, I would go, but…
I felt strange that I’d already been figured out so easily.
“Ah, no…? Mari, I’ll go first?”
Siyeon, who was supposed to start attending art academy today, flustered and automatically refused the suggestion, waving her hands in a bewildered manner.
“Uh-”
She vaguely replied with a drawn-out “yes,” brimming with a positive connotation.
As usual, we were tightly stuck together like needle and thread.
“Where is Siyeon going?”
But unusually, Siyeon headed out through the school corridor first, which caught Taehyun’s attention.
I assumed he’d understand if I casually mentioned the academy.
“I’m going to the academy, starting today.”
“The study academy?”
This time, Dongha appeared curious about which academy it was.
With no reason to hide it, I straightforwardly responded.
“No, it’s an art academy.”
“Aren’t you going?”
“Why would I go?”
That was Sunhyuk’s final jab.
What does Siyeon going to art academy have to do with me?
After disputing why I should go, I continued walking.
In the midst of this banter, we arrived at the PC room.
Isn’t it strange how the instant noodles I make at home taste worse than the ones at the PC room by about 20%?
After a few rounds of games mixed with socializing, we took a short break.
Checking my smartphone, it looked like the tablet PC I ordered had arrived at my front door.
I thought I’d just go home when time was up to grab the delivery box.
After all, welcoming Siyeon back from the academy with the tablet PC would make for a perfect day… or so I assumed.
‘What? Where is it?’
After returning from the PC room, the entrance was completely empty.
Did Siyeon maybe stop by before heading to her academy and bring it inside?
Well, that’d ruin the surprise, I thought as I entered the house.
Nothing was on the dining table, in Siyeon’s room, or even in my own.
Not even in the living room or kitchen; there was nothing.
Just a hollow delivery confirmation text.
At this point, I slowly began to realize something was wrong.
‘No way…’
I turned my gaze towards the CCTV pointing at the entrance hallway.
If I had a bad feeling, I was quick to act.
I headed straight to the security office and requested they check the footage from the time the delivery confirmation text was sent until now.
After explaining the situation and providing the precise moment, they said they couldn’t show me but that they could look for me.
A while later, it seemed someone had been loitering in front of room 402.
“Uh, um… who’s taking it? Was it an expensive package?”
‘What the fuck is this miserable life.’
With the guard’s question, my suspicion turned into certainty.
Why can’t I even comfortably surprise her with a gift?
And while I couldn’t watch the video, I learned from the enthusiastic security guard’s testimony that it was indeed another resident of the same apartment complex.
“Seriously, even with the CCTV so clear, they’re stealing…”
The brazen resident’s ridiculous theft left even the guard impressed for a different reason.
If it were a planned burglary, it wouldn’t be as shocking, but the incident was just a single auntie who had wandered out of her own place, rifling through other floors before boldly taking someone else’s delivery like it was hers.
So what did I do next?
What else? I called the police right away.
The officers arriving for the theft incident listened to the claim and, upon viewing the undeniable CCTV footage, accompanied me directly to room 701.
Knock, knock, knock, the sound of the police knocking on the heavy door.
Soon after, a nasal voice from inside called out.
“Who is it?”
“It’s the police, please open the door.”
Freaked out at the mention of the police, the auntie opened the door right away.
It looked like she lived alone; only one pair of shoes was at the entrance, but inside was a complete pigsty.
Garbage was piled everywhere, leaving no room to step.
The scent of food wafting from inside—did she also steal delivery food?
“You brought someone else’s package into your house.”
“Oh, no! How could you treat me like that…!”
“I reviewed the footage from the security office.”
As the police began entering one by one, I quietly followed them, looking for my package.
To be honest, police don’t have the right to search a home just because they showed up.
As I learned during a past noise dispute, if you don’t want them, you can say so and quietly send them off.
But most people don’t know about this part.
When they see the police, they panic and end up letting them in.
What people fear the most are those with authority, after all.
Even if they’re bottom-tier, they can still follow legal protocols to detain someone.
“There it is.”
“Is that your package?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Luckily, it hadn’t been opened yet.
Clutching the valuable tablet PC to my chest, I briefly hid behind the authority of the police.
Just to check, the food bag I examined had the name 501 written on it, not 701.
Maybe sensing something similar, the police also checked the receipt attached to the plastic bag.
Among the other piled-up packages, there was no way they could possibly belong to her house.
Some comments from the inspecting officers.
“This auntie is in deep trouble.”
Normally, a home search requires a warrant.
The police officers, while trying to comfort me with “You must have had a tough time,” could be overheard discussing that they’d need to issue a warrant soon.
‘Ah, right, before that…’
It was an unnecessary intrusion, but I knocked on the door of 501 on the fifth floor.
A guy who looked like a young adult came out, clearly not pleased since he’d just lost his delivery.
The man from the fifth floor, holding tightly onto his tablet PC.
“Who’s there?”
The man, who swung the door wide open, quickly scanned my school uniform top to bottom, looking puzzled, as if wondering, ‘Who’s this girl knocking on my door?’
Anyone would react this way if a middle school girl they didn’t know suddenly showed up at their place.
“Did you, by chance, order delivery?”
“Yes…”
His eyes widened in surprise.
What do you know about that? he seemed to think, so I immediately got to the point.
“That package you ordered was being eaten by the auntie from 701.”
“Excuse me?”
“That lady from 701 swiped my package too, so I came looking after checking the security footage.”
Upon hearing that the 701 aunt was eating it, the guy’s already wide eyes flew even wider.
Forget his surprised expression; I held up the package I was cradling to emphasize that we were in the same predicament.
Only then did he realize that I wasn’t joking, and he stepped out, shuffling in his slippers.
“No way…! What kind of jerk did this?”
Fueled by rage, the guy stomped down the hallway.
Since our house was directly below his, he didn’t use the elevator but leisurely took the stairs down.
And as he was heading down the stairs to our fourth-floor home…
“Hey, you package-stealing bitch! Get out here!”
The man’s voice roared from the seventh floor, echoing all the way to our floor.
Despite the three floors of distance, his enraged shout was clear.
Looks like it’s going to be a loud night.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.