Chapter 35
After roughly sending Park Jina away, I drove the car and called my sister through my Bluetooth earphones.
Maybe it was rush hour, but she picked up quickly.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me, sis. I need a little help.”
My sister sighed deeply upon hearing my words.
“…Sigh, what now? You’re not asking me to play lawyer again, are you?”
“As expected from the brilliant mind, you’re sharp! Lawyer Seon Dalrae!”
“Hey, you little brat!”
Her punchy response made me chuckle.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down. I’m not expecting anything grand. Just do something similar to last time.”
“…You mean just acting all fancy while recording and occasionally throwing around legal jargon?”
“Exactly! Truly, as always, the greatest intellect of our times, Lawyer Seon Dalrae! You get straight to the point!”
Maybe my playful response lit a fire under her, as she launched into a rapid-fire rant of curses.
Then she let out an even bigger sigh than before and said:
“…So what’s the situation?”
I explained who the kid Gaeul was and the crisis he was currently facing.
“You really… are something else.”
She dragged her words out before finally saying:
“So where do I need to go?”
As expected, my sister was easygoing.
“I need you to go to Naju Middle School, but you don’t have to start heading there.”
“Huh? Then how are you going to impersonate me? It’s gonna be hard to deceive them over the phone.”
Just as she said, a phone call wouldn’t be effective. Of course, she’d need to be next to me.
“Sis, it’s rush hour right now. You’re right in front of the headquarters, right?”
“Oh, yeah. I just stepped outside the main gate… Hey, are you serious?”
I caught a glimpse of my sister standing in front of the building. I parked the car abruptly, rolled down the window, and shouted:
“Get in!”
It was a pick-up service.
*
During training, Gaeul suddenly received a phone call.
She felt bad for not putting her phone on silent and apologized to her trainer before trying to continue practicing.
However, the moment she hung up, another call came through, and Gaeul felt a wave of anxiety wash over her.
Excusing herself to her trainer, she stepped out into the hallway to take the call.
“Is this Yoo Gahyeon’s sister?”
The caller seemed to be Gahyeon’s homeroom teacher.
Gaeul knew that even though she had dropped out of high school, it was rare for a teacher to call a guardian for something good.
She steadied her trembling voice as best as she could and replied.
“Yes, this is Yoo Gaeul, Gahyeon’s sister.”
“Yoo Gahyeon just assaulted another student. It seems like a guardian needs to come immediately.”
“I think the guardian should arrive now.”
“…Ah.”
Gaeul felt like she was falling off a cliff.
“Neither of your parents are answering. Do you have contact with them at all?”
Gahyeon’s homeroom teacher demanded to get in touch with the parents, as if it was obvious.
She must have contacted Gaeul’s father and mother before reaching out to Gaeul.
Gaeul’s mother had cut ties with Gaeul, Gahyeon, and her father, so she wouldn’t answer.
As for Gaeul’s father, typically good at answering calls, one could assume he was at the gambling den.
No one was around. It was just Gaeul.
So, Gaeul replied.
“I’m Gahyeon’s guardian.”
The teacher seemed taken aback.
“So if you’re Gahyeon’s older sister, you’re a minor, right? This seems like a situation that requires an adult.”
An adult.
It was a phrase Gaeul had grown tired of hearing.
People expected Gaeul to act maturely.
She tried to be mature, suppressing desires, giving up, ignoring her needs.
And so, people praised her for being mature.
“Look how grown-up!” “You’re an adult now!” they said as compliments.
Yet, when a crisis struck, they expected not Gaeul, but an “adult.”
An adult who didn’t suppress or give up.
Gaeul spoke to the teacher.
“They won’t answer. Because there are no adults.”
“Hah… what do we do? Is there really no other guardian? An uncle or maybe a grandfather?”
“It’s me!”
Gaeul’s feelings boiled over at the teacher’s irritated words.
But thinking that such feelings were no different than those of a child, she tried to calm her heart and spoke as calmly as possible.
“I’m Gahyeon’s guardian.”
It was incredibly difficult for Gaeul to utter that one sentence.
“Please tell me where to go.”
The teacher sighed softly and provided the location.
“Still, you must definitely contact an adult!”
After hanging up, Gaeul asked the trainer teacher for permission and stepped outside.
Debating whether to take a taxi, she decided to save money and headed to the subway.
The subway was packed with well-dressed adults.
Each held a cake, shopping bags from department stores, or some gifts.
“What’s the occasion?”
Gaeul checked the calendar on her basic smartphone.
It was then she realized that tomorrow was Children’s Day.
‘…Ah.’
One man spoke on the phone with a voice full of affection, seemingly chatting with family.
With a heartwarming voice, she made the call.
A woman was scolding a man who looked like her husband.
It seemed she had bought the wrong gifts for the children.
And there was a father and daughter walking hand in hand, looking incredibly sweet.
Seeing this, Gaeul suddenly felt a sting at the tip of her nose, tears welling up in her eyes.
In that moment, Seon Taeyang came to mind.
“I’ll be the adult for you, the child.”
A strange person who called her a child while self-proclaiming to be an adult.
Someone who could terrifyingly close the distance too quickly.
Though it sounded like bragging, he kept every word he’d said.
Thus, he was a reassuring person.
Gaeul picked up her smartphone with trembling hands and called Taeyang.
It didn’t take long for the ringing to connect.
“Hey, Gaeul, what’s up?”
“…”
Hearing his voice choked her up with emotions.
But she didn’t want to show that to Seon Taeyang.
“Gaeul?”
“…Team Leader Seon.”
“Yeah, Gaeul, just talk comfortably. Is it something you need help with?”
Taeyang’s voice was incredibly gentle.
“I need your help.”
Because it was Taeyang in front of her, Gaeul was able to say the words she hadn’t since childhood.
“Please help me.”
*
“Can’t you see this face?”
A woman in her mid-forties, wearing a black fur coat, shouted loudly, echoing through the entire staff room.
“With blood flowing on a child’s face, is a lukewarm response really appropriate?”
The teacher standing beside her was sweating profusely, trying to calm her down.
“Please, Mrs. Dae-su, just relax. It’s just kids being kids…”
“Kids being kids?”
The woman scoffed mockingly.
“Ha… The teacher’s lukewarm attitude is exactly why things have escalated this far.”
The middle-aged woman dramatically placed her bag, marked with a luxury logo, on the desk.
“This is a legitimate case of violence.”
Every time she spoke, her sagging cheeks shook.
“Shouldn’t we discuss how to compensate for this first? We need to consider the aftereffects for Sanghu, and the mental damage too.”
The middle-aged woman kept pressuring the teacher as if she could get more money that way, completely ignoring Gaeul.
Every time she spoke, her jiggly cheeks, thick makeup, and oil-slick forehead made her look worse.
“I’ll give you money.”
Gaeul didn’t hold back.
“How much do you need?”
The woman finally looked at Gaeul and said.
“Huh… little brat. Do I look like I’m begging for money?”
Gaeul thought so.
To her, that middle-aged woman looked like a robber trying to extort money, using the victim card as her weapon.
Of course, a decent set of parents would send their child straight to the hospital when they got hurt.
But that woman was displaying her child’s injury like proof for everyone to see.
She looked like a driver trying to stress her crumpled car to an insurance agent, hoping for a little more cash.
It all seemed ugly no matter how you looked at it.
Gaeul had learned from experience that bowing her head and apologizing to such people was the only way to minimize the level of extortion.
But she didn’t want to do that.
Not in front of her little brother, Gahyeon.
She didn’t want to show her submissive posture in front of such an adult.
She hadn’t worked hard to become an adult just for that.
So Gaeul raised her head high and said,
“You’re in this mess for money, aren’t you? I’ll give you the money. So just end this.”
“Miss Gahyeon! Please calm down a little…”
The middle-aged woman twisted her face in anger.
“You uneducated brat…”
With fists clenched so tight they made a ‘thud’ sound, the woman said,
“Anyway, I’ve nothing more to say to a kid like you. Bring your parents.”
“….”
If Gaeul had been able to contact her parents, she wouldn’t have come here alone.
The middle-aged woman, the homeroom teacher, and Gaeul all knew that.
“Why aren’t you answering? Is your family that fundamentally lacking?”
“Please calm down a bit, Mrs. Dae-su.”
However, the middle-aged woman ignored the teacher and shot pointed words that seemed easy to hit.
“Someone must have given birth to you, right? Ah, did you get abandoned?”
Gaeul could see Gahyeon’s face, fidgeting and looking at her.
In his eyes were worry, guilt, and pity.
What hurt more than the woman’s shouting or the homeroom teacher’s subtle disdain was that look.
Tears almost welled up in her eyes.
She felt like one more word would make the tears burst forth.
“Gaeul has never been abandoned. Please speak kindly.”
Then a familiar voice came from behind her.
“If you don’t want to get hit like my son.”
It was Seon Taeyang.
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.
