Chapter 5
At the unexpected invitation, my eyes widened.
I could barely remember ever playing with kids my own age, not in my previous life or this one.
Even though I was in a child’s body, my mind shouldn’t have become childish too… and yet my heart still pounded with excitement.
“R-Really?”
“Of course—”
The boy’s innocent smile instantly twisted into something demonic.
“Of course not!”
He gave my shoulder a little shove.
Since I was sitting on the bench, I only wobbled slightly. It didn’t hurt much, but it felt awful.
“Hey, you know what my mom always tells me? Never play with kids who don’t have parents. And you don’t have parents, do you?”
“…”
“Hey, Kairen! What’re you doing?”
“She said she wanted to play with us.”
When did I ever say that?
He was the one who invited me. A lump of frustration rose in my throat.
“Who’s she?”
“That girl who cried during the meeting.”
“Oh, her.”
The other children gathered around me until I couldn’t move.
“Forget it. Doesn’t she just live here because they’re letting her? She doesn’t even have a home. My mom and dad said not to play with homeless kids because they’re beneath us.”
“…”
The boy who had shoved me sneered.
“So… you don’t have parents, you don’t have a home, you don’t even have a family name, and you don’t have any friends. What do you have?”
The words stabbed directly into my deepest trauma.
My fists trembled.
I have to endure it.
I clenched them tighter.
Someone flicked the top of my head.
…But what’s the point of enduring it?
The thought flashed through my mind.
I lunged forward, intending to smack that smug face and grab him by the hair.
The little brat flinched backward and grinned maliciously.
“If you hit me, you’ll have to pay me, got it? My mom said it’s called compensation for damages.”
My hand froze instinctively.
Every word that came out of his mouth made my blood boil.
This wasn’t childish teasing.
It was malice.
Snap.
I felt the last thread of my patience break.
For the record…
I wasn’t the kind of person who silently endured obvious hostility.
I hated looking weak.
So I always smiled…
Or I bit back like a rabid dog.
“Hah. Like you’ve even got any money.”
“…So what?”
“What?”
I dashed toward a boulder about the size of my face, gritted my teeth, and somehow managed to lift it.
“So what?!”
Wobbling under its weight, I hurled it at them.
Thud!
The rock hit the ground with a heavy crash.
Of course, a five-year-old couldn’t actually throw a rock that far.
It landed right in front of me instead of anywhere near them.
Still, the children screamed.
“Aaah!”
They stumbled backward in terror.
“Even if you have parents, if you’re as rotten as this, I’d rather have none! You stupid idiots!”
“Hey! I’m telling my mom!”
“M-Me too!”
“Let’s just go. She’s pitiful.”
That word stung unexpectedly.
“My brother says kids with nothing only have their lives left. You never know what they might do.”
As soon as those words were spoken, the children who had surrounded me scattered as though I carried a contagious disease.
Watching them run away, I clenched my fists.
“And it’s compensation for damages, you amoebas!”
I’d forced myself to lift that rock, and my palms had already turned bright red.
Blisters would probably form soon.
“I’ve dealt with worse.”
Sigh…
I rubbed my burning eyes with the back of my hand and plopped back onto the bench, pouting.
“It’s fine.”
I gently patted my own thigh.
“I’m used to it.”
I muttered the words to comfort myself.
I survived my previous life through sheer stubbornness.
This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.
In my previous life, I had been born as the eldest daughter of a prestigious family that desperately wanted sons.
Because of that alone, I became the family’s unwanted child.
The worst part was that my mother gave birth to two younger brothers after me.
After having me, she’d endured cold treatment from my grandparents.
Only after giving birth to two sons was she finally acknowledged as a proper daughter-in-law and rewarded with an expensive apartment in Gangnam.
“Aren’t you embarrassed? Wearing clothes like that to this school?”
“Because you dress like a beggar, everyone laughs at us! You’re seriously an embarrassment to have as our sister.”
“Didn’t I tell you to stay out of my sight, you stupid woman?”
Families didn’t create scapegoats for no reason.
All it took was someone with power deciding to despise someone without it.
I wore oversized men’s clothes.
My school uniform had become so small it looked ready to burst.
Even my allowance was tiny compared to my brothers’.
Since we lived in Gangnam, I attended an excellent school filled with wealthy students.
That made me the one-eyed person among the two-eyed.
At first, it was only small acts of discrimination.
Whenever we ate, the best cuts of meat belonged to my brothers.
The leftovers became mine.
Whenever new clothes were bought, none were for me.
The expensive ones went to them.
I inherited only the clothes they’d grown tired of.
My father ignored me.
My mother stood by and watched.
My younger brothers learned that I was someone they were allowed to look down on.
Children who understood hierarchy could be unimaginably cruel.
One winter, they stole my coat and left me outside in the freezing cold.
Another time, they threw my backpack into the mud, filmed me struggling to retrieve it, and shared the video in the class group chat.
I fought back too.
“Y-You… you hit me? Mom! Mom! Sis hit me!”
“What? Let me see. Oh my goodness, you’re hurt… We’re visiting Grandma next week! We’d better take you to the hospital immediately. Cha Miso! Go kneel in your room with your arms raised! I’ll deal with you when I get back!”
But every single time…
They hid behind the rest of the family.
No… let’s not think about it.
Feeling myself sink into those memories, I shook my head.
“Right… candy!”
I fished out the piece of candy Myra had secretly given me as a snack and popped it into my mouth.
Sweetness filled my mouth.
Immediately, I felt a little better.
As I sat there quietly, a pure white cat suddenly leaped onto the bench beside me as though it belonged there.
Unable to stop myself, I smiled.
“Hi, kitty.”
“Myaaa.”
The white cat answered with a long meow before tucking its paws beneath itself and closing its eyes.
I cautiously scooted a little closer.
When our fur and skin brushed together, I felt its warmth.
“Kitty… wanna be friends with me?”
I’d always loved animals.
Animals didn’t care whether I had a lot or a little.
They always treated me the same.
Whatever affection I gave them, they returned in kind.
“I don’t really need a friend… We could just sit together and talk sometimes. Do you come here often?”
“Myaaa.”
The cat meowed again.
It seemed to enjoy my gentle petting.
“What if those brats really tell their moms?”
If they demanded compensation, Miriel Etam might hear about it.
What if he makes me repay them before letting me leave…?
I’d acted tough, but thinking about reality made me sigh.
Complaining to a cat about my problems felt pathetic.
The cat purred contentedly every time I stroked it.
I wish I could have a cat.
People said having an animal beside you helped when you were lonely.
The annex was huge.
Surely keeping one cat wouldn’t be a problem?
“How about living with me?”
I hopped off the bench and reached out to hug it.
“Myaaang!”
But the cat dodged me as if I were a nuisance and gracefully jumped into the bushes.
“Myaaang!”
“Mew!”
“Mew!”
Then several tiny kittens popped their heads out of the bushes.
The white cat stood still, quietly looking at me.
It’s not like it actually understands what I’m saying.
Or maybe I was simply mistaking coincidence for something more.
“Oh… you’ve got a family.”
Well…
Nothing I could do about that.
I sat back down on the bench and waved cheerfully.
The white cat groomed its kittens a few times before disappearing into the bushes with them.
“I’m not a kid anymore…”
I shook my head.
Those old memories must have made me more depressed than I realized.
“I should go find Myra.”
If I acted cute enough, maybe she’d give me another pudding.
That would probably cheer me up.
I hopped off the bench and walked back toward the annex.
Never imagining that someone had been watching everything that had just happened.
