Chapter : 08
Eum devoted herself to preparing for the CSAT day and night.
It wasn’t that she lacked confidence in the exam. After all, studying had been her only friend throughout her lonely school life until now. She was actually quite confident that she could get a Level 1 in every subject.
But the grade itself wasn’t the problem. Because the condition allowed not even a single mistake, what she needed was mental training.
Taking a listening test amid noise.
Solving questions with long passages while holding back her bodily urges.
And the final hurdle.
Taking a mock CSAT in the place she hated and felt most uncomfortable in.
At eight in the evening, when her family was gathered in front of the TV, Eum quietly came out into the living room.
Since she never showed herself in the room during the hours when her family was around, everyone looked surprised.
“What is it?”
Bora was the first to react.
Holding a timer and a mock-exam workbook in her arms, Eum said to her father, Yeon Chang-shin,
“I’m going to study at the dining table for a while.”
Bora responded by turning up the TV volume even louder with the remote, but Eum didn’t pay any attention.
This is even better.
Being able to concentrate on every subject while feeling this tense and uncomfortable was actually an excellent opportunity for her.
Meanwhile, Bora hated the sight of Eum concentrating without being shaken even in such a noisy environment.
Why was she working so hard when she was going to be sold off to Assemblyman Park anyway?
Bora remembered something her mother had said before she remarried.
“I heard that the man’s daughter is really good at studying.”
Bora worked hard, but she wasn’t particularly outstanding academically, so she hated the fact that Eum got higher grades than her.
The CSAT was just around the corner.
A sharp glint flashed in Bora’s eyes as she watched Eum.
On a clear late-autumn day.
Jihoon finished his final schedule.
It had been a dinner gathering with the principal, vice principal, and several teachers, but since he had used his condition as an excuse and hadn’t drunk even a drop of alcohol, taking care of the drunk staff members had been quite burdensome.
“Chairman! Please go on innnn!”
Seeing the principal, who was old enough to be his father, bowing respectfully toward him was difficult to watch. Jihoon deliberately ignored the black-haired heads that bowed all together behind him.
He hurried into his car as though escaping.
He started the engine because he wanted to be alone, but once he did, a certain face suddenly came to mind.
“Ha. What a meddler.”
Jihoon soon shook his head.
He stepped on the accelerator and merged into the intersection.
But even though he hadn’t been drinking, there was someone who kept appearing before his eyes.
Jihoon tried to ignore it several times, but in the end, he turned the steering wheel at the final traffic light.
“I’m going as an adult, as an adult. It’s late at night. Shinhee-dong is far from the school.”
Muttering to himself with unusually clear diction, Jihoon eventually returned to the school.
After getting out of the car and looking up at the school building, he saw that only one room on the top floor, where the study room was located, was brightly lit.
When he checked the time, it was 10:30 p.m.
He climbed the stairs briskly toward the lit room, and the supervising teacher who recognized Jihoon immediately jumped to his feet.
“Chairman?”
Jihoon raised his hand slightly.
“I’ll stay here, so you can go home now.”
“But…”
“It’s fine. I just need to lock the door properly, right?”
The study room, which operated until 11 p.m., was dark and silent. Even at a glance, quite a few seats were visibly empty.
That was understandable. At this hour, most students were usually at academies or receiving private tutoring, so there were few who studied in the study room.
However, there was one seat where the light was still on.
After sending the supervising teacher away, Jihoon slowly walked toward the only illuminated seat.
As expected. The person who had brought him back to the school was there.
“…What?”
But she was asleep.
Watching her sleeping soundly with her head down, an unintentionally gruff voice slipped from Jihoon’s mouth.
The LED light brightly illuminated one side of Eum’s cheek.
Her motionless eyelashes were long and neatly arranged like a doll’s, while the small tip of her nose, shaped like the tip of a traditional Korean sock, and her slightly parted lips formed a remarkably harmonious line.
Jihoon stood with his hands clasped behind his back, quietly observing Eum as she slept without making a sound.
The white tips of her fingers sticking out from the thick hoodie sleeves caught his attention. Her short, neat nails made her look every bit like a student.
How long had he been looking at Eum like that?
The hair tucked behind her ear slowly fell onto her cheek. Eum slightly frowned in her sleep, and without realizing it, Jihoon reached out and brushed the hair away.
Just as he was about to tuck it behind her ear again, he heard a small presence from behind him.
Jihoon turned around with a start, even though he had done nothing wrong.
A male student wearing round glasses had stopped while putting on his backpack and was looking this way.
“Ah…”
It wasn’t just Yeon Eum in the study room.
Jihoon felt inwardly embarrassed, but soon approached the male student as if nothing had happened.
“How long are you going to stay here?”
At his low voice, the boy’s eyes widened.
“Huh? Ah, I-I was just about to leave…”
“Are your parents coming to pick you up?”
“Yes. My mom is here.”
“That’s good. Go on, then.”
Jihoon lightly placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
The student hunched his shoulders as much as possible, bowed deeply to him, and turned away.
After the boy disappeared, Jihoon looked around the study room more carefully.
Now, it really seemed that Eum was the only one left.
However, when he returned to Eum’s seat, she seemed to have awakened from even the slightest disturbance and was slowly raising her upper body.
She stretched, extending both arms high above her head, then quickly turned on her phone to check the time.
“Ah, I didn’t finish all of them.”
Jihoon heard her mutter, reproaching herself for falling asleep.
After checking the time on his wrist, Jihoon pulled out the chair three seats away from her and sat down.
“Finish them. I’ll wait.”
Eum’s shoulders jerked as she turned around.
When she soon discovered him, her mouth fell open in bewilderment.
“Teacher…?”
She looked as though she couldn’t tell whether Jihoon standing before her was a dream or reality.
She looked so much like a girl her age in that moment that Jihoon almost let out an unnecessary laugh, but he showed nothing and opened his mouth.
“Want me to time you?”
“……”
“You always set a timer when you solve your questions.”
Eum slowly moved her eyes as though she were debating, but soon closed the workbook she had opened.
“No. I’ll do them at home.”
“Why? I said I’d wait. The supervising teacher has already left.”
Eum stopped the hands that had been organizing her desk and turned toward him.
“Then are you saying that it’s just the two of us here?”
“Huh? Yeah…”
That was true, but…
Jihoon noticed the whites of her eyes seemingly shining in the darkness and immediately waved his hand as he stood up.
“If you’re going to have useless thoughts, go home.”
“What useless thoughts?”
“Go home. I’ll take you.”
“Why are you suddenly avoiding my eyes?”
Jihoon made a gesture as though flicking her forehead and left the study room first.
After Eum followed him out, Jihoon checked once more that there was no one else around, then locked the door and turned off the lights.
Even as they went down toward the parking lot, Eum’s chick-beak-like lips never stopped moving.
“Teacher. Soon, you’ll have to start preparing to marry me.”
“Get a perfect score first, then talk.”
“I’m seriously confident.”
Jihoon let out a quiet chuckle because he found Eum, who clenched both fists tightly, adorable, but soon composed his expression.
And so, they headed toward her house in the car.
Even with the heater turned up, the inside of the car was fairly chilly because it was late at night. Jihoon was glad that Eum was wearing sweatpants instead of a skirt.
“Oh, right, Teacher.”
As they passed through an intersection, Eum suddenly turned toward Jihoon as if she had just remembered something and spoke.
“I got a call earlier today from someone who said they were Assemblyman Park’s secretary.”
“What?”
His hand tightened around the steering wheel on its own.
Had he still not come to his senses even after taking such a beating?
“What did he say?”
“I don’t know. I used my class as an excuse and hung up. But I think he’ll call again, so I wanted to tell you…”
Eum rolled her bead-like eyes around before finally opening her mouth as though she had made up her mind.
“I’m going to tell him that I like you, Teacher.”
Then she continued with a brave smile.
“They say the strongest thing in the world is sincerity.”
Jihoon was speechless for a moment.
The city lights were reflected like jewels in the eyes that were looking straight at him.
“But, Teacher.”
Yet anxiety came along with it as well.
