Author: 서리박쥐 Editor: Flo

#004

Yoo-ah recalled the afternoon just before he was sick at dawn, which was the opportunity to think of his past life.

Yoo-ah was playing in the playground of the kindergarten as usual that day. Since it’s a new city, the facilities were clean, and there were many children of the same age, so there were always people to play with. For Yoo-ah who loves playing, there was no reason not to come every day.

“Next is the swing! Let’s go swing!”

“Okay! I’ll ride it twice instead!”

Yoo-ah was active with the unknown child he met at the playground without even giving his full name.

They tie their legs together, twist the swing rope, and ride it like a spinning cup. Like going up the slide upside down and coming down in a superhero position. It’s like trying a triple axel on a trampoline and falling down.

It had been about five laps around the playground when he saw two foreigners walking in the distance.

“Hey! If you don’t come, I’ll swing first!”

“No, wait!!”

It was exactly….how I saw it. Like in a scene where a big foreigner walks by holding a small foreigner’s hand, Yoo-ah ran past them to get to the swing.

Recalling the hazy scene reflectively, Yoo-ah rubbed his palm against his pants and wiped it.

The little foreigner at that time, presumed to be the main shou, was a blonde. Right now, the little boy who made a groaning sound and fell backwards and hit his buttocks…… had blond hair.

The teacher, who was surprised to see the crying blond kid, came running in a heartbeat.

‘Hey, don’t tell me…that’s not him, right? His name is Su-yeok. I guess he just dyed his hair. Eyyy…….’

Yoo-ah looked at the fallen child with shaky eyes. The teacher raised the crying child up, took out a handkerchief, tapped him around his eyes, and wiped away his tears. The slightly opened eyes were green.

“Seo-jun ah, you shouldn’t hit your friend. You will be a bad kid then, alright?”

“But he did it first!”

“But violence is a bad thing. What would you feel good if the teacher said something to Geum-ja for talking to Seo-jun?”

“…….”

“Seo-jun ah?”

“…It’s because he went first, Keung, I just… I told him not to go… Why are you just…..heung……scold, scolding me….Whoo-hoo.”

In the end, Seo-jun cried out loud in response to the ensuing questioning. Under the circumstances, a child named Su-yeok approached Geum-ja and said something, and Seo-jun told him to go, but he didn’t listen, so he seemed to push him.

I don’t think he pushed him to fall, considering that he was embarrassed when Su-yeok fell… I guess it was accidental. It was common among children who were poor at controlling their emotions.

Yoo-ah looked at a series of situations and thought for himself. Even though Classroom Sun’s atmosphere has been chaotic for a long time since Seo-jun screamed. Even if other children around them are looking around and whispering among themselves. It had nothing to do with Yoo-ah. Why?

‘What am I going to do next?’

Once I tried to get involved, there was nothing I could do. I didn’t even want to be tired of dealing with strangers whose names I didn’t know. I didn’t even want to be a fan of someone who did well and someone who didn’t. I don’t know if I’m doing it in my head. What’s the difference between just thinking about it and saying it out loud?

For this reason, Yoo-ah adhered to the attitude of looking at the river across the fire, or the fire across the river.

The teacher put his forehead between crying Seo-jun and Su-yeok. Geum-ja, who was watching, opened her mouth.

“Su-yeok asked me to play with him… I didn’t answer. Seo-jun felt… Uncom… Uh….”

“Uncomfortable?”

“Yes. So I helped….”

Geumja stammered out. Even though she hit my forehead and cried together earlier, she was quite mature and calm among her peers.

Come to think of it, it seemed that Geum-ja read most of the books alone even when Yoo-ah instigated them in the past. Maybe Seo-jun is the one next to him. Here’s why Yoo-ah didn’t know their names. They were never said it in the first place.

“Why is he always like that?”

“I don’t know. But it’s uncomfortable because he keeps looking at us.”

“I’m fine with that, but it’s not good to talk to you. He’s seven years old, and he talks stranger than my brother!”

“How old is your brother?”

“Five years old!”

“…who is he?”

Yoo-ah, who was listening to what other children were saying next to him, slipped in.

Blonde curly hair and green eyes. A child who is new to kindergarten in early summer and speaks worse than his peers.

The reason had already given an answer, but Yoo-ah turned away. How big is Korea? Among the many apartments, kindergartens, and classes, it must be the neighborhood where the toddler lives, the same apartment, the same kindergarten, and the same class. There was a thing called coincidence in the world.

“Oh, yes. Yoo-ah didn’t come out of kindergarten because he was sick, right? This is a new guy named Su-yeok who came last week.”

“Oh….”

“He’s from Germany, so his Korean is still a little bad. Su-yeok ah, will you say hi to Yoo-ah?”

The teacher talked to Yoo-ah who pretended to be listening to this conversation.

‘Since you don’t care about your friends, won’t you get along well with him?’

The thought was clearly visible on her face. Guilty and lazy. Yoo-ah regretted pretending to be nice for the teacher.

Yoo-ah, who was pushed out of the middle of this mess,

‘Why are you all doing this to me. Damn it….’

He screamed internally. ‘I think I’m going to be fcked.’

With the unexpected appearance of Yoo-ah, the main shou stopped crying. Su-yeok who faced the half-rotting face of Yoo-ah with bright eyes, smiled shyly and said,

‘Don’t smile, please….’

“Ah… Ah, hello….”

Yup, I’m really fucked. Very clearly and definitely on top of that.

“Ah, yes. Hello to you too….”

“……!”

Yoo-ah, who could not spit on his smiling face, answered awkwardly.

It must have been a very unpleasant greeting for everyone. The main shou opened his eyes wide as if he liked it even more. Yoo-ah thought that the redness that came up on his white and fluffy cheeks was just like strawberry glutinous rice cake.

Yoo-ah awkwardly avoided eye contact with the gaze that pierced him.

The teacher, who was looking at the scene, opened her mouth with a brighter expression.

“Then, will Su-yeok play with Yoo-ah? Yoo-ah yah, Can Su-yeok play with you?”

“To, together…?”

As if he hadn’t thought of it, Mainsu looked back at the teacher in embarrassment. YooA feels like a hamster in front of a hawk… It became strange. If I refused this offer, I felt like I would be the most shameless person in the world.

‘I don’t want to be involved in the original work! Don’t come, don’t come!’

“Well, sir. It doesn’t matter to me… I don’t think I should decide alone because I have friends with me….”

In the end, Yoo-ah decided to blame others. From the conversation he heard earlier, the children didn’t seem to be very welcoming to the main shou. Yoo-ah decided to believe it.

“Oh, that, is that so? Guys, can Su-yeok play with you guys here?”

As if she knew he would accept it, the teacher stuttered in great embarrassment.

Do I have that image on people? Yoo-ah frowned.

In response, the main shou looked around and bowed down his head. He didn’t do that to him. But Yoo-ah didn’t bother to correct it. He didn’t even think he’d get close, but he thought he’d explain himself.

“Oh, what do I do…?”

“I don’t know… But if we say no, won’t Yoo-ah not play with us?”

“Isn’t it? The teacher told him to play with Yoo-ah.”

“But I don’t want to play with him…! Say you don’t like it!”

“No, you do it!”

“I, I can’t either….”

The children, who had been looking at each other for a while, nodded awkwardly, looking like they were going to die. She said she would speak quietly in her own way, but Yoo-ah, who was right next to her, had just heard the whole conversation.

‘No, they said they don’t want him but why do you say yes?? Did they nod because they couldn’t say no?’

There was one thing that Yoo-ah didn’t think of. It was difficult for young children to refuse an adult’s open request. Some of them may not refuse, and the children Yoo-ah brought to the same team were especially like that.

So, this was the karma of Yoo-ah who only teamed up with mild children to be comfortable.

The teacher smiled brightly and brought the main shou to Yoo-ah’s side. It was the happiest-looking smile she’s ever seen this year.

“Really? Now, Su-yeok ah. Yoo-ah and her friends said that they like Su-yeok. Shall we play together?”

“Me too, Frien, Frient? Gud, gud ^[1] !”

He didn’t say he liked it. Yoo-ah and the children stopped talking at the transcendental translation.

Pong!

“…oh my.”

He said it was good, but it must have been really good. With a familiar shaming sound, the triangular white ears popped out over the golden head. A thick yellowish-brown striped tail was also seen between the crotch.

Even though there was a setting called hybrid, I didn’t know in details because it wasn’t that important. The main shou seemed to be a raccoon.

‘…He looks pretty for a raccoon ^[2] ?’

Yoo-ah nodded, thinking quite prejudicedly. I couldn’t even say I didn’t want to play with you to a kid so excited after coming all this way. No, it’s not that I can’t, but….

It was clear that the atmosphere would spiral out of control. And even if I refused, I didn’t know how the story would be misleading, as I’ve already experienced.

“That’s right! Mom. There’s a new guy in my class~.”

“What?”

“My teacher told him to hang out with Yoo-ah today, but Yoo-ah got mad because Yoo-ah didn’t like it.”

Children often talk only about the most important part, except for the best of all. In the end, in a composition ^[3] , “introduction” and “development” were dropped, and only “the turn” and “ending” remained.

It may not feel real. The power of editing was able to reverse more than we thought.

For example, the difference between ‘A hit B and B cursed A’ and ‘B cursed A’. Doesn’t the bad guy change if you cut off the front part? It was something like that.

“Oh. Did you hear that? The kid in my kindergarten, I don’t know, he’s an outcast….”

“I shouted no even though the teacher told me to play with him.”

“He’s a little weird… I guess so? Should I tell him not to play with me….”

Then rumors will spread strangely, and Yoo-ah will be seen as bad-tempered by parents.

In addition, there was another reason why that kind of word of mouth was the most troublesome. I couldn’t say yes or no because the truth and the lie were strangely mixed. Isn’t there a saying that a wonderful story is born with 10% falsehood and 90% truth?

Anyway, there were few schools in this neighborhood, so it was only a matter of time before rumors spread.

“No, my little building!”

So Yoo-ah decided to compromise with reality. More precisely, it was self-comfort under the guise of compromise.

In any case, playing with kindergarten students just once or twice wouldn’t have the slightest impact on the flow of the novel…. Even if there is, there shouldn’t be.