Chapter 93 – Anecdotal – The Story of a Nuclear and Goldsmith (7)

Everyone will have at least one heartbreaking memory from their school days.
I can laugh and talk about it after time, but at the time, those memories that I was worried and suffered enough to die.
To Kyung-chul, Lee Seol-ah was that kind of person.

If I had to describe Seolah Lee during her school days in one word, I would say she was a bright, pretty and smart girl. It’s like an idol that every school has at least one. She had a pretty face, a cool personality, and her grades were always in the top ranks, so it was strange that she wasn’t popular.
Even so, Lee Seol-ah treated everyone equally. It was the same against Kang Kyung-cheol, who was a game junkie.

Kyung-chul wasn’t the type to talk to her female students first, even if they were classmates. However, she and Lee Seol-ah were in the same class for 4 out of 6 years of middle school and high school, so she was able to get along naturally.
She didn’t have a special occasion. She was just friendly enough to say hello when she ran into each other, chat casually, or even team up.

Lee Seol-ah may have thought of Kang Kyung-cheol simply as a friend. However, Kyung-chul secretly had feelings for Seol-ah.
No matter how addicted she is to the game, she was also an adolescent boy. How could she not like the only girl she got close to.

Still, she thought she and Seol-ah didn’t get along, so Gyeong-cheol was content with just watching from a distance. Since his grades were also sky-high, he thought that once he went to college, he would have nothing to run into anyway.

One day when I was in such a dull high school year, an incident occurred that turned the school upside down. Lee Seol-ah’s pregnancy was discovered.

Pregnancy in high school is considered bad even in this day and age, but at the time, the eyes around her were even colder. Her adults asked Seol-ah who the baby’s father was and urged her to have an abortion.

Rumors circulated among the students. Originally, Seol-ah was a slut, so all she had to do was give her money, or she couldn’t tell who she was because there were too many candidates for her baby’s father, or how many times she had abortions, or how many times she had abortions…
Kyung-chul thinks Seol-ah can’t be like that, but since she is pregnant, she can’t stop such rumors.

Even in that situation, Lee Seol-ah did not tell her who the father was until the end. She didn’t even have an abortion.
Instead, the path she chose was runaway. One day, Lee Seol-ah threw away everything about her and disappeared without a trace.

Neither her friends, her family, nor her teachers knew where Seol-ah was. The light rail was the same.
The school hurriedly tried to bury the case as if it was an opportunity, and Seol-ah’s parents didn’t try to find it either. In this way, the case of Lee Seol-ah’s pregnancy seemed to be settled as a student’s deviation.

However, only a month later, the fact that another female student is pregnant is revealed. She wasn’t close to Kyung-cheol, but she was a famous girl that everyone in her school would know by her first name.
What is different from Seol-ah is that this girl revealed who her baby’s father is. Her opponent was a married teacher in his 30s who is working at the school.

From then on, the situation began to escalate out of control. A survey of her entire school revealed five more female students who had relationships with the teacher.
All of the victims were usually calm and exemplary students, to the extent that it was impossible to imagine that such a thing had happened. Ironically, the victims said that they were in love with the teacher and appealed for her mercy.

An opening story that could only come out of a cheap night story. Up to this point, it was an incident worthy of decorating the front pages of all newspapers, but this was not the end. Three male students from the same school attacked the teacher and stabbed her to death.

The impact of this situation was enormous. The president apologized to the people and the Minister of Education was decapitated. Many teachers and officials from the education office took off their clothes, and the school had to go through the final closing procedure that year.
Kyung-cheol’s thoughts of dropping out of high school were also greatly influenced by this incident. As he was faced with a situation that he could not handle as a high school student, Gyeong-cheol-ro, everything in the world became futile.

On the other side of such a tumultuous incident, the existence of Lee Seol-ah, who went missing after her pregnancy, was forgotten in everyone’s mind.

*

“What are you, Mister? Do you know your mother? Are you a classmate?”
“Uh, well, that’s right.”
“Awesome. Nonsense. Unbelievable.”

Seol-ah’s house was a typical two-room structure with one room in the kitchen and living room. Just looking at the household items, such as old TVs and refrigerators that even a junk dealer would have to pay to take, you could tell what the condition of this house was like.
The existence of Gyeong-cheol, who was uselessly adorned with luxury goods, was extremely heterogeneous. Kyung-chul suddenly felt uncomfortable wearing the suit he bought today.

‘Anyway, the baby in the belly at that time was this big.’

Watching So-yeong chatter and thinking about it, Kyung-chul felt like he was about to burst into tears for no reason. If you look closely, it looks just like my mother when she was young.

“I’m sorry. It was so sudden that I have nothing to treat.”
“No, I’m sorry. I came to you suddenly in the middle of the night.”

Seol-ah cuts the cake Kyung-chul bought. Soyoung looked at her cake and her eyes twinkled.

“By the way, what’s going on? Looking at the business card, it looks like an internet broadcast?”
“Uh, for now… That’s right.”
“It suits you well. Gyeong-cheol has always liked games. Didn’t he find the right job for him?”
“It’s just like that. Haha…”

I thought I could proudly boast in front of anyone in the world, but it was strangely difficult to say in front of Seol-ah. Since Use Tube is an adult broadcast anyway, it might seem like an impure broadcast to someone like Seol-ah. Although it is true that it is actually impure.

“Actually, the character Soyoung raised plays an important role in our broadcast. So I came to ask if you could restore the deleted character.”
“Is it like that? Just tell me how and I’ll restore it.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yes.”

Unexpectedly, permission was granted so easily. It hadn’t even talked about money yet.

“If it was an important character for the broadcast, I deleted it and didn’t you suffer?”
“Well, it’s like that for now, but it doesn’t matter as long as it’s restored anyway.”
“But I’m sorry. I made you come all the way here.”
“No. I was also happy to be able to meet Seol-ah after a long time. Haha.”

Rather, Kyung-cheol didn’t know what to do with Seol-ah, who was sorry.
Soyoung was watching the two of them with a big smile.

“What is it? Do you like mom and dad? Isn’t the uncle my dad?”
“Lee So-young! I told you not to talk nonsense to adults! Go into your room and study!”

Seol-Ah blushed in anger at her, but So-Young didn’t care and pushed on Kyung-Chul.

“Mister, tell me about the old days. Mom, how was your student days? Did you study well? My mom tells me to study when she sees me.”

Kyung-chul was taken aback for a moment, but decided to answer honestly. It was because he had nothing to hide about Seol-Ah’s grades, if he didn’t know anything else.

“Mom did a good job studying. If she took the test, she would definitely be in the top 5 of the school.”
“Wow! 5th place in the whole school? Great.”

So-young glared at her mother while smiling at her.

“She is so good at studying, but why does her mother live like this?”
“…What?”

Seol-Ah opened her mouth in a daze at So-Young’s bold words. Kyung-chul was also surprised and her body stiffened.
A quiet rage rippled beneath So-young’s smiling face.

“Why is my mother, who was ranked 5th in the entire school, living in a single room like this in agony? The man who only liked games drives around in such a nice car and eats delicious food. You can’t give me tutoring, don’t send me to private academies, don’t play games, study unconditionally. Do it, study. What’s the point of studying? My mother is so good at studying, so she lives like this? What changes when a dirt spoon studies hard? Why on earth do I have to study?”
“Student Soyoung!”

No matter how much he said it, Kyung-cheol thought it was too much and tried to stop it, but the water had already been spilled.

Slap!
Seol-ah slapped So-young on the cheek. So-young, who was slapped on the cheek by her, glared at her mother in disbelief.

She came to ask for her character to be restored, but why did this happen all of a sudden? Could it be a mocha? If it’s a hidden camera, please stop at this point.

“How much did your mother raise you…”

Tears welled up in Seol-Ah’s eyes and her voice trembled. However, So-yeong cut off Seol-ah and shouted.

“Who asked me to be born? If I knew I would be born in a house like this, I would have asked for it!”
“Student Soyoung!”

And Soyoung left the house crying. Not even her shoes on and her bare feet.
Kyung-chul thought it was dangerous in this situation and decided to go after So-yeong.

“Wait a minute. I, Soyoung, will bring you.”

Leaving Seol-Ah sitting down and crying, Kyung-Cheol rushed out wearing the new shoes he bought today.

“Student Soyoung!”
“Don’t follow me!”

A high school girl runs away crying and a middle-aged man chases after her. If anyone sees it, it should be reported to the police immediately.

Fortunately, the distance between the two soon decreased, as if the recent hard work had been rewarded. Kyung-chul was able to grab So-young’s arm and stop him.

“Let go of this! Who cares!?”
“I’m sorry, student So-young. You didn’t mean to do that, but it looks like you hurt So-young. I’m really sorry.”
“Let go! Let go!”

So-young screamed at her and swung her arm, but Kyung-chul didn’t miss. If it was done wrong, So-young’s arm might be injured, but it seemed like it would be a real big deal if I let go of this arm.

“Student Soyoung. You made a mistake. So let’s go home. Huh? Mommy is crying too.”
“Ugh…”
“Student Soyoung didn’t mean to say something like that, right? Mister knows. There are times when he suddenly gets angry and just says anything. But isn’t mom the kind of person who forgives everything when she apologizes? So don’t worry. If you don’t want to apologize, Mr. I’ll apologize to my mom instead. Huh? So let’s go home. Your feet hurt too, right?”
“Uncle… Aaaaa…”

As So-yeong hugged Kyung-chul’s belly, she started to cry even louder.
Wait. How far was physical contact with minors allowed?

“…It’s okay. It’s okay. I’ll help you.”

After wandering around the boundary of Ah-cheong law for a while, Gyeong-cheol finally made up her mind and hugged So-young and patted her on the back.

After crying for a long time, Soyoung quietly opened her mouth.

“Mister, can’t I just live with you? Can’t you raise me like Yuzu and Ray? I’ll do anything like a slave.”
“…That… Can’t be done. If I do, I’ll be beaten to death by my mother. I’m afraid of your mother.”
“Uh… Don’t be funny when a woman is crying, really.”

So-young, who had been crying as if the world had collapsed just a moment ago, was laughing loudly this time.

Could this be the creature of a high school girl?
It’s like a ticking time bomb that doesn’t know when it will explode. She then turns around and she smiles again like she never did.
Kyung-chul’s head was dizzy at the huge emotional drop.

“Then shall we go home now? Mom will be worried if it’s too late.”
“… Mister. I can’t walk because my feet hurt.”

So-young was barefoot, not even wearing her socks. In this state, she ran down the asphalt road, so her feet couldn’t be right.

“Then, would you like me to pick you up?”
“Really?”

Kyung-chul squatted down and stuck out his back. So-yeong then hugged her neck and clung to her like a cicada.
Kyung-cheol overcame the heavy load on his back and stood up.

“Isn’t Mister heavy? I’m heavy? Shall I get off?”
“No. It’s not heavy at all. It’s downy.”
“Lol.”

To be honest, it was a bit terrifying. If I hadn’t exercised, or if I had been five years older, I would have collapsed.
Is there anything more embarrassing in the world than that? Gyeong-cheol gritted his teeth to complete this quest even if he died.

Way back home.
Soyoung spoke softly while clinging to Kyungcheol’s back.

“I wish you were my dad.”
“…”

Kyung-chul pretended not to hear.
This is because he couldn’t say anything irresponsible without the permission of his mother, Seol-ah.

“Then I would have driven you to school every day, played games with you, and went out to eat with you.”
“…”

“Mister… Do you like mom or me…?”
“…”

Soyoung hugged Kyungchul’s neck a little tighter.
However, Kyung-chul focused only on walking silently.
Even with the heat coming from his back, he turned his eyes to the end.