Chapter 1 – Episode 1- Miho Lee

As a child, I lived with my grandmother.

There was no mother and father.

But I didn’t really feel its absence.

Didn’t feel the gap because it wasn’t there from the beginning.

I don’t know if it’s because her grandmother gave me so much love, but that’s how I spent my childhood with her grandmother.

Maybe that’s why, a scene was still clearly entrenched in my brain.

“My dear…”

Grandma holds my hand

Her grandmother’s wrinkled hands that always stroked my hair vigorously.

When I realized that her hand was hanging down and holding mine, tears flowed involuntarily.

“Yes, Grandma.”

Swallowing tears and snot, let’s answer her grandmother.

Her grandmother squeezed my hand as if to remind me.

“Promise her grandmother… Never, she’ll never take off that necklace…”

The necklace her grandmother had made for days and days before, predicting her death.

Feeling the necklace now hanging around my neck, I made a promise to her grandmother.

“I promise… I’ll never, never take it off.”

“And you have to keep in mind…”

Granny strokes my hand, and she stares at me.

“You have to be careful of women who approach you for no reason. Okay… Baby?”

“Yes… Yes?”

“I know our grandson is handsome… But, keep that in mind.”

Grandma told me again.

“Don’t trust women who approach you for no reason.”

It was a word that didn’t come very close to me yet, but I nodded my head because it was her grandmother’s last will.

“Okay, Grandma.”

That’s how grandma asked me and she left the world.

I left the countryside without her grandmother, and was sent to spend my new school years in the city.

* *

“Ummm…”

I dreamily opened my eyes.

Raise your messy body and stretch out your still tired body.

The content of the dream I had just before was drawn in my head like an afterimage.

“… It’s been quite a while.”

The day my grandmother passed away and I delivered her will.

Realizing that that day had already passed for several years, I blankly looked at the house where I lived.

In a quiet room with no one around, the sunlight seeping in from the window as if it were morning.

Feeling that I had gotten used to this completely different look from my previous country house, I got up from the bed.

“Turn it off…”

I stretched out my body once.

Fatigue still lingers, but I had to move my body quickly.

“It’s six o’clock already.”

In addition to going to school, it is because I have a part-time job that I do every morning.

I took a quick shower and hurried out of the house.

* *

‘Cafe Yuu’

This is where I do a part-time job every morning.

This cafe, which has the peculiarity of being close to my house and having a pretty manager, has been hiring me every morning since I started working part-time during vacation.

All I have to do is simply move today’s logistics to the cafe.

“Are you here, Mr. Hanjun?”

I came to the cafe carrying my book bag.

The logistics truck and manager greeted me at good timing.

The store manager wore a white shirt with her ash gray hair braided to one side.

The store manager greeted me with a friendly smile as always.

“Yes, good morning. Manager!”

I throw my school bag on the floor and prepare to move the logistics.

The store manager smiled kindly when he saw me like that, and first approached the truck to receive today’s inventory.

“Huh.”

A box that weighs a certain amount.

My eyes immediately went to the store manager, who carried the box with her slender arms as if nothing was wrong.

No, actually more…

My eyes went further to the manager’s large breasts placed on top of the box.

“What’s wrong? Is there something wrong?”

The manager looked at me and smiled kindly.

Somewhat stingy, I hurriedly rushed toward the truck.

“No, I have to work hard today toohaha!”

The manager laughed at me as if I was cute, and I moved all of today’s logistics together with the manager.

* *

“You worked hard today too, Mr. Han Jun.”

After organizing all the logistics, I was sitting at a table in a cafe when the manager approached me with a friendly smile.

When the store manager, who has a neat and beautiful appearance that would be passed on by all men, gave me a compliment, I reflexively said, ‘It’s nothing special.’

“Hmm…”

The store manager handed me a paper bag containing today’s daily allowance and looked at my forearm with my sleeves rolled up.

“Why, why…?”

I looked at my forearm to see if there was something wrong, but it didn’t seem to be a big problem.

As I was hesitantly exposing my forearms, the store manager asked me a question.

“Jun Han, you’re popular with girls, aren’t you?”

“Yes Yes?”

When I asked what I was talking about, the boss pricked my forearm with his slender finger.

“Look at this, just by looking at it, it’s a well-maintained body. Even though I’m a student.”

The store manager playfully strokes my forearm where the tendons are red.

As I showed my strength to my forearm, the boss screamed ‘Kyaa’ and stabbed my forearm again.

“How popular.”

As I answered the question the boss asked, I immediately remembered the dream I had this morning.

The words her grandmother told me before she died.

‘A promise to never untie her necklace and to beware of women who approach her for no reason.’

The first promise is still faithfully fulfilled, but the second promise could not be fulfilled even if it wanted to.

Because she sadly didn’t have a girl to approach me.

When I transferred from the countryside to the city, I decided to kick all the female students with a brave heart, but…

When I went to school, not even women, let alone men, approached me.

I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unlucky, but I made friends with a strange guy.

“Hmm… Really? It’s strange, if I were a girl in the same age as Han Jun, I’d be interested in it.”

“…Don’t make my heart flutter.”

When I shot at the boss who was still playfully caressing my forearm, the boss shook his head.

“Huh? Seriously.”

At this moment, in my heart, it seems that the promise I had with my grandmother, which was buried deep in her heart, will be broken.

I look at the boss with a beating heart.

The boss casually passed my passionate gaze, and was surprised to see the clock hanging on the wall.

“Oh my god? It’s already time like this. I’ll make it quickly so I’m not late for school.”

While stroking his forearm, the boss rushes into the cafe.

With a sad heart, I touched the forearm that the boss was touching.

After a while, the boss came out with a cup of cafe latte with a strangely flushed face.

“Now, do your best today too, Mr. Han Jun.”

Every morning, the boss’s signature cafe latte is made just for me.

I drank the boss’ cafe latte full of milk in one go and said to the boss.

“It’s incredibly delicious today.”

“That… Is it? Thank you.”

The boss twisted his body around with a flushed face, perhaps ashamed of my praise.

I took a picture of the cute boss and bowed to the boss.

“I’ll go to school.”

“Yes… Have a good trip.”

The same morning as always, the same way to school as always.

Today I headed to school.

* *

Swarm.

Social animals live in groups.

And those who are more sociable tend to group more systematically.

So was school.

This place, which is a microcosm of society, was forming its own group according to its own personality or interests.

However, there were exceptions in this colony, just as there are worker ants that play without doing anything.

Not in a group, alone. A loner, not a group. Assassin, not inssa.

That was me

“… Bitter.”

Sitting in the back seat by the window and watching the chattering crowd, a pessimistic mind naturally arises.

He sighed and propped himself on the desk with his arms as pillows.

I tried to sleep through the morning assembly time, but at that moment, the chair in front of me was pushed back and a person tapped me on the shoulder.

“Are you here?”

As I said hello, I raised my head and saw a terrifying guy.

A bald head with a face so worn that it is doubtful whether they are the same age.

Huge muscles sticking out as if tearing the school uniform.

When I looked at the guy who was the only friend in this class and said hello, he showed his healthy teeth and laughed heartily.

“Good morning today! By the way, Hanjun. Did you read the comic book that came out yesterday?!”

As soon as he arrives, Kim Cha-ryeok, a guy who speaks loudly about conversation topics that are far from being a celebrity.

I thought as I looked at a guy who was far from fresh school days, made up only of metal and subculture.

I guess one of the reasons I don’t have friends is because I’m friends with this guy.

“And Hanjun! How about starting exercise again from today?!”

“I will not.”

When I was on vacation, I thought of the guy I never let go of until I hit 3 vs. 500.

I stubbornly refused.

Then he was sullen for a moment like a puppy that had been wet with water. He quickly regained his tension and threw his words at me again on a different subject.

Drooling.

Then the classroom door opened and the teacher appeared.

The teacher, who knocked on the podium with his school affairs notebook and made the class quiet once, looked at us and said.

“Good morning everyone. There is a fact to convey before morning ordinances, so pay attention to everyone.”

The teacher gestures out the open door.

At the gesture that someone was out there, I stuck my head out and looked at the door.

I met a female student.

Long, neatly trimmed straight hair, and raised eyes.

A sharp nose and bright red lips.

Long legs and cool body.

Without realizing it, I stopped breathing.

Not only me, but all the kids in my class were in the same situation, and in an instant, our class was enveloped in silence.

Another angle, another angle.

The female student wearing her shoes stood next to the teacher’s podium, wondering if she was used to that kind of gaze or if it didn’t matter.

Then he smiled and told us.

“Hello, my name is Lee Mi-ho, who transferred today. Please take good care of me.”

Looking at her calmly talking to her despite receiving the attention and attention of all the classmates in this class at a glance.

I instinctively realized that she was the opposite of me.