Chapter 6

After finding out that Jihoon had left the school, Eum could no longer live her life normally.

She could no longer concentrate on studying, and the CSAT, the most important exam of her life, had been pushed to the back of her mind. The only thing filling her thoughts was Seong Jihoon.

She shed tears, but she didn’t cry. She didn’t even know whether she had the right to cry.

Classes were over.

The students streamed out of the classroom like the tide going out, leaving Eum alone.

She was supposed to buy some bread and milk before the school store closed and then head up to the study room, but she simply had no energy.

So she sat at her desk for a while.

She gazed across the school grounds, where rows of trees that had once been lush with autumn leaves now stood bare, almost all their leaves having fallen.

She was reminiscing about the day she had first met Jihoon there when…

“……!”

Eum’s eyes widened.

A man dressed in a dark-gray three-piece suit had entered her field of vision. His tall figure stood on the school grounds with one hand tucked into his trouser pocket. No matter how many times she rubbed her eyes, he wasn’t an illusion.

Eum leaned her head out the window and cried out with all her strength.

“Teacher!”

The man who had been looking toward the school field raised his head and looked at Eum.

It was Jihoon. It really was Seong Jihoon.

“Don’t move! Stay right there! Please!”

After shouting at the top of her lungs, Eum dashed out of the classroom. She heard a chair fall backward, but she didn’t care and simply ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

Her ragged breathing filled her ears.

Her eyes burned with anxiety at the thought that she might miss Jihoon again.

Then, just as she was about to leave through the entrance, a strong hand suddenly grabbed her arm.

“Whoa.”

Jihoon barely managed to catch her as she stumbled and nearly fell because she had been rushing so recklessly.

“What are you chasing after me like this for? Did I borrow money from you or something?”

Eum forgot to answer. She simply stared blankly up at Jihoon.

The man she had thought had returned to the company and would never come back was standing right in front of her.

“Sniff.”

Tears burst from her eyes in relief.

Jihoon was flustered when Eum suddenly rubbed her eyes with her sleeve.

“W-What? Why are you crying?”

“Sniff, sob…”

“What’s wrong?”

Not knowing what to do, Jihoon awkwardly reached a hand toward Eum’s shoulder, but he couldn’t bring himself to pat her. He simply left his hand suspended in midair.

“Why did you just leave?”

“Leave what? Me?”

“They said you went back to the company, sob, and that you wouldn’t, sniff, come back to school anymore…”

Jihoon stared at her blankly as she struggled to get the words out between sobs.

He had only gone back to the company to get a brief scolding and reflect on his actions. He had never imagined that the girl who had been waiting for him would burst into tears the moment she saw him.

In the end, Jihoon lowered his hand without patting her shoulder.

“Of course I’d go back.”

Though that wasn’t why he had returned this time.

“You’re crying over that? I guess students preparing for the CSAT have plenty of free time these days. Back when I took it, I even saved time by eating as quickly as possible.”

Even as he said that, Jihoon felt something strange.

He felt relieved, yet somehow even more conflicted.

In truth, he had returned to the school angry as well.

He had known that Eum was Yeon Changshin’s daughter and Yeon Honam’s granddaughter from the moment he first met her and saw her name tag.

But he hadn’t known that she had been offered up as a sacrifice in the games played by rotten adults.

“Stop crying.”

Eum looked up sharply with her red, bloodshot eyes.

“That’s mean. You don’t even comfort me, and then you tell me not to cry.”

“Come with me.”

He deliberately spoke curtly and walked away from her.

As he heard her little footsteps following behind him despite her grumbling, he thought she sounded just like a chick.

Eum pressed her fingertips against her still-hot eyelids.

As she gently pressed down, a teacup was placed in front of her with a soft clink.

“Drink it, squirt.”

Jihoon muttered to himself that at his age, he shouldn’t be the one making tea for some little kid, then sat in the seat of honor, diagonally across from her.

After taking a sip of the tea, Eum’s mood quickly brightened as though she had never cried.

“Wow. It’s delicious.”

It was citron tea. She couldn’t remember the last time she had drunk sweet-and-sour citron tea. It seemed like this was the first time since her mother had left home.

“What time do you usually go home?”

“Around midnight.”

“Don’t you take private lessons or go to an academy?”

“No.”

At Eum’s answer, Jihoon fell silent, seemingly lost in thought.

Eum paid no attention to his reaction and continued drinking her citron tea.

She was happy. Happy that she could enter his office again, and happy that she was drinking tea he had personally made for her.

But what made her happiest was seeing him again.

“What do you want to do when you become a college student?”

But Jihoon steered the conversation toward something resembling academic counseling.

“I want to live independently.”

“What are you going to do after becoming independent?”

“Just… live freely…”

She wanted to get a part-time job like everyone else and date, too.

Having thought that far, Eum quietly raised her head.

If she were to date someone, she wanted it to be Jihoon. But he had already rejected her outright once, so it wasn’t easy to find the courage to try again.

“But how old are you, Teacher?”

Jihoon was already so much older than her, and she wondered whether he didn’t date.

Maybe he had a girlfriend even now. Adults were good at hiding their private lives, after all.

“You have a girlfriend, don’t you?”

“Just answer my question.”

“Hmph.”

She couldn’t understand why she liked him rather than disliking him when he acted so forcefully. Although she had felt hurt and disappointed, now that she had been able to see him again, her heart had softened once more.

“I asked what you’re going to do with your life once you become an adult.”

“I just want to live freely.”

Eum gave a fairly ordinary answer, but Jihoon’s interpretation of it was different.

Only now did he understand why both light and darkness coexisted in Eum’s expression.

“You know the assemblyman you met over the weekend.”

When Jihoon brought him up, Eum quietly raised her eyes. She had already finished half her cup of citron tea.

“He said he’s the man you’re going to marry.”

At his casually dropped statement, Eum remained motionless for a moment.

It was difficult to tell whether she was surprised or whether her eyes were asking how he knew about it.

A long silence settled between them.

Only after what felt like a long time did Eum quietly put down her teacup.

“Has it already been decided?”

“So it hasn’t?”

Eum blinked for a moment before speaking in a calm voice.

“He did bring up marriage that day. Of course, I was planning to refuse, but…”

She went on to explain that Jihoon had appeared around then, so she never got the chance to tell Assemblyman Park that she intended to refuse.

Watching her fidget nervously with her fingers, Jihoon eventually let out a low sigh and rubbed his forehead.

“So it isn’t what you want, right?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

As he expected.

But Yeon Honam was not an easy man to deal with.

People in political circles had apparently begun calling him a toothless tiger, but he still possessed enough power to arbitrarily control something as significant as another person’s life.

Especially when that person was a granddaughter with no one to rely on.

Meanwhile, Eum couldn’t take her eyes off Jihoon, who seemed deep in thought.

How could someone have features like that?

The longer she looked at him, the more inadequate the word ‘handsome’ seemed. He looked like a sculpture painstakingly carved by hand, or a watercolor painting delicately touched by a brush.

“Eum. Listen carefully.”

A moment later, he spoke as though he had finished thinking things through.

“The marriage will probably go ahead regardless of what you want.”

Eum quietly placed her fidgeting hands on her lap and remained still.

It was shocking, but she wasn’t surprised.

Many things had happened to Eum over the years, but not once had anyone asked her what she wanted.

What held her attention more was Jihoon’s handsome face, illuminated by the hazy sunset light that spread across it like watercolor paint.

“Are you listening to me?”

“Teacher. Can you give me your phone number?”

“…What?”

She didn’t know what the future would bring. Eum was simply happy that Seong Jihoon, the man who talked and moved before her eyes, was there with her.

“Or, if you don’t want to do that, could you at least give me your social media account?”

“I’m scared you’ll disappear in front of me again.

I really don’t think I can do without you anymore, Teacher.”

“Hey, I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you…”

“You’re going to protect me, aren’t you, Teacher?”

Jihoon was left speechless by the smiling face in front of him.

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

He could only feel utterly deflated by the determination of the clueless little chick in front of him.

It was the moment when all the resolve he had worked himself up into simply evaporated.