“Hi! Yumi, long time no see. Did you have a good vacation?”
“Yeah, yeah! Jiyu, I had a great vacation. How about you?”
“I had a good time too, hehe. During spring break, I went to the zoo with my dad and saw a huge tiger up close! But we wanted to see the giraffes, and they were off-limits because of some visitor accident. Bummer.”
“Really? I’m jealous… My dad keeps asking me to go watch baseball every day. It’s the off-season now, so it’s better, but I’m not that into baseball, and he keeps dragging me along.”
“Seriously? Can’t you just say you don’t want to go?”
“I did, but he says you get attached if you keep watching. I don’t feel that way at all. What’s the point of watching a team that’s always in last place?”
“Does your dad cheer for Hanha?”
“Yeah.”
The inside of Starlight Elementary School, now that spring had arrived, was bustling with the energy of young children. Sure, there were middle and high schoolers mixed in, but they didn’t really matter. They were already going through the stormy phase of puberty, and the aura they gave off was sticky and clingy.
Anyway, the elementary school was noisy after the spring break ended. Everyone was catching up with friends they hadn’t seen in a while. Of course, they kept in touch through their mobile phones during the break, but face-to-face conversations had a different flavor.
Starlight Elementary School, which oddly operated like a university, required students to enroll in mandatory subjects like Korean, English, and math, while the rest were elective courses. So, the first week was mostly about meeting the teachers who would be leading the classes and having some light chit-chat.
No teacher was clueless enough to start teaching right at the first meeting. Teachers are people too. They didn’t want to build up a bad reputation with the kids they’d be teaching. Plus, they’re just elementary schoolers—there’s no need to push them too hard yet.
There’s a saying that you only need to get serious by high school. It’s not that elementary and middle school classes aren’t important, but this might be the only time you get to play around as a student.
Since it was the first day of school, no one was stopping the kids from being loud. They’d only be this noisy for a day or two, and it was certain they’d return to their usual student selves in a few days.
Outside, snow had already piled up. The kids in the classroom were probably only thinking about playing in the snow, eagerly waiting for classes to end. Even though classes hadn’t started yet, they were probably already imagining themselves in the middle of the playground having a snowball fight.
The classes were divided, though there were only four. Since Korean, English, and math were taken with the same class, kids in the same class tended to get closer. But with fewer than 100 kids, even if they were in different classes, they all knew each other’s faces.
Then, a kid with green hair walked into the classroom. In modern society where dyeing hair is common, green hair is something even frequent-dyeing hairstylists rarely see. At first, the kids thought Hana had dyed her hair green.
Green eyes and green hair were an uncommon combination. It was hard to imitate even if you tried. And her looks were on par with child actors. Naturally, she drew a lot of attention, especially since she had transferred in as a third-grader. But the interest faded when they saw her bag.
It was a bag with an illustration of Lumi, the Little Magician, a character popular among kids these days. In first grade, kids would buy bags with their favorite cartoon characters without thinking, but by third grade, they started to feel it was childish.
Kids tend to mature fast.
So, most of the kids’ bags were solid-colored. Still, some who wanted to hold onto their childhood would hang cartoon character keychains on them.
“Hi, Hana!”
“Hi!”
Yumi and Jiyu greeted Hana as she approached. The two had quickly become close during the opening ceremony. Sitting next to each other as desk mates and in the front row, they couldn’t help but get close.
“Hi!”
Hana greeted brightly, already thinking about how to skip class today.
Yumi and Jiyu were very close. They were a famous duo at Starlight Elementary. Whether going to school or heading home, the two stuck together like sticky rice cakes.
Being such good friends, they sometimes playfully fought, but it was never serious. It was the kind of bickering you’d expect from best friends.
And now, that duo had become a trio with Hana joining in.
At first, I was a bit wary, but after talking to Hana, I realized she was a bit of a peculiar kid.
Clearly an elementary school student, but there was something oddly uncle-like about her. Seeing how much she liked Lumi, it seemed like her mental age was a bit lower than her peers, but as we kept talking, there was this strange feeling that she was actually older.
Still, being around Hana had a calming effect, so the two of us quickly dropped our guard and decided to include her in our little duo. It was like she was a comfort doll or something.
The refreshing aura that Hana gave off not only relaxed our minds and bodies but also stirred up this desire to take care of her.
“What’s today’s class?”
“Just Korean and English, I think.”
“Yay! I can’t wait to go home and watch Little Magician Lumi!”
“Yeah, yeah. You really love Lumi, huh?”
“She’s my idol!”
Of course, Yumi and Jiyu also enjoyed watching anime, but they weren’t as obsessed as Hana. They thought Hana was a bit unusual.
—
“Bye! See you tomorrow!”
Before I knew it, class was over. Since it was the first week, we didn’t do much. Just some roll call and a lot of self-introductions, so it felt like we were getting familiar. Being a transfer student, I had to introduce myself in every first class, which was a must.
Luckily, the kids looked at me with warm eyes. I thought I might get treated like an outsider, but since they were still elementary school kids, they didn’t have that kind of barrier.
“Bye, Hana!”
Yumi and Jiyu lived nearby, so they walked home arm in arm. I lived a bit far, so I had to take a car. Of course, on really busy days, Bora or Haru would take a taxi home, but usually, they came to pick me up.
Since my school ended in the afternoon, Haru and Bora liked it too. It was a legitimate way to sneak out of work, wasn’t it? Of course, picking me up wasn’t exactly sneaking out, but taking the car did waste a bit of time since we had to make stops here and there.
I didn’t mind Haru and Bora coming along. There were some perks to riding with them.
“Hana, you did well today, right?”
“Of course!”
Bora and Haru seemed to think of me as a troublemaker, but I was a proper adult. I never made the kind of mistakes kids do. Well, I had made some mistakes, but that was unavoidable. My body was still that of a child, so there were parts I couldn’t control.
But wouldn’t it get better with time? Adults never really understand their childhood selves. They just make guesses about why they did what they did back then.
“Should we grab a chocolate shake on the way?”
“Sure!”
Vroooom
Grabbing takeout before leaving the city had become a routine. There were cafes near the research institute, but the chocolate shakes in the city just tasted more special. After all, school life needed its little perks.
I sipped on the chocolate shake Bora bought me and stared blankly at her driving. I had a driver’s license too, but…
If I were to drive now, it’d be impossible because of my short legs. I’d have to move my whole body to press the brakes or accelerator. But watching Bora drive made me really want to drive too.
If I could drive, school life would be so much easier… But if an elementary school student drove, it’d be news, so I could only dream about it.
