After a noisy mealtime like that.
The remaining sweet and sour pork and candied shrimp were neatly collected and left in the microwave-safe plastic rice container.
Since there wasn’t much left, it would likely be finished off by the mascots as well.
What will I do for breakfast tomorrow?
“Ugh, let’s head out soon!”
As if she was subtly aware of the presence of the mascots, Senior Jiun finished her meal and didn’t take long to get up.
Juwon, who had whined for a moment about not wanting to go home, ended up being dragged toward the entrance under the name of mother.
“Well then, are you both ready for school?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
Once Senior Jiun’s family left, it seemed only natural to head to our rooms without exchanging a word.
Shiyeon, who had become cooler since entering middle school.
I know there’s a saying that siblings should fight, but…
This wasn’t so much a fight as it was a change that occurred naturally without overlapping lives.
The house, which doesn’t exchange much conversation beyond what’s necessary, felt a little lonely.
‘Is this what puberty is?’
We haven’t even entered middle school yet.
With such thoughts, Mary headed towards some canyon in a game again today.
Lying on a soft bed instead of a computer, newly minted middle school student Lee Siyeon.
The two’s relationship was becoming awkward and quiet, something even Shiyeon could naturally sense with her growing thoughts.
Putting aside her love for watching anime for a moment, lying down, Shiyeon thought.
‘It feels awkward.’
Swinging her legs up and down, she tried to cheer herself up with pointless sounds.
Thinking back, Mary had always been the friend closest to the term ‘mature.’
When I first met Mary at the orphanage, my simple thought was that she was a smart friend.
At that age, I could only say things like ‘I don’t like you!’ or ‘He hit me!’
“Ha… The school lunch is awful; it’s totally a food police scenario.”
In that environment, Mary was clearly speaking in sentences that adults would typically use.
The orphanage, a place that existed in my very distant memories.
It was a place where I was left by a mother whose face I no longer remembered.
As for my father… I have no idea; I’ve never met him to begin with.
Anyway, the sudden arrival of Mary at that orphanage… how should I put it, was extraordinary.
Among the few vivid memories, there’s one incident that I think involved Mary.
Of the orphanage teachers, there was one who often hit the children.
She would force a spoon into your mouth if you didn’t eat, and if you still didn’t eat, she would hit you…
A daily life filled with indiscriminate violence.
During one bedtime at the orphanage, Mary had said one night.
“I don’t think that teacher will come back starting tomorrow.”
Though no one expected it and spent the night in tears, her words turned out to be true.
Honestly… I don’t know what happened or how it happened.
But the day after Mary said that for some reason, many people holding cameras and microphones gathered in front of the orphanage, and really, from that day on, the teacher never appeared again.
When the other kids asked Mary what happened, she only explained that the teacher lived poorly and received divine punishment.
We all believed that firmly and promised not to live poorly, right?
I still don’t know the details of how it all happened, but thinking back now, it’s clear that everyone at that time would not have understood even if she had explained it properly.
After that incident, not long after.
Led by Mary’s hand, we left the orphanage in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep.
I still remember that day.
With one hand tightly holding Mary’s hand and the other rubbing my sleepy eyes, I followed her instructions without question.
What were we trying to do?
Looking back, it seemed like Mary had a plan from the moment she entered the orphanage.
Otherwise, there’s no way we would have reached that now redeveloping apartment in a car driven by someone unknown.
‘Genius must be a term reserved for Mary, right?’
The realization of this ‘strangeness’ came in the sixth grade of elementary school.
Before that, I hadn’t thought about it at all.
Playing like everyone else, laughing like everyone else, crying like everyone else…
I had recognized from a young age that my parents were absent.
Even so, I never considered that an unfortunate thing.
From the moment I left the orphanage, Mary had perfectly filled that gap for me.
So from the moment I realized that ‘strangeness,’ I started to feel a little burdened by Mary.
We were the same age, but Mary’s behavior was closer to that of an adult.
It was an awkward position to call her a friend or a parent.
On days when I returned home after playing with school friends, Mary would be busy tapping away at a calculator.
Doing household budgeting, something only mothers of friends would typically do.
Clearly, she probably found our conversations not very interesting.
With this awkward relationship continuing, the day of the middle school entrance ceremony arrived.
“Did you pack your bag and textbooks well?”
“Yeah.”
“If your transportation card goes below 5,000 won, let me know right away.”
“Sure.”
On this much-anticipated day of the entrance ceremony, the conversation was only as much as needed.
Since the middle school that Shiyeon attends requires taking a bus, we tend to leave earlier.
With a click, the door closes, and we become busier.
You could say the housekeeper is now gone too.
In the period when we were in elementary school, we could receive full financial support for hiring a housekeeper, but as soon as we became middle school students, that support was cut in half without mercy.
The financial support structure changes according to age.
It doesn’t matter when it’s someone else’s money, but once it becomes mine, I neatly cut off that support.
I’m not attending any extra academy anyway.
Once I return home from school, the household chores are sufficient.
‘Is this about the right time to head out…?’
It takes about 20 minutes to walk to school normally.
Nonetheless, I dislike being late, so I make sure to step out by 30 minutes beforehand.
Looking around the empty house for a moment, click.
With movements that check whether the door is locked properly, I turn the doorknob, confirm it won’t open, and head toward the elevator.
The school uniforms that blended into the street grow more similar as I get closer to the school.
The shabby white name tag stitched onto the jacket is the highlight of the middle school uniform.
When I arrive at school, the first place I go is to the assigned classroom.
Putting the textbooks that I stuffed into my bag into the locker or desk that I’ll use for the next year marks the beginning of a middle schooler’s day on the entrance ceremony day.
Given that I dreaded being assigned to the front row because of my cursed surname, I was unexpectedly seated near the back by the window.
What a wonderfully sleep-inducing spot it could be.
“At the threshold of spring, where all things are rejuvenated, it gives me great joy and honor to hold the 61st entrance ceremony to welcome the 231 new students filled with dreams and hopes who are entering our school. I sincerely congratulate and welcome your admissions. New students, who are now members of the Saengwon Middle School family! You have grown splendidly under the loving care of your parents and the warm guidance and teachings of your elementary school teachers, and you stand here today, ready to take your first steps as middle school students.”
Meanwhile, the auditorium, only used on special occasions and indoor sports days.
The suffocating speech that naturally accompanies the entrance ceremony.
I wonder how they come up with such long sentences—it’s impressive.
Honestly, if one of those principals giving such speeches just said, “Let’s skip the fluff and welcome!” it would definitely gain popularity.
“Lastly…”
‘Oh, is it ending?’
“The period you are enrolled at Saengwon Middle School will be the most crucial time to achieve the life goals you have set. You cannot exceed others by following others. Your everlasting alma mater…”
‘What the hell.’
I was completely fooled by the word ‘finally’ and let my mind wander again.
Even after being subjected to that in a previous life, here I am experiencing it again.
You said it was the last, right?
Once the repeating speech akin to a broken radio finally ended, I returned to the unfamiliar classroom and sat at the designated spot.
Honestly, even though they are called middle school students, they are merely little kids who just graduated elementary school.
Though they wear uniforms, it feels like they are just dressed up in character skins from a game, still acting with the emotions of elementary school children.
On the other hand, there was a boy who seemed to have aged dramatically as if he had consumed all the elementary school years by himself.
The apartment now undergoing redevelopment.
Opening the window slightly releases a scent similar to that of nicotine from cigarettes.
‘That guy smokes.’
A boy at the back who is slumped over, seemingly disinterested in the world.
Something minty is subtly wafting as if he’s trying to cover up the smell of cigarettes with various scents.
I wonder where these types of kids learn to smoke in the upper grades of elementary school and then become chain smokers by middle school.
It truly is a mystery.
