A day at an ordinary elementary school lasts until the 4th or 5th period.
Still, I can escape this body from the prison called school around lunchtime, but as a third grader, now on the borderline of lower grades.
Once I become a third grader, I will sadly have to settle for the unfortunate state of being able to leave school around 2 PM.
By the time I’m a middle school student, I’ll be living a life of seven periods.
And as a high school student, it becomes even more strenuous, with compulsory night self-study making it eight or nine periods.
“Sigh.”
“Why?”
As I exhale deeply about a future that has not yet arrived, Shiyeon, who was walking beside me, looks over with a tilting head and asks.
Shiyeon, who still finds joy in everything in the world.
It was clear that sharing my concerns about how to deal with the occasional monster that appears while investing more than half the day at school would be beyond her understanding.
In the end, I could only shake my head and respond that it was nothing.
“It’s nothing.”
Just as my mood was sinking to the bottom.
“Yeseul is coming over to play tomorrow!”
Shiyeon tells me about tomorrow’s schedule, without me asking.
The name of the girl I had recently heard about.
She was that girl I was engaging in pointless magical girl talk with not long ago.
‘How long has it been since we quarreled that she’s coming over?’
“Didn’t the two of you fight?”
When I innocently expressed my confusion and asked Shiyeon…
“The teacher made us reconcile! Both Mary and Sharl are great magical girls!”
“Oh, really.”
Seeing Shiyeon respond that they had already reconciled, I replied emptily.
I don’t know if she was happy about the reconciliation or if she was just pleased that her favorite characters were praised.
Anyway, it made that ten minutes of recess I lost that day all the more meaningless.
If a few words from the teacher were enough to reconcile, couldn’t they have just let us fight in front of the staff room earlier?
“Let’s stop by the mart on the way.”
I brushed off the past events and continued on my way, suggesting we stop by the mart.
A small neighborhood mart on the way back from school.
There aren’t even such neighborhood marts near the apartments, so I must remember to buy what I want to eat on the way back from school.
…If I don’t want to pay double at the convenience store.
“Mart? Sounds good!”
Shiyeon responds cheerfully to the suggestion of visiting the mart.
I know well why that cheerful positivity comes out.
“Only two packs of snacks.”
“Okay…”
As I firmly limited the number of snacks, Shiyeon visibly grew sullen.
We usually eat delivery food except for lunch at school.
Even so, it’s a bit excessive to fill ourselves with snacks during the growth phase.
Koreans need their rice power.
Once we arrive at the mart, I set Shiyeon free to pick her preferences first.
“Just decide what you want and wait at the checkout.”
“Okay!”
No sooner had the words left my mouth than Shiyeon dashed towards the snack aisle with short steps.
I wonder what kind of giant snacks she’ll bring back.
Last time, when I limited the quantity, she brought back a corn snack that was the size of her body!
‘Is this where the coffee mix is…’
With grocery bags in hand that barely fit, I moved through the mart, passing by dandelion tea, ginseng tea, hot chocolate, and coffee mix until I found what I was looking for.
The cookie and chocolate stick packs that I had just distributed to the class today.
I grabbed one pack at a time and stacked them in a corner of the shopping basket, leaving about three packs.
Two packs of strawberry flavor, and one pack of chocolate and banana flavor.
Seven packs of twenty pieces each.
Even this amount feels a bit overwhelming for a young child to carry alone.
Thinking that this is what I’ll share with the small kids in the class makes my stomach ache a little…
But if a few powdered sticks that can be mixed with milk can silence those rude mouths, it would be a bargain.
“That’ll be 37,000 won. Do you have a point card?”
“No.”
With a firm response, the snacks and paper packs were placed in a black plastic bag with the calculation.
I bought one more bag to let Shiyeon carry the snack bag herself, while I tried my best to fit the rest into my bag.
For the items that wouldn’t fit, I stuffed them into the remaining bag and hugged it.
Since the weight became quite significant, it was heavy to carry with one hand, and I had no choice but to let it drag on the ground.
Of course, at some point, I ended up carrying it with one hand, even when it started tearing at the bottom.
We returned to the apartment, struggling with the purchases from the mart.
A gomtaengi crawled out from my pocket smartphone, and Shiyeon’s mascot slipped out from her bag.
Normally, the gomtaengi should have gone straight to the cushion, but it lingered around the entrance, close to me.
Watching that sight, the frustration rose to my throat.
“Stop acting like a dog wanting to take a dump, and if you have something to say, say it.”
Eventually, harsh words slipped out.
The creature that had been fidgeting nearby reached its hands towards me.
“Uh… May I use Mary’s smartphone for a moment?”
Seeing it struggle just to ask for a smartphone, I felt a twinge of pity and took my phone from my pocket to toss it to it.
“Here, take it.”
Successfully catching the phone that had left my hand in a parabolic arc with its plush physique.
“Just be moderate with the gazing.”
I added the words casually and headed towards my bed.
A voice filled with delight, like a child receiving a toy from a gomtaengi, could be heard.
“Yay-woo!”
‘It does have its own unique flavor in the gallery.’
Thinking that, I didn’t bother to pay attention to what it was doing and pulled out notifications from my bag to check what was going on.
Information about the upcoming on-site learning experience.
Other than that, it was just ordinary notices sent to parents about the green mothers’ association and precautions around the school.
[Hello! The chilly spring season has passed, and the warm sun is shining on the earth as the hot season approaches. Birds are chirping and flowers are blooming, making this a great environment for students to learn and engage in activities. We ask for the active cooperation of parents who wish for their children to experience and enjoy nature with friends during this wonderful season.]
‘On-site learning experience…’
Amidst all the polite words, half of it seems just useless information regarding the on-site learning experience.
Sure, it sounds glossy, but isn’t it just a picnic?
After some unnecessary explanations, there’s a paper listing the schedule and items to prepare.
‘If you write it this long, some people might not understand.’
I remembered an example of a dim-witted parent who thought lunch meant jjajangmyeon and jjamppong, rather than a meal.
Now, being in the position of the reader rather than someone handing it to someone else.
Being in the situation where a first grader must carefully read the family notice…
The life of a magical girl is quite pathetic.
Still, if no one else will do it, I have no choice.
‘I need to buy wet tissues and a lunch box.’
Checking for items not present at home, just as I was about to get my phone back to place the order…
“Shiyeon! Mary!”
Shiyeon’s mascot filled the apartment room with a desperate voice.
With that tone, I felt I could easily guess the story without needing to hear more.
Peeking out of the second-floor bed with my head, I replied in a nonchalant tone.
“Why, is a monster out?”
“Yeah! It’s really close by!”
“Ugh, damn it.”
I muttered, making a face at the answer indicating it was nearby.
For magical girls, it’s prohibited to transform at their own houses to keep their identities secret.
This is one of the few rules in this silly world.
In other words, I need to go far from the apartment, transform, and then return.
I got up from the bed, took a small mask from the closet, and stuffed it into my pocket.
I kicked the gomtaengi, who was still fiddling with the phone on the cushion.
Why isn’t this guy saying anything?
“Hey, stop gazing. Why aren’t you talking?”
Only then did it raise its head to look at me.
“Uh? Ah… Did a monster appear?”
“This guy is unbelievable.”
The utterly absurd question made me reflexively curse.
I can’t believe it…
If it can’t even do the bare minimum as a monster radar, what’s its worth?
I snatched the phone from the gomtaengi’s hands and shoved it into my pocket. For the sake of transformation, I prepared to head out with Shiyeon.
“Ah…!”
“Let’s go and talk when you get back.”
At the moment I snatched the phone, it let out a sound that was almost a groan of panic.
Grabbing its head, I slipped on my sneakers and went out the entrance.
Leaving the apartment complex, Shiyeon and I chant the transformation spell in an unused public bathroom at the park.
“Sun.”
“Mun power, transform!”
This peculiar feeling of flying back near home from a park far away.
Holding the face of the gomtaengi, who had been derelict in its duties, tightly with five fingers, I firmly declared three words.
“Lead the way.”
“Yes, yes… Southeast.”
With the direction provided in a voice laced with panic, we soared through the clouds.
In just a few minutes, we returned near the apartment, hovering over the center of the road.
Unlike last time, I managed to reduce our speed and had the leisure to look down from the high sky at the road where the monster appeared.
“There, that must be it.”
‘Huh?’
At the gomtaengi’s pointing, I grimaced at a familiar head below.
“It’s a squid!”
“It is a squid.”
Shiyeon exclaimed with wide eyes, recognizing it.
She must be happy to see something she knows.
More than that, it’s remarkable that the same monster has come back for a second time to our area.
It was a day worthy of a monument being erected.
“That creature… Isn’t that the one that came last time?”
“Indeed.”
Nodding at the gomtaengi’s words, I looked down at it.
Now that I think of it, wasn’t it said that the method of irritating its nerves is to kill it as quickly and painlessly as possible?
That was rather incompatible with me.
“…I was a bit too easy on it, wasn’t I?”
With the heart decoration on my cane starting to warm up, I told the gomtaengi.
“It was indeed a humanitarian death for someone like you.”
The gomtaengi nodded in agreement.
Yeah. It really wasn’t like me.
With a slap, I brought my palm down on the heart decoration of the cane and briefly felt its warmth.
At that moment, I vowed not to kill it easily this time.
