Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
59. True nature (11)
Jo Uisin’s birthday was November 1st.
It was this Sunday.
Excluding Hwang-ho and Kim Yuri, the 1st year class 0’s children made surprised faces, as if they heard about this for the first time.
It seemed that majority of the children didn’t know about Jo Uisin’s birthday.
“When did you hear about Uisin’s birthday? I didn’t know until a moment ago.”
“When you save a device code, if you don’t designate a name, a default nickname shows up, right? I saw it by coincidence when organizing my address book, and he had ‘jo2god111’ written.”
“That’s vice president’s ID?… I guess he made it when he was pretty young.”
“Hahaha… It’s an ID that is easy to remember.”
When Jo Uisin needed a login, he usually used the word ‘jo2god111’.
The first letter of his name ‘Jo Uisin’ when changed to English, ‘jo’.
‘의(ui)’ that read like ‘2’ in Korean pronunciation. [1]
And ‘신(sin)’, seemed to be replaced with the English word ‘god’ that had the same meaning.[2]
As Mok Uram expressed, it was a childish ID that could have been made when someone was a child.
If Song Daeseok was here, he would review Jo Uisin’s ID with very sharp comments.
“Then ‘111’ part is his birthday?”
“Ye. I was thinking about it before, so I asked, and he said it was his birthday.”
“It would be difficult to know his birthday with just that. If you put your birthday at the end, don’t you usually write it as 0111 or 1101?”
“I was also confused if his birthday was January 11th or November 1st, but he said it was November.”
After the story of Jo Uisin’s birthday came out, as if wanting to celebrate it with him, all 1st year class 0’s members started to talk about a party and gifts.
Kim Yuri, who was overwhelmed by the control over the Gwangrim.
Hwang-ho, who had lost interest in everything.
Kwon Lena and Sawol Seeum, who was swept in the Fantasy Controversy.
Maeng Hyodon, who was sold by his parent and imprisoned in the Fight Club.
Min Geurin and Song Daeseok, who couldn’t overcome their traumas.
Mok Uram, who was chased by one of the world’s top 10 Player teams ‘Pledge of Three Knights’.
Moreover, though Han Yi wasn’t aware of it, when the service gang, which targeted the Eungwang Brilliant Light Children’s Home, threatened Han Yi, Jo Uisin helped her behind the scenes.
The 1st year class 0’s students, who were currently attending school, were children for who there would be no way for them to be here if not for Jo Uisin.
Whether conscious or unconscious, everyone wanted to celebrate Jo Uisin’s birthday.
“Vice president bought me a cake on my birthday. I’ll buy a cake.”
“Uh, I also received a gift on my last birthday.”
“You too?”
Starting with Maeng Hyodon’s words, testimonies came from all around.
From the start of the school on March 2nd to the current moment, there were six students of the 1st year class 0, whose birthdays have passed.
Kim Yuri, March 27th.
Sawol Seeum, May 21st.
Maeng Hyodon, July 13th.
Min Geurin, August 26th.
Mok Uram, September 23rd.
Hwang-ho, who was born on October 3rd according to the family register.
As the result of checking the people, whose birthdays have passed, it was revealed that Jo Uisin kept track of all class children’s birthday.
Kim Yuri, who kept track of class children’s birthday just like Jo Uisin, seemed to have guessed to a certain extent, but it seemed that other children didn’t know.
“Uisin-i kept track of all class children’s birthdays until now, huh…?”
“I didn’t know other kids’ birthdays, how did he know? Ah, he mentioned that he saw my birthday date in the interview for the art magazine that I did in the past when I was actively producing works.”
“When talking, we sometimes talked about birthdays. It seems that he heard and remembered from that time, and gave me a gift.”
Jo Uisin figured out all key people’s birthdays through the PMH’s setting book.
But to not arouse suspicions and to hand gifts, he acted to naturally guide the conversations to mention birthdays.
Of course, there were exceptions.
“Hahaha, it seemed that he had learned about my birthday a bit late. He congratulated me a few days after.”
“I guess he had no idea, because Uram-i started to attend school starting from the 2nd semester.”
“But what about your birthday? When was it?”
“September. It was quite a while ago.”
Jo Uisin couldn’t figure out Mok Uram’s personal information, as he didn’t appear in PMH.
Because of that, he was late to celebrate his birthday, but anyway, it seemed that he celebrated class children’s birthday without expectation.
The class children naturally talked about the birthday party and gifts for their class friend and benefactor, Jo Uisin.
“I knew that Uisin-i is taking care of our class People. But there is not even a few days remaining until Uisin’s birthday, so how come I didn’t know? I’ll have to start preparing from now!” [3]
“The vice president’s birthday is this Sunday, that’s a big deal. I don’t have enough funds on hand to buy a gift. I’ll work hard on part-time jobs until Sunday.”
“… Uram-ah, where did you uselessly use money again? Buy a gift with me! Absolutely don’t spend money until then!”
“Yes, then I’ll save money until Lena tells me to use it.”
“Ah… Should I start drawing a portrait now? No, there is a drawing I should give him in the future, but isn’t it a bit too bad to give him another drawing as a birthday gift?”
“Can I buy something to eat? Vice president likes to eat things with oranges.”
“But how will we hold a party? I want to prepare a surprise party if we can.”
There were many opinions about the gifts and the party, but they didn’t easily organize.
It was because during the semester they drew a line on exchanging simple gifts on the class children’s birthdays, so it was the first time they held a birthday party.
In Hwang-ho’s case, there was the Ho tribe’s members’ birthday celebration where Jo Uisin was invited, but the birthday party on the class level was different.
‘Jo Uisin’s birthday party… We’re planning to celebrate it on the Ho tribe’s side, but we should be able to hold two parties. As Jo Uisin cherishes class 0’s children, it wouldn’t be bad, eh?’
He recalled that Jo Uisin planned to meet Seong Gukeon on the weekend.
He had no idea for what reason he was meeting with Seong Gukeon, but considering Seong Gukeon’s personality, if he had told him that the appointed day was Jo Uisin’s birthday and the class friends prepared a party, he would cancel it immediately.
‘… I don’t have quite a good feeling about it, eh?’
Hwang-ho just observed without opening his mouth when no one spoke up to him, but he kept feeling discomfort in his heart.
There were several reasons.
The biggest reason was that Jo Uisin kept ignoring his calls.
The second was that Jo Uisin’s family death anniversary and his birthday were extremely close.
‘The day he lost his entire family and his birthday are just a week apart! Then how did he spend his birthday the year he lost his family?’
Hwang-ho imagined how the benefactor, who was at best a middle-schooler, spent his birthday, and pressed his temples because of a flooding headache.
He hoped that he would spend his birthday with different feelings this year, but because it didn’t seem like the benefactor would cooperate, his head hurt even more.
Hwang-ho had one more reason to feel uncomfortable.
‘…. The more I think about it, the more I don’t like it, eh?’
The birthday party itself wasn’t bad.
The problem was what the day of the birthday meant.
The day before November 1st was October 31st, Halloween, it was a compound of the words ‘hallow’ meaning ‘saint’ and ‘even’ meaning ‘eve’.
In other words, Halloween meant a night before the ‘day of all saints’.
The next day, November 1st was All Saints’ Day.
It was a day to commemorate the deaths of saints that were unnamed or those without a dedicated celebration day.
* * *
The time before the 1st semester final exam cramming period.
When I visited Hongcheon to see painter Hong Gyeongbok with Min Geurin and Song Daeseok.
In that place, I ran into teacher Ham Geun-hyeong and Seong Gukeon, who came to Hongcheon on the business trips.
Seong Gukeon showed a wary appearance towards teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim, who was his vice homeroom teacher in the past, and teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim also accepted such an appearance of a student like it was natural.
Teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim wanted to leave out of consideration for Seong Gukeon, but the one who held him back was Seong Gukeon.
— Are You going to just go? Who knows what that old disciple, who caused only trouble, will do with teacher-nim’s young disciple?
— Won’t it be troublesome if I stay here?
— Teacher-nim is a good Person. I also respect You as a Player. However, teacher-nim…
Seeing teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim, who tried to leave out of consideration for a student, and seeing me and Seong Siwan show goodwill towards teacher Ham Geun-hyeong, Seong Gukeon made up his mind to try to talk with him.
And after talking with teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim, Seong Gukeon commented.
— Teacher-nim has changed, eh?
— My apologies. I misunderstood teacher-nim.
It wasn’t easy for a person with a clear standpoint to change their thoughts.
Much more so if it was a judgment engraved in his head in his teens and retained until his 30s.
But Seong Gukeon was different.
Seong Gukeon was a person who knew to accept changes, and recognize his misjudgment and ignorance, and to apologize.
“Such a thing happened….?”
Kim Sinrok, who heard my story, seemed to imagine the scene of his old student and his teacher colleague conversing in his head.
Kim Sinrok repeatedly opened and closed his mouth, hesitating what he should say, and then asked:
“… What did they talk about beside that? How was that child and teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim after reconciliation?”
Seong Gukeon predicted that there were Jin people targeting the Korean Peninsula, and they planned to invade the Eungwang School, which held the most powerful Power of Earth in the Korean Peninsula.
However, though Seong Gukeon was Eungwang School’s graduate and an assemblyman, as he was not a member of school staff or a student, the influence he could exercise in the school was limited.
— Still, I hope you will help. As it’s a dangerous matter, I’ll give you time to think.
— You too, teacher-nim.
And there, after that, Seong Gukeon also requested Ham Geun-hyeong’s help.
It wasn’t an act he could have done if he didn’t believe him.
‘I would be good if I could also reveal that story, but I can’t reveal anything beyond that without Seong Gukeon’s permission.’
I left out that story and briefly conveyed the ordinary talk the two people had.
Kim Sinrok listened attentively to that very basic story.
“… Jo Uisin-gun, can I ask one more question?”
“Please do.”
Kim Sinrok glanced once at me, once at Yong Jegeon.
From those glances, I guessed what he was about to ask.
“Based on this dragon’s words, it seems that Jo Uisin-gun requested something from Yeom Bangyeol-ssi. May ask what it was?”
Yong Jegeon mentioned the request I made to Yeom Bangyeol in front of Kim Sinrok.
While saying that, he mentioned Seong Gukeon’s name and shaken Kim Sinrok’s mentality, so it was obvious he would be curious.
‘I didn’t want to talk about it if possible, but…’
There might be disruptions if I said it now.
There was a high chance that the tiger, who was sending messages at fixed timing, would become a disrupter.
It would be so, as behind that tiger was a very worried Eun-ho.
As they were informed that I was injured, the possibility of stopping me was even stronger.
“…”
Yong Jegeon was making a face like his mouth was itching.
I didn’t know if Yong Jegeon was instigating to stop me together with the tigers, or if it was the opposite.
However, it was clear that if I didn’t speak right now, Yong Jegeon would open his mouth.
At the end of my worries, I decided to speak.
“The world’s top 10 Pro Player teams conquer otherworlds all over the world. In the case of Red Lion, their activity region is Asia, but I heard that Yeom Bangyeol-ssi bought a private plane to prepare for his son studying abroad.”
The Red Lion purchased a private plane not long after Yeom Junyeol decided to study abroad.
It was a private plane bought[4] so he could comfortably go see his son.
“I requested that I and senior Seong Gukeon could use Red Lion team’s private plane.”
*~*~*
[1] ‘의(ui)’ that read like ‘2’ in Korean pronunciation. — Oh, I thought it was for a slightly different reason (의 can be translated to ‘to’), but that works too. 의(ui) sounds very close to 이(this/two, yi)’.
[2] And ‘신(sin), seemed to be replaced with the English word ‘god’ that had the same meaning. — it doesn’t exactly say ‘same meaning’, but that’s the gist of this sentence.
[3] “I knew that Uisin-i is taking care of our class People. But there is not even a few days remaining until Uisin’s birthday, so how didn’t I know? I will have to start preparing from now on!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
[4] bought — Jo Uisin used a bit vulgar way to say ‘to buy’ here.
Translator’s note: Hm…. Considering Kim Sinrok’s abilities as a torture and interrogation expert, he probably noticed that Jo Uisin left out something. That’s probably terribly kind of him.
And Jo Uisin, you remember Eun-ho now?!
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