Translator: Wan ED/PR: novio
23. 50% attendance rate (2)
Ju Su-hyeok’s room.
Lying down on the bed, Ju Su-hyeok roughly closed the hologram window with the schedule he had checked.
He sighed with a depressed face.
‘I think I know what Grandfather is thinking.’
Recently, requests for party attendance continued.
They weren’t simple offers to attend parties.
Adults, under all kinds of excuses, were pushing him to always accompany the same person, the 3rd year Guideline Club’s president, Oh Hyeji.
At this point, even Ju Su-hyeok couldn’t help but notice it.
The decisive evidence was the message which arrived now.
[Hyeji noona] They said I’ll be going together with you to the board party this time?
[Me] The one prepared with TC?
[Hyeji noona] Uhu. This time it’s your tuxedo and my dress. I think they want to match us in the same place and with the same dress code.
[Me] What?!
Ju Su-hyeok, who couldn’t expect the said things to truly go this far, was startled.
‘It’s the same as announcing that we’re in an official relationship at a public event!’
He always left all things like clothes to Kim Cheol, who acted the role of both his secretary and bodyguard.
‘Uisin and Hyodon are also coming that day!’
If it goes wrong, he may be misunderstood by his highschool friends.
Ju Su-hyeok felt a headache.
[Hyeji noona] That day I’ll deliberately spill champagne and wear a spare dress. But it’ll be ruined if there is a Player possessing a restoration superpower. You also prepare a spare tuxedo just in case.
[Me] Yep!
[Hyeji noona] I want to run away too.
[Me] I’m sorry, Hyeji noona.
[Hyeji noona] Su-hyeok, did you do anything wrong? It’s just because those old geezers went senile ^^!
‘Hyeji noona would also hate being forced to be engaged and then marry.’
Oh Hyeji’s older sister, Oh Hyejeong ended up running away after she was half-forced into announcing her engagement to Ju Su-hyeok’s older cousin twice removed.
Oh Hyejeong wasn’t as strong as Oh Hyeji, but she was a person possessing enough willpower and ability to knock out her bodyguards and flee.
In the waiting room of the hall, where her engagement ceremony was arranged to take place, she wrote a big and savage ‘Fuck you’ with cutlery and then she disappeared.
‘I was terribly surprised at that time.’
It was Oh Hyejeong who usually avoided press and didn’t often participate in official events.
At that time, there were many rumors circulating about her actions and that she was born with supernatural powers, but that she was sickly, timid, shy, etc.
However, recalling those two words, ‘Fuck you’, she left behind in that engagement ceremony hall, all those rumors were clearly fake.
The reason Oh family didn’t show Oh Hyujeong to the public must have been to hide her hot-tempered character.
‘I guess Hyeji noona still can’t find her.’
As the motive of Oh Hyejeong’s run away was triggering, no public search was possible and her face wasn’t well known, so it was difficult to expect any clues.
In fact, Ju Su-hyeok was supporting Oh Hyejeong in his heart.
‘Both of the two didn’t seem to be interested in each other. Can’t they just date and marry the person they like?’
Just as he finished this thought, An Dain’s face flashed in Ju Su-hyeok’s mind.
His heart warmed, but at the same time, Ju Su-hyeok recalled his circumstances and his face turned gloomy.
He felt suffocated inside, so he wanted to make a slight digression, if not run away.
***
A school truant, Min Geunrin.
I had a certain degree of understanding of the information about Min Geurin, the Playable Character, in the game.
‘Still, there are many facts I didn’t know.’
Among numerous Playable Characters, Min Geurin’s importance was on the smaller side.
Moreover, she had never appeared inside of Eungwang School.
‘I thought she was like this because she hated going to school, but considering the movements I saw until now, it doesn’t seem so.’
Because if Min Geurin truly hated going to school, she wouldn’t show herself during mid-term exams.
Min Geurin, who in the game always moved together with her childhood friend Song Daeseok.
It bothered me that Min Geurin only attended school on the first day of mid-term exams.
‘Because of the incident in the past, Min Geurin was described to have post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD in other words. Even so, she came to school. She is trying to overcome it with her own effort!’
But she seems to want to escape if there are many people.
[(Unknown)] It’s marked as read
[(Unknown)] Why there is no reply
[(Unknown)] It’s the device of the 1st year class 0 vice president, correct? [1]
A minute didn’t even pass while I was locked up in thoughts, but messages urging to reply poured out.
‘She is both actively sending messages and during the previous time, when I spoke up to her, she also replied straight away. There may be no problems if she faces someone 1 on 1, or the number of people is small.’
She has a will to overcome it and there is no problem with communication.
‘Is there no way for Min Geurin to continue attending school besides Teacher’s Day?’
Min Geurin’s information I knew through the game.
Min Geurin’s trauma.
The 1st year class 0.
I recalled the information I possessed and the resources I could use.
‘… I can come up with nothing but a very simple and ignorant solution.’
Even so, it was better to try and be destroyed.
If I don’t grab the current opportunity, I have no idea when Min Geurin will come to school again.
[Me] That’s right, it’s the 1st year class 0 vice president. Sorry for replying late.
[Me] As I said previously, if you come to school tomorrow, I’ll give you the ‘Water Droplet with the Breath of a Mermaid’.
[(Unknown)] I know. When can I go back?
[Me] We plan to have a simple party during the day-start meeting. Go after that.
[(Unknown)] … Can’t I go home straight away?
I guess she was thinking of grabbing a bite and fleeing if needed.
[Me] You can’t. You have to stay at least until the day-start meeting ends. I’ll give you an item card after the day-start meeting ends.
There was no reply for a moment.
[(Unknown)] Ah, I can’t… Too many people ㅜ_ㅜ…
[Me] You have no thoughts of continuing to attend the school even in the future?
[(Unknown)] Ah, I can’t because there are so many people!
It’s not ‘I hate it’ because there are so many people, it’s ‘I can’t’ because there are so many people.
Then if I solve that ‘can’t because there are so many people problem’, Min Geurin may continue to attend school.
[Me] If you accept one more of my conditions, I’ll let you go before the day-start meeting ends.
[(Unknown)] … What is it?
After I spoke about the condition, even though Min Geurin was dubious, she sent a reply, ‘Okay’.
I still couldn’t know if Min Geurin would stay in the classroom until the end of Teacher’s Day, but the opportunity was obtained.
‘Then, it’s late, but I should go shopping.’
I jumped up from the sofa and went shopping at night.
Luckily, the stores in Eungwang District, which were still operating, sold what I needed, so there was no event of going to visit a distant location.
***
Teacher’s Day, morning.
I, Sawol Seeum, Han Yi and Hwang Jiho, who were in charge of procuring food, met in front of the West Gate early in the morning.
“It’s the first time I’m visiting it in person.”
Listening to what Hwang Jiho said when we were selecting the menu in the classroom, he seemed to be a regular customer of the bakery in front of West Gate.
Looks like he used the delivery service or ordered his subordinates until now, if it was his first time coming here in person.
“I come here at least once every two days!”
“Me too.”
“Shall we go together next time? There are pastries that are too big to eat alone, so… I think it will be fine if we divide it half and half.”
“Okay!”
Sawol Seeum and Han Yi smiled brightly as they made a promise.
They come here every two days? I didn’t expect them to come here so often.
“There are a lot of people.”
“It seems that almost all the people here are from our school.”
“I’m glad we made a reservation.”
The people going inside of the bakery or waiting outside were divided in the reservation queue and general queue.
One of the famous gourmet places in the Eungwang District, the handmade bakery in front of West Gate, ‘MITRON’.
The bakery’s name in French meant ‘baker’s assistant’.
‘Compared to its taste and reputation, the name is extremely humble.’
The four of us stood in the reservation queue.
Unlike the general queue, the reservation queue where we stood moved quickly as people collected the pastries and cakes they reserved.
After we entered the bakery, a sweet scent of baked bread and cookies wafted over us.
“Please, come in. Eungwang School’s 1st year class 0 students, yes?”
“Hello!”
“Hello.”
A man wearing an outfit appropriate for a patissier, smiled softly as he stretched out a wrapped box towards us.
As if he was acquainted with regular customers like Sawol Seeum and Han Yi, they exchanged simple pleasantries with each other.
‘It’s the first time I’m seeing MITRON’s patissier in person.’
When I sometimes came to buy bread, the only people on the counter were assumed to be part-timers.
Maybe the time slot wasn’t right?
“Um….”
“What is it?”
Hwang Jiho stared at the patissier with his eyes twinkling ominously.
“It seems he received a powerful blessing from a Jin. Who is that?”
The patissier owner of the handmade bakery ‘MITRON’ was a famous Player.
So there shouldn’t be anything weird about him receiving a powerful blessing from a Jin.
“Our apologies, we made you wait so long! Let’s go!”
“Ok. Let’s go to set things up.”
Sawol Seeum and Han Yi finished paying and came towards us.
I sensed that Hwang Jiho wanted to observe the patissier who received a powerful Jin’s blessing a bit more.
Before Hwang Jiho made any weird sounds, I forcibly pulled him away and headed towards the 1st year class 0’s classroom.
***
1st year class 0’s classroom.
The team in charge of carnations prepared flowers to be attached to Ham Geun-hyeong’s clothes and a flower basket.
I saw a pure-white basket filled with red carnations and between carnations were clusters of baby’s-breaths[2] and hinoki cypress.
The flower basket was tied with velvet ribbon and on the side blue decorations shaped like bows and arrows were attached.
‘Teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim’s Gwangrim is ‘Eyes and Light Bow of Sharpshooter’ and his alias is Great Archer of Blue Sky, so those decorations were selected because of it, huh?’
No one would sell a flower basket with bows and arrows decorations from the beginning, so they had to buy them separately.
“We bought those decorations at the Namdaemun[3] accessories material shop!”
Because I was staring at the bows and arrows decorations, Kim Yuri explained with a smile.
“Isn’t the Namdaemun Market far away from the Yangjae Flower Market?”
“It doesn’t take more than 40 minutes if you take a taxi.”
It seems to take long enough.
“Looking around the Namdaemun Market was so fun.”
“Yeah! There were so many amazing things. I wanted to buy so many things I don’t even need to, and…”
“Lena bought more than ten violin shaped patches and ornaments only. But I also bought a few in magnolia shape.”
“Uu…. I bought a little too many, but even so, there are no regrets!”
Maeng Hyodon and Lee Lena, who were moving desks, also chimed in during the conversation.
It took much more time compared to the food procuring team, but luckily it seemed that the three had fun playing around.
As we finished the desk arrangement and then completed setting up cakes, the time promised with Min Geurin drew closer.
I had to ask something from the children before Min Geurin came.
When I was thinking how to start.
“The vice president is smiling suspiciously again.”
Before I could say anything, Maeng Hyodon gathered the class kids’ gazes.
“Hahahaha!”
“It seems that Uisin has something to say.”
It was a bit bitter that no one refuted that ‘suspicious’ modifier, but I spoke up.
“I have a request.”
I stretched out things I bought yesterday towards the 1st year class 0’s children.
***
Comparatively quiet 1st year building entrance on the side of class 0.
Min Geurin, who was hiding in the shade of the stairs, saw me coming and walked out after checking her surroundings.
Even today, it was a wrapped appearance with horn-rimmed glasses without a prescription and a hooded jacket over the head.
‘That paper envelope… Is it a present for Ham Geun-hyeong?’
Min Geurin was hugging a paper envelope about A4 paper size.
“I came. I’ll try to do like you say and if it doesn’t work, I’ll just go home straight away. If that happens, you will send the item card through Player exclusive mail.”
Looks like Min Geurin thought on her own and then came.
I nodded straight away.
“Okay.”
“… Really? If you don’t give it, I’ll tell teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim!”
I guess Min Geurin has a better relationship with Ham Geun-hyeong than I thought.
If so, then the chances of my simple and ignorant scheme succeeding are bigger.
“I’ll give you the item card even if you just drop by our class’ classroom once.”
I recalled the 1st year class 0 kids who didn’t question my abrupt suggestion very much and accepted it straight away.
“It will be nice if you just see our class’ kids.”
I stretched towards Min Geurin, an item I bought last night.
*~*~*
[1] It’s the device of the 1st year class 0 vice president, correct? – she switched to a polite tone here when she thought she may be talking to a stranger.
[2] baby’s breaths – they’re called fog flowers in Korean…
Also here is some flower language:
Red carnations – wishes for health, respect, (also a parent’s love)
Hinoki cypress – unchanging love and a prayer
For a baby’s breaths… I don’t have a color so there could be too many possible meanings.
[3] Namdaemun – Namdaemun market. Think of a big popular market.
Translator’s note: … If one of my theories is correct… then something very cute happened in this chapter.
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
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