SMW 8

“Choi Seol is in the field?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Didn’t you know? I mean, how have you been treating your friend that the poor kid is out here wandering around since dawn? He looks like a lost lamb—no, a lost wolf. Dammit, my eyes are enjoying the view, but it’s so pitiful I could cry.”

“Noona, hold on a second.”

Normally, I would have snapped back at Noona’s exaggerations, but I wasn’t in the mood. I dashed straight to the main gate in one breath. Fortunately, I didn’t have to search far. Choi Seol wasn’t near the field Noona mentioned, but was standing next to the utility pole where the trash is collected, together with the Village Head.

“Is Yeo-reum awake?”

The Village Head noticed me first.

“Hello.”

“I came out at dawn and found this young man wandering around. I’ve been holding onto him and giving him a bit of an explanation.”

“An explanation?”

“He was explaining the situation regarding yesterday’s accident,” Choi Seol said.

His voice was calm. Only then did I look at Choi Seol, and he spoke to me again as if nothing were wrong.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

Is this the ‘beauty effect’ where anger just vanishes the moment you see their face? I had intended to nag him about why he was wandering around so early without a word the moment I found him, but I found myself merely nodding shyly.

“Han Yeo-reum, you left me behind again… Huh? You’re already here. Father, what are you doing over there?”

With the timely appearance of Hae-sook Noona following behind, the kind Village Head’s expression shifted instantly.

“Hae-sook, you brat! Why are you just now coming back! Your mother was worried all night. You girl don’t know how to come and go at a decent hour!”

“How can a police officer come and go at a ‘decent hour’? I have to catch criminals.”

“What? Criminals? Is this brat actually proud of that? I’m so stolen contentembarrassed I can’t even visit our sitetell people my daughter became a cop.”

“As expected of my father. You still can’t keep up with the times. What does man or woman even matter these days? If anything, I’m better at catching criminals.”

“Times or whatever, I don’t know about any of that. That’s why no men stick to you. Do you think a decent young man would like a tomboy like you?”

“I’m not getting married.”

“Why! Why on earth won’t you get married!”

Here we go again. Suddenly caught in the middle of the two, I stealthily leaned closer to Choi Seol. I hoped that the sparks wouldn’t fly my way, but experience told me that was unlikely.

“Yeo-reum, you say something. What is this brat saying now? That she’ll die an old maid for the rest of her life?”

“Me? Ah, well…”

“Why ask him? If you’re going to be like that, these two are almost thirty, so they’re already old bachelors. Why are you only picking on me?”

“Thirty? Yeo-reum, are you already that old?”

“I still have three years left,” I answered quickly, poking Choi Seol in the ribs. I sent a silent signal of pressure to the guy—who was looking at me [visit our site]wondering why I did that—that this was all his fault for coming out so early, but perhaps he had lost his intuition along with his visit our sitememories, as he just continued to stand there blankly. Just as I poked his ribs again out of frustration…

“Village Head. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have something to ask the officer. May I excuse myself for a moment?”

It seemed Choi Seol’s intuition had finally returned. Noona quickly seized upon that cue.

“Ah! Right. That’s why I’ve been moving busily since early morning. Father, go back inside first.”

“Oh, oh. Alright, I got it. Our Hae-sook is incredibly good at her job. I’ll head back now; be sure to tell me if you need any help.”

In the end, the Village Head went inside, concluding the conversation warmly with praise for his daughter—though not without leaving a warning for Noona to return home immediately.

“Seriously, I am definitely getting out of this house.”

Noona ground her teeth once the Village Head was out of sight. It would have been better if she had taken her exams in Seoul and moved there in the first place; having been unable to leave her hometown, Noona had been vowing to achieve independence millions of times for ten years.

“Thank you. You saved me,” Noona said with a smile to Choi Seol, ignoring me.

“By the way, I was surprised to see you out at dawn in a neighborhood you’re not familiar with. I thought Yeo-reum had kicked you out.”

“I just came out because I wanted some fresh air.”

“I suppose. The air is great here. All rural areas are like that, but our village has particularly beautiful scenery and is great for walks. Ask Yeo-reum to show you around other spots later.”

I looked at her as if protesting why she was assigning me such a tedious task, but Noona didn’t even glance my way. It seemed she didn’t even have time to spare for that.

“Now, shall we get to the main point?”

Still, as the Village Head said, she was a police officer with a strong sense of professional duty, so Noona brought up work—not as an excuse, but for real.

“I’ll tell you about the car that crashed. I think my father—I mean, the Village Head—already explained it, but see this utility pole? The car hit this. It seems a stone flew up and broke the windshield. As you requested, I contacted the insurance company and took provisional measures. It’s currently at a service center for repairs. Since it’s quite an expensive car, even with insurance, the repair time will be long and the cost will be significant… well, other than that, there shouldn’t be any major issues.”

Noona handed Choi Seol an envelope stamped with the police station mark.

“Here are the documents with your personal information, Mr. Choi Seol. The resident registration transcript inside should have your current residential address.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, the location of the lost phone was tracked to the address on the transcript. It’s highly likely you didn’t bring it from home at all. I suspect the same for your wallet. Once you go home, everything should be resolved.”

Choi Seol said nothing about this part. Only unauthorized copythen did Noona shift her gaze [Read on Read BL Novels]to me. She seemed to be saying something with her eyes. Probably telling me to pay more attention to him.

“Well, that’s all from me. If you need any help, contact me through Yeo-reum. I’ll help as much as I can. And this.”

The last thing Noona handed over was a paper bag.

“Yeo-reum asked me to get some clothes for Mr. Choi Seol yesterday. I bought them based on some advice, so I hope you like them. If the size doesn’t fit, let me know and I’ll change them when you go to work.”

“…Thank you.”

Choi Seol looked back at me as he took the paper bag. I ignored that gaze and greeted Noona.

“Noona, thanks. I’ll transfer the money to you later.”

“You can send it slowly.”

“I don’t want to get hit with an interest bomb.”

“Tsk, you didn’t fall for it.”

Noona stuck out her tongue in disappointment and headed back home, saying she had to go listen to more nagging. The noisy atmosphere suddenly turned quiet. [stolen content]It felt awkwardly silent all of a sudden. I had roles—as a guardian at the hospital and as a homeowner at home—but I still didn’t have [Read on Read BL Novels]a feel for what role I should play now. It’ll probably be fine once we start talking.

“What do you mean you wanted fresh air at the crack of dawn? I was worried you disappeared.”

Though, in truth, I thought it was a dream.

If it weren’t for Noona, I might have just kept sleeping, thinking everything was normal. That’s how surreal the current situation felt, standing side-by-side with Choi Seol looking at the rural rice paddies.

“I usually wake up early. My grandmother doesn’t sleep in, so waking up at that time just became a habit.”

I wondered if I had made another mistake by bringing up his grandmother, but I replied as nonchalantly as possible.

“Really? That must have been hard.”

“On the contrary, I liked it because there are more things I can do if I wake up early. I can exercise or study.”

“So… you mean you woke up in the early dawn to study?”

When I looked at him as if I couldn’t believe it, Choi Seol chuckled.

“Why do you think I ranked first in the whole school without even attending an academy?”

“You didn’t even go to an academy? You mean you really self-studied?”

“Of course. I couldn’t put that kind of burden on my grandmother.”

“Wow, unbelievable… You must be really smart.”

“…Do you think so?”

“Of course. Hey, not everyone is good at everything just because they try. If you have the brains to rank first in school without an academy, it means you already have a talent for studying. You can’t reach first place without that. Either both your parents were good at studying, or the gracious academic genes of ancestors further back have descended upon you.”

‘Studying was the easiest part,’ ‘I focused on the textbooks.’ I used to feel a lot of frustration watching kids like that, but I realized later that those types were just born with a talent for it. I also found out later that while my parents attended school diligently, they were the type to zone out or skip class.

“Come to think of it, I heard from Grandma that my mother was good at studying when she was in school. I heard she got into a prestigious university with a scholarship. Though she couldn’t graduate in the end because she had me.”

I couldn’t bring myself to ask, ‘Then what about your father?’ If a woman had a child alone and the maternal grandmother raised him, there must have been a reason, just as Noona mentioned yesterday. I wasn’t so clueless as to ask something he wasn’t bringing up himself. While I was pondering how to react, Choi Seol changed the subject first, as if the talk about his parents ended there.

“Anyway, seeing how surprised you are, I guess it was unexpected that I studied at dawn?”

“Well… you didn’t seem diligent at all in school. I figured you either Read on Read BL Novelshad a [visit our site]secret tutor or were a once-in-a-century genius.”

Choi Seol chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, I was a bit rebellious back then.”

“Back then?”

“I was quite a model student until middle school.”

Good grief. To think I’d ever hear the words ‘model student’ from Choi Seol’s mouth. This truly felt like a dream.

“You’re bragging right now, aren’t you? Saying you ranked first even though you weren’t a model student?”

“I couldn’t give up my grades. That way, no one would look down on me for not having parents.”

“…”

“Of course, all that effort was useless in the end.”

His bitter voice scattered into the dawn air. Unable to find [visit our site]the right words, I shifted my gaze. Suddenly, the envelope [visit our site]Choi Seol had received from Noona caught my eye.

“Are you going to look at that?”

I wondered why I asked something so obvious. Choi Seol followed my gaze to the envelope in his hand.

“Later.”

But he immediately looked away and folded the envelope in half, as if trying to hide the contents from me. The reaction was so blatant that I felt embarrassed for him. I told myself it was understandable since it contained his personal information, but I still felt strangely disappointed. As I remained silent, Choi Seol spoke first.