Ch.208208 – Stories of a Summer 3

# 208 – Stories of a Summer # 3

“I’m lonely.”

“I’m lonely.”

“I wish someone would talk to me.”

The girl had wandered the school for a long time. Not knowing who she was or why she was there. No one noticed her, and no one spoke to her.

The girl attended classes with everyone else and ate in the cafeteria, but no one noticed her. Several springs passed, several winters passed, and still she was alone.

The girl was so lonely that she wanted to talk to anyone at all.

“Solitude is when you end up forgetting even yourself.”

The girl thought of herself as someone playing hide-and-seek.

A game of hide-and-seek that would continue until she met the seeker who would find her.

Then one spring day, the girl met a boy. This boy could see her.

At first, she liked seeing herself reflected in the boy’s eyes. She followed him around because she liked that someone could see her and talk to her.

But the boy rejected the girl.

‘You see me but pretend not to? You insolent boy!’

She was so indignant that she teased and bothered him many times, but soon the girl realized that the boy also lived as if invisible to others.

He was alone. Always alone. Constantly lonely.

The girl began to watch the boy like someone gazing at a flower blooming hazily on a cliff, and she simply couldn’t leave him be.

If only she could be his friend…

The girl’s eyes always followed the boy.

Perhaps because they were similar, she could better understand his sadness and the embarrassment he felt when his awkward attempts to connect with others were casually rejected.

She knew the boy didn’t like her.

She knew their times were different, their seasons were different.

The boy’s uniform had shortened for summer, but hers was always the long winter one.

Their connection and meeting were like parallel lines that could never intersect, wrong from the beginning. Nevertheless, the girl wanted to be with the boy.

Just as one’s eyes are captivated by the brilliance of cherry blossoms even though they’ll fade away in spring, the girl had become enchanted by the boy…

“Found you!”

The girl embraced the boy.

The boy also embraced the girl and cried profusely.

Their feelings and vitality, those adolescent emotions, bloomed around them like cherry blossoms, and I could vaguely sense their feelings.

Watching the two youngsters crying together made my nose tingle. And I felt strange, like I had become a bad person.

“This makes exorcism impossible.”

I could only awkwardly scratch the back of my head.

I needed to earn points diligently, but since the client didn’t want the ghost exorcised, I had no choice but to abandon the job. Soon, the women standing with me in the corridor each had something to say.

“I knew this would happen. Always the same! Another wasted effort!”

“I like it. Reminds me of our old days. It’s romantic. Makes me a bit nostalgic.”

“Look at these cherry blossoms. How can they bloom in summer, inside a classroom?”

Despite their various comments, they seemed to understand my thoughts. Indeed, watching them reminded me of when we were still wearing uniforms and attending school.

Were we like that too? Lying to each other, hurting each other, and then quickly making up?

“Because they can’t be honest with each other.”

I too was once a high school student. Back then, I couldn’t be honest about various things, and I thought showing my true self to others was embarrassing.

My inner self was so fragile that I tried hard to hide myself behind shells of lies and pretense.

That’s why I understood them.

“Cherish those feelings. Those summer days never return.”

“You… playboy! Get away from him!”

The girl shouted at me.

Her growling posture, protecting the boy, looked just like a Chihuahua protecting its owner. Me, a playboy? That’s quite far from who I am.

Did she think that because there were many women around me?

“How rude, Sunae.”

As a teacher, I decided to correct the student’s negative knowledge. Love has no form, so what one defines as love tends to be the answer.

“Just because a man meets multiple women doesn’t mean it can’t be true love. And just because the time and seasons flowing between two people are different doesn’t mean it can’t be love.”

Whether fake or real depends on one’s mindset.

We realized that in some summer long ago, and we still hold that feeling as adults now.

“I hope you both find your answers too.”

Even I thought it was a cool thing to say.

It was a bit teacher-like, wasn’t it?

Yang Juhui, who was busy studying cosmetology, gave me a full admiration.

“Why are you acting so cool? Trying to be an adult?”

“I am plenty adult. Besides, even a broken clock is right twice a day.”

This year, we turned twenty-five.

But honestly, if you ask what being an adult means… I still don’t really know. That day, I who had returned to being a complete clock, ran out of power after turning back time and broke down again.

“That’s right. We’re plenty adult.”

Swoosh-

Yu Dahui linked arms with me.

Soon, Dahui asked with narrowed eyes.

“So when are we getting married?”

“Th-that’s… after Jeongseok definitely revises the polygamy law…”

“Why is that ball being passed to me?”

Jeongseok trembled.

Soon, Kwon Sua pulled my arm.

“You haven’t forgotten that tomorrow is our date, right? We agreed to play together in Summoner’s Rift!”

“What are you talking about? Tomorrow we’re supposed to look for hair salon locations together!”

“What? You promised to go to the bookstore with me!”

Squeeze-

The women started pulling at my arms and head. I truly felt like a criminal tied to a bull and rope, being torn apart.

“Arghhhh!”

# # #

“Hello, teacher.”

While I was installing a sign under the scorching sun for a small hair salon that was about to open downtown, someone greeted me.

It was a tall student. He had his arm linked with a female student.

Who is it?

Even with my brows furrowed, it was hard to recognize him, but when the girl shouted “Playboy…!” at me, I could tell who the boy was.

“Has it been a month? Why have you changed so much in such a short time?”

It was a hot summer vacation. Only a month had passed since that incident, but the boy had grown taller and his expression seemed full of confidence.

Thirty days. Not a strange amount of time for a high school boy to grow significantly.

“Then I’ll see you at school.”

Bow.

The boy bowed to me and disappeared into the distance. While I was staring blankly at his retreating figure, Yang Juhui, who was struggling to hang the sign, spoke to me.

“How does this look? Should I lower it a bit more?”

“It all looks the same to me.”

“You never put in any effort, seriously.”

Juhui grumbled.

I said to her:

“Do you really need to work? Why not just live off my wealth?”

“A life depending only on men doesn’t suit me.”

Yang Juhui had become the hair designer she dreamed of. She opened the shop with money she earned herself. Although she took out a loan, it was quite impressive that she was building the career she wanted on her own.

“Juhui, you’ve become an adult in the blink of an eye.”

“What are you saying? Am I the only one who’s grown up?”

Yang Juhui’s face reddened.

Whether from the summer heat or for some other reason, I seemed to both know and not know the reason.

The boy and girl had disappeared among the crowd.

I closed my eyes slowly, savoring their afterimage, and asked:

“If you could go back to high school, what would you do?”

“It was fun. Second and third year passed so quickly. Everyone was busy studying, but we were busy catching ghosts. If I could go back…”

Juhui came down from the sign.

She shook her head.

“I don’t really want to go back. I like where I am now. Why? Do you miss those days?”

“No. But you were all high school girls then. So fresh and young.”

“We’re still young!”

Thwack-!

Yang Juhui’s hand struck my side perfectly. The sound was loud but it didn’t hurt. Nevertheless, I had to scream “Aaaah!” pretending it hurt.

This was our relationship maintenance know-how accumulated over many years.

Soon Yu Dahui, Kwon Sua, and Teacher Hong Miri came to visit Juhui’s shop. The small shop in a corner of downtown was quite cute and charming.

“I’ll gift you a wreath! I’m earning a lot these days! My secondary VTuber account is doing really well too!”

Kwon Sua had become a successful internet broadcaster. She had so many viewers that the chat moved too fast to read. Women confident in their work are always impressive.

“…I… I…”

Dahui stuttered.

Come to think of it, what has Dahui been doing lately? Although we met about every other day, I hadn’t asked in detail what she’d been doing since graduating university. Dahui still has many secrets and remains mysterious.

“Dahui, what have you been up to lately? Still preparing to debut as an author?”

“…I’m writing ‘I Became a Legendary Raccoon.’ It’s a fable-like story about a person who one day becomes a raccoon and meets various animal friends…”

“I Became a Legendary Raccoon.”

What a peculiar story. Suddenly I thought of Dahui’s younger sister, Nayu. Isn’t she old enough to enter middle school next year?

To think that the little kid who used to run around like a raccoon is already a middle schooler.

“How’s Nayu?”

“Nayu… seems to be meeting some strange friend lately. She talks to herself a lot. Like she’s hiding something in corners of the house. She keeps trying to keep secrets from me.”

Since Dahui’s sister is a middle schooler, it’s natural for her to have a secret or two. While I was thinking this, Dahui added:

“She’s eating twice as much as usual. Snacks too, twice as much.”

“Isn’t that just because she’s growing?”

“I also ate twice as much as others when I was growing up!”

Indeed, it seems Kwon Sua ate twice as much as others.

That’s probably why she grew twice as much.

However, Dahui spoke as if something was bothering her.

“Recently, I saw Nayu walking around with something strangely wiggly. I thought it might be a heat haze, but that wiggly feeling is definitely something I’ve seen before… that kind of wiggliness…”

Wiggly…

After pondering for a while, something seemed to dawn on me.

Could it be the Shop Owner?

The Shop had been broken and unusable since some time ago!