Ch.29Chapter 29. (True) Heroine

“I’m going to be Cuss’s mother!”

Holy shit, am I hearing things?

What the hell is this person saying with such a confident face?

“Ms. Juliane. What exactly are you—”

“Mr. Jinsoo, please stay quiet.”

“…”

Ms. Juliane strode into the classroom, passing by me while giving me a quick wink.

Is she telling me to leave this to her?

No, seriously, what the hell is she planning by suddenly pretending to be Cuss’s mother?

“When Mr. Jinsoo isn’t around, I take care of Cuss. And I’d appreciate an apology for that autism comment. That’s clearly offensive.”

“What the… Anyway, it’s a fact that she committed the atrocity of hitting our child!”

“Shouldn’t we look at the full context?”

Ms. Juliane practically snatched the tablet from the homeroom teacher.

She pressed play to watch the video, then quickly paused it.

“Why is there no sound? According to federal law, school indoor CCTV systems must have recording capabilities.”

“Well… the CCTV’s audio recorder malfunctioned…”

“Is that so? Then let’s go to the database room and check whether it’s really broken or if someone deliberately deleted the audio.”

“T-that… The database can’t be accessed freely even by staff except in emergencies. Even if the principal were to come…”

“Then I’ll get a warrant. That would make it accessible.”

“Are you serious?”

A low voice rang out.

The politician—Slider or whatever—who had been listening to the argument between the homeroom teacher and Ms. Juliane cut in.

“You’re going to take this to court?”

“That’s a separate issue from the children’s fight. I’m only interested in addressing in court how the school arbitrarily deleted audio to apply unfavorable treatment to a specific student. Of course, if you want to claim medical expenses, we can take the children’s fight to court as well.”

“Listen, miss. Why are you trying to escalate this? Regardless of the circumstances, the fact that your daughter used violence against Tom remains unchanged.”

“Verbal abuse is treated similarly. Shall we follow our school rules then? If we examine the database and find that Tom used language that violates school rules, this becomes a mutual incident. Cuss might not be able to avoid expulsion, but your son would at least face suspension.”

Slider’s brow furrowed.

She was mentioning some kind of law and database stuff.

I didn’t understand what she was talking about, but I could tell that Ms. Juliane had thrown the politician off balance.

“Let’s do this by the law and school rules. Wouldn’t that be right?”

“Medical expenses. Can you afford them?”

“Depending on what Tom said when we examine the audio recordings, the compensation amount could be significantly reduced. If you’re confident, let’s go to court. I’m confident. Cuss isn’t the type of child who would throw punches over simple insults.”

“…”

Slider squeezed his eyes shut.

Though I know nothing about law, I could roughly understand how the situation was unfolding.

If he doesn’t accept the settlement and goes to court, the fight would drag on, but both Cuss and that boy would end up being punished.

In that case, I’d clearly suffer the greater loss, but Slider would face the dishonor of his son being punished at school for verbal abuse.

His name would also be in the media when a warrant is issued for the CCTV footage.

For Slider, who’s facing an upcoming election, this would be unwelcome news.

‘What the hell?’

Does that mean this crazy woman is going for a mutual destruction strategy?

You lunatic. I can’t afford medical expenses.

I definitely can’t afford lawsuit costs.

Stop this right now.

“Hahaha!”

“…?”

Just as I was about to grab Ms. Juliane’s shoulder and pull her back, Slider burst into hearty laughter.

“What’s the point of turning children’s fights into adult battles? I was mistaken. Tom, don’t you have something to say?”

“Y-yes?”

“Hurry up.”

Tom, pushed forward, awkwardly stepped up.

He looked at Cuss and painfully parted his lips.

“S-sorry… for saying… harsh things…”

“Haha. Let’s end this children’s fight at the children’s level. He wasn’t badly hurt anyway, and kids can certainly have their scuffles, right?”

“It wasn’t a scuffle, he was one-sidedly beaten—”

“Shh. You be quiet.”

Wow. The situation has been resolved.

Today, Ms. Juliane looks not just pretty but radiant.

Damn, what is this?

Is this why people say education is important?

Maybe I should have studied law instead of mechanical engineering.

“Still, I hope this doesn’t happen again. If it does, I might not be so accommodating next time. Haha.”

“Yes. This won’t happen again.”

I shook hands with the chuckling Slider.

I could feel his grip crushing my hand.

Oh, look at this bastard.

I squeezed back just as hard.

“Ahem, um… I’ll be going now.”

Slider hastily withdrew his hand, rubbing it while glaring at me.

Shit. I think I’ve made an enemy of a local dignitary and politician.

This is going to be rough going forward.

Soon, Tom and his parents disappeared from the classroom.

As soon as the door slammed shut, Ms. Juliane’s smiling expression changed completely.

“Teacher. Was it your decision to delete the audio?”

“N-no! I really heard it was broken… When I requested the footage from the management room, it came like this. I didn’t do anything!”

“Sigh… Fine. There’s no way to verify now anyway.”

When Ms. Juliane’s fierce gaze turned to the homeroom teacher, her face turned pale.

Well, that teacher probably just followed orders from above.

What fault does she have?

Looking out the window, I could see children playing energetically in the schoolyard.

I wondered if we’d taken too much of their lunch break.

Ms. Juliane and I, like fedora-wearing detectives escorting an alien, held Cuss’s hands on both sides as we left the classroom.

“Cuss. Go out and play with the other kids now.”

“Can’t I… just go home now?”

Cuss clung to me, whimpering.

Why is she acting like this?

You were the one who hit him.

“These things happen. You have to get through it. But try to restrain your fists. From now on, only hit fourth graders or above.”

“Mm. Okay.”

“Um, Mr. Jinsoo…?”

Cuss’s expression became a little stronger.

I roughly patted her head and stood up.

From now on, it’s Cuss’s business.

Whether she becomes enemies with Tom or somehow makes peace.

The apologies they exchanged today were probably forced, so they wouldn’t have much effect.

“Go now. You’re being gross.”

“Jinsoo… I’m sorry for causing trouble again. But I hope you won’t abandon me…”

“Come on. Cut that out. When have you ever not caused me trouble? If I was going to throw you out for that, I would’ve done it long ago.”

“…”

“Cleaning up your mess is my job, kid. So don’t worry about unnecessary things and just go.”

“Okay…”

When I let go of her hand, Cuss slowly moved forward.

She occasionally looked back to check my reaction, then finally started running toward the playground where the other children were playing.

There probably wouldn’t be any more beatings today.

I felt slightly relieved as I awkwardly walked through the school grounds with Ms. Juliane.

“Were you following me?”

I broke the silence when we reached the parking lot.

By this point, I figured no one could hear us.

“I suppose you could see it that way.”

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

“Shouldn’t a thank you come first? I prevented Cuss from being expelled.”

“…”

I couldn’t bring myself to say I never asked for her help.

After all, I had been praying to God that I would do anything to prevent Cuss from being expelled.

“What are you going to do now?”

“About what?”

“You claimed to be Cuss’s mother. That implies you’re my partner.”

“Sure, why not? Mr. Jinsoo’s partner.”

“What?”

When Ms. Juliane turned around with a broad smile, I felt my breath catch.

Wait, is this a confession?

Who confesses like this with zero romance?

I wanted to be confessed to at the top of a Ferris wheel in an amusement park while receiving a ring.

“Let’s make a deal, Mr. Jinsoo.”

“What kind of deal?”

“I’ll become your partner. I’ll take care of Cuss when you’re not around, and on days like today, I’ll provide legal advice.”

“And what’s the price?”

“You’re cautious. Even though a beautiful, young, and intelligent woman is offering to date you.”

“You mean pretend to date, right?”

“Well, you can take it that way if you like.”

Finding Ms. Juliane’s closeness uncomfortable, I stepped back slightly.

It was certainly a sweet offer.

Having someone to take care of Cuss when I’m not home is a huge merit.

If we can appear to not be a single-parent family, we might be able to reduce some of the discriminatory looks directed at Cuss.

At least she won’t be called “the girl without a mother” anymore.

“What’s the price?”

“Cooperate with me. I want to uncover the truth about that incident from ten years ago.”

“Give it up. That can never be uncovered.”

“You couldn’t uncover it. But I can.”

“…”

So the price for this fake relationship was her own achievement.

Why on earth does she want to dig up such an old case?

It’s already over.

Well, I can’t understand the sensibilities of people from the Justice Department.

If I can improve Cuss’s environment by just sharing some old stories…

If I can prevent her from following the same path as a bug like me, then that’s a cheap price to pay.

I sighed and extended my hand.

“It’s an old story, so I don’t remember well. It might take time to recall everything.”

“That’s fine. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. So, we have a deal.”

“…?”

Ms. Juliane took my hand as if to shake it, then raised it to chest level.

Then she hooked her pinky finger with mine and smiled.

“What is this?”

“I heard this is how promises are supposed to be made.”

“Huh…”

It’s been a while since I’ve done a pinky promise.

I don’t think I’ve done one since I grew up.

Standing like this, I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at the absurdity.