Ch.55Doyoung’s Favorite Random Game (2)

“That’s too much, Dad! How could you push your own child into the pit of night study sessions?”

After school ended, before Doha-min came for his lesson.

I shouted at my dad who had just returned from his driving shift.

“I never pushed you to do night study sessions, Doyoung. I just told your teacher that if you get the same grades in high school as you did in middle school, I’d sign you up for the night study program.”

“But that’s the same thing! How am I supposed to get better grades when I don’t study? That doesn’t make sense!”

“Then does it make sense that you got those grades in middle school?”

“Gasp.”

“You little brat.”

*Thwack*

Dad’s finger lightly flicked the center of Ban Doyoung’s very flick-able forehead.

“Ow… If my forehead swells up and I can’t get my pure love ending with Ban Doyoung, will you take responsibility…? Even if you do, that would be incest!”

“That’s why you should just study. How can someone who gets upset over losing a single game of rock-paper-scissors be so unenthusiastic about studying? Did I ask you to be first in your class on the next exam? I’m just asking you to show some evidence that you’ve put in even a little effort. Pay attention to your teachers in class, learn what they teach you at school, and remember it. Is that so difficult?”

“Well… it’s not fun. Studying in high school… it’s meaningless… I can use a calculator for math, and for English, I can use Papa Katsu…”

“HAH!”

“Eeeek!”

*Thud*

Before she could even finish saying “Papa Katsu,”

I fell on my butt, pushed back by Dad’s master-level fighting spirit.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m worried about. You only care about things you’re good at or like, and you don’t show any competitive spirit for things you dislike…! That’s what concerns me!”

“M-my body won’t move… I should run away when Dad starts nagging, but…”

My body tensed up and shrank,

My lower body frozen in place.

Just like when Mom scolds me,

My hands were neatly folded together, and my legs were suddenly kneeling.

This was a first.

Ban Doyoung, who normally acted fearlessly and confidently

even when Dad yelled at her while holding a bamboo sword,

was now feeling punished

in front of Dad.

“Doyoung, come here and sit down.”

“I-I’m already sitting. My legs are already pick… I mean, they’re tingling…”

“Just put some spit on your nose!”

“Eeeek…!”

“That’s always your problem, Ban Doyoung. Whenever I try to say something, you immediately change the subject to avoid getting scolded… Since you were young, relatives called you a kendo prodigy, and at school, you were popular for being pretty, so you thought you could do whatever you wanted, right?”

“P-pretty… That’s a word I haven’t heard in a while. Hehe.”

“Who told you to laugh? Are you not focusing?”

“Hiccup.”

“You always try to excel only at things you’re already good at, and you don’t even try things you’re not good at, right? Until third grade, you worked hard at both studies and kendo, but as soon as you entered middle school, you started dropping them one by one… When I heard you started kendo again thanks to Ha-min, I thought your attitude might improve a bit, but why not with studying…”

“Ugh… I feel like I’ve heard this before… I can’t tell you not to repeat yourself…”

“Ban Doyoung, are you actually listening? Are you trying to brush this off with irrelevant comments again?”

And so, in the midst of Ban Doyoung’s saliva smell,

I listened to Dad’s lecture in the living room until Do Ha-min arrived.

Even though it was saliva from the world’s most beautiful girl,

it didn’t smell as sweet as I had imagined.

*Ding-dong*

How much time had passed since then?

The doorbell rang from the second-floor entrance.

“M-Master? Are you in there? The dojo door is locked, so…”

“Ah, the model student.”

“Whew, it’s already time for Ha-min’s lesson. I need to keep my promise to Ha-min, so we’ll stop here for today. I’ll open the dojo door, Doyoung, you change and come down.”

“…Okay.”

Dad sighed deeply, ran his hand through his heated head, and opened the door to greet Do Ha-min.

“Ah, hello, Master.”

“Ah, Ha-min. Come in. Is it that time already? Were you confused because the dojo was closed?”

“Is she… Ah, no… D-Doyoung—”

“Hey, model student! I’ll change quickly and come down! Go ahead!”

I hid behind the third-floor staircase and called out to Ha-min.

I didn’t have the confidence to face him directly with the dejected expression I had while feeling punished by Dad just moments ago.

“I’m… sorry. I was talking with Doyoung for a bit… and forgot to leave the dojo door open.”

“Is it perhaps because of the self-study program?”

“Ah, so the news is going around at school too. I was worried that Doyoung might be relying too much on her looks and popularity and not taking school seriously, so I called her homeroom teacher…”

“Ah… I see.”

“Uniform… uniform. Ah, I hung it on the drying rack yesterday!”

While changing into my uniform that I had left on the drying rack, I looked up to check the clock on the wall.

The clock showed 6 o’clock, with the hour and minute hands in opposite positions.

The big and small hands looked as if they were quarreling and going in opposite directions.

Checking the time on the wall clock, I realized it was already rushing toward 6 o’clock.

“Wow, it’s already 6 o’clock… Oh, that clock is 20 minutes fast. So it’s 5:40.”

Dad’s lecture, which felt like an hour, had actually been less than 20 minutes.

It definitely felt like at least an hour had passed while I was listening.

…

I’m not completely denying Dad’s lecture.

It’s natural that everyone has talents and things they’re not good at.

But that doesn’t mean you can spend your whole life investing only in what you’re good at,

and you can’t live your entire life turning away from things you have no talent for or interest in.

If I could only do what I wanted and avoid everything I didn’t want to do,

why would I have gone to the military when I was a man, and why would I have immediately found a job after college instead of enjoying myself?

It’s okay not to have a talent for studying.

Just don’t turn your back on things you’re not talented at and give up on learning.

Even without talent, you need to know how to challenge yourself when you want to learn something.

It’s okay to forget math formulas or element symbols that you’ll never use in your life.

But the experience of sitting at a desk to learn them, the moment of studying to understand something unknown—that’s what you should accumulate.

Whether it was Ms. Miso or Dad,

in the end, that’s the one thing they wanted to teach Ban Doyoung.

“I know, I know already!”

*Bang!*

I struck the head part of the training dummy with all my strength.

“See that, model student? This is a ‘head strike’! Imagine the face of someone whose head you want to crack and strike with all your might!”

“U-um, okay.”

“I’ll show you once more, so watch carefully and follow!”

“O-okay!”

“Die! Francis Bacon!”

“Huh?”

Knowledge is power.

That saying certainly seems true.

Just from receiving a lecture about facts I already knew, my hands are now overflowing with strength.

…

“Ah… so that’s why the Master’s face was so red when we came to the dojo.”

“Tch… You think I don’t know how to blush?”

Do Ha-min and I took a short break during our kendo lesson.

Seeing Dad sitting in the office, sighing deeply and trying to cool his flushed face, Ha-min nodded quietly as he realized what had happened between Dad and me.

“Argh! It’s so unfair! My mock exam scores didn’t even drop that much! Some of them actually improved!”

“B-but from what Sahyang and Hyerang said, your math score dropped a lot…”

“Well, for math, I can use a calculator… Ugh… Never mind. Model student, you got 96 on the math mock exam, right? A science-type person like you wouldn’t understand how a humanities-type person like me feels.”

“I-I just got lucky this time, that’s all.”

“Ugh, you should have used that luck to be born handsome…!”

“…”

*Gulp*

As Ha-min drank the Zero Lime he had brought as his lesson fee,

I tried to soothe my mind, which had been ruffled by Dad and Ms. Miso.

It feels this unfair to be scolded for something I didn’t do wrong,

so I can’t imagine how it feels to be falsely accused of a crime I didn’t commit.

With my petty nature, I just can’t understand.

“Ugh… The past Ban Doyoung did wrong, but why am I the one getting scolded?”

“Because your past self is still you…”

“…Ugh. That’s true, but… sigh.”

I couldn’t even deny it.

With each meaningless word I uttered, my heart only grew more painful and bitter.

While I’m suffering like this, I wonder where the real Ban Doyoung is and what she’s doing.

“D-don’t think about it too hard. Hyerang and Sahyang said so too. If you just put some effort into math and science, you can easily surpass the midterm average. I’ll help you too.”

“Really…? Can you help me right now?”

“H-how…?”

“Let me have yours.”

“Huh…?”

Ha-min blushed and stepped back from me.

His form closely resembled how I had fallen earlier when startled by Dad’s spirit.

“W-what are you suddenly saying…”

“Your Zero Lime. I’m asking if I can drink it.”

One can of Zero Lime wasn’t enough to wash away this feeling of injustice.

I needed the other can that came with his 1+1 deal.

“Ah…”

“What? What were you expecting that made you so surprised? I was just starting to feel a little better.”

“I-I was just surprised! Anyway, if I give you the cola, you won’t complain, right?”

Ha-min urgently shouted and handed me the opened Zero Lime beside him.

It was an unintentional moment of achieving my daily quota of teasing Ha-min.

“But… I already drank a little because I was thirsty. Is that okay?”

“I don’t mind. No, I don’t care if there’s saliva on it, just give it to me quickly.”

I grabbed his can without hesitation.

At this point, I wouldn’t even notice the smell of saliva, not after having it smeared on my nose while being scolded by Dad earlier.