Ch.97Call Me Brother (14)

“Student Lee Jeong-gyu is scheduled to be discharged in about a week. Of course, he’ll still need to come back and forth to the hospital for treatment for a while after that.”

“I suppose so. There’s a limit to how much time he can miss with medical absences. And just lying around won’t help his recovery either.”

“That bastard. Do you think he’ll come back to school?”

“I hope so. I’ll keep trying to persuade him.”

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, though not too often.”

“O-of course! But as a teacher, I can’t keep relying on just you two!”

On the way home after finishing our business at the hospital,

Teacher Miso shared her aspirations from inside the car.

With a teacher like her, it seemed unlikely that Lee Jeong-gyu would easily quit school.

“You haven’t been paying for Jeong-gyu’s hospital bills all this time, have you, Teacher?”

“Seriously, Miso noona?”

“Ah, don’t worry about that. I informed Jeong-gyu’s father, who’s away on business, about his hospitalization. Although he rarely stays at home due to his busy work, he sent money for the hospital bills as soon as he heard about Jeong-gyu’s accident. He also said he’ll return home as soon as he finishes his current work.”

“…That’s a relief. I was worried he might not have anyone around him.”

Do Ha-min sighed deeply in relief upon hearing this, his hand brushing across his chest.

“Thank you both for coming to the hospital today. If I had gone alone, we certainly wouldn’t have made the progress we did today. It’s all thanks to Ban Do-young and Do Ha-min.”

“Ahem.”

“I-it’s embarrassing… I didn’t do anything special.”

“What are you saying? You did something amazing. I learned a lot from both of you today.”

Teacher Miso praised our efforts with the highest compliment a teacher could give to students.

Though she’s in the position of a teacher, she still learns and grows through her students.

In the youth genre of school stories, could there be a teacher’s line that values students more highly than this?

“Congratulations, Ban Do-young. I wonder what happened in there to make our teacher praise you like that.”

“Oh right, I shouldn’t forget to thank you too, Sol-young.”

After slightly loosening her seatbelt,

Teacher Miso stretched her short arms as far as she could to pat Sol-young’s head while he was driving.

Perhaps because Sol-young’s head was positioned so high,

Teacher Miso’s hand kept hitting the ceiling whenever the car shook.

“Ouch. Sol-young, your head is so high up that I keep bumping into things.”

“You’ll hurt your hand doing that, so just sit still. And tighten your seatbelt again.”

“B-but I really wanted to thank you. You took on this difficult task in such bad weather during your precious vacation time for our sake. You’re such a good older brother. I guess Do-young learned a lot from watching you.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t do it to receive praise.”

“That’s exactly why you deserve more praise. Because you didn’t do it expecting anything in return.”

“…No, that’s not right.”

The car stopped at a red light.

Sol-young seemed to be pondering something deeply, then smiled slightly and looked at Teacher Miso beside him.

“To be honest, maybe I did expect something in return?”

“R-really…?”

“If I put in the effort, I do need a REWARD, don’t I?”

“Um, what kind of reward do you want…?”

“…How much are you willing to give?”

“Huh? W-well…”

“Oho. Hey, Do Ha-min, wake up and check this out.”

-Thud

I tapped the shoulder of Ha-min, who had been dozing off with his head against the car door.

“Huh? Was I sleeping?”

“How can you sleep in a situation like this? Did you take notes on what just happened?”

I was going to tell him to pay attention and write it down.

Judging by his half-closed eyes, it seemed he had missed all the important points.

Then again, whenever Ha-min did something he wasn’t used to doing,

he would quickly lose his tension, run out of energy, and pass out.

Today was the first time in Ha-min’s 16 years of life that he had knocked someone unconscious.

Thinking about it that way, it wasn’t so strange that his eyelids were getting heavy now.

“Ugh, sorry… I missed it. D-did something happen?”

“Geez. You idiot.”

With this kind of sluggish behavior, the future Ban Do-young would find it frustrating to live.

I’m cutting you slack because it’s me, but if it were the real Ban Do-young, you might have been kicked out already.

“Why, what’s going on?”

“Tsk, forget it. Go back to sleep.”

“Um…”

“Hey, wait.”

“Huh?”

I grabbed Ha-min’s shoulder as he was leaning toward the window and pulled him toward my lap.

“It’s cold against the window. You’ll get facial paralysis. Lean on this side instead.”

“W-wait a second…!”

-Plop

I felt a subtle weight on my thigh.

The ticklish sensation of his curly hair felt slightly itchy.

It wasn’t as heavy as I thought.

There was no feeling of blood circulation being cut off or being squeezed too tightly.

Rather, having this slight pressure felt more stable in the shaking car than having nothing there at all.

You could call it a steadiness that doesn’t waver.

Unfortunately, Ban Do-young’s knowledge was insufficient to explain it scientifically.

Perhaps it belonged to the remaining 28 percent that couldn’t be conquered with an average score of 72 points.

“How is it? Warmer?”

“W-what are you doing… what is this?”

“If you’re going to sleep anyway, sleep somewhere warm.”

Ha-min seemed more uncomfortable with the current position and tried to lift his head again.

I gently pressed his head down with both arms.

“S-stop. This makes it harder to fall asleep.”

“Why? Leaning on something warm is better than leaning on something cold.”

“Th-that’s true, but… being like this makes me uncomfortable in a different way.”

“Ah…”

.

.

.

“I wonder if something other than your mouth might get twisted?”

-Bang!

Ha-min suddenly removed his cheek from my knee and pressed his forehead against the window where he had been sitting.

“Haa… haa….”

“Hehe, more awake now?”

“Yeah… I feel a bit clearer than before.”

“Wake up! How are you going to attend kendo class later and do night study with this attitude!”

“Right, that’s true. The day isn’t over yet, and I shouldn’t be this drowsy already.”

The day wasn’t over yet for Ha-min and me.

Perhaps he was worried that the hospital visit to Lee Jeong-gyu might postpone his kendo lesson with me.

-Slap

Upon hearing that our shop would be open for business today,

Ha-min slapped both his cheeks hard and lifted his eyelids.

Although it turned out to be somewhat unexpected,

it was still a day when Ha-min realized that his strength and stamina were gradually increasing.

Having directly experienced the measure of his growth,

his enthusiasm for training would be incomparable to before.

“It’s good that you’re enthusiastic, but can we go to school first? We need to drop off your teacher first.”

“Ah, Sol-young. It’s fine. The school isn’t that far from your house. I can walk from there.”

“That would be okay if the weather was nice, but the sky doesn’t look too good.”

The rain, which had stopped briefly, started to fall again drop by drop as evening approached.

It wasn’t pouring down wildly like the morning shower, but the raindrops weren’t light enough to walk around outside without an umbrella either.

“Miso noona doesn’t have an umbrella right now.”

“Ah… but still.”

“We’ll be fine, Teacher.”

“That’s right, Teacher Miso. At your age, late twenties, you might collapse if you get caught in the rain.”

“I-I’m not that old! And 26 is still mid-twenties! Not late twenties!”

“I remember when I thought that way too.”

27 is still in your twenties.

Still a prime, active age.

There was a time when I thought that way and pushed my body recklessly.

But after being reincarnated into the body of a healthy fifteen-year-old beautiful girl, I realized.

A teenager’s body is indeed the best. In a completely wholesome sense.

“Would you two wait in the car for a bit? I want to escort your teacher from the parking lot to the main school building.”

“Ah, well, that’s better than getting rained on.”

“Thanks, I’ll be right back.”

“Take care, Teacher Miso. Be careful not to catch a cold.”

“See you tomorrow, Teacher.”

“Thank you, Do-young and Ha-min! See you healthy at school tomorrow!”

Sol-young and Teacher Miso walked toward the main school building, squeezed together under one umbrella.

I thought about running home with Ha-min under one umbrella too,

but the rain got heavier after they left, so I decided to wait for Sol-young to return.

The distance between the school and home was only about a 5-minute walk,

so we could have made it if we ran at full speed, but…

“Damn, with this rain, socks and shoes will get soaked even with an umbrella.”

I didn’t want to walk home in my morning uniform, which was already muddy from the morning shower,

with only an umbrella as protection.

My gym clothes were already soaked while I was on milk duty, so I couldn’t wear those either.

“Well, he’ll be back soon. How long does it take to get to the faculty office?”

Ha-min and I reclined our seats and leisurely waited for Sol-young to return.

At that time, we thought he would be back soon.

.

.

.

“Shit, why isn’t he back? He left his phone behind so we can’t even call him.”

But even after an hour, Sol-young, who needed to take the wheel, hadn’t returned.

Maybe he was caught up reminiscing with old teachers in the faculty office,

or perhaps he was demanding his REWARD from Teacher Miso.

-Buzz

Just then, Sol-young’s phone on the driver’s seat rang.

It was a message from his dad.

[Dad]

[Sol-young.]

[I need to use the car, where are you now?]

[I need to pick up the kids quickly because it’s raining heavily]

[Come home as soon as you see this message]

[But don’t speed]

“…Hey, Ha-min.”

“Huh…? What is it?”

“Fasten your seatbelt.”

“W-what are you doing! You can’t drive without a license!”

“I have one.”

I might not have a car, but I do have a license.

A Class 1 regular license.