Problem Child-2

The woman continued to touch my forehead and tilt her head.

I couldn’t stand the awkwardness and pulled my head back.

Perhaps my uncooperative reaction made her realize something, as she raised both hands.

“Ah, sorry….”

She moved her hand to the folding chair, creating some distance.

About 30cm of distance, but I felt the psychological gap was even wider.

After taking her hand off my forehead, she took out the textbook from her bag again.

Thick books were placed on the desk.

Thump, a book with a blue cover slid towards me.

I guess it’s the textbook I’ll be using.

The cover of the book read ‘Mathematics (Part 1)’.

“Do we study with this book?”

When I asked, she muttered as if complaining.

“You’re the one who keeps saying you lost the textbook. That’s why I carry it around.”

Her voice was filled with some annoyance and anger.

At her sensitive reaction, I pouted and picked up the book.

A textbook… it’s been so long since I’ve held one.

After getting a job, I had distanced myself from studying….

I could see the table of contents.

Polynomials, equations and inequalities… geometry.

Familiar yet unfamiliar concepts came into view.

Huh… was the curriculum always like this?

“Okay, let’s start the lesson.”

While I was flipping through the textbook, the woman said in a voice devoid of any expectation.

“Ah, just a moment. I need some writing utensils.”

It doesn’t make sense to participate in a class without anything to write with.

I rummaged through the messy desk and picked up a black Monami ballpoint pen rolling around on the edge.

“…What are you up to?”

When I looked at her with the pen, the woman frowned and said.

“Huh? You told me to take the lesson.”

I widened my eyes and protested.

“So… you’re saying you’ll take the ‘lesson’?”

“Why? Can’t I take the lesson? It’s… tutoring, right?”

I briefly wondered if it was tutoring or homeschooling, but tutoring seemed more likely.

At my confident attitude, the woman pressed her fingers against her temple.

She seemed to have a headache.

“Haa… hold on, Yoon Sia.”

Through the words she muttered as if hypnotizing herself, I learned her name.

Yoon Sia.

After closing her eyes and pressing her head for a while, she returned to a calm expression.

“Okay, you said you’d take the lesson, so no take-backs, okay? No leaving in the middle or sleeping in bed like last time.”

What kind of life had the owner of this body been living?

Judging from the messy state of the room, I could roughly guess.

After the lesson, I should investigate as much as possible.

My high school life wasn’t very interesting. There was a lot of pressure about grades, so I couldn’t enjoy studying itself.

In that sense, studying high school freshman math as simple knowledge without pressure was quite fun.

Yoon Sia’s lesson was like taking knowledge out of the deep archives of my memory and blowing away the dust that had settled on it.

“Try solving this problem.”

She pointed to a page titled ‘Basic Concept Review’.

I picked up the Monami ballpoint pen.

Problem number 1… a simple factorization problem.

After finishing the calculation in my head, I put the pen to the paper.

‘(x+4)(x+2)’

Even though it’s been a while since I graduated high school, it’s too easy.

“……..”

I could feel Yoon Sia’s gaze fixed on me as I solved the problem without hesitation.

It took about 5 minutes to solve all the basic problems.

“Hmm….”

I could see Yoon Sia’s eyes vibrating from side to side as she picked up a red pen and graded.

The more red circles she drew on the questions, the more suspicious glances she gave me.

After the 2-hour lesson, Yoon Sia packed her bag and glared at me.

“Kang In-ho, what are you plotting?”

I knew what she was asking.

If a student who was usually uncooperative suddenly changed their attitude and took the lesson, she would be suspicious rather than thinking it was admirable.

“Just because. I wanted to try listening once.”

I didn’t bring up the story that I would live properly from now on, which wouldn’t be believed.

It would be better to vaguely say that I was just interested in listening.

“Is that so?”

Whether my choice was right, I could see her expression brighten slightly.

Whether she was done packing her bag, she got up from her seat and folded the folding chair.

“I hope that interest continues.”

“Well, I don’t know about that.”

When I shrugged and said rudely, Yoon Sia looked at me with eyes that said, ‘I knew it’.

“You told me to leave it behind… so you’re leaving the textbook here, right?”

Yoon Sia reconfirmed and left the textbook on the desk.

I left the room with Yoon Sia.

I looked around the house as I went down from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor.

It’s a big and nice house.

“I’ll come on Wednesday. Study in advance, review… if you’re interested.”

She emphasized the word ‘interested’.

“Goodbye.”

When I greeted her in front of the door, she tilted her head as if it was really strange.

“Did he eat something wrong?”

“I can hear you.”

When I glared at her with cold eyes, Yoon Sia looked at me as if she was wronged.

“No, even you think it’s funny. Just a few days ago, you didn’t even treat me like a person… I don’t know what your intention is for suddenly doing this?”

“…I’ll pass on that.”

“Ah… could it be, Inho you!”

Yoon Sia clapped her hands and pointed at me with her finger.

Her movements were very large, as if she had discovered a huge fact.

“Did your father find out and beat you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

I don’t know, it could be true.

“What… no? Then what is it….”

She had a thoughtful face as she left the house.

Ah, I forgot to ask how she had the key.

After sending Yoon Sia away, the first thing I did was change the door lock password.

I initialized it from the inside and changed it to a number I knew.

It seemed like I needed a key for the front door, but I could find it in the room.

“Okay… let’s look at the phone.”

After searching the room like searching for lice, I found the phone under the bed.

I tilted the black screen and looked at the fingerprints. There was a long smudge.

Among the traces, I inferred and drew the most common trajectory.

After a few tries, the phone was unlocked.

“Let’s see….”

I sat on the bed and went into KakaoTalk.

There were quite a few messages. I went into the room with the most messages.

Did you buy the alcohol?

How are we going to get the new clothes this time?

Where can we get cigarettes?

Let’s hang out at the motel.

Let’s borrow a car and go to the beach for some fresh air.

Hmm….

Just when I thought I was possessing the body of a pretty bad guy, I got a message from someone.

Jeong-ah♡: Inho, are you awake? Jintae got alcohol today, let’s go to the karaoke and drink