Zzz
Ring~♬♬
The new hit song by a popular indie-band ‘Busker Busker’, was blaring from someone’s phone. The song was about a man and a woman going to a karaoke to have some fun, and it had been set as the caller tune. But the person whom the phone belonged to was peacefully slumbering away before the blaring ringing noise woke her up.
[T/N: The original text was ‘Beosjaga Beosjaga’ (버스작아 버스작아) which can be understood as a playful variation of ‘Busker Busker’, a well-known South Korean indie band.]
Dud.
“Hello…?”
[Why are you talking with that kind of voice? Could it be you just woke up?]
“Mom…”
[Isn’t it Monday today? Why aren’t you at school?]
“I will go now…”
[Oh my, I can’t believe you!]
“It’s still okay… I can go on time…”
[Wake up, you idiot! You’re going to be late!]
“Ugh… I hate Mondays so much……”
Scratch, scratch.
“Should I just call off sick and not go…”
[But you have to go anyway, you idiot…]
The voice of her mother, sighing helplessly as if her daughter was pathetic, rose a few octaves as she said.
[Because you’re the teacher….]
Hwaeun rolled down on the bed and stumbled to the floor with the blanket wrapped around her, her mind in a state of confusion at the rude awakening.
Weeeeeing–
With swift movement, she washed her hair, cleaned her face, and finished brushing her teeth in 10 minutes. As someone who takes great care for her appearance, she quickly finished applying skin lotion, basic makeup, and BB cream, and even drew her eyebrows in another 10 minutes at a ghostly speed.
While she was drying her hair with a hair dryer, her cell phone rang again.
♬♬~
Bbeep-
“Ah~ Mom! I’m getting ready for work, I’m busy!”
[I called to see if you have fallen asleep again, you idiot.]
“I woke up when you called!”
[Year, yeah, drive carefully.]
“How old am I for you to wake me up with a phone call~ Mom, really.”
[If you feel it’s unfair, get married.]
Hwaeun threw her cell phone on the bed when the sound of her mother’s voice started nagging her. As long as the phone was far away, she wouldn’t hear anything.
[Hello? #”%$#]
“Yeah, I love you too~”
The sound of the call being disconnected was soon heard, as if the person on the other side had already given up.
Hwaeun quickly straightened her curled up hair with a straightener and confirmed that her attire was perfect. After getting ready, she glanced at the clock and realized that she had gotten ready 5 minutes earlier.
Not wasting any minutes, she quickly set an alarm and leaned back on the chair to have a shut eye.
Hwaeun wanted to take a nap for five minutes while leaning on the chair. Getting up so early in the morning makes her sluggish, so she sometimes shuts her eyes for a few moments like this after getting ready to recharge herself for the morning. She was worried that her hair would be ruined so she sat on the chair rather than lying down.
Zzz.
The large chair she bought was a gaming seat, also known as the gaming chair, found in many internet cafes. She doesn’t play games sitting on it, but she heard from people that these chairs are super comfortable so she bought one.
[No money! No money! No!! No!! Aaaahh!!!!]
The alarm went off after exactly five minutes.
With a defeated sigh, she got up from her sleep.
Hwaeun put on her coat and packed her bag. Then she took the keys and headed out the front door.
The moment her feet stepped out the front door, her expression transformed into a sophisticated, professional and mature office worker. She walked with confident steps, as if it wasn’t her who had been sleeping in messy pyjamas just a moment ago.
Soon, Hwaeun arrived at school and entered the main office on the second floor.
“Hello~ I’ll be in your care from now on. I am the newly appointed teacher, Ms. Hanari. Please take care of me…”
When she entered the office, a different sight than everyday greeted her. The sight of a short and young female teacher, who was recently appointed as a replacement for the science teacher who died of a heart attack, walking around the office and greeting people entered Hwaeun’s vision.
Hwaeun took advantage of the hustle and bustle to hurriedly open the door and creeping in.
“Nice to meet you. Hope you’re doing fine. I see you’ve been assigned to a good class for your first assignment.”
“Yes, I’ll be in your care…”
“The same goes for us as well. But you’ll definitely have a hard time taking classes. The children are very mischievous.”
All the teachers were currently focused on the new female teacher. Taking advantage of their inattention, she sneaked up to her seat.
Fortunately, the presence of the new and inexperienced female teacher who had just arrived drew their attention. No one bothered to pay any attention to Hwaeun which she was thankful for.
Hwaeun successfully reached her seat safely and sat down on the chair while putting her bag down.
The middle-aged Language teacher behind pulled her chair as soon as she sat down. The Language teacher leaned over and whispered to Hwaeun, who was catching her breath.
“I heard she applied for the job right after you were hired. But her application has been hanging around till now. After what happened to the science teacher, she is hired in his place.”
“Ahaha… I see…”
Hwaeun responded with an awkward smile.
Regardless of her lack of enthusiasm, the Language teacher whispered with a serious expression.
“She’s 24, just 24. She has a long life ahead.”
“She’s really young, ahaha.”
The Language teacher was a typical middle-aged woman who likes to gossip. Whenever there was a topic of gossip, she would start blabbering, not caring if the other party wanted to know it or not.
Hwaeun could only respond with a refreshing smile.
“She was taken in place of the science teacher, that’s quite impressive. Doesn’t that mean she’ll be assigned to the first year students?”
“Yes. But she’s really unfortunate for arriving here right after the midterms. No matter what, the progress of the students cannot be disrupted even if it’s tough for her.”
“That’s right, haha.”
While the middle-aged coworker was whispering things to her with utmost seriousness, as if what she was saying was not just trivial matters but top-class secret, Ms. Hanari approached their desks. She had finished greeting everyone around and was heading to her desk.
Her seat was arranged just in front of Hwaeun. She was about to sit down when she noticed Hwaeun sitting opposite her and realized she hadn’t greeted Hwaeun yet. So she quickly got up again to greet her.
“Hello, I’m the newly appointed teacher Ms. Hanari. I look forward to working with you…”
“Yes~ please, the same goes with us!”
Hwaeun responded with a bright smile.
“Are you having trouble adjusting to the new environment? All the teachers here are very kind. If you face any inconveniences, reach out to us.”
“Thank you……!”
Teacher Hanari bowed to Hwaeun, brimming with unnecessary energy.
Even her movement told her she was a typical rookie.
‘You have a long way to go.’
Hwaeun greeted her with a smile, but sighed inside.
When she said the teachers were all kind, she wasn’t lying. The teachers were indeed very generous.
However, it wasn’t the teachers of the school who was her, the newly appointed young female teacher’s enemy. Rather, it was the mischievous students whom she had been assigned to teach.
‘I hope she doesn’t cry on her first day.’
Hwaeun shook her head, recalling her first time as a teacher.
She checked her own schedule and realized that she had class in the first period. So she stood up from her seat and began preparing for the class.
‘…24, she’s 10 years younger than me.’
Hwaeun peeked her head over the partition that divided the desk into two. Her gaze landed on Teacher Hanari at the opposite side.
Even the way she was hurriedly organizing her desk was full of freshness.
‘She’s a total chick, a chick.’
Compared to Hwaeun’s tall stature and mature personality, Teacher Hanari had a small stature along with a refreshing personality. Both were totally opposite of each other.
She seemed like she could perfectly blend in with the students if she just wore a school uniform.
‘Whatever, she’s much better than that gloomy old man who was always blunt and unspoken.’
With that thought, Hwaeun skipped out of the teachers’ office, feeling as if she just got a cute younger sister, and was determined to treat her well.
* * *
[2019, April 29 | Monday, 08:52]
[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts – 2]
[Ghost Story Points: 647]
[Causality Rate: 14%]
“ZZz…”
Finally, the boring class of the homeroom teacher ended. As soon as the class was finished, I leaned down on my desk to sleep, not being able to overcome the Monday blues anymore.
“Joon, Joon, Joon, Joon, Joon, Joon, Joon, Joon.”
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
In my half asleep state, I heard someone whispering the traumatic word, which was none other than my own name, in my ear. My body jumped up from my seat in reflex.
When I turned around, it was Hayoon who was calling me. She was covering her mouth with her hand and giggling seeing my startled self.
“….Haa, Hayoon. Hello…”
“Hello~”
She waved her fingers as she greeted me.
“Oh, you’re not wearing your glasses today either…”
“You noticed?”
“Ah, no… what…”
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I couldn’t meet her eyes and looked away. Her charm was too much for my poor heart.
Before knowing about her, I just thought she was a pretty girl and that was about it. However, after seeing Hayoon without her glasses, I started to worry about little things whenever we had a conversation.
For example, was my posture okay while we were having a conversation?
I rather felt my limbs were hanging awkwardly.
Even my voice sounded a little hoarse, so I would sometimes clear my throat by coughing in vain. Or sometimes I would just get flustered and end up laughing awkwardly during the conversation.
It wasn’t only me, but other boys of the class were also glancing at Hayoon.
“… Was there a girl that pretty in our class?”
“What was her name…”
Hayoon chuckled and opened her lips, seemingly not bothered by their stare.
“The midterm results are out, aren’t you going to check them?”
“… Huh?”
Now that she mentioned it, I realized after looking around that most of the students weren’t present in the class. The class seemed strangely deserted even though the first period was about to start.
Everyone must have gone to check their grades.
“Let’s go check, quickly!”
“Okay.”
Sunah, who had been watching us from the desk beside us, also got up and followed us.
“Prez, you’re here. You were sleeping so soundly that I didn’t feel like waking you up and just came here.”
“Okay. Thank you for your concern.”
The notice board was situated next to the first-floor teachers’ office.
Rows of students were headed toward the notice board and gathering around. Since Gyeongwon arrived there first, I called and asked him.
“So what about your grades?”
“Hehe…”
Gyeongwon smiled as he pushed up his glasses.
“I came 4th in the whole school.”
“Wow… for real?”
“Your grades are worse than mine.”
“Uh. Okay.”
I answered carelessly and pushed through the crowd of students to check the rankings on the notice board.
The names of the first-year students were densely written on a large piece of paper.
“Let’s see… “
[Midterm Exam Rankings of 1st Semester, 1st Year.]
1st place, Ban Janghoon
2nd place, Lee Cheerin
3rd place, Han Abom
4th place, Ahn Gyeongwon
‘He really got 4th place.’
As expected, Gyeongwon was really good at studying.
I nodded to myself in affirmation.
‘Next…’
I looked down to find a familiar names, when my eyes caught Hayoon’s name.
12th place, In Hayoon
‘… She’s also good, as expected.’
But I must say that was not what I expected.
I expected Hayoon to do better but it seemed her position was lower than expected?
However, if I compared her grades to my own, who was always stuck between 40th to 50th position, 12th was much higher. It was a level I could never reach in my previous life. If she could maintain the grades till her third year, her admission to one of Seoul’s renowned colleges is confirmed. No doubt about that.
But when I compared the grades to her usual smart, intelligent, and mysterious temperament, I felt it was a bit unexpected.
‘I thought Hayoon would be in the top ten. Hmm.’
I began searching for another familiar name. But just looking down a few numbers, I was astonished at the name that caught my eyes.
15th place Lee Joon.
‘15th place…? Really?’
I was dumbfounded.
I checked again to make sure if it was indeed my name, but it was truly my name just beside the 15th place.
There was no way I would be confused since my name was unique with one single character and was very similar to a foreign name. Both the ranking and the name were correct in their places.
‘…. 15th place. Wow.’
It was the best result I’ve ever gotten in my life.
‘Does it mean I did really well?’
Of course it meant I did really well.
Whoa.
15th place?
Me?
Hmm?
A strange feeling of excitement bubbled up inside me.
I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth going up as I thought.
‘I’m really such a good student?’
My life in the highschool that started all over after 3 years of failure.
If I couldn’t achieve a good result, even I myself would have thought it was pathetic. However, in all honesty, I hadn’t studied that well this time to achieve such a good result.
On top of that, I couldn’t pay much attention to the exam because I was so busy regressing over and over again and was also distracted by the science teacher’s curse.
‘I’m in 15th place just like that?’
“Haha, I was worried for no reason. I thought I’d lose to the President.”
Gyeongwon laughed beside me as if he was also pleased with my result.
“I’m the big brain of the club after all. I won’t be able to show my face if I lose to Prez.”
At his self-praised words, I couldn’t help but wonder why he was thinking of me as a competitor.
Perhaps the bluff I had I enlisted in him to make him join the club still working?
“Ahem. I used to be in the top ten too. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to get 15th place.”
“I know. You must have a difficult time because of the crazy science teacher.”
Gyeongwon agreed as if it was obvious.
“I think it’s amazing that you still managed to get the 15th place even after suffering from multiple regression and heart attacks during the exam period.”
“…Well, I’m glad you understand.”
It didn’t seem like he was making excuses for me, but rather he genuinely thought it was an impressive feat to achieve such a result after dying so many times during the midterms.
Perhaps he didn’t remember that I had mentioned going back to the past after seeing the midterms question papers before. And since I had regressed many times, it just became a thing of the past. I didn’t know if it was because he grew up sheltered by his parents that he didn’t become like the cheeky me. But he had a part which was so innocent as if it wasn’t tainted by society.
“But I won’t let my guard down, Prez. Do your best at the finals. Let’s try to compete like real men who aim for admission in a good college.”
“Ahem.”
Why was he trying to make me his competitor?
Instead of answering, I coughed in vain and began looking at the notice board again.
‘Let’s see how the rest of the members did…’
After passing by my grades, I had to look down quite a bit.
74th place Oh Dukhun.
‘Hmm. Dukhun is doing pretty well too.’
Perhaps because he naturally had a fat ass.
[T/N: Having ‘fat ass’ or ‘heavy ass’ is not a widely used Korean slang but it can imply that the person is lazy or inactive.]
Considering that there are about 300 students in the first year in the entire school, 74th place is still a decent score. It automatically puts him in the top 30%.
It was about the same as my grades in my previous life when most of my time would be spent playing around, and taking the test without studying.
‘….What about Sunah?’
Sunah’s name entered my eyes after going down quite a bit.
163rd place Yoon Sunah
‘This is also surprising.’
I’ve only seen Sunah taking notes diligently during studies and nothing else. Not to mention, she even studied properly during exam periods.
‘Is she the type that studies hard but doesn’t get good grades…?’
It seems this girl had many pitiful aspects.
As I thought about it, I remembered that Sunah was the only one who had trouble following Gyeongwon’s explanations everytime when she usually went around solving ghost stories.
Gyeongwon was an expert in explaining. While explaining something, he would mostly focus on the key points so that even people without knowledge of the field could understand them. However, even so, Sunah sometimes showed expressions of not understanding and had difficulty following them.
‘…Sunah doesn’t seem like a smart person. She seems rather dull.’
Pop.
[Your understanding of the character Yoon Sunah has increased by 5.]
I looked at the remaining names, but the list only had the top 200 students. Perhaps to save the student’s dignity, they didn’t list those who failed or did very poorly in the midterms.
As one could guess, Jinhee’s name wasn’t on the list.
With this, the lazy Monday passed.
After school was over, we took our bags and other necessary things and headed to the clubroom. Now the time to distribute the points has finally arrived.
“What about Teacher Jang Hwaeun? Shouldn’t we call her?”
“The ghost story the day before yesterday was solved by only us. So we’re going to distribute it only among ourselves. And today is the day.”
“Hmm…”
Although they agreed, the members looked a little sorry for leaving the teacher like this again.
However, they also understood the fact that they were the one who solved the ghost story with their life on the line. So although they felt sorry, they seemed to tacitly agree that they didn’t want the pie to be divided up.
“So? Have you all thought about it?”
I sat at the chair at the head of the desk and looked at the five members.
“100 points per person. Level up or receive 1 million won worth of money. Choose.”
The members looked at each other with questioning gazes.
Perhaps they also felt the pressure of exchanging millions of won in the school. Since they were all just highschool students, it was indeed a matter of great anxiety.
“Don’t think too hard.”
I tried to lighten the mood and gestured to them to think rationally.
“It’s a reward. A reward for working hard. You don’t have to feel guilty about receiving money. You all fought with your lives on the line.”
“….That’s right.”
Gyeongwon nodded and crossed his arms.
“I agree with that part. We deserve to enjoy this much. But…”
He frowned with a tilted head.
“What I’m worried about is that our intentions may change because of money…”
“Me too….”
Sunah also cautiously agreed with a face as if she had been waiting to say that.
“I’m worried that we might get greedy because of this…”
“That’s right. Although I was excited to think we can get 2 billion won per person and even promised to work hard, something keeps bugging me. I feel like I’m doing something bad.”
Hmm!
I clenched my fists, touched by these guys’ innocence.
As expected, they were just 17-year-old highschool students, their thoughts were as innocent and pure as babies.
They were already feeling burdened by the thought of receiving such a large sum of money. And they also felt bad for receiving the reward as if they were receiving payment for their labor. Their innocence was something which wasn’t still tainted by time and greed.
“I understand, I’ve thought a lot about that too. But.”
I nodded, slowly trying to persuade them by bringing up realistic conditions.
“These three years that we have to fight for. It will be too long and hard to endure with just friendship, morality, and a sense of justice. Moreover, if we need to continue club activities at this pace almost everyday, there is no guarantee that your grades won’t fall.”
“….That’s right too.”
“To fight with ghost stories, it’s natural that you won’t have enough time to invest in studying. Not to mention, situations may arise when you have to skip classes and bunk school to solve the ghost stories. Even if you think it’s fine since we’re just in the first year, the college entrance exams are right around the corner in our third year. With so much pressure on our shoulders, can you guarantee that you will be able to do the activities with just friendship and a sense of justice?”
Everyone remained silent.
“I can’t commit suicide every 10 exam periods and return back in time to hand out cheat sheets so that our grades won’t fall. And on top of that, we also have our parents to take care of. We’ll need to make excuses to our parents when we do club activities before the college entrance exams. But during the college entrance exam, we can’t be lagging behind in our studies. Or someone from the teachers or our classmates may complain in our names.”
“…. Right.”
“There are a lot of other realistic problems we’ll face in the future. That’s why I think distributing the points is important.”
As if they finally understood the reason, the members slowly nodded their heads.
“The 4 billion I promised to pay you guys is still 3 years away. There are many other hassles we will naturally face within that time period. The only reason I’m thinking of distributing the points is to help you prepare psychologically. So that you can prevent yourself from giving up. I can’t take care of your family affairs, but these small rewards will help you both mentally and practically.”
“I agree.”
Gyeongwon nodded after hearing the explanation.
“Come to think of it, adults also create small gatherings where they exchange money or small gifts. They also get together like this to discuss their future plans.”
“That’s right. I think those things are also items to maintain the solidarity and peace in a gathering.”
Gyeongwon, who was gradually starting to understand the reason, began to assuring others that there was no need to feel guilty.
“It’s natural to receive compensation for working hard in the first place. Don’t be fooled by the media where they say good deeds like saving the world shouldn’t be rewarded. There should be a reward for every hard work. That’s how you can endure any situation.”
“….Well, I understand now.”
“Then hurry up and do it, you idiot.”
Other members also nodded along with Gyeongwon’s words. As everyone agreed to receive the reward, Jinhee urged to do the work quickly with an annoyed expression.
“Okay. Then let’s get back to the main point. Has everyone decided what they’d like to have?”
“Of course! We spent the weekend having fun thinking about it~”
Dukhun giggled and answered.
“Okay. Just in case someone feels embarrassed, you can send me a KakaoTalk message with your choice. I’ll take a look.”
If everyone wanted to show a good moral impression, they’d think that levelling up in order to overcome the world’s crisis was the right choice.
In contrast, if they chose to receive money, it might come off as a selfish act of taking care of one’s own interests. However, even so, I hoped that the guys could freely choose what they really wanted.
In particular, I was worried about Sunah, who was most likely to choose money due to her family’s circumstances. But if everyone showed intention of levelling up, she might change her opinion and instead choose to level up. That was why I instructed them to let me know what they chose via KakaoTalk in advance.
Soon, the club members picked up their phones and started typing their choices. My phone vibrated in succession several times.
I slowly checked the guys’ answers and became a bit surprised at the result.
‘….What a surprise, most of them chose money?’
Only two chose to level up.
I nodded after checking.
“Okay. I think there won’t be any problems. Then, let’s start the distribution right away.”
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