Ch. 90 - Eleventh Ghost Story - The Forgotten Friend (3)

Trigger Warning: This chapter contains descriptions of animal abuse. Readers, please be advised.

There's a story about doing something very trivial that one would think is absolutely impossible to misremember.

③

Jinhee and her older sister moved to an apartment complex near ShinLim Station with their father after their parents divorced.

It was a story about her deskmate who was particularly kind to her from the very first day at the elementary school she transferred to.

Jinhee had a somewhat indifferent and blunt personality, but her desk mate always treated her generously. She would help her in homework, take care of her supplies and talk to her in a friendly manner, regardless of her personality.

"I remember her name too. It was Kim Eunjung."

"....That's a common name."

However, despite her seemingly friendly appearance, her classmates seemed to avoid Jinhee's deskmate Eunjung for some reason.

About a month after transferring.

True to her wild and unruly personality, Jinhee quickly befriended the students who sat at the back of her class. And before long, skipping class and going out to play with her friends became her daily routine.

"When we were very young, we used to group together and call ourselves something like the 'Seven Princesses.' There were some boys too, but I quickly became recognized as a key member of the group.”

Now, the nickname princess seemed quite childish, but when thinking back to my elementary school days, the feeling of being a princess was quite common among girls.

And the girls who were given the title princess were mostly school bullies.

“But elementary school students only had 4 periods. You still had a lot of free time to play, so why did you skip school… “

“I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to do that back then.”

The homeroom teacher was also quite a rather brusque type, so he didn’t pay much attention to the students.

At the time, it happened that students from troubled family backgrounds, like herself, were grouped together in the same class, making it truly fitting for them to band together and engage in mischief.

Jinhee recalled that during recess, she would climb over the fence and mingle with the delinquent boys at a nearby stationery store to play games.

The guidance counselor would wander around the streets, frantically searching for the students who weren't attending classes even though class was in full swing.

“The homeroom teacher didn’t pay much attention, and since he was busy with class, the counselor in the school would usually come looking for us. Later on, the owner of the stationery store started calling the school whenever he saw us.”

“……”

“We even once got caught stealing pens and mechanical pencils…”

In short, she used to get into a lot of mischief with other elementary school kids.

She also mentioned that she grew up fighting a lot with the middle school delinquents who looked down on the elementary school kids wandering the streets.

Despite often skipping school and wandering around the street causing mishaps, whenever she did end up sitting in the classroom, her partner, Kim Eunjung, always made sure to remind her of the next class schedule.

“She would also worry about where I got hurt, and if I came in during class after being caught by the teacher, she would always have the textbook for that period open and ready for me.”

“It’s kind of heartwarming…”

Sunah commented on the story with a slightly moved expression.

At the time, Jinhee used to think of her as an annoying kid who fussed and made unnecessary small talk. However, she also had a positive impression about her partner.

Then one day, after the school was over, the so-called princesses’ group came to Jinhee’s seat

While discussing where to hang out and what to do, they decided to check out the newly opened Olive Young.

[T/N: Olive Young is a popular South Korean retail chain that specializes in health and beauty products, including cosmetics, skincare, and wellness items.]

She mentioned that, noticing her partner, Eunjung looking bored while sitting in her seat, she once insisted on taking her along with them.

“That must have been really scary... A normally kind partner mixed in with a gang of troublemakers….”

“Be quiet. She wasn't a good kid to begin with. Just listen.”

Jinhee coughed again and started talking seriously.

“After browsing through some cosmetic stores, we ended up hanging at a park together with some older boys we met before.”

***

“Jinhee, look at this!”

“Wow, f*ck.”

Jinhee received the four-leaf clover handed to her by her deskmate with admiration as she smiled.

“How did you find it?”

Her partner, Kim Eunjung, only just smiled brightly instead of answering.

Her face was slender, if she could keep her mouth shut, she would have looked pretty.

But she always laughed widely like an idiot, making laughing lines appear on her face.

‘She doesn't seem to be the brightest type, but she is kind.’

Thinking that she couldn’t be too friendly to her just because they played together once, Jinhee started searching through the grass.

“Hey, there’s a lizard here!”

Soon, other boys called them from a distance through the bushes.

“Really?”

Jinhee stuffed the four-leaf clover in her pocket and stood up.

Then grabbing the hand of her partner Eunjung who was hesitating whether to follow her or not, they hurried to the group.

“Wow, there really is one. I thought we would never see one in the city.”

Since playing in the bustling city required money, Jinhee along with her friends, despite being from Seoul, behaved like kids from the countryside, often running around outside the city area to play.

And since 70 percent of the land in South Korea was made up of mountains, there were many grassy fields around the suburban areas.

Even in Seoul, if you look closely, you'll find that surprisingly there are more grassy areas where kids can play and get dirty.

“Give it to me. Let me touch it.”

“Here.”

A few mischievous boys, holding the squirming body of a lizard, held it out to Jinhee who looked at it as if impressed.

Jinhee naturally grabbed it with a mischievous smile.

“Do you want to touch it too?”

Then she held it out to her partner, who was staring at them with curious eyes.

Her open-mouthed stare, as she looked at the lizard with wide eyes, gave her a somewhat clueless and lacking in intelligence appearance.

“Here, touch it.”

“Wow.”

When Jinhee recklessly pushed it forward, Eunjung, unable to resist, ended up laughing and moved to hold the lizard's tail from Jinhee's palm.

“Hey! Hold the the body, not the tail-”

“Aah!”

Before Jinhee could finish her urgent shout, the lizard quickly shed off its tail and ran away.

The severed tail, with drops of blood pouring from the cut area, began flailing in Eunjung’s palm.

“You should have grabbed the body, it ran away.”

“Wow.”

However, ignoring Jinhee's scolding tone, Eunjunng blankly stared at the severed tail as it danced freely on her open palm with utter fascination.

“It ran away because of you, idiot!”

One of the boys in the group grumbled and scolded her loudly. However, Eunjung’s curious eyes were fixed on the tail fluttering around on her palm as if she didn't hear him.

“Isn’t it gross?”

“Yeah.”

She answered clumsily to Jinhee’s casual question as if she was possessed.

“Stop staring and let’s go. Drop it from your hand.”

Following the boys who had already turned their attention to other pranks, Jinhee quickly grabbed Eunjung’s hand and hurriedly moved along.

The next morning, at the school.

By the time the morning assembly was over, it was already 9 o’clock. Jinhee sneakily entered the school through the deserted main gate.

She noticed her deskmate, Eunjung, was waiting for her at the pillar next to the entrance for some reason.

“Jinhee!”

“Why are you here?”

Her deskmate, still with a big smile plastered on her face like a fool, approached her.

“Look!”

Eunjung spread her hand and held out the things in her palm.

The severed lizard tail from yesterday was lying in her open palm, still and dried of blood.

“Do you have more of these?”

“……”

“Where can I get them?”

From that day on, Jinhee’s deskmate Eunjung started to join the group on her own without Jinhee even asking her to.

Jinhee's friends, who were as indifferent as her, also didn't pay much attention to her and let her tag along.

At first, she followed without showing any sign of complaint, but as she started making strange demands, Jinhee eventually became annoyed.

"Aren't you going to catch a lizard today?"

"Oh. I'm going to look at the tints."

"Aren't you going to catch a lizard today?"

"I'm going to hang out with my middle school friends."

"Today…”

"I'm going to their house and binge-watch some music shows. Don't follow me."

"Hey, your partner is following you again."

That day too, as usual, Jinhee swiftly avoided the end-of-the-day homeroom period and was about to leave the playground as soon as class ended.

She glanced behind at her friend's gesture and saw her deskmate, Eunjung, running towards them from a distance.

"Lee Jinhee, you've been too friendly with her, that's why she's acting this way."

"Shut up."

Soon, Eunjung halted in front of them and opened her mouth, gasping for breath.

"Today…”

“I’m going to karaoke.”

In the end, Eunjung followed them as usual. She couldn't fit in with their wild personality, so she stayed quietly in the corner of the karaoke room.

At this point, Jinhee's group began to feel uncomfortable with her deskmate following them around like a maniac and asking the same thing over and over again.

“Today…”

“Hey, f*ck.”

The next day, one of the more wild temperamental girls in the group ended up getting extremely annoyed and yelling at Eunjung, who had followed them.

“If you’re not going to play with us, then get lost. Don’t come and ruin the mood.”

“Then when are you going to find lizards?”

“We are not going. We’re not going to do that anymore.”

“…Then do you want to go and pet the rabbits? The teacher said the cage door is open today!”

Oblivious to the situation, Eunjung cheerfully made suggestions to the intimidating 'princesses’.

“We don't want to.”

“Then…”

“Hey, you idiot.”

In the end, the girl’s boyfriend approached her with a threatening glare.

“Are you lacking in the head? We don't want to play with you anymore, so get lost. Just because we've hung out a few times don't think we've become friends-”

“Stop it, that’s enough. Hey, I’ll go with you just for today.”

In the end, Jinhee stepped forward to mediate the situation, and instead of hanging out with the group for just one day, she went with Eunjung to catch lizards.

“I’ll play with you just for today, so don’t follow me anymore.”

“Okay!”

The two soon arrived at a nearby grassy field to catch lizards.

Eunjung jumped onto a nearby bush and started crawling on all fours like a mad person, looking for the lizards.

“Hey, be careful…”

“Heh, heh.”

Soon, Eunjung came back full of something strange in her hands and showed it to Jinhee.

When she opened her palm, more than ten lizard tails, each one flailing and separated from the body, was seen wiggling on her palm.

“Jinhee, look at this!”

“Ewww.”

Seeing those creatures wriggling and splattering a few drops of blood around her palms, Jinhee eventually swatted Eunjung's arm forcefully with a look of pure disgust.

“F*ck, crazy! Why are you obsessed with such weird things?”

“Uh…”

The lizard tails all fell to the ground.

“If you keep doing this strange thing, don’t follow me around and ask me to play with you!”

“……”

“You shouldn’t do such weird things. Do you understand?”

“....Why?”

Kim Eunjung asked her with a blank expression. She glanced at the fallen tails on the ground, still wiggling like worms.

“Why can’t I?”

“Because it's wrong!”

If it were now, she would have hit her in the head and explained why it was wrong.

But at that time, they were just in the 4th grade of elementary school.

Considering Jinhee's personality, she also didn’t know how to explain things other than yelling and turning away.

That day too, she left Eunjung behind just like that.

The day after that, Jinhee slept in until lunch and then went to school for the meal.

As soon as she stepped inside the school's premises, she was reportedly dragged to the counselling office due to an urgent call from the school counsellor.

Her confused self was straight pushed into the counseling room.

Jinhee wondered if she was going to be scolded again for skipping class, but surprisingly, the young female counselor, who spoke with a calm demeanor, gently took her hand and started talking about her deskmate, Eunjung.

“Jinhee, before you transferred here and sat in that spot, many of the kids avoided Eunjung, so she was always alone. Eunjung is... quite a troubled child. You understand what I mean, right?”

“....A little.”

“Today, when you weren't here, Eunjung opened her bag to get ready for the morning classes, and suddenly dozens of lizards jumped out, causing chaos in the classroom. She said you helped her catch them yesterday. Is that true?”

“She just followed me.”

“I see.”

The affectionate counselor took a deep breath and held Jinhee’s hand tightly as she continued.

“I understand. But if Eunjung follows you again to play, can you please stop her? Normally, her schedule includes coming here for counselling right after her classes.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Perhaps the teacher had been aware of Eunjung’s antics long before and had often counselled her.

“And if you see her hurting animals again… will you let me know the first thing? Please.”

“Yes.”

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Jinhee never needed to report Eunjung’s strange behaviour to the teacher.

A few days after Jinhee’s group stopped including Eunjung hanging out with them to play, all the rabbits raised at school were slaughtered.

***

“Your school used to raise rabbits?”

“The government had set up a program at the school to let elementary students interact with animals. But overnight, all of the rabbits were found dead. The school was in chaos, even the police came, ransacking the enclosure and everything.”

Jinhee began coughing as she spoke, her throat seemingly dry.

“You should stop smoking.”

“Shut up.”

Dukhun shook his head but still went to the refrigerator and brought out a bottle of water.

“Thank you.”

Emptying the 500ml bottle of water in one go, Jinhee wiped her mouth and started her story again.

“But what really surprised me was that the next day, they found a bloody kitchen knife on my desk.”

“I see. Eunjung must have put it on your desk.”

People suspected that the kitchen knife, which was a long sashimi knife to be exact, was used to slaughter the rabbits.

The young counselor held Jinhee’s hand and let out a series of sighs.

“No one suspects you, Jinhee. Naturally, the children also believe that Eunjung must have been responsible.”

“That’s good for me.”

The teacher shook her head as she held her forehead.

She looked exhausted, clearly worn out by the troublemaker students at school.

"I think a more experienced teacher should have taken this position... and now, it has ended up like this.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve been playing around and worrying you all the time.”

At Jinhee's sincere words, the counselor let out a slight smile while rubbing her forehead.

“Jinhee, you’ve grown up now. You even know how to console your teacher.”

Jinhee grinned, but the teacher soon slapped the hand she was holding.

“I know it’s all lip service, you little brat. Just do well at school.”

“Yes.”

“Eunjung…”

She let out another sigh as she finished saying what she had been hesitating to say.

“Eunjung will transfer to an alternative school next week. Her parents have agreed to it.”

“……”

“The education officers might come as early as Monday to inquire about Eunjung and ask you some questions, so don't be too surprised.”

“I’m not surprised.”

Then the counselor laughed again and playfully slapped Jinhee’s hand.

“Maybe being a bit surprised will help you stay engaged and do well at school.”

“Haaa.”

“Okay. Go in.”

“Okay.”

♣◆♣♤◆◆♣♤◆◆♣♤◆◆◆◆ ♣♤◆♣◆◆

Interpretation: Humanity

Comments