‘So, are you going to switch to him now instead of me?’

To Seo Jae-gyeom’s seemingly sarcastic question, I had only one thing to say.

‘Why do you care?’

Honestly, it was true.

Whether I dated Jung Eun-seong or a long umbrella, what business was it of Seo Jae-gyeom’s?

“Ugh.”

Today was a very long day.

From being rejected in the morning, to unearthing my dark past, to fighting with a bully in the cafeteria during lunch.

And in the 5th period, I wasted energy because of Seo Jae-gyeom, who kept talking to me.

He didn’t say anything more after I replied, ‘Why do you care?’ to his ‘Are you switching?’ question, but his expression was strange whenever Jung Eun-seong and I were involved after that.

It seemed like he thought that after being rejected by him, I was blatantly hanging out with another guy in front of him.

That I was using Jung Eun-seong in some kind of jealousy-inducing scheme.

When you think about it, that Seo Jae-gyeom is also quite self-absorbed.

Is it because he’s lived his entire 18 years of life as a popular guy?

“If I had the charm to pull in Jung Eun-seong just to make you jealous, I would have succeeded in seducing you, Seo Jae-gyeom, a long time ago.”

Muttering to myself, I turned into the alley that led to my neighborhood.

After lunch, the 5th, 6th, and 7th periods, and then homeroom.

I was tense throughout the afternoon classes, worried that Song Yeo-reum would come find me, drag me to the bathroom, or grab my hair during the next break, but thankfully, nothing like that happened.

She wasn’t waiting for me at the main gate to kidnap me on my way home either.

Still, just in case, I’m walking home, on guard. Ready to throw my bag and run if need be.

While waiting for the crosswalk to turn green, I started drafting my future study plan in my smartphone’s memo pad.

“First, I need to check how much math I’ve forgotten and tackle it step by step, and for Korean and English, I just need to practice solving problems…”

“Hey, Dahye! Kang Da-hye!”

“Huh? Ah… hello.”

“Are you just getting out of school?”

“Yes.”

The ones who had called me were a group of middle-aged women sitting on plastic chairs in front of a hair salon.

A dark gray towel wrapped around their heads, a strong smell of chemicals in the air. On the table, paper cups with lipstick stains, old-fashioned snacks, and dried squid.

“Schools let out early these days, huh?”

It was only after the woman spoke again that I remembered who she was.

She was the landlady of our villa.

‘I didn’t recognize you for a moment.’

You’ve gotten so much younger too, ma’am.

“You’re getting your hair done, I see.”

“Yeah, dyeing my gray hairs. And having a drink while I’m at it~.”

“Were you having coffee?”

“Not coffee, soju! Want a glass, Dahye?”

“Oh my, the things you say to a child!”

The hair salon owner, who was sitting next to them, laughed and slapped the landlady on the back.

“Dahye, don’t drink this stuff when you grow up, it’s not good! You’ll gain weight!”

‘I’ve already had plenty.’

I swallowed the retort I couldn’t say and accepted a piece of dried squid.

The landlady, who will move to the countryside in about five years to help raise her granddaughter and whom I will rarely see, is the Dispatch of this neighborhood.

There’s no one she doesn’t know, no rumor she hasn’t heard, and her voice is so loud that getting on her bad side is exhausting.

For reference, this is what she said when she found out I was first in the school in my freshman year.

‘Being good at studying? That’s all useless. Even so, if you don’t believe in Jesus, you’re going to hell.’

And this is what she said when I messed up my college entrance exam because my hair was pulled by a random old man, and my mental state collapsed.

‘Let’s overcome it with prayer. That incident was the Lord’s plan to use you, Dahye, in a different way…’

“So, you’re heading home?”

“Yes. I’m going to eat and then go to the library.”

“Don’t kids these days do things like evening self-study? My daughter used to eat dinner at school and come home at eleven.”

“Oh, Ji-eun’s mom! Kids these days don’t do that. These days, they go to cafes, order a ‘ddalyobeur’, and study, ‘ddalyobeur’.”
(‘ddalyobeur’ is a Korean slang abbreviation for strawberry yogurt blended)

“What? ‘ddalyobeur’? What’s a ‘ddalyobeur’?”

“I know! It’s strawberry yogurt blended!”

“Oh my! Mwongmi!”
(Mwongmi is an old internet slang term for ‘what is this?)

“Hohoho! Kkamnol!”
(Kkamnol is an old internet slang term for ‘surprised’)

“Hahaha… exit…”

I backed away from the group of women whose voices were getting louder and louder.

“Hey, Dahye! That box of trash in front of the telephone pole, that wasn’t you guys, was it?! No one will take it if you leave it there!”

“No, that wasn’t us~.”

“If you see who it was, let me know! You have to!”

“Okay~.”

I quickly distanced myself and entered the familiar villa.

“Ugh. I’m hungry.”

I’m really hungry since I skipped lunch.

I carelessly dropped my bag on the floor and went to the kitchen to open the refrigerator.

However.

“There’s nothing to eat.”

The only things in the fridge were some kimchi with only the broth left and a nearly empty container of gochujang. I was going to eat that, but there was no rice either.

“Should I have bought some ramen?”

But I spent all my money on chocolate milk with Jisoo at the school store after the 5th period, so I don’t have a single won right now…

I stared into the refrigerator, which was making a strange whirring and rattling noise, for a moment, then closed it and put my bag back on.

“I’ll have to go to Mom’s shop and eat.”

My mom, who used to work as a housekeeper at Seo Jae-gyeom’s house when I was young, now runs a small snack shop with three tables in the market.

‘The madam has her quirks, but she’s a good person. She even gave me a severance package when I quit because of my back. That’s how I was able to open the shop.’

That’s what my mom, who still calls Seo Jae-gyeom’s mother ‘madam,’ says.

For the record, both Seo Jae-gyeom and I don’t have fathers.

My dad left home when I was young… and I don’t know about Seo Jae-gyeom’s dad. He’s probably at his main house by now.

“I’ll have to be careful and ask for just ten thousand won. To buy workbooks.”

Muttering that it was better when I was a college student and could earn my own money, I entered the market.

One more block from here is the middle school I went to.

So all my middle school classmates know that Kang Da-hye is the daughter of the market tteokbokki shop owner.

We’ve even run into each other at the shop a few times.

Before the regression, I was so embarrassed by that that I would rather starve than go to the shop to eat, but now, well.

‘Why not? The tteokbokki is delicious.’

Spicy rice cakes and glass noodles, with japchae tteokbokki sprinkled with sesame seeds on top. If you order it with sundae and dip it in the sauce, it’s the most delicious thing in the world. You have to try it!

“Mom!”

I pushed open the old iron door that made the place look more like a mill than a snack shop.

“Mom, I’m ho… huh?”

My cheerful voice trailed off.

The small shop was a mess.

It looked like a table had been overturned and the food had spilled; tteokbokki, sundae, coke cans, and eggs were rolling on the floor, and the kimbap filling was scattered everywhere.

I could see green plates covered in plastic and styrofoam bowls overturned under the table.

Sauce was splattered all the way up to the wall.

In the middle of it all, my mom was on the floor, picking up the spilled tteokbokki and kimbap with her bare hands.

“Oh my, you’re here, sweetie?”

My mom, who saw me, wiped her hands on her apron in embarrassment and got up.

“Are you okay, Mom? You’re not hurt?”

I quickly grabbed a box of tissues from the next table and went over to her.

“How did this happen? Did you drop it?”

“No, a customer had their legs out from under the table and I didn’t see… Leave it, I’ll do it. You sit down.”

“No, why are you doing this with your bare hands? Let me, I’ll get a rag.”

“It’s okay. It’s faster with my hands. I was just a little out of it…”

“Mom, you’re going to burn your hands!”

Just as I was trying to stop my mom from putting her hands in the steaming hot sauce.

“Ma’am, what about our tteokbokki? How long do we have to wait?”

A sharp voice fell on me and my mom from above.

At the same time, a clean white sneaker stepped on a piece of tteokbokki my mom was picking up.

A black footprint appeared on the red-sauce-stained rice cake.

“Ugh, my shoe got dirty. Ma’am, can you wipe this first?”

“And give us some wet wipes, too.”

Click.

At the same time, I faintly heard the sound of a camera shutter.

They must have heard it too, because they stifled their laughter.

I slowly raised my head.

The three people sitting at the table right in front of where my mom and I were squatting.

A familiar uniform. Hair styled with a curling iron in the bathroom during break time, a hair roller on their forehead. Faces that I hadn’t noticed before.

“Ugh, I think she noticed.”

“Of course she did, you idiot. The camera sound was so loud.”

“Ah, that’s hilarious. Kang Da-hye’s mom is kneeling in front of us.”

“Look at her nails. She has sundae under them, so gross, I’m gonna puke.”

It was Song Yeo-reum and her friends.

The minion of Song Yeo-reum, whom I had warned would end up on ‘High School Moms’ if she continued to live like this, showed her phone screen to Song Yeo-reum.

“This is hilarious. Look at this. The picture came out so stupid.”

“Ah, whatever~ What about my shoe~ The sauce splattered all over it!!!!! Even if you sell this shop, it won’t be enough to buy a new one!”

Song Yeo-reum stomped her feet in the spilled sauce on the floor.

Sauce splattered near my eyes.

Song Yeo-reum, whose eyes met mine, burst out laughing.