Period 2. How are you all?

Fortunately, Sein didn’t suggest I rob a bank. It was a good thing I didn’t know how to shoot a gun.

“Dahye, want a part-time job?”

“A part-time job?”

Are there any part-time jobs that would hire a high school student?

I’m sure there are, but…

I’d rather be studying during that time.

As if she read my reluctant expression, Sein waved her hands dismissively.

“It’s not hard or time-consuming! You just help the teachers at the academy with copying and grading, and in your spare time, you can sit and do your own thing.”

“Academy?”

“Yeah. My aunt is the director of an academy at the Gugugo High School intersection. The guy who was working there ghosted her after breaking up with his girlfriend… my aunt asked me to recommend a smart friend. It’s just a temporary position for about a month.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. The academy closes at 10, so it ends a little late, but they’ll give you transportation money and free extra workbooks. The hourly wage is 5,500 won.”

“I’ll do it.”

I accepted immediately.

A month wouldn’t interfere too much with my studies, and for the past, the pay was decent. Plus, there was free time.

And since it’s an academy, if I get stuck on a problem, I could probably ask one of the teachers there, right?

“Great! I’ll call my aunt right now and ask!”

Sein’s face brightened as she immediately took out her phone.

“Auntie, it’s me… about that part-time job we talked about yesterday. Yeah.”

After chattering for a while, Sein took the phone from her ear and looked back at me.

“Dahye, my aunt is asking if you know how to use Hangul and Excel…? Not a lot, just the very basics.”

As she spoke, her expression quickly clouded over, as if she didn’t think I would know how.

Right. What high school student would know Excel?

Even many college students don’t know how to use it.

I smiled at the troubled Sein.

“Tell her I can even use functions.”

A useful tip for a future returner: get a Computer Literacy Level 1 certification.

“So, do you go there too, Sein?”

“Ah, my house is far, so I don’t…”

And so, I became a temporary part-time employee at Ibaji Academy.

Ibaji Academy, which occupied two entire floors of a commercial building near the downtown area, was a fairly large academy attended by many students from Gogogo High School, Gugugo High School, Jungjungjung Middle School, and Jongjongjung Middle School.

It turned out to be a pretty famous academy among the girls who graduated from the same middle school as Sein.

Unlike the academy that Jisu and Seo Jaegyeom attend, they don’t screen their students, but maybe that’s why they have more students?

I never had a reason to come to the Gugugo High School intersection, so I didn’t know.

“Oh my, you really know how to use it?”

“Of course.”

“That’s great. The last kid was a junior in college and didn’t even know how to calculate an average. He would just sit there and punch in everything with a calculator.”

“Haha… I didn’t know the first thing about Excel when I was in college either.”

“Oh my, you’re such a kidder!”

It was a relief that the director, who often wore white pants with a character on the butt and whose Kotalk status message was ‘Yeosu night sea…^^’, took a liking to me.

The work at the academy was really simple.

I would sit at the desk and answer the phone, do copying or grading requested by the teachers, and when the academy closed at 10 PM, I would do simple wrap-up tasks like checking for lost and found items or turning off the lights in the classrooms.

It was much easier and more comfortable than the convenience store part-time job I had alongside tutoring in college.

Plus, I got a whole bunch of extra workbooks for free!

I didn’t even do much, and she introduced me to such a great part-time job. Sein is a really good kid.

However, there was one peculiar thing.

“…Hi.”

“Oh. Hi.”

10:10 PM. Right after the students who finished class had all left.

I was turning off the lights from the top floor down when I ran into Kim Gaeun, who was just coming out of a classroom.

Who is Kim Gaeun?

Kyung Sein’s friend #2.

The one who flatly refused Sein’s suggestion to ‘ask Doyeon if you don’t know something.’

The one who stood by and did nothing while Sein and Sua helped me on the day of Bang Eunji’s locker vandalism, and then left for home first.

Sein and Sua didn’t show it, but it seemed like she was the one in their group who disliked Doyeon the most.

‘Do you think those rumors started for no reason? Woo Doyeon must have given him some kind of opening, there’s no smoke without fire.’

I had heard her say something like that to Sua.

That Kim Gaeun was now dawdling out of the classroom 10 minutes after class had ended. Her expression was not good, as if she had been scolded during class.

“Did you lose something?”

“No, why?”

“Ah… you came out late.”

“Ah.”

“……”

“……”

“Are you going to the restroom? They’re cleaning it now.”

“Ah. Uh.”

“……”

Why isn’t she leaving?

My social skills are at their limit. I have nothing more to say.

“Are your parents coming to pick you up?”

“No.”

“……”

“Kim Gaeun! Why haven’t you left yet! If you keep staying, we’ll get in trouble with the law, hurry up and go!”

A teacher who had just come out of the teachers’ office shouted at Kim Gaeun. Kim Gaeun, with an annoyed expression, looked at the teacher and left without a word.

What’s with her?

“Dahye, you should get going too, there’s nothing else to do, right?”

“Ah, yes. I’ll just quickly make a copy for another teacher and then I’ll leave.”

I said, looking down at my phone which had suddenly started buzzing like crazy.

It was our class group chat.

Grade 2 Class 2

20:39 Math A class has homework (due tomorrow)

Do Hajun

Are you bragging about being in Math A class right now?

(A weird anime gif I don’t even want to know) 22:11

Grade 2 Class 2 Girls Only >.<

Ye Sua

Ah, did you just see what Do Hajun sent?ㅡㅡ So f**king disgusting 22:13

Looks like a lot of kids are on their phones at this hour.

Well, it is the time to be on your phone right after academy ends.

While waiting for the copier to finish, I scrolled up the class group chat with my thumb.

Of course, Jung Eunseong and Seo Jaegyeom are also in this chat.

Jung Eunseong hasn’t said a word so far, and Seo Jaegyeom also doesn’t show up unless someone specifically calls him out.

‘Jung Eunseong is quiet in the drama club group chat too. I wonder if he even checked the script Jisu sent.’

Grade 2 Class 2

Ye Sua

Ah Do Hajun get lost it’s f**king disgusting 22:15

Do Hajun

(gif)

(gif)

(gif) 22:15

Homeroom Teacher

Kids, let’s get some sleepㅠㅠ

Hajun, you too, stop it.

I’m going to have nightmares 22:15

Seo Jaegyeom has left the chat.

“…Huh…?”

I stopped organizing the printouts and my eyes widened.

Did Seo Jaegyeom just leave?

“Did he leave because he was disgusted?”

No, but still, how could he just leave the class group chat…

Grade 2 Class 2 Girls Only >.<

Kyung Sein

What do we do

Jaegyeom must have left because he was grossed out 22:16

Right. He doesn’t even come to school and this is how he makes his presence known.

Do Hajun, who was startled by Seo Jaegyeom’s departure, stopped sending gifs and disappeared, and the girls’ chat room went into a frenzy.

I stared at my incessantly buzzing phone and fell into thought.

Should I invite him back? Since I’m the (temporary) class president?

Or should I send him a private message?

I haven’t messaged Seo Jaegyeom privately since I came back.

“I’ll leave the copies here! I’m leaving now!”

“Bye Dahye~ You worked hard~”

I took the elevator down, searching for my message thread with Seo Jaegyeom, which was already buried far down.

Fortunately, by then, the homeroom teacher had reappeared and invited Seo Jaegyeom back.

Grade 2 Class 2

Homeroom Teacher

This is a prison, you can’t leave 22:29

Heh…

Right. You can’t just leave.

When you go because you are disgusted with looking at gifs… I will not send you, even if I die…

“You’re out late today?”

Huh?

I looked up from writing a message.

A few meters ahead, a man was walking closely next to Kim Gaeun.

“You were late because you were asking a handsome teacher a question, weren’t you? No? There are no handsome teachers?”

Why hasn’t she left yet?

Is that her dad next to her?

“……”

“A high school girl shouldn’t be walking around alone at this late hour.”

Why am I still here?

I purposely came out over 20 minutes late.

“Studying is just an excuse, you go to the academy to date, don’t you? Huh?”

I should have just left with the other kids. I made the wrong decision.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

The alley is just around the corner. Should I just pretend to go in a different direction and then turn back?

“You don’t?”

But this man already knows my house is in that direction.

What if I run into him on my way back… I have to come back this way to get home anyway.

“No answer, I guess you have one. Same school? Or older?”

The way he smiles sleazily and talks smoothly is disgusting.

Gaeun flinched her shoulders.

Gaeun was a bold girl who could retort to a teacher who told her to ‘wear something under your summer uniform shirt so the boys don’t stare,’ with ‘Ah, then just gouge out the eyes of the ones who stare!’, but even for Gaeun, a man she met on a deserted street late at night was scary.

A cold sweat formed in Gaeun’s hand.

“Gaeun-ah!”

Kang Dahye, who had appeared out of nowhere, linked arms with Gaeun.