IBMBKC Ch 4

#004

Right before Yua fell ill at dawn, he recalled that very afternoon, the moment that had triggered his memory of his past life.

As usual, Yua had been playing at the playground after returning from kindergarten. Since it was a new town, the facilities were clean, and there were plenty of kids his age, so there was never a shortage of playmates. For Yua, who loved to play, there was no reason not to go every single day.

“The swing is next! Let’s go to the swings!”

“Okay! But I want two turns!”

Yua ran around with a kid he had met at the playground, without even exchanging names.

They tangled their legs together and twisted the swing ropes to spin like a teacup ride. They climbed the slide backward and came down in a Superman pose. They attempted a triple axel on the trampoline and crashed down. Things like that.

It was when Yua had circled the playground about five times. He saw two foreigners walking from afar.

“Hey! If you don’t come fast, I’m riding the swing first!”

“No, wait!!!”

Or rather… he thought he had seen them. Yua barely registered the fleeting image of a large foreigner holding the hand of a smaller foreigner as he ran toward the swings.

Reflexively recalling that blurry scene, Yua wiped his palms on his pants.

The small foreigner from back then, who he assumed was the main bottom, blond. And now the kid who had fallen backward with a loud thump and landed on his butt… blond.

Seeing the blond kid bawling, the teacher rushed over in a hurry.

No way… it can’t be, right? His name is Suyeok. It’s probably just dyed. Yeah…

Yua looked at the fallen child with wavering eyes. The teacher helped the crying child stand and took out a handkerchief, gently patting around his eyes to wipe the tears. His slightly opened eyes were green.

“Seojun. You must not hit your friend. Remember how that makes you a bad child?”

“But he started it!”

“Even so, violence is wrong. If Seonsaeng-nim scolds Geumja just because she talked with Seojun, would Seojun feel good about that?”

“……”

“Seojun?”

“He started it, sniff, I just told him to go, hic! But he wouldn’t… Only me, why scold only me, ugh…! Only me… Uwaaah!”

Pressed with questions, Seojun eventually burst into loud tears. From the situation, it seemed the kid named Suyeok had approached Geumja and said something, and although Seojun told him to go away, he didn’t listen, so Seojun pushed him.

Considering how startled he looked when Suyeok fell, it didn’t seem like he pushed him with the intention of making him fall… It must have been accidental. Things like this happened often among kids who were still poor at controlling their emotions.

Yua watched the whole situation and came to his own conclusion. Although the atmosphere in the Sun Class had already turned chaotic ever since Seojun started yelling, and even though the other kids were whispering among themselves while glancing over, none of it had anything to do with Yua. Because—

What’s the point of getting involved?

Even if he did, there was nothing he could do. He didn’t want to get tired of dealing with strangers whose names he didn’t even know. And he didn’t want to join in gossiping about who was right or wrong when he wasn’t even one of the people involved. Thinking it internally was one thing, but saying it out loud was entirely different.

For these reasons, Yua chose to stay distant, watching the fire from across the river^[1], or rather, watching the river from across the fire^[2].

The teacher pressed a hand to her forehead as she stood between the crying Seojun and Suyeok. Sensing the mood, Geumja finally spoke.

“Suyeok told me he wanted to play together… but I didn’t answer. Seojun thought I was in an awk… um….”

“Awkward situation?”

“Yes. So he helped me….”

Geumja spoke hesitantly. Even though she had bumped her forehead earlier and gotten teary, for her age, she was quite mature and composed.

Now that Yua thought about it, back when he used to stir the kids up, it seemed that Geumja usually sat alone reading a book. Seojun was probably the kid who stayed next to her. This was why Yua had never known their names. He had never spoken to them in the first place. 

“Why is he like that every day?”

” I don’t know. But it’s uncomfortable because he keeps staring at me up close.”

“I don’t mind that, but it’s weird when he talks to me. He’s seven, but he talks worse than my little brother!”

“How old is your brother?”

“Five!”

“…Who are you talking about?”

Hearing the kids nearby talking, Yua quietly slipped into the conversation.

Blond curly hair and green eyes. A child who had joined the kindergarten in early summer and spoke less fluently than kids his age.

Although reason had already reached a conclusion, Yua ignored it. Korea was huge. With so many apartments, so many kindergartens, and so many classes, did it really make sense that it had to be Yua’s neighborhood, the same apartment complex, the same kindergarten, and the same class? Coincidences existed in the world.

“Oh, right. Yua was sick and didn’t come to kindergarten, so you wouldn’t know, right? This is your new friend, Ha Suyeok, who joined last week.”

“Uh…”

“He came from Germany, so he’s still a bit clumsy with Korean. Suyeok, shall we say hello to Yua?”

The teacher, as if having heard their conversation, acknowledged it and spoke to Yua. 

The look on her face clearly said, ‘Yua normally plays well with everyone, so he’ll get along with this kid, too, right?’ Regardless of any sense of guilt or whatever, Yua regretted pretending to be a good kid for the teacher’s sake.

Suddenly pushed into the middle of this mess, Yua thought faintly, …Why is everyone doing this to me? F*ck…

It seemed he was f*cked.

Caught off guard by Yua’s unexpected appearance, the main bottom had already stopped crying. Meeting Yua’s half-rotten expression with bright, round eyes, the main bottom gave him a shy smile.

Don’t smile. Please…

“Ah… H-hewwo…”

Yeah. Really f*cked. Completely and thoroughly.

“Uh, yeah. Hello….”

“…!”

Yua couldn’t bring himself to spit on a smiling face and replied awkwardly.

Anyone would have seen that greeting as reluctant, but the main bottom only widened his eyes as if that too made him happy. His pale, plump cheeks tinted with a rosy blush reminded Yua of strawberry mochi.

Feeling the intense gaze boring into him, Yua awkwardly avoided eye contact.

Watching this scene, the teacher spoke with an even brighter expression.

“Then, Suyeok, want to play with Yua? Yua, is it okay if Suyeok plays with you?”

“P-play…?”

As if he hadn’t expected that, the main bottom looked back at the teacher in a fluster. The way he trembled made him look like a hamster placed in front of a hawk, and Yua felt… strange. If he refused this, he’d look like the worst kind of shameless villain in the world.

I really don’t want to get involved with the original story! Don’t come, don’t come!

“Uhm, Seonsaeng-nim. I don’t mind, but… I have friends I’m already playing with, so I don’t think I should decide that alone….”

In the end, Yua decided to shift responsibility to the others. From what he heard earlier, the kids did not seem too eager to welcome the main bottom. Yua decided to rely on that.

“Ah, uh, i-is that so? Children, is it all right if Suyeok plays here with you?”

The teacher stuttered, clearly having expected an immediate yes.

Was that really Yua’s image, that he wasn’t picky about people? Yua frowned.

Next to her, Suyeok shrank back nervously. It wasn’t directed at him, but Yua didn’t bother clarifying. He wasn’t planning to get close anyway, so why explain?

“Wh-what do we do…?”

“I don’t know… But if we say we don’t like it, will Yua stop playing with us?”

“Isn’t that what would happen? Seonsaeng-nim told Yua to play with him.”

“But I don’t want to play with him…! You say you don’t want to!”

“No, you say it!”

“I-I can’t either….”

After whispering among themselves, the children glanced at one another with miserable faces and nodded awkwardly. They thought they were speaking quietly, but Yua, who was standing right next to them, had heard everything.

Wait. If they hate it, why are they nodding yes…? Don’t tell me they nodded because they couldn’t turn down Seonsaeng-nim?

There was one thing Yua hadn’t considered. Children often find it difficult to say no to an adult’s direct request. Not all kids were like that, of course, but the ones Yua had gathered into his group happened to all be that type.

In other words, this was the karma Yua had reaped for choosing only the gentle kids because they were easier to handle.

Smiling brightly, the teacher guided the main bottom over to Yua. It was the happiest smile Yua had seen all year.

“Really? Then Suyeok, Yua and his friends say they like you. Shall we play together?”

“I-I also… f-fwiend? I l-like!”  

Nobody had said that, but because of the teacher’s “translation”, Yua and the other kids shut their mouths.

Pop!

“…Oh my.”

He really must have liked it. Along with the familiar, embarrassing sound, white triangular ears suddenly popped up from amid the golden hair. Between his legs, a plump, tawny, striped tail appeared.

There was a beastkin setting in the story, but it hadn’t been important enough for Yua to pay attention to it. Apparently, the main bottom was a raccoon beastkin.

…For a raccoon, he’s pretty cute-looking?

Yua nodded as he had such a thoroughly biased thought. He couldn’t tell such an excited kid that he didn’t want to play with him. Well… he could, but…

If he did, the mood would collapse into an irreparable disaster. And even if he refused, as he had already experienced, he had no idea how the story would be twisted afterward.

‘Right! Mom. You know the new kid in our class~.’

‘Yeah?’

‘The teacher told Yua to play with him today, but Yua got angry and said he did not want to?’

Kids usually skip the details and only mention the most dramatic part. From the beginning, middle, climax, and end, they drop the “beginning” and “buildup” and leave only the “climax” and “end”.

It might not sound believable at first, but the power of selective editing could flip a situation in ways one can rarely imagine.

Like the difference between “A hit B, so B cursed at A” and “B cursed at A”. Cut off the beginning, and the villain completely changes. That kind of thing.

‘Oh, did you hear? There’s a kid at my child’s kindergarten who, apparently, bullies others….’

‘I heard the teacher asked him to play together, but he yelled that he didn’t want to.’

‘Maybe he has a bit of a… personality issue? Should I tell my kid not to play with him…’

Then the rumors would turn strange, and Yua would be branded by the parents as a kid with a nasty personality.

Moreover, the reason rumors of this kind were particularly troublesome was that truth and falsehood blended so subtly that you couldn’t firmly deny or confirm them. They say the most compelling stories are born from ten percent falsehood and ninety percent truth.

Anyway, this neighborhood didn’t have many schools, so once a rumor started, it would spread in no time.

No. My little building!

So Yua decided to compromise with reality. More accurately, it was self-comfort disguised as compromise.

In any case, even if kindergarteners were forced to play together once or twice by chance wouldn’t cause even the slightest impact on the story’s progression. …And even if it did, it shouldn’t.