IBMBKC Ch 5
by Luna#005
After finishing the calculation in his head, Yua reached out his hand.
“Seonsaeng-nim said we should play together. Do you want to play Jenga with us, too? Ah, do you know what Jenga is?”
“Mm-hm. With my grandma, toge-therh, I m-mean, t-together.”
The main bottom carefully grabbed Yua’s outstretched hand and nodded. He had been answering with a slightly excited expression, but suddenly widened his eyes as if realizing something and hurried to correct his pronunciation. At the same time, the loosely held hands slackened. Though he hadn’t fully let go, Yua could still faintly feel the warmth touching the back of his hand.
It seemed like he was trying to fix his pronunciation, but he stuttered so much that he sounded even clumsier than before. Regrettably, for the main bottom, there wasn’t any meaningful improvement in his pronunciation either.
No wonder he looked intimidated every time he looked this way. He must have heard what the kids said earlier.
No, but… it just sounds awkward to a native speaker’s ear. For a foreigner, he seems to speak Korean pretty well.
What was this? Yua tilted his head.
Both in the kids’ earlier conversation and in what the novel described, the main bottom had said that his Korean had been very poor when he was young. So Yua assumed he would barely be able to communicate, maybe not at all…
But he wasn’t at a level where communication was impossible; if anything, if one listened carefully, it could be dismissed as simply speaking more awkwardly than kids his age. Yua had never paid attention to how accurate other children’s pronunciation was, so he wasn’t sure, but at least to Yua’s ears, that was the case. Maybe to anyone who wasn’t Korean, there wouldn’t even be a noticeable difference.
That made it even stranger.
Considering that in this entire class, the only people who knew any foreign language, including English, were Yua with his memories of a past life and the main bottom, there was nothing particularly wrong with him. Besides, most problems could be solved by that bright, sparkling baby face of his. It was hard to find adults or kids who disliked something that cute and pretty.
Then why do the kids dislike him? Weren’t kids supposed to be shy around strangers?
If the main bottom could hold a normal conversation, with that dazzling face of his, it would have been normal for him to have at least one or two friends.
A good-looking foreign child who can talk normally. What could possibly be more appealing to children?
…Or not? Maybe he looks too exotic, and it makes them uncomfortable?
Even elementary schoolers would show huge interest in a foreigner they could communicate with, but kindergarteners seemed to be different.
Yua furrowed his brows, then shook his head. Whatever the reason, it had nothing to do with him, and it was none of his business. He could think about it at home if he really wanted to. Or better yet, not think about it at all.
“Yua-ya. Then should we play rock-paper-scissors again?”
“Huh? Yeah, let’s do that. Since Suyeok just joined.”
“Eeh, I don’t want to… Can’t we just make him go last? We are going to read the storybook soon.”
“Ah, yeah? Yua-ya! We only have 3 left!”
“Ah… Still.”
“I-I can go l-last, i-it’s f-f… fi… n-no, y-yeah.”
And what were those “3”? They were the numbers on the clock. Yua glanced at the minute hand pointing at 9. They were supposed to read the storybook when the clock struck the hour, so it made sense they were in a hurry. Even so, it was somewhat surprising that children who couldn’t even read a clock knew they didn’t have much time left.
Yua was just about to say they should do it again because it wasn’t fair, when the main bottom squeezed his hand tightly. Yua rolled his eyes to the side and saw the main bottom shaking his head. Since the boy himself indicated that, Yua felt it would be awkward to insist on redoing it, so he nodded.
We are still holding hands.
When Yua subtly let go of his hand while saying they should move according to the order, the main bottom clenched and unclenched his fist as if disappointed. Yua pretended not to notice and tried to move away, but with a sigh, he gave a small piece of advice. No matter how much he didn’t want to get involved, ignoring a little kid who kept watching his reactions just didn’t sit right with him.
“You don’t need to force yourself to pronounce things perfectly. You’re already speaking Korean well enough, and as for pronunciation… Even if you don’t try hard, it’ll fix itself before you graduate elementary school.”
“…!”
At that, Suyeok snapped his head up and opened his eyes wide like a startled rabbit, but Yua had already moved, so he didn’t notice.
* * *
“Okay, kids~ Gather in front of Seonsaeng-nim so we can read our storybook!”
At those words, the children who had been clustered around playing Jenga scattered and ran toward her. Yua stared at the collapsed pile of blocks and crouched down to pick them up one by one. It was because of his belief that what one used, one should clean up oneself.
This belief had once made Jeonghye and Juhyeok break into a cold sweat, but since those two weren’t here, it didn’t matter.
Yua filled his arms with blocks and dumped them into the toy box with a loud clatter. Most of the children had already gathered near the teacher to secure spots in the front row.
“I… I’ll h-help.”
“Huh? Ah, uh… hm. …Thanks?”
At that moment, the main bottom came up beside Yua with his arms full of the remaining blocks and spoke. Yua looked at the scene with visible awkwardness, scratched his cheek, and replied. It was an incredibly awkward conversation.
The main bottom looked happy, as if just having a chance to talk was enough for him. His ears and tail seemed to have been tucked away again, because they were nowhere to be seen.
“Yua-ya, Suyeok-ah! Shall we read our storybook now? Let’s gather in front of Seonsaeng-nim!”
“Okay.”
“O-okay!”
Yua turned his back as he answered the teacher calling him. The main bottom trailed after him like a piece of goldfish poop, so Yua deliberately walked faster and squeezed himself into the crowd of children.
No matter what, he did not want to get more involved than this. Though it already felt like he was pretty involved. Yua chose to ignore that too.
“Okay, everyone’s here, right~? What story should we read today? Does anyone have a suggestion?”
“Snow White!”
“Seonsaeng-nim, please read Sleeping Beauty!”
“Cinderella!”
“Aladdin!”
“Jack and the Bean… bean sprouts!”
There seemed to be something odd slipped into that list, but story time progressed smoothly. Yua shifted around, trying to find a comfortable position. Naturally, he had no interest in the story.
The teacher filtered out books they had read recently and books they had read too often as she looked over the children. Then her eyes met Yua’s and—
Whoosh!
She simply passed him by.
“…?”
Did she just ignore me?
It was baffling for a moment, but since there was a reasonable explanation for it, Yua chose to stay quiet.
“Seonsaeng-niiim!”
“Yes, Yua, what is it?”
“Then, did the prince think Snow White was dead?”
“Mm-hm, since the dwarves told him that, probably so.”
“Then, then why did the prince kiss a dead person?!”
“……”
“Yes?!”
“M-maybe it is because he loves her? He was giving her a final farewell.”
“But it was their first time meeting?”
“……”
Well, there was… that incident.
“Seonsaeng-nim!”
“……”
“Seonsaeng-niiim!”
“…Yes. Yua, what is it?”
“But, why does the witch get blamed when Hansel and Gretel were the ones who ate her house first?”
“No matter what they did wrong, she tried to bully and eat little children. When someone is in need, we should help them.”
“But the witch died in Hansel and Gretel’s hands, and they took all her treasure.”
“She was punished because she did something bad!”
“If you do something bad, you die in someone else’s hands, and they take all your money?”
“…Umm….”
And… that incident too.
Thinking it over, the sins he had committed were worse than expected. Yua, the fairy tale villain, quietly moved to the corner. It seemed he should stay silent like a dead mouse during story time from now on.
Yua slipped to the very back row and sat by the window. It was still early summer, so the air conditioner wasn’t on yet, and the sunlit areas were hot and stuffy. Because of that, it was one of the least occupied, relatively quiet spots.
Yua was leaning his back against the window, shifting around to find a comfortable position, when—
Slide.
“C-can I sit, s-sit here too?”
“……”
Why are you sitting here…?
Yua froze in a half-slouched position against the window. The main bottom kept his gaze fixed on the tips of his fidgeting fingers.
Seeing that, Yua indirectly refused.
“It’s far from Seonsaeng-nim, so you won’t hear the story well.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s close to the window, so it might be hot.”
“You’re sitting here too.”
“I get cold easily.”
“But Mommy s-said sn-snow leopuh live in cold places so they get hot e-easily…”
Not falling for it, huh. Yua clicked his tongue quietly. He thought the boy was just timid, but maybe not. Or maybe he was still too young to recognize indirect implications.
Contrary to expectations, the main bottom countered what Yua said word for word. And since he was not exactly wrong, Yua had run out of plausible excuses to use.
“…Then sit. But you can’t make noise.”
“Okay!”
Heehee.
The moment Yua reluctantly gave permission, the main bottom scooted right next to him and stuck close. Yua subtly shifted his butt sideways to create distance. Having their shoulders touch was too uncomfortable.
As the main bottom said, Yua was a snow leopard beastman who tended to get hot easily, so the warm, stuffy air did feel unpleasant. Not that being heat-sensitive meant he wasn’t sensitive to the cold, though.
Still, it wasn’t that hot yet, so it was tolerable.
Yua leaned back against the window again and blinked slowly. The window warmed by the early summer sun felt pleasantly warm.
It wasn’t even lunchtime yet.
Whether it was because he hadn’t slept deeply for nearly a week, or because the light breeze slipping through the slightly open window made him drowsy, sleep began creeping up on him.
With the teacher’s storytelling voice added to that, it was the perfect environment for falling asleep.
Ah, but sleeping next to this kid is a bit…
Yua deliberately tried to keep his drooping eyelids open. But as they say, nothing in the world is heavier than one’s eyelids. Things did not go the way he wanted.