09: Something New

#1: Wait for me in front of my house and go to school with me. As soon as classes end, wait for me in the school’s gate and me back home.

The nerve of this woman. She even attached her address at the bottom. Does she really want to make a fool out of me?

“And she’s late, dammit.” I grumbled as I leaned against my car while waiting for the Witch to come out of the apartment. “I’ve been waiting for five minutes already!”

I’m an impatient person so I hate it when people (especially insignificant ones) make me wait. So why am I doing this for a very unimportant woman? Because of my stupid journal, that’s why.

“Good morning,”

I jumped in shock as soon as I heard the Witch’s voice from behind me. “Y-Yah! I thought you were gonna come through that door!” I exclaimed while pointing to the revolving door of the 20-storey apartment in front of me.

“Umm…were you waiting for me to come out of that all this time?” she asked with a puzzled look. “You think I’m some kind of rich celebrity? I’ll have to work in ten different part-time jobs to pay for at least a month’s rent if I wanted to stay in that expensive apartment.”

I furrowed my eyebrows at her. “You mean…you don’t live in that apartment?”

She gave me an unbelieving chuckle and pointed towards the left. “I live there.”

I squinted my eyes in order to examine the building she was pointing at. “Are you saying…you live in a rooftop home? The kind where the poor people in dramas live? Those really exist?!”

“I feel insulted, but yes, they do exist. And yes, I live there.”

“Wait…but the address you wrote…” I took out the paper from my pocket and showed it to her. “I thought that apartment is the only building around here.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, obviously, you didn’t bother to look around for another building. And besides, I wasn’t able to give the name of our place ‘cause it doesn’t have one. But you could have used your common sense and figured out for yourself that I’m not the type of person to live in such a luxurious apartment!”

I furiously folded the paper and returned it to my pocket. “You should have used your common sense as well and figured out for yourself that I don’t know you and I don’t care! I didn’t know you were this…poor!”

opened in disbelief. “Excuse me, you rich and spoiled brat! I’m not that poor. I’m living the average life of a normal Korean citizen. I eat three meals a day and I have enough money to buy new clothes once a month!”

“And where exactly do you buy clothes?”

She looked so speechless that I ended up chuckling. She immediately looked away in order to hide her flustered face. “Who cares about that?!. Anyway, let’s just go to school!”

So I guess this woman knows the word shame. She was acting all mighty and proud in front of me so seeing her like this is giving me pure satisfaction. “Okay then. Get inside,” I commanded as I reached for the back door of my car. “Anyway, where’s your sister?”

“Huh?”

I looked around to see any signs of Death Note Girl but it seems that the Witch came alone. “You have a sister, right? Don’t you come to school together?”

“She leaves earlier than me. Anyway, why would you ask?”

“I…well…” I looked away from her. I can’t possibly tell her now. “Just get in already!”

“Why should I?”

I gave her a confused look. “Why are you asking? We’re gonna go to school. My driver’s gonna take us there—“

“Hahaha, you’ve got to be kidding me.” She placed her hands on her hips and had that proud (and annoying) look on her face again. “Why did you think I asked you to go to school together with me?”

The hell’s wrong with this woman. Why is she asking the obvious? “Are you serious? Obviously, you want to be treated like a princess and make everyone in school burn in jealousy by going together with me.”

“You think too highly of yourself.” She shook her head in annoyance. “But I guess that gives me an even better reason to push through with this punishment of yours.”

“What—“

“There’s no way we’re taking that car.” All of a sudden, she started heading towards the bus stop. She stopped for a while and looked back at me since I didn’t move an inch due to the confusion. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go or else we’ll miss the bus.”

“Yah…wait!” I ended up going after her since she began speed-walking. “What’s this about? I don’t get it! Why would we take the bus when we could take the car? It’s obviously faster and more convenient!”

We finally arrived at the bus stop, where a bunch of people were already waiting. Students, teachers, office workers—different types of people, were all gathered together in one spot.

“As I’ve thought, this is your first time.” The Witch grinned when she noticed the way I flinched whenever people would brush past me. “This is your first lesson.”

“What are you talking about now?” I asked as I got pushed closer towards the Witch since the people beside me kept shoving and shifting. Seriously, am I in the middle of a war? All the people here seem hot-blooded.

“I…uh…well…” She suddenly looked uncomfortable and took a step away. Ha! Don’t worry, I feel disgusted as well! “You see, Kim Myungsoo, this is how the everyday lives of normal citizens like me go.”

“And…so?”

She sighed. “A rich brat like you would never understand. For us, a simple task like going to school is actually a struggle, especially during rush hours. It’s really hard to catch a bus when you have dozens of people desperate to get on. If you get unlucky, you’ll have no choice but to take a taxi.”

“But isn’t it better to just take a taxi?”

“Like I said, someone like you wouldn’t understand. The money that you’ll use for the taxi fare is your precious allowance! That allowance is supposed to be spent on food or some other things which are far more important!”

I scratched my head as I tried to process everything. “So what kind of lesson are you trying to teach me?”

She was about to answer when the bus suddenly arrived. As soon as the door opened, the shoving and pushing got worse and after a few seconds, I found myself drowned in a sea of ardent people who are rushing to get inside.

“Hey—what—wait—don’t! Yah! Where do you think you’re touching?” I felt a bunch of hands touch me in places which should never be touched and ended up panicking. “H-Help! It’s too cramped in here! I can’t breathe! Hey, stop touching me!”

“Kim Myungsoo!”

I squeezed my way through the crowd and saw the Witch standing near the door of the bus. She suddenly reached her hand out for me. “Come on! It’s almost full!”

Heck, I’m pretty sure I was the one who said we should limit the skinship but this is an emergency and my life is on the line so I took her hand and allowed her to help me get to the door. “Ha…that was…ha…terrible…”

As soon as I was done catching my breath, I stood up straight and realized I was still holding her hand. Feeling awkward, I let it go immediately, headed inside, and pretended like nothing happened. I didn’t even bother to look at the Witch’s reaction.

“What the—there are no more seats left?” I looked around the crowded bus where a few people were already standing along the aisle. “Am I supposed to ride this…while standing?!”

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