Novelist Running Through Time

Chapter 4: Cause of Death

When primary school students (without parents) beat up another primary school student, its not considered a serious incident, just kids mischief. However, when high school students beat up an primary student, and three of them at that, it becomes a very serious matter.

The primary school I attended, and even Ma Ki-hoons high school, were turned upside down.

Who caused this uproar? Naturally, it was the parents.

Bring that guy Ma Ki-hoon or whatever the hell his name is, right now!

My childs cheeks were so swollen when he came home!

The fury of the parents, learning about their beloved children being assaulted, was indeed terrifying.

Since three students had been educated by Ma Ki-hoon, there were three sets of parents involved.

Thus, a total of six parents formed an anti-Ma Ki-hoon alliance and started hunting for him.

But.

Ma Ki-hoon, a professional troublemaker well-versed in schoolyard brawls and even cigarette smuggling within the school, demonstrated his slick response.

Hes not here?

Yes He hasnt been to school for several days now.

RUN.

A faster escape than anyone else.

Ma Ki-hoon slipped through the net with agile movements, vanishing somewhere into the neighborhood.

EP 1-Cause of Death

Im sorry. I have no idea.

The six parents, failing to catch Ma Ki-hoon at his high school, went as far as New Light Spring Orphanage.

But the director, Mun Chung-jae, could only shake his head and sigh.

In fact Even if a resident suddenly disappears like this, we dont have a way to find them.

How can you say that?! Right now!

Im sorry.

Im going crazy! Are you hiding the perpetrator of the assault? Arent you operating with our taxes?! And youre saying this is okay?!

Im really sorry.

The orphanage director kept repeating that he had no idea where Ma Ki-hoon was, while the parents suspected him and demanded that he hand over Ma Ki-hoon.

Indeed, judging by the circumstances, it wasnt strange to suspect the director of hiding Ma Ki-hoon.

However, they couldnt just grab and pressurize the orphanage director. The parents resorted to the most effective threat in modern society.

Do you think you can get away with this?! My friend is a lawyer! A lawyer! Lets see how it goes if we handle this legally!

But from my perspective, it was a futile effort.

Because, if we go by the law

The directors words were true.

Orphanages typically cant find children who run away.

To be precise, they dont have to.

Children who leave the orphanage before reaching the age limit are termed children discontinued from care, and the reasons include returning to their original families, transfer to another orphanage, foster care, adoption, etc.

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And those who run away or go missing are categorized as others.

Even if a child disappears from an orphanage one day, they are simply marked as other reasons on paper.

No one goes looking for them, and the orphanage is not even obligated to report them missing.

Thats the law.

How can you find a determined runaway orphan in a world that operates like this?

It takes a loving childcare worker, a duty-bound police officer, and an orphanage director who spares no time and money to maybe find one runaway.

Ma Ki-hoon knew this.

Fortunately, I was able to find out Ma Ki-hoons whereabouts through rumors secretly circulating among the residents at that time.

Hes staying with a gang near the billiard hall.

A runaway home? Arent those kids really dangerous?

The gang leader, Sung-joon, was close with Ki-hoon hyung in the past. He should be safe there. And the director seems to know a bit about it. This has happened a few times before. The director will handle it somehow, and hell come back.

Finally, I was able to let go of my worries, wondering if Ma Ki-hoon had ruined his life because of me.

Thanks to the residents keeping their mouths shut about this matter, the parents were unable to find Ma Ki-hoon.

Now, I just needed to get through this myself.

* * *

Is this the child?

Yes.

The homeroom teacher served instant coffee to the parents filling the schools reception room.

On the sofa of the primary school reception room sat or stood the six parents.

Opposite them were, of course, me and my childcare worker, Bang Jeong-ah.

After searching high and low, through mountains and fields, and scouring the high school and the orphanage, the parents had finally arrived at my primary school.

At first, I didnt understand why they had come.

Were they here to apologize to me?

But it turned out to be quite the opposite.

So youre saying our kids beat you up?

Yes.

Do you have any proof?

Proof?

You complained to the teacher without any proof, and even told your orphanage gang to beat them up?

Me?

If you keep lying like this, youll end up bad like your brother.

Ah, I see. Thats when I realized why this meeting was set up.

The parents, unable to catch Ma Ki-hoon, wanted to completely erase their childrens record of school violence as a substitute for their target. They wanted to label me as a liar.

Among the six parents, some seemed uncomfortable with the situation, but the parent in front of me was resolute in demanding an apology from me.

If you apologize for lying, well pretend this never happened.

It felt like a clich line from a drama, making me feel like a tragic protagonist.

According to the clich, I would stand up, refusing to apologize.

-The one who should be apologizing is you!

But the childcare worker next to me would hold me back.

She would press down on my head, forcing me to apologize.

She would apologize too, saying it was our fault.

-Im sorry! Our child was wrong!

Then I would return to the orphanage with a sullen face, questioning why I was forced to apologize.

Isnt this wrong?

-I hate you, teacher!

Then, instead of giving a pitiful explanation, the teacher would just hold the crying child.

-Im sorry! Its the adults who are sorry!

And N years later. The student confesses to the teacher, saying, Now I am an adult too.

-This is wrong! Im the teacher, and you are

* * *

Arent you going to apologize?

Ah.

The drama in my head ended. Sometimes, my creativity, a byproduct of my occupation, is hard to control.

Anyway.

In front of me was a letter of reflection, and behind it were the six parents, hoping for my false apology.

Fortunately, I was not an immature child. I was an adult who knew life gets easier when you submit to irrational power.

Ha! Even now, you wont apologize? Youre really going to face a big problem!

Ah, yes. I should apologize. Ill do it right now.

I picked up the pen and slowly wrote the letter of reflection aloud.

I- lied that my- classmates hit me in the solar plexus and called me an orphan without a mother, even though they didnt. And the kids never dragged me to the playground to beat me up. Im sorry. The end.

The reception room instantly fell silent.

The six parents, the homeroom teacher, and my childcare worker, Bang Jeong-ah, all remained silent, seemingly at a loss for words.

I left my seat nonchalantly.

Whew This incident was regrettable for both sides. Since the letter of reflection has been written without any issues, I hope we dont meet again under such circumstances. Goodbye.

Theres something called non-verbal communication. Even I could tell that there was no hint of apology in my voice. I wasnt overly sarcastic, but I was just indifferent.

I simply finished speaking and stood up.

Of course, they would feel uncomfortable. But what can be done about it? Were they going to hold me back and force another apology? An unjustified, baseless apology?

It seemed best for both sides to just let it go at this point. I believed they had the common sense to understand that.

My expectation was betrayed.

What! What kind of attitude is that!!!

Honey!

The parent who had been leading the charge and demanding an apology from me couldnt contain their anger and abruptly stood up.

Although the person who appeared to be their spouse tried to calm them, the parent, red-faced, waved their arms around wildly.

Is that an apology! After what you did to someone elses child! Huh?!

Please calm down, parents

Let go of me! You, you orphan brat with no home training! You disrespectful little

The parent was so enraged that they couldnt maintain proper sentence structure.

I wasnt particularly upset by this. After all, making them angry meant I had control over their emotions.

Why would I be upset about someone who was in the palm of my hand?

Hey!

But then the parent shifted their target.

It was my trembling childcare worker, Bang Jeong-ah, who became the scapegoat.

Are you his guardian? How did you raise him to talk back like that?!

Th-thats, well

Apologize in his stead. You apologize for him!

The parent, who had been yelling, picked up a cup of instant coffee distributed earlier by the homeroom teacher.

I flinched, thinking they might throw hot coffee, but fortunately, it seemed they had finished it.

Instead, they crumpled the empty paper cup and threw it at Bang Jeong-ah.

The crumpled cup hit Bang Jeong-ahs head and bounced off.

A few drops of leftover coffee splashed onto Bang Jeong-ahs face.

At that moment, I recalled a few memories about my childcare worker, Bang Jeong-ah.

Bang Jeong-ah, a childcare worker, 25 years old, high school graduate.

Failed to enter college due to financial difficulties and went straight to work.

She taught math to the children, always smiling and using formal language during lessons.

-In-seop, you know this is a secret from the other kids, right?

Teacher Bang Jeong-ah always bought me manuscript paper.

It wasnt an expensive item, but in an orphanage where everything given to the children had to be equal, buying something for just one child could lead to serious trouble.

Of course, I didnt know whether she whispered This is a secret from the others, okay? to other children while giving them individual gifts.

But I remember the joy I felt when I received manuscript paper from her as a child.

I also remember being scolded for saying I wanted to go to an arts high school How dare you think of arts school?

And I remember Bang Jeong-ah crying because she couldnt afford to send me there.

That was the kind of person Bang Jeong-ah was.

And now, that person had just been hit in the head with a crumpled paper cup in front of me.

Yet, she was so scared that her face turned pale, and she kept nodding her head. After all, at 25, youre an adult but not quite grown up. Now I understand.

Sigh

I picked up a cup of coffee left by the teacher. It had cooled down to lukewarm from being blown on.

Luckily, the coffee next to it was still steaming.

I grabbed it and threw it straight at the parent.

Splash-!

Aaagh!

The parent who had been ranting like a madman, the other five parents trying to intervene, the homeroom teacher, and Bang Jeong-ah all looked at me in shock.

Before the parent drenched in coffee could confront me, I took the initiative.

What are you doing?