.
I heard Jooin answering back, so I turned my head to that side. ‘What the hell are they talking about?’ I thought, but he didn’t look surprised at all. He might have known who she was referring to.
Waving his hand in the air, Jooin said, “We aren’t sure whether Eun Hyung has implied the inner or the outer beauty of the girl, so I guess it’s hard to guess… Oh, Nara noona, didn’t you say that you have something to do soon?”
Nara noona? The name sounded familiar…. Then the conversation that went between Eun Jiho and Woo Jooin yesterday came across my mind. I was told that actress Lee Nara was Woon Jooin’s cousin!
That was why she had such a remarkable appearance seldom found in ordinary people. I saw her every day on the TV drama, but how could I realize her right now? I raised my head in a flash.
Lee Nara hasted with confusion and swept her disheveled brown hair back. She then shouted to this side.
“Oh, I should leave! Jooin, then next time, try to find out who she is and don’t forget to tell me about her!”
Find out, who, for what? Is she really trying to identify the girl whom Eun Hyung likes? Then, what is she gonna do next? While I stared at Lee Nara in bewilderment, she quickly squeezed her slender body into the car and started the engine.
I was a bit stuck in the headlights as she suddenly turned them on. When I looked at my side in the meantime, there I found Jooin gazing in our direction with almost transparent, light-filled gold eyes.
Lee Nara’s car then went backward like a hurricane strike and swiftly got away from us.
Is it ok for a celebrity to drive like that? She’s almost the same as my mom, who’s still an entry-level driver for over five years…
As if a storm swept across, a vain silence surrounded the three of us as soon as Lee Nara disappeared.
The one who first regained control of herself was, unexpectedly, Ban Yeo Ryung. She mumbled with a sign of exhaustion on her face.
“Who was she just now…?”
“Oh, don’t you know her? She’d be quite famous, my cousin noona.”
While Woo Jooin tossed a question to Ban Yeo Ryung with his eyes open round, I just laughed loudly.
Hey, Jooin, don’t you still get Ban Yeo Ryung? Last time, a well-known male model hit on her in the street, but she said, ‘Sorry, I can’t give my number to a stranger,’ and was back on her way before the guy even responded something…
Ban Yeo Ryung rarely distinguished people as most of the female protagonists in web novels were face-blind. As if he recalled it just now, Woo Jooin smiled, narrowing his eyes.
He then said to me, “As I see the look on your face, mama must have noticed that… She’s my cousin, Woo Rinara noona. She’s an actress. I told you about her because of Eun Hyung before.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Before I tried to say, ‘I remember,’ Ban Yeo Ryung asked us in surprise from beside me.
“Eun Hyung? Why?”
‘Oh, Ban Yeo Ryung wouldn’t know anything about it,’ I thought, scratching my head. Whenever I had time, I often browsed the trending topics on the web; however, Ban Yeo Ryung didn’t enjoy jacking into the Internet that much.
As I scratched the back of my head in perplexity, Jooin grinned and opened his mouth.
“Um, it’s a bit too long to explain, but… Nara noona saw Eun Hyung by chance and got blown away. She’s determined to kidnap him once he reaches marriageable age.”
Only then did I remember what I had forgotten. I quickly flung the question in an urgent face.
“What’s about the girl whom he likes? Did Eun Hyung have a crush on someone?”
“Oh, that is…”
Woo Jooin scratched his head as if it was difficult for him to speak further. He then put on a refreshing smile that he showed when deflecting a situation. Unlike his grin, he pointed at the shut-down school.
Looking at Jooin pointing his finger at the closed-down school with a young and naïve appearance in the darkness, he seemed like a devil guiding us to a dangerous place. He then put a swiveling smile inside the dark.
“Ok, let me explain it on my way.”
* * *
“So, you made it up? Just to avoid her kidnapping you?”
Ban Yeo Ryung asked mutteringly in disappointment. I could see how dissatisfied she was from herself grabbing her jet-black hair from both sides and putting them each on her cheeks. She then fetched a sigh at the sky.
Earlier, she seemed to react quite sensitively to something about Eun Hyung, so I wondered if she felt jealous by any chance. Ban Yeo Ryung was, however, just interested in something exciting to take place…
Staring at her disappointment, I was also all dressed up and nowhere to go. Why are others’ love affairs always so exciting?
Woo Jooin looked back and forth between me and Ban Yeo Ryung. He then put a bright smile on his lips again. Behind him, I saw a rusted swing swinging with a creaking sound. Although it was empty, the swing was constantly and furiously swinging backward and forward as if it was moving in the wind. I suddenly lifted my head and looked at the scenery of the school.
Under the utterly dark sky after the sun declined, the school was enveloped by a deathly silence. With a few broken windows, a spooky ambiance spread out like clouds above the building.
‘Oh, that’s scary,’ I murmured to myself, rubbing my arms.
On the contrary, Ban Yeo Ryung, strangely, didn’t look as frightening as before. She just glanced around in curiosity while walking a few steps ahead of me. Following her back, Jooin and I also walked across the schoolyard.
Only a few long weeds were left, which looked almost dead, although no one seemed to pluck them well. The tall trees surrounded the walls with their black shadows. In a distance, a globe was spinning around and around…
Ban Yeo Ryung then suddenly looked as if she found someone from afar.
She shouted, “Eun Hyung!”
“Oh, you here?” A cheerful voice replied.
Ban Yeo Ryung waved her hand and soon ran to his direction. Only the two of us, Woo Jooin and I, were left inside the disconcerted silence all of a sudden. No, it wasn’t silent as the swing violently swung with a rattling noise.
Ever since I heard about the story of Woo Jooin’s past, it was our first time to spend some time together. I dropped my gaze at the ground. ‘Spending some time together? The nuance sounds a little weird though…’
When I looked at my side with that thought in mind, Woo Jooin, who seemed to stare at me just until now, suddenly turned his head in surprise. He then continued his words.
“Oh, did you ask me about Eunmi, mama?”
“Um, yeah,” I replied.
My mind then converged on the word ‘mama’ that hung smoothly at the end of his sentence.
‘For what reason is Jooin calling me mama?’ having that thought, I looked at Jooin who spoke lively as usual.
A dim light stained and dazzled on his profile face. Then when he dropped a remark, I opened my eyes wide.
“Please keep this as a secret to Eun Hyung. It’s something important.”
“Huh?”
“Eunmi is Eun Hyung’s little sister. Kwon Eunmi, she’s, of course, her real sister.”
I paused my step. ‘Eun Hyung had a sister?’ As I raised my head in surprise, it looked as though he knew that I would feel confused. Woo Jooin stood still in the middle of the schoolyard and was staring at me with a subsided gaze.
As I spent a lot of time with them for years, I was very familiar with their family backgrounds. Yoo Chun Young had two older brothers, whereas Eun Jiho and Woo Jooin were the only children in their families; however, I was never aware of the fact that Eun Hyung had a younger sister.
No, I got it wrong. I did hear about it once. I blinked my eyes.
Back then, when Eun Hyung brought out the story about his mother’s car accident… the day when it was drizzling outside…
‘The day when my mom went on a trip, my father was taking care of me and my sister at home while studying for his bar exam. My little sister was only two at that time since she’s three years younger than me.’
Three years young than him… his little sister… those things that existed beyond my memories flooded into me, at last, like broken puzzle pieces.
‘The reason why I didn’t think further about his little sister whom I’ve never heard about until then was that…’ rambling those thoughts in mind, I looked up at Woo Jooin. He was staring at me, softly bending his brown eyes.
