Three Days Before the Exam

The CSAT was now just three days away.

With self-study having become the daily routine at school, I-eum wound her scarf tightly around her neck, pulled on a mask, and stepped out of the house.

The air had turned sharply colder overnight, so biting that the phrase "CSAT cold snap" suddenly felt real.

She was hunched over, trudging toward the bus stop, when a short honk rang out without warning.

"Huh?"

She turned, half hoping, and there sat the familiar sedan.

And through the driver's window leaned a face she was more than glad to see.

"Get in."

It was Ji-hoon.

I-eum's mouth broke into a wide grin.

"Whoa! You came to pick me up?"

Her heart leaping, she ran to the car. The moment she opened the passenger door, a wave of warm, toasty air rushed over her.

"What brings you here?"

"You crossed my mind on my way to work."

"You know they say the first person you think of when you wake up in the morning is the one you love."

"You were about the thirteenth person I thought of."

The sedan Ji-hoon was driving pulled slowly away from the curb.

Even if she was only the thirteenth, the mere fact that he'd thought of her at all was enough to make I-eum glow with happiness.

"Is the studying going well?"

"Of course. I told you — I'm confident I'll get a perfect score."

Her audacious answer no longer sounded like empty bravado, and for the briefest moment, Ji-hoon found himself wondering if he really ought to go through with marrying her.

But every time that thought crossed his mind, a bitter memory rose to meet it.

"Sung Ji-hoon. Your mom had you when she was a teenager, right?"

"So it's true — you and your mom are only nineteen years apart?"

"But your dad is crazy old, like a grandpa. Don't tell me your mom was basically sold off to him?"

Words that had once stabbed into his young heart like daggers.

If I-eum married him, those same arrows would be aimed at her.

"Teacher?"

When Ji-hoon fell silent, I-eum tilted her head and called out to him.

But he didn't answer.

Suddenly the whole thing felt impossibly uncertain.

If she didn't marry him, I-eum would have no choice but to marry Assemblyman Park — was there anywhere she could truly flee to?

"You said that once you were an adult, you wanted to be independent and live free."

"Yes!"

"Then how about studying abroad?"

Caught entirely off guard by the proposal, I-eum stared at him with wide eyes.

"You're just going to ship me out of Korea altogether?"

Ji-hoon didn't answer right away.

She was sharper than she looked.

But there was nothing behind the idea but her own good. Sending her abroad was purely for her sake.

"No."

But I-eum flatly refused, as if there wasn't even a second's worth of deliberation needed.

"Is this about the English?"

"No, I'm actually good at English. It's just — you'll be in Korea, Teacher."

"......."

"And I don't have money for studying abroad anyway. My parents don't exactly invest in me."

"I will."

This time it was I-eum who couldn't find her voice.

"I'll cover your tuition. Living expenses you can earn yourself with a part-time job. As for missing me—"

Ah, God. Do I really have to have this conversation in earnest?

"—you can just come back to Korea every vacation."

"Are you... cheering me on right now?"

"Any brain worth investing in is worth investing in."

Only then did I-eum fall into quiet thought, as if she were actually considering it.

She was a bright girl; the simple arithmetic of cost and benefit wouldn't take her long. If she stayed in Korea, a forced marriage to Assemblyman Park was all but guaranteed, so taking this chance to go abroad and broaden her horizons was, a hundred times over, the better path for her.

Sure enough, she finished her calculations almost immediately and lifted her head.

"I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"You want to marry me too, Teacher."

But her conclusion took a strange turn.

"Actually, I did a little digging. Word is you've been going on all these arranged blind dates lately, Teacher."

Ji-hoon suddenly felt the words catch in his throat.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Secret."

I-eum answered with a smug tilt of her chin, though the truth was she'd overheard her father Chang-shin and stepmother Kim Ju-yeon talking about it by accident.

But that was all she knew. She'd wanted to eavesdrop further, only to have to scurry off when Bo-ra came out of her room.

"So the conclusion is, even by your own reasoning, marrying me is clearly your best option. Right?"

"How do you figure that?"

The absurdity of it wrung a laugh out of Ji-hoon. There was something endearing about the way I-eum sat there so solemnly, lips pressed tight in concentration.

"Do you have any idea how much studying abroad costs? Money like that is something you only spend on your children or your wife. And since I can't very well be your child, that leaves wife."

"So you'd actually go, then?"

"Nope? I'm going to stay right beside you."

Then I-eum cupped both hands around her mouth as if passing along a secret, and whispered.

"After we get married."

And at that radiant smile, Ji-hoon felt his heart stir, strangely and without warning.

Was it true, then — that the sun followed only her?

The light I-eum gave off seemed to grow more dazzling by the day.

From the afternoon onward, I-eum wasn't feeling well. Her period had started.

So instead of heading to the study room after school, she went straight home.

On days like this, resting somewhere warm and getting to bed early did her far more good than pushing through. Once she slept, the cramps in her lower belly always eased considerably.

But the moment she bent down to take off her shoes at the front door, she caught Bo-ra coming out of her room.

"What are you doing coming out of my room?"

Bo-ra, for her part, shrieked at the sight of I-eum home so much earlier than usual, as though she'd seen a ghost.

"What the—! Why are you home so early?"

"I asked first. Why were you coming out of my room?"

At that, Bo-ra's face flushed crimson with panic, but she quickly seemed to manufacture an excuse and lifted her chin.

"I-I was just helping Mom clean your room, okay?"

But her hands were holding absolutely nothing. A faint sigh escaped I-eum's lips.

Ever since that rainy day when Bo-ra had spotted her with Ji-hoon in front of the house, she'd been under constant scrutiny.

I-eum was fully aware of every glare Bo-ra threw her way whenever their paths crossed, but she'd deliberately played ignorant — she had no desire to get tangled up with her. Her time was too precious to waste on it, for that matter.

"Cleaned it with what? Did you sweep the floor with your bare hands?"

"Uh, no? Mom called asking if there was trash to take out, so I went in to check. There wasn't, so I just left."

"Mom isn't even home."

"SHE CALLED!"

I-eum's room had always been cleaned by I-eum herself. Not once had her stepmother Ju-yeon ever cleaned it for her.

And now, out of nowhere, she was supposed to believe Ju-yeon had phoned with instructions to check the trash can in her stepdaughter's room. It was a preposterous story even a passing stray dog wouldn't believe.

But instead of simply raising her voice, I-eum held out her right hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Show me. Your call log."

"What? Are you seriously suspecting me right now?"

"Show me."

At that, Bo-ra's face finally mottled red and blue.

The truth was, Bo-ra had gone into the room to see if she could find anything to hold over I-eum. If there was something she could use to make the girl's life miserable, she wanted it in her own hands.

And she'd just hit on a devastatingly effective idea and was savoring it when — of all times — I-eum had to walk in early.

For one heart-stopping instant Bo-ra froze in shock, but she soon stiffened her chin even higher and raised her voice.

"Oh, that's rich. My call log is my private information. Who do you think you are to demand that from me? And if you really don't believe me, go ask Mom yourself!"

With that, Bo-ra deliberately shoved hard past I-eum's shoulder and disappeared into her own room.

Left alone, I-eum let out a weary sigh.

She opened her door slowly and stepped in, but nothing seemed noticeably out of place.

Her books sat exactly where she'd left them, and there was no sign anyone had moved her chair. Her drawers, locked as a precaution, would have been impossible to open anyway.

But contrary to Bo-ra's claim that there was no trash, the small wastebasket tucked under her desk was brimming with the snack wrappers from her all-night study sessions.

Setting down her bag, I-eum flopped onto the bed.

She stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, then shook her head and buried her face in both hands.

Don't stress over this, Yeon I-eum. It's a waste of energy.

Even if Bo-ra had taken something, pretending not to notice for now was the choice that protected her.

But knowing that didn't bring her heart back into line. Once it slipped off course, it wasn't so easily set right.

At last, the day of the CSAT dawned.

Sunlight poured down in a brilliant morning flood.

I-eum opened her eyes, still bleary with sleep.