The Vanished Test Voucher
She hadn't slept well at all.
The night before the CSAT was supposed to be about resting up and staying in peak condition, yet she kept waking every couple of hours through the small hours. It wasn't nerves.
Tap.
The sound came whenever she was just about to drift off.
Thump, thump, a long skittering scrape……
It seeped through her door at regular intervals, like someone playing ball out in the hallway. She wanted to get up and see what on earth it was, but she knew that the moment she left the bed, sleep would abandon her completely. In the end, she plugged in the earplugs she used at the study room and forced herself back down.
Her ears felt stuffed and clogged, though, and she kept jolting awake anyway — until finally she tore the earplugs out altogether.
And so a wretched, exhausted morning arrived. With her condition ruined, there was no way Yeon I-eum could feel anything close to refreshed.
“Good morning.”
She heard movement as she stepped out of her room and offered the greeting — but the only person there, to her surprise, was Bo-ra. Sitting at the kitchen table eating toast, her half-sister turned to look at her with something close to indifference.
“Mom's gone.”
“Where did she go?”
“Some gathering with Dad, apparently.”
At this hour?
I-eum hadn't expected her parents to fawn over her just because it was CSAT day, but the news that they'd left before their test-taking daughter had even woken up was still startling. That said, I-eum had never expected anything from her parents, and she headed for the bathroom without so much as a flicker of agitation.
A wash in hot water brought some of her senses back, but her body still felt like lead. She was clearly going to need the help of caffeine.
“You look exhausted, unnie. Want me to make you some coffee?”
When she came out of the bathroom, Bo-ra was inexplicably still there, waiting for her instead of retreating to her room.
“No, thanks.”
Brushing off the offer, I-eum went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. For whatever reason, Bo-ra stayed put the entire time it took her to drain the glass, watching her with that unreadable gaze.
“Didn't sleep well?”
Why does she keep asking?
I-eum set the glass down with a soft clack and turned to face her.
“Did you hear some strange noise last night?”
As expected, Bo-ra merely shrugged and played dumb.
“A noise? I didn't hear anything.”
I-eum said nothing more. Engaging with her only meant losing ground.
Back in her room, she rubbed on lotion and got dressed. Hoping the familiar feel of it would steady her nerves, she chose her school uniform over plain clothes, pulling a pair of tracksuit pants on underneath. Her bag was already packed, so there was nothing left to fuss over.
But when she stepped out of her room again, a cup of instant coffee mix was sitting on the table.
“That one's yours, unnie. Drink it.”
Bo-ra flashed her a bright smile, as if she'd been waiting for exactly this moment, and only then disappeared into her room.
The instant Bo-ra's door closed behind her, I-eum poured the coffee straight down the drain and brewed a fresh cup. Nothing that Yeon Bo-ra's hands had touched was going anywhere near her mouth.
A glance at the clock told her she had a little time to spare. Still, she'd feel easier getting to the test site early, so she finished her preparations — and just as she was slinging her bag over her shoulder, a sudden scream tore out of Bo-ra's room.
She spun around in alarm, and Bo-ra came sprinting into view, staggering with both hands clamped around her own throat.
“Unnie, something's wrong, I can't— ugh!”
While I-eum stood frozen, bag still in hand, Bo-ra crumpled to the floor.
“It's all— blocked— ugh— help— me…….”
Bo-ra's face had drained a ghostly white.
An ambulance arrived amid a wail of sirens.
I-eum sat there, her face blank with shock. When she'd called 119, the operator had asked her to stay with the patient, so she'd kept watch over Bo-ra's side. She tried calling her father, Yeon Chang-shin — no answer. Then Kim Ju-yeon — only an automated voice informing her the phone was switched off.
Even for the sister she'd always resented, her heart hammered with anxious dread at the thought of something happening to Bo-ra. And of all days, it had to be CSAT day.
“I'm a test-taker today, so I need to go.”
They were inside the ambulance bound for the hospital. Believing she'd done everything in her power, I-eum worked up the courage to say it, but the paramedic gave her an apologetic look.
“Sorry, but we need a guardian's statement, so you really should come along. We'll drop you off at your test site — don't worry.”
But I-eum couldn't settle her nerves. If she didn't leave now, she'd be late.
Bo-ra lay motionless, as though unconscious, and the ambulance showed no intention of slowing down. Forget keeping her composure — her mind was already teetering on the edge of collapse.
Rrrr.
Just then, her phone rang. She checked it quickly — an unfamiliar number, not saved in her contacts. This was no time to be choosy about who was calling. Praying it was Chang-shin or Ju-yeon, she answered.
“Hello?”
—Why aren't you out here?
Her breath caught in an instant.
That voice — without a doubt……
—Did you go to the test site at the crack of dawn or something?
“……Teacher?”
—That's right. Your good old teacher. I dragged myself all the way out here to pick you up, and I don't see hide nor hair of you.
Hearing Ji-hoon's voice amid the chaos, I-eum felt tears surge up before she could stop them. She forced them back, though, and explained the situation to him. After a moment of listening, he spoke in a low voice.
—Hand the phone to an adult.
I-eum passed the phone to the paramedic sitting beside her. The paramedic's expression shifted as she listened, and before long she hung up and turned to I-eum.
“We're letting you off right here.”
The same paramedic who'd insisted she come to the hospital had changed her tune completely. Soon the wailing siren cut off, and the ambulance pulled to a hard stop against the shoulder of the road. It really did seem they meant to let her out.
And then Bo-ra — silent and still as the dead until this very moment — faintly called out to her.
“Unnie…….”
The paramedic shouted at her to wake up if she could hear, and Bo-ra gave a small nod.
“What…… time is it……?”
When the paramedic told her the current time, Bo-ra's pale lips trembled, and she whispered:
“Oh no……. My unnie has the CSAT today…….”
I-eum didn't spare her so much as a glance. The moment the doors opened, she leapt down onto the pavement.
Where am I?
She froze, bewildered. The place was completely unfamiliar to her — which meant she'd already been carried far from her test site.
Panic clawed at her chest, close enough to tears, but she made herself flag down a taxi first. The trouble was she had almost no money, so her plan was to beg the driver to get her as close to the test site as her cash would allow.
Beep—
Just then, as if by a miracle, a sedan came hurtling toward her.
She recognized the driver at a glance, and her eyes flew wide.
“Tea—”
“Get in. No time for gratitude!”
The instant she threw herself into the passenger seat, the sedan shot off like a bullet.
“Th-that light just turned red, didn't it?”
“Today, a student's exam matters more than the traffic code.”
The scenery outside the window streaked past in a blur. He drove through downtown Seoul like a man running a street race, and I-eum had to clutch the grab handle for dear life — yet in a strange way, that very recklessness was reassuring.
“Did you pack everything you need?”
“Yes. I couldn't sleep last night, so I checked about ten times.”
Wondering if one more check couldn't hurt, I-eum unzipped the bag resting on her lap.
“I packed spare pens and correction tape just in case, and something to eat at lunch…….”
She was rustling through bread, milk, and chocolate when her hands suddenly went still.
The transparent case holding her Test Voucher and her ID wasn't there.
“Uh— wha……?”
As I-eum dug through the bag with mounting disbelief, the sedan glided into familiar surroundings. One more major intersection, one left turn, and the school serving as her test site would come into view.
“T-Teacher.”
“What.”
At this point, whether she was late was no longer the issue.
“My Test Voucher is gone.”
No matter how many times she searched the bag, it wouldn't appear. She dumped every last item onto her lap and went through them one by one — but the case was unmistakably missing.
The color drained from I-eum's face.
How could this happen? It was there just this morning……
“Look again. Unless the Test Voucher grew legs and walked off, it has to be in there.”
But the moment those words left his mouth, her eyes trembled violently.
Bo-ra — who stayed in the kitchen the entire time, even after I came out of the bathroom.
When I-eum fell silent in her shock, Ji-hoon turned to look at her, his expression grave.
“It's really gone?”
“…….”
“All right, stay calm first. You can get a temporary Test Voucher issued at the test site, so there's a way. You have your ID, right?”
“My ID disappeared with it……”
I-eum simply could not believe what was happening. However bad things were between them, she didn't want to believe that Yeon Bo-ra would go this far.
Her hands shook as they clenched the bag strap, the despair crushing down on her like a collapsing sky — and then—
Screech!
Ji-hoon brought the car to a halt at the test site and was out of the driver's seat like the wind.
“Out. You've got me.”