The Student ID
“Hey, Lee Na-hee.”
Kwon Hyun-jin snatched the side-dish bundle right out of my hands as I was untying the cloth wrapping. He shoved it straight into the fridge.
“What time are we meeting on the twenty-fifth?”
“Huh?”
“It’s Christmas.”
“Yeah, and…?”
“I’m spending it with you.”
Having already claimed my December thirty-first, Kwon Hyun-jin apparently took it for granted that Christmas belonged to him as well. I was speechless.
“I have to help my mom that day. Didn’t Madam contact you?”
On the twenty-fifth there was a full family gathering in Hannam-dong. The first chairman’s memorial day, calculated by the lunar calendar, had fallen on the twenty-fifth this year.
“What about the twenty-fourth?”
“I have to polish the ritual vessels and prep the ingredients.”
“This fucking…”
Getting that irritated over his own great-grandfather’s memorial service. If the ancestors knew, they would climb straight out of their graves. And this was the eldest grandson—Chairman Kwon was even rewriting his will so he could hand over Kwonjin Electronics to him.
“Wolfman 2 is out. If you’re bored, go watch that or something.”
“Mind your own business. I’ll do whatever I want alone.”
“If you’ve got nothing better, just come to Hannam-dong.”
“Can you come out for a second?”
Trouble. The way Kwon Hyun-jin’s face lit up was starting to look cute again.
“Just step out for a minute. Okay? I won’t keep you long.”
“No. I told you I can’t go out.”
“Then why the fuck are you taking so long?”
“The chairman will be thrilled. If you drop by the main house that day…”
He must have already received the call telling him to attend the memorial, yet he was clearly planning to ignore it. When he had been in England it had been possible; the situation was different now.
“What the chairman cares about most are the memorial rites and family gatherings. If you no-show without a word, you’ll get on his bad side. The relatives will talk, too…”
“I’ll handle it.”
“Fine, handle it. Mom packed you LA galbi because she thought you’d like it. It’s still hot, so eat.”
The moment I stood up, Kwon Hyun-jin’s eyes went wide.
“Hey, why are you leaving already?”
“I have to help make dumplings.”
“Wait a second.”
Hyun-jin hurried after me and spun me around. His gaze raked over me from head to toe, blatant and unfiltered.
I had rushed over in my school uniform.
“You look so fucking high-school, Lee Na-hee…”
“I am a high-schooler. So are you.”
“Why do you look even smaller in the uniform?”
He held me there in front of the entrance and muttered it seriously to himself.
This apartment complex had an elementary school, a middle school, even a high school. Students in uniform were a common sight even inside the elevators. Our school’s uniform wasn’t anything special, yet Kwon Hyun-jin kept staring at me like I was some kind of novelty.
“Whoa…”
“I’m going. Eat dinner on your own.”
Was my height really that short? It wasn’t even that short.
I turned away with a sulky look, only for Hyun-jin to lift the bag I was carrying. Then he suddenly dropped it.
“Ah!”
My body lurched. The bag was heavy. I hadn’t been able to stop by Building B, and today just happened to be the closing ceremony of the term.
While I was putting on my shoes, Kwon Hyun-jin kept lifting and dropping my bag at will, nearly making me fall over.
Watching me stagger, he crooked the corner of his mouth.
“Is this heavy?”
“Stop it. Are you in elementary school? So childish.”
“Ah, so it is heavy.”
He snorted a laugh and followed me out. My shoulder felt light; when I looked back, my bag was dangling from his index finger.
“I’m heading to Hannam-dong right now. Yes.”
After finishing the call while we waited for the elevator, Hyun-jin led me—handcuffed to him by the bag—and pressed the button for B2, where the parking garage was.
I had no idea what he thought he was doing. It wasn’t like I was a criminal being hauled off by the police…
“Going to see the chairman?”
“No. Hey, Lee Na-hee.”
Hyun-jin looked down at me blankly, then rummaged empty-handed at the back of my neck. As if that had been the goal all along, he quickly found the lanyard. Attached to it was my student ID.
“Take it off.”
“This is my student ID…”
“Yeah, so. Let me see it. Your student ID.”
My shoulders were free, so moving my arms was easy. I fumbled the student ID out from under my blazer and pulled it over my head.
“Give it here.”
In Kwon Hyun-jin’s large hand the card looked as tiny as a playing card.
“Your hair was short then?”
He grinned while peering at my student ID photo, looking oddly foolish in a way that was different from usual—and somehow funny.
“That was taken when I entered high school.”
“So this is you three years ago.”
“Yeah.”
When I started school it had been a sharp bob that reached my chin. After that I had just grown it out because it was too much trouble. Now it hung all the way down to the strap of my bra.
“You’re going to cut it again, right?”
“I don’t know. We’ll see…?”
“No, don’t cut it. Right now it’s… no, the bob is cute… no, longer is better… no, the bob…”
Hyun-jin kept rambling nonsense while looking back and forth between me and the student ID, until even the grandmother who boarded at the seventeenth floor was staring at us. My face was starting to heat with embarrassment when the grandmother smiled and said,
“Your boyfriend really likes high-school girls.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
I waved my hands in a fluster. Kwon Hyun-jin, whose personality was already a lost cause, didn’t even bother answering yes or no. He simply held out my student ID photo for the grandmother craning her neck beside us.
“The student is truly pretty. The bob makes her look like a child, and now she looks like a young lady. How can every feature be so neat and pretty? Her eyes are the prettiest.”
“She’s pretty all over.”
“That’s right, pretty all over.”
He had clearly lost his mind. My face felt ready to burst into flames; I whispered, “Thank you,” and immediately lowered my head.
“Anyway, youth is the best.”
The kindly grandmother’s words left me unable to bicker any further.
The insane Kwon Hyun-jin never let go of my student ID the entire way down to the underground parking garage.
“Give it back now.”
“It’s vacation. I’ll give it back when school starts.”
“Give it now.”
“I said when school starts.”
“No. You’ll lose it. Then I’ll get demerits.”
“Are you crazy? Lose this?”
With graduation right around the corner, demerits didn’t matter. But if I didn’t get it back right now, he looked ready to simply walk off with someone else’s student ID.
“Hurry up and give it.”
“Lee Na-hee, ah, for real…”
Hyun-jin returned my student ID with clear annoyance.
To anyone watching, it would have looked like I was the one snatching his belongings. Unbelievable.
“Where’s your wallet?”
“What do you want with my wallet now…”
“Got any ID photos?”
“…Even if I did, I wouldn’t give them to you.”
“Hand them over while I’m being nice. I’ve been carrying this fucking heavy bag the whole time.”
“That’s you being nice?”
Hyun-jin suddenly set my bag down, and I nearly toppled over. He looked down at me as I collided with his body and snorted a laugh.
“Ah, Lee Na-hee.”
The smile that fell on me without warning at such close range hit me like a blow. Caught completely off guard, I felt my chest throb.
Leaving me frozen, Hyun-jin turned away. He rested a hand on the roof of the sedan and ducked his head toward the window.
“Please take her home.”
At those words, Driver Kim stretched his upper body far across toward the passenger seat and asked,
“Young Master, just Na-hee? Shall I go to Hannam-dong?”
“Yes.”
I reached for the passenger door handle, but Hyun-jin opened it first.
“Take care, Lee Na-hee.”
“…Thanks.”
He even closed the door for me, then bent down so he could meet my eyes through the window.
“Next time if you don’t bring them, I’m kicking you out. The ID photos.”
Both hands in his pockets, the tone was playful.
I didn’t bother answering. Feeling awkward, I turned to Driver Kim and offered an excuse that wasn’t really an excuse.
“Madam said the LA galbi was delicious… so she told me to bring some to Hyun-jin…”
“Ah, I see.”
His face said he understood perfectly well the worry about misunderstandings that I was trying to hide.