Chapter 17
I was surprised that she wanted to study.
That was because of Sol's usual image.
In truth, it might not be all that strange.
···Sol, actually.
Surprisingly, she never dozes off in class or anything.
If anything, she follows along diligently.
She just collapses into sleep during breaks instead.
“But···.”
Several questions came to mind.
“If you want to get good at studying, couldn’t you just go to a cram school?”
That would probably be better than learning from me.
Sol shrugged at the question.
“I’ve already tried that.”
She pulled a folded test paper from her pocket.
“···This is the result.”
The score report lay on the desk.
Nearly all the scores were just a little above average.
They were rather middling scores for someone who had studied.
Sol looked at them with a bitter expression.
— “···I need to understand what it’s saying first.”
The result of studying by rushing through the material to prepare for exams.
Apparently, she had skipped over countless things without properly understanding them.
— “···Besides··· I don’t want to keep asking Mom for money.”
“···.”
I narrowed my eyes slightly after hearing her thoughts.
There definitely seemed to be something going on.
Sol studying didn’t suit her at all. She didn’t look like she was doing it because she wanted to.
···Like she’d chosen the lesser evil to avoid the worst?
That was exactly the feeling.
“Then···.”
···That was the second question.
“Why me?”
I pointed at Shin A-young, sitting beside me.
“You have her too, you know. Not just me.”
“Huh? Me?”
Shin A-young stopped with her mouth slightly open, about to eat a jelly.
She had come to hang out in the counseling club again today, as always.
At the sudden mention of her name, Shin A-young’s eyes widened slightly.
“She’s better at studying than I am. She probably did better on this mock exam too.”
“···Yeah. A-young. A-young is good at studying.”
Sol’s head tilted with faint awkwardness.
Her gaze was a little ambiguous.
“That’s why I asked her a few times too, since she sits next to me, but···.”
“Oh, right. I did explain something to you last time.”
Shin A-young nodded as if she had just remembered.
“···Teaching really isn’t suited to me.”
— “···She really is terrible at teaching···!”
Sol’s mini-me cried out with a miserable expression.
“···.”
···Was it really that bad?
Sol. She was actually going so far as to hide her feelings.
Apparently, Shin A-young was the genius type.
She must have assumed I obviously knew it, skipped the intermediate steps, and summarized.
The type to give you the answer first when you asked about a problem.
···In the end, I was the only person with good grades she could ask.
“···But I don’t think I’d teach any better than a cram-school teacher.”
I wasn’t bad at studying, but I wasn’t particularly good compared to other people, either.
If you assumed I didn’t have my ability, I’d have exactly average skills.
No more, no less—just that much.
Even so, the only reason my grades came out in the upper ranks was because I could read people’s thoughts.
I’d identify the students who were good at each subject in advance, read the teachers’ thoughts to hear the test range or content beforehand, and so on···.
In other words, it was just cheating the system.
"I might not be able to do it. Are you sure that's okay?"
“Something···.”
Sol’s body tilted slightly···.
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
She said that while looking at me.
“Yeah, I feel like you’d immediately pinpoint what I don’t understand.”
“Ah, I know what you mean.”
Shin A-young nodded in sympathy.
“He really is strangely quick on the uptake.”
···It wasn’t that I was quick on the uptake. It was only natural when I could read thoughts.
“Of course, I’m not asking you to teach me for free.”
Sol picked up the ten-thousand-won bill that had been lying on the desk.
She unfolded the crumpled money.
“I’ll buy all the snacks we eat while studying.”
I was intrigued.
Free snacks. That was tempting.
“···How much?”
“Five thousand won a day. Five days a week.”
Free snacks worth twenty-five thousand won a week.
There was a little over a month until midterms.
It was a time when I should have been studying anyway. And teaching someone else wasn’t that difficult.
···Should I give it a try?
“But don’t complain if your grades don’t improve.”
***
Ding—
The elevator doors opened, and Sol walked out.
The chill from the hallway floor rose into the air.
She was about to touch the digital lock out of habit.
Then she pulled her hand back slightly.
“···.”
Sol took a step back and twisted a strand of hair around her fingertip.
As expected, she needed some time to sort out her thoughts.
The score report in her bag was strangely bothering her.
···I wonder if Mom’s home.
“···.”
Still, she couldn’t stand there forever.
—Phew···.
Sol took a short, deep breath, then carefully opened the front door.
“···I’m home.”
With a murmur, she stepped into the living room.
She poked her head out to look inside.
···She was home.
She could see her mother sitting at the dining table, reading a book.
···Then I need to get to my room as quietly as possible.
“Didn’t your mock exam results come out today?”
Her feet, heading toward her room, came to an awkward stop.
Her eyebrows twitched.
Caught.
She’d thought her mother was focused on her book, but apparently she’d been watching all along.
“···.”
She turned her head awkwardly and met the eyes of her mother, who was sitting at the table and looking her way.
Sol subtly avoided her gaze and opened her mouth.
“···They did.”
That was all.
Sol fell silent without another word.
“···.”
“···.”
An awkward silence continued.
Her mother stared at Sol without a word.
Sol knew what that meant.
After a slight hesitation, Sol took out her score report and handed it to her.
“···.”
Her mother accepted it and scanned the score report.
Sol fidgeted her toes. A strange tension seemed to brush over her body.
“···Phew.”
Her mother’s sigh settled heavily in the air.
Sol’s fingertips trembled, creasing the hem of her skirt.
“···Wouldn’t it be better for you to devote yourself to work again?”
By “work,” she meant···
returning to modeling.
Her mother wanted Sol to establish herself as a model as quickly as possible.
“···.”
The tips of Sol’s toes slowly curled inward.
The words made her recoil.
“···.”
It wasn’t that she hated modeling.
She didn’t hate it, but if someone asked whether she liked it···
At least she could answer firmly that she didn’t. She hadn’t started modeling of her own volition in the first place.
Besides, she didn’t want to do it while missing school like she had the year before.
That thought had grown stronger lately.
“···You said we’d talk about modeling after seeing my grades.”
Sol answered in a restrained voice.
Her mother had said she wouldn’t interfere with whatever Sol did if she brought home good midterm grades.
She had set that condition before.
“Yes, I said we’d look at the results.”
She put the score report back down on the table.
A result hovering around the 60th percentile.
With about a month left until midterms.
It seemed to show where Sol currently stood.
“···.”
Sol’s expression slowly fell.
They were definitely not good grades.
···Still, they were grades she had worked for. Her scores had risen from last year, too.
But that didn’t seem to get through to her mother.
“Sol. If your studies are like this, can you really do well at anything else?”
“···.”
“You’re a model, at least.”
Sol pressed her lips tightly together.
She had nothing she could say in response.
It wasn’t entirely wrong.
Sol was unusually inept at everything.
She took longer than others to learn, too. Whatever she did, she wasn’t good at it.
Sports, studying, music. Even games.
Everything was one step slower.
Maybe that was why Sol found everything bothersome. Losing interest in things you’re bad at was a natural progression, after all.
She had one talent.
An exceptionally beautiful face.
That was all.
“Sol. You need to learn to give up quickly on things you’re not good at.”
And her mother had accepted that fact even faster than Sol herself.
“There are times when you have to do things you dislike, whether you want to or not.”
“···.”
“Even if you’ve debuted as a model, you’re still a rookie. It won’t be too late to play with your friends after you’ve established yourself properly.”
···It wasn’t as though she played that much.
At night, she studied as much as she had failed to during the day before going to sleep.
Did her mother know that when she said this?
“···Not yet.”
Sol had a lot she wanted to say, but she forced it all down.
“The midterms are still ahead···.”
“···.”
A brief silence.
Her mother nodded slightly at Sol’s words.
“I see.”
She stood up.
She lightly brushed Sol’s shoulder and said as if in passing,
“Still, I’ve already looked into some jobs. I put them on your desk, so take a look. If there’s one you want, tell me.”
With that, Sol’s mother went into the master bedroom.
“···.”
When she entered her room, she saw the workbooks and reference books lined up on the bookshelf.
The books were already crumpled from having been looked through so many times.
On top of those workbooks lay modeling proposals. It was obvious they had been researched in detail over a long period.
Since this long ago.
···Seeing them made Sol’s heart churn.
I see.
So her mother hadn’t expected her to get good grades in the first place.
The realization brought a quiet sense of hurt.
“···.”
Flop—
Sol collapsed facedown onto the bed.
She buried her face in the blanket and hugged it tightly like a stuffed doll, clutching the soft filling in both hands.
“Haa···!!”
She breathed her sigh into it.
So she could feel even a little better.
—Ding!
The alarm rang.
···Was there anyone who would text her right now?
Still lying facedown on the bed, Sol casually lifted her phone.
Lee Seung-ho : Come outside for a moment.
Lee Seung-ho : I have something to give you.
She could see the message appear on the screen.