Episode 7.
Passing through the arched stone entrance, a wide parking lot appeared below the steps, filled with cars waiting to pick up the Lower School children.
The moment Sean spotted his father standing by the driver’s side of a black sedan, Sena instantly abandoned Sean and dashed down the steps.
“[Auntie!!]”
Sena ran to a woman who looked to be in her late thirties, sipping takeout coffee in front of a white sedan, and hugged her waist tightly. The woman hurriedly moved the hand holding the takeout cup away.
“[Our Sena, did you have fun again today?]”
“[Yeah!]”
Sean, having withdrawn his gaze, approached his father, Philip, with his usual unhurried steps. As if drawn by the sound, Philip’s eyes rested on Sena and her aunt, Julie.
“[A friend I haven’t seen before. Did you make a new friend?]”
“[Yeah!! He’s kind like an angel. I like him so much!]”
Julie pinched Sena’s cheek lightly with an embarrassed face.
“[Do you have to say that so loudly?]”
Even though Sean was also looking at her now, Sena showed no sign of embarrassment. The reason was simple.
“[So what~ I said it in Korean!]”
Sena, who only spoke Korean at home, had one bad habit.
“[Sena… Auntie told you that habit is really bad.]”
That habit was ‘blurting out her inner thoughts freely in Korean’. Because she was the only Korean in the whole school, Sena had reached 4th grade without fixing this habit.
Sean gave a short greeting, and Julie also raised her hand in greeting.
‘…Aren’t they Korean?’
Julie looked back and forth between Sean and his father. While Sean showed almost no signs of Asian heritage, his father’s appearance was distinctly East Asian, despite having blue eyes.
“Sean, bye~! See you tomorrow!!”
Still hugging Julie, Sena waved her hand vigorously at Sean.
“…Yeah, see you tomorrow.”
Compared to the beaming Sena, Sean’s expression was blank.
The car Philip was driving was stopped in the line of vehicles dropping off children. With only one exit gate, the cars moved slowly.
Sean, sitting in the passenger seat, was reading a white paper he had taken from his bag with an expressionless face.
“……”
“……”
In the silence, Philip’s gaze checked the rearview mirror. He could see Julie and Sena in the driver and passenger seats of the car directly behind them, chatting cheerfully about something.
“Made a friend?”
“She’s not a friend.”
Sean answered as he refolded the white paper. The car interior was cool enough that the air conditioning wasn’t needed. It was the usual temperature between Philip and Sean.
“Is that so? The jelly you brought on your first day, or the oranges a while ago, they didn’t seem like things you’d buy yourself.”
“……”
“Did that girl give them to you?”
“…Yes.”
Philip lifted his gaze again, checked the rearview mirror, turned on his hazard lights, and stopped the car. At this sudden, unexpected action, Sean’s eyes followed his movement.
Julie’s car, which had been following at a safe distance, also stopped.
Philip got out of the driver’s seat and strode with his long legs directly to the front of Julie’s driver-side window. As he bent his upper body and knocked on the air, the window slowly rolled down.
“Can I help you?”
Julie looked bewildered by the sudden situation.
“My apologies for interrupting your drive. Philip Frost. I’m Sean’s father, whom you saw earlier.”
Philip took a leather wallet from his suit jacket’s inner pocket and opened it. Then, he took something held between his index and middle fingers, supported by his thumb, and handed it to Julie. It was a business card.
“And currently, I’m engaged in this work.”
Julie accepted the card somewhat reflexively. Along with the black Arta logo, the name ‘Philip Frost’ and the phrase ‘CEO, CTO’ were written in an elegant script.
The Arta CEO? Julie’s eyes widened momentarily.
“Sean hasn’t been in California for very long. Because of that, he doesn’t have any proper friends yet. I was wondering if he might be able to spend some additional time interacting with your daughter separately.”
Julie tried to grasp the underlying meaning of the other party’s polite words.
“…So, a play date?”
“Ah, yes.”
A playdate for a 4th grader? Thinking that, Julie nonetheless maintained her manners with the quite dignified man.
“I’ll talk to Sena and get back to you.”
“Thank you.”
At Julie’s answer, Philip gave a short nod.
When he returned to the car, Sean spoke first. It was a rare occurrence.
“…What was that about?”
“[Greeting as a parent. That child, Sena, seems to have a good personality. I think she’s Korean.]”
The conversation continued despite Philip’s sudden switch to Korean.
“So?”
Thanks to Philip only speaking Korean with a young Sean, Sean could also speak Korean. On top of that, since coming to California, due to Philip’s policy, he was even taking weekly Hangul lessons.
“[As I said, what I want from you isn’t good grades or volunteer camp activity certificates. I told you to make friends.]”
“No. I don’t need to. I’m going back to New York.”
The car, having passed through the gate, slid down the road lined with palm trees on both sides.
“[I’ve already beaten your maternal grandparents once. It won’t be as quick to return as you think.]”
Sean crumpled the paper in his hand tightly.
“[It’s your first month attending school, and you’re still going around alone? Like some kind of monk.]”
He didn’t know what word ‘monk’ was, but the context was obvious. Sean’s brow furrowed slightly.
“[So stubborn. Do you even know how I feel seeing you make that face like you’re chewing cud every day?]”
“Speak in English. I don’t understand.”
Philip let out a sigh through his nose and gripped the steering wheel tightly.
“[Let’s do this. If you achieve the condition I set, I’ll send you back to New York.]”
Sean turned his head sideways and made eye contact with Philip. Philip had black hair like Sena, but only his eyes were blue.
“[Make a friend, Sean Frost. Then I’ll send you back to the New York you want so much.]”
Sean thought of the students he’d met at school besides Sena. At the edge of his memory, all that remained for Sean was distaste.
“Do you think this place is that different from New York?”
Of course, it was true that this place was a sun-drenched orange grove. Even if they played the same pranks as in New York, the students here were twice as generous and quick to laugh it off.
But the most important thing was the same.
“[Well, I suppose. It’s a place where people live, same as there or here. I’m not telling you to face off against racists.]”
Just a friend you get along with. A friend worthy of being called a real friend.
“[Everyone needs someone like that. That’s happiness.]”
Philip muttered softly, but it didn’t reach Sean. It entered his ears but didn’t touch his heart.
The theory of human relationships spoken by the father who had failed the biggest ‘human relationship’ of all—how could it possibly resonate?
Beep-
The moment the whistle sounded, marking the end of P.E. class, Sena sprang up from her spot and scurried over to Sean. Sean was wearing a white t-shirt and orange P.E. pants.
“Sean!! Are you okay?!”
“…What about.”
The class the 4th graders had today was a standard dodgeball game. No students had violated the safety rules.
Even so, Sena ran to Sean because he had been hit twice by a volleyball coming from the adjacent court during the game.
Sean swept his hair back. In contrast to Sena’s worried expression, Sean didn’t even grant her a glance.
“Did you handle the letter properly? It wasn’t handled wrong, was it?”
Ah. Realizing Sena’s train of thought, Sean finally turned his gaze to her.
“If something feels weird, you have to tell me.”
“What do you mean by ‘weird’.”
“You know, like… it feels like misfortune is clinging to you, or something feels like it’s slowly approaching…”
What, a horror movie protagonist? Sean averted his gaze from Sena, who was starring in her own personal horror movie without any particular reply.
He shouldn’t have humored her about the chain letter in the first place. In fact, even now, he could just wake her up to reality.
Sena Fool Cruz, you’re probably the only one in the whole 4th grade who believes that kind of letter. You don’t still believe Santa is real, do you?
“Why aren’t you answering—”
“Nothing like that is happening…”
Yet, the reason Sean was enduring this and not spitting out those words was just one.
