CHAPTER~11
I’m Not That Kind of Person
The students stared blankly at Hwido before speaking.
“I think you should take a taxi.”
“Do you want me to give you a taxi number?”
Ah, right. There was a taxi. Hwido nodded.
“…But how much would it cost if I take a taxi?”
“About five thousand won?”
The money he currently had: three thousand five hundred won.
He had been trying to protect his fifty thousand won emergency fund at all costs…
If he took a taxi, his total money would drop into the forty-thousand-won range. Maybe he shouldn’t have bought that hard bar. Or… why did he even come to town?
Ha. Maybe he should just walk.
But what if he got lost again?
As Hwido agonized over whether to walk or spend his fifty thousand won, the students’ eyes drifted from his worried face down to the clothes he was wearing.
That outfit, hiding his bright, sculpted face.
A worn-out sweater with a stretched neck and short sweatpants that barely reached his ankles.
There was no way a wallet could be in those pockets.
“Hey. Didn’t you compare yourself to the vice-principal before?”
“Yeah. I thought something was off back then.”
“You know? There’s always one crazy person near a school.”
Hwido’s chest tightened as he listened to the students. They were judging him just by appearances. The very person who had asked for the Wooheon Scholarship, the one who had created it…
Ten years ago, there had been a chauffeur waiting in front of the school gate for him.
“Uh… should we lend you some money?”
“No, we’re not lending it. We’re just giving it to you.”
“You’re handsome, so we feel sorry for you.”
The students were eager to hand Hwido money. That only stung his pride further.
Hwido had never once accepted money that contained the meaning of charity. People had only ever offered money to curry favor—but he had never taken it even once.
And now, children ten years younger than him were looking at him with those eyes.
Kim Hwido was not someone who belonged in such eyes.
“…Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? I’m the one who made the Wooheon Scholarship.”
Still, the students didn’t remove the mixture of doubt and pity from their expressions.
“Students, I have money. Why would I take money from you? I even have fifty thousand won at home.”
“Oh, I see.”
“You have fifty thousand won…?”
“No, that fifty thousand is just what I have now. Once I go to Seoul, the stocks, the house, the car… better not even talk about it.”
“Then don’t talk. Just take the money.”
“We also have more than fifty thousand won at home.”
Hwido couldn’t believe how frustrating this situation had become. The students, not understanding his feelings, were insisting he take their money.
A strange power struggle continued: Hwido refusing, the students insisting he accept.
“I said it’s fine! Really!”
“Take it! It’s far if you walk!”
“We’re just giving you five thousand won!”
As the commotion went on, a voice called out.
“Hey, what are you guys doing not going home?”
A man in a dark blue tracksuit was walking toward them.
“Oh, it’s the teacher.”
“Ha. It’s all ruined because of him.”
The students straightened their backs, trying to maintain discipline.
The man walking over carried a back-scratcher the size of a spatula. He glanced at Hwido, then pointed at the students with the back-scratcher.
“You. Did I tell you to go home after cleaning or not?”
“We finished cleaning and were about to go…”
“Do you think the playground is your home? Want to run some more?”
“Ugh—No! Never!”
“If you run more, you’ll die!”
“Then what were you doing here?”
He turned his gaze toward Hwido, as if warning him not to get the students involved.
Hwido hadn’t restrained the students at all—in fact, he had been trying to push them away—so he met the man’s gaze without flinching.
“This guy is supposed to go home, but he has no money, so we were going to lend him some,” said the students.
“Lend him money?”
The man’s expression hardened as he scanned Hwido from head to toe after hearing that.
“Teacher, were you planning to borrow money from the students?”
“I didn’t borrow anything. They were just trying to lend me money.”
“They wanted to give you money because you had none, right?”
“I never said I didn’t have any money.”
“Then why did the kids try to give you money? Are you really from this neighborhood? Why does it feel like I’ve never seen you before?”
“So, are you saying I was trying to extort them?”
“I never said that.”
See? Not a word wrong.
A subtle standoff unfolded between Hwido and the man. The flustered students quickly explained.
“He seems like an outsider. He didn’t know the bus to Mayoung Village had stopped running.”
“That’s right. He was going to Mayoung Village.”
“…Going to Mayoung Village? Why there?”
Even with the students’ explanations, the man’s suspicion didn’t waver.
On the contrary, when he heard Hwido was heading to Mayoung Village, his eyes sharpened even more, irritating Hwido further.
“I’m going home. Any problem with that?”
But this man…
Why does he seem so familiar?
Hwido felt a strange unease as he kept staring at him.
“No problem, but I grew up in that village. I’ve never seen a face like yours before.”
The man was about half a head shorter than Hwido, with a very solid build. His attire and demeanor suggested a PE teacher. His pale face had sharp, well-defined features.
His hair, reflecting the sunset, was a bright brown—perhaps dyed—and his brass-colored eyes were striking, unusual for Korea.
Hwido recognized this man. He definitely knew him.
“You’re Yoon Yeongwon’s older brother.”
“What? What did you just say?”
The moment Hwido said Yeongwon’s name, the man’s expression immediately darkened.
“Right… the youngest doesn’t seem like it. If he’s the second, that would be Yoon Iwon, right?”
Hwido smirked.
Yeongwon looked at the two men sitting at the dining table.
“So, the two of you met at school and came together?”
“Yeah. Yeongwon, I’m hungry.”
“…Why did you go there?”
Ignoring Iwon, Yeongwon turned to Hwido.
Hwido had not expected to see Yeongwon’s second brother, Iwon, at Mayoung High School.
He also didn’t know Iwon worked there as a PE teacher.
Nor did he expect he would ride in Iwon’s car to get back to Yeongwon’s house.
So, it was as absurd for Hwido as it was for Yeongwon. He shrugged.
“Well, I thought I’d check out my old school for old times’ sake.”
“…Crazy. You have only five thousand won, and you’re talking about nostalgia?”
After finishing farm work, Yeongwon had waited a long time for Hwido. Surely, Hwido should have been resting due to muscle pain, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Yeongwon had worried slightly that Hwido had gotten lost while wandering the village. Yet she couldn’t ask an adult man if he got lost or offer to fetch him.
All that worry turned meaningless when he saw Hwido riding in Iwon’s car back home.
Of course, Yeongwon was equally stunned that her older brother had willingly given Hwido a ride home.
“Why did you come, oppa?”
“The bus stopped running, and calling a taxi felt awkward. I came to give Hwido a ride and grab a bite.”
Iwon said this with a calm expression, yawning and clutching his stomach.
“Yeongwon, I’m starving. About to die here.”
“…Wait.”
Yeongwon sighed and got up. She took the meat tray from the cabinet under the sink and placed it on the table. Iwon whistled.
“Yo! Meat! Awesome!”
“Please, oppa. You’re thirty-three. Speak properly.”
“Meat! Jackpot!”
Iwon got up and took out lettuce and pork from the fridge. Hwido, feeling awkward sitting alone, also got up.
“Hmm. Hwido, can you wash the lettuce outside?”
“…Sure.”
Hwido took the tray and lettuce Iwon had handed him and went outside. Sitting at the small faucet in the yard, he washed the leaves.
Ah, so Yeongwon gives her brother protein too, not just the three daily meals of vegetables. Hwido smirked while washing the lettuce.
Of course, with some thought, he could figure out that Yeongwon didn’t expect her brother to come today, but Hwido didn’t have that luxury.
The meat hadn’t been in the fridge before Yeongwon returned from the farm either—something Hwido missed.
He placed the washed lettuce back on the tray and returned to the kitchen. Iwon was already grilling the meat. Hwido sat a little away from him.
“Hwido, your father told me roughly about you.”
“Oh, yes.”
Iwon spoke to Hwido while grilling the meat.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect you to last this long. I thought you’d give up and leave quickly.”
He glanced at Hwido with a small smile.
“I should have come earlier.”
For a moment, Iwon’s playful expression grew slightly cold.
