Friday morning.
When Eushin left the dormitory early, he saw a message from Seong Guk-eon.
[Seong Guk-eon] (Article Link)
What article was it from this morning? He was puzzled but pressed it all the same.
[“Blood tax is leaking” Gyeonggi Province 50 national and public middle schools embezzlement of public funds and accounting corruption]
[Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education “Implementation of all national and public middle schools in the province”]
Gyeonggi Province, national and public middle schools, embezzlement and corruption.
As soon as he heard this word, he thought of Tannae Middle School, where Maeng Hyo-don graduated from.
Last time, his complaint had been buried, so he asked Seong Guk-eon, and it seemed to be handled well. As an added bonus, his playable character was different as he had found corruption in other places besides Tanraejung.
[Me] Thank you.
[Seong Guk-eon] As a representative of the people, I did what was natural. I’m thankful for it.
[Seong Guk-eon] Call me again when you need it.
He left the message room and checked the list of schools currently accused by Seong Guk-eon. Of the 600 middle schools in Gyeonggi-do, there were about 500 public middle schools. About 50 of them were found.
As he was checking the names of those 50 schools, he felt a faint sense of incongruity.
‘It seems that all the locations of the discovered schools are near Tanraejung. Considering Seong Guk-eon’s character, he would have checked the accounting data of all middle schools in Gyeonggi-do, if not nationwide…’
It became clearer when he checked the location by displaying a map on the hologram. The schools on the list were middle schools near Tannae Middle School.
‘…Is it a coincidence?’
He thought about it based on the information in the game and the information he had gotten now, but it was quite difficult to draw a conclusion due to the lack of clues.
“Are you sure? I think you were a dorm student.”
“Hello!”
It was still early, so it was still quiet in front of the front door. Two of the leaders who were teaching the school gate, Oh Hye-jo, and Ma Jin-seung, saw him and talked to him.
“Hello.”
When he said hello, Oh Hye-ji smiled softly.
“I heard about Sihoo from Suhyuk.”
Oh Hye-ji took an active role in Cymopoleia. Although it was not revealed in the game, the two seemed to be quite friendly.
“I heard that if Eushin didn’t contact me, Sihoo would have acted like an idiot and it would have caused a lot of trouble. Thank you so much.”
“No, I haven’t done anything. It was Ham Geun-hyung who found Do Sihoo, and it was Jang Nam-wook who took him back.”
“If the head of the student body takes you as it is, you may be contacted by the school or home, right? If it wasn’t for Nam-wook and Eushin, Sihoo would have suffered. For Namwook, really… I was greatly indebted.”
Oh Hye-ji thanked me once again with eyes full of gratitude and concern. Not knowing what to say, she looked down and suddenly her watch caught her eye. The watch had a leather strap with a rose gold finish on the bezel and lug. The hands pointing to the hour, minute, and second hands were made of platinum, and the scale was decorated with diamonds.
‘It’s not strange that Oh Hye-ji, a young girl from a chaebol family, wears an expensive wristwatch after performing as a player… I like the fact that the dial and leather are sand-pink.’
Didn’t they have a sand-pink fire ceremony with Joo Soohyuk a while ago? Why did she have to wear a watch with this color on it?
“Huh? what’s the matter?”
“I like the design of the watch. May I ask for the brand name?”
He wanted to dig up the source, but couldn’t ask directly, and so tried to ask as indirectly as possible.
“Ah, this? So…”
Suddenly, Oh Hye-ji spoke with a faint blush on her cheek. “I heard it was a watch that was made to order at Nehru,” she said. “No other design will ever be the same.”
Not anywhere else, but the one and only watch that was made to order at Neru? There may be two more zeros added to the clock value he had expected.
‘I never ordered a sandpink watch myself. She must have been given a present.’
Oh Hye-ji was not in her plight enough to be smitten by expensive accessories, and seeing that she was wearing a sand-pink accessory that she hated, she seemed to like the sender of the gift.
‘I don’t think I got caught by a strange guy…’
That perfect title hero, Joo Soohyuk, was also Oh Hye-ji who didn’t seem to get noticed, but who the hell was it?
While he felt deeply concerned about whether he should investigate further…
“100 million! That’s not the guy from 1st-year class 0!” Ma Jin-seung raised his voice.
From the other side of the front door, Eushin could see Song Dae-seok walking in the corner with a depressed face, not matching his height.
‘Min Green said she was going to the art room early in the morning. He went to school on his own, so it must be depressing.’
Min Green was busy trying out all kinds of painting tools offered by art clubs. From the next week, the exam period started and club activities were suspended, so he was concentrating on his work while saving time.
He knew the situation so well that he couldn’t interfere, so Song Dae-seok seemed even more depressed.
“At that time, he really was a class 0 guy who didn’t go to school and wore plain clothes!”
Ma Jin-seung’s shrill voice hit his ears. Song Dae-seok did not hide his vigilance and answered while glaring at Ma Jin-seung.
“By the way… Why?”
“Are you going to school?”
This was because Song Dae-seok wore a t-shirt sold in the market instead of a school uniform shirt. As a result, the tee in the school uniform did not show well.
Staring at Ma Jin-seung, who was blocking the road, Song Dae-seok spoke harshly. “Pants are school uniforms. He didn’t break the rules, so get out of the way quickly…”
“You decided to go to school!” Ma Jin-seung looked at Song Dae-seok and said loudly.
“Yes, welcome to school! If anything happens, call the lead. Because we are more capable than the student council!” Ma Jin-seung spoke in a friendly manner to Song Dae-seok in plain clothes, as if he had forgotten to cover and disassemble it the other day.
At Ma Jin-seung’s attitude, Song Dae-seok quickly fell out of poison and bit his mouth. He heard Oh Hye-ji muttering incoherently.
“Then I will go. Hey, let’s go.” Song Dae-seok, who was waiting, must also come.
He greeted the two senior seniors and dragged Song Dae-seok.
Song Dae-seok, who did not know how to react to Ma Jin-seung, obeyed. “What, you are a dorm student. Why are you at the front door?”
“I have something to give you.”
He was not making a particularly suspicious expression, but maybe because of the situation and the words, Song Dae-seok looked at me as if he felt very suspicious.
“I heard you did a good job explaining the satellites to the kids last time. I think he was interested in that.”
“So what?”
“If you send me a message, I don’t think they will check it, so I’m going to show it to you.”
He showed the intern recruitment notice that appeared in the notice section of the Players Association.
Looking at the hologram with his impression on his face, Song Dae-seok’s eyes widened.
“The control room of the player SAT-K in the association, if you intern, you will be able to see it for yourself.” Song Dae-seok, who was walking next to me, stopped. Perhaps his feet stopped without realizing it.
“Think about it.” With that said, he sent Song Dae-seok a link to the announcement.
Leaving him stiff with a stupid face, he hurriedly started walking into the Class 0 classroom.
* * *
Just before lunch break.
While watching the news on my device on a sparsely populated promenade, I suddenly heard a voice.
“Student of faith, I am at school today.” Teacher Gong Cheong-hwon appeared without a sign. There was bone in his good-natured, roaring voice.
Ticketing for Jamsil Baseball Stadium, visiting Tanrae Middle School on Teacher’s Day, and the portrait universe of Dansu Cheon….
He used to say he couldn’t help it, but too often he skipped the introductory energy aesthetics class, which only harbored a few students. I was the only one who missed that class, so I would definitely be concerned.
‘But how did you find me?’
The place I usually went to was stolen by Hwang Ji-ho, so I changed its location. There was no way that Gong Cheong-hwon, who had just become a teacher, had the ability nor right to track the student’s device.
“Let’s go.”
“…Yes.”
Although classes for the first semester were not far away, the introductory enemology class made a commitment to listen diligently and followed in his footsteps. Han-yi and the children in the class did not say much, but their consciences were pierced because of the many sins they had committed.
* * *
After school.
The house of Kim Yu-ri, who arrived after winning the match with Yeon Ga-ram, an ace of the theater club, who came with the support of all the sophomores from Class 0.
“If Eushin hadn’t stopped me, I would have called all the other kids!”
“Right.”
“I didn’t call you!”
Although I won, Sawol Saeum and the other children expressed their dissatisfaction, almost as if resentful of being pushed back in the cheering match. Although they were in different grades, they seemed to have a strange sense of competition because they were all in Class 0.
“There aren’t that many seats in the game room. There could have been a shortage of seats.”
“If there is no seat, I just need to fly!”
“I can’t fly, but I can stand.”
Following the words of Sawol Saeum and Maeng Hyo-don, Hwang Ji-ho also added a word. “If it gets too small, you can rent a gym.”
Didn’t it take time to get a rental permit for a gym? If that guy rented it directly, I would borrow it with a free pass regardless of whether there was granted permission or whatever.
“Jiho is right. I also wanted to see the fluorescent card section that the class 0 seniors did.”
“Even if I couldn’t go, I could draw a cheering picture for you…”
“…I’m sorry, I’ll call you next time.”
When Kim Yuri and Min Green said that, I just started to think that I was wrong. My classmates wanted to see me, so I had to come see them.
“When is the next match?”
“Not for a while…”
“But let’s plan ahead.”
“OK!”
“…Didn’t you guys come to study?” Song Dae-seok asked so, but no one listened. In the end, I had to spend the time devising a support plan against Year 2 Class 0 until dinner.
* * *
National Museum of Contemporary Korean Painting. The time before closing.
“Hello, painter.”
“Huh? What’s this… it’s not a language!”
National Assemblyman Seong Guk-eon and Hong Kyung-bok, an artist. The two met at the entrance.
“I didn’t know you were coming to Seoul. If you had come, I would have met you in person.”
“What’s a busy person looking for, heh heh heh?” Hong Kyung-bok smiled as he looked at Seong-guk-eon with his eyes as if he was looking at his real grandson.
“Were you interested in art?”
“Yes, I want to see your paintings in person.”
“Then I will guide you.”
“Haha, entrusting the artist to the role of a curator is a bit complicated.”
“Come quickly. Let’s start by looking at ‘The Demon of Imoogi’ I drew with my disciple. The number of kids teaching these days has increased, so I’m thinking a lot about the past…”
Seong Guk-eon was trembling, but Hong Kyung-bok did not pretend to listen and walked forward. Hong Kyung-bok’s footsteps walking through the corridor.
The sound sounded very upbeat. Finally, Hong Kyung-bok stopped at the deepest part of the museum.
Across the street from where he stopped, he saw a picture frame in tempered glass.
‘Is this the ghost of the Imoogi?’
Although it was said to be a collaboration between the master and his master, there was no special inspiration. Seong Guk-eon hid such sentiments and gathered a group of eccentrics in the eyes of a higher being.
Paah…
Seong Guk-eon looked at the painting for a few seconds, and then immediately picked up the Lee Neung-pa. Even with these eyes, it had only been seen as a simple picture.
‘Is it unreasonable to understand with these eyes? It would be nice if I could hear from the painter.’
When Seong Guk-eon thought so and looked at Hong Kyung-bok, the latter wore a similar expression as to when he had lost a disciple in the past.
“Painter?”
Hong Kyung-bok did not answer Seong Guk-eon’s call. Instead, he spoke to the one wearing the museum staff nameplate with a reddish-purple face.
“Call the manager. Call the police too.”
“What’s going on, painter?”
At the same time, the director, who was about to come and say hello to Hong Kyung-bok and Seong Guk-eon, appeared immediately after hearing the news of their visit to the museum.
Before the director could even crouch, Hong Kyung-bok was very angry. “How the hell did you manage this place?”
“Painter, what’s going on? Management…”
“I don’t know how you are acting as a director with those eyes. huh…”
Hong Kyung-bok, who by now was furious, pointed to the ‘Ghost of Imoogi’ behind the glass wall.
“This is fake. This crude graffiti is not the ‘Ghost of Imoogi’ drawn by me and my student!”
