Chapter 13

The Troublemaker... No, the Teacher Has Changed

The yard was not the only place packed with people.

There were also crowds of people standing inside the house, bowing their heads toward me.

At the entrance, in the living room, and even down the hallway. There were all sorts, from people dressed in black suits to those in neat casual clothes.

Where did the peaceful home I knew go?!

“Miss, this way.”

“Uh... uh...”

Ms. Sejin, who had just gotten out of the car with me, did not so much as blink at this absurd sight as she led me forward. As though she had known all along that this would happen.

“M-Ms. Sejin. What is all this?”

“They’re people the Chairman sent. Starting today, they’ll be serving you, Miss.”

Starting today.

So, when Grandfather said earlier that he would send people.

I never imagined he meant literally today. No, at this point, he must have already sent them before even talking to me—.

That means the conclusion had already been decided. Aaaaagh!

Maybe he had already started making arrangements several days ago, not today.

“Kgh... To think I failed to notice such a conspiracy... what was the Security Bureau doing!”

“...Miss, stop talking nonsense and come along. Ah, that goes over here. You can put it there.”

“Yes.”

While I stood there frozen in a daze, Ms. Sejin had already started moving efficiently. Telling them where to move the luggage, how the rooms had been assigned. She handled it so skillfully that it was as though she had been preparing for this for days.

Ms. Sejin briefly pointed them out one by one.

The big guys in black suits were bodyguards. Since I would apparently be going outside more often now, they were people who would accompany and protect me. Normally they would stay at the house, and they would go with me when I went out.

I also got a dedicated driver. To be precise, he was not entirely new. Since I hardly ever went out before, he only came whenever Ms. Sejin called him, but now he had officially been assigned exclusively to me. In fact, he was the very person who had just driven me home.

There were several others besides them, but honestly, I could not even keep straight who was who.

“Aaaaagh...”

“What’s wrong?”

“There are... too many people!”

“There were even more when your parents were alive, Miss.”

“Huh? Was that so?”

“Of course.”

Why did I not notice back then?

Well, whatever happened in the past does not really matter...

At least one fortunate thing was that the house was so large, with separate annexes too, that even with all these people moving in, they would not invade the part where I actually lived.

In other words, once I closed my bedroom door, my privacy would more or less be preserved. If not, every night... ahem. Anyway, it would have been a disaster.

But did that mean I could completely relax?

Not at all.

More people in the house meant that many more eyes watching my every move.

“Huh?”

There were four familiar faces sitting side by side near the living room sofa.

Wait. Those people—

They were my private tutors. Ms. Choi Songyi, Ms. Han Jiyoung, Ms. Park Daeun, and Ms. Yoon Gaeun.

For several years, they had come to our house twice a week to teach me... or more precisely, to attempt to teach me, only to half give up because of my problem-child antics and end up talking to themselves.

But why were they here at this hour?

“Teachers? What are you doing here?”

Ms. Choi Songyi, who was more or less the leader of the private tutors, pushed up her glasses and answered.

“From now on, we’ll be coming every day.”

“...Pardon?”

“We’ll be commuting here every day. By the Chairman’s order.”

“Whaaaaat?”

Wait.

The people who used to come twice a week, teach halfheartedly for a couple of hours, and leave—

Were coming every day now?

“W-Wait. Why are you coming every day? Lessons were definitely only twice a week...”

“From now on, we’ll have lessons every day.”

“E-Every day?”

“Yes.”

The corners of Ms. Choi Songyi’s mouth curled upward into a grin. Looking beside her, the other teachers wore similar expressions.

“Aaaaagh!”

These damned women are planning to take revenge on me!

“Ah, for reference, we’ll have lessons on weekends too.”

“...Pardon?”

“We reported the results of your lessons so far and your academic ability assessment. Since you have absolutely no foundation, it was decided that for the time being we’ll hold lessons even on weekends without exception to bring you up to level.”

“...Seven days a week?”

“Yes.”

“Thirty days a month?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Three hundred sixty-five days a year...?”

“Yes. Rain or snow.”

“Aaaaagh!”

No, isn’t this going way too far, fuck!

Having lessons every single day meant I would have fewer chances to breathe.

Until now, it was twice a week. I only had to kill time and endure those hours, and the other five days were mine. But now there would be a teacher right in front of me every day?

This is basically... school. No, school gives you weekends off, and at least you get to come home afterward. For me, my home itself is school.

Kgh. For the crime of being a student in the Republic of Korea, in the prison called school, in the jail cell called the classroom—.

“W-Wait, are all four of you teaching every day?”

A sudden ominous feeling rose within me. I could feel my voice trembling badly as I asked.

“Yes. Every subject, every day.”

“H-Haah—.”

“After your morning exercise, shower, and breakfast, you’ll have my lesson in the morning. In the afternoon, you’ll have lessons with the other three teachers. Weekends will be for review. And once a month, you’ll take an evaluation, and we’ll report your average score directly to the Chairman.”

“Directly... to Grandfather?”

“Yes.”

“Urgh.”

Until now, no one cared what my scores were. There was nobody looking at them anyway, and the private tutors had given up ages ago. That was why I could comfortably slack off.

But now my scores are going to Grandfather?

That terrifying old man?

Wait. No matter how hopeless the situation, if you keep your wits about you, there is always some way out.

There might be a loophole here too.

“Um... what happens if my scores are low?”

“If they’re low.”

Ms. Choi Songyi gave me that smile again.

“You’ll have to go to school. The Chairman said that if homeschooling doesn’t produce results, it would be better to simply send you to school.”

“Cough.”

School.

Wake up every morning, put on a uniform, commute, mingle with classmates, come home, do homework.

The thing I had desperately wanted to avoid.

This was not simply telling me to study a little harder. The lifeline of my shut-in lifestyle now depended on nothing more than a single test score.

Ah, wait. Would that still be better than suffering through homeschooling with no weekends?

“Um... if I end up going to school, does that mean I won’t have homeschooling anymore?”

“No.”

“Whaaaat?”

“You’ll have to do both. Once you come home from school, we’ll start lessons right away. We’ll also supervise all your school homework.”

“Th-Then when do I rest?”

“You can rest at night. No matter how late lessons run, they’ll end before ten.”

“T-Ten...”

“I’m saying ten, but realistically it won’t get that late.”

“S-Still. Ugh...”

If I had lessons until then, would I even have the energy left to turn on a stream and talk?

...Deliberately bombing the test to escape to school is out. These people have left no openings. Is this the Heavenly Net?!

“Waaah waaah waaah...”

“Then we’ll start lessons tomorrow, so please prepare.”

“Prepare...?”

“I told you what we’d be covering next time during our previous lesson. You need to review it beforehand.”

“...Urghhh.”

With my shoulders drooping, I kept looking around to see what else was happening—

“Please move that over here.”

“Yes, yes. We’ll schedule that for next week.”

Huh?

Only then did I notice anew that all these people who had suddenly invaded our house were reporting to Ms. Sejin and receiving her instructions.

“Whoa. Ms. Sejin got seriously promoted.”

Originally, Ms. Sejin had basically just been a housekeeper who looked after me.

Now she stood at the top of everyone who had entered this house.

Well, that made sense. Ms. Sejin knew the situation in this house better than anyone. From Grandfather’s perspective, of course it was natural to entrust things to a proven person who had spent ten years caring for me and knew every corner of the household.

“Ms. Sejin, you suddenly became a big shot.”

When I muttered that somewhat awkwardly, Ms. Sejin gave a small laugh.

“It’s all thanks to you, Miss.”

After looking around at our completely conquered house, I was utterly exhausted.

Just today alone, I had been tormented by Grandfather at the birthday banquet, and then came home to this chaos. Of course I was mentally shredded.

“I’m going to rest for a bit.”

“Go ahead. Ah, but Miss.”

As I tried to flee to my room, Ms. Sejin added sweetly from behind me.

“Tomorrow, you have class immediately after your workout. Ms. Choi Songyi’s class. You cannot skip it.”

“...”

“If you skip it, it will be reported directly to the Chairman.”

“...Yes. I won’t skip it.”

Reported to the Chairman.

Those few words alone shut down every possible objection.

Who needs sonic martial arts?

And then the next day.

I finished exercising, took as much time as possible in the shower, and ate breakfast as slowly as I possibly could, but there was no longer any excuse to delay.

Normally, around this point, I would have crawled back to my room and fused with the bed. Today, instead, I had to stagger toward the study room.

When I opened the door and entered, Ms. Choi Songyi was already there.

“You’re here, Miss. You’re about twenty minutes late.”

“...I went to the bathroom.”

“It couldn’t be helped. Sit down. Starting today, let’s do this properly.”

The moment I sat down, Ms. Choi Songyi slapped a sheet of paper down in front of me. What is this? Upper elementary school arithmetic?

“I already know you have no foundation, Miss, so we’ll start here.”

“Huh? Y-You’re saying I have no foundation?”

This teacher knows exactly how to get under someone’s skin.

I may not look like it, but I graduated from university in my previous life! I’m not so ignorant that people would call me stupid. My soul is practically fifty years old, and she’s saying I lack this level of foundation. There is a limit to how much you can look down on someone.

“Then prove it.”

“Prove it?”

“You just have to solve these problems.”

What Ms. Choi Songyi had placed in front of me was upper elementary school arithmetic to begin with. Even if I had no previous life and were actually fourteen, it would make no sense for me to be unable to solve this.

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

“What will you do if I solve all of these correctly?”

“If you solve them well, then you solve them well. What else would I do?”

“No, you’re looking down on me this much and you’re saying you won’t take any responsibility?”

“...What do you want?”

Hehehe. She took the bait. YOU’VE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD.

Dun dun dun dun, dun-dududu, dudu, dun dun dun dun, dun-dududu, dudu—.

Enjoying the melody of the BGM playing in my head, I opened my mouth.

“If I get all of these right, today’s lesson ends here. How about it?”

“Fine.”

??? Why did she answer so quickly? Is she that confident? Was I really being underestimated that badly?

“You definitely said it. Promise.”

“Yes. I promise.”

“Don’t tell Grandfather.”

“Yes. I promise that too.”

Good. She clearly said it.

Hook pinkies, stamp thumbs, copy it with our palms, and laminate it with the backs of our hands.

Hehehe. Morning lessons are over with this.

I’m a college-educated woman!

...And about ten seconds later, I froze with the pen in my hand.

“Huh...?”

What is this.

How did dividing fractions work again?

“F-Flip it over... um... uh...”

Ugh, something else first. If I solve another problem, maybe it will come back to me in the meantime.

“H-Huh? This one is...?”

Ms. Choi Songyi stared at me through her glasses.

“See? You have no foundation.”

“...Yes.”

Since I could not solve even a single problem, there was no room to excuse it as a mistake or anything. I had no choice but to admit it obediently.

“I knew this would happen. You haven’t listened to a single one of my lessons all this time.”

“Th-That’s not—.”

“It’s fine. I knew. Even knowing that, I let it go until now. You hated it, and I couldn’t force you, and nobody complained.”

The teacher dropped the workbook onto the desk with a thud.

“But circumstances are different now.”

That sinister smile appeared again.

“The Chairman gave me authority. He told me to teach you ‘properly.’”

At that moment, I realized.

The Ms. Choi Songyi I had known until now had been fake.

The gentle teacher who, even when I slacked off for years—

Would sigh and let it slide with, ‘Well, what can I do?’

She was nowhere to be found.

The person standing before me now—

Was a starving beast that had finally been given proper justification to tear into its prey.

“Now then, let’s begin. We need to get you caught up to middle school level as quickly as possible, so we’re going to push a little hard today.”

With those words, the teacher opened a workbook as thick as a brick.

If I just sat here quietly, I would really die. My instincts screamed it. I hurriedly lifted my butt from the chair.

“T-Teacher! I really need to use the bathroom—.”

“You said you went before class.”

“N-No, it suddenly hit me. Diarrhea! Real diarrhea!”

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m serious! What if I crap myself right here! Ah! It’s coming!”

But Ms. Choi Songyi did not so much as blink.

“You can crap yourself. Sit down.”

“Aaaaagh!”

In the end, I was forced back into the chair as though pressed down.

And a long time passed.

I solved problems, got them wrong, solved them again, got them wrong again.

After that hellish stretch of time, Ms. Choi Songyi suddenly looked at me and spoke.

“See? You didn’t crap yourself.”

“...Pardon?”

“You said it was that urgent earlier. Thirty minutes have passed and you’re perfectly fine. It was a lie after all, wasn’t it?”

Kgh.

“Wh-What would you have done if it really was true!”

“There was no way it was true.”

The teacher calmly pushed up her glasses.

“Don’t you know The Boy Who Cried Wolf? You lie so often normally that even when you tell the truth, nobody believes you.”

“Sniff sniff sniff...”

That is too cruel. She is supposed to be a teacher, but her student is crying and she does not offer a single word of comfort.

“I don’t feel sorry for you at all.”

The teacher firmly pushed another problem toward me.

“If you’ve done things deserving of this, you should accept the consequences.”

There was no escape.

I worked myself to death in my previous life, so I thought I would live comfortably in this one.

But look at this.

It seems I am going to die at a desk again.

What kind of joke is fate playing on me?

“Teacher. I’m asking this seriously, sincerely.”

“Yes.”

“Do we really have to go this far?”

Ms. Choi Songyi smiled brightly and answered.

“Yes.”

...I’m doomed. Completely and utterly doomed.

“Ah, and since you came in twenty minutes late earlier, you know we’re going twenty minutes longer, right?”

...This damn world can just go to hell.