Childhood Friend Who Sees the Future Utters Nonsense

189 – Side Story – Seol-ah is in Puberty! (1)

Our children, who learned under the man who is called the best music director in Korea, achieved remarkable growth year after year to the point where they were unrecognizable.

Thanks to that, the two children, who are now 13 years old, have become official trainees at Jane Entertainment.

In fact, it is said that the president originally had no intention of taking him on as a trainee.

This is just a personal hobby of mine, separate from the company, and the main reason is that I wanted to respect the opinions of the two children, who may have different places where they want to bloom.

However, when Yuna and I, who thought it was time to make a decision, asked the children for their opinions, they both said that they had never thought of anyone else other than Uncle Jae-young.

The two children also ended up following in Yuna’s footsteps.

Anyway, thanks to that, my house, which seemed to be filled with only good things, has dark clouds gathering for the first time in a long while… .

No, actually, I don’t know if I should call this a dark cloud. It’s just the natural growing pains that children have to go through as they grow up. It’s just that Yuna and I are unfamiliar with the situation, so we’re just a bit bewildered.

“Brother, come out quickly! We’ll be late if we keep doing this!”

“There’s still time.”

“Don’t you remember that you were late before!? You idiot!”

That unexpected situation was Seol-ah’s puberty.

In the past, he seemed to be close with his brother, but from the end of the 5th grade to the beginning of the 6th grade, his speech towards Seol-ha became sharper.

On the other hand, his attitude towards me and Yuna hasn’t changed much. He’s still just a cute elementary school girl in front of me.

Actually, I can easily guess the reason. But I feel a bit awkward saying it in front of Seol-ah or Seol-ha, so I’m just waiting for the right time.

“Mom, I’ll be back!”

“I’ll go and come back!”

Seol-ha, who bit into the last piece of bread and ran towards the front door, waved her hand, and Seol-ah followed suit and waved her hand.

That’s a regular scene that appeared often in the animations I watched when I was young. For some reason, it brings back new memories.

“Take care on your way back. If you think you’ll be late after you get to work, call me.”

“Yeah! Oh right, you’re having dinner with Aunt Armo tonight, right?”

“That’s right. So don’t practice for too long and do it moderately.”

“yes!”

slap!

Seol-ah, who had been responding lively, immediately hit her brother’s arm hard, grumbled, “Why are you moving so slowly!” and roughly opened the front door and went out.

“ouch….”

On the other hand, Seol-ha followed her younger brother without saying a word, rubbing her cold arms.

Yuna, who was watching the scene, looked at me blankly and said something.

“Wouldn’t it be better to at least give Seol-ah some attention? I think you’re being too harsh on Seol-ha because she’s so kind.”

“I don’t think Seol-ah is acting like that because she hates him. Of course, if it gets worse, I’ll have to warn her.”

As I was leisurely sipping my coffee, saying that I would just wait and see, my wife tilted her head with a puzzled expression. It seemed that Yuna still didn’t know why Seol-ah was so harsh to Seol-ha.

It’s kind of funny how they do that even when there’s such a good example in front of them.

“You’re saying it’s not because you hate me?”

“Think back to the old you and me. You’ll understand right away.”

“…ah!”

There was no need to keep it a secret, so I dropped a crucial hint. A soft exclamation escaped my wife’s mouth.

Then, with an expression full of shame and a blush on her face, she looked vaguely at the front door through which the two children had left and blurted out a word.

“… Anyway. There’s no need to resemble something like this.”

In the corner of his muttering to himself as if he couldn’t live, I felt a faint glimmer of joy.

It seems like he’s still being dishonest.

***

As soon as Seol-ah arrived at school, she collapsed on her desk. Near the blackboard, her brother and his followers were still chatting away, but she tried to pretend not to see them.

“right….”

“Seol-ah, what are you doing?”

“… I don’t know. I’m depressed.”

Seol-ah, who was pouting and her lips were pouting, was approached by her best friend, Na-eun, who patted her head and asked her, but Seol-ah did not easily tell her why she was feeling depressed.

No, it would be more correct to say that she couldn’t do it. She knows that Naeun is a friend with such great character that she is considered the kindest child in the class, but even Naeun wouldn’t be able to hold back her laughter if she heard those words.

“Did you get scolded by the old man yesterday?”

“Uh, that’s not it….”

The fact that Seol-ah became a trainee under Jane Entertainment was a well-known story even at school. Among them, Seol-ah’s best friend, Na-eun, also knew that the person who taught Seol-ah was not called ‘teacher’ or ‘boss’ but ‘uncle’.

So I asked subtly, but the response was still ambiguous. It seemed like it wasn’t the right answer.

Seol-ah said from the beginning that she had never been scolded by that old man until now, so it was a story with a low probability from the beginning.

So then what is it?

“Get better.”

“huh?”

“Naeun, you said you have an older brother too, right?”

“Yeah, I do. There’s a two year age difference though.”

I wondered why he was suddenly asking such a question, but since it was a question from a dear friend, Naeun answered it straight away.

Unlike Seol-ah, who has a twin brother, Na-eun has an older brother who is two years older than her. He is a reckless older brother who doesn’t seem older than her at all, even though he is in the second year of middle school.

“Are you close with your brother?”

“Well? I don’t know. We don’t talk much at home either… .”

“I see.”

Seol-ah nodded as if she understood and became lost in thought.

In a way, this might be the typical daily life of siblings. Even if she looked around, there were hardly any children who were that close to their siblings.

If you listen to most stories, they are busy fighting at home. It doesn’t matter if the person they are fighting with is a younger sibling or an older person.

They were always gossiping about each other for their own reasons: they were annoyed because my child monopolized the computer, they got mad because I would tell them off to their mother all the time, and they didn’t like seeing my child acting like a big sister or brother.

That’s probably why at some point Seol-ah started to think that there might be something a little strange about her relationship with her brother. The first time she had that thought was right before she was about to enter the 6th grade.

Other kids didn’t follow their older siblings around like he did, and they didn’t cling to them and act cute. The moment he realized that, he felt a strange sense of shame as the typical adolescent self-reflection came rushing in.

In fact, if Seol-ah had been a mature adult, it would have been a simple concern that she wouldn’t have had to worry about much, but for an elementary school girl who had just entered puberty, the fact that she was ‘different from her friends’ caused conflict in itself.

When I came to my senses, I was comparing myself to other children and was showing off my dishonest side by snickering at my older brother.

On the one hand, it can be seen as a very childish ending.

“Did you fight with Seol-ha by any chance?”

“… … !”

While Seol-ah was swept up in such worries and was exuding a depressed mood, Na-eun gave her a warning.

In fact, it is embarrassing to call it a fight, because from Seol-ah’s perspective, it was just one-sided violence and tantrums, and it was by no means a fight.

However, as it became clear through Seol-ah’s wide-open eyes that something had happened with her brother, Na-eun’s lips twitched slightly.

If you can understand the problem, you can find a solution. That was one of Naeun’s beliefs when she was just a 13-year-old elementary school student.

“I see. How on earth did you fight to get to that point?”

“… We didn’t fight. I was just always angry at you.”

“So what did Seol-ha say?”

“I didn’t say anything. My brother has never been angry with me before… .”

Even as she revealed the inside story, Seol-ah felt like she wanted to hide in a hole if there was one.

As she said, Seol-ha has never been angry with Seol-ah since she was younger. At least, she is very tolerant of Seol-ah’s mistakes.

Even when her younger sibling messed up the jigsaw puzzle she had worked so hard to make, she didn’t think much of it, and she didn’t get angry when Seol-ah ate the expensive ice cream her mother had secretly bought for her as a reward for doing well on a test.

So Seol-ah felt even more sorry and embarrassed when she saw her brother these days.

I wish I could just get angry at my annoying little sister who acts like this and have her change her mind, but I don’t see any signs of that happening.

“Seol-ah, do you want to be friends with Seol-ha again?”

“Yeah, that’s right… But honestly, I’m embarrassed to say it… .”

“Then let’s do it like this!”

Seol-ah tilted her head for a moment at the suggestion Na-eun made with sparkling eyes. She wondered what kind of brilliant idea it was that made her so proactive.

“You know. After school today, Seol-ha… .”

Whispering.

Seol-ah blushed as she listened to Na-eun’s whispered plan.

Honestly, I was a little embarrassed to try this strategy, but I thought it would be easier than looking the other person in the eye and giving a sincere apology.

Seol-ah clenched her fists with a firm determination engraved in her heart.