Change Your Life with the USB from the Future!

Episode 057: The Price of Poverty (2)

in front of the dining room.

Dozens of students line up waiting for their turn.

However, the speed of the line shrinking was very slow because the system only entered one person at a time.

As a result, most of the students were holding their cell phones and looking at something and giggling or chatting with their close friends.

“Hey, what are you doing today?”

One of the students in the middle of the line asked a friend.

Then the friend answered with a sullen expression.

“Curry, udon, croquette, radish, kimchi.”

It was a detailed answer for a serious expression. Then, the expression on the student's face was clearly frowned upon.

“Ah, Curry again? dog shit Aren't you doing nutrition?"

The students around them nodded as if in agreement.

That's probably because similar menus have already appeared 6 times this month alone.

“Looks like that. I heard that other schools just come out with steak and stuff like that.”

The friend who told me the menu said with a slight frown.

Then the friend who asked the menu for the first time shook his head and opened his mouth.

“Hey, if it doesn’t taste good, even if you make it quick to eat, what’s the point of waiting for 20 minutes every day…”

Then, he slowly lowered his head and looked at the entrance to the dining room.

Then I saw a nutrition teacher standing at the entrance to the dining room and monitoring the students.

The nutritionist, who appeared to be in his late twenties, looked at the students' dissatisfied expressions, but had no emotion.

just.

[Beep-Hong Jin-pyo, please enjoy.]

He just looked at the students with the attitude that it would be enough if the students just checked whether the student ID was properly scanned on the barcode machine.

When a student with a student ID glances back at the nutrition teacher.

"Bon Appetit."

I nod my head with a mechanical comment and look at the next student,

If you think the students will be a little sloppy.

“Because there are a lot of people behind me after taking a quick picture.”

Repeatedly shouting in an annoyed voice.

But then.

[Beep- The meal fee has not been paid. SMS will be sent.]

There was a sound that the nutrition teacher should not have heard. She frowned and looked at the student who stopped in front of her barcode machine.

“Eww.”

She let out her sigh.

The sound was quite loud, so many of the students in line looked at it.

Kim Ja-young's face, who was holding her student ID, turned bright red.

“Go to the back. And pay the bills quickly.”

said the nutrition teacher, pointing to the end of her line. Then, as if she was about to say something, Kim Ja-young, who had moved her mouth, gave up and shook her head.

She moved her steps slowly.

Some of her looked at her with pity and some with wonder.

Then, Kim Ja-young's hand holding her student ID trembled.

“·················ogue.”

Kim Ja-young opened her eyes. With every step she took. It was as if her body was being swept down to the earth.

But then.A familiar voice was heard. It was the voices of girls in the same class.

Then she started beating her heart like crazy.

“Isn’t that a bit too nutritious?”

“Who's going to be unpaid? There is no free lunch, don’t you?”

"still···"

The whispering voices of the female students stuck to Kim Ja-young's ears.

“By the way, didn’t Ja-young’s grades drop a lot these days? I think it was the whole school district when you came in?”

“Hey, where is middle school and high school the same? I don't go to school, so of course I'm falling straight down."

They spoke sharp words without hesitation.

Kim Ja-young's heart pounded upon hearing those words.

If possible, I wanted to say a word to those who spoke lightly.

But she said all that Ja-Young Kim could do, she just hardened her expression and walked past her girls.

After passing her lunch line, she returned to the empty classroom.

She then quietly opened her textbook and began her studies.

Because that was all she could do now.

It was true that she had entered high school and that she had gone down in her rank.

Her class content was something she could follow on her own until she was in middle school, but after she went to high school, it became difficult to follow.

But she couldn't get her to say that she wanted to send her to the academy.

Now her father is ill. It was because she knew very well how hard her mother was going through on her own.

So she somehow had to get her grades up on her own.

Only then could she put a small smile on her tired mother's face.

But today.

I wasn't concentrating.

Tears kept flowing. Drop by drop, drop by drop, the textbook was crying.

I didn't want to cry, but the tears didn't stop. Her eyes clouded over and she couldn't see the contents of the textbook.

That was then.

Jiying-

Kim Ja-young's cell phone rang. She hurriedly pulled her cell phone out of her uniform pocket.

Then, the name [Mom♡] appeared on the screen that was cracked like a spider's web.

She hurriedly wiped away her tears and took a breath as she slowly pressed her call button.

OK.

[Ja Young-ah. Are you okay?]

In an instant, her mother's voice filled with her worries was heard. Kim Ja-young felt her throat clogged.

She felt as if her tears were about to burst.

She stopped her handset for a moment in the feeling of drumming.

She then took a deep breath in her.

"Huh? why?"

She said in a voice as if nothing was wrong.

Then she heard her mother's sighs over her handset.

[No, I got a text message saying that the lunch fee was not paid... Mom, I'm sorry. I'm going to deposit it today. Don't worry, eat deliciously, okay? Huh?]

The sound of the machine running was heard over the receiver.

Because of this, half of her mother's words were not heard.

But she seemed to know what her mother was saying, even if she didn't listen to them.

her heart broke

Still, Kim Ja-young opened her mouth with a smirk on purpose.

“Ah, of course we ate everything and came to study! Don't you know that mom and daughter go mad if they don't eat? Jeyuk-bokkeum was also served today. You know, I like fried pork. I ate so much that my stomach was full.”

Kim Ja-young responds with a smile while hitting her own stomach.

But the empty boat sounded like a savage.

“Don’t worry and take good care of your mother. Again, don’t skip meals because you’re in a hurry.”

Then she heard her mother's laughter from the other side of her phone.

Her mother's laughter sounded sweet as cocoa.

[okay. Then study hard. My mom works hard overtime, so I'll definitely send her to the academy next month. So don't worry about anything else and just focus on your studies.]

her mother said

Then, Kim Ja-young made a slightly bitter expression and then erased it.

And then, she said in a bright voice.

“No. NO. Not going to school is enough. Don't overdo it. 'Cause I'm alone enough You know that mothers and daughters have good hair. okay?”

A laughter was heard as if her mother couldn't stop her.

[Yes, yes. The one guy is stubborn... Aigoo, I'll have to go see my mom. Then study hard. See you in the evening!]

like that.

'Aren't you working? Can't you see I'm being pushed?'

along with the shouts of her co-workers.

drip-

The phone is disconnected.

Kim Ja-young wiped her face.

Her words to her mother, though she confidently ...

In fact, she wasn't confident.

Because she couldn't hold back her grades, which only fell even if she worked hard, by her strength.

Her white tears were shattered.

The sound of her swallowing her cry echoed through her empty classroom.

And there was someone outside her classroom door who heard her voice.

* * *

dark night.

Kim Ja-young, who came out of the school gate after finishing her palm, saw cars parked on the roadside.

[Malt Study]

[Gwangsang Academy]

[GNN English Village]

.

.

It was a school car or a parent's car.

This happened because it was dangerous for a student to leave school alone because the world was in a bad time.

But anywhere in front of the school gate.

There was no car waiting for her.

It was time for her father to be bedridden by now, and her mother to be amidst the noise of the factory.

So she... began to walk.

It's about a thirty minute walk from school to her house.

It was not a walking distance at sunset time.

But most of her school days were like this.

There was a bus to her house, but she didn't take the bus very often, except during her school hours.because.

‘It’s a waste of money… because I have to exercise anyway.’

The transportation card I kept in my wallet still had enough money in it.

But she wanted to save that money as much as possible. Only then could she later give her mother a birthday present.

If her mother caught her like this, she would be outraged, saying, 'You don't know the world is scary.'

Because of this, her brief affair continued for quite some time.

However.

She would have walked for about twenty minutes.

bruise-

behind her.

trudge-

There were footsteps following.

At first she didn't think she was coming with her. Back then, she was around school, so there were a lot of people coming and going.

However, it became clear ten minutes before people began to become rare around him.

The sound of footsteps is following her.

Then terrifying thoughts ran through her mind.

[Kim OO, who was returning home alone, was eventually found as a cold body...]

[Don't ask crime. Is it good like this...]

[Recently, violent crimes targeting female students have risen...]

Where she lived was a bit out of her downtown. So there were few people at this time.

Shops around her also close her shop after 8 o'clock, so she has nowhere to hide from her body for a while.

Because of this, all she could do was speed up her steps.

But.

Tubaktabaktabak-

The faster she walks her steps.

trudge thump-

The sound of her footsteps behind her also got faster.

There were signs that CCTV was installed in some places, but it was not known whether it was actually working.

She was momentarily resentful of her neighborhood, where she had lived her entire life for 18 years.

If her own home had been elsewhere, she would have had no reason to feel this fear if she had been in a bustling area.

How long did she almost run like that?

She could see her house in the distance. Then, like a lie, the footsteps disappeared.

A feeling of relief spread across her face, which looked like she was about to burst into tears.

She even thought that she had misunderstood the locals like she was an idiot.

But then.

A man appeared from the shadow of the alley.

She looked at her figure with her terrified eyes, stiff as a herbivore facing her light.

A person approaching her with her back to the street lamp.

That person is right there.

"excuse me···"

It was Park Soo-han, who was gasping for breath.

“What are you doing so fast?”

She looked at the applause with her absurd eyes.

Because he and she were in the same class and never talked to each other.

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