A child who looks like me

13 years ago.

It was the day of the midterm exams at **○○ High School**.

The second period was Classical Chinese, a subject where students with good memorization skills could finish all the questions in 10 minutes.

Eunbi was sitting in the third seat of the last row, where it was easy to get away with distractions without being noticed by the teacher.

It was also a good spot for using a cheat sheet.

She would cut an A4 paper in half, fill both sides with small writing, and tuck it into her sleeve. It worked like a charm. Eunbi had solved memorization-heavy subjects this way every time. By now, she had become so skilled that she could pull it out the moment the teacher turned their back.

After finishing the exam without incident, the break time arrived, and the students began to bustle around. Someone knocked into Eunbi’s desk, making it shift out of alignment. Annoyed, Eunbi straightened the desk. During that brief moment, the cheat sheet fell to the floor.

*Thud.*

The first person to notice it was Lee Jeongoh, who was sitting diagonally in the row next to hers.

“Eunbi, this fell.”

Eunbi felt like her heart had dropped instead of the cheat sheet.

The paper, which looked unmistakably like a cheat sheet, was casually handed back to Eunbi by Jeongoh.

“Thanks.”

She quickly grabbed the paper, muttering a short thank-you.

*Did Jeongoh see it?* *What if she tells the teacher? What if I get a zero?*

Eunbi had used cheat sheets in previous exams as well. What if it got caught this time?

Even if she got rid of all the evidence, if she had to retake the exam, she didn’t think she could score the same again. She felt the blood drain from her face.

In the end, Eunbi was so worried about the cheat sheet that she messed up the next exam as well.

It would be a disaster if her family found out about her exam results. Eunbi was the youngest daughter in a family of legal professionals. Her mother was a law school professor, her father was a judge, and her older brother was an S University law student preparing for law school.

Her parents thought studying was the easiest thing in the world. They expected good grades as a given and couldn’t understand why anyone would struggle. Eunbi had lived her life feeling suffocated in that environment.

If any cheating was discovered in other exams…

For days after the midterms, Eunbi felt as if she were walking on thin ice. Every time Jeongoh got up from her seat, Eunbi felt a pang of fear, as if Jeongoh might suddenly run to the teacher and expose everything.

Growing increasingly anxious, Eunbi decided to try to get on Jeongoh’s good side.

“Jeongoh, do you want this? I’ve never used it.”

Eunbi offered a lip gloss from her favorite luxury brand, a tactic she often used with her friends. They would always accept her gifts, and those who received them would become useful tools for her.

But Jeongoh was different from Eunbi’s other friends.

“No, it’s okay.”

“You might want to have one.”

“No. I don’t wear makeup, really. I’m fine.”

Inside, Eunbi was more nervous than ever. *Is she thinking this is a bribe? Is that why she’s not accepting it?*

“You’re pretty enough, Jeongoh. You’d look even better with makeup. And this is a luxury brand.”

“I really don’t need it, Eunbi.”

Jeongoh refused firmly. Eunbi couldn’t help but feel as though Jeongoh was looking down on her.

“Thanks for thinking of me. I’m sorry.”

With that, Jeongoh coldly walked away.

Afterward, Eunbi became even more afraid of Jeongoh. She needed to act fast to make sure no one would believe Jeongoh. She had to act before Jeongoh became a ticking time bomb.

—

The morning of Thursday, a week before the weekend, was filled with the excitement that only employees feel as they approach the end of the workweek.

Yeona poked her head out from under the neckline of her T-shirt and cheerfully said,

“Mom, there’s only one week left!”

“Left for what?”

“Don’t you know what next Thursday is?”

Her daughter had already mentioned it a hundred times, so there was no way she didn’t know.

Children live for the joy of anticipation. They wait for Christmas, Children’s Day, their birthdays.

It’s that sense of waiting that raises them. Jeongoh realized that his daughter had grown so much since this time last year.

She was already seven years old.