Chapter 219.2

Chapter 219.2

“I just string the stones.”

“Where did you learn Korean?”

“From Grandma.”

“Grandma?”

“Pretty boss lady, you gonna buy one?”

“Where’s your house?”

“….”

“Do you have more of these at home? Where do you live?”

She thought she was asking naturally, but the child suddenly clammed up. The cheerful girl who had clung to her so eagerly now smacked her lips with a strangely grown-up look, her face shifting in a way that was too obvious for someone so young.

“If you’re not buying, then fine. You’re bad. Bad!”

The girl shot Seoryeong a sharp glare and spun around. Panicked, Seoryeong reached out, but before she could grab the hem of the child’s loose clothes, the girl stumbled and fell. Seoryeong’s face twisted in disbelief.

The girl made exaggerated sobbing sounds; “waah, waah” without shedding a single tear, and smacked Seoryeong’s hand away.

I didn’t even touch your sleeve yet…

Stunned by the bratty act, Seoryeong recovered quickly and slipped her phone into the child’s basket.

“Wait a second! I really am going to buy one!”

She probably looked like a kidnapper trying to lure a child with candy, but the girl didn’t even look back. She bolted like a squirrel, her small feet splashing through puddles, each slap of water so loud that the girl herself probably had no idea how easily she could be followed.

Seoryeong trailed the child quietly, like someone stepping on a tail. As she wiped the rain from her face and turned down an alley, she recoiled in alarm from a sudden incoming kick. A sharp knife soon pressed precariously against her jaw.

“Who are you?”

Seoryeong looked up at the harsh English. She met the gaze of a woman about her age, whose face was tightly contorted and who stood at roughly the same eye level.

The woman had a solid, athletic build, wore loose training trousers, and had on sturdy boots. The tip of the knife did not tremble.

“Are you here on business with our kids?”

“….”

“What business could you possibly have to be following them so obsessively?”

The woman smirked and pushed the knife closer.

“Don’t start crying over being torn up, leave while I’m being reasonable.”

Seoryeong stared at the hostile face in blank disbelief. This woman’s features felt even more familiar than the child’s, the very picture of an Asian face. Strangely unable to look away, Seoryeong froze.

Black hair, black eyes. It wasn’t only that her facial contours reminded Seoryeong of Koryo-saram. She hid her trembling hands behind her back.

“Hyung… nuna… my head hurts…”

“Ugh… sister, me too…”

The distant voices made her chest ache.

“These past few days, you were only looking for our kids… huh?”

The child, whose name Seoryeong didn’t even know, frowned then. She made a strange sound as if something had caught in her throat. It sounded like both recognition and surprise.

Surely she wasn’t recognizing me, was she? Seoryeong stiffened without meaning to and swallowed.

‘No way… aside from Kia and me, there shouldn’t be any siblings who remembered those days. There shouldn’t be. The way the girl looked at her, as if she knew her face, felt wrong. Through the pouring rain their eye contact lingered.’

“By any chance are you married?”

The woman tilted her head and asked first. Seoryeong didn’t know how to read the surprise and unease in that look, so she simply nodded.

“Then… besides your husband, do you have any acquaintances around who are physically capable and good looking?”

That was another strange question.

“Perhaps… Instructor Maxim?” the woman guessed.

Who is that? Seoryeong shook her head and pushed the knife aside. The woman blinked and cleared her throat as if waking from a dream.

“Anyway, don’t follow us anymore. Don’t approach the kids either. If you so much as touch a single hair of our kids, your face won’t stay intact. My fists are fierce. Do you see this?”

She brushed off her jacket and pointed to a small badge.

“This is a Gurkha training center badge.”

“….”

“If I catch you again, there won’t be any mercy!”

“I have business,” Seoryeong said.

“What?”

“The kid who just ran off. I just want to meet her parents. Or her grandmother. Either one.”

“What did you say?”

The woman’s face hardened as she glared at Seoryeong. Wait, she understands Korean? The realization almost made Seoryeong laugh.

“That clever kid stole my phone.”

“…!”

“So if you don’t want this to get messy, just take me quietly to her. Where’s your house?”

She couldn’t afford to lose the trail now that she was this close. Seoryeong’s clear eyes flashed as she grabbed the woman’s wrist.