Chapter 37: Summer Shadows: The Civil Servant’s Retreat

A chill crawled down the backs of the two civil servants, and with a sigh, they arrived at a villa in Sokcho.

It wasn’t a bunk bed; rather, it was a spacious villa with a second floor.

The air conditioner was, of course, accompanied by a refrigerator that looked three times bigger than the key.

A long sofa that looked plush and a monitor far larger than the one at home.

The second-floor balcony could easily be the size of six home verandas combined.

The interior was impeccably clean, with not a speck of dust in sight, complemented by a view of the sea.

“Wow!”

Siyeon was running around the villa with short strides, seemingly unable to contain her excitement upon realizing that this would be their residence for two weeks.

‘I suppose she still has homework to do.’

As I considered Siyeon’s buoyant disposition with a rational mindset, one of the civil servants handed me a business card.

The card had the department name, National Safety Department, the name of the civil servant, and a neatly printed personal phone number.

I never expected to receive a business card with this body of mine.

“If you need anything, call this number. We’ll also be staying in Sokcho and will help you out,” he said.

“Thank you. I appreciate it. Take care.”

“Yeah.”

The two civil servants closed the door of the villa and left.

“Wow…”

After they left, I looked at the incredibly spacious scenery of the villa, genuinely amazed.

While Siyeon was in the bathroom, I asked the civil servant who had stayed in the car, and he mentioned that it is often used by high-ranking officials for vacations.

To prove that his words weren’t false, the villa was equipped to a level that would be fine for living in.

Just counting the air conditioners in this villa was astonishing.

One on the first-floor ceiling, a second next to the TV, and a third in the kitchen.

Then there were four or five more on the second floor.

Just the cost of the air conditioners alone seemed to surpass that of all the furniture in our house combined.

Once the presence of anyone other than us faded away, the mascots slowly began to reveal themselves.

“Wow, this place is nice.”

“Yeah, it is.”

I briefly expressed my approval of the unexpectedly improved living environment over the next two weeks.

I had thought that living in a house with a second floor was something I would only see in Japanese-style comics.

Although I was still not yet of double-digit age, it was a long life ahead.

A sofa large enough for two of my size to lie down on.

I stretched out sideways on it, adjusting my posture comfortably.

“But why didn’t you guys say anything?”

Then, I suddenly remembered the mascots’ silence in the car.

No matter how many other people were around, given the situation, it was obvious they would know we were magical girls.

Thus, it also meant they must know about the mascots, but it was strange that none of them had spoken, so I asked.

I thought I would get a response like, “I didn’t know.”

However, the unexpected reply came from the bear’s mouth.

“Adults are kind of awkward when it comes to talking. Responding to everything is also bothersome…”

“You crazy bastard.”

It turned out they simply didn’t want to.

**Crazy bastard.**

As I sank into the sofa and lay there for a while, Siyeon approached me after finishing the tour of the villa and asked,

“When are we going to the beach, Mari?”

“Uh…”

I hesitated for a moment, trailing off my words as I pondered.

Having entrusted my body to the plush sofa, I had completely forgotten.

The drive took about three hours.

Now, in the late afternoon, having spent those three hours in traffic, if we head to the beach now, it will get cold quickly.

I could catch a cold, so we can’t go today.

There’s nothing more heartbreaking than getting sick while on vacation.

“Not today.”

“Why not! I want to go to the beach! I’m going!”

Siyeon was rarely so insistent.

She was probably excited since we had come so far from home.

How could I postpone this until tomorrow…?

As I wracked my brain for an excuse, essential items for the beach suddenly popped into my head.

‘Ah.’

“We don’t have swimsuits or a float, so we have to go to the store today.”

I realized that we didn’t even have the necessary items to go to the beach in the first place.

“Ah!”

Only then did Siyeon’s eyes widen as she understood.

After preparing to get up, I immediately changed our destination to the store.

To familiarize myself with the area, I opened a map app.

Although we would need to use public transport, it was still a hundred times better than having no store at all.

If we were in a real rural area, even a big supermarket would be as rare as a drought with beans.

Still, asking hairy, middle-aged officials to buy swimsuits for a first-grade girl was quite an awkward request, so I decided to go myself.

If I asked someone else, I could easily picture the suspicious looks from the staff as they watched the officials.

Fortunately, I’m not such a shameless boy—no, girl.

I’m a proper child who does what I need to do myself.

We took a taxi to the first floor of a large supermarket.

In keeping with the sweltering summer, there were large whale-shaped floats and all sorts of symbolic decorations of the sea around the store.

I decided to check the floats later and focused on getting clothes first.

“Swimsuit, please!”

“Oh my, welcome!”

Siyeon, excited, rushed to the section with swimsuits and asked for one right away.

It seemed the lady was charmed by the little customers, as she got up from her seat with a smile and added a short comment.

Even though the lady found the kids cute, she seemed a bit awkward without their parents around and looked around.

Naturally, there were no adults who looked like their parents, so she turned to us and asked,

“Where are your mom and dad?”

“Well, um…”

Just as I was trying to come up with a suitable excuse, Siyeon blurted out,

“We came by ourselves!”

‘Ah.’

Due to Siyeon’s bold response, the lady’s expression hardened.

I guess I should have just told her to be quiet.

The lady’s continuous questions started to take a different direction.

Though her questions came from kindness and goodwill, they could be painful, as they might touch on the tender feelings of a child.

“Do you know your parents’ contact numbers?”

“Uh, well, um…”

Sihyun was flustered.

To break through this silence, I had no choice but to insist that I remembered my dad’s number.

In my pocket was a business card.

“I know my dad’s phone number.”

“Go ahead and say it.”

“Zero-one-zero…”

As soon as I gave the number, the lady hurried away to call the civil servant.

After a few rings, the sound stopped.

As the lady walked away, I heard her voice.

“No, is this the father of the child? Why are you sending two kids to buy clothes?”

It was hard to hear clearly, but I could make out the mumbling of a man’s voice on the other end of the phone.

“No, what do you mean, what do you mean!? The two kids came to buy swimsuits, and you’re the father? Huh? Mulhoe? Mulhoe and…”

Suddenly, the civil servant had become a jerk who was eating mulhoe in Sokcho, completely unaware that his two elementary school daughters were at the mart.

“Sorry about that.”

I hadn’t intended to get involved, but things had turned out this way.

About 20 minutes passed, maybe?

The civil servant, clueless about the situation, had rushed to the mart after eating mulhoe and now stood there with his arms crossed, receiving an inexplicable lecture from the furious lady.

Only after the situation settled down a bit could I talk to him.

“What the heck is this sudden disaster?”

“I’m sorry.”

I told Siyeon, who seemed so cheerful, to choose a swimsuit she liked.

While watching the expressions of the men drawn into the shopping, I sat on a backless chair near the checkout.

“Mary! How about this one?!”

“It’s pretty.”

“How about this one?”

“That’s pretty too.”

Sihyun, who was already acting like these swimsuits were her own, kept asking about each swimsuit.

With those questions, I had become a parrot that just repeated “It’s pretty.”

A plain blue swimsuit, a swimsuit with a raccoon character on a light pink background.

As someone who values practicality, I thought I should just grab something that wouldn’t be worn for long by a growing first grader.

I thought it didn’t matter what the pattern on the clothes was…

“What about this one?”

…but I realized that wasn’t quite right.

Among the swimsuits that Sihyun was holding, she picked one up.

“I don’t think that one will do.”

It was a swimsuit with a deep purple background and a combination of blue and light pink flowers.

Seeing the color reminiscent of the clothes my country grandmother wore while working in the fields, I shook my head.

What a ridiculous swimsuit. Where on earth is the demand for something like that to justify its production? Leaving that vague question hanging, each of us picked out a swimsuit and immediately headed to calculate the cost of the tubes. Two tiny swimsuits for the little ones cost 70,000 won, and the tubes were 20,000 won each, totaling 40,000 won. Spending 110,000 won for just two weeks at the beach felt empty.

“With this money, I could buy three sets of summer clothes to last a year…?”

As I pushed aside the growing sense of a housewife’s practicality and packed up for summer, I stepped outside the mart. The man had rushed over in a taxi instead of his official vehicle. Just as I approached the first taxi in the long line, an unpleasant alarm sound pierced the air.

I thought things had been quiet lately, but of course, the alarm would ring within a day. Considering the low incidence of monster appearances in our area, this was a different situation.

“Ugh, damn it…”

“Oh dear, we need to go right away.”

To have to deal with work immediately after a pleasant shopping spree felt like a notification to clock in on a weekend while sitting at the computer.

I handed the bags I was holding to the man and said, “Could you please take the bags to the villa with Siyeon?”

“Huh? Aren’t you coming along?”

“I have my reasons. I’ve been handling these things alone lately. I appreciate your help!”

After finishing that notification, I ran to find a place away from people’s gaze. Of all places, it was near the mart, and the people were just pretending to evacuate lazily. The appearance location was quite far from the mart anyway.

Citizens seemed to think of it as a civil defense alarm, stepping out of the mart and seeking shade to avoid the sun.

‘This is serious safety apathy.’

As expected, this is a country where even a fire alarm in the middle of school is considered a malfunction. At this rate, something big is bound to happen someday.

• Author’s Note (Author’s Commentary)

The fire alarm that goes off at school when it gets bored…

To be continued…