Yokai Come to the Countryside Café

Chapter 50: Elementary School Debut Ceremony (3)

“Does this kid have a brain or not? Seriously.”

Saerin’s Mom slammed her phone down on the dining table, clearly irritated.

Could there be a situation that better fit the phrase "cooked porridge just to feed the dog"?

It was a plan meant to distance that mixed-blood child, yet she had brought her along as if deliberately chosen.

Worse, she hadn’t even been asked—she only got the message when they were already in the car, so there was no time to cover it up. She didn’t even get the chance to make up an excuse like something urgent came up and to come next time.

-Ketalk.

"Hello. This is Ria’s guardian.

I thought it might be rude to contact you out of the blue, so I’m sending this message first.

Today, Ria suddenly told me she was going to Saerin’s house to play.

Thank you for inviting our child.

I’ll come pick her up at 5 so she won’t be too late.

Would that be alright?"

The Ketalk message included a photo her daughter had taken.

‘Hmph, at least she has manners.’

A picture taken by her daughter of the other child’s phone screen—such extra effort clearly reflected Jinseong’s thoughtfulness.

It was far more courteous than suddenly calling after obtaining the contact somehow, which softened her heart for a moment.

But that didn’t change the fact that the girl was now here, at her house.

-Beep. Beep-beep-beep-beep.

The door lock’s code was entered without hesitation.

“Mom! I’m home!”

Her daughter’s loud voice echoed from the entrance through the hallway and into the living room.

“Welcome.”

“This is my friend Ria!”

“Hello! I’m Kim Ria!”

“Alright, glad you’re here. Go wash your hands and play in the room.”

“Okay!”

“Yes!”

The clock pointed to 2:30. Since they said they’d pick her up at 5, that left only two and a half hours.

‘Good, I won’t have to feed her dinner.’

If she left early on her own, all the better.

If things had gone according to plan, she would’ve even served dinner to Yeeun. But she didn’t feel like serving a precious king crab from Yeongdeok to that kind of kid.

It would be enough to let them play quietly in the room and send her off on time.

‘But what are they doing in there? Why is it so quiet?’

It was her first time dealing with a working-class kid. The quietness in itself was concerning.

“Housemaid, please bring the kids some snacks and drinks. I’ll take them in, so let me know when it’s all set.”

“Yes, Wife.”

A little later, she carried a neatly arranged tray of snacks and headed to her daughter’s room.

-Knock knock.

“Kids, have some snacks while you play.”

With that, her daughter’s door opened.

“Yes! Thank you for the food!”

“What were you doing?”

“We were working on our picture diary homework and preparing for tomorrow’s class!”

From the textbooks and notebooks scattered on the desk, along with the pencils, it was easy to guess what they’d been doing. But the reality was still hard to believe.

“You were studying?”

“Ria suggested we do it…”

Her daughter’s face looked like even she didn’t understand why she had asked that.

Unfortunately, her daughter absolutely despised studying. Even the homework from her English kindergarten had to be physically taken out and opened by her private tutor or she wouldn’t even glance at it.

Yet here she was, not only doing her homework as soon as she got home, but even preparing for the next day’s class.

It was a sight she hadn’t seen in the entire seven years of raising her daughter.

And she wasn’t the only one shocked by the scene.

“Wow! These snacks are so pretty! I’ve never seen such pretty snacks! Can I take a picture?”

“Oh? Uh, sure. Go ahead.”

‘Is it because she’s pretty? There’s not a wrinkle of hesitation in her. Most kids would be too embarrassed to say they’ve never seen these before.’

Kids hate losing.

If someone says they have two cars at home, another kid will claim they have three, and so on, until the number reaches a hundred in ridiculous exaggeration.

Admitting to not having something or never having experienced something just makes you an easy target for teasing.

But Ria was different.

She looked at the high-end handmade snacks—ones you couldn’t find at convenience stores or supermarkets—with a beaming smile and even took photos.

“All done? Then go ahead and eat.”

She had only meant to check what they were doing, but before she realized it, she had sat down at the table, curious to witness Ria’s first bite.

“Mmm! It’s really delicious!”

“Right? I like that snack too!”

At Ria’s reaction after taking a bite, both mother and daughter smiled like they’d tasted it themselves.

But sadly, Ria’s snack-eating show ended there. After finishing just one piece, she picked up her pencil again.

“You’re not going to eat more?”

“If I eat one more, then the two of you won’t get any.”

“Oh.”

There were four snacks on the plate, and there were four people in the house. By Ria’s logic, each person was allowed one.

The bias she had about a girl raised in a single-parent home, someone on a different level from her daughter, crumbled with just that one sentence from Ria.

“Housemaid! Bring all the snacks here! Every single one! No, wait! You know the apple mango that came in recently? Bring that too!”

Something snapped in her brain. She ran into the kitchen and started pulling out everything that could pass as refreshments.

It wasn’t just her daughter who had forgotten, even for a moment, the pure heart that could bloom in a life of abundance.

Ria’s friend’s house was a luxury apartment located a little ways away from our café.

To enter the parking lot, you had to fill out a visitor’s form yourself. Then a staff member at the apartment entrance signed it once, and after parking, they signed it again. Two signatures in total.

After going through that thoroughly inconvenient parking process, not long after, I met Ria, her friend, and her friend’s mother, who had come to the lobby to see her off.

“Thank you for looking after Ria.”

I handed Saerin’s Mom a gift box of beverages I bought at the mart.

“Oh, you didn’t have to. Really…”

“Well then, we’ll be going. Saerin, if you ever want to come over and play, you’re always welcome. I’ll drive you there, okay?”

“Yes!”

When it came to greetings between parents, the shorter, the better.

The parking lot wasn’t really the best place to chat about kids, anyway.

Ria’s thoughts on visiting her friend’s house for the first time could wait until we got in the car and reached a familiar road.

“Did you have fun?”

“Yes! It was so much fun! I ate flower-shaped snacks, and even ones with jam inside! And I had fruit too, but there were so many kinds I couldn’t ask about all of them, hehe.”

“Sounds like you had a good time.”

Somehow, it felt like all she talked about was food. Was that just in her head?

“Didn't you do anything else?”

“Hmm, we were going to work on our picture diary together, but Saerin’s Mom kept giving us food, so we couldn’t finish. We ate this much!”

At the traffic light, Ria showed a photo she’d taken on her phone.

Ria’s claim that she had spent nearly three hours just eating wasn’t an exaggeration.

The picture literally showed snacks and fruit piled like a mountain.

She hadn’t expected such generosity from a wealthy household.

Maybe she should’ve brought a more expensive gift than just a beverage set?

“Then you’re too full to eat Black Bean Noodles today, huh?”

“Hehe.”

“We’ll save the Black Bean Noodles for next time. If you get hungry tonight, let’s grill the beef that Mister 'I’m Joo Dohyuk' brought. How about that?”

“Sounds good!”

At the same time, the mother and daughter who had returned home were still deep in conversation about Ria.

“Where does Ria live?”

“She said Dangsan South.”

“Dangsan South?”

“Yeah.”

‘I figured her circumstances weren’t great.’

The moment she saw the dented old compact car that Ria’s father was driving, she had a vague idea.

But learning that they actually lived in a neighborhood bypassed even by redevelopment plans weighed heavily on her.

And then her daughter drove the final nail into that weighty thought.

“Oh, right! Ria said she’s never eaten Black Bean Noodles before.”

“What, really?”

“She said she had to choose between Hamburger Steak and Black Bean Noodles at the mart near school and ended up getting the Hamburger Steak.”

“……”

Saerin’s Mom quietly closed her eyes.

Then, in vivid detail, a scene played in her mind like a drama—what Ria and her father might have gone through.

‘My girl, it’s your entrance day. I’ll buy you anything you want to eat today.’

‘No, we already spent a lot on school supplies. Let’s just go home and eat.’

‘It’s fine. Daddy’s got plenty of money today.’

‘Then I’ll eat this. What about you, Daddy?’

‘I already ate earlier. You eat, Ria.’

“Mom, are you crying?”

“Huh? No, sniff!”

It was just Black Bean Noodles.

A cheap dish that might not even cost 30,000 won at a Chinese restaurant—how could a child entering elementary school never have tasted it before?

Just how poor were they?

Tears wouldn’t stop as she thought of Ria, who hadn’t lost her smile even in such poverty.

After sobbing for a while, she nodded resolutely and made a call.

(Oh my! Saerin’s Mom, I was so busy on entrance day I didn’t get a chance to greet you properly. How have you been?)

“Yes, Principal. Thank you.”

(What brings you to call?)

“I’d like to move the School Steering Committee’s regular meeting up a bit.”

(The Steering Committee?)

“There are urgent matters that need to be addressed. Our school doesn’t have a school bus. Wouldn’t it create a sense of disparity if some kids arrive in nice cars and others walk? And could you please also look into whether it’s possible to support school meals through donations?”

(Ma’am, j-just a moment! Let me write this down!)

It took less than two months for Geumhyo Elementary School to become known for its school-wide bus transportation and the kind of delicious meals that went viral under the title ‘Lunch from a Certain School’ across various communities.

One of the school buses, thanks to someone’s thoughtful consideration, picked up the first child in front of an old café.

And Black Bean Noodles and Hamburger Steak began appearing on the lunch menu quite frequently.

All because of one family whose refrigerator was packed with top-grade Hanwoo beef and who earned tens of millions in passive income from a major corporation.

But good deeds don’t always come with a reward.

An office in the Guro Digital Complex.

After everyone had left for the day and the lights were off, two men were engaged in a secret conversation in the empty office.

“Hyungnim, if this goes on, we’re all going down. You think the audit team will only pin this on me when their investigation’s done?”

“So what do you propose? You’ve already taken off your uniform. All that’s left is to go into teaching.”

“Don’t do this. Do you know how much business I’ve funneled your way under the table?”

-Bang. Clatter.

Fuming, he slammed his fist on the desk, knocking over a bottle of whiskey.

“Hey, Jeong Ji-won. That’s rich coming from you. You think all that wasn’t accounted for with rebates?”

“Please, just help me this once. When I was with Daecheon Group, I set aside a few source codes from the 1st vendor project deliverables. I’ll give those to you. Just give me 30%. Then I’ll redirect all the issues tied to your company over to that 1st vendor. How about it?”

“Which company is it?”

“It’s in Namyangju, run by a picky lady. You know it too. It’s called Saerin Software.”

“I know it well. Thanks to that bitch, I lost more than five projects.”

At Division Head Jeong Ji-won’s words, the middle-aged man couldn’t help but burst into laughter.