Chick SS10
by CristaeThe Chick Class Hunter Is Making Amends! Side Story 10
“No… Not right now, I said.”
Holding her phone to her ear, Seo Wooju rolled her large eyes as she spoke.
Inside the classroom, where students were leaving one by one for after-school activities, Groo and Huiyeon were waiting for Wooju.
Wooju, bag in hand, spoke coolly.
“Yeah, okay. Mom, I have to go.”
—It’s been so long since you called, and now you want to hang up already? You used to bawl whenever I said it was time to go—
Wooju’s biological mother, Yoon Jiseung, let out a chirpy, affectionate voice over the phone, and Wooju’s face flushed red.
“Don’t… My friends are right here…”
—Really? Is that Groo friend with you, too?
Jiseung’s voice grew brighter, while Wooju suddenly found herself on the defensive.
It seemed her father had already mentioned Groo to her. And it was obvious what he’d said.
—You know, the one you like…
“Enough! I’m hanging up!”
Raising her voice, Wooju abruptly ended the call.
Just as I thought!
‘Groo didn’t hear that, did she?’
Afraid Groo might have caught the last bit of their conversation, Wooju quickly turned to her.
“You hung up already? Don’t you miss your mom?”
Groo asked, sounding as innocent as ever.
Yoon Jiseung, once a busy, successful artist, had only become busier since expanding her career overseas, leaving even less time to see Wooju. Instead, she’d taken to calling whenever she could spare a moment.
In the past, Wooju had been filled with longing for her often-absent mother, but lately, she found the calls a little bothersome.
“It’s fine. She’ll probably call again soon.”
As Wooju said this, she glanced at Groo.
She’d heard occasional news about Groo’s real father, but nothing about her mother.
‘She must have passed away,’ Wooju thought.
Unconsciously, both Wooju and Huiyeon had come to believe that Groo’s mother was gone.
So whenever the subject of mothers came up, the two of them would shoot each other uneasy looks and quickly change the subject.
After all, it would be awkward to push the “mom” button in front of Groo, who didn’t have one.
“I miss my mom,” Groo said.
“…!”
…There it was.
Alarmed, Wooju swallowed hard.
She hadn’t meant to make Groo sad so suddenly.
While Wooju was at a loss for words, it was Gu Huiyeon who spoke up first.
“Um, m-m-mom?”
Huiyeon, the most startled of all, stammered out the word.
“Yeah!”
Groo nodded emphatically.
“S-so, um…”
Seeming to feel it was her duty to somehow salvage the moment, Huiyeon balled her fists with determination.
“Groo’s mom, well, I’m sure… she’s doing fine, right? There’s heaven up in the sky!”
There’s heaven up in the sky! Heaven up in the sky—!
Huiyeon, speaking a little too loudly, drew the gazes of the few students still left in the classroom.
What a blunder… Huiyeon’s face went beet red.
Meanwhile, Groo tilted her head curiously.
“…Sky?”
Wooju quickly looked around.
This was bad. If things went on like this, a few tactless kids might come over and actually ask Groo if her mother had died. That would only open old wounds.
Huiyeon seemed to realize this too, now fidgeting awkwardly.
“N-no, I mean, uh…”
Wooju quickly grabbed the wrists of both Huiyeon and Groo and hustled them out of the classroom.
“Let’s talk outside!”
“Okay.”
Huiyeon meekly followed, while Groo, confused, gathered her bag and came along.
“Um, sorry, Groo.”
“Hm? For what?”
“About… your mom…”
Dropping her head, Huiyeon trailed off, but Groo simply widened her eyes.
“Oh, I never told you about that.”
“Huh?”
When Huiyeon looked up, Groo giggled and said:
“My mom isn’t in the sky. She’s in jail!”
In jail! In jail—in jail!
The innocent exclamation seemed to echo between Wooju and Huiyeon.
To make it absolutely clear that they hadn’t misheard, Groo added one more thing.
“My mom is in the same jail as my dad right now.”
Huiyeon trembled, looking like she had absolutely no idea what to say, and Wooju, now fully aware of what “getting a headache” truly meant, asked:
“I thought you said your dad was hiding in the hospital. He got sent to jail?”
“Yeah, he got caught.”
Huiyeon’s mouth dropped open, and Wooju now understood exactly what it meant to feel a chill up the back of her neck.
“It can’t be helped for dad… but I’ll be able to bring mom home someday.”
Huiyeon tilted her head.
“Huh? How?”
Groo replied, a faraway look in her eyes.
“When I grow up, I’ll be able to turn my mom into a new person.”
“Oh…”
Huiyeon let out a muted, sympathetic sound, as if thinking, ‘Yeah, a mom in jail ought to be a new person someday…’
“Come on, Groo, let’s hurry to after-school.”
Forcing a change of subject, Huiyeon pulled Groo along.
“Mm!”
Wooju watched anxiously as Groo bounced away with Huiyeon.
Would this really be all right? Both her parents were in jail. If they’d been locked up, maybe they were dangerous people.
Wooju had seen so many parents in the entertainment world who tried to use their children without scruple. As she watched Groo go, the faces of those bad parents seemed to overlap with Groo’s.
‘I can’t just leave her alone.’
Unlike the worrying Wooju, Huiyeon, seemingly unbothered, asked:
“So, what’s your mom like, Groo?”
“Mm. Her hair’s just like mine.”
“Wow, gold?”
Groo rolled her eyes, picturing her mother in her mind.
“Yeah. And her eyes are green. And she’s really, really pretty!”
Huiyeon gazed at Groo, who was happily talking away.
“Are you two alike?”
“Yep. We look alike.”
Huiyeon looked straight ahead and tilted her head.
“Like that person?”
She pointed her finger forward.
Wooju and Groo followed her gaze, and their jaws dropped open.
A woman with waist-length blond hair tucked behind her ear was making eye contact with the children. When her green eyes found Groo, they widened in surprise.
‘She looks just like Groo…?’
Wooju stared in shock at the beautiful woman who so clearly resembled Groo, while Groo stammered out:
“M-mom?”
“What?!”
The woman gave a few words to her companions in suits, then ran straight toward Groo.
“Groo!”
Chloe grabbed Groo in a tight embrace.
“Mom!”
Groo immediately snuggled into Chloe’s neck.
Chloe showered kisses over Groo’s soft, round cheeks.
As Huiyeon and Wooju stared in awe at the emotional mother-daughter reunion, Wooju’s eyes widened.
‘Groo’s mom… broke out of jail…!’