## Chapter 18 – A Daughter’s Sin Is a Mother’s Sin (1)
Having been up all night and driven here without a wink of sleep, I closed my eyes, intending to rest for just a moment.
Immediately, images flashed through my mind: Yujin’s eyes as she watched me die from a gunshot wound, and then her eyes again as she knelt before me just moments ago, looking up at me.
They felt even more real than they had in reality.
I had only meant to rest for a moment, but this wouldn’t do. Just seeing Yujin’s face was enough to stir up a mix of hatred and lust, causing me to become aroused.
I shook my head, trying to erase Yujin’s face from my mind. But as soon as her face disappeared, the faces of Minhee, Jiyoung, and Sua began to surface in rapid succession.
“Shit.”
I shook my head again, banishing their faces as well. But then, the faces of those who had seen me as a sexual assailant appeared.
Those who had looked at me with increasingly cold eyes as I desperately tried to prove my innocence.
I snapped my eyes open. There was no way I could rest now. I felt even more exhausted.
The Chairman could barge in at any moment. I needed to hurry.
Rummaging through my memories from before the regression, I was certain that the Chairman would be here today, but I couldn’t recall the exact time.
And since the Chairman had suddenly taken a few days of leave after today, something significant must have happened, but even that was unknown to me, so I had to hurry even more.
I took out all the accounting books and documents in the Chairman’s office and examined them. But the Chairman wasn’t stupid enough to keep documents that would serve as blatant evidence in her office.
However, by comparing the mismatched figures in the accounting books, I could infer circumstantial evidence of the Chairman’s corruption, such as secretly diverting school donations and selling school supplies for cash. That alone would have significant legal force.
I gathered the most important documents and, just in case, took pictures of them with my phone camera, saving the records online.
Until I could definitively win over the Principal, who was likely tied to the Chairman’s corruption, I would have to be satisfied with this. Still, this wasn’t the real blackmail material, so it was fine. This was just insurance.
But because the preparation time was too short, it felt insufficient.
If I had just one more week, or even two more days, I could have prepared the materials properly and eliminated her options for escape.
But there was nothing I could do. I would have to make up for the rest with acting.
I roughly scattered the piles of documents and ledgers I had taken out on the table. I went to the mirror and messed up my clothes and hair. Then, I looked at my face in the mirror.
…Was this okay?
It seemed plausible.
If I dyed my hair blonde and got a tan, I would look like a typical delinquent.
Having finished preparing, I returned to the Chairman’s office chair and sat down. Then, I turned the chair around, hiding myself behind the wide backrest, and waited for the Chairman to arrive.
***
Time passed. About two hours. I had even fallen asleep without realizing it, only to be awakened by the sound of footsteps passing near the door.
The footsteps were heavy, and after that, I heard a sound like someone dragging their leg, so it probably wasn’t the Chairman.
It was probably the security guard. But why was he still at school at this hour? Was he wandering around looking for students who hadn’t gone home yet?
It was beyond my knowledge. And it wasn’t something I needed to worry about. I closed my eyes again and waited for the Chairman.
As more time passed, I began to feel uneasy. Was my memory wrong? I even started to think that I should just go home and get some sleep, and was leaning towards that conclusion when,
I heard footsteps.
I didn’t know who it was, but it was definitely not the security guard. I could hear the sound of high heels clicking against the hallway floor.
Did the Chairman wear high heels?
I didn’t remember that.
The Chairman was a rigid woman who always emphasized proper attire and polite behavior to the students.
It was a source of ridicule among many students that Yujin, her own daughter, was the student who wore the shortest skirt in school, which was the complete opposite of the Chairman’s lectures, but at least the Chairman’s attire was neat enough to lecture others.
I recalled the attire the Chairman usually wore.
Flats, a black skirt that came down to below the knees, a white women’s dress shirt, and an updo hairstyle.
That was the attire of the Chairman, Yujeong, that I remembered, but high heels?
Something was strange. There must have been something that I hadn’t noticed before the regression.
But before I could even guess what it was, the door opened.
“Phew! Ueeeeeeh!”
A deep sigh. Followed by nonsensical babbling.
The voice I heard was the same as the Chairman’s voice in my memory. But the cute voice I had just heard, like the sound of the high heels, was something I couldn’t have imagined hearing from the Chairman.
“Ugh- ugh. Hot. Hiss.”
Completely unhinged pronunciation. I couldn’t smell it yet because she was still far away, but just the voice alone made it seem like the Chairman’s office was filled with the smell of alcohol.
“Those fucking old geezers, really… They kept pouring me drinks, trying to get their hands on me… Tsk.”
The Chairman’s hiccup. Followed by the sound of staggering footsteps entering the room, and then the sound of someone hitting the wall, seemingly looking for the light switch. Then,
Click!
The dark Chairman’s office was brightly lit.
“What?…”
Yujeong’s voice, bewildered by the disarray in the Chairman’s office.
Yujeong seemed to think that a thief had broken in, and was about to take out her phone from her handbag when I lightly tapped my foot to make my presence known.
As if sensing my presence, Yujeong looked towards the chair I was sitting in and began to scold me in a stern voice.
“Security guard? I told you before not to clean my office at night, but to do it before the students come.”
Yujeong’s voice was so firm and strict that even a large man would be intimidated. But knowing the voice she had used just moments ago, slurring and staggering from being drunk, I couldn’t help but find it ridiculous.
“What do you expect if you can’t even follow such a simple order? Have you already forgotten who it was who allowed you, who couldn’t get a job anywhere else because of your history as a sex offender, to work as a security guard?”
The alcohol was already gone from the Chairman’s voice as she pressured me gently.
“…”
But when I didn’t answer and remained sitting with the chair turned away, the Chairman seemed to have misunderstood something and spoke again.
“…Principal? What’s going on, at this hour. I told you clearly before that I would refuse the proposal you made to me last time.”
When I still didn’t answer, Yujeong came on even stronger, trying to hide her anxious feelings.
As if she hadn’t been staggering from being drunk just moments ago, she walked towards me in a straight line, the clicking of her high heels sharp enough to cut the air, and then slammed her hand on the table.
Standing face to face with someone who had secretly entered her office at night and was sitting in a chair, instead of reporting it to the police or running away, she was actually approaching them.
Now I knew who Yujin had inherited her aggressive and hot-tempered personality from.
“You! Are you not listening to me?”
I pushed off the ground with my feet, turning the chair that had been facing the window towards Yujeong.
Yujeong seemed surprised by my unfamiliar and unexpected face, and took a step back in shock.
Whether she did or not, I rested my arms on the armrests, interlaced my fingers, and even crossed my legs, slowly scanning Yujeong’s entire body.
As I had expected, she was indeed drunk. Her face was as red as a ripe peach. Her chest, which she always kept tightly covered with the top button fastened, was now exposed.
Of course, it was only a few buttons undone, but even that was enough for Yujeong’s chest to come out into the world and breathe for the first time in a while.
I stared intently at Yujeong’s chest, which revealed her fair skin. It seemed that Yujeong had passed on one more thing as intensely to her daughter as her nasty personality.
However, compared to Yujin’s, which was still young and developing, Yujeong’s had already reached a state of complete maturity.
The flesh was like fruit at its ripest, just about to ferment if left for a little longer, at its sweetest point.
No matter how you looked at it, she was young and beautiful enough that you wouldn’t believe she had a daughter Yujin’s age. If someone who didn’t know her saw her, they would probably think she was Yujin’s older sister, not her mother.
As if sensing my gaze, Yujeong quickly tried to fasten her dress shirt buttons. But it was a dress shirt that she had bought to fit her thin waist, which contrasted with her large chest.
It was already so tight that I had always wondered how it hadn’t burst open, so there was no way she could fasten it so quickly.
So Yujeong gave up on fastening the buttons and raised her arm high, barely covering only a part of her chest, and shouted at me.
“Wait, transfer student! What- what were you doing here?”
Did she know me? That was unexpected. As far as I knew, Yujeong didn’t know yet that her daughter had sued me at this point.
Well, it was a curiosity that would soon be meaningless. I didn’t answer and stood up. Yujeong seemed to find me even more threatening now that I was much taller than her, and took a step back.
I deliberately walked leisurely around the table, trying not to provoke Yujeong.
As if she had gained some composure from my relaxed attitude, Yujeong turned around and was trying to fasten her buttons again when I walked to a position where I could face Yujeong.
Even then, I didn’t say anything to Yujeong and took another step forward, now bringing me closer to the door.
Only then did Yujeong realize something was wrong, and she lowered her hand that had been covering her chest and turned towards the door, but it was already too late.
I quickened my pace and approached the door. I completely closed the door that had been slightly ajar. I locked it. And then I turned around and cast a sharp gaze at Yujeong, who was about to take out her phone from her handbag.
“Put it down.”
Yujeong hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she quietly put down her phone. She had realized that I was serious.
Was it the difference in experience?
This was different from Yujin.
“Sit.”
I gestured with my chin towards the low table in front of the sofa where the piles of documents were scattered. Yujeong, who was tense from the heavy atmosphere, nodded and sat on the sofa.
As if it were natural, I grabbed Yujeong’s shoulder, who was sitting in the seat of honor, and pushed her to the side sofa, then followed Yujeong and sat on the sofa as well.
Then, I gave a bright smile to Yujeong’s frozen face and said,
“Shall we have a little chat?”
I thrust the documents containing records of her corruption towards Yujeong’s face, who was frowning as if she was displeased that a student was speaking informally to her.
