Magician City Chapter 12

Chapter 12. Independence (1)

During the short time after his grandmother's pa.s.sing, Yu-ye lived without a moment to rest. It was because he was going to respect her dying wish and live alone; independent.

The world was too cold and too tough for a 12-year-old to live alone. He had a lot to learn, do, and take care of. The overwhelming workload it provided abused Yu-ye.

If there was something to be thankful for, it was that his neighbors were kind, providing him with the necessary help he needed. Furthermore, Yu-ye's flawless household skills he had learned alongside Yunyoung came to be a lifesaver.

However, Yu-ye's immediate concern was to have social workers relieved and away from his house. A few days later, a woman came to visit his house introducing herself as a social worker who was in charge of the social services for the Moon Village.

She asked a few questions.

"That is very unfortunate that your grandmother had pa.s.sed away. I am sorry for your loss. Are you living alone in this house then?"

"No ma'am. My mom came back home 3 days ago."

"Is that so? She came back?"

The social worker flipped through her file.

According to the residency report a year ago, it only stated that Yu-ye and his grandmother were living in the current house. However, in his family profile, his mother was also listed as one of the guardians. The boy didn't seem to be lying even when she looked at his medical insurance record.

"That is great to hear. Is it possible to know her cell-phone number then?"

"I'm sorry ma'am. My mom doesn't have a cell phone…"

"Oh, I see. But your home phone number is what is written here, right?"

Yu-ye looked at the number she showed him. It was the right number.

"It is the right number but…our telephone is broken…"

Yu-ye looked up at the social worker with his sorrowful eyes as if he was about to burst out crying in despair.

The worker's face looked as if it was shocked from unconsciously touching something scorching hot. She quickly changed the subject. It felt as if she was ripping out what was left of his heart.

"When does she come back home?"

"Very late at night."

"How late?"

"Um…… Around 11 o’clock."

11 o'clock was too late even if the worker was to come for a casual visit.

"That is a little problematic……"

If she was to follow by the rules, the worker would have to check the maintenance of his household, obtain signed witness statements from some of his neighbors, meet his parent or guardian to discuss the many terms and conditions, then finally hand his guardian her name card with the notice that their household will be registered to receive the benefits as a basic livelihood security recipient.

It seemed a little complex but the steps were made to be fool-proof from those who try to take advantage of the system for free money.

But Yu-ye's case was extremely rare, and complicated.

When she examined his house, Yu-ye's family looked like the perfect one to receive the aid.

The social worker felt that even before his grandmother's pa.s.sing, his family could have gotten it. She was almost confused why his family didn't contact the government agencies sooner.

All she had left to do was to receive the witness statement from his neighbors and meet Yu-ye's mother. She was in high hopes that she could possibly get home early, but she was wrong.

The social worker thought that usually, a mother would provide her child with some form of a telephone out of worry. But Yu-ye's house was unusual. He didn't have a cell-phone or a telephone, and his mother leaves him alone every day until 11PM at night.

To make matters worse, Yu-ye had told her it is the same on the weekends.

The social worker's forehead came to a wrinkle as she thought hard on how to solve her problems. Then, a silhouette slowly approached Yu-ye and herself. It was one of the villagers who was worried to see a stranger roaming around the town.

"What seems to be the matter?"

The man who looked to be in his mid-40s came up to ask.

He seemed close to Yu-ye. The worker brightened up and explained her situation in hopes that everything would work out. She explained how she came to check Yu-ye's qualifications as a basic livelihood security recipient, but she couldn't complete the application because of his mother's absence.

The man shrugged carelessly, then added,

"His mom is a little busy. She seems to work at a restaurant, but the place closes late. I've also heard that she has a second job at a small convenience store."

"Then what about her child?"

"During the day time, he seems to stay at school for afterschool cla.s.ses, then later, he comes over to our house. We watch over him until his mother comes back. He's a smart kid. He never makes a mess."

"Oh, Is that so?"

"That's right. In a world like this, we have to help each other the best we can to survive together."

"Right. I understand."

The social worker was finally relieved as she a.s.sumed the situation.

Ironically, in this harsh world, the kindness and supportiveness of the poor, lower-cla.s.s towns much exceeded those of the wealthy towns. She felt if the man's statement was real, she might not need to see his mother after all.

However, she still needed a signature. She made the neighbor sign it. The man signed under his own name, but she also wanted a finger stamp. Annoyed but unwilling to pick a fight, the man quickly finished the job.

"Thank you all for your cooperation. I will come to visit next time."

"Sure. Goodbye."

The social worker made her way after hearing his response.

As she disappeared, the man asked, turning at Yu-ye.

"Are you sure it's really okay? Maybe it would be better if you went to an orphanage…"

"It's okay. I know how to cook rice, and……. most of all, grandma told me to live alone. I must. It was her dying wish."

"That is right, but I'm just looking out for you kid."

"That's okay. You'll always be there to help me, right?"

Yu-ye showed a faint smile as he replied.

The man looked at his face, then let out a long sigh.

After successfully sending off the social worker, Yu-ye finally concentrated on living independently.

Every villager who was at the hospital with Yu-ye was against his grandmother's will, but Yu-ye was stubborn.

Yu-ye didn't listen no matter how much the villagers tried to change his mind. Eventually, the neighbors gave up, but they were still going to support him in their own little ways. After all, he was still a young boy. Although the most they could do for him was to bring him some extra side dishes, leftovers, and occasionally check how he was doing, they tried their best to be supportive.  It was a little, but it still helped, and Yu-ye was grateful.

The help was more than enough for Yu-ye.

He had a stack of side dishes in his fridge, which meant he didn't need the ha.s.sle of making them himself. He only cooked the rice, then ate the side dishes with it.

As for cleaning, his house only consisted of a small room and a tiny washroom. There wasn't too much to wipe down or clean.

He did laundry once a week by hand. He only had to wash a couple socks, some underwear, and two sets of casual clothes.

If he wasn't sure about something, he always asked the villagers.

He asked things like when to pay the bills, how to take care of bank businesses, and where and when to throw away the trash. He learned slowly, one by one.

Thankfully, all his bank accounts were under his mother's name. Therefore, even when his grandmother had pa.s.sed, he could use it without a problem.

He used to go outside occasionally to buy things like rice and other necessities, but later, he used the internet. He had learned computer from Yunhwa after school. She volunteered to teach him how to use it after she found out that Yu-ye didn't know how to use the computer at all, unlike the other students his age.

She was computer illiterate too, but at least she knew how to shop online. It was her hobby to look through online shopping malls in her free time. She could teach him the basics of the internet. After registering on the online shopping mall using his mother's bank account, he finally succeeded, after a couple failures, to order many household necessities.

At first, he received them by hand in front of his own house. However, after a little while, he started to have a nearby supermarket take his packages, figuring it might be a little dangerous for a child to receive the mail alone.

To Yu-ye, the internet was revolutionary.

It helped with far more than just shopping. It helped with living itself.  If he didn't know something, he didn't have to go through a pile of books. Just a little click here and some typing there did the trick. He especially liked learning how to get rid of bugs that seemed to appear in the bags of rice he bought.

The internet had helped Yu-ye's independence become easier.

The seniors in town would shake their heads in shame and pity the more Yu-ye became accustomed to living alone. There wasn't too much to help anymore, but he was maturing too fast, missing out on the privileges as a child.

They all thought Yu-ye wasn't too bright before his grandmother pa.s.sed away. However, looking at such a young boy adapt easily into his new life, they knew that their opinions were far from right.  It didn't make sense how well he adapted into his new conditions.

How could a 12-year-old boy live alone? Sure, there was a little money left from his grandmother and a monthly government aid to help him out financially, but in these cases, money wasn't the problem. If it were any other children his age, they would have already been devastated with loneliness and overcome with uselessness.  They would have marched straight into an orphanage on their own.

Yu-ye continued to live alone, pretending that nothing happened. That was enough for the some to think that he may be one of the few that hone the skills and the heart to choose his own fate. However, mostly the seniors were proud of him and sorry for him. n.o.body felt a strangeness about him.

Later, most seniors came to an agreement that they too could live on in Yu-ye's shoes if they had as much money as he did. It was a sort of self-a.s.surance to feel less worthless and horrible about their own childhoods when they couldn't do anything without an adult.

But Yu-ye was always above and beyond their expectations.

It was amazing that he woke up, ate, slept, and went to school normally, but he was more ambitious. One day Yu-ye knocked on the door of the man that helped him with the social worker. He had bought some sweet potato seeds and some lettuce seeds, and he needed to ask a couple questions.

"How do you grow sweet potatoes?"

"Sweet potato? Why sweet potatoes?"

"I was going to try planting its seeds."

The man was awe-struck.

He was resting home because of the sudden rain that stopped his construction work for the day. Then, this little boy comes to ask how to grow sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes weren't a plant that grew easily even when planted in soil, and watered regularly.

"Where are you going to plant them?"

"The mountain forest over there."

"Oh, no… You crazy little boy! Do you think farming is easy? Forget it. If you don't have something to eat, you can take some of our rice."

"That's not it… It's just that I get a little bored when I come back from school."

"Then study some more!"

The man scolded Yu-ye.

The man knew how hard farming was from his younger days. To turn over the soil and farm on a mountain was the hardest one of them all. An even bigger problem was that if he told Yu-ye how to do it, he knew that the boy might succeed. The boy was poking at his pride, and that made him yell at him rather than giving an answer.

"Oh well… that's too bad. Then, could I borrow your shovel?"

Yu-ye sighed in disappointment. The man was surprised.

Sometimes, even his grown-up son was afraid of how unfriendly and scary he seemed. However, Yu-ye wasn't scared in the slightest. Rather, he was asking a new request.

"Why do you need a shovel?"

"I want to plant a couple lettuce seeds in my yard."

"Lettuce! Are you joking? Wait here a minute."

The man left Yu-ye standing in his yard for a minute. Then, he came out with his hands full of lettuce.

"Okay. If you need lettuce, just take some from my yard. Don't get caught by my wife though. She won't be too pleased to see you snooping in our yard. Come during the daytime and take some."

Yu-ye's mouth started to water when he saw the lettuce in his hand.  His original plan was to scare the man with the sweet potato talk, then aim for a much easier target: his shovel. He had read it in an internet article on 'How to Haggle for Items.' It said that if one calls a much higher price than he originally aims to get, it is easy to haggle the product down to the original price that he wanted from the start. Well, it didn't work.

His original plan was the shovel.

It seemed the internet gave a lot of useful information for one's daily life, but some didn't always work.

Looking at the man's stern face as he handed Yu-ye the lettuces, Yu-ye knew the tactic would never work on him. He decided to retreat, hugging the lettuces from falling. He bowed as he said his thanks.

"Thank you. They look delicious! I can ask for more later then, right?"

"Sure."

Yu-ye left as he was thinking of other houses that the tactic might work on. However, he knew every house would react like the one he had just visited. He decided to go home, and look in the tiny, broken-down storage room for any luck. The storage room used to be empty, but when Yunyoung moved out, her family had left useless things in the storage to lighten their load. When he looked close, there were some things that seemed to come in handy.

"I found it!"

The shovel he found was old and rusty, but he didn't mind. The wooden handle luckily didn't rot away, as he was still able to use it without a problem. By the looks of it, the shovel seemed to be of the people who lived in the house before Yu-ye and his grandmother did.

With the shovel, he turned over the soil in his backyard, and planted the lettuce seeds.

When he looked up in the sky, the blazing sun stared down at him, signaling the official beginning of summer. It was the start of June.

It had been half a year since his grandmother's pa.s.sing.

And just like that, Yu-ye came to adapt in his independence.