Chapter 267 (2/2)
“Oh yeah, if I remember correctly, your ID was Black Swan, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she nodded her head.
“What are swans again?”
“You idiot, they’re birds. Though, they’re mostly white.”
“So Black swans are black white birds?”
“I guess that’s it,” the three talked amongst themselves. The girl that first brought up the ID asked again.”
“Isn’t ‘Swan’ prettier? Black Swan sounds weird to me. It’s a black bird after all. Isn’t it ominous like a crow?”
While she understood where that girl was coming from, she shook her head and explained.
“Everyone once thought that all swans were white. After all, they’ve only ever seen white swans. Then, they discovered black swans. Everyone was shocked. Since then, people began to use the phrase ‘black swan’ to refer to something precious.”
“Oh, precious? That’s what you consider yourself as, huh?” One of her friends joked.
She smiled faintly before speaking,
“No. Black swan has a different meaning as well. The impossible becoming the possible; the unexisting become the existing.”
“So, a miracle?”
Her friend, who always ranked first in the school in terms of scores, replied immediately. She nodded her head.
“It’s not specifically used to refer to miracles, but I created my ID based on that meaning. It felt nice. The impossible becoming the possible.”
“Now that you say it, a surprising black swan sounds better than a noble white swan.” They all started giggling.
“In that sense, isn’t Pwincess Yoonjoo too childish?”
“Your ID is Squishy Apple. You’re not better.”
“At least I have my name on it. Don’t put me together with you.”
Her three friends started mentioning each other’s cyland IDs and argued with them. They were trivial conversations, but perhaps that was the proof that they were close friends.
“Oh yeah, what were you reading?”
“Oh, this? A Christmas Carol. It’s the one with Scrooge.”
“Ah, the one where he turns a new leaf thanks to ghosts?”
“Yeah.”
“I really hate that story.”
“Why?”
“It’s like forcing you to be a good kid. I have my own path, you know? Moreover, a ghost appears and shows him the past, the present, and the future, to induce him to change his decisions? Doesn’t a ghost have something better to do?”
Hearing the cynical answer from the top student of the year, the other two friends told her that she lacked dreams and hopes.
“It’s not about dreams and hopes. Look at Scrooge. He worked so hard to earn that much money. The story doesn’t say that he stole that money, does it? In my opinion, forcing people to donate the money they gained through rightful business is a form of violence.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“And also, ghosts. That’s so oldschool. They’re completely unrelated to Scrooge. Of course, it’s an old book, so using Deus Ex Machina was the norm back then, but if you’re gonna use ghosts, at least use scary ones! The ghosts in that book are all depicted to be some gentleman.”
“Geez.”
The girl shook her head. At the same time, her friends started tickling the complaining girl’s waist. The girl surrendered immediately and said that ‘Scrooge is the bad guy!’ unwillingly.
“Oh wait.”
She picked up her phone that was vibrating. The caller was Maru. He told her that he’d be here in 20 minutes.
“Your boyfriend?”
“Yeah, he’ll be here soon.”
“Haa, you’ll get mad at us if we follow you, right?”
“Probably?”
“It’ll be quite disappointing if we decided to butt in when you two are meeting after tests, huh.”
The three friends left the class after saying that they should hang out later. She smiled and looked at the class clock. Thanks to her friends, she wasn’t bored as she waited for Maru.
She closed the book ‘A Christmas Carol’, that she had read several times and put it back inside her drawers.
‘The ghosts, huh.’
She rested her chin on her hands and looked outside the window. She had a different opinion. She thought that perhaps the three ghosts were actually Scrooge himself; that the Scrooges from the past, the present, and the future were trying to save him. Of course, this shouldn’t be the case, but she thought that it might have been better if it was actually written that way.
“And also, Scrooge really isn’t that bad of a guy.”
She smiled faintly as she thought about the friend that stood on Scrooge’s side. The reason Scrooge was able to meet the three ghosts was because of his dead friend Marley, who had warned Scrooge that he shouldn’t turn out like he did.
‘Perhaps Scrooge’s life wasn’t that bad after all if you think about how he had a friend who came to help him even after his death.’
The book mentioned that Scrooge was a kind man in the past.