𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞

The Boys on the Top Floor

ⓒ Baek Nara

That school was originally a monastery in ancient times. However, it only functioned as a monastery for about a hundred years after being built in the early 17th century.

In the late 18th century, the monastery transformed into a school, becoming a private institution where only children from noble families or wealthy merchants could enroll by paying expensive tuition fees.

The school was located in a small rural village called Bluebell in the northern province of Forkgrand. It was a consistently cold place except for 3 to 4 months a year. Dense forests surrounded the area within a 15km radius, and there were no nearby houses, making it a completely isolated and remote location. All students lived in dormitories. The school staff and related personnel also either lived in the school's dormitories or in Gorun, which was an hour and a half drive from Bluebell.

The school was a quiet and peaceful place. Well-trained teachers skillfully handled the students, and because the school rules were not strict, conflicts between staff and students were rare. The students were also familiar and comfortable with each other, having experienced similar family and educational backgrounds. It was not uncommon for someone to transfer in or out, so there was relatively little reluctance to accept outsiders.

Perhaps this place was close to Thoreau's <Walden.> In fact, there was a swamp in the forest surrounding the school that everyone called <Kelly.> Older teachers referred to it as a lake. It seemed to have been a real lake in the past, but now it could only be called a swamp.

This was a brief impression of this school a month after I had transferred there.

I only found out that I was the illegitimate child of the movie actress Julia Goodman when I turned fifteen. Julia Goodman was a famous actress and classical beauty with lush brown hair and dark eyes who had won the Oscar for Best Actress twice. She was now only thirty-three years old and had gotten married a few years ago, having three-year-old twins.

The fact that she had a fifteen-year-old child was a secret even I, her child, did not know. Perhaps I might have never known. The only reason I found out about her was because she appeared after my father died in a traffic accident.

Julia did not even attend my father's funeral. It was only a couple of months after burying my father that Julia came to get me. Julia and I looked strikingly similar. However, unlike Julia, who was always well-groomed and tidy from constant management, I had just went through puberty and my height suddenly shot up like a pole, with an unsightly skinny frame and gaunt cheeks. When we first saw each other, we thought the only similarities between us were our hair and eye color. However, during the five years I spent living in Julia's jaw-droppingly luxurious mansion, I also gradually changed.

After spending a few years living a luxurious life, we finally came to resemble each other so much that anyone could recognize us as mother and child when we stood side by side. At that point, Julia decided she could no longer live under the same roof as me. Once I was no longer of an age to be under parental care, Julia sent me off to this school. On paper, I was still a parentless orphan. Even my guardian's name was listed as Julia's secretary. Shortly after arriving at the school, I learned that it was made up of kids in similar circumstances as me.

In other words, the school was more like a place of exile than an actual school. Just as my very existence was my mother's weakness, all the students at that school were blemishes to their parents or families. Someone's illegitimate child, a troublesome kid who committed crimes at a young age, the youngest child pushed aside in inheritance disputes. There were young students who had just turned sixteen, as well as sham college students my age who had just turned twenty.