Chapter 101

* * *“You shouldn’t have come.”“You would’ve been in big trouble if we weren’t there, you know that?”“No way.”“Anyway, why were you there to begin with?”Maru scratched his eyebrows at Dojin’s question. “Might as well finish what I started.”“What?”Dojin looked at Maru with a confused expression.

* * *Byungsoo from class 2 was spending most of the day watching the clock again. He couldn’t wait until the last class was over.“Hey, let’s go to a PC bang.”“Didn’t you want to go play billiards?”“Screw that, let’s go to an AYCE bbq. I’m hungry as balls.”All the other kids were talking about going places in groups. Byungsoo wanted to be one of them at one point, but not anymore. Nowadays, the only thing he could think about was going home as quickly as he could.“Hey, Byungsoo, go clean that blackboard eraser for me.”“Byungsoo, throw this away for me.”Byungsoo silently got up to pick up the eraser and the piece of trash. Since when did he become like this? He felt a bit of anger flare up inside him, but he repressed himself. People were watching him. He quickly cleaned the eraser and threw out the trash before returning to his seat.At that point… he was back to being invisible. He could see his two friends laugh together a bit of a way away from him. He used to talk to them a lot, but they wouldn’t even greet him now. How did this happen? Byungsoo shook his head. He should just stop thinking, thinking just made everything too painful. He gave up on thinking why no one liked him, he just tried to go with the flow as best he could. At least that way, the other kids didn’t torture him.‘I wonder if things will change in my second year.’Thinking that, Byungsoo hoped to himself that this horrid winter would pass. The teacher eventually came into the class and announced the end of the school day.“I’m ending it early for all of you, so don’t do anything funny and go home.”Byungsoo grabbed his bag as fast as he could and walked out, he didn’t even have anyone who’d call out to him anyway. His desk was like an island, an island he needed to escape from as fast as possible.Byungsoo’s phone rang, it was from his middle school friend. He took the phone call with a little bit of excitement.- Byungsoo! It’s been a while. How have you been?“O-okay, of course.”- You should call every once in a while, you fuck. How’s school? Does it have a lot of delinquents?“No way, they’re all nice.”- That so? Yo, the other guys all want to meet up soon, so how’s the weekend sound? You free?“Course. Been a while since I saw everyone.”- You should really give us a call every now and then. You don’t even come on the chat anymore! You should come over there too.Byungsoo quickly hung up after saying “okay”. Immediately, the thought of middle school got him feeling a bit depressed. He used to have so many friends back then, too. But nowadays, he no longer frequented the messenger, because his friends tab was completely empty at this point. His middle school friends were all getting along with their new high school friends, and yet… He was getting bullied, like this. It wasn’t like he could tell his friends that either. What if they just turn away from him too, as everyone else did?Right then, he got a new call. It was his mom. Byungsoo took the call with an annoyed face.“What!”- ...Mom might be a little late.“You’re always late. You wanted me to eat instant noodles again for dinner?”- I’m sorry, dear.“Sorry my ass. I heard my friends’ moms all do a bunch of things for them. And here I am, doing all the chores, making all the food… What do you even do for me, mom?”- Sorry, dear. Mom’s just…“Stop it. Words are just words. No wonder you got divorced with dad.”- ...You should buy something if you want to eat it. Mom left money on the dining table.Mom hung up. Byungsoo stared at his phone dumbly for a second.“.......”He could think of nothing other than “I’m an asshole” right then. He was expressing his anger at someone completely unrelated. He started moving faster, feeling tears start welling up in his eyes. He was still in school and he couldn’t afford to show his weak side to his classmates, lest he get bullied even more. He ran down the stairs and quickly put on his outdoor shoes. The front entrance of the school was shining in front of him like a gateway to heaven, he needed to leave this hell. In the middle of walking, he suddenly turned around towards the bike stands.‘Why are they...’“They” were waiting at the front gate. The delinquent in his class, the guys who always liked to take money from him. They had pretty girls next to them. Byungsoo wanted nothing else than to pass those gates without a bit of fear, but he knew that was impossible for him. He pretended to unlock his bike as he glanced at the gates. As he tried to kill time waiting for them to leave, though….“That’s not a very good place to hide.”A voice came from behind him, Byungsoo turned away in shock. There was only a single type of people who talked to him in schools: delinquents. But… the kid behind him was someone he’d never seen before. No, actually, he saw the boy behind school earlier in the day.“Why are you so surprised?”“Eh, ah… well...”“That bike’s mine, by the way.”“Ah! Sorry.”Byungsoo quickly let go. This was someone who talked with Changhu without a hint of fear. Probably a delinquent, in that case. That meant he had to lower himself as much as possible.“Lee Byungsoo, right?”“...Yeah.”In the end, it comes to this, huh. Byungsoo thought of the 20 thousand won in his pocket. Would this be enough? But the kid in front of him ended up saying something completely unexpected instead.“Can we talk for a second? Ah, that’s what the delinquents over there like to say, isn’t it.”“.....”“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something.”The boy spoke, scratching his eyebrow. Byungsoo nodded, almost subconsciously.

* * *“Instructor Miso, Maru...”“I got a call from him. He has work, right? We were just going to finish with a simple reading session today, so it’s fine.”Dojin stepped back with a loud shout of acknowledgment. Miso got a call from Maru just before she arrived at school, the boy apparently had business at Myungdong today. She would’ve rejected them if it were anyone else speaking, but she let Maru go. She knew the boy was very responsible about his words, so she trusted that the boy wouldn’t be wasting time.“We need to go somewhere after we do our reading.”“Where?”“The theater where the prelims are held. It’s in Anyang. We’re all going to look around together, so get ready.”“Yes!“Good, get together, now.”The club gathered at Miso’s gesture.