GBH 63

They exchanged trivial jokes and asked about each other’s well-being. Since it wasn’t the first time Hong Jae-min had turned off his phone and disappeared, they laughed off his unexcused absence as if it were nothing unusual. While laughing and chatting, the gang was waiting for the right moment to bring up the main topic. When Hong Jae-min laughed out loud, they took advantage of the relaxed atmosphere to ask:

“Jae-min, did you fight with the guys from B High?”

B High was the school attended by the guys Jae-min had fought in Myeong-dong. Recalling how he would have been outnumbered and beaten if Song Yi-heon hadn’t intervened, Jae-min clenched his fist so tightly that his knuckles cracked, burning with the desire for revenge.

“Yeah, someone snitched about that, so I’m doing community service at school.”

There was a tense atmosphere, and then one of the bigger guys in the gang, seemingly pushed by the others, spoke up:

“Why did you fight?”

“Those bastards started it. Saying Myeong-dong was their territory… how childish.”

Jae-min shuddered, thinking how pathetic the reason seemed even now that he’d remembered it. The territory dispute was just an excuse to mess with Jae-min, who they thought was vulnerable after going around alone for two days, but it was too childish to let slide.

The gang, exchanging glances while excluding Jae-min, slowly got to the main point.

“Jae-min, do you… know Min-gi was there?”

“Who’s that?”

“Baek Min-gi. You know, the skinny guy who looks like an anchovy but is tall.”

“Ah, him? His name is Baek Min-gi?”

Hong Jae-min frowned deeply as if trying to remember, and when he figured out who they were talking about, he spat disgustedly. It was the guy who had swung a broken beer bottle.

“Isn’t he a psycho? His eyes were full of madness, shit, and looked like he was about to go berserk.”

Already disliking him, Jae-min couldn’t view him favorably, especially remembering how the broken beer bottle, glinting sharply in the light from the alley’s signboards, had been aimed at Song Yi-heon.

“His brother is preparing to start a business. He was going to start this year, but he postponed it to next year to launch at the S Department Store.”

“Does just anyone start a business? A department store, my ass. They’re going to fail.”

Although Hong Jae-min cursed and condemned the brothers, no one agreed with him. Finally noticing the uneasy atmosphere, Jae-min stood up from his squatting position. As the tall Jae-min straightened up, the eye levels reversed. The guy who had been speaking shrunk under Jae-min’s contemptuous gaze.

“Hey, Jae-min. Couldn’t you… apologize to Min-gi?”

“Are you crazy?”

Hong Jae-min, now serious, looked ready to gut someone. Even when beaten by Song Yi-heon and mocked by Choi Se-kyung, he never apologized by saying sorry. He equated the solemn atmosphere of apologizing and the act of admitting wrongdoing with defeat. Due to his innate personality, he rarely realized when he was truly wrong, so he would rather fight and get beaten to a pulp than apologize.

Even his impulsive apology at Song Yi-heon’s house was because he wanted Song Yi-heon’s attention, not because he sincerely realized his mistake.

“His brother said he’d give me a job at his company when I graduate, but when Baek Min-gi came back beaten by you, his brother got angry and said he won’t hire me anymore…”

In a group that hung out as if there was no tomorrow, there were some like Hong Jae-min who truly lived without thinking about the future, and others who worried about it. However, Jae-min didn’t have the generosity to swallow his pride for a friend’s sake.

“Did I hit him alone? That bastard started it first. Didn’t you tell them they were the ones who messed with a guy who was alone?”

Without the generosity to apologize despite feeling wronged, Jae-min pushed the shoulder of the guy who had spoken, picking a fight.

“Jae-min, cut us some slack. Lee Geon-ho has always been pathetic, you know that.”

Thinking of Lee Geon-ho who would be beaten one-sidedly, the gang pretended to care for Jae-min and held him back. Besides Lee Geon-ho, there were a few others who wanted to work at Baek Min-gi’s brother’s company, so they seemed to hope Hong Jae-min would apologize, but knowing Jae-min’s fiery temperament, they couldn’t bring it up again. They could only long for a solution that was no longer available.

“If Song Yi-heon was like before, this could be easily resolved.”

“What do you mean?”

When Song Yi-heon was suddenly mentioned, Jae-min, his mind full of thoughts about Song Yi-heon, reacted sensitively. The gang, thinking they had caught Jae-min’s interest, spoke excitedly.

“Remember when we’d tell Song Yi-heon to bring alcohol, and it was always imported liquor? I looked up the empty bottles online, and they were super expensive. If we gave those while sucking up to him, the brother’s anger would probably subside.”

“Ah, that’s such a shame.”

Fearing Song Min-seo might get tired of cheap alcohol, Lee Mi-kyung had constantly supplied expensive imported liquor. At its peak, to keep Song Min-seo from sobering up, they would visit almost daily, and the living room table would be piled with boxed liquors like a mountain of gifts. Even if Song Yi-heon stole a bottle from the living room littered with empty bottles, no one would have noticed.

To begin with, no one was interested in the original Song Yi-heon.

Now that Song Yi-heon had changed, they couldn’t force him to steal alcohol or empty his wallet. Unable to exploit Song Yi-heon, who had been their golden goose, they lamented with regret.

“The person who misses it most must be Jae-min.”

“Yeah, you used to stick to him all the time.”

As everyone nodded in agreement, Jae-min hesitated before asking:

“Did I… bully Song Yi-heon a lot?”

The gang exchanged sinister smiles as they recalled the bullying days, as if Jae-min was asking something obvious. They remembered the time they bullied Song Yi-heon as their golden age.

“We didn’t leave him alone, that’s for sure.”

“…To the point where it’s unforgivable?”

However, when Jae-min showed an uncharacteristically dejected mood, the gang tactfully tried to soothe him.

“Why bring up old stuff? Just forget it. Looks like Song Yi-heon’s going to let it slide too, since he hasn’t reported school violence all this time.”

Even Jae-min thought that, given how Song Yi-heon had taken him home and prepared a meal for him, it was unlikely he would report the bullying. If things continued like this, their past of bullying Song Yi-heon would become just a drinking story. It would be the only boast-worthy tale in a downhill life of someone unable to find a decent job, living day to day.

If he just left things as they were.

“Who’s going to steal some imported liquor from someone’s house?”

“Hey, don’t. Bringing cheap liquor won’t calm the brother down.”

There was no trace of guilt in the light tone trying to change the subject. Most perpetrators don’t reflect on their actions if they avoid punishment. They either belittle the victim’s generosity or forgiveness, or attribute their escape from punishment to their own ability or luck.

This was especially severe among young perpetrators intoxicated with self-absorption. Jae-min, who would have normally joined in and laughed along, somehow felt a bitterness in his mouth and reached for his bag. He tried to take out a cigarette, but all he could grasp were the hastily gathered lollipops.

* * *

In the classroom where students were taking the June mock exam, the sound of the second hand ticking away made them incredibly anxious. Test papers rustled as they were turned. Students alternated between looking at their test papers, answer sheets, and watches as they marked answers with computer-readable pens. Every time they checked the time passing by the minute, they felt a suffocating tension.

“Five minutes left.”

The supervising teacher reminded them of the remaining time. Students filled in their answer sheets with the desperation of a deer being chased by a lion or the urgency of jumping off a cliff. Some solved problems directly on the answer sheet with their pens. The scratching sound of the pens conveyed their frantic state of mind.

“From now on, I won’t exchange answer sheets. Even if you try, you won’t be able to mark everything in time.”

This warning, which only increased their nervousness, was of no help. Students with their noses buried in the test papers didn’t give up until the very end, continuing to solve problems. In the midst of this critical situation where every second counted, the bell signaling the end of the exam rang.

“Everyone, take your hands off the desks. The person in the very back, collect the answer sheets.”

The sound of chairs being pushed back spread simultaneously from the back, and Song Yi-heon, who had been sprinting to the finish, collapsed onto his desk as the tension finally broke.

The last elective subject of the June mock exam was over. Song Yi-heon, who didn’t even have the strength to move a finger, pushed the desk with his thighs to move and slumped into his chair upon reaching his seat. Rather than running ten laps around the playground, the mental pressure of having to solve problems within the time limit made people twice as tired. Still, the feeling after finishing the mock exam wasn’t bad, and Kim Deuk-pal bit his lips to suppress a silly grin that was trying to spread across his face.

“Song Yi-heon, did the exam go well?” 

Shin Ji-soo, sitting diagonally behind Choi Se-kyung, asked after noticing Song Yi-heon’s cheeks twitching. Song Yi-heon, with his arm draped over the back of his chair, turned around. His oval face shape and long straight hair tucked behind his ears set the hearts of his male classmates aflame, but to Song Yi-heon, who remembered her speaking up decisively when there was a theft of class funds in the classroom before, she was just remembered as a smart girl.

“Kinda?”

“Oh, looks like it went well.”

She rested her chin on her hand, showing interest.

“Are you going to study today too?”

“I think I’ll play soccer.”

During lunch break, boys from the neighboring class had come over asking to play soccer, but he had refused, worried about dozing off during English listening class. They had left, determined to play after the mock exam. It wouldn’t be bad to properly stretch out after running tantalizing 20-minute sessions every day, but Shin Ji-soo made an tempting offer.

“Want to hang out with my friends? We’re planning to go to a new escape room cafe that just opened at the intersection in front of the school.”

“Escape room?”

While Song Yi-heon had been dissatisfied with Choi Se-kyung always taking him to old-fashioned 70s-80s retro places, as if he saw him as an old fogey, he couldn’t help but be intrigued when Shin Ji-soo suggested this new trend. His twitching ears couldn’t hide his true feelings, and Shin Ji-soo had to be careful not to show amusement on her face.

“They say the themes are zombies and a haunted house.”

“Zombies?”

Kim Deuk-pal looked very serious with Song Yi-heon’s innocent face.

“How do you escape from something like that? Do you have to knock down zombies too?”

“What are you talking about? It’s an escape room. They’ll probably just use special effects for the zombies. Do you have my number? Give me your phone. I’ll share the cafe’s promo page with you.”

Song Yi-heon checked if there were any messages on his phone in his bag before handing it over. During the mock exam, they had to turn off their phones, but Song Yi-heon had only put his on silent, not wanting to turn it off in case Lee Mi-kyung messed with the house. As Shin Ji-soo entered her number into the phone, briefly explaining how escape rooms work, Kim Yeon-ji, standing at the teacher’s desk, called out to Song Yi-heon while holding a stack of essay scrapbooks piled up to her chin.

“Song-song, let’s take these to the staff room together.”

Unable to wait after calling him, Kim Yeon-ji tried to lift the scrapbooks herself but stumbled under their weight. Song Yi-heon rushed over in alarm and snatched the scrapbooks from her. Even for Song Yi-heon to carry alone, the combined weight of all the class’s scrapbooks was considerable.

“Kim-kim, you’ll get hurt. How can you try to lift something as tall as you without any fear?”

“I’m taller than that.”

Kim Yeon-ji hit Song Yi-heon with her cotton-soft fist and went ahead to open the door. Just then, Se-kyung, returning from the staff room, tried to take some of the high-stacked scrapbooks, but Song Yi-heon twisted his body to avoid him. Se-kyung’s black hair swayed as he chased after, his brow slightly furrowing.

“Let me help carry them.”

“It’s fine. My phone is with Shin Jisoo, you keep it. Oh, and we decided to go to an escape room cafe. Choi Se-kyung, you come too.”

“You mean an escape room cafe, right? Where are you going?”

As Kim Yeon-ji and Song Yi-heon bickered while showing interest and left, Se-kyung, left behind, awkwardly scratched his cheek. Somehow reluctant to just go in, he lingered, when Song Yi-heon turned back.

“Hey.”

His attention-grabbing lips curved into a smile. With his hair recently trimmed short, making him look even younger, his smile was full of vitality. Though it was the same face, the smile formed by using facial muscles differently due to the soul’s habits was a bright one that the fragile Song Yi-heon could never make.

“I totally aced the exam.”

Unaware that his refreshing smile, which only Kim Deuk-pal could make with those delicate features, was making Se-kyung’s heart race again, Song Yi-heon went down the stairs with Kim Yeon-ji. Se-kyung habitually pressed down on his own heart. His reactions to Song Yi-heon were no longer surprising to him.

“You didn’t misunderstand the exam coverage again like you did for the midterms, did you?”

“How did you survive without me all this time? Didn’t you have anyone to bully?”

After sending off the two bickering friends, Se-kyung looked for Shin Ji-soo first before relaying the message from their homeroom teacher. Ji-soo, who had heard Song Yi-heon entrust his phone at the classroom door, held out the phone.

“A text came for Yi-heon.”

“Thanks.”

Se-kyung’s long fingers easily handled the screen with just one hand. The message he checked, worried that something might have happened at Song Yi-heon’s house, was not from a messaging app but a text message, so the sender’s phone number showed up. The last four digits were 4930. Though not saved, it wasn’t an unknown number.

[Come to the incinerator, I’m waiting]

The fact that the meeting place was the incinerator also allowed him to guess who the sender was. Looking at the sender’s seat, it was empty, as if they had left right after the mock exam. Se-kyung sent a reply.

[^^]

Then he deleted both the text from Hong Jae-min and his own reply.