GBH 30

 However, no one was worried about Hong Jae-min. Far from concern, the shared hostility the students expressed was karmic retribution for Hong Jae-min’s usual behavior.

Yesterday, after Song Yi-heon left, Hong Jae-min had thrashed about, freed himself, and then spewed a barrage of curses at the class before storming out. Stunned by the colorful curses they couldn’t have paid to hear, the students had stared at each other in disbelief for a while.

The students empathized with Song Yi-heon, not Hong Jae-min. Hong Jae-min had long bullied Song Yi-heon, so it was only natural that Song Yi-heon would want revenge. In fact, what Song Yi-heon had done was mild compared to the bullying he had endured. Yet when Jae-min forgot his own bullying and started a fight with Song Yi-heon, the students were outraged and hurled back the insults they had received from Hong Jae-min the day before.

“How annoying, who does he think he is, cursing like that? Does he think he’s the only one who can swear?”

“Hong Jae-min, that crazy bastard. Ah, we should have beaten him up yesterday under the pretense of stopping him.”

“Honestly, he brought it on himself. Look at how Hong Jae-min usually behaves. If someone had stolen the class funds, I would’ve put them in Hong Jae-min’s bag too… ah…”

This wasn’t something to say in front of Song Yi-heon. The boy who spoke realized his mistake and covered his mouth. The students, who had been united in criticizing Hong Jae-min, suddenly became interested in the floor pattern or started fiddling with their earlobes. They weren’t blameless either when it came to criticizing Hong Jae-min. After all, they had only stood by while Song Yi-heon was being bullied. In the awkward atmosphere, one boy hesitantly spoke up.

“But Yi-heon… did you really steal the class funds…?”

There was only Song Yi-heon’s confession, no circumstantial evidence or physical proof. Until the class funds were found in Hong Jae-min’s bag, Song Yi-heon had denied stealing them, and even his confession afterwards seemed to be made in anger.

Whatever had angered Song Yi-heon, the students weren’t so stupid as to not recognize a confession made in the heat of the moment.

As the students had guessed, Song Yi-heon neither denied nor confirmed. He remained silent, his tightly closed mouth emitting only soft breaths. The boy quickly waved his hands like windshield wipers.

“No, you don’t have to answer. We agreed to bury yesterday’s incident. We won’t tell the homeroom teacher either. We got the class funds back and bought the supplementary textbooks. We just… wanted to let you know that we don’t think you stole it… We believe you. That’s what we wanted to say…”

The students vaguely suspected that this incident was related to the school violence Song Yi-heon had endured until last year. They were curious about the details and who the real thief was, but they felt too guilty to ask Song Yi-heon directly.

They realized it would be cowardly to ignore the bullying when it happened, only to pry into the details when the class funds were stolen.

Moreover, they had recently become quite close to Song Yi-heon and didn’t want to do the cruel thing of reopening traumatic wounds. They enjoyed hanging out with Song Yi-heon. The changed Song Yi-heon was easygoing, mannered, and good at soccer. However, the more they enjoyed hanging out with him, the more their conscience pricked them for ignoring him and insulted him as a ‘f4ggot’ until last year.

As Song Yi-heon showed no signs of being affected by the bullying, their guilty conscience snowballed.

They wanted to apologize. They were sorry for ignoring and insulting him without really getting to know what kind of person Song Yi-heon was. The boy fumbled with his words, picking at a hangnail.

“And even if you did steal, we understand. Hong Jae-min treated you terribly. So, Yi-heon… um, you know… I have something to say… it’s…”

As he hesitated without properly apologizing, a girl pushed past him and apologized.

“I’m sorry.”

It was Shin Ji-soo. Having been protected from almost being hit by Hong Jae-min yesterday, she seemed to have become more generous. Just as she had spoken up firmly with her opinion yesterday, she was equally straightforward in her apology. However, knowing the difference between confidence and rudeness, Shin Ji-soo gauged Song Yi-heon’s mood and put sincerity into her serious eyes.

“It might be shameless to say this now, but I want to apologize. I’m sorry for pretending not to notice before.”

How had the conversation turned out like this? Kim Deuk-pal, who had been worried about his relationship with his classmates deteriorating because he was thought to be the class fund thief when he came to school, scratched his head in confusion. Unable to leave the sincere Shin Ji-soo hanging, he awkwardly accepted the apology.

“Uh… it’s okay. It’s all in the past.”

Seeing this, the other students who had been watching also rushed to apologize. They wanted to bridge the gap of uncomfortable feelings and genuinely become friends with Song Yi-heon.

“I’m really sorry, Yi-heon. If you have any troubles in the future, I’ll definitely help.”

“Yi-heon, I’m sorry.”

Some of the more sensitive students looked like they were about to cry, making Kim Deuk-pal even more flustered. The embarrassing apologies were giving him goosebumps to the point where he felt like he might turn into a chicken, but he couldn’t bring himself to push away the earnest young kids clinging to him. So, like a broken robot, he continued to accept their apologies.

“Uh, yeah. Thanks.”

What teenager in the world would shake hands and pat the backs of friends apologizing to them? But Kim Deuk-pal, the old man that he was, did his best to hug the apologizing kids.

As he did so, suspicion arose, and he looked for Choi Se-kyung. Could that bastard have calculated this too? Choi Se-kyung, who had been pushed to the back of the group, shook his head when their eyes met. Tilting his head, Choi Se-kyung nsmirked as if teasing Kim Deuk-pal, who looked like he was dying of embarrassment.

The apologies he received from the students were for the sake of the returning Song Yi-heon, and were the result of his efforts to mingle with his classmates in pursuit of his lifelong dream of a proper school life.

---

The morning assembly was replaced with self-study. Jung Eun-chae instructed the students to study on their own and took Choi Se-kyung out. Even without a supervising teacher, the classroom was as quiet as thin ice, perhaps due to the gravity of the situation.

“Hey, I saw a police car outside. I deliberately went to the bathroom in front of the staff room, and it’s no joke inside. All the teachers are gathered.”

A student who had returned from the bathroom told his desk mate. Kim Deuk-pal’s ears perked up as he was solving problems in his workbook.

Choi Myung-hyun had called the school, and a student the school had high hopes for had shown up with a battered face, so the staff room was on red alert. Since it was an assault, it was natural for the police to come.

Maybe he should have hit him less hard…

He wasn’t particularly worried about the consequences. He was confident he wouldn’t get caught, and Choi Se-kyung didn’t seem likely to reveal what had happened between them. What Kim Deuk-pal was worried about was Choi Se-kyung’s swollen cheek.

That bastard might look fine on the outside, but yesterday Kim Deuk-pal saw that Choi Se-kyung couldn’t throw a proper punch and seemed to have a bit of a soft spot…

Kim Deuk-pal looked back at Choi Se-kyung’s seat. The curtain fluttered over the empty seat by the window.

He should teach him how to throw a punch later so he doesn’t get beaten up somewhere else. Kim Deuk-pal scratched his head with his mechanical pencil and continued reading the problem book he had been working on. The midterm exams were just around the corner.

---

“The midterms are coming up soon, so prepare well. If you work hard, you’ll get good results, so let’s all do our best until the end.”

Homeroom teacher Jung Eun-chae concluded the end-of-day assembly with words of encouragement. She gathered the attendance book and looked for Choi Se-kyung. Her gaze wasn’t pleasant as she looked at Choi Se-kyung, who had gone out in the morning to visit the hospital and now had a gauze on one cheek.

“Se-kyung, see me for a moment.”

Kim Deuk-pal, sitting in the front row by the teacher’s desk, grabbed Choi Se-kyung as he passed by. Seeing that his bruises had worsened since the morning, Kim Deuk-pal felt a pang of guilt and pulled at Choi Se-kyung’s bag.

“Hey, give me your bag. I’ll take it to the study hall for you.”

It was a considerate gesture, intending to carry Choi Se-kyung’s bag so he could go straight to the study hall after eating dinner upon leaving the staff room. But Choi Se-kyung let out an “Ah” of surprise.

“I’m not planning to do evening self-study.”

“Oh… really? Why?”

Taken aback, Kim Deuk-pal hesitated before asking why. Choi Se-kyung, smiling innocently despite his swollen cheek, looked relieved.

“Because I promised to wait. I’m not going to push myself anymore.”

Kim Deuk-pal easily understood that he meant waiting for someone, and that he had been pushing himself to do evening study until now. Come to think of it, Choi Se-kyung would frown slightly even at the sound of a pen rolling or someone coughing in the study hall. Though Choi Se-kyung didn’t say anything, he seemed quite stressed, so Kim Deuk-pal didn’t press the issue.

However, Se-kyung seemed to sense  the reluctance, and made another suggestion.

“Want to study somewhere else with me?”

“Nah, it’s fine. We don’t need to be stuck together all the time.”

Studying with Choi Se-kyung did help him concentrate, but they weren’t girls who needed to be together all the time. The place wasn’t important as long as he did his best wherever he was. They could each work hard in their own space and support each other.

“Thanks for helping me with my studies, and good luck.”

Kim Deuk-pal rejected the offer smoothly. However, that smoothness didn’t last long. A few weeks later, on the day the midterm results came out, Kim Deuk-pal received his report card and fell into a panic.

On the long-awaited day when the midterm results were released, the students gathered in small groups to check each other’s rankings. “I messed up,” “You did well,” “My overall average is ruined”… Various reactions were exchanged, but the atmosphere was generally peaceful as most test scores weren’t bad. Only Kim Deuk-pal was crumpling his report card, his hands trembling in shock. Kim Yeon-ji and her friends approached.

“Yi-heon, did you do well?”

“He must have. Yi-heon studied really hard.”

“The test was easy this time. Everyone did well, so there’s not much change in rankings, but the average scores went up, which is good. Yi-heon, what’s your average? You didn’t even do a preliminary check, saying you were controlling your mindset.”

“Yi-heon? Say something.”

Despite the girls’ excited chatter, Kim Deuk-pal couldn’t say a word. He couldn’t believe the reality either.

The results were utterly unbelievable. If he hadn’t studied at all, it might have been understandable, but he had solved past exam questions and memorized subjects until dawn, even getting nosebleeds… No, why, why on earth…

Kim Deuk-pal rubbed his eyes in disbelief, closed them tightly and opened them again, but the report card remained unchanged.

24/27

300/340

The report card showed his class rank and school rank, both near the bottom. It was devastating.