GBH 64

Hong Jae-min, waiting at the incinerator, only accepted that Song Yi-heon wasn’t coming when the edge of the sunset had darkened. Several white sticks pulled from finished lollipops rolled around at his feet. Jae-min opened the message he had checked boringly many times while waiting, looking at humor pages on his phone. An eye-smile emoji that didn’t suit Song Yi-heon greeted Jae-min.

[^^]

“If you’re not coming, you should just ignore it. Why send something like this?”

Making me feel hopeful for nothing. Hong Jae-min expressed his annoyance but didn’t speak about the cause of his irritation.

Assigning meaning tends to be swayed by personal wishes. Even knowing that 99% of the time it couldn’t be true, he couldn’t let go of that 1% hope. Although Song Yi-heon had already rejected him, saying he didn’t want to be close friends, Jae-min couldn’t give up his lingering feelings and interpreted the eye-smile emoji in his own way, waiting with excitement.

“Could this possibly be mocking laughter…?”

So after waiting for two hours, he began to suspect that the eye-smile emoji might have been a mocking laugh implying there was no reason to go to the incinerator. Not extending his suspicion far enough to realize it was Se-kyung who had sent the reply, Hong Jae-min had to try to shake off the bitterness he felt as if it was nothing.

He got up, dusting off his bottom, and trudged towards the school parking lot. Climbing over the parking lot wall was a shortcut to get to his bike parked in the shopping area behind the school.

“Just wasted time.”

His phone kept ringing annoyingly. Assuming it was just his gang telling him where to come, he ignored it. He had been keeping his distance from the gang lately. Whenever they saw the low-spirited Hong Jae-min, they would try to match his mood by recounting their bullying of Song Yi-heon like war stories, making him recall the past he wanted to forget.

However, the phone vibrated persistently to the point where it couldn’t be ignored, and when he answered, a voice trying hard to sound cheerful burst out.

<Jae-min-ah, we’re in Myeong-dong, and we’re going to hang out with those kids you fought before. You should come too-.>

“Stop calling so much.”

Jae-min announced unilaterally and hung up. He thought he heard something about Myeong-dong, but he wasn’t interested and his mind was about to explode with thoughts of Song Yi-heon, so he didn’t listen properly.

At the corner where the parking lot came into view, Jae-min reflexively hid his body behind the building. It was a habit of hiding first whenever he saw someone who looked like a teacher, from always trying to avoid the disciplinary teacher. But the person entering the parking lot wasn’t a teacher. A short, unfamiliar woman wrapped in luxury brands held her chin up high and pressed her car key. The headlights of a B-brand coupe flashed.

“What a killer car.”

Jae-min muttered, looking at the sleek body and shiny gloss of the car. Just as the woman was about to open the driver’s door and get in, a tall, thin woman ran out from the school entrance and grabbed the open driver’s door. Jae-min pressed himself tightly against the wall. It was the homeroom teacher.

“I can’t accept this money!”

Jung Eun-chae forcibly pressed a thick envelope into Lee Mi-kyung’s hand. Lee Mi-kyung coldly pushed it away as if annoyed. Eun-chae looked flustered at being hit on the back of her hand, but Lee Mi-kyung paid no attention and berated her.

“Teacher, why are you making things complicated?”

Lee Mi-kyung scolded Jung Eun-chae as if she were a subordinate, saying she was unnecessarily blowing things out of proportion.

“If the bullying Song Yi-heon suffered comes to light, it’ll be a headache for the school too. Why go through unnecessary trouble when there’s an easy solution of just having Song Yi-heon transfer?”

Song Yi-heon. That short woman wrapped in luxury brands had clearly mentioned Song Yi-heon twice. At first, Jae-min had been watching with interest, surprised by the thickness of the money envelope the homeroom teacher was trying to return, but when Song Yi-heon’s name came up, he could no longer remain a mere spectator. As if entranced, Hong Jae-min emerged from the corner of the building and silently joined the two people’s heated argument.

“I’m trying to be accommodating and handle this quietly. How much does a teacher’s salary amount to that you’re trying to stand on pride?”

Lee Mi-kyung, who had intended to resolve the matter with money, didn’t hesitate to make insulting remarks when Jung Eun-chae wasn’t cooperative. But Jung Eun-chae was so desperate to stop Lee Mi-kyung from transferring Song Yi-heon that she didn’t even realize she was being insulted.

“As a teacher, I absolutely cannot accept money. I will protect Yi-heon until he graduates safely. I promise. Yi-heon is adapting well to school life. Transferring him now would be more confusing. So please, trust me once more and watch over him!”

Although there had been some misunderstandings, Jung Eun-chae had firmly decided to protect the pitiful Song Yi-heon and wasn’t swayed by money or convenience from Lee Mi-kyung, who had suddenly appeared wanting to transfer Song Yi-heon. However, what Eun-chae failed to realize in her sincere attempt to persuade was that Lee Mi-kyung wasn’t trying to transfer Song Yi-heon to the countryside for his own good.

“Hah, this isn’t getting through to you.”

If Lee Mi-kyung truly cared for Song Yi-heon, she wouldn’t have handed over an envelope of money hidden in a vitamin drink box in the first place. Lee Mi-kyung simply wanted to get rid of Song Yi-heon. Whether it was because he had hit his head after falling from the pedestrian overpass or not, unlike before when he had lived like a dead mouse, Song Yi-heon was now not only trying to assert his rights but even threatening her, and she wanted to remove him from her sight.

Solely to send Song Yi-heon off to some remote mountain village, Lee Mi-kyung spat out provocative words.

“What are you going to do about the school’s neglect until Song Yi-heon attempted suicide? How will you compensate for that damage? Song Yi-heon jumping off the pedestrian overpass trying to kill himself, what if that becomes an issue? The principal would be so pleased if it makes headlines in the news.”

“We’re keeping an eye on the bullies. There’s been no conflict. Graduation isn’t far off. The college entrance exam is even sooner. You know how hard Yi-heon is studying…”

Their raised voices mixed together. But Hong Jae-min’s eardrums were ringing after hearing that Song Yi-heon might transfer, and he didn’t even realize how noisy it was. If someone had to transfer because of the school violence issue, it should be him, not Song Yi-heon. It should be Hong Jae-min, not Song Yi-heon who was looking for him, trying to get a high school diploma and making sure he ate.

Hong Jae-min forgot that he had been eavesdropping. Blood rushed to his neck, turning it red. With his chest puffed up in excitement, he intervened.

“Song Yi-heon is transferring? Because of school violence? Because he tried to die because of that?”

“Jae-min…!”

Only when the question flew in did Eun-chae notice Hong Jae-min, and dismay flashed across her face. She lowered her outstretched palms towards the ground, trying to calm Hong Jae-min who was about to explode like an enraged bull.

“I’ll go. I should go, right? I was the one who bullied him, so I should go, right?”

“Jae-min, calm down. No one is transferring.”

Meanwhile, Lee Mi-kyung, who had been observing Hong Jae-min closely, seemed to have grasped something from his remarks and appearance, twisting her lips in what looked like a sneer. She pushed Jung Eun-chae aside and crossed the parking lot.

The heel of her high heels, which had been tapping the ground as if trampling on nerves, stopped in front of Hong Jae-min. Despite her small stature, Lee Mi-kyung was fierce enough to be threatening and showed no sign of being intimidated when facing the well-built young man. With eyes that seemed to freeze mockery in place, she looked Hong Jae-min up and down and asked.

“You were the one who bullied him?”

Hong Jae-min vaguely waited to be slapped. The venomous woman seemed to be Song Yi-heon’s guardian and was trying to transfer him because of school violence, and Hong Jae-min was the main instigator of that violence. However, the words carried on her breath, which smelled of harsh cosmetics, were the opposite.

“Thank you.”

Lee Mi-kyung firmly gripped the shoulder of Jae-min, who was trying to back away in bewilderment. Her sharp nails, painted with bright red nail polish, pressed through the thin summer uniform shirt and dug into his skin. She brought her face close. In her sunken eyes, dark with fatigue, only a cold light shone fiercely.

Lee Mi-kyung, with lips painted red even in the creases, spoke low enough for only Hong Jae-min to hear, conveying the cruelty that Song Yi-heon had had to endure all this time.

“Why didn’t you try harder? To make him die completely.”

Faced with a level of malice that a mere high school student couldn’t handle, even Hong Jae-min’s confusion evaporated. His entire body turned cold as a corpse.

* * *

The malice shown by Lee Mi-kyung taught Hong Jae-min what despair beyond misfortune truly was.

Until now, Hong Jae-min had thought Song Yi-heon fell from the pedestrian overpass because he was weak. He thought if you get hit, you should just hit back, and found it pathetic to try to die just because of a little beating. In fact, hadn’t Song Yi-heon, after cutting his hair short, refrained from hitting him? He had treated those who wanted to die as making a fuss, thinking they should just fight it out and be done with it.

But if one had to suffer under someone like Lee Mi-kyung, it would be enough to make one want to die. Remembering the expression of regret on her face that Song Yi-heon hadn’t died, Hong Jae-min felt a chill. If he felt this way, he could only imagine what the nerdy Song Yi-heon, who used to hide his face behind his bangs and tremble, must have gone through. He increased the speed of his bike.

Racing on his bike, Hong Jae-min found the alley based on his memory of coming by taxi before, but couldn’t remember exactly which house was Song Yi-heon’s. As he drove slowly down the street with tightly closed gates and garages, wracking his brain for memories, he spotted a house uniquely shrouded in darkness, unlike the other houses with their gardens lit by lights, and was instantly certain it was Song Yi-heon’s house.

However, his feeling of relief ended before he could even increase the speed of his bike. He had recklessly driven his bike here, but now that he was about to meet Song Yi-heon, he couldn’t figure out what to say. That he had met Lee Mi-kyung, and that woman was bad? That woman had thanked him for bullying Song Yi-heon. Hong Jae-min was in no position to criticize Lee Mi-kyung.

In the end, he parked his bike at a distance from Song Yi-heon’s house. He hid his body behind an illegally parked vehicle, which he hadn’t seen throughout the alley, and fiddled with his phone. The longer he hesitated, the tighter his heart felt and the more strength left his hands.

Chewing the inside of his mouth, Hong Jae-min pressed the call button as if by mistake. Pressing down his bleached hair, which had become tangled like a lion’s mane from the rough wind while riding his bike like a madman, he anxiously waited through the long dial tone.

<…>

Finally, the other side picked up. From wherever they were, zombie-like groans echoed through the receiver, bouncing off enclosed walls as if from a zombie movie. After a round of girls’ screams passed and it quieted down, Jae-min pressed the phone tightly to his ear.

“Hey, you-.”

<Is it you?>

His tone suggested he had answered without knowing who was calling. But Jae-min had no room to be dumbfounded.

“You…”

<Speak.>

Song Yi-heon’s voice came through more clearly, as if he had moved to a corner. Several voices calling for Song Yi-heon could be heard from the other end. As Jae-min heard Song Yi-heon telling them to go ahead without him, his mind was still in turmoil. It felt like a tangled ball of thread rolling around, his head was full but nothing was unraveling.

“…”

<If you have nothing to say, I’m hanging up.>

At the cold response threatening to end the call without even waiting a moment, Hong Jae-min desperately clung on. His words, cut off in chunks, were primitive and contradictory.

“You, you tried to die, didn’t you!”

<…>

“Why, why didn’t you tell me?”

<I did. I said you pushed me.>

At the time, Hong Jae-min hadn’t been affected by those words at all. But after meeting Lee Mi-kyung, his change of heart allowed him to properly understand the meaning of “You pushed me.” It meant that to the nerdy Song Yi-heon, Lee Mi-kyung and Hong Jae-min were no different. They were both responsible for making Song Yi-heon jump from the pedestrian overpass. They were of the same kind.

Hong Jae-min, who had thought himself the most miserable person in the world, realized that he had become the source of another’s misery. He couldn’t dare say anything.

A murky laugh, like cigarette smoke, spread from the receiver. As he lowered his voice to prevent the call from leaking out, his even deeper and richer bass voice seeped into Jae-min’s lungs, making them ache.

<Something must have happened. Seeing that you know you did wrong. Guys like you never understand no matter how many times you’re told. You only come to your senses when you experience it yourself.>

“…”

Hong Jae-min, who had just been chewing the inside of his mouth, suddenly detected suspicious movement. While on the call, his gaze lowered to the asphalt ground where several shadows were moving busily. Following the elongated shadows upward, he saw men who hadn’t been there a moment ago moving around and surveying the area in front of Song Yi-heon’s house.

Hong Jae-min squeezed his vocal cords. His voice came out hoarse and cracked.

“…There are suspicious men in front of your house right now.”

<…>

“They, they seem to be cutting the CCTV wires.”

The men were divided into two teams, with one team keeping watch while the other methodically disabled security devices like CCTV cameras. Hong Jae-min realized that the illegally parked vehicle he was hiding behind was a Porter truck. The truck’s cargo bed was loaded with tools including sacks. They belonged to the men circling Song Yi-heon’s house. As he recognized the dried black marks on the tools as bloodstains, Jae-min’s legs gave out.

Hong Jae-min barely maintained his composure at Song Yi-heon’s sharp command through the receiver.

<Break it.>

“What?”

<Break the doorbell, I said.>

His voice mixed with sounds of others calling for Song Yi-heon. He could faintly hear someone saying they needed to find more hints to open the door. The thin voices he could hear in the background were trying to persuade them to wait since the door wouldn’t open, but Song Yi-heon was adamant.

<Buy time until I get there.>

Crash! Through the receiver came the sound of a doorknob being ripped off.