GBH 8

“I don’t really know, but are we supposed to sit in numerical order?”

As the group of girls playing together either froze their expressions or tried to stifle their laughter, Kim Deuk-pal sensed that he had made a mistake. However, due to Song Yi-heon’s likable appearance, he didn’t receive an outright rejection. One girl with a pink blanket over her shoulders rested her elbows on Kim Deuk-pal’s desk, then tilted her head with curiosity. As she moved closer, Kim Deuk-pal awkwardly pushed his chair back.

“We haven’t assigned seats yet. Sit wherever you want. But did you transfer here?”

“Huh? …No.”

Kim Deuk-pal shook his head. Since Song Yi-heon had the school uniform, he couldn’t have transferred here.

“Really? I went to elementary and middle school in this area, so I know almost all the kids in my grade. But I’ve never seen your face before.”

“Maybe he was in another building.”

“If he was in the old building, he’d probably faint after seeing the new building’s bathroom.”

Before long, the girls turned towards Kim Deuk-pal and started chatting among themselves. Kim Deuk-pal maintained an awkward smile, not exactly included but not completely left out either. His gaze was as sharp as a knife, but the forced smile didn’t hide his tension, creating an incongruous attraction. The little girl who had been staring at Kim Deuk-pal suddenly asked.

“What’s your name?”

“Oh, me?”

Just like at the school gate, Kim Deuk-pal awkwardly pointed at himself. The girl pursed her lips into a small circle and nodded.

“My name is—”

Bang, bang! A noise interrupted them. The source of the noise was a young female teacher who hit the classroom door again with the attendance book to regain everyone’s attention.

“Everyone, take your seats!”

The girls who had been looking at Kim Deuk-pal immediately sat down, and the students who had been running around at the back of the classroom also found their seats, causing a noisy commotion. Once all the students were seated, the young teacher wrote her name on the blackboard and gripped the podium.

“Do you all know who I am?”

“Yes-!”

Cheers erupted among the students for the popular teacher. Kim Deuk-pal remained frozen alone. After waiting for the students to quiet down, she briefly introduced herself.

“Anyway, let me introduce myself. I’m Jung Eun-chae, the homeroom teacher for Class 3-1 this year. I teach English, so let’s have a good year!”

After she briskly finished her greeting, the students applauded as if they had been waiting. Kim Deuk-pal, who knew neither English nor how to interact with children, reluctantly followed the children’s lead and clapped his hands together.

“Do you all know each other?”

“Yes!”

“No…” Kim Deuk-pal muttered to himself awkwardly.

“Still, since it’s the first day, let’s take attendance once. Se-kyung is also in our class. The teacher sent him on an errand… Number 1, Kang Woo-min!”

—

A boy seated at the back raised his hand and answered. So that’s how you’re supposed to respond. Kim Deuk-pal observed carefully, waiting for his turn. The boys’ numbers were called first, with them raising their hands one after another. When a last name starting with ‘M’ was called, Kim Deuk-pal tensed up, preparing to raise his hand, his arm twitching with nervous anticipation. He cleared his throat, hoping his voice wouldn’t crack.

“Number 12, Song…”

The female teacher reading from the attendance book hesitated. Her mouth hesitated as she spaced out while reading the names.

“…Yi-heon!”

“Yes!”

Kim Deuk-pal raised his hand high. The bustling classroom suddenly fell into a chilling silence, as if cold water had been poured over it. Feeling something was off, Kim Deuk-pal looked around, and a shiver ran down his spine, reminiscent of watching a horror movie.

Not only the homeroom teacher but all the students in the class were watching Kim Deuk-pal. Multiple pairs of eyes, like dots evenly spaced, stared without blinking.

“…Number 13, Lee Jae-geun.”

The homeroom teacher called out the next number with a firm voice, and the gaze returned to normal. However, the nonchalant atmosphere was only superficial. The class’s attention was fixed on Song Yi-heon.

In the classroom, while many didn’t know Song Yi-heon’s face, no one didn’t know him. Not only the classroom but the entire school knew Song Yi-heon.

Song Yi-heon, the outed gay throughout the school.

From the first day of high school, Song Yi-heon was already an outsider due to his dirty appearance and introverted personality, unable to answer properly when spoken to, quietly bullied. He became a target for bullying by Hong Jae-min and his gang, making him someone to be avoided. But there was another reason why he was infamous across the entire school.

To teenage students with little exposure to sexual diversity, the abstract concept of “homosexuality” might be somewhat acceptable. However, once a gay person’s affection for a specific individual was revealed, the situation changed dramatically. Especially when the object of that affection was a prominent figure like the school president or the top student. The rumor that Song Yi-heon had feelings for Choi Se-kyung, a famous student with several school-wide titles, spread like wildfire, accompanied by a wave of disgust.

The entire school pitied Choi Se-kyung and avoided Song Yi-heon.

Perhaps because of the atmosphere of rejection, Song Yi-heon did not attend supplementary classes during winter vacation. There was no one who believed the reason was a traffic accident.

And the main culprit who outed Song Yi-heon was in this class.

“Number 16, Choi Se-kyung, on an errand. Number 17, Hong Jae-min.”

The student with light yellow hair at the end of the fourth row raised his hand.

Song Yi-heon, Choi Se-kyung, Hong Jae-min. When students realized these three were in the same class, their faces paled. They had pretended not to notice Song Yi-heon’s bullying by Hong Jae-min’s gang to avoid getting involved, and kept quiet to protect Choi Se-kyung from any harm. This was the result.

Thanks to the students’ ignorance, there were no teachers questioning the combination of these three on the class roster.

“Jae-min, make sure your hair is done properly by tomorrow. Now, I’ll call the girls.”

A tense silence, like the calm before a storm, hung in the air. While the homeroom teacher continued to call the attendance, the students alternated between the end of the first row and the end of the fourth row. Song Yi-heon listened attentively with his head held high, while Hong Jae-min squinted his eyes.

The student’s minds began to spin rapidly.

If Song Yi-heon, the lowest in the hierarchy, quietly sacrificed himself, Hong Jae-min’s gang would leave other students alone. That’s how it was in sophomore year. They might be able to focus relatively quietly on college entrance exams.

The problem was that the short-haired Song Yi-heon doesn’t seem willing to quietly become the sacrificial lamb.

If Song Yi-heon resisted, he might either revert to being Hong Jae-min’s lackey as he had in the past, or Hong Jae-min might choose a new scapegoat. In the latter case, the students had to be careful not to become the new target. Thankfully, there was Choi Se-kyung. If it were Choi Se-kyung, there was a possibility he could maintain classroom peace without hindering their college entrance exams. Even Hong Jae-min backed down a bit in front of Choi Se-kyung.

“Since we have regular classes today, don’t harbor false hopes.”

“Aww~”

Sensing the situation, the students let out a collective sigh of discontent. The homeroom teacher spread her arms as if to express helplessness.

“Come on, guys, you’re in your senior year!”

“Ooh~”

“Everyone, make sure you pay attention during the first period and don’t fall asleep. Ask other teachers if needed. See you at the closing ceremony. Since Se-kyung is the temporary class president, let’s skip formalities.”

Ignoring the murmurs, the homeroom teacher calmly took attendance and prepared to leave. Even before she left, the kids got up and started moving around noisily, going to their lockers and such. It wasn’t until the noise subsided after the homeroom teacher descended the stairs to the lower floor that Hong Jae-min kicked over a desk and stood up.

Bang! The chair collided with the empty desk in front, toppling over and entangling the thin metal legs. When Hong Jae-min kicked the tangled desks once more, the surrounding students flinched and stepped back. Despite the harsh atmosphere, which made the students frown, Hong Jae-min behaved as he pleased, letting his temper flare.

Walking away, he kicked everything in his path towards the front of the class.

“Hey, crazy bastard, Song Yi-heon? Is it you?”

“…”

Looking down at the chair that had flown towards him, Song Yi-heon lowered his head. Well, that’s how it goes. Just because he shaved his head didn’t mean he had changed. Just like in the second grade, Song Yi-heon would be caught like a rat. The kids surrounding Song Yi-heon and Hong Jae-min felt both relief and irritation.

Relief that at least they won’t get caught by Hong Jae-min, and irritation that they had to watch the strong bully the weak. And the discomfort of bystanders feeling like a thorn in their side.

Just when they thought Song Yi-heon was scared, he slowly lifted his head. The timid Song Yi-heon, frustrating Song Yi-heon, the pitiful Song Yi-heon with various labels attached to his shadowy face. Last year’s image of him, trembling and searching desperately for someone to help, overlapped with his bald head.

However, the long, unkempt bangs were no longer there. A clear forehead with roughly spread short hair. The sharply drawn eyebrows and the pointed tip of the nose, which seemed slightly lifted, on the smooth skin without blemishes, looked delicate. Despite looking fragile, only the desire in his eyes seemed to persistently want to chew up the opponent.

His true face was clearly revealed.

“So it’s you, Jae-min.”

Surprisingly, Song Yi-heon smiled with joy.

—

Jung Eun-chae, the homeroom teacher of Class 3-1, never took student greetings lightly. When a male student she encountered at the landing of the stairs leading down to the third-floor teacher’s room greeted her with a polite bow, she warmly called out his name in a cheerful tone.

“Hello.”

“Park Eun-seong! Did you study hard during the break? Your face looks better since I last saw you.”

Despite being a big student with a bear-like build, Jung Eun-chae patted his shoulder higher than her own as if handling a child. Having only recently taken up the position, she was a bright and passionate teacher. She tried to remember the students’ names and empathize with their problems even if she couldn’t solve them.

Her passion was matched by her sense of challenge. The young teacher volunteered to be a senior homeroom teacher, a role that wasn’t typically given to someone so new. As an English teacher with a good reputation among the students, she was selected to be the homeroom teacher for Class 3-1 this year. But before she had time to celebrate, her first mission as a homeroom teacher hit her.

“I am Song Yi-heon’s guardian.”

It was the day before the new semester began. A middle-aged woman in a neat two-piece suit with her hair tied up elegantly came to find Jung Eun-chae. She insisted that she did not want to be involved personally from the attitude of calling the relationship with the student a ‘guardian.’ The middle-aged woman briefly informed her. Song Yi-heon was not in a traffic accident, but fell from the overpass himself.

Whether it was counseling or notification, the middle-aged woman, Lee Mi-kyung, left without further conversation.

Jung Eun-chae hadn’t known who Song Yi-heon was until that moment, and she was stunned, unable to move from the school counseling room for a while. Was that really all there was to it after he jumped? How was the family caring for the student? When she called, Lee Mi-kyung’s attitude remained the same. She implied that Jung Eun-chae could just ignore it. Jung Eun-chae realized that Song Yi-heon’s family wasn’t normal, and trying to delve deeper would be like talking to a brick wall.

Jung Eun-chae looked for another solution. Fortunately, the students followed her well, and there were students in the same grade as Song Yi-heon who were close to her. Even on the eve of the new semester, she called the counseling room disguised as a consultation by calling students who came out to study on their own. At different times, she had one-on-one consultations about Song Yi-heon, and the evaluations of the students about Song Yi-heon were similar.

The most common description was that he was quiet and shy, albeit somewhat toned down in front of the teacher.

There’s no way he would have jumped off a pedestrian overpass just because of that. Could it be that there’s a problem at home? As she was lost in these thoughts, a female student hesitantly muttered under her breath, as if afraid of retaliation.

‘… Hong Jae-min and his gang is bullying Song Yi-heon.’