GBH 66

The only reason Hong Jae-min still went to school after hearing he’d get his head cracked for confessing was fear that Song Yi-heon might come looking for him if he was absent without leave. So Jae-min attended school but spent the whole day slumped over his desk, only moving for lunch or classes like PE that required changing rooms.

His gang, entering through the back door, put their arms around Jae-min’s shoulders as he changed into his gym clothes.

“Jae-min, let’s skip class.”

“Don’t touch me. Get lost.”

Jae-min shook off the arm on his shoulder without even looking at them. Just as he hated his past of bullying Song Yi-heon, he couldn’t stand the sight of the gang who had bullied with him.

When they built the new building, they made a new path connecting to the auditorium. The students all loved this path with its arched canopy roof supported by pillars on both sides of the paved walkway. It provided shade on sunny days and shelter from rain when going to the auditorium.

Jae-min was about to take this path to the auditorium when he spotted Choi Se-kyung with a familiar face at the first floor exit. It was Lee Geon-ho, one of Jae-min’s gang who had recently asked him to apologize for fighting in Myeongdong. Geon-ho was clinging desperately to Se-kyung, who maintained a constant smile.

The bell rang to start class. As Geon-ho reluctantly turned to leave, looking back repeatedly with regret, Jae-min stepped in front of Se-kyung confrontationally. Despite the successive interruptions, Se-kyung remained unfailingly kind.

“You’ve been coming to school diligently lately.”

“Why were you with Geon-ho?”

“Oh, he said he had something to tell me.”

“What was it?”

“Sorry, Geon-ho asked me not to tell anyone.”

As Se-kyung’s gently drooping eyes conveyed sincere regret, his smile melting in the bright sunlight seemed the epitome of benevolence. But Jae-min knew there was a nine-tailed fox inside, licking its chops ready to devour human livers, so he wasn’t fooled.

Glaring at that refined face, Jae-min figured someone who cared enough about Song Yi-heon to push him out a window wouldn’t have left Lee Mi-kyung alone, so he probed cautiously.

“…Did you know a woman called Lee Mi-kyung?”

“Yes.”

He was so nonchalant that Jae-min momentarily wondered if they were talking about the same person.

“Knowing that, how could you leave her alone?”

“Well, I’m letting you attend school, so…”

“What?”

“You’re no different from her.”

Jae-min’s eyes blazed with indignation at being caught off guard. But he couldn’t singe Se-kyung’s gentle smile.

“Jae-min, just stay quiet until graduation. You’ve already lost your chance to apologize.”

Jae-min couldn’t understand that this meant there was no one left to apologize to, since the original Song Yi-heon who was bullied no longer existed. Jae-min clenched his fist, struggling to resist the urge to hit Choi Se-kyung right then and there.

“If you’re going to spout nonsense, shut up. Song Yi-heon is the one who receives apologies. Who are you to talk about chances?”

“After bullying him for two years, how can you not know?”

Come to think of it, Hong Jae-min was the person who had observed Song Yi-heon most closely over the past two years. He’d called him out after school and even kept him up all night sometimes. The person most likely to suspect the changed Song Yi-heon was a different person wasn’t Choi Se-kyung, but Hong Jae-min.

“You know all this and still act that way?”

But Jae-min had failed to notice that Song Yi-heon was a different person. For the perceptive Se-kyung, this was utterly incomprehensible. The original Song Yi-heon and the fake were clearly different, yet failing to distinguish between them after two years of close contact went beyond dense to downright stupid.

Choi Se-kyung looked around. The first floor exit corridor was already deserted after the class bell, with only them present. He lowered his upper body towards Jae-min’s ear. Jae-min recoiled with contempt.

“You really don’t know? The Song Yi-heon you bullied doesn’t exist anymore.”

“What do you mean Yi-heon doesn’t exist? He came to school today too.”

“You know it too. Song Yi-heon jumped off the pedestrian bridge because of you.”

“…But he’s been coming to school just fine.”

Se-kyung studied Jae-min’s subtle changes in eyes and breathing to see if he was lying. Jae-min was angry, but he wasn’t lying. He truly hadn’t noticed. Se-kyung’s energy to even mock him drained away.

“You’re pathetic, Jae-min.”

“You’re crazy.”

Though Jae-min glared back, not wanting to back down, Se-kyung’s words had planted a seed of doubt in him.

* * *

The once smooth-running bike gradually slowed down. Jae-min looked at the dashboard. The speedometer was dropping on its own.

“Ah, shit. Again…”

Since being abandoned in front of Song Yi-heon’s house, the bike hadn’t been the same even after being serviced. It needed an overhaul, but Jae-min had no money and didn’t want to bill Song Yi-heon for repairs, so he just pushed the bike hard. When he twisted the throttle grip, the speed slowly increased.

“That bastard Choi Se-kyung…”

The Song Yi-heon currently attending school was definitely the one he had bullied for the past two years. If no one else, Jae-min was sure of it. Hadn’t he seen the marks left on Yi-heon’s side at his house recently? But he couldn’t shake off an uneasy feeling. Even to Jae-min, Song Yi-heon had changed suspiciously in a short time. It would be more accurate to say he had become a different person rather than just changed.

If, just if, the person currently attending school wasn’t Song Yi-heon… Did the original Song Yi-heon die falling from the pedestrian bridge…?

Honk-, honk–!

The blaring horn from behind broke Jae-min’s reverie. In the side mirror, he saw a group of bikes tailing him closely. Jae-min tried to speed up to shake them off, but even as he twisted the throttle grip, the bike slowed down instead of accelerating. As Jae-min’s bike gradually slowed, the pursuing bikes caught up and some overtook him. When Jae-min’s sputtering bike finally stopped, the group of bikes surrounded him on all sides.

The rider who stopped to Jae-min’s right took off his helmet. He sneered at the tough-looking Jae-min and elbowed the guy riding behind him.

“Is that Hong Jae-min?”

“Yes, bro…”

The guy riding behind also hesitantly removed his helmet. It was Lee Geon-ho. He had guided the man to Jae-min while riding on the back of his bike. Now Jae-min grasped the situation. When Jae-min refused to apologize, Geon-ho had sold him out for a post-graduation job.

As Geon-ho shrank from Jae-min’s menacing glare, the man hid Geon-ho behind his back and said:

“So you messed with my little brother? He’s about to end up in a mental hospital from the trauma. Of all people, you had to pick on him?”

“Your brother started it first, and he was the one who broke a beer bottle to swing at me.”

Jae-min smirked, looking around at the bikes surrounding him on all sides to prevent escape.

“Looks like you brothers are the same, ganging up on someone who’s alone.”

“Yeah, that’s why I said if you just apologize in front of my brother, we’ll let it go. That might help calm him down, you know?”

The man ruffled his helmet-flattened bangs.

“Just say you’re sorry, that’s all. What are you going to do?”

Human nature doesn’t change. It can only pretend to change through learning. And there was no way Hong Jae-min, who hadn’t been taught to suppress his temper, would contain his fiery nature in the face of threats.

Hong Jae-min clenched his fist and raised his middle finger. That was his answer.

Hong Jae-min lay sprawled out in a narrow alley in downtown Seoul. The night sky with drifting clouds was distant between the high-rise building walls. Every breath brought a stabbing pain in his right ribs, and his left arm had no feeling. His shoulder seems dislocated.

“Shit, I got my ass kicked…”

He couldn’t even land a proper hit and just got beaten. The frustration and helplessness of only getting hit wasn’t unfamiliar, because he’d seen it often. It was what he had done to Song Yi-heon. Only by experiencing it himself did Jae-min acutely realize how devastating this was to a person.

There was a rustling sound, and Lee Geon-ho peeked his head out from the end of the alley. Geon-ho sidled along the wall calling out to Hong Jae-min from a distance.

“Jae, Jae-min. Are you, are you okay?”

When there was no movement from the sprawled Jae-min, Geon-ho walked more boldly than his previous sidling. When the distance had closed somewhat, Jae-min pushed himself up from the ground. Watching Jae-min stagger to his feet as if he were a zombie, Geon-ho, pale with fear, made excuses:

“So, sorry. But my brother said if I left you alone, he’d never give me a chance. He’s launching at the S Department Store, it’s a good opportunity, right? I couldn’t be the only one left out… I didn’t even fight…”

S Department Store. Though he had crumpled and thrown away the business card he got from the secretary at the hospital, he couldn’t forget the logo of the famous department store. Then the scene he saw at school during the day flashed by. Jae-min grabbed Geon-ho by the collar.

“Hii, hiik!”

“Was this what you talked about with Choi Se-kyung?”

Geon-ho shrunk his neck and shoulders like a turtle. It was true that he had gone to see Se-kyung during the day about the department store matter, but Se-kyung had only smiled and not granted Geon-ho’s request. However, intimidated by Jae-min’s aggression, Geon-ho couldn’t even open his mouth.

“This was Choi Se-kyung’s doing too, right? Saying he’d let you do business at the department store. Using their family’s department store as bait to make you do this…! That bastard pretends to be nice while making you do this. Using those guys to beat me up.”

He knew Choi Se-kyung wasn’t a nice guy. He was certain of it after nearly being thrown out the window by him. That sinister bastard was more than capable of scheming like this behind the scenes. No, he hated Choi Se-kyung regardless of what kind of person he was. Choi Se-kyung, acting special by Song Yi-heon’s side. The anger he had suppressed considering Se-kyung’s family background erupted.

Though Geon-ho said nothing, Jae-min arbitrarily concluded it was Choi Se-kyung’s doing.

* * *

The drizzle that had been falling since morning turned into heavier rain by late morning. Dark clouds covered the sky, making it as dark as night despite being morning. The third-year students moving to the auditorium for their first-period physical examination tilted their heads back. Heavy raindrops beat against the arched canopy like percussion instruments.

“It’s raining a lot. Looks like it’ll keep up until school ends.”

“Ugh, so humid. I don’t mind the rain, but I really hate the humidity.”

A student stretched his hand out beyond the canopy. Thick raindrops sliding down the canopy quickly filled his cupped palm. It seemed like a long spell of rain was coming.

In the auditorium, staff dispatched from the hospital were setting up equipment, waiting for the students. The physical examination was conducted by class, rotating through different measurement stations. While class 1 students measured their height and weight, class 2 checked their vision, and class 3 their hearing. Given the relaxed atmosphere, students gathered in circles around each measurement station, and even the school nurse didn’t restrain the excited students who were glad to be out of regular classes, simply calling out the next number.

“Next, number 16, Song Yi-heon.”

Dressed in gym pants and a cotton t-shirt, Song Yi-heon took a deep breath and reverently stood with his back against the height measuring machine.

“Whoo-.”

The measuring bar came down, tapped Yi-heon’s crown, and went back up. The display showed his height and weight.

“Height 172 cm.”

The class stirred.

“Wow, look how tall Song Yi-heon is. How many centimeters did he grow? 7 cm? It is 7 cm!”

Students who remembered last year’s record of 165 cm couldn’t help but marvel at his rapid growth.

“He sure ate a lot… Give this glory to the cafeteria lady. Considering how much money he poured into the cafeteria, he bought each centimeter for 100,000 won.”

Kim Deuk-pal, who would normally have leisurely enjoyed the admiration and respect of his juniors, clenched his fists and raised his chin as if performing a victory ceremony. If this weren’t school, he would have let out a loud cheer. Every time they measured Song Yi-heon’s small stature before, he had only sighed in despair, but this time, Kim Deuk-pal prided himself on having done something great for Song Yi-heon.

He was looking around to share this joy with Choi Se-kyung, who had been quietly massaging Yi-heon’s legs during his severe growing pains, when he remembered that Se-kyung, being the class president, had been called away with other class officers, much to his disappointment.

“Teacher!”

The vice president of class 3-2 burst through the auditorium doors.

“Hong, Hong Jae-min, Hong Jae-min…”

Having apparently run at full speed, the student was gasping for breath and couldn’t continue. As he bent over, hands on knees, the school nurse hurriedly approached and pressed for information.

“What about Hong Jae-min? Catch your breath and speak slowly.”

“Jae-min, Hong Jae-min and…”

“What about Jae-min, why?”

The school nurse urged the student in frustration. Kim Yeon-ji, arriving late on her short legs, shouted out:

“Hong Jae-min and Se-kyung are fighting!”