Chapter 105

Chapter 105

Chapter 105

After that day, the delinquents all became quiet . They were glaring harder than ever before, but Byungsoo got used to those glares very quickly . He’s learned that glares don’t hurt, no matter how much you receive them . As a matter of fact, looking back at these delinquents just reassure him of his victory . They all looked visibly worried at this point .

Like Maru predicted yesterday, they were all called out to speak with the teachers . They were getting interviewed so that the teachers could make sure they were getting the truth from both sides .

What really surprised Byungsoo was how the disciplinary teacher took it . All this time, he thought the disciplinary teacher came to school to beat up kids, but that scary teacher was listening to his story quite seriously . The man even commented that ‘kids with no chance at redemption like that need special punishment . ’

Of course, not all teachers were like this . All the other teachers in the mitigation meeting only pretended to understand Byungsoo, while trying to downscale all of this as much as possible . Looking at these people's work made Byungsoo very surprised . He even told them that he was considering suicide and all these people told him was ‘but they’re friends, so you should be understanding’ . Listening to them made Byungsoo think back to something Maru told him .

[In the end, school is also a form of a business . Businesses only work when people actually come to it . In order to make people come, you need to have a good reputation . In that sense, our school has every reason to shake off any rumors involving delinquency . That’s why a lot of the teachers will try to hide that this bullying stuff ever happened . ]

Maru did warn that the teachers would try to downplay everything, but actually seeing that happen in front of him just made Byungsoo laugh in dejection . He didn’t hate the teachers for what they did, though . As he prepared for all of this with Maru, he’s thought a lot about this . His other friends probably did the same .

‘Everyone has their own sense of justice . ’

Some teachers think justice is to fight for kids like them, some teachers think justice is to work hard for a promotion or to work for their own family . Everyone has their own reasons for working the way that they did . Byungsoo’s learned that at this point that everyone has their own reasons for living the way they did . At the same time, he’s realized that he would need a more solidified worldview for himself .

‘Other people’s perspectives are, in the end, their own . ’

Just because Byungsoo understood why people did the things they did didn’t necessarily make him agree with it . Byungsoo shook his head when the teachers told him to let this pass easily, they frustratedly told him to think about the future instead of focusing on getting instant gratification . Hearing that made Byungsoo’s opinions even more set in stone, he said on the spot that he wanted to see the bullies get punished . That his thoughts on the matter wouldn’t change no matter how much they tried .

He didn’t sound that cool at the time, of course . He was actually stuttering and everything, but that didn’t make him feel any less proud of saying what he said . For the first time in a long time, he managed to say his opinion to someone else .

Byungsoo saw one of his other friends being called into a teacher’s office on his way back to class . Another one of his comrades in arms . He recalled smiling at this friend as he passed by . He realized then, that he finally had enough confidence to start cheering other people on . Just this realization was enough to change his life for the better, he actually started enjoying school a bit more .

“Yo, weren’t my punches pretty great yesterday?”

“Yeah bro . There were some nice sounds coming out of those mitts . Are we doing roadwork again today, by the way? Doing that always makes me want to throw up . ”

“Obviously . If we try to skip it, the trainer’s going to kill us . ”

He’s finally gotten a friend to talk to during break times as well . It was just one person, but a friend was still a friend . The fourteen friends he met during this time felt especially precious to Byungsoo . Not just because they shared a common pain, but because they were all fighting the same battle . Without it, they wouldn’t be as close as they are now .

Lunchtime . Byungsoo stopped heading out of the classroom in a hurry, he’d casually waited for his friends in other classes before heading down happily . The gazes from other students around him… felt normal, surprisingly enough . To be honest, he was a little scared at first . He thought he’d get bullied by the class for selling out a delinquent in his class, but the reactions he got from his classmates were very, very normal . They just didn’t care . Apparently it was the same in the other classes, too .

There, Byungsoo and his friends learned one more thing, people wouldn’t care about others if they weren’t involved . Byungsoo thought back to his middle school days as well . Back then, there was a kid who was a little slower than others . He didn’t actively bully the kid, but he and his classmates teased the kid about it .

Looking back, he definitely took part in bullying . Perhaps that kid was getting beat up where he couldn’t see as well . But at the time, Byungsoo didn’t have any interest in the kid at all . He just threw a joke or two about the kid every once in a while, because everyone else was doing it .

That’s right, he didn’t care at all at the time . In the end, the kid was like a prop on a stage, something that he actively ignored .

‘It must be the same for them, too . ’

His classmates probably thought the same . There probably weren’t many in his class who were bullying him for the sake of bullying .

That didn’t mean he forgave them for their actions, of course . They knew he was getting bullied, but didn’t do anything about it . He did, however, stopped blaming them for everything . He realized how pointless it was to try to shift blame onto other people . In the end, problems could only be solved if you came to face it directly .

[If you can dodge a problem and have it be solved, just dodge it . But if you can’t, in the end, you’ll have to face it . No matter how much you dodge it, eventually, that problem’s going to come and catch up to you . ]

That was another thing Maru told him . Of course, Byungsoo didn’t believe Maru’s words all the time . In fact, he disagreed with Maru often as well . Whenever that happened, Maru took his words into account and came up with a different decision . Byungsoo could sense a lot of experience from the boy in those moments .

At the same time, he felt very foreign to Byungsoo . When he asked around, he found that all his other friends felt the same way as well .

“Doesn’t Maru always talk like he’s not involved in something?”

“Yeah . He treats certain things like he’s not involved in it at all, despite being the one to instigate this in the first place . ”

Maru was always very calm in nature, adding a sense of maturity which made him seem much older than he actually was . The boy had a very good head on his shoulders . But strangely, Byungsoo didn’t want to become the boy’s friend at all . Was it because of the boy’s ever-bored expression? Or the boy’s confidence?

For sure, Maru was a great ally to have . But that’s all there was to it . Something made Byungsoo very sure that the two of them would never get very close .

‘I guess it doesn’t matter that much, though . ’

To begin with, Maru had no reason to hang out with kids like him in the first place . Byungsoo’s learned through all of this that Maru was shouldering expectations from a lot of people . The boy received calls all the time, mostly from adults .

Even Maru’s school friends seemed amazing . Then again, everyone in the acting club looked very quirky and charming . Again, Maru… had no reason to be with them . Regardless, Maru had some sort of an aura about him that made him hard to approach .

Not his talent, or personality . Just something odd that made him hard to befriend . The others thought the same as well .

“Maru’s kind of… It feels like he’s there, but also not there? It's a bit hard to describe . ”

“Yeah, he’s a good guy, but . . . ”

The others didn’t think deeply about it . Regardless of what Maru was like, the fact that the boy was their savior didn’t change .

* * *

“ . . . Yawn . ”

“You’ve been yawning a lot recently . ”

“I’m tired . ”

Dojin looked around for a second before leaning towards Maru .

“You’ve been together with the bullied kids recently, I noticed . Were you the one that made them do all of this?”

“I only helped them a little . ”

“I knew something was off . ”

Dojin handed Maru a cherry flavored candy . Maru took it and popped it into his mouth . Perfect timing, he was craving the sweet stuff just now .

“Is this because of Changhu?”

“For now, yeah . ”

“You’ve really made up your mind, haven’t you? But wouldn’t this be dangerous if he finds out? You know he gets really petty with stuff like this . ”

Dojin pointed very carefully at Changhu, Changhu and his friends have been getting called out to the faculty offices almost daily in the past few days . Because of this, pretty much every student in the school knew what was happening at this point . No matter how quietly the teachers tried to handle things, the rumors still spread like wildfire .

“I’m not doing anything that’d make me visible, so don’t worry . Plus, Changhu probably doesn’t even have time to think . His parents should be receiving a call sooner or later . ”

“God damn am I glad to be your friend . You cruel bastard . ”

“Cruel? No way . This is just karma . ”

“So this is why you’ve been so busy recently . ”

“It’s almost all over, so I can finally breathe a little . ”

“Here, eat this . ”

Someone else jumped right onto their conversation in the middle . It was Daemyung, who handed them both a burger . The boy’s been gaining weight again after the club started training, apparently, Miso’s been making plans to make Daemyung lose weight for good in the near future .

“I just thought I wouldn’t be able to eat however as much as I wanted after this point . Hehe . ”

“You’re going to get fat again . Control yourself . ”

“I will, I will . I’m going on a diet tomorrow . ”

“That’s what they all say . ”

Dojin and Daemyung talked to each other with a grin . Maru, in the meantime, chewed the candy in his mouth before turning his attention towards the burger . On the weekdays, he had club practice and Ganghwan’s private lessons . On Wednesdays to Fridays, he had training for the Myungdong Art Theater . On Saturday he needed to go to Hyehwa station, and then back to Myungdong in the evening . Sunday was the same . As a matter of fact, he didn’t have time to meet Soojin for the past month .

‘Come to think of . . . ’

There was that thing with Dowook as well, Maru wanted to help the guy if he could . Maru thought of his schedule for this week .

He’s learned a lot from Soojin . He didn’t want to interfere with her family life, but he did want her to come to an understanding with her brother if he could . He’s received a lot from her, so he thought it would be only fitting to pay her back .

Maru felt himself becoming busy, he spent too much time working nowadays . He wanted to go on another date with her as well, but he just didn’t have the time . To think he’d be even busier than his adult life back in the past… This was ridiculous .

“Hey, Maru . ”

Maru opened his eyes, hearing Dojin call out to him .

“You look tired man, you should sleep . ”

“Yeah, I should . Wake me up when the teacher comes . ”

“Course . ”

Maru decided to sleep for now .

* * *

There was only one thing the kids wanted and that was to expel the bullies . They didn’t want anything else and that’s exactly what they told the faculty . Perhaps this was why rumors about this event spread so fast around the school .

The teachers were starting to get busier around the school . The bullies had to start talking a lot more, and the victims were getting calmer by the minute . Eventually, the parents were summoned as well . Most were mothers, but even dads decided to come occasionally .

Maru took a look at the people gathering outside . By the looks of it, the school was about to get very loud again .

“Should be alright, though . ”

Maru licked his lips as he looked at his contacts . Recently, he’s come to realize why people in power were so desperate to keep their power .

* * *

Changhu’s trusted friend shook his head with a pale expression . This guy’s mother had a very good relationship with the chairman of the school, so Changhu expected good news, but… That was not the case .

“Dude, I thought your mom had power . ”

“Well… she said it would be good for us to follow the school’s decision . ”

“Why?”

“If this ends up going to court, then… We’d really be screwed . She said expulsion might be our best bet . ”

“What? You gotta tell me more . What the hell’s happening?”

Expulsion? Best choice? What kind of bullshit was this? Changhu could feel the blood rush to his head . At the same time, he noticed Gijung reading a book at a desk . He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t control himself right now . He ran forward and kicked Gijung as hard as he could . The boy fell backward loudly, attracting the class’s attention .

Changhu realized what he’d done, but the water was already spilled . He might as well finish what he started .

“You son of a bitch, try to be quiet . ”

“You’re too loud . Dude, you think the class belongs to you?”

“Motherfucker, can’t we catch a break during break time?”

All the kids in the class said something to him . Even though they didn’t say anything to him in the past… Come to think of it, these were also the guys that Gijung exchanged greetings with every morning . Were they friends?

“This guy’s trying to survive, too . Just stop . At this rate, you really are going to get sent to a detention center . ”

“Yeah . Calm down, tard . ”

Changhu grit his teeth . He turned around, ready to beat up the guys who dared talk back at him, but he could feel his fist start loosening up once he noticed that there weren’t just a few people looking at him disapprovingly .

To be honest, Changhu didn’t have that much confidence in fighting . He’s also realized . Many of the kids in his class were actually very good at fighting, unlike him .

“Oh dear, our Changhu’s fucked, isn’t he?”

Dojin’s voice stabbed its way into Changhu’s ear . In the end, all Changhu could do was leave the class with a loud huff .