Life, Once Again!

Chapter 101

Chapter 101


Chapter 101



“That crazy son of a . . . ”


Changhu couldn’t even laugh at how ridiculous this is . Did Maru even know where he was right now? The boy was staring at Changhu’s victim intently, which irritated Changhu to no end . In the end, he leaned towards the idiot in front of him and whispered .


“Don’t mind that kid and go back to your cla.s.s, okay?”


“ . . . Okay . ”


“Nothing happened today . You should know that though, right?”


The idiot nodded, and Changhu pushed him away with ease . Thankfully, idiots like him were easy to silence . Changhu knew very well that speaking in a roundabout way instills greater fear upon them . The idiot disappeared off to the other side of the school .


“You have business here?” Changhu asked .


“You’re going all out, huh? I thought you were just a show-off, but you’re just a complete a.s.shole . ”


“Hah, you son of a . . . ”


Changhu glanced behind Maru . He needed to check if the other boy brought friends along . It didn’t look like he did .


‘f.u.c.king poser . ’


Changhu gave his friends a few glances as he walked towards Maru, he didn’t want to fight . He was just going to scare the other guy . Just as he got about two meters away from Maru, the boy opened his mouth .


“I came to get my money back . ”


Changhu stopped walking .


“Money?”


“Yeah . Money . ”


“Ahh, that hundred thousand?”


Changhu started laughing with his friends around him .


“What, you came here for money?”


“What else would I be here for?”


“Motherf.u.c.ker, you’re way too unpredictable . ”


“I’ll keep it short . Give me my money back . ”


“Hundred thousand won… Yeah, I did borrow it, but… I don’t want to pay you back . So stop being so petty about it . We’re friends, aren’t we?”


Changhu lightly pushed Maru’s shoulder with a smile .


“Didn’t you have a lot of money anyway? Why do you even care about chump change like this?”


“Don’t change the topic . Give me my money back . ”


“Don’t want to . ”


Changhu grinned . He did have the money, but he didn’t want to give it away .


“Do you do this to other kids as well?”


“Why would you care? What? You want to join them?”


Changhu pushed Maru one more time and turned away .


‘This kid doesn’t fear fists . ’


He realized that in the bathroom last time . That kid doesn’t like to get violent, but he was the type that lays the smackdown on one person exclusively when he got in a fight . Changhu knew very well that Maru’s target would be him, so he didn’t want to instigate a fight just like that .


“So, you don’t want to pay me back?”


“Think what you want, do what you want . Snitch on me if you want, I’ll give you your money back then . I’m sure you won’t do something so childish though, right?”


“I’ll ask you one last time . Think carefully before you answer . You asked for a hundred thousand won, and I gave it . You’re saying you’re not going to pay me back?”


“Motherf.u.c.ker, do you really have to make me say it twice? I’m not going to give you your f.u.c.king money back . ”


Right then, two more people appeared behind them . It was Daemyung and Dojin .


“What the h.e.l.l’s going on?” Dojin stepped forward with a glare .


Of all the people to appear, did it really have to be that guy? Dojin was harder to mess with than Maru . The guy was most definitely someone who played around back in the day . He also seemed pretty good at fighting, too . Changhu didn’t like to mess around with people who were capable of fighting back .


‘I’ll have to beat him senseless if things go wrong, though . ’


It was a good thing Changhu was with his friends . He might as well really scare these kids while he still could .


“If you want a fight, come at us . But we’re going to spread bad rumors about your pretty club . We’ll tell the teachers, too . ”


“You’re a f.u.c.king child . ”


Dojin stepped forward, gritting his teeth . Changhu stepped forward as well, he knew the other guy wouldn’t be able to hit him anyway . He confirmed it last time, too . The acting club seemed like a very precious place to Dojin . Plus, it wasn’t like getting hit would kill him or anything . If Changhu could have more fun at the expense of some pain, he would get hit in a heartbeat . Changhu turned his cheek, taunting Dojin to hit him . Dojin, of course, could only fume .


‘As I thought . ’


Changhu grinned . It was very obvious at this point that the acting club was these kids’ weak point .


“Let’s go . ”


“Hey! Han Maru!”


Maru retreated without another word . Dojin ran towards the other boy with angry huffs . Daemyung stepped away quickly as well .


“Coward . ”


“What do we do if Maru snitches?”


“Don’t worry, he won’t . f.u.c.ker has pride for some reason . ”


“Does he?”


“Plus, even if he does snitch, we can just tell the teacher it was just a simple misunderstanding . Teachers hate having to deal with trouble, so they’ll just pa.s.s it off as well, 100% . Remember what middle school was like? It’s the exact same here . ”


“You’re right, Changhu . ”


Changhu grinned, messing with people’s weak points was always cathartic for him . The knowledge of being able to treat them however he wanted made him feel like he was the top of the world . As a matter of fact, he could feel no greater joy when he beat someone up, and all the other party could do was stare lifelessly like a broken puppet .


“They should be quiet now, too . ”


* * *


“You shouldn’t have come . ”


“You would’ve been in big trouble if we weren’t there, you know that?”


“No way . ”


“Anyway, why were you there to begin with?”


Maru scratched his eyebrows at Dojin’s question .


“Might as well finish what I started . ”


“What?”


Dojin looked at Maru with a confused expression .


* * *


Byungsoo from cla.s.s 2 was spending most of the day watching the clock again . He couldn’t wait until the last cla.s.s was over .


“Hey, let’s go to a PC bang . ”


“Didn’t you want to go play billiards?”


“Screw that, let’s go to an AYCE bbq . I’m hungry as b.a.l.l.s . ”


All the other kids were talking about going places in groups . Byungsoo wanted to be one of them at one point, but not anymore . Nowadays, the only thing he could think about was going home as quickly as he could .


“Hey, Byungsoo, go clean that blackboard eraser for me . ”


“Byungsoo, throw this away for me . ”


Byungsoo silently got up to pick up the eraser and the piece of trash . Since when did he become like this? He felt a bit of anger flare up inside him, but he repressed himself . People were watching him . He quickly cleaned the eraser and threw out the trash before returning to his seat .


At that point… he was back to being invisible . He could see his two friends laugh together a bit of a way away from him . He used to talk to them a lot, but they wouldn’t even greet him now . How did this happen? Byungsoo shook his head . He should just stop thinking, thinking just made everything too painful . He gave up on thinking why no one liked him, he just tried to go with the flow as best he could . At least that way, the other kids didn’t torture him .


‘I wonder if things will change in my second year . ’


Thinking that, Byungsoo hoped to himself that this horrid winter would pa.s.s . The teacher eventually came into the cla.s.s and announced the end of the school day .


“I’m ending it early for all of you, so don’t do anything funny and go home . ”


Byungsoo grabbed his bag as fast as he could and walked out, he didn’t even have anyone who’d call out to him anyway . His desk was like an island, an island he needed to escape from as fast as possible .


Byungsoo’s phone rang, it was from his middle school friend . He took the phone call with a little bit of excitement .


- Byungsoo! It’s been a while . How have you been?


“O-okay, of course . ”


- You should call every once in a while, you f.u.c.k . How’s school? Does it have a lot of delinquents?


“No way, they’re all nice . ”


- That so? Yo, the other guys all want to meet up soon, so how’s the weekend sound? You free?


“Course . Been a while since I saw everyone . ”


- You should really give us a call every now and then . You don’t even come on the chat anymore! You should come over there too .


Byungsoo quickly hung up after saying “okay” . Immediately, the thought of middle school got him feeling a bit depressed . He used to have so many friends back then, too . But nowadays, he no longer frequented the messenger, because his friends tab was completely empty at this point . His middle school friends were all getting along with their new high school friends, and yet… He was getting bullied, like this . It wasn’t like he could tell his friends that either . What if they just turn away from him too, as everyone else did?


Right then, he got a new call . It was his mom . Byungsoo took the call with an annoyed face .


“What!”


- . . . Mom might be a little late .


“You’re always late . You wanted me to eat instant noodles again for dinner?”


- I’m sorry, dear .


“Sorry my a.s.s . I heard my friends’ moms all do a bunch of things for them . And here I am, doing all the ch.o.r.es, making all the food… What do you even do for me, mom?”


- Sorry, dear . Mom’s just…


“Stop it . Words are just words . No wonder you got divorced with dad . ”


- . . . You should buy something if you want to eat it . Mom left money on the dining table .


Mom hung up . Byungsoo stared at his phone dumbly for a second .


“ . . . . . . . ”


He could think of nothing other than “I’m an a.s.shole” right then . He was expressing his anger at someone completely unrelated . He started moving faster, feeling tears start welling up in his eyes . He was still in school and he couldn’t afford to show his weak side to his cla.s.smates, lest he get bullied even more . He ran down the stairs and quickly put on his outdoor shoes . The front entrance of the school was s.h.i.+ning in front of him like a gateway to heaven, he needed to leave this h.e.l.l . In the middle of walking, he suddenly turned around towards the bike stands .


‘Why are they . . . ’


“They” were waiting at the front gate . The delinquent in his cla.s.s, the guys who always liked to take money from him . They had pretty girls next to them . Byungsoo wanted nothing else than to pa.s.s those gates without a bit of fear, but he knew that was impossible for him . He pretended to unlock his bike as he glanced at the gates . As he tried to kill time waiting for them to leave, though… .


“That’s not a very good place to hide . ”


A voice came from behind him, Byungsoo turned away in shock . There was only a single type of people who talked to him in schools: delinquents . But… the kid behind him was someone he’d never seen before . No, actually, he saw the boy behind school earlier in the day .


“Why are you so surprised?”


“Eh, ah… well . . . ”


“That bike’s mine, by the way . ”


“Ah! Sorry . ”


Byungsoo quickly let go . This was someone who talked with Changhu without a hint of fear . Probably a delinquent, in that case . That meant he had to lower himself as much as possible .


“Lee Byungsoo, right?”


“ . . . Yeah . ”


In the end, it comes to this, huh . Byungsoo thought of the 20 thousand won in his pocket . Would this be enough? But the kid in front of him ended up saying something completely unexpected instead .


“Can we talk for a second? Ah, that’s what the delinquents over there like to say, isn’t it . ”


“ . . . . . ”


“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something . ”


The boy spoke, scratching his eyebrow . Byungsoo nodded, almost subconsciously .


* * *


“Instructor Miso, Maru . . . ”


“I got a call from him . He has work, right? We were just going to finish with a simple reading session today, so it’s fine . ”


Dojin stepped back with a loud shout of acknowledgment . Miso got a call from Maru just before she arrived at school, the boy apparently had business at Myungdong today . She would’ve rejected them if it were anyone else speaking, but she let Maru go . She knew the boy was very responsible about his words, so she trusted that the boy wouldn’t be wasting time .


“We need to go somewhere after we do our reading . ”


“Where?”


“The theater where the prelims are held . It’s in Anyang . We’re all going to look around together, so get ready . ”


“Yes!


“Good, get together, now . ”


The club gathered at Miso’s gesture .


* * *


Byungsoo followed Han Maru carefully, it honestly didn’t feel good coming back inside the school building . As they walked towards the school store, they ran into some of the kids in Byungsoo’s cla.s.s . Their eyes met, but nothing really special happened . It probably didn’t even register to the others that someone called Byungsoo even existed .


“Same cla.s.s?”


“Ah, yeah . ”


Maru nodded .


“Let’s get a drink before we do anything else .