Life, Once Again!

Chapter 88

Chapter 88


Chapter 88


It was November .


The closer the day got to the 13th, the quieter the rest of the school became . It was even forbidden to talk on the fourth floor where the third years were . For years now, the princ.i.p.al and the faculty worked as much as possible to change the image of the school from a school for delinquents to a school for scholars . At this point, the fact that those who stayed after school to study had the benefit of air conditioning . This right would soon get pa.s.sed down onto the second years and the first years as well .


“At this rate, our school major would change from engineering to humanities,” Dojin said, rolling the candy on his tongue .


He could see a few kids gripping onto the textbook despite it being break time . They were students who came here trying to get into engineering colleges in the future . Despite having good enough grades to go to a decent school in Suwon, these kids came here instead . So that they could become the head of a snake instead of the tail of a dragon .


“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, why don’t you play around a bit during break time? You study too much . ”


Changhu was going around picking fights with all the studious kids . They just promptly ignored him, though . Almost as if they didn’t care about the abuse they received from him . After all, the only reason why they were at this school was to go to a better one . Changhu probably knew that messing with them would be no fun as well .


“Go to Seoul university, why don’t you . ”


Changhu scanned the room for other targets with a mocking smile .


“Changhu! Let’s go!”


“Yeah . ”


Changhu left once the kids from other cla.s.ses called him .


“That b.a.s.t.a.r.d, he’s always like this . ”


“Don’t worry about him, picking a fight with a dog is just a waste of your time . ”


“I’m fine, since he doesn’t really talk to me nowadays, but I still feel nervous . Especially with what he said . . . ”


“The fire at the auditorium?”


“Yeah . ”


Maru turned his head to look at Changhu outside . He stopped picking a fight with them recently, probably because he found more friends . Especially since Dojin became a lot composed lately as well . This was a good sign, Maru wasn’t a fan of having to deal with delinquents himself .


‘A fight between kids is definitely scary, after all . ’


Adults had a lot of things to consider . They would consider their losses first before fighting, but kids were different . The smarter ones also knew that they wouldn’t be severely punished for committing felonies as well . Even if they put a kid in a wheelchair, they would probably just have to spend some time doing volunteer work . Changhu knew that very well himself, which was what made him very hard to deal with .


“If he gets in my way again . . . ”


Dojin cracked his fingers with a frown .


“Stop it . I thought you graduated from that stuff already?”


“That’s true, but . . . ”


“Just focus on work . Don’t bother wasting your energy on other things . ”


“I know, I know . ”


“Good . Ah, right . Did you see that message by the way?”


“About how the prelims got pushed to December?”


Maru nodded . The compet.i.tion that originally had its prelims in November and the main compet.i.tion in December got pushed back by a month . Something about the location, according to Miso?


“More practice for two months, huh . Not like there’s anything more we can do . ”


The club was repeating runs of their play after that one festival, enough to start acting in their dreams . Dojin muttered a few words of annoyance under his breath before turning to look at Daemyung . Maru recently noticed that the boy’s eyes towards Daemyung had changed quite a bit .


“Did you two fight?”


“What? No way . Me? Fight who now?” Dojin asked with a smile .


“With Daemyung . You guys aren’t talking much nowadays, right?”


“Ah, right . ”


Dojin may have dismissed it, but his expression clearly said something different . Did something bad happen? Dojin avoided Maru’s gaze for a while, before finally giving in .


“I’ll buy you some hot chocolate . Can we step outside?”


* * *


Right outside the school where the school store was, was a little vending machine . One that sold little cups of hot chocolate and iced tea . To the students, this place was a sort of a pit stop . According to the rumors, the person who maintains this vending machine was rich enough to own land in Gangnam .


“Maybe I should try putting a vending machine in a school as well,” Dojin let out .


“What are you talking about, all of a sudden?” Maru said, taking a sip of his drink .


“It’s nothing . ”


“You’ve been using that phrase a lot recently, now that I think about it . Here I thought the person called Han Dojin was someone with a very vocal mind . ”


“Was I?”


Dojin looked down at his drink . his face reflected through the brownish liquid . Whenever he looked at himself through a mirror, he used to think he was pretty well off . Nowadays, though, he looked very ugly through the hot chocolate .


It was lunchtime . Despite winter being so close, the field was still filled with students playing soccer . Dojin looked at the soccer ball flying across for a second before opening his mouth .


“I’m jealous of Daemyung . ”


He immediately regretted speaking, but it was already too late . Dojin shrugged and sipped on his drink . It felt bitter .


“Did something happen?”


Strangely enough, Dojin felt it would be alright to talk to Maru about this . It felt like the other boy would say something helpful for him .


“It looks like… Daemyung signed a contract with some sort of company . His college is going to be paid for, and he’s going to have a job afterward as well . ”


Right when he said this, he noticed Maru looking away for a second . What was that about? Maru opened his mouth after a few seconds .


“So, you’re jealous of that? The scholars.h.i.+p?”


“No, not that . Just, um, you know . He was a little iffy-looking when we first met him . ”


“He had all the characteristics of a victim of bullying . He was one, too . ”


“Hey! He’s a friend, you know!”


Maru grinned at Dojin’s angry words .


“At least you think of him as a friend, then . Thank goodness, it’s not as bad as I thought . ”


. . . Hearing that made Dojin a bit mad . Come to think of it, the other boy always seemed to know what the people around him were thinking .


Maru felt like a friend who wasn’t a friend, someone more akin to an older brother than anything .


“Who said he wasn’t a friend? It’s just… I felt so annoyed at myself . My middle school life was a mess, so I decided to come here to change things, but here I am . Nothing happened for the first year of high school . I didn’t study, I didn’t do anything special, nor did I win any awards . It’s not like I’m good at something, either . ”


“And suddenly seeing Daemyung, who you looked down on, suddenly doing well made you jealous?”


“Hey, that’s a very mean way to put it . It’s not like that . I’m just disappointed in myself . ”


“Be honest here . If you want to fix a problem, you need to know what the problem is beforehand . There’s a bunch of people in this world who live better lives than you, but that didn’t seem to bother you until recently . You suddenly got angry at yourself after hearing that Daemyung was doing well?”


“Yeah! Fine! I’m jealous! I hate him! Is that enough?”


He shouldn’t have asked Maru for help . He expected to hear some words he didn’t want to hear, but not to this degree…


‘ . . . No, maybe I wanted Maru to say something like this to me . ’


He was jealous of Daemyung . He was annoyed, too . Even someone like Daemyung managed to find a life for himself, and what was he doing?


Dojin’s true feelings revealed itself for a split second, making Dojin frown bitterly .


“If you knew what I was just thinking about, you’d think I’m complete trash . Good G.o.d . ”


“Something about someone like Daemyung doing well, but you can’t?”


Dojin looked at Maru dumbly .


“H-how did you know?”


“They say people only manage to communicate about 30% of information through words . The rest is carried through expressions, gestures, and the context of the entire conversation . ”


“Hah . Could you not tell Daemyung about this? I’m totally trash, aren’t I? My friend is doing well, and yet all I can think is… ugh . ”


“You always feel worse when you hear someone close to you is doing well . The feeling of jealousy is worse depending on how well you know the person . ”


“Don’t you feel anything about this? After hearing about Daemyung’s opportunity?”


Dojin was curious about what Maru thought . Was he really the only one who thought like this? Right then, Maru looked away with an awkward cough . For the second time . Dojin realized then that information really was conveyed mostly through expressions and gestures .


“ . . . You too?”


“Yeah, something like that . ”


“You! When?”


“Mine’s actually supposed to be a secret . Ah, Geunseok probably got a similar contract to Daemyung, though . ”


“Really?”


“Yeah . ”


“No way . ”


Dojin suddenly felt very annoyed . What was he talking to Maru about this for?


“Don’t try to hurry,” Maru said .


He continued after crus.h.i.+ng the empty cup in his hand .


“Life doesn’t always work the way you want it to . You can prepare all you want for something, but half the time, it doesn’t go the way you want it to . ”


“That doesn’t help me at all, you know? Ugh, I feel like I’ve been betrayed . So I was just getting left out here?”


Maru laughed a little, which only managed to provoke Dojin more .


“You guys can only say that because there’s someone watching out for you . I’m… I just get annoyed . I’m working just as hard as you, but… This just feels like wasted time . ”


“I guess it’s fair to see it that way . . ”


“Ugh, aren’t you supposed to say something encouraging here?”


“If people could change just through words, I’d use all of those words on you right now, but people don’t change that easily . Plus, you don’t need any advice or encouragement . You didn’t do anything wrong, nor is there anything wrong about the way you think . Daemyung and I were lucky, so we got chosen . Who knows when this luck would leave us?”


“But you guys ended up getting something anyway . ”


And he was the only one left where he originally started . While his two friends were advancing on and on .


“What do you want me to tell you?”


“ . . . . . . ”


Hearing that left Dojin a little lost for words . He was just annoyed . He knew he didn’t have the right to complain because he never prepared for anything or ever had any goals . Yet, he felt like he was betrayed somehow . He thought his two friends would be by his side forever, and yet…


“It’s normal to feel jealous, but try not to hang onto that feeling for too long . Don’t try to lie to yourself either . Don’t try to ignore Daemyung . Stuff like that is what ruins relations.h.i.+ps . So just do what you’re good at doing: being honest . Go to Daemyung and talk to him about it . He’s probably a little worried as well . ”


“Hah, but that makes me look like the pathetic one . ”


“You were, though . ”


“You . . . ”


“But… thanks . ”


Thanks? Dojin looked at Maru oddly .


“Thanks for telling me your thoughts . I know that’s a very difficult thing to do . ”


Maru turned around after patting Dojin’s shoulder .


“Plus, I think it’s good that you’re worried about this at your age . But don’t try to look too far ahead into the future . You’re just a high schooler, and life isn’t so easy that it will always follow your plans . If you’re willing to make plans for yourself, you have to be ready to see those plans get broken . ”


“You say that, but you’re doing a lot of things already, aren’t you?”


“Me?”


Maru turned around with a slight grin .


“Well, I’m doing this because I know a bunch of things . So I’m trying it all . ”


Know a bunch of things? Dojin thought about those words for a second before frowning .


“Ah, whatever . I’m just going to say I’m jealous that you guys are doing well . So what if I feel pathetic? I should talk to Daemyung about this as well . ”


“There’s the Dojin I know . ”


“But if you guys do well, I’m going to leech off of you two hard . You better be prepared . ”


“Any time . I’m willing to feed a friend whenever I can . ”


Something told Dojin that Maru was being honest . Perhaps Maru would really lend him a room if he really needed it .


“Come . It’s practice time already . ”


Maru gestured towards the stairs .