EAR Ch 35

Perhaps thanks to the genetics of his father who did boat work and his mother who was a track and field athlete in her youth, Seungpyo was also naturally born with a good build and strong strength. As he grew rapidly day by day upon hitting his growth spurt, even the guys who picked fights vanished. What’s more, Oh Seungpyo was smart as well. There couldn’t possibly be any obstacles for a top student ranked number 1 in the whole school who was tall, strong, and handsome. The world was becoming an increasingly kinder and more peaceful place for Oh Seungpyo.

Though that all became the past before he met Ryu Jaemin in high school.

His dad told him that while it was okay to fight bad guys, he should avoid and not deal with crazy guys as much as possible. But what was he supposed to do when he was so angry at that crazy guy? That lunatic broke a promise and lost someone else’s phone, and just because he called a whore a whore, he went so far as to use him in his perverted act?

After scattering things all over the internet for anyone to see, when he couldn’t do that anymore, he pulled that shit right in front of him. Instead of the bastards who left filthy comments, he used him.

Seungpyo burst out of the reference room late. He headed to the Class 2 classroom with long, fast strides, but as expected, he was late. The classroom was completely empty, and the bag placed at Jaemin’s seat was, of course, gone as well.

Since he said he was going to wash his hands, he might be in the restroom. But in the restroom he hurriedly ran to, there was no one. Because he had been frozen in fear for too long in the reference room, he had lost the lunatic. Seungpyo turned on the tap, poured the cold water gushing out over his face several times, and stared at his face reflected in the mirror, making a resolve.

‘Tomorrow, I’m seriously going to kill him.’

With water dripping off his face, Seungpyo headed to his seat. About to pick up his bag right away, he paused, his motion freezing.

An unopened store chocolate milk was placed on top of his desk.

“…Fuck.”

Seungpyo spat out a low curse and stared blankly at the thing placed on his desk. His heart, which had been heated hard and hot with clear rage, crumpled into a strange shape, suffocatingly squeezing his chest.

He swung his arm backward with a snap, as if about to snatch the milk carton and hurl it away. But with his arm raised high, Seungpyo couldn’t move for a while.

Letting out a short sigh, he dropped his arm and trudged toward the restroom again. Once he poured the milk down the drain, crumpled the carton, and threw it into the trash bin, everything was left without a trace.

Walking down the hallway to return home, Seungpyo’s appearance no longer looked like an angry person.

Spring Vacation

In one corner of the classroom, a voice ringing low since morning was distinct.

“He didn’t come?”

The voice of Seungpyo, who had barged into someone else’s classroom right after the first period ended to ask where Ryu Jaemin was with a frost-like momentum, lost its power. At Seungpyo’s counter-question, the Class 2 kids nodded their heads.

“Why isn’t he coming? Did he say he’s coming late today too?”

“We don’t know either.”

The kids’ atmosphere was also somewhat awkward. Their expressions reflected the thought that they hadn’t heard any personal stories at all from Ryu Jaemin, whom they thought they had barely gotten close with through playing basketball after being distant all this time.

Seungpyo hadn’t been able to sleep a wink. The aftermath of the eye terror he suffered in the reference room was that powerful. Returning home yesterday, Seungpyo made every effort to strip the lingering image of that perverted guy from his mind and retinas.

He finished a hundred push-ups and went outside in this winter weather to run for 30 minutes. Even when he moved his body fiercely enough to break a sweat, Jaemin’s face didn’t disappear. If exercise didn’t work, this time, hoping to calmly pull his mind together, he searched for something on the internet called a meditation method for casting off random thoughts and tried following it.

He even found a cute book called a coloring book—which his older brother had bought long ago for whatever reason and shoved away without even opening—and tried doing coloring studies he used to do as a child. Holding a half-peeled colored pencil—he couldn’t even remember when it was bought—in his large hand and flicking colors on it, Seungpyo cleared away everything in front of his eyes in less than 5 minutes.

With his eyes, he was clearly looking at the picture in the book, but in his head, only the image of Ryu Jaemin gasping for breath while slightly scowling kept popping up, so far from clearing random thoughts, they filled up right to the point of overflowing, causing trouble. By the time he was sticking his head in the freezer to cool off as a last resort, he got kicked in the thigh by his brother saying the electricity bill would be high, grumbled, returned to his room, and lay on his bed.

There was no way.

There was no choice but to meet the guy tomorrow, pour out proper curses at him, and relieve his mood. How dare a lunatic pull a perverted act without permission in front of whom? Question: Find the difference between a flasher on the street who suddenly strips off his clothes and Ryu Jaemin. Answer: No difference.

Oh Seungpyo, who had never once thought in his life that he would fall victim to a pervert and see an unspeakable sight, was boiling hot in his head from humiliation. It was true that he was the one who first provoked him to jerk off in front of him, but how long ago was that story? That was then and now is now—why bring up what was said in the past to justify his perverted act?

Seungpyo, who had been gritting his teeth since coming to school promising to beat Ryu Jaemin half to death, barged into the Class 2 classroom as soon as 1st period ended. But the news he faced was the exact same as yesterday. Ryu Jaemin didn’t come today either until 1st period ended.

“By the way, why? You were looking for Ryu Jaemin yesterday morning too.”

At a kid’s question, Seungpyo answered half-heartedly without even smoothing his scowled brow.

“I have something to receive.”

“Did you lend him something?”

“Similar.”

Seungpyo brushed it off roughly and left the classroom. Trudging through the hallway, the Class 2 homeroom teacher happened to be approaching from the opposite side.

‘Should I ask?’

To find out if something happened to Ryu Jaemin and why he kept missing 1st period, asking the homeroom teacher was the fastest and most accurate way.

However, he didn’t like the fact that it might make them look close enough to ask about private life to another class’s homeroom teacher. There was a time when the three syllables of the name Ryu Jaemin existed purely as printed text inside the exam score bulletin board, yet here he was in a situation where he was trying to check the reason first, whether that guy missed 1st period or not.

Like yesterday, he might come to school starting from 2nd period. Even if something happened today, he would come tomorrow, so the feeling of stomping his feet unable to wait through that gap was not pleasant.

“Ah, Seungpyo.”

However, before he could organize his rapidly surging random thoughts, the Class 2 homeroom teacher called Seungpyo first. Seungpyo, who was about to pass with just a slight nod, responded as if he hadn’t been thinking anything.

“Yes?”

“That’s convenient. I had something to ask you.”

“Me? What is it?”

“You know Ryu Jaemin from our class, right? By any chance, do you have lost property to receive from Jaemin?”

Seungpyo didn’t answer right away and blinked his eyes.

Why did the Class 2 homeroom teacher know about that story? It was only yesterday that Ryu Jaemin said he lost his cell phone and couldn’t return it. To suddenly hear a situation that only the two of them knew about from the mouth of the homeroom teacher next door, he couldn’t grasp how things were turning out at all.

Seungpyo hesitated for a moment on what to answer, but soon nodded his head. The teacher asked again to confirm.

“A cell phone?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Now that I’ve checked, that’s fine. A contact came from Jaemin’s house. For now, since I was told to receive it, I’ll hand it over through your homeroom teacher.”

He said he lost it, but he was decided to hand it over through the homeroom teacher?

He didn’t know what was what. As the teacher was about to enter the classroom after finishing only his business, Seungpyo hurriedly called out to stop him.

“Teacher.”

“Hm?”

“Is Ryu Jaemin not coming to school today?”

“Ah, Jaemin decided not to come to supplementary classes starting today.”

“Pardon?”

At the teacher’s answer that lightly surpassed expectations, Seungpyo’s eyes grew large. He continued speaking calmly, as if it weren’t much to be surprised about.