By Zephyria 
“But… Su-hwan Sunbae isn’t the type to do that.”
“Why? What’s your basis?”
“He gave Jae-hyung a lot of advice when he heard his story before, Hae-min relies on and looks up to him, and this time too… Su-hwan Sunbae saved Hae-min.”
“Saved him?”
“If Sunbae hadn’t stepped in, Hae-min might have been hurt much worse. He stepped in and told them to stop, and that’s how it finally ended.”
Min Si-hu said this to defend Yeon Su-hwan, but to my ears, it sounded different. In other words, they kept hitting him until Yeon Su-hwan told them to stop? Was I interpreting it maliciously?
I was about to tell Min Si-hu that I suspected Yeon Su-hwan was the one who leaked information about my consultation with the gym teacher, but I stopped myself. The clueless Min Si-hu looked at me nervously, shrinking back. I didn’t know how close they were to Yeon Su-hwan, but there seemed to be a level of trust I wasn’t aware of.
I couldn’t trust anyone. I coolly processed the situation. Excitement only clouded my vision. Suppressing my turbulent emotions, I drew a clear line.
“Still, just because he’s a Sunbae doesn’t mean we can trust him. Be careful from now on. Don’t trust Yeon Su-hwan Sunbae too much.”
“Mm-hmm. Right…”
Min Si-hu nodded vigorously. Seeing that, I stopped myself from saying anything more. The thought of Yeon Su-hwan made my face harden. He was already an uncomfortable person to pinpoint, and that feeling intensified.
“And you guys.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t just take it.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I turned and went into my room. I suppressed my anger and left a message for the reporter, stating I had additional information to provide. The reply came immediately.
❖ ❖ ❖
‘A week from now.’
I received the exact reporting date from the reporter after completing the additional interview. Confirming it was not far off, I decided to keep my distance from Seong Hae-min until then. Going to school meant facing the Sunbaes uncomfortably. Moreover, I didn’t know when I might be summoned by the Sunbaes again.
Seong Hae-min’s injuries were severe, so he was excused from school. I also received an excused absence for childcare reasons, and we stayed holed up at home for several days.
“Hae-jun-ah, um…”
“Why? Do you need something?”
“Could you possibly put some medicine on my back?”
“Of course!”
Upon Seong Hae-min’s call, I quickly finished washing the dishes. I had boasted that I would take care of the household chores Seong Hae-min usually handled for a while, but it wasn’t an easy task. I had lived in ignorance of so much because I needed to focus on my studies.
Wiping my hands on a dish towel, I ran into the room. Seong Hae-min was sitting on the bed, looking embarrassed with his shirt off. Even though I knew, seeing his bruised body made my breath catch.
“Here’s the medicine.”
Seong Hae-min awkwardly pushed the medicine towards me. I took it wordlessly and stood behind Seong Hae-min.
Looking at his back, dotted with bruises, swelling, and scabs, my chest ached.
I remembered when I fell as a child and came home, my mother would apply medicine, saying she was upset. Back then, I was too young to understand why she was upset… but seeing it firsthand, I understood her feelings. I was truly, deeply upset.
I scooped up some medicine and carefully spread it on his back. I tried to apply it as gently as possible, but he couldn’t help but flinch whenever the cold, sticky medicine touched him.
“Oof…”
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“No.”
“I’ll be quick.”
Knowing Seong Hae-min’s personality, he would never admit it hurt first. I asked anyway, unable to help myself. The more upset I was, the more my anger flared. Those Iljinhoe bastards, I hope you all go to hell!
I couldn’t fathom how these wicked people had beaten someone to this extent.
Although we had reported it to the police, Seong Hae-min didn’t want to inform his parents who lived abroad separately, and the police couldn’t do much anyway, so I had no choice but to suppress my anger every day.
Fortunately, according to the doctor at the hospital I visited a few days ago, there was no damage to his muscles, bones, ligaments, or internal organs, and he just needed to manage it well. He prescribed various medications, telling us to come back immediately if we felt any discomfort.
After closing the medicine cap, I fanned his back to dry the moisture and asked,
“Did you put medicine on everywhere else? The gauze?”
“Yes, I changed it here and here.”
“When did you do it alone? You should have called me.”
I meticulously checked every corner of his arms and legs that Seong Hae-min pointed to. He looked at me and smiled sheepishly. His swollen cheeks made his smiling mouth look square.
Seeing him smile like this makes my heart ache and my resolve weaken, which is my own fault. I let out a deep sigh, wishing for the troubles surrounding us to be resolved quickly.
“Hae-jun-ah~ We’re here!”
A voice, both welcome and unwelcome, knocked on the front door. I opened it and let them into the house. Min Si-hu, carrying a lot of food in both hands, beamed.
They were visiting every day, as if coming to see a patient. Since they showed up without invitation, I couldn’t turn them away, so I just let them in quietly and then sent them back out. Their efforts to cheer me up were so earnest they made me sigh, and I couldn’t find an excuse to refuse.
Actually, at first, they had wanted to skip school too. When I reacted with horror and a look of disdain, they gave up and were attending school on their own.
Watching them settle in as if it were their own home, I clicked my tongue and headed to the kitchen to organize the items Min Si-hu had brought.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
As I was neatly storing the items Min Si-hu bought in the kitchen cupboard, a blunt voice called me. Turning around, Lee Beom approached and handed me a piece of paper. His hand, offering the small, folded paper, was rough.
“What is it?”
To my question, Lee Beom simply gestured with his chin, as if telling me to see for myself. I put down the bag of ramen I was holding and unfolded the neatly creased paper.
1st Place: Seong Hae-jun
“Hmm?”
Beneath my name, written neatly at the top, were the names and ranks of students, filled in with neat handwriting.
2nd Place: Kim Yoon-ji, 3rd Place: Park Young-chan, 4th Place: Jeon Jae-hyung…
And so on, up to 100th place.
“……”
“……”
We were enveloped in silence for a moment.
“You copied all of this down?”
I looked at Lee Beom, bewildered. He simply nodded silently.
Despite the chaotic atmosphere at school, administrative work was proceeding diligently, and it seemed the grades had already come out. There would probably be a large ranking board posted in front of the faculty office again, and Lee Beom had copied it all down.
The thought of him scribbling this in front of the ranking board struck me as absurd. If he was going to tell me, he could have just looked at my rank and told me…
I quickly scanned the paper for Lee Beom’s name. Jeon Jae-hyung was still listed in 4th place, so there was no need to search for him. But no matter how much I looked, Lee Beom’s name was nowhere to be found.
As I scanned again, a strange, single-character name caught my eye.
28th Place: Na
“…You’re 28th?”
“Yeah.”
“……”
It was unbelievable. At the same time, it felt like something Lee Beom would do.
28th place was an improvement from the midterm exams. In fact, it was the most significant academic progress among the Four Heavenly Kings. In high school, unless you had a solid foundation, grades wouldn’t improve just by trying. It was amazing how he had studied so much.
“Good job.”
Still, I offered a brief word of encouragement. Whether he was smart or not, for Lee Beom, who was close to being a blockhead in the novel, to achieve this level of academic performance, he must have worked hard.
I refolded the paper and handed it back to Lee Beom. Perhaps surprised by the unexpected praise, Lee Beom stood there blankly for a moment before nodding his head belatedly. The crumpled paper eventually ended up in my pocket.
“Seong Hae-jun.”
“Yeah?”
“……”
Just as I was wondering why he called me and wasn’t speaking, Lee Beom mumbled,
“Are you smart?”
What kind of question was that? Even as I thought it, I answered honestly.
“I… guess so?”
Should I be saying I’m smart myself? But I got into a top university, so I should have this much self-confidence, right? I rationalized it internally. My face felt hot.
“If you’re smart, you must know a lot.”
I couldn’t grasp what Lee Beom was trying to say. I looked at him blankly.
“When you know more, things you see start to change. Living like a delinquent… I only realized that important thing now.”
And then, Lee Beom suddenly began to confess about himself in a soft voice. It was an unexpected action for someone who, while not as talkative as Jeon Jae-hyung, wasn’t exactly verbose. I let his words drift in one ear while my hands continued to tidy up the remaining items.
“The world you see must be different from the world I see.”
Suddenly?
Even with my cold personality, I wasn’t so broken that I would respond with ‘That’s right!’ in a situation like this. He was studying hard and achieving good grades as a result, and I didn’t want to discourage him. I offered what I thought was a clumsy form of comfort.
“Still, we live in the same world.”
“Ha…”
Hearing my words, Lee Beom faltered for a moment, then burst into laughter as if deflating. He loosely clenched his fist as if his hand was tingling and murmured softly,
“Until recently, I thought my heart was just circulating inside my body, and that’s why I felt this way.”
What a ridiculous joke. I responded with a hollow laugh.
“It was that bad? You have a funny way of putting things.”
“……”
“……You weren’t joking?”
Lee Beom’s expression turned stoic, and the tips of his ears turned bright red. In that moment, I was so flustered that I dropped the iced tea carton I was holding.
“Ah!”
The heavy plastic carton, full of liquid, bounced and rolled away with a thud.
Lee Beom bent down, picked up the iced tea carton, and handed it to me. It was fortunate that it was unopened, so I hadn’t spilled powder on the floor, but thanks to that, my eyes discovered something that sent shivers down my spine.
It wasn’t just the tips of his ears. Lee Beom’s neck was also flushed red.