By Zephyria 
The distance from home to school wasn’t far, but I took the bus today because I was particularly tired, and it turned out to be a bad decision.
“Agh! Seriously!”
The man standing behind me scowled and shook his head. He had a rough face with a large scar on his cheek, a noticeable stubble, and a very bulky build. As soon as I met his menacing gaze, I felt my body freeze like a block of ice.
‘Don’t get involved.’
I quickly averted my eyes, but he was staring directly at me.
“Hey, pretty boy, is that you?”
“…….”
“Hey. Are you ignoring me!”
“…Me?”
“Yeah, you pretty boy. Is it you?”
“No.”
“How do you know it’s not you?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Life was too exhausting. I checked his uniform; it wasn’t from my school. I desperately prayed in my heart that this wasn’t the start of a school conflict.
“From what I can see, it looks like you.”
“What are you even talking about…”
“You touched my butt, didn’t you? Damn it. Some insignificant punk.”
“What…?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’?”
“Me…? You…?”
“Meee~? Yooou~?”
“…….”
“Are you looking down on me right now?”
“No.”
“What do you mean no! I saw you!”
This damn it.
I felt like the skin under my eyes was caving in.
If you’re going to pick a fight, at least make it make sense. What glory would I gain from touching that big guy’s butt! I’d rather touch my own butt!
I just sighed inwardly. For the sake of my future freedom, I knew I had to resolve this here without it reaching Seong Hae-min’s ears, but my stamina wouldn’t allow it. I wanted to go home before even getting to school.
Exhausted, I mumbled.
“You must have mistaken me for someone else. It really wasn’t me.”
“What? If it wasn’t you, then who was it?”
“Honestly, I don’t think anyone here would do something like that.”
“Wait a minute. Hey, you, let me see?”
The bulky man, in the crowded bus, turned his body and began to scrutinize my face. I had to get off at the next stop. I glanced at the stop request button. It was lit red.
‘Escape.’
I made a quick decision.
You can’t reason with someone whose brain and intestines have swapped places like this. I was preparing to bolt through the crowd as soon as the back door opened, calculating my escape route.
“Hey, you bastard, I knew I’d seen you somewhere. You’re Seong Hae-min’s twin, aren’t you? Shit, something happened to me by Seong Hae-min recently, so this is great. Shit!”
What? Seong Hae-min is truly a useless twin! I screamed inwardly.
If you wanted to be such a good Hyung, you should stop picking fights everywhere and do something more productive. Wouldn’t it have been so much better if you’d always behaved properly? Resentment towards Seong Hae-min surged. It was unfair enough that I’d fallen into a novel like this in the first place!
Despite the chaos, he precisely grabbed my wrist. It seemed his size wasn’t just for show, as the grip on my wrist was so strong that a pained groan escaped me.
“Nngh!”
“Hey? That’s enough.”
Even an nameless extra who fights is still a thug. My wrist felt like it was about to be crushed by his firm grip. It was definitely at least a bruise, at worst a fracture. The pain was so intense that tears welled up reflexively, when someone pushed through the crowd beside me.
Through my blurry vision, I saw our school uniform. I felt relieved that someone from our school had stepped in, but only for a moment.
His face, which was handsome and approachable with a lingering smirk, had hair grown messily like a lion’s mane, his tie was long gone, there was no name tag on his chest, his shirt buttons were all undone, and he wore a thin gold necklace underneath…
No matter how much it hurt, I didn’t want help from him. Was I trying to fix one problem only to create another?
“Who are you!”
“A lackey from Jeseong High, trying to tell me what to do? Huh? You want to trade it for some candy?”
The brute seemed intimidated by the lion-maned delinquent in a school uniform who had suddenly appeared. While still holding my wrist, he yelled at the other guy.
“Lackey? Shit, Jeseong High’s Do Yun-hyeok is my Hyung! Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?”
Do Yun-hyeok?
While I was already pale, hearing the name mentioned by the brute’s mouth made my face stiffen. Even someone who had only skimmed the novel wouldn’t forget the name Do Yun-hyeok. That’s because he was a villain who had a notoriously wicked streak.
Do Yun-hyeok was a character who seemed to embody the words ‘cowardly’ and ‘petty,’ not hesitating to use any means to achieve his goals, regardless of ethics. In short, he was the kind of unlikeable character you wouldn’t want to even see, let alone associate with.
And the guy holding me now was someone who worked under him? Not just any random thug, but that villain character?
“Haha, Do Yun-hyeok…”
Upon hearing the name Do Yun-hyeok, the school uniform guy’s face hardened considerably, and he smiled slyly, his pupils splitting vertically like a snake’s. The smirk from before was completely gone.
What was with that change in expression? My wrist was already being held so tightly that I could feel blood pooling, and now it felt like all the blood was draining away. My head spun.
The ensuing conversation between the two men was even more repulsive.
“Do you think I’m easy? Who the hell are you! State your name!”
“Did that pig just tell me to state my name? Cough.”
…What’s with that laugh?
It jolted me awake, and I wanted to cover my ears. Was he a chef or something? It was a laugh that completely shattered the tension among the students on the bus.
Instead of the easy option of wearing a name tag on his chest, the school uniform guy chose to enunciate his name, letter by letter, as if rolling a poem in his mouth. I emptied my mind as much as possible to endure the cringe.
“Yeon. Su. Hwan.”
“…What?”
“…Is what I’d say? Cough.”
Upon hearing the three syllables, the brute’s face instantly turned white, then red, then yellow, and finally blue. He was like a traffic light.
“Yo… Yo, Yo, Yo- Yeo… Yeo…”
“Cough.”
“Yeo… Yeon Su-hwan?! The Yeon Su-hwan I know?”
“Your reaction is amusing?”
I couldn’t escape since my wrist was still being held, so I stood there awkwardly. His tone was really… something.
I checked outside the bus window and racked my brain. I planned to bolt the moment the doors opened at the next stop.
“Is it… really Yeon Su-hwan…?”
“Yeah. Are you coming to your senses now?”
The brute’s eyes darted wildly as he confirmed the name of the school uniform guy, and the grip on my wrist slowly loosened. I quickly pulled my arm back. It hurt. My hand was numb and tingling. Ugly, reddish handprint marks, as if someone had scribbled with a marker, remained on my arm.
But the brute wasn’t the only one surprised by the school uniform guy’s name. People nearby also started whispering, “Did you hear? He said Yeon Su-hwan!”, “Yeon Su-hwan?”, “Yeon Su-hwan?”, “Why is Yeon Su-hwan on the school bus at this hour?”, “Wasn’t Yeon Su-hwan suspended?”
Amidst the many murmurs, the word “suspended” stood out.
‘Suspended.’
It seemed like the person who saved me was a person of interest. I didn’t know who he was, but I wanted to pretend I never met him. While I was grateful for the help, the fact that he had been suspended made me feel less grateful. I didn’t want to get acquainted.
Just then, the stop I had been eagerly waiting for arrived, and the bus stopped. As the rear door opened, I tried to flee, but the person who introduced himself as Yeon Su-hwan grabbed my other wrist, the one not yet injured, and quickly pulled me off the bus as if he knew me. I was dragged off like a piece of paper.
The brute, caught in the crowd of our school students disembarking, flailed. The school uniform guy, still holding my arm, smiled and waved shamelessly at the closing rear door of the bus. It was a bright smile.
“You, you! Ye, Ye, Yeon Su-hwan! Next time, I won’t let you off… easily! If only my Hyung were here, cough!”
The brute, sticking his head dangerously out the bus window, yelled while pointing. I rolled my eyes in disbelief.
Sticking his head out the window so recklessly? Wasn’t that a violation of traffic laws?
The honking shouts faded as the bus pulled away. Thus, only the students who had disembarked with me, myself, and the school uniform guy who identified himself as Yeon Su-hwan remained at the stop. The students, not seeming to be in a hurry to get to school, kept glancing over and whispering.
I couldn’t even gather the mental energy to compose myself under the curious and intrigued gazes of the students. I just wanted to get to a quiet classroom quickly.
“…Thank you.”
Still, I had received help, so I had to do my part. I politely expressed my gratitude. I didn’t want to give him any reason to complain, as he might be the type to boast about helping.
“Hmm-”
However, perhaps it stirred his sympathy, because the delinquent school uniform guy, who I thought would just leave, stopped near the school gate and stared intently at me. I awkwardly lowered my gaze to avoid meeting his eyes.
“Let me see?”
Then, he suddenly extended his calloused palm towards me and insisted on seeing my wrist.
“What?”
“Your wrist. Where you were grabbed earlier.”
“……”
“Tsk. Hurry.”