# Chapter 11
I hesitated as I watched the cars speeding by quickly, then soon spotted the pedestrian overpass installed above the road. Fortunately, the pervert was climbing the tall and long overpass instead of jaywalking.
There was a large park across the road. After passing through that park, there would be a small area with one-room apartments. It seemed like the pervert was planning to cut through the park and escape into the residential area with its many alleys. That meant if I couldn’t catch him here, it would become even more difficult.
“Hey, you perverted bastard! Won’t you stop?!”
“You idiot! Would you stop if you were me?!”
The pervert raised his middle finger and bounded up the overpass stairs. I sighed and followed up the stairs behind him. The overpass was large and high, spanning an eight-lane road, so it had considerably more steps than others.
“Huff… huff.”
About halfway up the stairs, the pervert’s pace slowed. It seemed difficult for him to climb stairs after sprinting at full speed. This was my chance to catch him, but the problem was that my pace had slowed just the same. The overload on my thigh muscles, which I rarely used, made it feel like my quadriceps would burst.
“Huaah! If I catch you, you’re dead.”
I gritted my teeth and moved my heavy feet. I couldn’t stop here. The pervert, desperately trying to escape me following behind, let out a sigh of exasperation.
“Ugh, aah. You disgusting bastard. Stop chasing me!”
“Huff… huff… The only disgusting thing here is your dick!”
The pervert and I, having depleted our energy before reaching the top, grabbed the stair railing and breathed heavily. The pervert was about ten steps away from the top, while I was about four steps below where he was standing, wiping away my sweat.
The pervert was within arm’s reach. Now that he was tired, it was the perfect opportunity to catch him. But if I moved carelessly, he might make it all the way up onto the overpass. If that happened, he would somehow escape to the park on the opposite side. I didn’t have the energy to continue playing tag with him. I needed to end this here.
“Haah… ha… I’m dying…”
I pretended to be completely exhausted, leaning against the railing and exaggeratedly gasping for breath while observing him. Seeing this, the pervert snickered and spoke to me.
“Hey, mister. Why don’t we just end this here nicely?”
“…”
“I was thinking of going to a different school soon anyway. If you let me go, I’ll go somewhere else besides Hanguk High School.”
It was not even remotely funny. In a situation where he should be begging not to commit any more perverted acts, he was talking about moving to a different school. I was dumbfounded by his shamelessness, but I silently listened to what he had to say.
“So let’s just stop here and part ways.”
“Wait—!”
It was the moment the pervert was about to climb up the stairs again. I gathered my remaining strength and leaped up to the step where the pervert was standing.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
At the same time, I stretched out my hand and grabbed his shoulder. The thin coat made of cheap material bunched in my hand. Just as I was about to celebrate finally catching this disgusting pervert, he twisted his body in panic.
“F-fuck! Won’t you let go?!”
“I can’t! I won’t!”
As I stubbornly held onto the pervert, he pushed my chest with all his might using his other arm that I hadn’t caught.
“Huh, huh?”
My body lost balance and tilted backward.
“Aaaah—!”
I flailed my arms in the air trying to regain my balance. I barely managed to grab the hem of the pervert’s coat, but at the same time, my ankle, which had been weakened from a previous sprain, twisted sideways.
“Argh!”
A groan escaped me involuntarily from the shooting pain in my ankle. Instinctively, I tightened my grip on the pervert. He shook with irritation.
“Ah, you’re so persistent! I said let go!”
Thwack!
This time, the pervert’s palm shoved my chest hard. There was no way I could hold on.
Finally, I lost my grip on the pervert’s clothes. With nothing to hold onto, my center of gravity shifted backward. I tried my best to maintain balance, but it was difficult to do so with just my left foot.
“…!”
An overwhelming sense of weightlessness enveloped my entire body. It happened so suddenly that I couldn’t even scream. The pervert’s surprised face entered my vision, but he didn’t try to catch me.
The sensation of my body floating in the air wasn’t particularly pleasant. Gravity, which couldn’t be resisted by human strength, pulled me downward, and I closed my eyes tightly, preparing for the imminent fall.
At that moment, a strong wind blew from behind me, and someone wrapped around my lower back as I was falling backward. A large, firm palm stably supported my lower abdomen. Thanks to that, I didn’t fall backward and was able to stand upright.
“Huff… huff…”
Having survived a near-death experience, I clutched my pounding heart and checked who had caught me.
“Wow. If I hadn’t caught you, something terrible would have happened.”
Heerim, who had appeared without me noticing, was standing behind me with an innocent face. His hat, which he had been wearing pulled down, flew off in the wind blowing over the overpass and went down the stairs.
“H-how… no, when did you follow me?”
“I told you it’s fine to move at a leisurely pace.”
I couldn’t help but gape in disbelief at this situation. Clearly, Heerim had been walking leisurely far behind me. Even when I was climbing the overpass stairs, he had been so far away that he wasn’t visible. Even if he had run quickly, there was no way he could have been at the right distance to catch me just as I was about to roll down from the top of the overpass stairs.
“Hyung. Are you okay?”
Heerim’s gaze fell on my right ankle. Only then did I feel the sharp pain in my ankle and grimaced.
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“It might swell a bit, but I’m fine. I can still walk.”
The sprained area was throbbing, but it didn’t seem like there was a problem with the bone or ligament. I tried to smile awkwardly and gently removed Heerim’s hand that was holding my waist.
“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital? It hasn’t been that long since your ankle healed.”
“It’s not serious enough to go to the hospit—”
I suddenly stopped mid-sentence and looked up at Heerim, feeling strange. How did Heerim know I had injured my ankle? Now that I thought about it, there was an odd sense of déjà vu in this situation.
“It was him, right?”
Heerim pointed his chin toward the pervert. His face had hardened coldly.
Ah. That’s the face I saw before.
“I-I didn’t do it on purpose! I clearly told him to let go!”
The pervert jumped in surprise at Heerim’s murderous gaze and shouted, then ran across the overpass bridge.
“Heerim. What are you doing? We need to catch him!”
This time, Heerim’s cold gaze fell on me. Just his gaze made my body hair stand on end. Seeing my bewilderment, he sighed.
“I told you not to overdo it.”
Is he angry?
Why?
I’m the one who got hurt, so why is he angry? It was absurd. He didn’t do anything and acted leisurely, so why is he angry at me?
“If you’re not going to catch that perverted bastard, step aside! I’ll catch him myself!”
Feeling unfair and frustrated, I pushed Heerim aside and climbed up the remaining stairs. As I limped across the overpass with my hurt leg, Heerim grabbed the back of my neck. His cold expression had somewhat softened.
“Your leg is hurting, so why are you moving? Hyung, just stay still. I’ll get revenge for you.”
“What? Revenge? No, just catch that bastard first…”
“Ugh, aaaahhh!”
My words were drowned out by someone’s scream. Startled, I looked toward the sound and saw the pervert, who had been trying to go down the stairs on the opposite side, sitting down with a scream. Almost collapsed on the ground, he was clutching his ankle and struggling. His reaction was too extreme for just a twisted ankle.
“Aaaah! Ah!”
“What’s going on? Why is he suddenly acting like that?”
“Maybe he sprained his foot while running.”
Heerim walked toward the pervert with a nonchalant, almost indifferent demeanor. I followed behind, wearing a somewhat stupid expression, not understanding what was happening. The pervert was screaming and passing out without even noticing our approach. When I got close to him and checked his condition, I was startled.
“Aaah! Ah! My foot, my foot! Aaaahh!”
“H-Heerim. That person’s ankle is twisted?!”
The pervert’s right foot was bent backward. His ankle was completely twisted, too severe to be just a simple sprain. Just looking at it made me wince in pain. Now I understood why he had been screaming so excessively. However, I couldn’t understand why his ankle had twisted so severely on the overpass bridge where there were no rocks or corners.
“I told you earlier, right? You should definitely go to the hospital.”
Heerim didn’t seem bothered at all by the pervert’s horribly twisted ankle. Rather, he looked over the pervert’s half-naked body with concern. It wasn’t clear whether he was worried about the twisted ankle or the small size of his genitals.
“Heerim…”
I felt an inexplicable chill from Heerim. Right now, Heerim seemed to be concerned about the other person, but I couldn’t feel any sincerity. Instead, it felt like he was mocking the other person. The pervert must have felt it too, because he screamed even more when he saw Heerim.
Is this what he meant by getting revenge?
I looked at the pervert’s terribly twisted ankle, which was starting to swell, and shook my head.
That’s impossible. It’s not like he has superpowers…
Just then, my eyes met Heerim’s, who had been watching me. His face, which had been coldly hardened until just a moment ago, crinkled into a smile. It was a bright smile. I pretended not to see and turned my head. I was confused. I couldn’t tell whether that face was wearing a mask or whether the mask had been removed.
“Now we just need the police to arrive. Good work, Jaeo hyung.”
“…?”
Heerim’s voice was trembling slightly. Feeling strange, I looked at Heerim again. For some reason, the smiling Heerim’s complexion wasn’t good. His face had turned pale.
“Is your ankle okay?”
“No. I’m not asking about me, but about you, Heerim? Your face looks really bad?”
Heerim nodded awkwardly with a smile. At that moment, as I was thinking that his black hair seemed to shine white in the reflected sunlight, Heerim’s body lurched forward significantly.
“Heerim!”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
