# Chapter 11
“Huh? That’s the first time I’ve heard that name. Why? Is that someone who bullied you?”
“No, no, no! It’s nothing like that at all, absolutely not, so don’t misunderstand. Please.”
I waved my arms vigorously toward Seong Haemin, whose face had completely hardened at my words. I ignored my rapidly rising sense of despair and denied it intensely. Bullying? If anything, she was a friend who would liberate me. But you’re telling me you don’t know her!
“Hmm… I’ve never heard of Sihu either?”
“Who’s that now?”
“Hmm… somehow the name does sound familiar…”
Yeon Suhwan was the only one who answered that he thought he’d heard the name Ban Pyoran within this group.
To think they don’t even know Ban Pyoran yet, really…
‘How devastating!’
I quickly raised both my hands.
But I didn’t have time to be buried in despair. It was clear that my initial goal of “not forming relationships from the start” had already gone down the drain.
When a plan fails, you need to revise it as soon as possible and establish a new, achievable plan with new objectives.
I diligently worked my brain that was trying to sink into frustration.
‘How do I escape this situation?’
The only key that came to mind was, of course, the female protagonist, Ban Pyoran.
If I found Ban Pyoran, it was obvious that the Four Kings, who were the main characters of the novel, would turn their attention to her. Since the amount of affection humans can have is limited, they couldn’t focus on multiple people at once.
And while their interest in me diminished, I could distance myself!
“Is Haejun the person you’re looking for? Should I have Sihu track them down?”
“No! Let’s just eat. Huh? I’m hungry.”
Min Sihu was spouting nonsense again. What do you mean ‘track them down’? Are you guys gangsters? You’re only 17! With frustration building up in my chest, I tried to change the subject to something more normal.
“Right, Haejun must be hungry. He’s been passed out for a while. Let’s get something to eat quickly.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Haejun, what do you want to eat? Is there anything you’d like?”
“Anything is fine with me.”
“No need to be considerate, just think about what you want first.”
When I was about to reply to Seong Haemin that anything was fine, Lee Beom wiggled his eyebrows like worms and spewed some bullshit about not needing to be considerate. Then he blurted out what seemed to be either an order or advice. I could feel a vein popping on my forehead.
I have no idea why he so thoroughly misunderstood, but I wasn’t being considerate in the first place. And logically, shouldn’t you be grateful when someone is considerate? It was beyond ridiculous. I laughed awkwardly to suppress my anger.
“Ah. Haha. Ha.”
“That’s right. Haejun, let’s eat what you want.”
What I really want is for all of you to get the hell out of this house right now?
“Um… then let’s order jajangmyeon.”
Trying my best to smooth out my face that was about to freeze, I chose the most neutral menu item, and Seong Haemin called the Chinese restaurant with a bright smile like spring flowers.
And so, my small wish to be excluded from this friendship was mercilessly destroyed without a trace.
‘I’ll help you with your meetings’
I had become Seong Haejun, the fragile twin brother protected by the Four Kings. That’s right. My plan to avoid forming any friendship with the Four Kings had been completely destroyed!
Of course, I wasn’t completely unacquainted with the Four Kings in the original novel, but I was never such a central figure in their relationships. I have no idea where things went wrong. Looking at the situation as positively as possible, it’s better than completely messing up the college entrance exam, but…
However, a few days ago, I almost fainted when I heard that students these days were including me in an unofficial Four Kings. Perhaps it might be worse than failing the college entrance exam…
The official Four Kings are Lee Beom, Min Sihu, Jeon Jehyeong, and Seong Haemin, and unofficially they’re adding me, Haemin’s twin. I nearly had an eye-rolling experience. The sky seemed to turn yellow like urine. Of course, if I collapsed like that, I knew Seong Haemin would immediately rush over and carry me to the hospital faster than the emergency services, so I had to do my best not to collapse.
“We’ve got a group date with Manhae High on Saturday, who wants to go!!”
“I can’t.”
“Me neither, really.”
“Cool…”
“Wuuu… you’re all so mean! Then I should ask Jjuni to go~!”
“That’s not happening. I’ll go instead.”
Since the day the group from Jeseong High showed up at our school gate, evidence that my life was ruined started to appear one by one, and one of them was the Four Kings visiting my classroom during every break time.
The four guys around me were monopolizing the passionate gazes of the class students. Thanks to them, I was also receiving burning stares. My peaceful break times had disappeared, and I was living a life like a shaman walking on knives, where I’d get attention just for breathing.
Is it even a life if you can’t rest comfortably during break time!
“Jjuni, Jjuni, wanna go on a group date? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm?”
“I already said I’ll go. Leave Haejun alone.”
After being rejected in turn by Seong Haemin and Lee Beom, Min Sihu came running to me. Seong Haemin stepped in, but the leech-like Min Sihu was faster in grabbing and hanging onto my arm. My arm’s going to fall off. For someone pretending to be cute and harmless, why is he so strong?
“…Doesn’t everyone need to get back to their classrooms?”
“Nope! Sihu wants to stay with Jjuni! Boo-.”
“…”
Please stop… I wanted to ask if they didn’t notice students from other classes crowding around our classroom windows, sticking to them like magnets. But the best answer was still silence! I deliberately ignored Min Sihu, who was clinging to me, and prepared for the next class. Seong Haemin came over and collected Min Sihu, who had attached himself like a barnacle.
“Don’t disturb Haejun while he’s studying.”
“Boing! Mini is so greedy! A greedy giant! Hogging Haejun all to himself!!”
“Shut up, Sihu.”
“Min Sihu is being annoying again.”
“How can you say I’m annoying!”
“…”
I was exhausted listening to the conversation between Min Sihu, Seong Haemin, and Lee Beom. The characters who had come to the classroom to see me weren’t just these three guys. Despite all the noise, Jeon Jehyeong was sleeping nearby, hugging a Pompompurin plushie. I really have no idea what that guy is about.
‘None of them are in their right mind…’
In my heart, I wanted to curse at them to get lost. When they were just ‘.txt’ files, I cursed a lot while reading. (The fact that I read till the end turned out to be my life’s biggest mistake!) The problem was that seeing their smiling faces in front of me, I couldn’t open my mouth. Not because you can’t spit in a smiling face, but because these guys were thugs. They really know how to use their fists!
After seeing Seong Haemin beat up that bulky guy from Jeseong High at the school gate the other day, I became even more convinced. Yes, they’re delinquent bullies and thugs. Just stay low.
The bigger problem that stemmed from this was that because I was passing things off with indifference, these people didn’t realize how much I disliked them. I thought that even if I unavoidably developed some acquaintance with them, if I kept my distance and remained aloof, it would be enough for me to stay alone, but that was me trying to live life too easily.
How should I overcome this situation? I organized my thoughts, numbering each item.
- Transfer to another school? Rejected due to the presence of an obsessive Seong Haemin who would follow me.
- Tell them to get lost with curses, say I don’t want to associate with them? Rejected because while I can be a planning-type person who develops A to Z plans, I can’t be someone who wears their liver outside their belly.
- Say I don’t want to be friends because they’re bullies? Rejected because I might get scolded for not knowing much about bullies, which would make things worse.
- Show focus on studies to create psychological distance? Rejected because Min Sihu, who doesn’t care about such things at all, is right in front of me.
- Tell the whole truth and explain why I can’t be friends with them? Rejected because Seong Haemin’s reaction upon discovering I’m not the brother he knew would be unpredictable.
Then what else?
- Find Ban Pyoran as soon as possible and introduce her to them.
In the end, I had no choice but to come to this conclusion. Introduce the true destined connection, Ban Pyoran, and redirect the Four Kings’ attention there!
“Jjuni… do you dislike Sihu? Hmm? *Sniff*…”
Min Sihu’s eyebrows drooped, and tears welled up at the corners of his eyes. The first time I saw that look, I was momentarily deceived, but after learning the tears were fake, I felt nothing no matter how many times I saw them. That bastard was a genius at acting.
“Before the bell rings, everyone go back to your classrooms.”
“Sihu wants to be in Jjuni’s class! Hmm? Jjuni doesn’t want to be separated from Sihu either, right?”
“…”
I gritted my teeth and avoided eye contact. I tried my best to smile to hold back the stream of curses about to erupt. I don’t think it worked out as a smile, though.
After barely sending the Four Kings back to their respective classrooms, the subject teacher entered just in time. I quickly opened my textbook and attended the class. However, for someone who had already taken the college entrance exam, a first-year high school class had no difficulty, so I soon drifted into other thoughts. This wasn’t the time to sit through lessons on content I already knew. Planning my future life was more important.
The current point in time was late March of my first year in high school. I held a small hope that by the time we graduated high school, the Four Kings would also graduate from their bullying behavior, but that still felt like an eternity away. When would graduation even come? The more I thought about the big picture, the stronger the feeling that I needed to find Ban Pyoran as soon as possible.
But forget about ‘how’—where do I even find Ban Pyoran? A new obstacle was that I couldn’t remember how Ban Pyoran and Lee Beom met in the novel.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
