# Chapter 8
Near the end of class the next day, I made my way to the school exit under the pretext of going to the bathroom. I’d even pulled the trick of moving my bag to the hallway locker beforehand. As class was ending, the gentle teacher didn’t doubt the model student’s claim of a stomachache at all.
To think I was leaving school like this. The diligent me from before would never have imagined doing this, but well… I’d become bolder with age, and this was an internet novel world anyway, so why not?
‘Whatever happens, happens!’
I never dreamed I’d experience one of my college-student fantasies—skipping out early—like this, but I really wanted to avoid walking home with Min Sihu, even if it killed me. If I could leave Min Sihu hanging too, that would be a double win.
I moved my feet quickly. By the time I was crossing the schoolyard, the bell signaling the end of classes rang from the school building, and I could see other students emerging into the hallways one by one. I felt relieved.
‘Min Sihu waiting in the hallway, I’m leaving you behind!’
And then the problem occurred shortly after I passed through the school gate.
The usual way home. The only difference was a group of unfamiliar uniformed students stationed a little distance from the school gate.
“It’s that bastard!”
“Him? The one who’s Seong Haemin’s twin?”
As I was about to dash home, the bulky guy from the same school as Do Yunhyuk, whom I’d seen on the bus a few days ago, pointed at me. Startled, I looked around and saw students in unfamiliar uniforms spread out everywhere.
My steps faltered. Their fingers and gazes were pointed straight at me.
Only one phrase floated through my mind.
‘I’m screwed, aren’t I?’
The moment my feet, which had been stepping lightly through the school gate, froze, I immediately turned around and went back the way I came without hesitating as soon as I saw the gang of students from another school.
“Catch him!”
“Stop right there!”
Apparently, they had no intention of letting me go peacefully, as I heard them chasing after me from behind. I swallowed my tears and ran. The ground rumbled with the fierce pursuit, thud-thud.
‘Why am I facing such trials!’
Was it such a great sin to want to walk home peacefully and quietly! Why did it have to be today, the day I attempted an escape! If I was fated to be dragged away by such guys, I should have just been friends with the Four Kings! (Of course, I didn’t really want to be friends with the Four Kings.) Tears welled up from the injustice of how life could possibly go this wrong.
I ran blindly past the school gate toward the school building. And then I collided with someone coming around the entrance corner and flew backward.
“Ahh!”
“…”
I tumbled to the ground, having been repelled with such force. My entire body ached.
To make matters worse, my body had weakened. There was no hope in this novel life. I just wished someone would send me back home… I had endured the unrealistic dialogues of internet novels well, but to think I’d be caught up in a kidnapping because of a mere school fight rather than, say, a conspiracy by a huge mafia organization. I trembled with humiliation.
“Seong Haejun? Are you alright?”
As I was rubbing my forehead, which had been hit hard, I saw a pair of oddly familiar legs. I looked up. Lee Beom was looking down at me with one eye squinted, otherwise appearing perfectly fine.
Why did I have to meet the leader of the Four Kings at a time like this? Just my rotten luck.
“Jjuni!! Where did you go!!”
Behind me, Min Sihu was walking toward us with puffed cheeks, taking large strides. Seeing Min Sihu too, I wanted nothing more than to disappear from this world.
“Wait. Jjuni, are you crying?”
“No…”
“What do you mean no!!”
Seeing my condition, Min Sihu abandoned all his usual aegyo and cute pretenses and flew into a rage. I couldn’t understand why he was behaving this way. Wouldn’t it be good for him if I got caught?
Before Min Sihu’s misunderstanding deepened, I roughly wiped my face. It was to show him that I wasn’t crying. This wasn’t the time to explain such things. There were students from another school chasing me…
But that was a wrong choice.
Min Sihu’s face hardened even more as he saw me rubbing my dry face.
Min Sihu stood rigidly and shouted.
“Min Sihu of the Four Kings asks!! Who made our Jjuni cry!!”
“…”
This crazy…
Min Sihu was doing this at the entrance where all the students were passing by on their way home. Students in uniform from the same school stopped on their way home and whispered while looking in my direction.
I wish someone would just knock me out…
Meanwhile, Lee Beom was watching me with an expressionless yet calm face.
“The school gate?”
“What?”
“Those bastards, you mean.”
Unlike the highly agitated Min Sihu, the coldly composed Lee Beom gestured with his chin toward the school gate. The group of delinquents from the other school who had chased me were looking around in the schoolyard.
It was true I was running away from those delinquents, but I didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want to mix with the Four Kings either. To be honest, they were no different from the group of uniformed students at the gate!
Though he hadn’t even heard my answer, Lee Beom somehow seemed to have gained certainty and headed toward the school gate with his long legs swinging. Min Sihu, who had come to his senses, entrusted me to a passing student and also headed toward the gate.
I clumsily rubbed my aching limbs. In truth, my mind was more shaken than my limbs.
Life was truly unpredictable. Just from taking the bus once a few days ago, and it had come to this?
“Haejun?”
Next, I encountered Seong Haemin. Seong Haemin looked at me being supported by another student, his face shocked as if he’d been struck by lightning.
As if the Four Kings had been about to go somewhere as a group, Yeon Suhwan and Jeon Jehyeong were standing beside Seong Haemin. They too noticed me and looked surprised.
“Haejun…? What, what happened, huh? Haejun.”
Seong Haemin rushed over in a single step and seized me. The student who had been supporting me awkwardly stepped away. I could hear the sound of my once-ordinary and exemplary life crumbling.
Seong Haemin brushed my hair back with trembling fingers.
“Seems like it’s because of those bastards.”
Yeon Suhwan, who had approached in the meantime, pointed toward the school gate with his eyes. Yeon Suhwan’s eyes narrowed like a snake’s as he identified the faces of the uniformed mass crowded at the school’s main gate.
“Do Yunhyuk…”
My eyes widened at the three syllables Yeon Suhwan muttered.
They say disbelief kills, and it’s really that villain Do Yunhyuk? He came all the way to our school?
It was one problem after another.
‘What did I ever do to make you come looking for me?!’
Why was I caught up in so many disasters? I felt like having a shaman ritual performed.
“Those Jeseong High bastards… have they lost their minds? How dare they come here… how dare, how dare they do this to our Haejun…!”
Seong Haemin, who was supporting me as if almost carrying me, glared at the school gate without understanding my desperate state of mind. Blood vessels bulged at his temples as his eyes burned with rage. It seemed clear that he had completely forgotten my repeated pleas of “don’t acknowledge me at school!” I just stood there like a sack of barley. It was a total disaster.
Consumed by anger, Seong Haemin entrusted me, of all people, to Yeon Suhwan and rushed toward the school gate.
And then Yeon Suhwan lifted me in what’s commonly known as a “princess carry.”
“I, I, I!”
“Hmm?”
“Put me down!!”
I flailed my arms desperately, screaming as my body suddenly rose into the air.
“No. You’re hurt.”
“What? I can walk on my own two feet!”
“It’s dangerous.”
“Won’t you please put me down? Please, really.”
“No.”
All the students covered their mouths with their hands as they watched Yeon Suhwan carrying me toward the school gate. Seeing this, I wanted nothing more than to bid farewell to this world.
It hasn’t been fun, internet novel world.
“Put me down. Supporting me is enough. Please.”
“Haejun is also stubborn, like someone else, huh?”
However, under the determination that I couldn’t stay in this humiliating position for even one more second, I struggled like a dog to get out of Yeon Suhwan’s arms, and I was able to achieve what I wanted.
Yeon Suhwan, who had stopped at a place where the school gate was clearly visible, put me down.
“Ugh.”
“Kook.”
The moment my feet touched the ground, my legs gave out, and I embarrassingly staggered like a newborn fawn. Yeon Suhwan supported me, making that strange laughing sound. It was mortifying.
“Anyway, I wonder what business Do Yunhyuk could possibly have with our Haejun?”
As soon as Yeon Suhwan turned his gaze toward the school gate, he erased his affectionate expression and smiled coldly. I was wriggling to free myself from Yeon Suhwan’s supporting arm, but seeing that expression, I quietly stopped my resistance.
Yeon Suhwan was smiling, but there wasn’t a single trace of joy to be found. His expression was eerie.
‘…Is his dual personality comparable to Min Sihu’s?’
At the school gate, the Four Kings and the students from the other school were all facing off with their hands in their pockets. Between them, I had the illusion that a sandstorm you might see in the American West was rising. The novel world was truly a novel world.
It seemed I was the only one who wanted to escape this ridiculous situation. Students who had been leisurely leaving school held their breath, then gathered one by one and began to watch with interest, keeping a safe distance to avoid getting caught up in any fight.
As the murmurs of the cloud-like gathered students gradually subsided and the tension reached its peak, Lee Beom stepped forward and shattered the silence that had been as transparent as glass.
“What business brings you all the way here?”
“It’s been a while, Lee Beom.”
A student with dark red hair stepped forward, addressing Lee Beom.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
