“Seriously, I’m telling you it’s true.”
The moment lunchtime started, Yi-hyeon slipped away from Wonseok’s prying eyes—Wonseok, who had been harassing him—and headed toward the old gym storage building. There, he spotted a group of students talking while pressed up against the wall and hesitated for a moment.
“So what you’re saying is Han Jun is Han Se-hyeon’s older brother, and he’s the kid his mom had after having an affair with Han Se-hyeon’s dad?”
“Han Jun? That insanely handsome upperclassman?”
“Upperclassman my ass.”
“Then that means Han Se-hyeon is going to the same school as the bastard that woman who seduced his dad gave birth to? Damn, that’s fucking pathetic. If it were me, I’d have beaten the shit out of him. Told that filthy bastard to get lost.”
Yi-hyeon knew the name Han Se-hyeon. The admission of a student whose father was a sitting National Assembly member had been quite a big issue at school.
No matter what school you go to, there are always students who enjoy gossiping about other people. And Yi-hyeon wasn’t exactly in a position to lecture anyone, so the right thing would’ve been to just walk past.
But as if pulled by the name Han Jun, Yi-hyeon’s steps turned toward them.
Pulling out his phone, Yi-hyeon immediately searched for Han Se-hyeon’s father. He found an article about the lawmaker’s marriage—handsome enough to look like a middle-aged actor—and checked the date.
“Um, sorry to butt in, but I think you guys might be misunderstanding something…”
At Yi-hyeon’s voice, the students all turned their heads at once.
“What are we misunderstanding?”
“Han Se-hyeon, that guy? Assemblyman Han Cheol-woo’s son. Han Jun’s little brother.”
“Little brother, my ass. You’re saying a kid born from an affair still counts as a big brother?”
“No, that’s not it. If Han Jun is the older brother, that just means Han Jun was born first.”
Maybe because of Yi-hyeon’s small build, they didn’t seem to think he was a third-year at all and spoke to him casually. Then one of them noticed Yi-hyeon’s name tag and poked the student who’d been talking rudely in the side.
“I looked it up. Assemblyman Han Cheol-woo’s marriage article was published exactly seventeen years ago. Han Jun is nineteen now, so he’s not a kid born from an affair, is he? To be precise, he’s a son born before the marriage. And I was wondering whether it’s really right for someone who isn’t even involved to argue over whose fault it is that a child was born when the parents weren’t married.”
It was the kind of scandal you could find with just a few taps—famous people’s dirty laundry laid bare. Yet, without even bothering to look it up properly, they were calling Han Jun a filthy bastard based solely on one-sided rumors. At Yi-hyeon’s calm reasoning, one of the students bristled.
“Do you know how dangerous what you just said is? Han Se-hyeon’s dad is a National Assembly member.”
“I’m just talking based on articles. What’s dangerous about that? Oh, is it dangerous because I mentioned something that wasn’t in the article? But I didn’t say that—you did, repeating what Han Se-hyeon told you. Then wouldn’t that make you the dangerous one? Or Han Se-hyeon?”
Faced with Yi-hyeon’s soft-spoken but persistent reasoning, the student couldn’t argue back and just mumbled. Maybe they found some merit in what he said, because a few of them started looking suspiciously at the student who’d been spreading Han Se-hyeon’s story.
“Aren’t you kind of biased because you’re close with Han Se-hyeon?”
“Yeah. If he was born before the marriage, that’s not even an affair.”
“Se-hyeon definitely said it was an affair, though…”
Leaving behind the student who was now stumbling over his words as the situation flipped, Yi-hyeon headed in the direction of the gym storage window as he’d originally planned.
The old gym storage room was a semi-basement structure that had been closed because it was inconvenient for moving sports equipment. Because of that, it was always locked, so Yi-hyeon usually climbed in through the window—but today, the side door was slightly open.
Ah, I wanted to be alone.
Thinking someone else must’ve arrived first, Yi-hyeon gloomily looked inside, but it was completely empty. It seemed someone had stopped by and left without properly closing the door.
Needing some time alone, Yi-hyeon felt relieved and opened the storage room door.
Sure enough, it was clear someone had been there; like a lingering trace, a faint scent remained in the air.
***
The Han Jun the students had been talking about was a student in the same class as Yi-hyeon. Someone with a strange, peculiar air about him. As soon as he transferred in, he openly antagonized Wonseok, one of the school’s delinquent leaders. Despite barely paying attention in class, he took first place in the entire school. On top of that, he deliberately kept his distance, pushing his classmates away as if rejecting them outright.
It felt like he was intentionally isolating himself from others.
“Han Jun, can I use your glue stick for a sec?”
“Uh, no.”
“Getting all high and mighty over a 1,500-won glue stick.”
“You’re the one borrowing because you don’t even have that 1,500-won glue stick.”
“Hey, Han Jun. Why do you go so hard playing basketball? What’s the fun in that?”
“Ever think it might be because you guys just suck?”
“Han Jun, lend me your gym clothes.”
“No. They’ll smell like someone else’s sweat.”
“I didn’t even sweat.”
“You didn’t sweat, but you smell already.”
“Isn’t Han Jun fucking rude?”
“Total trash. Trash personality.”
“He’s always decked out in luxury brands, so I thought he was some nouveau riche second generation. Turns out he’s a National Assembly member’s kid or something? Guess he doesn’t want to mingle with small fry like us.”
“You guys know why Han Jun transferred? Apparently, at his old school, he beat a kid half to death, and his dad paid them off so it ended with a settlement and a transfer.”
“Then shouldn’t our school have refused to accept him?”
“Damn, must be nice. A cheat-code dad who even blocks school violence.”
“So what? He’s still a kid born from an affair.”
The students didn’t like Han Jun’s distant attitude. But Yi-hyeon was different. He, too, had once deliberately distanced himself from others back in elementary school, so he guessed there must be reasons behind Han Jun’s behavior.
Even though there was no way Han Jun could know Yi-hyeon understood him, Han Jun didn’t bristle with sharp, rigid thorns around Yi-hyeon the way he did with others.
It might’ve been because Yi-hyeon never caused trouble with him or did anything that would get scolded by others, but whenever Yi-hyeon found himself in trouble, Han Jun would appear, create some strange situation that was either help or not, then disappear. And when Yi-hyeon thanked him, Han Jun would tell him not to get the wrong idea—that he hadn’t helped him.
He was impossible to figure out.
It was a bright afternoon without a single cloud in the sky.
“Hey, asshole, does it taste better eating alone like that?”
Near the end of lunch, a bored Wonseok stopped Yi-hyeon, who was walking past with a tube ice pop in hand. Yi-hyeon didn’t want to clash with Wonseok, the worst of the school’s delinquents. So when Wonseok told him to do something, he didn’t resist much.
He liked this school—the tuition-free education, its closeness to the orphanage, and the scholarship he received—so he didn’t want to cause trouble.
On top of that, maybe because of memories of abuse from childhood, Yi-hyeon always shrank back around Wonseok, who was big and yelled aggressively, just like his father had.
“Just one bite.”
Wonseok squatted down, grinning as he looked up at Yi-hyeon, who’d hesitantly approached him.
“But… that’s the one you were eating.”
“So what?”
Ignoring Yi-hyeon’s words, Wonseok snatched the ice pop and sucked nearly half of it down in one go. It had been taken from him. Realizing it would be foolish to wait for it to be returned, Yi-hyeon said he’d be going and turned away.
Then one of the students, pretending to roughhouse with the others, suddenly shoved Yi-hyeon hard.
Staggering, Yi-hyeon ended up collapsing backward, his butt slamming straight into Wonseok’s face as he was sucking on the ice pop.
“Ah, fuck!”
“Oh! I’m sorry!”
Yi-hyeon’s face flushed red all the way to the back of his neck as he quickly turned and apologized to Wonseok.
“I asked for the ice pop, not your ass.”
“That—He-jun pushed me.”
“That thing’s a homo.”
“Pfft, is he asking Seo Wonseok to suck his asshole?”
“Damn, his face is red as hell. It’s gonna burst.”
“He was sucking that ice pop pretty good already, so I had a feeling…”
Yi-hyeon wanted to escape the group whispering and pointing fingers at him. He bit down hard on his lower lip, forcing himself to endure it—when suddenly, the tip of the ice pop Wonseok had been sucking hooked under Yi-hyeon’s school uniform shirt and yanked it up.
His pale belly was exposed.
“Hik—”
Startled, Yi-hyeon instinctively curled in on himself, which only seemed to amuse them more as they snickered.
“Does your orphanage not feed you? You’re skinny as fuck.”
“Stop it.”
Just as Yi-hyeon was about to pull his shirt back down, there was a sudden rattle—creeeak—and the first-floor window of the annex building slid open.
“What is it?”
Wonseok asked in a mocking tone. Instead of answering, a solidly built student raised his phone high.
“Live broadcast of a school violence scene.”
It was Han Jun.
“What the fuck is that asshole saying right now?”
“Is he filming us?”
Wonseok scowled and told him to put the phone away, but Han Jun didn’t stop rolling the camera, one arm propped against the window frame, his chin resting on it.
“I told you to turn it off before I smash your phone.”
Wonseok clenched his fist as he stood up, clearly furious.
“If you don’t want to be filmed, then why do you keep jumping into my frame? You attention whore? And consent? Every time I open a window, how the hell am I supposed to know some asshole is bullying someone in front of it? I’m not a shaman.”
“Watch your mouth and turn it off! Filming someone without consent is a crime!”
“And school violence is some kind of sacred religious ritual?”
Grinding his teeth, Wonseok moved toward Han Jun, but another student grabbed him and shook his head.
“I heard his dad’s a National Assembly member. If you mess with him…”
“So what if he is? What do I care? He probably doesn’t even give a shit about a kid born from an affair anyway.”
For a split second, Han Jun’s face twisted frighteningly, his gaze turning ice-cold. The only one who noticed was Yi-hyeon, who hadn’t taken his eyes off Han Jun the entire time.
Just then, a teacher passing by approached, asking what was going on. Only then did Han Jun tilt his head toward Wonseok. Glaring daggers at Han Jun, Wonseok finally turned away once the teacher was right in front of them.
As soon as Wonseok disappeared from view, Yi-hyeon opened his mouth to say thank you—but right in front of him—
Bang!
The old window slammed shut mercilessly.
***
When fifth period ended, Yi-hyeon, feeling both grateful and sorry, emptied all the money in his pocket to buy the school convenience store’s hottest item: Bunny Bunny Choco Milk.
Fidgeting with it until the cold milk turned lukewarm, Yi-hyeon finally opened the classroom door—only for Han Jun to come out at that exact moment. Startled, Yi-hyeon hurriedly hid the milk behind his back, lowered his head, and slipped past him.
He didn’t know exactly why he’d done that. Maybe the moment he saw Han Jun’s face, he lost his courage, certain Han Jun would tell him not to get the wrong idea.
Han Jun watched Yi-hyeon disappear into the restroom, then clicked his dry tongue and casually rubbed the back of his neck.
