The morning arrived, leaving behind the squabbles with Gomteng.
An alarm rang earlier than what was set on my smartphone—this one coming from Siyeon’s phone.
On an ordinary morning, Siyeon’s smartphone belonged in her room.
But today, it’s in my room.
It was 7 AM, the perfect time to begin our hastily plotted operation that started yesterday.
With half-open eyes, I yawned widely and finally got out of bed.
Today, I was heading not to my school, Saengwon Middle School, but to Siyeon’s school, Mihwa Girls’ Middle School.
Walking carefully enough to avoid making a sound.
I took out the uniform hanging in Siyeon’s room and held it in my hands.
Ignoring the name “Lee Siyeon” stamped on the name tag, I put it on.
Though the chest area felt a bit empty, like Gomteng said, so what if it’s like this or that?
Once I slipped on the padding jacket that Siyeon usually wore, it’d be easy to mistake me for her as long as no one saw my face directly.
‘Perfect.’
Satisfied, I slung my bag over my shoulder, holding my smartphone in my left hand and Siyeon’s smartphone in my right, preparing to set out.
I didn’t know what seat Siyeon had exactly, but I did know her class was 3rd.
I would head to school early and check the seat list on the podium.
Resolving this, I dropped Siyeon’s smartphone into my right pocket.
Switching the smartphone in my left hand to my right, I informed the school of my absence.
I stole a glance at Siyeon, who was still sleeping soundly in her room, and exhaled with determination.
Stepping outside, I began my march for justice.
The unfamiliar commute path, and the bus I felt strange boarding.
Nearby, there were students in the same uniforms walking along, faces I didn’t recognize.
It was a pretty early hour for school, with no teachers guarding the school gate.
In a school where merely wearing the uniform allowed entry to classrooms, it wasn’t a big deal.
In front of the unfamiliar empty 3rd class podium, I checked Siyeon’s seat from the seating chart and headed straight there.
On the desk, I caught sight of some graffiti scribbled in a corner.
[Idiot] [Pig Bitch] [Fool lol]
Graffiti that was either bold or timid.
Heat rose to my head, but I suppressed my anger and threw my bag onto the side of the seat before plopping down.
My fist was clenched tightly in my pocket, my nails digging into my palm.
As time passed, the sound of a chair being pulled nearby reached my ears.
The biggest variable in this operation was whether the girls who bullied Siyeon would show up.
But, it should be fine.
Those girls must be really fuming because Siyeon didn’t reply to them yesterday.
As if to them, Siyeon was like a monster in a game that rewards you with money when you hit it.
There’s no reason for them to come out late and earn less money.
Just then, while tightly closing my eyes and furrowing my brow—
“Hey, why did you ignore my message yesterday? Are you crazy?”
A nasty sensation brushed past the back of my head.
My head, resting on the desk, jerked slightly to the left.
Just as I thought, I fell right into their trap.
An unknown face, but the first attack was yours.
I slowly lifted my body and turned around, and the face of the girl who met my gaze changed slightly.
Almost as if saying, ‘Huh? Who’s this?’
“What? Who are you…?”
She half-pulled back her upper body and then threw a punch straight at my face.
Her words stumbled as my fist connected, and with loud crashes against desks and chairs, all eyes in the classroom turned to us.
Had it been an ordinary student or a friend, someone might have tried to stop this, but students who didn’t know the thug involved hesitated to intervene.
After all, she was already known for bullying other people.
Who would want to get in between and risk facing retribution later?
“Get up, you bitch.”
“Ah, ahhh…!”
Unable to bear the pain, the girl scrambled on the floor like a bug, groaning.
Mercy was only for humans; bugs don’t get any.
“If you don’t want to get up, stay down.”
I swiftly kicked her in the side with skillful precision, making a loud thud.
Thugs like this always act like this.
They may be no one alone but take pleasure in bullying others as a group.
Laughing while inflicting violence but unable to comprehend violence directed towards them, these damn brats cry like little children.
Having dealt with one of the bullies, the ordeal should have ended, and Siyeon would be freed.
…Like that would happen, of course, in Hell Joseon, where such things don’t occur.
The sound of desks and chairs being overturned echoed in the classroom, so of course, the teachers in the staff room could not remain seated.
No matter how much they hated it, these were still students from their school.
It was obvious who they would protect more— the insane girl who barged into another school’s classroom to beat up students, or the student who just smoked a little.
A girl’s face was swollen, and she had bruises on her side.
Some teachers realized that this was no ordinary situation and decided to escalate things to a higher authority instead of discussing it lightly in the staff room.
What could have caused such a fuss that the students were dragged all the way to the vice principal’s office without pausing to blow their noses?
The vice principal, or whatever they were, came in and told her to call her parents, then shouted at me…
When she had ignored the teachers while smoking, arriving late to school, and beating up kids, she had suddenly turned very obedient, listening carefully.
“Hah, which school are you from? Where did you get that uniform? This is a matter of prison! Do you understand?!”
Regardless, this vice principal acted as if they didn’t need to know about the situation, thrusting accusations of prison and whatnot.
But it was the same for me—I didn’t care about the details either.
With one ear picking at my pinky, I glanced at the girl sitting on the sofa and countered directly.
“Isn’t it a prison-worthy offense to rob and beat up the students in the same class? That’s quite interesting.”
“What? Who are you talking back to?!”
A pointless argument continued while a white car rushed into the school parking lot.
And thus, the main characters of this story began to gather one by one.
The first to show up was that girl’s mother.
“Mommmmmm….”
The bully, who had been quietly sniffing without saying a word, stood up as soon as her mom arrived and buried her face in her mother’s chest.
Seeing her child’s bruised face, the mom puffed up like an angry pufferfish and began fiercely yelling.
“What kind of kid are you? Who do you think you are to do this to someone else’s precious daughter!”
“Mom, calm down…”
“Are you crazy?! Calm down while looking like this?! What’s your name, and which school are you from? I’ll have you sent to juvenile detention! Bring your mother here, quickly!”
That mother seemed unwilling to even try reasoning.
That’s fine; I enjoy pushing things through with force too.
“Student, do you think you can’t find the school by doing that? Hurry up and tell me your name and school, and bring your parents here.”
“You don’t need to know my name… Sun.”
“Ugh!”
In the claustrophobic vice principal’s office, I began to feel the lights shimmer and my perspective dropping.
For the first time, others would see me transform, aside from those who already knew my true identity.
In any case, whether my name was stated or not didn’t matter.
I initially hoped these people would recognize me.
I wanted them to realize what they had just done to someone else’s child…
To understand the severity of the situation.
“Now, shall we talk?”
Tilting my head slightly, I looked toward the vice principal.
Though the clueless mom was a given, I assumed someone with social standing would recognize the situation.
As expected, the vice principal of Mihwa Girls’ Middle School looked quite tense.
“Uh, um…”
“What? Where did that person go earlier?”
And the girl who had bullied Siyeon.
Looking at her transformed face, she merely gazed at me in shock, her eyes wide like a startled rabbit.
I walked to the center of the room, the atmosphere in the vice principal’s office stiff as time seemed to stop.
Placing my palm on my forehead, I fluffed my bangs upward with my fingers and said.
“Gather all the girls who bullied Siyeon. You… make sure the vice principal handles it all.”
“Uh, Vice Principal… what are you doing? Why are you panicking over just one girl?”
Not long after, names of certain students began to be announced over the Mihwa Girls’ Middle School intercom.
The names of the girls who had persistently bullied Siyeon even in the messenger app chatrooms.
The few who obediently followed into the vice principal’s office looked at my rarely seen face with wide eyes.
Some didn’t even come, probably because they were bunking off school.
Guess that’s how it is with girls who smoke and play.
Even if they ignore the school staff, they’d surely listen to their friends.
“Hey, you call her.”
I pointed out one girl who stood like a criminal, face bruised.
If the one who had been sitting there was Siyeon, then it should have been this girl hitting Siyeon.
“…And you guys deserve a beating.”
Deciding to deliver slaps until the other bullies arrived, I prepared.
Some, pride wounded, tried to pull hair or struggle a bit, but I seized their hair and landed a series of slaps in return.
Like stones skipping over water, sharp sounds rang out endlessly.
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