At a high school in Seoul.
It was after school, and most of the students had already left.
In the sparsely populated fifth-floor hallway, a male student with a rigid expression gripped a crumpled piece of paper tightly in his right hand.
His name was Lee Jeong-woo.
–Hey, we have your phone, so come to the fifth floor later, lol.
Crumpling the paper, he found his feet moving almost instinctively, despite his hands trembling uncontrollably.
His footsteps led him towards an empty classroom tucked away in a corner of the fifth floor.
In just thirty minutes, he was destined to become crippled, never to walk again for the rest of his life.
“Jeong-woo~ What took you so long?”
As he pushed open the classroom door, three male students awaited him inside.
The classroom was dim, its curtains half-drawn, with the soon-to-fade sunlight filtering through the open window serving as its only source of illumination.
Kim Tae-hoon, the male student seated centrally among the trio, forcefully kicked the chair in front of him, letting out a mocking laugh.
“Jeong-woo, could you tell me your phone’s password? It seems like you’ve been hiding something on it lately, don’t you think?”
Even as Kim Tae-hoon held Jeong-woo’s phone in his hand and pressed for an answer, Jeong-woo merely kept his head bowed low.
He already knew that speaking would change nothing.
“Oh, so now you’re ignoring me, huh, you bastard? Haven’t you been beaten recently?”
“What nerve do you have to ignore Tae-hoon’s words, lol? Hey, Jeong-woo, do you think we’re pushovers?”
In any unsavory group, there is always one individual who occupies an ambiguous position, playing the archetypal role of a sycophant.
Though lacking in strength, background, looks, and money, they possessed one distinct quality.
Lee Hae-jun, a so-called “second-in-command” (TL Note: A term for someone who supports a more dominant figure, often in a negative context, like a bully’s sidekick), who constantly catered to the popular delinquent, added his words while glancing at Kim Tae-hoon beside him.
“Even our Hae-jun feels that way, so how could I not? Shall we stop ignoring us and open your mouth now? Before you get thoroughly beaten.”
Grinning broadly, Kim Tae-hoon rose from his seat and advanced toward Jeong-woo.
When a person is struck, they instinctively recoil from the pain.
Should that experience of being hit be repeated numerous times,
the memory of the agony would come to dominate their entire being even before the next blow landed.
“I-I’m sorry…! I didn’t ignore you…”
“That’s more like it~!! See how much better it is when you speak up~ I was worried our Jeong-woo had turned into a mute bastard who couldn’t utter a word.”
The distance between them had closed in an instant.
Kim Tae-hoon seized Jeong-woo by the scruff of his neck, forcing his gaze to remain fixed.
“If you unlock it quickly, I’ll let you go home early today. How about that?”
“W-Why… should I do that?”
“Damn it. This bastard’s really lost his mind today. The reason isn’t important to you, Jeong-woo.”
The true reason Kim Tae-hoon was so desperate to open Jeong-woo’s phone
was that he had witnessed Lee Su-ah from the neighboring class, whom he had always kept an eye on, communicating with Jeong-woo.
“Is this about Su-ah…?”
“Hey, you bastard. Do you think I’d be doing this over something so trivial? Just shut up and tell me the password, now!!”
Yet, Kim Tae-hoon was, in fact, doing this over precisely such a trivial matter.
“Hey, hey. It looks like this bastard won’t open his mouth at all. How about we just hang him out the window?”
This suggestion came from Choi Ji-gang, Kim Tae-hoon’s longtime friend, who had been smirking from behind.
“Oh… Hey, that’s a good idea?”
Kim Tae-hoon clapped his hands, chuckling.
Choi Ji-gang had already thrown the window wide open and was waiting.
“Jeong-woo. If you don’t want to tell us, you don’t have to~ You can just try falling straight down from here, you know.”
Jeong-woo’s face turned ashen.
“Please stop. P-Please…”
Kim Tae-hoon roughly seized Jeong-woo by the collar and dragged him toward the window.
“It seems you don’t know how to beg properly, do you?”
As Jeong-woo’s body, pulled by Tae-hoon’s strength, hung halfway out the window, he desperately clung to the window frame.
“Tell me the password, now. If you don’t, I’ll break your fingers one by one until you eventually fall.”
Jeong-woo barely managed to hold back the tears threatening to spill, yet he still shook his head.
Upon witnessing his defiance, Kim Tae-hoon’s expression froze with chilling resolve.
“So you’re going to resist until the very end, huh? This won’t do. Let’s just die today, Jeong-woo.”
Then, without hesitation, his fist flew toward Jeong-woo’s face.
Was it Jeong-woo’s survival instinct?
Jeong-woo, who had always passively endured beatings, offered a timid resistance.
Kim Tae-hoon’s misdirected punch carried his arm out the window, and consequently, his body lurched outwards as well.
“Whoa, damn it. I almost died…!! No, this won’t do. You’re really going to die today.”
“Hey, hey, go easy~”
“I-I really didn’t mean to, I’m sorry, Tae-hoon…”
“Oh, I’m sorry too~ So, let’s have a little beating, shall we!!”
With Kim Tae-hoon’s final words, a fist slammed into Jeong-woo’s face.
—*Thwack!*
The force of the sudden impact snapped Jeong-woo’s head back, causing his strenuous grip on the window frame to loosen entirely.
In that brief, horrifying moment, Jeong-woo’s body plummeted straight out the window.
—*Thud!*
With a short, sharp thud, Jeong-woo’s body, having sliced through the air from a five-story height, landed in a corner of the schoolyard.
As Kim Tae-hoon, Lee Hae-jun, and Choi Ji-gang peered down from the window, their faces registered a mixture of shock and horror.
“Hey… What the hell did you do, you psycho?!”
“What do you mean, *I’m* the psycho? He fell by himself!!”
“Y-Yeah, just as Tae-hoon said, that Jeong-woo bastard fell by himself!!”
“Ah, damn it, I don’t know, I don’t know. Hey, let’s get our story straight. He did that on his own, and we know nothing about it. If anything happens, my dad will take care of it, whatever.”
“Hey, hey, let’s get out of here quickly first.”
Even in that moment of escalating accusations amongst themselves, their thoughts were devoid of any concern for the fallen Jeong-woo.
They were merely repulsive beings, busy scrambling to save their own skins.
****
“Stop staring at the night sky, Ha-yeon, let’s just go home now. I’m so tired…”
‘Home,’ I mused… ‘Come to think of it, where exactly do I live?’
“Ha-yeon~ Can’t you hear me?”
“No, I hear you perfectly. Let’s go home.”
Although I wasn’t entirely sure where my home was, I figured Seon-ah would drive me there anyway.
As we pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex, we simultaneously exited the car.
Seon-ah, having walked ahead, entered a code into the keypad of the main entrance and then gestured for me to hurry over.
‘What’s this? Does she even know the common password to my building?’
Dismissing it as a sign of how close we must be, I followed Seon-ah.
“Ugh~ I’m so tired.”
As Seon-ah stretched while waiting for the elevator, her exhaustion was palpable.
“Can I shower first?”
“…Huh?”
Seon-ah’s question left my mind reeling. ‘What did she mean by showering first?’
“Why~? Do you perhaps want to shower together instead of alone? Your unnie (TL Note: A Korean term used by a female to address an older female friend or sister) is always welcoming.”
“W-What do you mean, shower together…?!!”
“Girls can shower together, can’t they? Why are you acting so shy?”
‘No, no, wait a minute. What kind of situation is this? What does ‘showering’ mean?’
‘It sounds like something you’d say to someone you live with…’
‘Ah. No way.’
‘Do I… live with Im Seon-ah?’
“If Ha-yeon showers with unnie, unnie can even scrub Ha-yeon’s back. How about it, isn’t that nice?”
“Uh… hmm. So… uh, hmm…”
Seeing my flustered state, Im Seon-ah spoke with a playful smirk.
“Think about it slowly~ I won’t say anything if you open the door and come in while unnie is showering.”
‘Bathing with Seon-ah…’
‘No, wait, what am I, this crazy bastard, even imagining?’
‘Even if I’ve become a woman, shouldn’t there be some boundaries?’
In stark contrast to my chaotic thoughts, the elevator doors opened with a cheerful *ding*.
“Hurry and get off, you shy Lee Ha-yeon.”
‘No, can she hear my thoughts?’
‘How does she know and tease me like this?’
Watching Seon-ah’s fingertips as she teased me and entered the front door password, I committed the code to memory.
The electronic door lock chirped as it opened, and we stepped inside.
Immediately, a blur of motion darted towards the illuminated entryway, triggered by the motion sensor.
“Woof!”
‘What is that…?’
“Oh, my sweet Bbobbi~ Were you guarding the house well?”
“Woof woof!”
Receiving all of Seon-ah’s affection was none other than a dog.
No. A puppy is a young dog.
Given its size, it must be a full-grown dog.
Naturally, it seemed Seon-ah here also owned Bbobbi.
That must be why she had glared with such fierce eyes at the animal abuser during the trial today.
But the dog’s breed was different.
Originally, Bbobbi was a small Chihuahua…
“Ugh, stop licking me!!”
My now-shorter stature made it difficult to avoid the large dog’s tongue.
Having abandoned Seon-ah, Bbobbi had quickly latched onto me, trying to lick me.
The Bbobbi before my eyes was a Golden Retriever.
No, just by its name, it should definitively be a small dog.
Why would they name such a large dog ‘Bbobbi’?
I could probably ride it, if I tried.
“Did you eat well? Hmm, you did.”
After checking what appeared to be Bbobbi’s automatic feeder, Seon-ah affectionately stroked Bbobbi, praising them.
I, too, followed Seon-ah’s lead and ran my fingers through the retriever’s soft fur.
“Are you feeling good, doggy?”
“Woof!”
While it shed a lot of fur, it felt surprisingly pleasant to touch.
“Then Ha-yeon, you play with Bbobbi. Unnie will go shower quickly first.”
“Okay. Shower quickly.”
“I won’t lock the door, so if you ever want to have a sweet bath with unnie, feel free to come in anytime~”
With those words, Seon-ah disappeared into the bathroom.
Soon, the sound of running water filled the air, and she began to sing to herself.
“Call me maybe~ Here’s my number~”
The day I bathe with you will absolutely never come. Dream on.
