<CHAPTER 8>

“Gasp!”

“Uh…”

“Holy shit!”

Everyone was thrown into confusion by the smooth, low-pitched sound of my voice.

It was only natural, considering that my classmates already knew what kind of person Oh Gwang-jun was.

It was proof that everyone acknowledged just how much of a rotten bastard he was.

So naturally, my reaction toward Oh Gwang-jun had caught them completely off guard.

“You little bastard? Puhahahahahahahahaha!”

As expected of a lunatic, his reaction was immediate.

His voice rose into a high pitch, and his eyes were filled with a thick, murderous hostility.

It wasn’t just Oh Gwang-jun.

There wasn’t a single student in this school who could be taken lightly.

Except for people like me—the sa-bae-ja.

To them, someone like me was nothing more than a tool for relieving the stress they accumulated.

Oh Gwang-jun, in particular, had made me his personal stress-relief toy.

And now, that toy had unexpectedly reacted.

It must have felt like getting blindsided by something that had never fought back before.

He must have been furious enough to lose his temper completely.

The easy punching bag who had never once dared to resist him had finally bitten back.

“Hey! Sa-bae-ja!”

“Oh Gwang-jun. You know that word is banned on school grounds, right?”

“Banned? Fuck off, you bastard. I don’t give a damn about that crap.”

“My friend. ‘Fuck off’ is verbal abuse too.”

“Friend? How dare you… you?”

“Your father is the chief prosecutor at the Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office, isn’t he? You shouldn’t be acting like this. Discriminating against people is wrong. It’s prohibited by the Constitution and various laws.”

I gently and kindly lectured him.

Of course, I even wore a faint smile.

A fisherman casting bait into the water.

That was exactly what I was doing right now.

“Wrong? You wanna die? Taking it easy for too long has made you forget your place, huh?”

The fish took the bait perfectly.

“Threatening me isn’t allowed either. My liver’s perfectly fine. Unlike you, I don’t drink or smoke.”

“Shut up! You fucking lunatic!”

Smack!

His profanity was accompanied by a sudden, vicious slap across my cheek.

The impact rang out loud and clear.

Got you.

He took the bait!

“……”

The classroom fell silent in an instant.

I had been struck while sitting defenseless at my desk.

My cheek stung from the force.

But it wasn’t anything close to real pain.

Compared to the torture-resistance training I had endured in the Special Warfare Command, this was nothing.

Winter survival training in the mountains, where temperatures dropped below minus twenty degrees Celsius.

That alone had been hell.

There had been times when we had torn into edible roots and even snakes we happened to find underground, eating them raw just to survive.

Compared to that, this was child’s play.

That bastard had actually been one of the reasons I managed to endure those days.

Humiliation?

Even during college, in the military, and later at work, I had suffered humiliations far worse than this.

The day I was fired from the company I had devoted myself to, treated like useless dead weight.

It had been the same when my girlfriend suddenly dumped me without even giving me a chance to say anything.

“Did you just commit an act of violence… in a sacred school?”

I raised the corner of my mouth so that only Oh Gwang-jun could see.

Even to my own ears, my voice sounded cold.

I gently rubbed my cheek, which was still throbbing, and looked straight at him.

Flinch.

Oh Gwang-jun’s eyes trembled when they met mine.

A high school student already giving off such a dark aura.

Still, he was just a kid.

And now it was time to make him pay.

I slipped my hand under the desk and stopped the recording.

This much evidence was more than enough.

Swish.

Then I stood up from my seat.

I was 187 centimeters tall.

Oh Gwang-jun, on the other hand, was only 170 centimeters.

I was practically a head taller than him.

In the past, someone like him had terrified me.

But now that I was standing face-to-face with him again…

“You must’ve been fed premium formula as a baby. If you still ended up this short, shouldn’t you file a complaint? Maybe it’s genetic?”

“W-What did you say?”

“Are you already losing your hearing at such a young age? Ah! No wonder you never learned any manners.”

“You fucking bastard! Have you lost your mind?!”

Whoosh!

As expected of someone who had trained in boxing, his jab was incredibly fast.

But against me…

Smack!

I dodged his punch and struck back at the same time.

A bold, full-force slap with my large palm!

Crash!

His body staggered from the impact, and he went sprawling across the classroom floor.

My body might not have been trained anymore, but it was still a young body.

And the striking techniques I had learned during my time in the Special Warfare Command were still effective.

I could immediately spot five vulnerable points on Oh Gwang-jun’s body.

With one clean move, I could even kill him.

A brat who had no idea what he was doing, swaggering around without a care in the world.

“Heh…”

A cold, mocking laugh escaped me.

All those years when I had been helplessly bullied by a piece of trash like him.

Those dark chapters of my life were over.

Goodbye.

They would never be repeated in my life again.

—

“…Gwang-jun got hit?”

“Gwang-jun said he boxed, didn’t he?”

“Ha Tae-ung… he really has gone crazy.”

The students began murmuring among themselves.

Cheonghwa was a school with brutal rules.

On top of that, most of the students came from wealthy and powerful families.

They knew better than to cross certain lines because they were conscious of their social standing.

Of course, the sa-bae-ja were the exception.

They might not participate directly in bullying.

But whenever a sa-bae-ja was put in a difficult situation, they turned away, effectively becoming indirect participants.

To all of them, the sa-bae-ja were nothing more than outlets for relieving stress.

Their everyday stress levels were no joke.

From before they could even properly hold a spoon, they were showered with expensive private education.

By middle school, many of them had already mastered the high school curriculum.

Except for those preparing for university through school records and grades, most were preparing for the College Scholastic Ability Test.

They enjoyed an educational environment that was like a concrete wall—an environment that sa-bae-ja like them could never even dream of reaching.

But Ha Tae-ung was different.

He was naturally intelligent.

His stubborn, tenacious personality also played a part.

Even when he was bullied, ostracized, or treated as an invisible outcast, he stubbornly endured.

He wasn’t among the very top students, but he always managed to stay within the top five in his class.

His looks weren’t lacking either.

He was handsome and tall, exactly the kind of boy many girls liked.

If he had attended an ordinary high school instead of Cheonghwa, he would have been popular.

He might even have been one of the most popular students in the entire school.

But Cheonghwa was practically a military academy for the children of Korea’s upper class.

And Ha Tae-ung, a sa-bae-ja who was destined to spend his entire life at the bottom, doing menial work for others, had just slapped Oh Gwang-jun across the face.

It was an act of provocation bordering on treason.

Something that should never have happened.

And it had happened in front of every student in Class 2-3.

The students who had witnessed it with their own eyes froze.

“What the hell is going on?”

“Did Oh Gwang-jun really get hit?!”

“This is insane.”

Even students from the neighboring classes began gathering.

They had rushed over in droves after hearing the sudden screams and shocking news.

Everyone was equally bewildered by this unprecedented incident.

“You dare…”

Oh Gwang-jun glared at Ha Tae-ung from the floor.

Even he was stunned, unable to process what had just happened.

A sa-bae-ja, practically no better than a dog or pig, had dared to strike him.

It had been a completely unexpected, underhanded blow.

What irritated him most was that Ha Tae-ung had behaved completely differently from usual.

He had only intended to give the kid a little warning.

But the resistance had been far stronger than expected.

Being counterattacked was humiliating.

Even the boxing skills he had painstakingly honed had been useless.

The blow had been so fast that he had been knocked down before he could react.

And there had been real power behind Ha Tae-ung’s palm.

It had looked like nothing more than a casual slap, but there had been considerable technique behind it.

Oh Gwang-jun looked at Ha Tae-ung again.

Something about him had changed since before the holiday.

Normally, he had been a convenient stress reliever every morning after arriving at school.

This was the first time Oh Gwang-jun had ever seen Ha Tae-ung behave like this.

He had always been a timid bastard who couldn’t even make a peep, keeping his head down and quietly working through his study sheets.

But today was completely different.

Even the way he sat, shoulders held straight, was different.

His arrogant gaze openly radiated hostility.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

In no time, rumors would spread that he had been beaten by a mere sa-bae-ja.

How was he supposed to show his face at school after this?

“You fucking bastard… I’ll kill you!!”

Grinding his teeth, Oh Gwang-jun clenched his fists and began to rise from the classroom floor.

Thud!

A powerful, heavy blow slammed into his abdomen.

“Eeeeeek!”

“Ahhh!”

The girls screamed.

Violence like this was absolutely forbidden on school grounds.

For many of them, it was the first time since entering the school that they had ever witnessed an actual case of school violence.

They were children who had been pampered and protected like delicate greenhouse flowers.

They were members of the upper class who were accustomed to being the aggressors, but had never experienced what it was like to be the victim.

And now they were watching one of their own get beaten by a worthless sa-bae-ja.

By the pathetic bear who had never once provoked them and had always kept his head down.

“Urgh… ugh…”

Oh Gwang-jun clutched his stomach and writhed.

His insides felt twisted, and his stomach churned violently.

Splash!

A moment later, chunks of toast and fruit from his breakfast spilled across the classroom floor.

“……Ugh!”

“That’s disgusting…”

The girls who had been screaming grimaced and turned their faces away.

It was a moment of humiliation so overwhelming that he wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.

Oh Gwang-jun couldn’t believe this was happening to him.

He wanted something—anything—in his hand.

If only he could beat Ha Tae-ung to death right now and end this…

But then—

Crunch.

After vomiting everything in his stomach, Oh Gwang-jun collapsed onto his side.

And that was when he smelled cheap rubber slippers right beside his face.

“Ugh!”

He couldn’t move his head.

A wave of terror pierced straight through his mind.

Ha Tae-ung…

This bastard is a thug.

His face was pressed beneath Ha Tae-ung’s foot, so he couldn’t see his expression.

But there was unmistakable killing intent radiating from the sole of that slipper.

A terrible fear swept over him that Ha Tae-ung might simply crush his head beneath his foot.

“I heard your father is a chief prosecutor who protects justice. So tell me—does killing someone sound like something he’d approve of?”

Ha Tae-ung’s voice, digging into his ears, carried a mocking edge.

Oh Gwang-jun’s past behavior toward Ha Tae-ung flashed through his mind.

Pinned beneath the slipper, Oh Gwang-jun squeezed his eyes shut.

The pathetic, bullied Ha Tae-ung.

He had completely lost to that bastard.

The humiliation he would have to endure from now on made his teeth chatter with rage.

Cheonghwa High School was a place where the strong survived.

A place where the law of the jungle was strictly enforced.

Even now, the rumor was undoubtedly spreading like wildfire.

And then, at that exact moment—

“What are you doing? In this sacred classroom?!”