Go Un, who had Seo Juhan cornered against the wall while looking down at him, had eyes that said this was intriguing.
Does he mean my reaction is amusing?
Seo Juhan’s eyes became fierce. He opened his eyes as threateningly as possible while quietly cursing.
“You fucking psycho bastard… Get lost right…”
Drrrk.
That’s when it happened. The staff room door right next door suddenly opened. Seo Juhan flinched in surprise and couldn’t finish his words.
The teacher who came out of the staff room glanced at the homeroom teacher and class representative who were talking. But soon, with meaningless eyes, they trudged off on their way.
“Snacks will come in for lunch tomorrow.”
Seo Juhan, who had been glancing at the retreating back, turned his head upward.
“…What?”
It was a sudden statement.
“Who are you going to stick a bread crumb on?”
Go Un shrugged as if to say, isn’t that right?
Seo Juhan clicked his tongue and glared as if it was absurd.
“This is ridiculous… are you pretending to be the class representative?”
He was suspicious that there might be some ulterior motive or scheme. He even had the absurd fantasy that maybe he’d cause mass food poisoning to maintain first place.
“Well, it’s not exactly for that reason…”
Go Un ran his tongue over his teeth while silently looking down at Juhan, then blurted out.
“Teacher likes it too.”
“Ha. Really…”
Seo Juhan scoffed.
What would a beggar bastard know.
“Looks like you embezzled money somewhere.”
Seo Juhan scanned the fair face suspiciously. Well, with that build, stealing pocket money would be nothing.
“Other people’s wallet situations aren’t Teacher’s business.”
Go Un said leisurely. Then he leaned his shoulder against the wall and looked down at Seo Juhan, who seemed to fit in one embrace. The ease imbued in that gesture sparked another speculation in Juhan.
“Looks like you fooled someone while pretending to be a diligent young breadwinner.”
That detestable bastard.
Seo Juhan glared contemptuously at the sleek appearance.
“That CEO there really has no eye for people. I can see they didn’t notice the devil lurking inside you.”
He sneered as if lightly scratching.
“Thinking about the people who’ll be played by a crazy bastard like you, the future looks bleak, hey.”
Even the CEO who started as a small business owner and built a nationwide franchise empire was unlucky. They clearly committed an amazing good deed by treating this psychopath like their own child. It was a valid hypothesis.
Suddenly, the huge shadow that had been staring down at Juhan abruptly approached.
Seo Juhan flinched and took another step back. However, the back of his slippers couldn’t even take a full step before bumping into the hard wall.
His tense entire body pressed against the wall. He froze like a statue, wondering if he’d get hit.
“Spray your cologne in moderation. Don’t go around reeking.”
Go Un, who had approached, sniffed near the crown of his head and then moved away brushing past.
Ah fuck, what a shock!
Seo Juhan, who had frozen in surprise, finally rolled his eyes smoothly.
Students were pouring out noisily from another class, perhaps having a class that required moving rooms.
From head to toe, they were in shabby outfits befitting thugs. Among them, the back figure dressed in a summer uniform shirt and uniform pants rather drew attention.
The straight legs and wide square shoulders made the huge build look sleek.
“…”
That made him feel extremely dirty.
It’s all because of that glossy exterior. No wonder his hair was exceptionally black—he was a ghost that bewitched people appearing and disappearing mysteriously.
Hiding his claws and pretending to be an innocent ordinary person was indeed befitting a psychopath.
As neurosis consumed him, Seo Juhan was blinded. He had no way of knowing that at Go Un’s appearance, a strange tension settled over the corridor bustling like a marketplace, and the crowd split in two.
I will get revenge somehow.
Seo Juhan glared until the tall head was no longer visible, then took a step.
As soon as he entered the classroom where he had class, Go Un’s face disappeared from his mind. After finishing consecutive one-way lectures with difficulty, by the time lunch came around, it was almost completely forgotten.
Though the afterimage of yesterday suddenly came to mind making him nauseated, the day of an office worker buried in their work schedule didn’t even allow that.
Seo Juhan’s unconscious wanted to take the easy route of forgetting it like stepping in shit.
His perception of Go Un had merely been downgraded from ‘class representative’ to ‘psychopath.’ Still, what Seo Juhan knew about him was absolutely nothing.
A subtle crack in that perception appeared the very next day.
Around lunchtime, what entered the school grounds wasn’t a motorcycle but a sizable van.
Before long, burger sets filling the van’s back seats were delivered one by one to classrooms throughout the school.
It was truly an overwhelming scale.
The appetizing savory and greasy smell covered the cigarette smell that was Yangseong School’s symbol. It was enough to automatically make saliva pool under the tongue regardless of age.
“…”
Seo Juhan, sitting at his staff room desk, stared blankly at the greasy brown bag. A familiar red brand logo sticker was attached.
Seo Juhan, who had formed a somewhat logical hypothesis, spoke to the teacher sitting next to him.
“Teacher.”
The male teacher who had been biting into a large handmade burger turned his head. On his monitor, a NeTube table tennis lecture was in full swing.
“Yes?”
The unclear pronunciation was closer to “Eh?”
“This was distributed by the school, right?”
Seo Juhan poked the brown bag with his index finger while asking.
The teacher next to him quickly chewed the hamburger filling his mouth. Only after reducing the volume somewhat did he speak with bulging cheeks.
“You know there’s a franchise heir in that class, right? You didn’t know?”
He spit out food-mixed saliva along with his slurred speech.
Normally he would have been disgusted, but Seo Juhan, not in his right mind, didn’t notice.
No way…
Even while self-deprecating that it was an absurd thought, Seo Juhan deliberately asked.
“…Go Un?”
The teacher next to him tilted his head as if uncertain.
“I think that was the name.”
It wasn’t a common enough name to easily confuse.
Seo Juhan’s complexion darkened completely. But there were still questions remaining to accept it at face value.
“That… last time I ordered and he came to deliver. Isn’t he just a part-timer?”
Seo Juhan asked with desperation. Speak it and it will come true. Believing in the sweet talk that appeared in self-help books was unprecedented in his life.
“It’s probably him, right?”
The teacher next to him gulped down a can of cola as if parched, then continued.
“Maybe they don’t give him allowance. I think it’s probably like, rather than letting him cause trouble during that time, they tell him to help with work.”
The leisurely answer completely crumbled Juhan’s expectations.
“…”
Seo Juhan glared devastatingly at the handmade burger that had become the source of all this.
It was what remained because those beings—no, sentient beings—who only waste the people’s tax money didn’t come to school upon hearing the news that lunch wouldn’t be provided.
The teacher in the front seat set down the drink can on the office desk with a thud. And while unwrapping the burger, they fanned the flames.
“That kid was truly born with a gold spoon in his mouth. I saw in an article last time that some private equity fund wants to buy the brand for 200 billion won or something.”
The paper wrapping made a rustling sound. Between various vegetables, a thick patty with bite marks showed off its appetizing appearance.
“Looking at that kid, I wonder what’s the point of nagging children to study. Honestly, seems better than those conglomerates who are always in the news getting beaten up.”
The atmosphere of the two teachers sitting with one partition between them starkly diverged.
One spoke as if envious but calmly emptied their burger, while inside the quietly sitting Seo Juhan, a storm raged.
“…”
It wasn’t that he envied the money. He didn’t care about that at all.
However, an inexplicable sense of betrayal surged up. He was so frustrated his throat felt choked.
A fundamental vengefulness of a different dimension from before stabbed at his heart. He felt like he’d been insulted personally. It felt like he’d been covered in filth.
To think I felt pity and compassion for such a bastard.
It couldn’t have been a more useless thing to do.
How ridiculous must my attention and goodwill shown until now have been?
How pathetic must I have looked giving advice as a life senior saying you must go to university in Korean society?
“…”
Though it was even before eating lunch, his appetite completely disappeared.
Seo Juhan stood up abruptly. He gripped the thick burger bag in his fist and strode forward.
He opened the door to the bathroom right across the corridor. He passed the poor and dirty urinals and went straight to a toilet stall. The door made a creaking sound as it opened.
He spread the wrapper over the toilet. The soft bread he hadn’t taken a single bite of and the ingredients inside separated and plopped into the water.
The Korean beef cow patty sizzling with grease also splashed into the water. Lettuce soaked in sauce, thinly sliced onions, and shredded red cabbage floated up.
The brown and white sauces didn’t mix with the water but spread thickly. It also looked like filth. His eyebrows automatically furrowed at the nauseating sight.
Seo Juhan lifted his foot and pressed the filthy toilet lever.
All the ingredients swirled and swept down in a whirlpool.
