Only then did Cha Ihyun come to his senses and follow him out. The hallway was more chaotic than the classroom. The fear of the kids who ran out of the classroom spread to kids from other classes passing by, and everyone was running like beasts without even knowing what had happened. Cha Ihyun raised his voice.
“Cha Dobum!”
Even though that voice was quickly buried in the war-like noise, Cha Dobum stopped abruptly.
The face that turned around had lost its languid smile. Cha Ihyun swallowed dry saliva with a trembling throat.
“You… where are you going now.”
Cha Dobum looked unfamiliar. Even if he was a delinquent, he was a high school student. Cha Dobum, who was just a high school student, had a face that really looked like he would kill someone.
Cha Dobum looked around the hallway. After scanning the signs for Class 3 and Class 5 once each, he answered as if he had decided.
“I’m going to Class 5 for a bit.”
Cha Ihyun’s gaze reached his right hand. He felt like he knew where that mechanical pencil dyed in a horrible color would head next. Cha Dobum would stab Yang Gitae’s eyes without hesitation.
“Don’t do it.”
This time it seemed he didn’t hear. Cha Dobum headed to Class 5 without delay. In the end, Cha Ihyun ran and grabbed his right hand.
“You, if you go further from here, you’ll really… become a criminal.”
“Two or three, it’s the same anyway. If it’s the same, three is better.”
“Please stop, you crazy bastard!”
In the end, Cha Ihyun, who couldn’t stand it anymore, raised his voice.
“There’s a limit even to delinquency. I… I can’t be family with a criminal bastard.”
“…”
“Really. If you go now, I, I won’t talk to you for the rest of my life…”
There was no way such a threat would work on someone who had mercilessly torn another’s tongue and ear. Knowing that, his voice trembled miserably, but he glared at Cha Dobum with all his might. As if he meant it.
If it’s Cha Dobum, he’ll pretend to lose and listen to me. He had that belief. Because Cha Dobum is on my side.
Cha Dobum looked down at the hand holding his arm. The white fingers were trembling pitifully.
Cha Dobum, who had been staring at that trembling, loosened the strength in his hand. The bizarrely bent mechanical pencil fell with a thud onto the hallway floor.
***
Cha Dobum received a suspension.
Of course, that wasn’t the final punishment Cha Dobum would receive.
The school was turned upside down. Of course, all sorts of incidents happen at all-boys schools, but this was the first time there was an incident that damaged someone’s body, specifically their tongue. Nevertheless, there were roughly two reasons why the school violence committee’s decision was delayed.
First were the witnesses’ testimonies. The kids from the class who were dragged in as witnesses every other day didn’t describe Cha Dobum as just a perpetrator. Stories were gathered about what kind of things Baek Seunghoon had poured out about Cha Ihyun, how excessive it was, and how Cha Dobum, as family, had no choice but to react that way.
The more the story was pieced together, the more it became clear that Baek Seunghoon was also a perpetrator. Moreover, Baek Seunghoon didn’t have a good reputation normally. And it was Cha Dobum who had been keeping him in check. Whether it was some kind of heroization at work or not, the kids consistently testified that Cha Dobum ‘had good reason.’
Opinions were divided between the view that there was a preceding incident, that is, a motive, so it should be taken into consideration, and the view that regardless of that, since he caused injury, he should face expulsion. The teachers were also troubled. Whichever way the decision went, the guardians of both sides would take issue with the result. For example, it was a situation where Cha Dobum’s side guardians could conversely file a school violence complaint.
That was the second inside story of why the deliberation was prolonged, but there was an incident that broke everyone’s expectations. Specifically, Cha Dobum’s guardians, Cha Yunjae and Jeong Sieun, acknowledged their son’s wrongdoing and bowed their heads. They offered only sincere apologies without any excuses or counterattacks.
Their appearance of even temporarily suspending the hospital operation and carrying out special education and community service together with their son moved even the frozen hearts of the other side. Baek Seunghoon and Kim Hoyoung’s sides, who had been preparing criminal charges in case things got complicated, stopped the lawsuit and chose settlement. Choosing to show forgiveness and accept compensation was a more realistic choice than choosing a long battle.
After such a period of self-reflection, going through withdrawal procedures. That became the final punishment scheduled for Cha Dobum.
That they recommended withdrawal rather than expulsion was the teachers’ last consideration. They couldn’t stop the gossip that money was the best after all.
Anyway, the incident that had stirred up the school seemed to be coming to a conclusion along with the approaching summer closing ceremony.
‘Let’s take a break from school. I’ve scheduled counseling for the morning.’
While Cha Yunjae and Jeong Sieun devoted themselves to Cha Dobum’s community service, Cha Minhyun took on the role of Cha Ihyun’s guardian. He recommended counseling treatment rather than attending school to Cha Ihyun. It was because Cha Ihyun was also involved in the incident, albeit indirectly, and he was concerned that when left alone in the classroom, he wouldn’t be free from the surrounding gazes.
But Cha Ihyun attended without missing a single day until today, the closing ceremony. It was because if he too didn’t come to school, it felt like this side would really become the ‘sinner.’ So he walked around with his head held straight until the last day of the first semester.
Enduring the gazes without Cha Dobum as a shield was more doable than expected. But what hit him harder than that was that school was really, really too boring.
Classes felt particularly longer, and the school lunch that everyone made a fuss about being delicious didn’t appeal to him at all, so he left food every time. Cha Dobum, who had made the classroom noisy, had disappeared, but strangely the classroom only felt too quiet.
That strange silence continued even in the after-school lesson. Professor Kang only sighed looking at him unable to concentrate at all. Still, seeing her give him a ride home without saying much, it seemed she had roughly heard about the school incident.
‘Did hyung tell her?’
It was a bit unfair. That adults shared information like this only among themselves. On the other hand, he had absolutely no way of knowing where Cha Dobum had been and what he had been doing for this past week. No one told him. In a way, we’re the parties involved.
‘…It’s not tasty.’
Cha Ihyun put the milk bread he had taken a bite of back into his bag. Inside the bag was chocolate bread that he had similarly taken a bite of. At the rustling sound, Professor Kang glanced at the passenger seat.
“What’s with the bread?”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
“No, you can eat. I was just wondering why you’re carrying around so much bread.”
Cha Ihyun looked down at his school bag. The bag full of milk bread and chocolate bread was puffed up fat. He awkwardly hugged the bag. These were the breads he had received after stopping by the school store today because he was too bored on closing ceremony day.
As soon as the store ahjussi saw Cha Ihyun, he said it was perfect timing and gave him an armful of chocolate bread and milk bread. Thinking he might be doing this because he heard the rumors, he firmly refused, but the ahjussi only said to take them quickly, saying they were ‘breads Cha Dobum had ordered.’
Just then, the car arrived in front of the house. Professor Kang pushed up her glasses.
“Let’s see you in a more settled state next week. Don’t reduce the time sitting in front of the keyboard.”
“Yes, thank you. Drive safely.”
Cha Ihyun, who closed the car door, glanced up at the house. Even though the car sound must have been heard, the house was only quiet. The light was on only on the second floor, in his hyung’s room.
When he entered the house, only the white auxiliary lights in the entrance and kitchen were on. It was light turned on for the youngest who would return late at night.
Cha Ihyun looked at Cha Dobum’s room. The door that had always been open had been tightly closed like this for a week already. As was the lack of any sign of presence from there. His heart felt uncomfortable at the unfamiliar scenery.
Cha Ihyun unknowingly approached Cha Dobum’s door. His hand hesitated above the doorknob. He had never opened this door with his own hand, nor had he ever knocked on it. Moreover, even if he opened the door, that sound would definitely be heard all the way to the master bedroom. The tacit atmosphere that he shouldn’t approach Cha Dobum, who was in self-reflection, was as heavy as the silence that had settled in the house. Cha Ihyun eventually lowered his hand.
The second floor he carefully went up on tiptoe had the completely opposite atmosphere from downstairs. The yellow lighting warmly welcomed Cha Ihyun, and Cha Minhyun’s door was slightly open as if he could come in anytime.
Cha Ihyun hesitated for a moment. It was as if a dry voice replayed in his ear.
‘I shouldn’t have sent him to the same school as Cha Dobum.’
That was his hyung’s first reaction.
When someone does something, the natural response is the question ‘why.’ Even more so if it’s family. But his hyung wasn’t curious at all about why Cha Dobum did such a thing. As if it was natural for a human being like Cha Dobum to do such things.
That day, Cha Ihyun thought for the first time that his hyung was too much. He also felt wronged somehow. Of course, it wasn’t that Cha Dobum did well, and he knew well that violence wasn’t okay in any situation, but still he felt hurt. For no reason, he felt more.
Cha Ihyun entered his room instead of opening Cha Minhyun’s door.
The laundry basket piled with a week’s worth of clothes and socks was on the verge of overflowing because Cha Dobum hadn’t emptied it. Cha Ihyun, who was staring blankly at it, turned his school bag inside out and shook out the contents. There seemed to be over twenty breads at least.
Cha Ihyun, who was fiddling with the milk bread on top, suddenly thought he was hungry. It was quite out of the blue. He had no appetite so he skipped lunch and dinner, but now he was hungry. But it wasn’t that he wanted to eat bread. Rather than something sweet like this, he wanted to eat something a bit salty. Like sundae, for instance.
“…”
It was when he was rummaging through his bag for no reason. When he felt something in the inner pocket and took it out, a crumpled paper came out. Cha Ihyun, who tilted his head, unfolded the wrinkled paper.
Cha Dobum Free Pass -How to use: Shout ‘Using free pass’ and order me to do anything. -Can be used via phone or text ^^
It felt like the sticky snack bar table was being felt at his fingertips. With the illusion that he could even smell sundae somehow, Cha Ihyun unknowingly sniffed and was surprised, dropping the Post-it.
Cha Ihyun glared at the floor. The Post-it close to fluorescent color was noticeably heterogeneous in this space. Cha Ihyun, who stared intently at the ‘How to use’ part, picked up his phone.
The conversation history with Cha Dobum was clean. After deleting all the messages to hide them from his hyung, they had fought with Cha Dobum and hadn’t contacted each other. Cha Ihyun bit his rolled-up lip at the chat window that felt awkward just looking at it.
He had no experience reconciling with anyone. Like with Jang Jinsu and Lee Taeyang, cutting off relationships when they went wrong was repeated, so he had no occasion to try reconciling. So he couldn’t grasp how to reconnect this severed conversation.
His fingers that had been hovering in the air for several minutes moved awkwardly.
