Chapter 6
School life was better than I expected. Not that I’d given up on escaping—it genuinely wasn’t bad.
If you ask what’s good about it…
“Dojin-nim! Can I give you this gift?!”
“Ah, thanks.”
I’d gotten used to the constant barrage of gifts, and also to…
“Good morning! Kim Jin-hyuk, Rank 48, reporting for duty!”
These yakuza-style greetings, and even…
“Kwon Dojin! Today I’ll finally defeat you and claim the number two spot!”
These lines straight out of a shounen manga—all of it became tolerable once I got used to it. After all, none of this was actually directed at me, but at Kwon Dojin himself, so it didn’t take long to adjust.
Except for one thing.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing.”
I brushed off Dojin’s question and turned my gaze toward the window. The bright sunlight was a bit harsh on my eyes, but the ambient noise and comfortable temperature made my body feel pleasantly drowsy.
“You’re lying.”
Kwon Dojin leaned over and planted his hand on my desk. He came at me like he was about to pounce, invading my personal space completely. I looked at him with unsteady eyes.
“Habin, I hate liars the most.”
What does that have to do with me, you bastard…
His large hand cupped my cheek. Then his thumb slowly stroked across it, making my already wavering gaze shake like I’d been hit by an earthquake.
Despite my confusion, everyone around us was absorbing this new piece of Kwon Dojin trivia with rapturous fascination. I mean, his face does look seductive right now—it does—but still!
“You should answer me, shouldn’t you?”
“Are you insane?”
I’m so screwed.
I reflexively blurted out what I was thinking and immediately clamped my mouth shut in horror. What was supposed to stay in my head just came straight out of my mouth. The admiring atmosphere that had filled the classroom moments ago completely evaporated, replaced by suffocating tension—confirming that I was, indeed, utterly screwed.
My heart pounded so loudly I could hear it in my ears. Honestly, I wanted to escape this situation immediately, but Dojin wasn’t letting me go. He froze in that position, holding onto me, only snapping out of it when a pen clattered off the desk.
“…Did you just say that to me?”
“No? How could I ever say something like that to you?”
Be shameless. Put on your best poker face.
I deliberately met Dojin’s gaze instead of avoiding it. Though unintentional, I became so cautious that even blinking felt like a delicate operation, so I blinked very, very slowly.
“Ha.”
Dojin released my face and stepped back, running his fingers through his hair with a clearly irritated gesture. With his hair now artfully tousled, he tilted his head and smiled like he was trying to hide his annoyance.
“I’ll believe you this time.”
“Believe it or don’t, I wasn’t talking to—”
“Habin.”
I started to retort out of habit but then quietly shut my mouth, reading the room.
“I told you I hate liars.”
There won’t be a next time.
Between his gently curved eyes, I could see predatory pupils. We’re clearly both high school students, so why is the atmosphere this threatening? Being a complete coward by nature, I instinctively lowered my eyes. This is seriously terrifying.
Ding-dong-dang-dong—
As the bell rang at just the right moment, my face brightened and I raised my head, immediately making eye contact with Dojin. Only then did I realize I was still half-turned toward him, and I carefully returned to my original position.
I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, deliberately ignoring Dojin, who was watching me with his chin propped on his hand.
As you can probably tell from what just happened, the one thing making my school life miserable was Kwon Dojin’s very existence.
It was like he had some personal vendetta against me—whenever we were at school, he never even considered leaving my side.
If I got up to grab a book from the storage cabinet behind me, he’d grab my arm and demand, “Where are you going?” If I moved to a different classroom for the next period, he’d be there wrapping an arm around my shoulders with irritation written all over his face, asking, “Why did you go by yourself?”
I thought I should at least be able to eat in peace. With that hope, I barely managed to slip away from Dojin and bought bread from the school store, only for him to hunt me down using tips from other students. Then he’d sit right next to me, unwrap his own bread, and say infuriating things like, “We’re friends—we should eat together.”
‘What the hell is he thinking?’
I wanted to crack open his skull with a scalpel and examine his brain to understand his intentions. The way he acted while calling us “friends” was basically how you’d treat a boyfriend, just without the kissing.
Because of this, I was receiving strange looks from my classmates and the entire school. I don’t usually care much about other people’s attention, but the more I was exposed to it, the more exhausted I became.
‘Is he planning to suffocate me to death?’
If that was his goal, Kwon Dojin was certainly on the right track—and doing it very efficiently.
Honestly, at first I almost mistook his behavior for romantic interest. It wasn’t just my imagination being self-conscious—Dojin was genuinely that confusing.
The proof was that he did things to me that he didn’t do to anyone else. Casually holding hands was just the beginning; he even hugged me and engaged in intimate physical contact without any hesitation.
Yes, intimate physical contact. That was the biggest problem. Because of it, those strange looks were growing more hostile by the day. Thinking about those stares made me feel like my school life would be far from smooth going forward. Things were okay for now—probably because everyone was still cautious around Dojin.
On the flip side, this also meant I couldn’t predict when I might start facing real consequences. And if those consequences became reality, I wouldn’t be able to just ignore them.
My thoughts were getting tangled, probably because Dojin was making my head spin. As usual, I directed my arrows of blame toward Dojin while half-listening to the teacher who’d entered the classroom.
‘What are you thinking about?’
The same question as before.
As I stared blankly at my textbook, I noticed neat handwriting appearing in the margin. Looking up, I met Dojin’s gaze—he must have been watching me the whole time—and he tilted his head with his chin propped on his hand.
Seeing his face, I started to move my lips mindlessly, but hearing the teacher’s voice suddenly grow louder, I bit my lower lip instead. I picked up the mechanical pencil that had been resting idly in my hand and scribbled a response under Dojin’s message.
‘Thinking about studying.’
I couldn’t exactly say I was thinking about you. Technically it would be true, but with a completely different meaning, and it would sound like a terrible pick-up line—besides, we weren’t even close enough for that kind of talk.
‘I’ll believe you.’
Again with this.
What would you do if you didn’t believe me? The urge to be defiant surged up, but I was dealing with the number two ranker. He was a psycho high school student who could easily handle multiple opponents at once. So, as I’ve said repeatedly, I—a coward who can’t fight and hates pain more than death—stamped down those rebellious feelings.
I want to live a long life.
***
“Habin.”
Familiar voice, familiar tone, familiar scent.
I looked up blankly at the person who’d made me memorize all his characteristics with just one call of my name. He seemed pleased with my attention, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiled. Not that he needed an excuse to smile—he always did that anyway.
“What?”
“Why do you keep disappearing? It makes me sad.”
You have so much to be sad about, don’t you?
I subtly backed away from his hand as he reached out to brush my hair. In response, Dojin’s eyes hardened, and he stepped forward exactly as much as I’d retreated.
“I’m not disappearing. I just came to the gym early.”
“You could have come with me.”
“Was there a need to?”
“Yes. There was.”
My brows furrowed at his emphatic response, and Dojin’s hand landed on that exact spot. His finger traced circles to smooth out the crease, forcing my expression to relax.
I felt like sighing at his behavior but looked away instead.
“Habin, want to go out somewhere after school today?”
“…Why?”
Why specifically with me? We’re not even close enough to hang out outside of school.
I had questions but swallowed them down. Saying things like that wouldn’t benefit me.
“Well, why indeed?”
You’re the one who suggested it, so shouldn’t you know? When the only person who could answer my question gave such an evasive response, my desire to know the reason naturally evaporated.
“Where are we going?”
I can’t refuse anyway. The heat I felt radiating from everyone around us made it painfully clear that the moment I voiced any rejection, it would ignite into hellfire. If that happened, my school life would collapse even faster. I wanted to maintain this precarious balance for as long as possible, even if just a little longer.
“Just… anywhere.”
“I don’t have much money.”
I was broke after splurging on the wireless earbuds I’d been saving up for. At my words, Dojin flinched like he’d heard something completely unexpected, then let out a disbelieving laugh.
“Why are you worried about money?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“…That hurts my pride.”
As if that would actually hurt your pride.
I heard Dojin’s quiet mumbling and thought indifferently about it. Meanwhile, Dojin closed our already minimal distance even further and brought his face right up to mine.
“I’ll make sure you never have to worry about that again.”
“…How?”
This feels ominous. Very, very ominous.
My shoulders flinched at Dojin’s burning gaze. And I knew immediately—I’d touched on something I absolutely shouldn’t have.
“Let’s start class!”
Just then, the PE teacher shouted loud enough for the entire gym to hear. Having been saved by timely class bells frequently these days, I hurriedly joined the line of students forming up. Dojin stared intensely at my back, then leisurely followed and, naturally, took his place right beside me.
