# Chapter 77
“For the time being, you handle what happens at school.”
“What?”
Baek Han frowned at Kwon Dojin’s sudden statement. I was looking forward to what nonsense he would spout this time.
“Just know it as such.”
“No, hey! You need to explain properly!”
When I stopped Kwon Dojin, who was about to turn around and leave, he raised his eyebrows as if expressing dissatisfaction. Though his attitude was unfriendly and arrogant, Baek Han, already accustomed to it, responded with an equally poor attitude.
Seeing Baek Han’s unyielding demeanor, Dojin sighed and moved to the side, leaning against the wall. As he muttered about whether he really had to explain such things while brushing his hair up, Baek Han unconsciously clenched his fist to prevent himself from hitting him.
This bastard had a habit of making even the same words sound unpleasant.
“The atmosphere at school is strange.”
“How exactly?”
“The way people look at Habin isn’t good.”
“Isn’t that nothing new? You’ve turned the school upside down many times because of that.”
Though there was something familiar about Dojin’s words, Baek Han deliberately showed an indifferent attitude. Dojin clicked his tongue at Baek Han’s probing behavior but chose to ignore it, finding it bothersome to add anything. Because of this, Baek Han had no choice but to speak first.
“Anyway, you think that’s a reason to dump all your work on me? Are you kidding?”
“If it were at the usual level, why would I even bring up the idea of entrusting all the handling to you?”
“Then what, how is it different?”
“It’s just that I feel like something’s going to happen—. Anyway, I have a bad feeling. It would be best if you don’t separate from Habin at school for the time being.”
To be precise, “something” had already happened once. Dojin had secretly removed a doll from Habin’s desk without him knowing.
Of course, at first, he didn’t know it was a doll. Arriving at school somewhat early to match Habin, who had started coming to school early, he discovered a small box placed prominently on Habin’s desk in the empty classroom.
Wondering if it was mistakenly placed on Habin’s desk instead of his own, as had happened before, Dojin opened the box to check.
When he opened the tightly packaged box, Dojin felt as if his blood was rushing in reverse for a moment.
Inside the box, there was a doll with nails driven through its chest and head, stained with red paint, having lost its pretty appearance, displayed ostentatiously. Though he tried to identify the culprit while controlling his fragmented thoughts due to anger, he couldn’t find any clues.
Whether someone had left the item at the crack of dawn, or had secretly placed it after school the previous day, there were no witnesses. Or perhaps everyone was just keeping quiet about it.
“I thought you’d just turn things upside down once and be done with it… Is it worse than that?”
In reality, the seriousness perceived by Baek Han and Dojin had to be different. Since Baek Han spent less time with Habin compared to Dojin, he was less exposed to the hostility shown by other students toward Habin.
Moreover, when Baek Han and Habin were together, Dojin was also usually with them, so it was natural that those showing hostility would disappear.
Of course, even so, Baek Han was aware that the situation was turning strange, so he further creased his already fierce expression at Dojin’s words.
“If you really don’t believe me, you can see and judge for yourself. Anyway, I’ve told you. It’s not like there’s a lot to handle anyway.”
“That’s true. Above all, it’s more comfortable to do it alone than to handle things with you.”
Thanks to Lee Habin, he maintained a not-so-bad relationship with Kwon Dojin, but originally, they would have been like oil and water, not easily mixing. So, since they still found each other awkward, Baek Han didn’t want to face Kwon Dojin often.
However, if Kwon Dojin spoke like this, it meant that something might happen, and since he had a friendship with Habin, he was also concerned. So, for Habin’s sake, he was willing to handle such simple matters.
“Then you’ll take care of it for the time being.”
“In return, don’t criticize my handling methods.”
Dojin glanced at Baek Han, who was growling, and nodded without saying anything else. Sometimes, he had nothing to say to Baek Han, who could be even more principled than himself.
“I’m leaving then.”
“Oh, wait a moment. I haven’t heard any news about Ji Haecheon lately, do you know anything?”
Baek Han frowned, tapping the floor. He wondered why the Rank 1 was so interested in other people’s business. Ji Haecheon usually got involved in Kwon Dojin’s affairs when he was bored, but lately, he had been completely silent. So it was strange and concerning.
“He’s probably doing it on purpose.”
“On purpose? Why would that petty guy who used to mess with you and giggle about it—”
“Because he needs to add fuel to the discord rumors. The deterioration of Habin’s image is probably his doing too.”
“What does the discord rumor have to do with him not interfering with you—”
Baek Han stopped mid-sentence as he recalled a forgotten fact—that those not deeply connected to the ranking had spread baseless rumors about Ji Haecheon and Kwon Dojin having a good relationship because they saw Ji Haecheon interfering in Kwon Dojin’s affairs all the time.
“I’ve been away from my position for too long.”
Dojin, guessing that Baek Han understood, pushed himself off the wall and nodded slightly at Baek Han, who was standing in the passageway. Clicking his tongue but still moving slightly to make way, Baek Han turned his attention to those he had momentarily forgotten while talking with Kwon Dojin.
“Should I handle these guys first?”
“Do as you wish.”
Dojin, who glanced at those kneeling with their heads bowed, turned his gaze away as if uninterested. Baek Han, satisfied with this, withdrew his gaze from Kwon Dojin. Dojin also left the rooftop without lingering.
Taking out his phone from his pocket to check the time, Dojin frowned when he realized that more time had passed than he had anticipated. He had resolved to finish within an hour, but nearly two hours had passed, even though he had entrusted the aftermath to Baek Han.
Dojin hurried his steps toward the classroom, as much as he was late. Since it was break time, Dojin passed by several students in the corridor so quickly that they didn’t even have time to greet him.
Leaving behind those who expressed bewilderment at Kwon Dojin’s unusual behavior, he reached the classroom and quietly opened the back door.
Dojin felt the atmosphere of the class reverse the moment he opened the door. He also intuited that he would be able to confirm the identity of the discomfort he had been feeling.
As he slowly looked around, everyone avoided making eye contact with Dojin. Reading embarrassment, anxiety, tension, and slight regret in their blatant behavior, he slightly furrowed his brow.
It looked as if they were avoiding him because they had done something wrong. Dojin approached Habin, who was lying face down, for some reason. Habin hadn’t noticed him approaching and was grumbling.
Dojin, thinking that the words he vaguely heard seemed to be filled with irritation, reached out and stroked his hair. Habin raised his head when he felt the touch, and as their eyes naturally met, the corners of Dojin’s lips curved upward into a soft line.
“Tired again?”
“What do you mean ‘again’?”
Pretending not to have noticed anything, Dojin casually observed the textbook on Habin’s desk. He couldn’t be certain as Habin closed the textbook while sitting up. However, if he hadn’t seen wrong, that textbook was too damaged to be usable.
Dojin’s expression hardened as he confirmed this. It was an unconscious reaction that he couldn’t control, but he came to his senses the moment his eyes met Habin’s.
Quickly relaxing his stiff face, he forcibly opened his mouth to continue the conversation. He felt that his deliberate attempt to appear calm was unnatural, but knowing doesn’t mean there was anything he could do about it. He was doing his best not to show it to Habin.
Dojin clenched his fist tightly to suppress the rising irritation. The nails digging into his palm stung his skin.
“Then I’ll go straight home after school.”
“I wanted to study with Habin—”
To hide his frowning expression, he leaned over, burying his face in Habin’s shoulder. Dojin, feeling Habin’s gaze looking down at him, slightly rubbed his cheek so that his expression couldn’t be seen from above.
Dojin couldn’t fully concentrate even while conversing with Habin. Normally, he would have caught every little sound without missing anything, but now he had to infer the content and respond because he missed words here and there.
Fortunately, Habin didn’t notice anything strange, as if Dojin hadn’t given any odd answers. Dojin suppressed his anger again as he watched Habin gradually becoming more lively, unlike himself.
This wasn’t the first time someone had messed with Habin. Dojin knew that well. That’s why he had drawn lines several times to ensure Habin wouldn’t be harmed again. But whether they were bold or simply disregarding him, they had crossed that line again.
“Now that the bell has rung, get off me.”
“But the teacher hasn’t come yet?”
“I haven’t taken out my textbook yet either.”
As hands pushed him away, urging him to move quickly, Dojin sat up straight. Habin, relieved of the weight, left his seat and headed to the lockers at the back.
Watching Habin take out his textbook while standing in front of the locker, not far from his seat, Dojin raised his eyebrows upon discovering an unfamiliar object. He waited for Habin to return to his seat with textbooks and notebooks in his arms.
“By the way, Habin.”
“What?”
Watching Habin take out and arrange the pens he would use for note-taking as part of his pre-class routine, Dojin rested his chin on his hand.
“Since when did you put a lock on your locker?”
“Huh? Well—”
At Dojin’s question, Habin’s hand, which was opening his notebook, trembled slightly. He awkwardly looked away from Dojin, letting his words trail off. Thanks to this series of actions, Dojin noticed that the reason for putting the lock was related to the incident of the damaged textbook today.
“Is it difficult to talk about?”
“It’s not difficult, just thinking for a moment. It hasn’t been long since I put it on. About a week?”
“A week, you say…”
Dojin, examining Habin’s face that was pretending to be calm, moved the hand supporting his chin to cover his mouth. He rolled his thoughts while slowly closing and opening his eyelids.
A week—the timing when Habin put a lock on his locker was similar to when he started noticing something strange. Then why did Habin put a lock on his locker?
Doing something he hadn’t done at the beginning of the semester meant there was a trigger that made it necessary. And that trigger would have been about a week ago. So what was that trigger?
“Why are you asking?”
Thanks to Habin asking first just in time, a faint glint appeared in Dojin’s eyes. Dojin slightly turned his body toward Habin and tilted his head.
“Just, it was an item I hadn’t seen before, so I was curious. But why did you put it on?”
“I put it on because I wanted to. Is there anything special about it?”
Habin, who answered lightly with a shrug, fidgeted with his textbook unnecessarily. Seeing the action that failed to hide the awkwardness, Dojin pondered. Should he probe further, or should he stop here?
“Let’s start the class.”
With a scraping sound, the front door of the classroom opened, and the subject teacher entered. Having no choice but to swallow his question, Dojin lowered his gaze, watching the white hand that was searching for and gripping a mechanical pencil among the arranged writing tools.
What was Habin thinking, hiding the bullying from him? Dojin’s mood twisted at Habin’s behavior, but he smiled while carefully concealing those feelings.
It seems like I’ll have to catch them in the act without Habin knowing.
