It was truly an object beyond imagination. Setting fire inside the school meant he was carrying a lighter at minimum, and setting a book on fire and throwing it down from the fourth floor was impossible with an ordinary person’s craziness. What if it had hit someone’s head? What if the fire had spread to someone’s uniform? What on earth would have happened?
Flames blazed fiercely from the comic book stamped with ‘Ggaebi Video Rental.’
The third-year bastards panicked. They stomped on the comic book spewing black smoke with their slippers. When the flames finally stopped, a dark voice dropped from the fourth-floor window.
“Aim failed. Ah…”
The uninvited guest disappeared without revealing who he’d failed to aim at. The four punks spat here and there as they entered the east building.
Hwang Jegu. That bastard was that kind of guy.
A name that made even a third-year delinquent’s pride shrink with just one mention.
I heard later, but the reason such a thing was possible was because what Hwang Jegu was responsible for was the hierarchy between schools. ‘Seolyun High has that bastard, you know, Hwang-je.’ Such talk went around, so naturally even third-years at school couldn’t easily mess with him. It was an era when violent hierarchies among the so-called worst punks from each school strictly existed.
Speaking with the bastard he had no connection with again wasn’t Yeon Cheonguk’s will. It was purely because of the homeroom teacher’s coercion.
It was late spring when summer and spring-fall uniforms mixed as people walked around. Yeon Cheonguk, who woke up from sleeping soundly to the sound of desks being pushed, headed to the bathroom. He planned to wash his face with cold water first, then clean the blackboard. He was walking down the hallway in a dazed state with his eyes barely open and hair disheveled, when the rod of love blocked his path.
“Geez, Jo Seongmo! Did you pass out again? You’re always in dreamland regardless of time or place. Usually you’re dazed like a dead ghost who can’t sleep, but you completely transform the moment you grab a microphone, it’s fascinating?”
“Hehe…”
“Cheonguk-ah. Go find Hwang Jegu from Class 7 right now and tell him to come to the staff room. It’s urgent.”
“What? Me? I… I have to clean the blackboard though…?”
“Do that later! Jegu threatened a third-year again. Hurry and call him!”
Threatened a third-year…?
Yeon Cheonguk, who was tilting his head, went down the stairs, unable to resist the homeroom teacher’s urging. He had no choice as the teacher pushed his back while waving the rod. Reluctantly, he held blackboard erasers in both hands and left the west building.
“How am I supposed to know where he is and go find him, ugh… what a pain.”
And scary.
A sigh came out naturally. He heard he mainly inhabited behind the auditorium, but was he even at school?
He’s the protagonist of jokes that he’s either in the auditorium, the PE equipment room, the arcade, or the interrogation room.
Hwang Jegu. What a tacky name.
That bastard was that kind of guy. A guy who played with third-years under his feet and was constantly called by the homeroom teacher. A kid all students knew, in both good and bad ways.
Humorous anecdotes in a good sense would be about this much. The confidence and crooked way of thinking that blatantly messed with guidance forms and exam answers submitted to the school.
<Future Dream>
: A life of getting licensed, illegally renting it out, and living off it
— Who is this?!
— First-year Class 9, Hwang Jegu!
<Teacher’s Day Thank You Letter>
Are you enjoying lying down and receiving rice cakes?
Before I force-feed you thanks, please go throw away the rod of love first.
— Hey! Who is this, come out right now!
— First-year Class 9, Hwang Jegu.
<Describe the achievements of the 5-Year National Development Plan.>
: As pointless as men and women not sitting together after age seven
— Wh… what is this, is he cursing at the teacher grading it? How did this bastard even get into an academic high school?! Who is it!
— Second-year Class 7, Hwang Jegu…
A kid like existing fiction who wasn’t often spotted on campus because he habitually skipped school and left early. A student the school gave up on, whom all teachers at this school had abandoned and were hoping would fall short of minimum attendance days as soon as possible.
An outlaw who always played the hero role in violent rumors due to his different weight class. A mysterious existence who maintained the unwavering number one spot in the interest rankings of rough girls in the area.
If you mention the fact that he’s from an orphanage and left there around age twelve to live with his grandfather, you can consider your school life over. He’s the one who created the rule that curses like ‘orphan’ or ‘bastard with no mom or dad’ couldn’t be uttered on campus. He turned the word orphan from a weakness into fear.
…At this point, he couldn’t understand the homeroom teacher. He could only wonder where that stubbornness to guide this dangerous element outside the system came from.
Hwang Jegu wasn’t behind the auditorium, nor was he in the PE equipment room. As Yeon Cheonguk trudged past a bench ready to give up, he stopped at the presence he heard from behind.
Through the bushes below the wall, he saw a school uniform skirt and two white legs. An existence that shouldn’t be inside an all-boys school campus.
Something wriggled on top of the school uniform skirt lying collapsed under a tree. Someone was devouring it. It was a scene like a zombie twice the size eating up a sacrifice…
Yeon Cheonguk backed away with wide eyes and ended up dropping his blackboard eraser.
“Ah, Hwang Jegu you crazy… stop…. Hey! Move, seriously!”
“Why?”
The girl startled and kicked her feet. The guy slowly lifted his shoulders and turned his head. The setting sunlight settled on the Seolyun High summer uniform shoulder.
At the slow and heavy presence, Yeon Cheonguk’s movements also stiffened. He was so overwhelmed by the scene he’d just witnessed that his body wouldn’t move as his mind wanted.
As expected, it was Hwang Jegu who got up, brushing the dirt off his uniform.
“Who?”
“……”
“I asked who. There’s no idiot like that around me.”
You won’t know even if I say my name. When he was about to answer a beat late, he beckoned toward Yeon Cheonguk. Very annoyedly, without even looking back.
“Hey. Wait there, you. Right there.”
After a moment, laughter could be heard, then the school uniform skirt crawled over the wall. The bastard easily lifted the other person’s body with his shoulder and placed them on top of the wall. It was effortless strength.
A hand as big as a textbook patted the school uniform skirt’s bottom. Even with sleepy eyes, it was a nuance that evoked a sticky sexual connection.
Yeon Cheonguk turned around awkwardly and needlessly clapped the blackboard erasers together, banging them. Soon he heard trudging footsteps.
The sound of carelessly crushing on sneakers and a faint sigh were heard simultaneously. The sound of stepping on sand got closer. Hwang Jegu smoothly pushed Yeon Cheonguk’s side with his forearm and turned him around.
An indifferent gaze fell on the name tag on his left chest. Tension was reaching its peak.
“Second year? Ah, Yeon Cheonguk. I know, I know…”
The bastard stood in a delinquent posture with his legs spread wide and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. Soon he lightly pushed Yeon Cheonguk’s left cheek with the back of his hand, turning it toward him. The slicked-back all-back hair was the first thing that caught his eye. From the body blocking his view came a bittersweet scent like tobacco. It was a thick and dark body odor.
“We’re the same age, not a freshman, so don’t you know?”
“Know what? What don’t I know.”
“Call people’s names properly.”
“……”
“You should say, Your Majesty Hwang-je.”
His head twisted with a fishy smile. The school setting that’s a must for first-love movies, a bright smile, romantic sunset… a presence that turned even the perfect three elements into noir. That was Hwang Jegu’s innate ability.
With this, a proper first encounter with the bastard was completed.
“Next time, call me properly. There are no exceptions.”
Hwang Jegu shrugged his shoulders as if doing a favor. It was a tone saying to be grateful to him for not urging him to call him Your Majesty right now. Yeon Cheonguk, who was barely avoiding eye contact and pretending not to care, completed his mission in a sullen voice.
“…The homeroom teacher said to come to the staff room.”
“Look at this guy talking back.”
The body temperature across from him was still hot. A fierce voice flowed from the body still holding heat. Hwang Jegu lightly tapped Yeon Cheonguk’s cheek with the corner of a comic book. At the light gesture, all the hair on his body stood on end.
Hands that wouldn’t think twice about slashing someone’s face. The visual pressure from thick forearms made a trivial touch feel painful. What particularly caught his eye was the scar drawn across his right arm, easily exceeding 20cm.
A famously known scar. Stitch marks positioned long on his right arm. Traces of being deeply cut by something sharp like a knife or glass. No one knew the truth about that scar properly, but it was clearly a battle scar from a terrible fight. Even if nerves and tendons were cut, he could still lift dumbbells and wooden clubs well.
It was when he was about to turn around hastily, not wanting to be caught looking intimidated. His wrist was grabbed tightly. The moment Yeon Cheonguk’s tension reached its peak, Hwang Jegu did something unexpected.
Thud. He smashed the chalk eraser into his own face.
“…?”
The face covered in white powder looked like a clown. Yeon Cheonguk’s mind also went blank as he stared blankly at the bastard with white chalk powder all over the tip of his nose.
