Wrong Meal 115

# Chapter 115

I glanced around in the quiet stillness, rolling my eyes to survey the surroundings. There was no one nearby, only Son Gyucheon and his followers standing there.

Son Gyucheon’s expression that caught my eye was unbalanced. Unlike his lightly made smile, which might have been unconscious, his eyes flashed. Though it was absurd, I couldn’t just calmly brush it off, so I bit my lip slightly.

That bastard, really! Throwing objects dangerously and causing a commotion. Fortunately, it didn’t hit me and fell below, but I glanced down briefly to check what Son Gyucheon had thrown. It had already fallen too far down to be visible, but judging by how openly he threw it, it was probably some kind of trash.

Clicking my tongue inwardly, I straightened my head to find Son Gyucheon and his followers already in front of me, having approached without me noticing.

As they surrounded me in a circle as if they had business with me, the air around changed. They were deliberately blocking all sides to prevent me from escaping, making the atmosphere hostile.

The occasional sounds of cheerful conversation coming from below contrasted with this scene, only intensifying the tension.

I was momentarily confused by the sudden situation, like an unexpected accident, but I quickly regained my composure. My expression was also souring, but I had questions I wanted to ask about the issue that had been bothering me until just now.

With that thought, my mood sank endlessly downward. To be honest, a more accurate description would be that irritation and an indescribable frustration came over me.

“What is it?”

First, to hear why they were blocking me as if imprisoning someone, I looked at Son Gyucheon with a crooked gaze. My naturally lowered voice expressed my feelings.

At my tone, Son Gyucheon closed his mouth in a straight line. Rather than being upset, he looked as if he was lost in thought. For a moment, the way his eyes slightly moved up and down seemed like he was subtly scanning me, which made me wonder.

When I raised my eyebrow, Son Gyucheon, seeing my expression, smirked. I was puzzled by his somewhat self-deprecating laugh, but I didn’t say anything.

“Here I am, annoyingly cleaning up trash because of someone, while someone else is leisurely enjoying contemplation.”

When his mocking voice dug into my ears, I let it go in one ear and out the other. As expected, nothing good would come out of his mouth.

Glancing at them, I noticed trash pickers and bags in some of their hands that I hadn’t seen before.

It seemed they were continuing their community service received as disciplinary action.

I wouldn’t have expected it from Ye Abin, but I was surprised that Son Gyucheon was accepting it so obediently, which was unexpected. Well… it seemed he wasn’t doing it himself but making others do it. Come to think of it, Ye Abin also seemed to not do it himself but made Jo Youngmin and Hong Hachan do it.

Still, it was perhaps fortunate that I had only encountered Son Gyucheon and his group. I often saw him with Ye Abin lately, so I thought they would be together this time too, but surprisingly they weren’t.

Putting aside useless thoughts, I looked Son Gyucheon up and down, just as he had done to me. I could understand that he was in a bad mood for having to clean the mountain behind the school even on the day of the sports festival, but I didn’t feel sorry for him at all.

Rather, this much is lenient. Considering what these guys would typically do, simple community service was a light punishment.

Of course, no one was injured and nothing had happened yet, but considering Yoon Taeho’s gloomy future, Son Gyucheon’s punishment was nothing. In reality, they probably weren’t in a good relationship even before I came here.

Seeing Son Gyucheon’s attitude, which was less aggressive than I expected, I decided not to provoke him further and instead asked what I wanted to know.

“Was it you who switched the water?”

To my direct question without context, Son Gyucheon didn’t even look surprised, just pursed his lips. His slightly wrinkled eyebrow quickly returned to normal.

“No, it wasn’t me.”

I remained silent for a moment at his answer. I thought he would start with curses asking what I was talking about, but seeing that he didn’t, he must have understood the intent of my question, and he didn’t seem to be lying.

Then was it really Jo Youngmin and Hong Hachan as I expected? Not just those two, but Ye Abin could also be in on it. Honestly, there was a high probability that Ye Abin had orchestrated it.

If Son Gyucheon wasn’t involved in this incident, I had nothing more to do with him. Even if he was actually guilty, there wasn’t much I could do right now.

With The Four around, and teachers too, it wasn’t something I could resolve by standing up alone. Of course, I had no reason or intention to do so either.

Having no further business, I waved my hand as if telling them to move aside, trying to avoid colliding with them as much as possible. But they surrounded me more tightly, preventing me from escaping. I never thought they would step aside easily, but since reality matched my expectations exactly, all I could do was laugh hollowly.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you these days? Do you think you’re on the same level as The Four just because you hang out with them?”

His words continued in mumbles, as if asking what I was relying on to act so boldly. His expression seemed genuinely curious, so I didn’t feel too bad, but now I was getting sick of it.

Tired of being dragged into childish fights all the time, I suppressed the cringey feeling and, abandoning the thought that I shouldn’t give advice like some old fogey, naturally opened my mouth.

“If you got into this school, you’re not that stupid, so what’s lacking in you? How long has it been since you caused trouble, and you’re picking fights again? Are you listening with your ears turned away when someone says they just want to attend school peacefully? What are you relying on to act so recklessly?”

It’s like you seem cautious sometimes, yet you’re quite aggressive toward The Four. It was ridiculous how you would grovel in front of The Four but act tough in front of me.

When I told him to stop being childish and move aside, he seemed to get angry, his eyes lighting up as he grabbed my collar and pushed me. My back hit the safety barrier, which was made of thin, densely placed pillars.

More than the stinging pain spreading around my waist, cold sweat broke out on my back as my body staggered.

Glancing at the dizzying drop beside me, I tried to remove Son Gyucheon’s hand. But whether I was weak or he was strong, his grip on my collar wouldn’t easily come off. Rather, his fist tightened more, pulling my collar taut and constricting my neck.

“Kuh… Let, go!”

The end of my words came out muffled, but the meaning should have been conveyed. Yet when he still didn’t release his grip, I extended my clenched fist forward. He noticed and turned his head to avoid it, then applied even more force.

My back hit the railing with a bang-bang sound, bending immediately. Fearing I might fall over the railing, I had no choice but to grab his clothes and grit my teeth to endure, when a familiar voice came from a distance.

“What’s going on?”

Ye Abin was casually walking over from somewhere, having appeared again. Jo Youngmin’s face was also visible a few steps behind. Damn it. This isn’t some chain quest, but it feels like events keep happening one after another.

As my expression involuntarily crumpled, I caught Ye Abin smiling meaningfully as our eyes met. As an ominous feeling began to creep up, Ye Abin tilted his head and said something unexpectedly deflating.

“Hey, you’re getting your pants dirty.”

“What? …Shit!”

Son Gyucheon, who had exclaimed in question at Ye Abin’s words, examined the athletic clothes he was wearing. His lower body, which had leaned forward due to the force of holding me, was touching a garbage bag. Seeing that his pants were getting wet as the contents spilled out, Son Gyucheon pushed me.

My upper body went over the safety barrier, and my toes lifted slightly off the ground. With eyes wide open in panic, Ye Abin, who had approached right next to me, stared at me with a cold gaze.

As I instinctively stretched out my flailing arms, Ye Abin deliberately took a step back. At that moment, I felt something hit my foot with considerable force. Before I could even check what it was, my mind went blank as my body felt like it was floating.

“That’s what you get for being annoying.”

With those words whispered like a murmur, my body, which had crossed over the railing, sank down as if being pulled from below. In an instant, a tremendous impact sound of metal crumpling echoed, and pain like my entire body was breaking rushed in.

A faint groan was buried under the ear-piercing screams from around. During that brief moment while I was still slightly conscious, I stupidly thought something like, “Fortunately, I fell onto a car.”

* * *

I saw a clear sky that seemed to allow not even the slightest impurity. My body felt so light, as if I could fly if I jumped, giving me the feeling of floating in the sky.

Suddenly, I heard a commotion from below and looked down to see four boys. They seemed to be arguing loudly, but in an instant, one boy who got punched was pushed back and hit the wall with a thud. He was a rather large kid, but he fell down ungracefully.

A gasp escaped me in surprise, and then my heart sank at the scene that followed. The other boys surrounded the boy pushed against the wall and began to beat him one-sidedly.

From the outside, they looked like young children who might have just started middle school. But the way they threw punches and kicked wasn’t childlike at all. Their brutal violence was just like that of adults or thugs.

I tried to shout to stop the kids, but no voice came out. When I stretched out my hand and couldn’t get closer, I felt something strange. Then, as if someone had read my feelings, someone shouted for them to stop.

I turned my head to see who it was, but their face wasn’t visible, like static interference. Thanks to that, the beating stopped, and the boy who had been covering his head slowly raised his head.

His eyes, which had looked empty and dazed, gradually became clearer as they took in the person who had helped him. And the face of someone reflected in his eyes also gradually became clearer. As I unconsciously focused on the situation, the scene changed like flipping pages of a comic book.

Half of the sky was tinged with a dull blue, as if covered in fog. The other half, cut off as if split exactly in two, was glowing orange like an intensely burning flame.

In that contrasting scenery stood two boys. From the loud sound, I thought it might be another fighting scene, but one was too quiet, and the other’s face was flushing red and blue. Even if they weren’t hitting each other, the words they threw at each other were sharp and heavy.

Even though I wasn’t one of the parties fighting there, strangely, my emotions sank endlessly and then anger surged through my entire body. Just as my chest was about to feel tight, the background changed again.

This time, the blue sky was overlaid with red sunset light, becoming tinged with various colors. As the colorful lights scattered here and there, soon the sky turned purple.

The difference from before was that I was now inside somewhere, not outside, and there was a boy there. It was a dark room with no lights on, but I could determine the gender by the light coming through the window.

The view outside the window was magnificent, but there was no time to leisurely appreciate it because of the figure standing quietly.

It was a peculiar feeling to see my own face head-on from a distance, something that would be impossible without looking in a mirror. Originally, it wouldn’t even have been my real body, so it should have been natural. Is it because I’ve been living as Yoon Taeho? His emotions were transmitted to me.

It felt exactly like sinking endlessly to the bottom of the sea with a rock tied to my feet. Like being in a heavy and pathetic state, soaked like a wet rag, unable to do anything.

Unlike his reddened and bluish appearance just moments ago, Yoon Taeho, with a somehow calm expression, was slowly tidying his desk. After throwing the not-too-many pieces of trash into a bag, the room, which was now a familiar place to me too, became clean with just the necessities.

I was blankly watching Yoon Taeho’s back as he moved, seemingly to take out the trash, when I blinked at the sound of the door closing.

Suddenly, an intense white light shone down, making my eyes dazzle. Where am I now? As I barely tried to open my eyes, an urgent voice penetrated my hazy mind and my ears, which felt muffled.

“Nam Bowon-ssi, are you alright?!”