# Chapter 42
In the corner of the rooftop, there was a protruding structure, and I never imagined someone would be there. How did they get up there? As I stared blankly at the face peeking out, the Middle Class guys who had been threatening me cursed in apparent surprise.
“Fuck… why is he there?”
“Hey, what do we do now?!”
The guys soon began panicking and shouting about the mischief they’d caused. I was just as surprised by the unexpected appearance of one of The Four. But seeing how differently they reacted compared to when they dealt with me, I felt a sense of emptiness.
“Ah shit, I told you we should just throw it in the trash!”
“Last time someone did that and got caught by Yoo Wono, they were completely destroyed!”
“Getting rid of it completely would eliminate future trouble too.”
As they argued about whether to extinguish the fire or not, an unexpected name came up, making me glance briefly at Jung Hyoin. Jung Hyoin just took a snack out of the bag with a bored expression and put it in his mouth. His demeanor was so casual that I was curious about what he was thinking.
He had always been harder to read than the others. But even though he must have heard the name “Yoo Wono,” he seemed completely unfazed, which I found strange. Maybe they have a connection but aren’t entangled yet?
Anyway, I soon turned my gaze away from Jung Hyoin and looked at the blazing fire.
“Move aside, you idiots!”
When I shouted at the Middle Class students while holding a watering can filled with tap water, they flinched and hesitated.
“If you don’t mind getting wet, then stay put.”
I spoke indifferently to the guys who showed no signs of moving, and pulled back the watering can. The guys, realizing I was about to spray water, shouted “Eeey!” and hastily stepped back. Not caring what happened to them, I didn’t hesitate to swing the watering can in an arc, causing the water inside to spray out and extinguish the fire.
As the fire went out, the steam rose even more than before, making it hard to see. When I waved my hand to clear the smoke, I could see the object that hadn’t completely burned.
The blackened object was so damaged that it was impossible to tell what form it originally had. Given that Yoo Wono’s name came up, it must be his property. There’s no way he would willingly give his belongings to Middle Class students. I looked around at the guys, unable to guess why they were burning what was clearly a stolen item.
They also had peculiar expressions, and one of them who made eye contact with me suddenly snapped at me.
“Fuck, what is this because of you!”
Is he saying this is my fault now? I stared at him in disbelief, and one of them relaxed his expression and tapped his friend’s arm as if telling him to calm down.
“Hey, hey. He won’t be able to recognize it anyway at this point. This should be enough. Let’s take a picture as evidence and show it to him instead.”
“You’re right. After going this far, he’ll let it slide.”
“…Sigh, okay.”
The guy who had been glaring at me seemed to calm down as he exhaled deeply, then called for Kim Junwoo. Kim Junwoo, who had been staring dumbfounded at the extinguished fire, turned his head to look at the one who called him.
“Take a picture of this. …So we can show him.”
The one who called Kim Junwoo pointed at the half-burned object that could barely be called an item, then spoke while glancing nervously at Jung Hyoin and me. Jung Hyoin, who kept watching us like a spectator, must have made him uncomfortable, but his attitude also showed he was reluctant to speak in front of me.
It was obvious. They were clearly doing this on someone’s orders. Even at the Social Club meeting, they stood like servants attending to nobles… Seeing how obedient they were to the point of committing arson, they were nothing short of loyal servants.
I watched stupidly as Kim Junwoo took out his phone to take pictures, then just kept my mouth shut. The fire was out, and I wasn’t the one to lecture these guys.
Thinking I should go back to the club room, I put down the watering can and picked up the half-eaten sandwich. As I headed toward the exit, the guys hurriedly called out to me. I ignored them and was about to pass through the open door when someone quickly approached and pulled me back. When I turned around, it was the guy who had snapped at me.
“Ah, what is it?”
As I irritably turned around because of the shirt pulling, the guy muttered quietly.
“What are you going to do? If you tell the teacher, you’re dead, for real.”
I was about to say something but stopped. I felt that if I argued here, I wouldn’t be able to leave easily, so I just waved my hand. It wasn’t a gesture promising I wouldn’t tell; it was just acknowledging that I understood what he said. How they interpreted it was up to them.
But this apparently wasn’t enough, as the guy with the frowning face didn’t release my shirt and dragged me back to where I had been before.
“What are you doing? Are you planning to stay here forever instead of going down?”
In response to my irritated tone, the guy told me to shut up and added.
“You’ll go down with us when we go down.”
Oh come on, this guy. He was pulling tricks to prevent me from telling the teacher. Did he think this would solve the problem by stopping me from talking today? As I gave him a sullen look, he told me to hand over my phone.
When I didn’t readily comply, he put his hand in my pocket. As I twisted my body to stop his intrusive behavior, other guys clung to me and restrained my body. There wasn’t a single one among them with proper decency.
Eventually, my phone was taken from my pocket, and as I stayed still… a sudden thought occurred to me—weren’t these guys concerned about Jung Hyoin up there? I raised my head.
Jung Hyoin, still staring blankly at us, just seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. He was sprawled out with the attitude of a bystander, neither doing anything nor stopping us. His attitude from the start was that he didn’t care whether we were there or not.
So that’s why these guys are being so unreasonable.
The guy who took my phone finally made me use my fingerprint to unlock it, checked the password, and called my number from his phone. What’s he going to do with my number? As I looked at him with an annoyed expression, the guy who was finished didn’t even bother to return it properly and just threw the phone.
That bastard. As the phone landed on the floor with a thud, I got angry and swung my arm wide, causing the guy holding me to be pushed back and release my arm. At that moment, I dropped the phone I was holding, and it slid away to the corner.
“Hey, you son of a bitch!”
Kim Junwoo, the owner of the phone, shouted angrily and ran to the corner. I snorted at the guy who was getting angry, saying it was karma, and dusted myself off. Then I turned my gaze to the guys who were naturally drifting apart as if their work was done.
Acting as if they weren’t affected at all, the guys headed to the exit before me. Thinking I should let them go first and leave later, I stood there blankly when a disturbing metallic sound came from behind.
As I reflexively turned my head, my eyes widened in shock. Kim Junwoo, who had run to pick up his phone that had flown away, was gradually leaning forward with both hands gripping the wire fence, as if he was looking at something.
Kim Junwoo seemed equally surprised, saying “uh-oh” as he looked back. Kim Junwoo’s face showed bewilderment, and I could read the fear in his slightly trembling eyes as our gazes met.
I threw aside the sandwich I was still holding tightly in one hand and the intact phone I had just picked up, and ran toward Kim Junwoo. I couldn’t spare a glance for the sandwich with its contents scattered messily and the phone making an unpleasant sound as if its screen had cracked.
With a creaking sound, the wire fence broke pathetically and tilted outward.
“Aaaaah!”
“Oh, shit!”
Kim Junwoo screamed at the top of his lungs with his eyes tightly shut. I grabbed his shirt and pulled back with all the strength I could muster. Despite this, the already tilted guy’s weight was no joke—I felt myself being pulled forward too, so I quickly lowered my body and lay down.
My body was dragged across the floor as I sprawled out, but thanks to this, I managed to hold onto Kim Junwoo as he fell backward. Fortunately, the wire fence didn’t completely fall off but remained hanging. Even so, the angle was gradually tilting, and it looked like it would fall off soon.
“Huh, what’s going on!”
“Holy…”
The Middle Class students who were about to leave made sounds of shock as they saw me holding onto Kim Junwoo. Unable to turn around to see what was happening behind me, I just focused all my efforts on pulling Kim Junwoo up.
“Huff… huff…”
Kim Junwoo looked up at me with his trembling body. His pale face and teary eyes showed how frightened he was. So why the hell was this bastard leaning against the railing and making a scene?
Although curses were exploding in my mind, saving the person was the priority right now. I pulled on his arm and shouted.
“Hey! Slowly crawl up here.”
Kim Junwoo nodded at my words and carefully moved his feet. The wire fence shook roughly with each movement he made, but I swallowed my dry saliva and nodded as if to say he was doing well.
Then, with a loud clanking sound, one side of the wire fence broke. Just as Kim Junwoo was about to safely reach the rooftop floor, his hand slipped, and his body slid down.
“Gasp!”
Kim Junwoo’s body tilted through the gap along with the wire fence, and he fell down. Fortunately, I grabbed his arm in that instant—if I hadn’t, he would have fallen.
However, my right arm hit something hard when I grabbed Kim Junwoo, and it stung with pain. Despite the pain washing over me, I could only blink my eyes in the critical situation. Kim Junwoo, who had nothing to hold onto except my hand, gripped it tightly and said with trembling lips.
“S-save me, please.”
I answered that I would, and took a deep breath to pull him up. But at that moment, a scream came from below. Afterwards, the sound of murmuring grew louder, becoming more chaotic as if people had noticed our situation.
“Sh— Hey, help me!”
Realizing I couldn’t pull him up alone, I shouted at the Middle Class students who were just standing blankly behind me. But when there was no response and I glanced back, they were hesitating.
“Hey, what if we get caught?”
“The seniors won’t let us off easy.”
The guys, who had been muttering among themselves, panicked when they heard someone from below shouting, asking what they were doing up there. They cursed under their breath and ran away. Crazy… I looked in disbelief at the guys just leaving and bit my lip hard.
Looking at Kim Junwoo, I saw his face had turned from white to blue, as if he were dead. I gently shook my head to clear away the sweat that was flowing into my eyes. I felt my arm strength gradually fading.
People below must have realized we were in danger and were taking action. If someone came up to help us, we would be rescued safely, but I was anxious, wondering if we could wait until then.
Thud!
At that moment, I heard something hitting the floor and turned my head. Jung Hyoin, who had been leisurely eating snacks, seemed to have jumped down and was slowly approaching me.
Without hesitation, I shouted.
“Jung Hyoin, help me!”
Despite my calling him by name directly and asking for help, Jung Hyoin just tilted his head as if he didn’t understand what I was saying. His natural nonchalance was rather confusing. Does this bastard see the current situation as some kind of joke?
“Hey! Can’t you hear me asking for help?!”
