Misunderstanding and Truth

It was a Saturday. Jeong Eun-ji met her middle school friend, Shin Mi-ae.

"Mi-ae! How long has it been?"

"Eun-ji! It's been forever! You look like you've gotten even fitter?"

"Really? I've been stressed because it feels like I can't keep up with my training... but I'm glad you look good too."

After exchanging a few more words, the two headed toward the track inside the nearby academy's sports field. It had been a full three years since they'd last trained together like this—back in middle school when they were both on the track team—before heading off to different high schools. The two girls ran with everything they had, refusing to lose as they reminisced about those old days, but Jeong Eun-ji kept winning by a slightly more noticeable margin than before.

After about ten sprints spaced out over time, they both flopped down flat on the track, gasping for air.

"Haa... haa... Eun-ji, how are you even faster now?"

"Heuk... heuk... Mi-ae, how have you not lost any of your skill? After all that time off..."

"Time off... yeah, I guess so..." Shin Mi-ae let out a quiet sigh.

Jeong Eun-ji decided to gently broach the question she'd been curious about. She wanted to be as careful as possible so her friend wouldn't get hurt.

"Is it okay taking classes as a second-year? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The kids don't ignore you or ostracize you for being older, do they?"

"Not really? I don't participate in class that much anyway, and I'm training almost all morning and afternoon, so my classmates don't pay much attention to me. Same for me."

"I'm jealous. Our academy makes the track team follow a normal class schedule, which is annoying. Plus, that bastard's in my class, so it's even worse."

"That bastard?"

"Yeah... you know. From middle school—Han Seong-jin..."

"Ah." For a moment, Shin Mi-ae's expression twisted quite noticeably.

"I usually try not to think about what happened back then, but this year that son of a bitch ended up in my class. Every time I see his ugly face, it reminds me of that time and it pisses me off to death."

"Good thing I didn't go to Jinsu High."

"Just asking... are you okay now?"

"It's whatever... I don't see those bastards' faces, so I usually just forget about it."

"I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm sorry."

At Jeong Eun-ji's apology, Shin Mi-ae lightly patted her shoulder.

"It's fine. It's not like you did anything wrong. Anyway, is that guy still the same? His senior would call him and he'd come running like a dog to threaten people, but now that he's a third-year, does he make other people do his dirty work?"

Jeong Eun-ji sensed something strange in her friend's words.

"His senior called him? What do you mean?"

"You know. When I got pregnant back then..."

"What are you... weren't you alone when you met him?"

"...?"

"...?"

Jeong Eun-ji felt the conversation slowly turning bizarre. And Shin Mi-ae felt the same.

"That bastard came and threatened me—if I didn't do exactly what his senior told me, I'd be dead."

"I'm not following... what senior? A third-year back then? Why would a third-year even be there?"

"Huh? Eun-ji, you didn't know?"

"No, I do know... but what I'm hearing is different from what I thought. Didn't you get pregnant with Han Seong-jin's kid, and that bastard threatened you to get rid of it?"

"What?! Why would I get pregnant with that bastard's kid?!"

"???"

Inside the gym storage room, Shin Mi-ae screamed at the senior who was one year above her and part of the middle school third-year delinquents. But he wouldn't budge. He'd said he loved her, that he'd take responsibility, and she'd given him her body and everything else. The moment she told him about the pregnancy, though, his attitude flipped, and they'd already fought like this several times.

"Hey, if you keep throwing a tantrum like this, I'll have no choice but to do something else."

"Something else? Fine, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠do it! No matter what you do, I'm not getting rid of this baby! You have to take responsibility!"

"Fuck... you're really impossible to talk to. Alright, fine. This is all your own fault."

With that, he opened the gym storage door for a moment and called someone waiting just outside.

"Hey, Han Seong-jin. Get in here."

'Han Seong-jin...?'

Shin Mi-ae knew the name Han Seong-jin very well. He was the worst of the worst among the second-year delinquents—a total scumbag. Rumors about him drinking and smoking since elementary school had spread endlessly. The moment that piece of trash appeared, Shin Mi-ae flinched and took a step back.

Her boyfriend, the third-year senior, gave Han Seong-jin's shoulder a light tap and left just one low remark.

"Don't go too far."

"Yes."

And with that, he immediately left the storage room. Now alone with him, Shin Mi-ae felt fear creeping up from deep inside her chest. It was after school, the storage room was locked, there was no one around to call for help, and Han Seong-jin was a human garbage whose name was attached to every kind of horrible rumor.

'H-he's not going to...?'

If he beat her up or even raped her in this empty place... no matter how strong she was for a girl thanks to track, she knew it was impossible to overpower someone his size.

But surprisingly, Han Seong-jin didn't lay a hand on her. Instead, he stacked up the mattresses piled in the storage room, flopped down on them, and spoke.

"Hey, I don't know who you are, but when your senior tells you to do something, just do it."

"What?"

"Do what he says. If you behave and listen, I get what I want too, right? Let's not make this annoying for both of us. Just understand when I tell you."

"Who the hell are you?! This has nothing to do with you! This is between me and my boyfriend! Go tell him to come say it himself!"

"Ah, fuck. Did a dick get shoved in your ears or something?"

Spitting out a rough curse, Han Seong-jin picked up one of the starting blocks nearby.

BAAAANG!!!

"Kyaaaak!"

He hurled it right beside her—close enough to scare her but not actually hit. The block that slammed into the floor bounced wildly from the impact before crashing into a corner of the storage room. Han Seong-jin then strode over to the terrified, trembling Shin Mi-ae, slammed her against the wall, and grabbed her by the throat with one hand.

"Kek... keuk..."

"Hey, if you don't want to die, don't make me repeat myself three times."

"Ugh... cough...!"

"If I punch your stomach really hard about three times right now, what do you think will happen?"

"N-no! Don't! Please don't!"

"Or should I call some guys over? About ten of them to hold you down and take turns with you properly?"

Shin Mi-ae trembled at the terrifying threats she'd never experienced before, tears streaming down her face. Han Seong-jin released her throat but stayed right in front of her, looming over her with his massive frame.

"But if you keep acting like that, even I have to steel myself, and I really don't want to. So let's both be nice about this, yeah? Do you want to get beaten half to death, gang-raped, and then miscarry? Or will you just quietly get rid of it on your own when your senior offers to pay for the surgery? Or before that—can you even handle giving birth? You'll obviously get kicked out of the house. All you know how to do is run. What can you do as an unwed mother at your age? Why not just take the chance while it's being offered?"

"Hic... you son of a bitch... who are you?! This has nothing to do with you, so why are you butting in and telling me what to do?!"

"I have to take care of this so I can owe your senior a favor. I don't want to do this shit either, but I got dragged here anyway and it's pissing me off. So let's just end this with words, yeah?"

Only then did Han Seong-jin step back from Shin Mi-ae and leave the storage room. Left alone, the tension drained from her body and she collapsed on the spot, sobbing bitterly.

"...That's what happened. So, Eun-ji, you thought I was pregnant with that bastard's kid?"

"Yeah. I only heard you had an abortion because of Han Seong-jin, so I naturally assumed he was the one who got you pregnant."

Jeong Eun-ji had only known that her friend had 'gotten an abortion because of Han Seong-jin.' She hadn't heard exactly who had gotten her pregnant. Asking would have been poking at her friend's massive trauma, so she'd never even considered it. She'd simply heard her friend crying and saying 'because of that bastard Han Seong-jin...' and assumed it was his child.

"Ha... his threats were terrifying, sure... but some of the things he said also made me think differently."

"Differently?"

"That son of a bitch told me I'd get kicked out of the house, that all I knew how to do was run, so what could I possibly do as an unwed mother at my age? It suddenly hit me hard. That I really had nothing. If my belly started showing, I'd obviously have to quit track. I wasn't good at studying either, the baby's father was pressuring me to abort, and how was I supposed to tell my family? I'd get kicked out and end up in a single-mother shelter. I wasn't ready to raise a child, and if I gave birth, I'd suffer—but the baby would suffer even more..."

"......"

Jeong Eun-ji could only stare at her friend in heavy silence, at a loss for words.

"So... so I did it of my own will. I'll probably go to hell when I die. I'll have to spend my whole life atoning to that child. Ha... a girl who threw her body around without thinking deserves to end up like this."

"Mi-ae..."

"Anyway, you said you're in the same class as Han Seong-jin? Is that bastard still living like the trash he is?"

"Uh? Well... yeah, I guess...?"

Even in Jeong Eun-ji's eyes, Han Seong-jin had clearly changed a lot compared to his first and second years or his middle school days. But she didn't want it to sound like she was defending him in front of her friend, so she kept quiet.

"Figures. If you told me that piece of garbage had changed, I wouldn't have believed it anyway. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Oh, right—do you know why that bastard came to me and said all that back then?"

"Uh... wasn't it just because his senior told him to?"

"I found out later when I was taking a break from the academy. That guy who got me pregnant and told me to abort—he already had another girl he was seeing."

At those words, Jeong Eun-ji's anger shifted toward the unknown senior who was a year older.

"What?! What kind of son of a bitch does that?! Weren't you his girlfriend?"

"Ha... I guess I was just a convenient fling. But Han Seong-jin came to me, did all that, and used the debt he owed as an excuse to steal that guy's girlfriend."

"What the..."

"They apparently fought like crazy over it. But Han Seong-jin beat him up and just took her completely. The guy who got me pregnant and screamed at me to abort dragged Han Seong-jin over when I wouldn't listen—like it was some kind of revenge. That son of a bitch."

That was the end of Shin Mi-ae's story about her past, but Jeong Eun-ji's mind was in complete chaos. The reason she'd hated Han Seong-jin enough to want him dead was because she'd thought he'd gotten her close friend pregnant and forced her to have an abortion. But in reality, he'd never gotten her pregnant, and the abortion had been her friend's own decision?

'Wait a second. Does that mean all the reasons I've hated Han Seong-jin until now... were completely false?'

Her hatred for Han Seong-jin had been so intense that she couldn't easily accept the truth.

'No, no. Either way, whether his senior ordered it or not, the fact that he created that terrifying atmosphere for Mi-ae is true. It must have influenced her decision somehow! He has nothing to feel wronged about, and he didn't do a single thing right! And he stole that senior's girlfriend too, right? So Han Seong-jin really is the worst bastard! That son of a bitch—after all that, what's he doing with Yu-ri? I definitely can't just let him get close to her!'

Even in the midst of her confusion, Jeong Eun-ji somehow found reasons to keep hating him while ignoring the fact that Han Seong-jin had changed. But at that very moment, she had no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠idea that her other friend, Lee Yu-ri, was becoming a 'woman' in Han Seong-jin's house.