Beggar School
The bell rang, signaling the end of class. Just as I was packing away my open textbooks, a sharp, heavy impact slammed into the back of my head. Smack!
"Hey, you beggar bastard. Go buy me some bread."
"Aren't you going to answer?"
"Uh..." As I hesitated,
"Aren't you going? You need to hurry up and buy it so I can eat and get ready for the next class. Are you stalling just to screw with me?"
"No... it's not that." As I continued to hesitate, Yang Jeongwon spoke as if he finally understood the reason.
"Ah~ You're a beggar, so you don't have any money, right? Hey, here's some cash. Hurry up and buy it. Get bread, a drink, milk, and some snacks too."
Our grade's top iljin, Yang Jeongwon, pulled a single thousand-won bill from his pocket and tossed it onto the floor.
I picked it up with practiced ease and headed to the school store. I didn't walk; I ran. Or at least, I had to make it look like I was running. That was the only way to minimize the beating.
In my hand was a single thousand-won bill. Honestly, the only thing a thousand won could buy at the school store was a single Choco Pie. Milk? Drinks? Snacks? Not a chance. Even the smallest bread cost two thousand won.
So why did he only give me a thousand won? He just wanted an excuse, a pretext to beat me. Yang Jeongwon gave me a mission, and I failed. Therefore, I had to be punished. That was his twisted logic.
What if I actually bought the drink and milk with my own money? He'd still beat me. He'd say, You could've done this all along, but you didn't. Honestly, I didn't know for sure because I'd never used my own money to buy his stuff. How could I buy bread or drinks when I didn't even have money? The electricity at my house was cut off. There was no way in hell I was going to chip in for a bully's snacks.
Today, I actually had the settlement money in my Inventory, but I had no intention of spending a single won of it on bread and milk for him. Giving that bastard even a piece of trash would be a waste.
In any case, he didn't send me on errands because he was hungry. Sure, eating was important to him, but what mattered more was the beating. He just wanted to hit me, so he manufactured an excuse. To Yang Jeongwon, this was nothing more than a game.
This bastard isn't doing what he's told. He's lost his mind. I'll snap him back to reality. How did I know this? Because when he was in a bad mood, he'd just hit me anyway. Regardless of the school store, excuses, or games, his fists would fly first.
So what did I do? What else could I do? I had to take it. Thud! Thud! Thud! As expected, fists flew the moment I returned with nothing but a Choco Pie.
"Did I or did I not tell you to buy snacks and a drink?!"
I was being beaten at the back of the classroom. A few of Yang Jeongwon's friends watched the spectacle with amused interest, while the other kids, long accustomed to the sight of me getting thrashed, didn't even bother to look back. Naturally, no one stepped in to stop it.
But today felt a bit different. Was it because I'd been beaten so many times? Or was it because I had three million won sitting in my Inventory? Or maybe it was because my stomach was full from eating beef so often lately. It didn't really hurt that much.
Usually, I'd be trembling in absolute terror of that bastard Yang Jeongwon. Today, though, was completely different. He seemed to be hitting me with everything he had, but it barely registered as pain.
Still, I had to pretend it hurt. I had to put on a convincing performance. That was the only way to spare myself a few extra blows. Thud! Thud!
"Fuck, you useless piece of shit who can't even buy a damn drink."
"Sigh... why did I have to get stuck with a beggar like this?"
"The shuttles in the other classes have plenty of money and do exactly what they're told. Why did I get stuck with such a pathetic loser?"
Did becoming an iljin make him stupid, or was he just stupid to begin with? I couldn't tell. It's not like the shuttle role was decided by a lottery or a random draw; he was the one who picked me. Who the hell was he blaming? No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't comprehend his mental state.
But as I was getting beaten, the necklace around his neck came into sharp focus. Was it 24k? Or 18k? If it was real gold, it had to be worth a decent amount. It looked incredibly thick and heavy. I wanted it. Should I steal it? I had my Inventory, after all. Couldn't I just swipe it when we collided during the beating? Even as I was getting pummeled, those were the thoughts running through my head.
Emboldened by his own assault, he started putting more weight into his punches. *At this rate, a real heavy blow is coming,* I thought. Sure enough, a punch packed with his full strength came flying straight at my face.
I knew I shouldn't take it head-on, but dodging it completely would also cause trouble. In that split second, I let the punch graze me slightly while pretending to collapse. It was a perfect graze—enough to make Yang Jeongwon believe he'd landed a clean hit. I felt zero impact. And it was no secret that as I tumbled forward toward him, my hand briefly brushed against his necklace.
Yang Jeongwon looked startled when I went down. Usually, no matter how much he beat me, I didn't collapse like this, so my sudden fall must have shocked him. As I mentioned earlier, it definitely hurt less today. Because of that, I was able to notice things I usually missed. The necklace was one thing, but I also realized that collapsing at this exact moment would work to my advantage. And my prediction was spot on.
"Hey~ Is this guy dead?"
"Check if he's breathing."
"Jeongwon, I told you your fists are like nuclear warheads, you need to go easy. He's completely turned to mush."
"What do we do?" Yang Jeongwon looked slightly flustered.
"What... what do you mean, what do we do? We were just messing around and he collapsed on his own. Hurry up and take him to the nurse's office." At his command, two of his lackeys hoisted me onto their backs and carried me away.
"He suddenly collapsed while we were playing around, so we brought him here." The school nurse seemed a bit suspicious of the situation, but she clearly didn't want to make a big deal out of it. "Alright, lay him down and go."
Aside from a slight tear at the corner of my mouth that bled a little, there were no visible injuries. Yang Jeongwon usually targeted my torso to avoid leaving obvious marks. Bruises on the body don't show up immediately; they take a few hours to surface. Right now, my skin probably looked perfectly clean.
The nurse roughly wiped the blood from my lips as I lay there pretending to be unconscious, and then she disappeared somewhere. I didn't feel resentful that she hadn't properly treated me. If anything, being left alone felt incredibly peaceful.
Actually, this place is pretty nice and comfortable. It's way better than my house, where I just sleep on a thin blanket thrown on the floor. Lying here like this makes me sleepy. Maybe I should take a nap.
Meanwhile, back in the classroom, Yang Jeongwon was trying to calm his racing heart. He had never expected the beggar bastard to collapse like that. Today, hitting him had felt strangely satisfying, so he'd put a bit more power into his punches than usual. The solid impact of his fists landing had felt so good that he'd lost himself in the beating. But when his final punch to the face sent the beggar crashing down, he'd been genuinely startled.
Judging by the impact on his knuckles, it made sense that the guy went down. It had been a clean, solid hit. He hadn't intended for things to go this far... While he was proud of having a punch powerful enough to knock someone out, he didn't want things to get complicated because of some beggar. He didn't care if the bastard got hurt, but if a school violence committee was convened over this, it would be a massive pain. His dad would beat him again, too. It was better to just beat him moderately and play with him within limits.
Worried that the kid might be seriously hurt, he asked the guys who carried him, but they said they just dropped him off and didn't know his condition. *They should've checked his status before leaving.* Everyone around him was so utterly useless. "Ah, so annoying." He naturally reached up to touch his neck... Huh? It was gone.
He couldn't feel his necklace. His gold necklace was gone. His absolute favorite treasure, which he'd barely managed to buy by pooling his allowance and shaking down other kids, had vanished. His ten-don gold necklace was gone.
Did he forget to wear it this morning? No, that was impossible. He never took it off. It was his pride and joy. Did it fall off on his way to school? No, he distinctly remembered touching it after arriving. Did it fall off while he was beating up that beggar earlier? If so, it had to be somewhere on the classroom floor. He scanned the floor, but the necklace was nowhere to be seen.
Did the chain snap and slide inside his uniform? He slipped his hand inside his shirt to search, but found nothing. Realizing he couldn't check properly while sitting, Yang Jeongwon stood up and began searching in earnest. Even though class was in session, he didn't care at all and kept looking for his gold necklace. He checked inside his uniform again just in case, and then searched the area where he'd beaten the beggar, but the necklace was nowhere to be found.
"Hey. Did you see my necklace? Look for it." Ignoring the teacher's glare entirely, Yang Jeongwon barked at the kids sitting in front of him. The teacher watched him for a long moment, then simply continued the lesson as if dumbfounded. It was clear they knew nothing good would come from meddling with him. He searched until the bell rang, but in the end, he couldn't find it.
When I returned to the classroom, it was absolute chaos. Desks were pushed aside and scattered everywhere. It was obvious they'd been searching for the necklace. *Search all day, you'll never find it.* After mocking Yang Jeongwon to my heart's content in my mind, I also pretended to look for the necklace.
Slam! Yang Jeongwon slammed the classroom door shut and shouted. "Find my necklace!" "I wore it to school this morning. If we don't find it, none of you are going home today. Hand it over quietly before I search every single one of you." "That thing is worth over five million won. If I don't find it, you're all dead meat today." Yang Jeongwon stood right in front of the exit, blocking anyone from leaving.
With Yang Jeongwon throwing a fit, the entire class reluctantly made half-hearted attempts to look for it. Amidst the half-hearted search, one female student sat with her legs crossed, looking thoroughly amused. It was Kwon Jua, and she spoke to Yang Jeongwon with a playful smirk.
"Perfect. But you'll have to explain to my mom why I couldn't make it to academy today~ I hope you never find it. It'd be so fun to camp out here. Haha."
Was her dad a conglomerate executive? And her mom was a professor. She was smart, came from an incredibly wealthy family, and was even beautiful. No one dared to mess with Kwon Jua.
Yang Jeongwon spoke as if he had just had a grand realization. "Ah~ Academy? Right, you have academy. Jua, you can go. You can leave first."
"Aw, how can I leave by myself? There are several other kids here who go to the same academy. If they ask me why I came alone, should I tell them the others are busy looking for Yang Jeongwon's lost necklace?" Kwon Jua was openly mocking him, but Yang Jeongwon couldn't find a single word to counter her.
When Yang Jeongwon remained silent, she continued, "But Jeongwon~"
"Yeah??"
"If you keep failing to find it, are we going to live here together forever? Since no one can go home?"
"Huh???"
"I'm so excited. I can't wait. It'd be so great to camp out here together. Should we order dinner first? How about tteokbokki?" At Kwon Jua's words, her best friend Ji Minseo, who was sitting next to her, chimed in.
"Totally down. I was craving something super spicy anyway. Should we order chicken too? It's delicious when you eat them together."
"That sounds amazing~ Jeongwon, you're buying the tteokbokki and chicken, right? Since we're staying here to help find your necklace, you can at least do that much, right?" Kwon Jua asked with a sweet, lovely smile, but Yang Jeongwon couldn't answer. The eyes of all twenty-five classmates who had been searching for the necklace were now locked onto him.
*What the hell? Why is the conversation going this way? Why am I supposed to buy them tteokbokki?* Flustered by the unexpected turn of events, Yang Jeongwon scrambled to find an answer.
"Haha. Of course I'll buy it. But I can't buy it for everyone. I'll only buy it for the person who actually finds the necklace."
"Oh, really? Then the people who aren't looking can leave, right?"
"Huh??"
"Then I'll head out first. Good luck searching~ I really hope you find it. Let's go." Kwon Jua grabbed her backpack and stood up, speaking to Ji Minseo. Ji Minseo also grabbed her bag and stood up.
"I'm leaving too. Bye~" Kwon Jua and Ji Minseo walked out of the classroom. I watched Kwon Jua leave, and then—*oh.* Our eyes met. I had never locked eyes with Kwon Jua before. But this wasn't a coincidence. Her eyes were definitely fixed on me. It was a look that seemed to say something, though I couldn't quite decipher what it was.
Once Kwon Jua left, the rest of the kids rushed out after her. I slipped into the crowd and left with them. Yang Jeongwon desperately called out to the backs of the departing students.
"Hey~ Don't go! We have to find my necklace! You're dead if you don't come back!" Yang Jeongwon screamed repeatedly, but the kids had already cleared out. He was left standing completely alone in the empty classroom. "Fuckers. You're all dead tomorrow."