Quick Cleanup of the Page-Hogging Extras!
Has anyone ever picked a fight with me since I started living in Baek Ha-on's body?
Not in my memories.
Even Yang Hwancheol's gang took one look at my massive build and pulled that classic "Go home, turn on the gas, and come back after checking!" line.
But right now... something felt off.
No matter that I was slouched in a PC bang chair—they could've seen my size with their own eyes, yet they were dragging us along without a care. It was like they had some ace up their sleeve.
"Come on out."
The tattooed pig at the front grabbed our collars.
I shot Lee Seohwan a quick glance.
"This'll be fun, right?"
I mouthed it so they couldn't hear.
A creepy grin bloomed across Lee Seohwan's face.
Game lost, escape penalty locked in.
If they couldn't top this dopamine rush... well, time to reopen the reeducation center after a long hiatus.
"Been working out? Bet it's just show muscle anyway."
The tattooed pig dragging us along poked the back of my neck with choppy taps, sneering.
"Quick on the uptake, though—total nerd move. If you'd held out back there, you'd be half-dead by now at least?"
The skinny anchovy bastard cackled and chimed in.
Blood pressure spiked the instant his trotter-hand jabbed my neck, but...
Hold it in.
Beat 'em down here, and we miss out on the VIP waiting for us!
Better to clean house all at once anyway.
Damn right.
"Where're you dragging us?"
Lee Seohwan asked the pig, curiosity piqued.
"Shut up and follow if you don't wanna die. Oh, and bring plenty of cash."
"Why?"
"'Cause the beating scales with how much you got."
Pig and anchovy's slimy smirks.
Bet the bathhouse broth would be thick if those two went together.
We walked out of the PC bang and about five minutes later...
'Long time no see.'
A dingy alley from Baek Ha-on's memories welcomed us.
"Brought 'em!"
Pig and anchovy bowed their heads hastily and reported.
"Good work."
A familiar silhouette emerged from...
"You fuckin' bastards are dead now."
"Why the hell you gotta act all tough?"
Figures strode out from the shadows.
"Oh, you guys are still alive. What were your names again..."
"Yang Hwancheol and Lee Hyunsu... no, fuck, you don't get it? Even if you beg for your lives from now on..."
"Friendly villains, huh."
I traded banter with Lee Seohwan, then high-fived him.
This situation was just too hilarious.
"Fuck, this ain't working. Ho-chang!"
Yang Hwancheol yelled red-faced at his buddy in the back.
"You gonna kill these fuckers today, right?"
"You're done for. The guy who conquered Baekgok Middle School is coming here. No matter how tough you think you are, you ain't walking out alive."
Yang Hwancheol and Lee Hyunsu glared at us smugly, threats dripping.
Yup! Here!
Right in front of you, ta-da!
Things were unfolding hilariously.
For now, let's enjoy this class reunion after so long.
Baekgok Middle School grads generally split into two paths.
Enroll at Baekgok Boys' High nearby, pull every delinquent stunt in the book till they drop out, or head to Baekgok High, tone it down a notch, and become low-level punks.
First off, Baekgok High kids wouldn't even glance at Baekgok Boys' High. If the boys' school was a warzone, high school was like strolling over a calm lake.
That's why Lee Ho-chang picked Baekgok High without a second thought.
All the punks who'd bullied him or scrapped a bit went to Boys' High.
He figured he'd live quietly, but...
His middle school bat-swinging days caught up, earning him total ostracism. Hell, worse than ignored—he became an auto-isolated sandbag.
Lee Ho-chang couldn't take it. The punks tormenting him now were the same ones who'd groveled to lick his shoes back then. Desperate to break free, he racked his brains.
Fight skills or not, his scheming and silver tongue endured.
Days of agonizing. To reclaim his past glory.
Then...
No way? With Baek Ha-on enrolling at that elite high school, no one around here even mentioned him anymore.
Even the Baekgok High kids who'd gone there too.
They avoided him like the plague, and rumors of him "straightening up and studying" faded his name from memory.
Something clicked in Lee Ho-chang's head.
One path to survive at Baekgok High.
Sell out Baek Ha-on.
Lucky break?
He'd been in Baek Ha-on's class for two straight years in middle school, so he knew plenty. Plus, group photos together laid the groundwork.
Everything else? Total fabrication.
Prep was flawless.
Fancy politics and fast talk gradually hooked 'em.
Wouldn't fly at Boys' High, but this was Baekgok High.
Thus, Lee Ho-chang strutted through school riding his fake Baek Ha-on's back when his rich academy buddies hit him up.
Personalities meshed, habits matched—easy friends. Especially since they had cash to burn.
Didn't buy their "got stepped on by nerds" story at first, but seeing them hospitalized sold it.
Asked for the name just in case—got back "some pussy nobody, can't remember."
Uneasy, but reformed Baek Ha-on? Nah, couldn't be.
After that...
He rounded up his ass-kissing lackeys.
Nail this job, and the payout would be sweet...
Plus, they'd handle it perfectly...
"Ho-chang, come here?"
His grim hunch nailed it.
Two demon bastards loomed right in front of him.
"Seriously, these crazy fucks? Ho-chang, when's your friend showing?!"
"No way these nerds know about Baekgok Middle. What would bookworms know?"
Yang Hwancheol and Lee Hyunsu still clung to their ace in the hole.
Pitiful.
After brushing off the yapping pests beside us...
"Ho-chang, come here?"
Time to deal with our cute classmate impersonator first.
Thud, thud—he shuffled out wordlessly, face etched with worry.
"Ho-chang, didn't tell your friends the name of the guy who took over Baekgok Middle, huh?"
I slung an arm around him and whispered.
"..."
"Y'know, our Ho-chang's got a sharp head, but slips up on the basics? Figured since we're same school, no need to name-drop? But here's the kicker—you should've at least guessed it might be me or Seohwan if it's a scrapper."
Yang Hwancheol and Lee Hyunsu twitched to intervene, but...
"Stay put."
Lee Seohwan blocked 'em cold.
With Lee Ho-chang clamming up, even his drags eyed the situation warily.
Ho-chang scrambled for an out, brain spinning.
"Wonder who Ho-chang called—the conqueror of Baekgok Middle?"
Before I finished...
"Lee Ho-chang, you here?"
Someone entered the alley.
"Oh! Sung-kyu!"
"...Baek Ha-on?"
"Sung-kyu's got enough rep to bluff with. Hmm, so Ho-chang had some backup after all."
Pieces fell into place.
Our dim Ho-chang subbed in scrapper Sung-kyu for me, then lied to Yang Hwancheol's crew that he took Baekgok Middle.
Not Seohwan-level, but feisty enough to flatten high schoolers easy.
But oh well...
"Sung-kyu, you the one who took Baekgok Middle?"
"Wh-what? With Ha-on around, how could..."
"This punk got wrecked by me too, and now he's our killer? Ha, suddenly lost my appetite."
Lee Seohwan sighed deep, grabbing Sung-kyu's neck.
"Seohwan... why fight you guys? Ho-chang just asked me to show once, that's all."
"Nah? C'mon, Sung-kyu, you're here for cash to beat people like old times. Hurry, wreck us! Make it a mess!"
Lee Seohwan pressed harder.
"Hey, quit it. No way our Sung-kyu's still at that, right? After all my education..."
"R-right! Yeah, I quit that."
"But... if Sung-kyu did that dirty deed anyway... I couldn't hold back."
"W-wait! Ha-on, calm down first. Weren't you tight with Ho-chang? I don't get it... you're friends, but he calls you out to trash you? And he said you begged me to come."
"Hmm, our Sung-kyu. Head too dumb, even for you."
"Yeah, no growth at all."
Sad. Truly sad.
A little thinking would've exposed Ho-chang's lie.
Sung-kyu finally clocked it...
"You fuckin' Lee Ho-chang..."
His eyes flashed murder at him.
"Sung-kyu, but we've taken some humiliation, so we're kinda pissed..."
"Be real—you guys started the fight? And if it's Sung-kyu..."
Lee Seohwan and I nodded, striding toward Sung-kyu.
"We can go all out now!"
"W-wait!"
No plans to beat to death.
Just payback for wasting our golden weekend, landing us a month-long escape penalty, grabbing my neck with their pig-fishy hands, and finally... sullying my hard-earned reformed rep.
Exactly that much!
"Ho-chang'd pass out from one hit."
"Beating Sung-kyu is legal!"
"Don't blame us... you know who's the root, right?"
Lee Seohwan and I gave Sung-kyu just enough to not kill him. He needed to quit the paid-beating gig anyway.
"S-sorry. St-stop..."
After thorough reeducation...
"Sung-kyu! Great seeing you after ages. Do this again, and you're really dead?"
"Clean up the aftermath!"
Then we bailed the dim alley.
"Ho-chang dropping out?"
"Probably best. He's pissed off every guy from around here."
"Self-inflicted."
Stretching my limbs felt good—starving now. Beating folks was in Baek Ha-on's blood, sure.
"Just soured my mood."
Like Seohwan said before, swinging violence on the street instead of the ring didn't feel great.
"Ho-chang... what the hell happened?"
"From what I heard, something's off..."
Yang Hwancheol and Lee Hyunsu froze solid.
A thug-lookin' guy strolls in, and Baek Ha-on with Lee Seohwan drop him without resistance.
"Ha, fuck..."
Downed Kim Sung-kyu barely rose, spitting pooled blood-mouthful.
"You're lucky, though? Got beat by me, not them."
Veins bulged on Kim Sung-kyu's forehead.
"W-wait. What're you..."
"Ho-chang? What the..."
Thud!
The crew who'd dragged Baek Ha-on and Lee Seohwan went down in one punch from Kim Sung-kyu.
"You come, or I go?"
His words paralyzed the rest—no one budged.
"Beat 'em right up to the brink of death."
Dark alleys see no traffic.
Their screams echoed over an hour, unheard, unhelped. Once Kim Sung-kyu left, fists from his tattooed-pig crew—Ho-chang's former lackeys—turned on them.
Ho-chang's scam spread through Baekgok Boys' and High within a day. Yang Hwancheol and Lee Hyunsu, in on it, didn't escape unscathed.
And so those three...
Transferred far from Seoul.