Bully Games #2
Before long, it was 3 PM. After school. The time when everyone was getting ready to head home. I met up with Jeong Seok at the library.
“Ha Yeong-won. You ready?”
We might end up fighting the seniors today. For high school students, seniors a few years older were far more terrifying than adults. Getting marked by seniors at a rough school like Yeongji High meant a living nightmare. It was the same as becoming unable to walk the streets of Gaeryong City from now on.
Bong Ji-yeon, the Class C bully who had lorded over everyone with the seniors’ backing, was now marked by those very seniors and was about to suffer all kinds of lynching. I couldn’t know the exact details of how it had come to this, but I could roughly guess the fragments.
Bong Ji-yeon had the Quirk Male Phobia. There was no way she, who feared half the world, could endure long in the world of popular kids that was the iljin crowd. Disharmony and conflict were bound to arise.
Jeong Seok seemed unable to accept what was about to happen.
“Ha Yeong-won. You wouldn’t know since you lived in Seoul, but the crowd Bong Ji-yeon hangs out with is pretty famous in Gaeryong. They’re genuinely vicious. Truly terrifying people.”
Vicious. What an old-fashioned word.
“How terrifying? More than the ghosts we’ve met?”
I was someone who had survived meeting a tiger. Why would I be afraid of wolves now? But Jeong Seok pondered quite seriously.
“In some ways, they might be scarier than ghosts.”
Indeed. Even wolves inferior to tigers were still beasts that devoured people.
Jeong Seok explained about the group Bong Ji-yeon had been part of. Extorting money from peers was basic. There were also stories of them stealing cars, speeding on stolen motorcycles, or luring adult men through arranged meetings only to beat them with clubs and blackmail them. A juvenile crime syndicate straight out of the news. The “Suho Fam” that Bong Ji-yeon belonged to was like a bundle of all those urban legends.
At that point, they were no different from a supernatural horror themselves.
“Do people like that really exist? Is that even possible?”
What were the police doing? What were the adults doing instead of guiding these kids? How could such messed-up children even exist? Jeong Seok added an explanation.
“At the center of the group is that Kwon Su-ho. That’s why even adults gloss over most things. They don’t want to make it a bigger problem.”
“Ah. So it’s Suho Fam because of Kwon Su-ho. But who is Kwon Su-ho?”
Jeong Seok soon looked at me like I was an idiot.
“Hey, Ha Yeong-won. You go to Yeongji High and don’t know Kwon Su-ho? How is that possible? I’m not mocking you, I’m just genuinely surprised. Third-year Class A, Kwon Su-ho. He’s the grandson of the Ohsung Electronics chairman.”
Ohsung Electronics was the place my mother had worked hard cleaning and scrubbing as a janitor. The grandson of the chairman of a top-tier chaebol company in Korea.
“He must be incredibly rich.”
It was strange that someone from that kind of family attended this dump of a school called Yeongji High, and even stranger that he was gathering kids to play iljin games. There really were all sorts of people in the world.
“Bong Ji-yeon used to date that Kwon Su-ho. That’s when she became part of the iljin crowd. I don’t know the details… but if Bong Ji-yeon gets marked by Kwon Su-ho like this… she won’t end up well.”
An iljin group backed by a third-generation chaebol heir. They were like a bomb that even adults couldn’t handle.
“There was talk that Kim Geon-ho was acting up in class because he wanted to join the Suho Fam. As far as I know, the graduates who used to run errands for Kwon Su-ho all got hired straight into Ohsung Electronics or its affiliates.”
The more I heard, the more unbelievable it was. Was this really happening in 21st-century South Korea? A chill ran down my spine.
“Hey, Jeong Seok. If what you’re saying is true, getting marked by the Suho Fam doesn’t just ruin your school life—it ruins your entire life, doesn’t it? Are we even in a position to do anything?”
It was the kind of problem that probably wouldn’t be solved by reporting it to the police. What could I even do?
“Yeong-won. You have the Status Window, don’t you?”
“I do, but it’s not all-powerful. If that Kwon Su-ho guy was on the player list, I could try something, but he’s someone I’ve never even met.”
If Jeong Seok couldn’t stay calm, then I had to.
“No! Ha Yeong-won! If we’re just looking at potential, you’re the worse one! Have some confidence! They’re just playing iljin, but you could become a real psycho! Iljin punks like them are no match for you!”
Was he complimenting me or insulting me right now? I wondered what exactly Jeong Seok thought I was.
“Hey, man. Say something that makes sense. You want me to throw them into the corridor and kill them? What if they turn into chaebol third-generation ghosts and come after me? I’m telling you, I’d be screwed.”
At my cold assessment, Jeong Seok seemed to fall into deeper thought and spoke less. Then he said quietly,
“Should we ask Yang Ju-hui? Ju-hui would probably help somehow, right?”
Jeong Seok seemed to think of Yang Ju-hui as some kind of ultimate weapon. It was true that if it was Yang Ju-hui, she could probably knock out several iljin members. But could Yang Ju-hui beat Kwon Su-ho, who had Ohsung Electronics behind him?
No. I didn’t think so.
“Hey. Yang Ju-hui’s got enough problems of her own.”
“What did I do? You bastards. Why are you whispering in a place with no people around?”
Yang Ju-hui appeared in the library. The combination of the library and Yang Ju-hui felt extremely mismatched.
# # #
“Suho Fam? You guys are planning to go up against them?”
After hearing our story, Yang Ju-hui frowned.
“Are you crazy? Those guys are total psychos. What do you two weaklings think you can do?”
So the Suho Fam iljin were psychos to the point that even the fierce Yang Ju-hui clicked her tongue. Since she had been an iljin herself, she seemed to know a lot.
“If Bong Ji-yeon got marked by them, her life is over. Stupid bitch. Why the hell was she strutting around saying she was dating someone like Kwon Su-ho? Aigoo. I knew it would end up like this.”
Yang Ju-hui had said she went to the same middle school as Bong Ji-yeon. Yeongji Middle School.
“After Bong Ji-yeon got injured while showing off about doing track, she became pretty nasty. That’s when she got marked by the older guys and girls. The bullying was pretty bad. Hiding her chair. Making her bag disappear.”
Jeong Seok looked surprised at Yang Ju-hui’s explanation.
“Something like that happened in middle school?”
Since Jeong Seok had attended a nearby boys’ middle school instead of Yeongji Middle, he didn’t seem to know the details about Bong Ji-yeon.
Just as I was thinking what an interesting story it was, Yang Ju-hui added,
“Yeah. After about a month, Bong Ji-yeon couldn’t take it anymore and started dating some flashy older guy who went to Yeongji High. That was Kwon Su-ho. Once she started hanging out with Kwon Su-ho, the other iljin couldn’t touch her anymore.”
So it was the fall of a promising track star. But Yang Ju-hui wore an expression of disbelief.
“I think I heard something about things not going well between Bong Ji-yeon and Kwon Su-ho, but I didn’t think it was bad enough for her to get marked by the group… Why did it turn out that way?”
“I don’t know either.”
Jeong Seok shook his head. None of them knew why Bong Ji-yeon had ended up like this. I was the only one who knew the reason. Because I hadn’t explained Bong Ji-yeon’s Male Phobia Quirk to everyone. It was something I hadn’t told even Jeong Seok. For some reason, it seemed better not to mention it in the future either.
Pretending to go to the bathroom, I manipulated the Status Window and removed Bong Ji-yeon’s Quirk. It cost 100 points, but… I felt a little better!
“Anyway, do you think we can wrap this up before dinner tonight?”
Sitting in the bathroom, I quietly calculated the time. Teacher Hong Mi-ri had said that the chairman of the Yeongji High foundation had invited us to dinner tonight. It was practically a unilateral notice, but refusing was probably impossible.
My plan was this: First, get Bong Ji-yeon out today and somehow make contact with the “Suho Fam” group myself. Then their names would appear on the player list, and I could deal with them through the Mercenary Group. If I dragged it out for a few days, I could even throw them into the Nightmare Corridor. It was also a good opportunity to see the effects of the Mercenary Group I had once dispatched to Yu Da-hee more clearly.
Bad people needed to be tormented by even worse ghosts before they came to their senses.
“Then let’s call Bong Ji-yeon and keep her with us.”
I came out of the bathroom and rejoined my friends in the library. Jeong Seok asked,
“Keep her with us for now? What are you planning to do?”
“We’re supposed to eat at Yu Da-hee’s house tonight, right? From what Teacher Hong Mi-ri said, it sounded like we could bring friends. If we say Bong Ji-yeon is our friend and take her along, wouldn’t that work? No matter how much of an iljin they are, they can’t do anything to the chairman, right?”
From what I’d heard, the chairman of the Yeongji High foundation was a complete bastard whose ancestors were pro-Japanese collaborators and who had driven people to suicide. He also seemed capable of influencing local elections with his power. No matter how vicious the iljin kids were, could they compare to a real villain like the chairman? In other words, it was using one evil to defeat another. Even to me, it was a brilliant strategy.
Jeong Seok was greatly impressed by my ingenious plan.
“Wow, Ha Yeong-won. As expected, you’re the epitome of a villain. How can you naturally come up with ideas like that? It’s not for nothing that you got the Status Window. I really respect you.”
Jeong Seok had a talent for making compliments sound like insults. Anyway, we decided to head to Class C and meet up with Bong Ji-yeon. Bong Ji-yeon, apparently scared of the seniors, hadn’t gone home yet and was still in the classroom.
“Hey, Jeong Seok. You go call Bong Ji-yeon. Ask her to eat with us tonight.”
“Me?”
Jeong Seok trembled. He was the type who couldn’t perform when the stage was actually set.
“Hey, Jeong Seok. If she doesn’t listen, go slap her once. Then Bong Ji-yeon will probably fall for you. You have to do it.”
“What kind of crazy talk is that? Why would I slap her? Ju-hui, can’t you go talk to her? Since you’re both girls, it should be easier to approach her.”
“What? I don’t want to either. When she joined the Kwon Su-ho Fam in middle school, she said some really harsh things when she cut ties with me. Until she apologizes for that, Bong Ji-yeon gets nothing from me.”
Yang Ju-hui disliked Bong Ji-yeon. Naturally, the only one left was me.
“Fine. I’ll go. It’s only right for the leader to take charge at times like this.”
I entered Class C. When I walked in, the eyes of several students who hadn’t gone home yet turned toward me. It was only natural since a student from another class had suddenly entered. I approached Bong Ji-yeon, who was sitting in the back row staring out the window, and spoke.
“Hey, you’re Bong Ji-yeon, right?”
“……”
She flinched. Bong Ji-yeon, who had been looking out the window, looked greatly surprised. Soon, like a cat with its fur puffed up, she stared at me and took a small step back.
“…What. You bastard.”
“……”
How could someone’s personality be this sharp? Did Jeong Seok actually like this? Now that I thought about it, Jeong Seok was a complete masochist. Come to think of it, I’d heard that people who liked horror tended to have masochistic personalities. That was probably why he joined our party full of ghosts and was suffering through it. In the end, everything was connected by a single line. I had gained an unexpected realization in an unexpected place.
Perhaps thanks to that realization, I was able to ask in a slightly more relaxed manner.
“Bong Ji-yeon. Come eat dinner with me tonight.”
“That guy must be crazy.”
“Lately Bong Ji-yeon goes crazy whenever guys talk to her.”
The atmosphere was tense in various ways. But I knew that Bong Ji-yeon’s Male Phobia Quirk had been removed. She wouldn’t be bothered even if I talked to her.
“Are you flirting with me right now? I just broke up with my boyfriend.”
“What’s flirting?”
“What you’re doing right now! Even if I’m like this, do you think I’d date a loser like you? You’re just Yang Ju-hui’s lackey. I get it. Yang Ju-hui put you up to this, didn’t she?”
It was a very sharp insult. I was trying to save Bong Ji-yeon because of Jeong Seok, yet she wasn’t being cooperative. But I could see fear and terror in Bong Ji-yeon’s eyes. She was still under the influence of the Quirk. She probably needed a big shock, like Jeong So-jin, to come to her senses. There was no need to slap her. I slowly raised my hand and clapped loudly right in front of Bong Ji-yeon’s face.
“Kyaaak!”
Thud. Bong Ji-yeon collapsed as if her legs had given out. I spoke to her.
“How about it. Feeling a bit more clear-headed now? Are you still scared of me?”
Bong Ji-yeon, fallen on the floor, looked up at me. Then she frowned.
“Who… who said I was scared of someone like you?”
Bong Ji-yeon’s face flushed, whether from embarrassment or fear. Thinking of the time with Jeong So-jin, I decided to warn her just in case.
“I’ll say this in advance—don’t fall for me. It’ll be troublesome.”