The Day Dad Brought the Construction Site to School
In the middle of those lingering doubts, Tuesday morning dawned bright.
The half-asleep conversation I'd overheard had already vanished from my head.
It was probably just a dream anyway.
Nothing but sleepy nonsense.
I couldn't even remember what they'd said anymore, so I brushed it off. No need for me to worry about it.
As a student, I just killed time at school.
I couldn't exactly claim I was living up to my duties as one, though.
Math had been too complicated, so I'd given up on it ages ago. The only subject I could understand like a normal person was Korean, where we just wrote in Hangul.
Sine, cosine, tangent, blah blah.
The periodic table, Bohr's atomic model, whatever.
What was I even supposed to do with any of it?
Whatever managed to stick in my brain got scribbled onto the test sheets, but honestly, studying was a lost cause for me.
Not like anyone actually wants to study anyway.
Anyway, it was the break right after first period.
Our otaku trio gathered in the same spot like we'd planned it, chatting away.
"Right. I got my laptop yesterday."
"Whoa."
I was the first one to bring something up.
The moment I mentioned the thing I most wanted to brag about, Juhan's short exclamation tickled my ears.
"How much was that laptop again?"
Seokjun spoke up next, his mouth twitching.
He seemed curious about the price.
I dug through my memory, let out an "Ah," and answered.
"Uh… around 1.2 million? I don't remember the exact amount."
I tilted my head after saying it.
The money I'd spent around that time came to about three million won total.
I remembered up to the hundred-thousands place, but the rest of the digits were fuzzy.
"You've got your phone. Just check it on there."
"Oh, right."
Seokjun immediately thrust his chin out.
When he jerked his head toward my pocket, I gave a short nod and shoved my hand in.
I pulled out my phone and tapped the screen like it was nothing.
The shopping app's order history showed the laptop image with a crisp 1,243,900 won price tag.
Hmm. My memory had been right.
"Yeah, 1.2 million."
"You're seriously loaded."
"Yep. I'm a golden spoon."
The second Juhan heard I'd blown 1.2 million in one go, he started calling me rich again.
In response, I proudly declared myself a golden spoon and grinned.
You guys ever heard of a disease golden spoon?
Even the so-called golden spoons can't get this one.
"So what'd you install?"
"Just the usual stuff."
As the random chatter died down, Byeonghwa asked what I'd put on the laptop.
I answered casually that I'd installed the same games I always played.
"I heard a new steampunk-style game is dropping soon."
"Normal specs probably can't run it."
Juhan and Byeonghwa immediately launched into talk about the new game.
The conversation flowed naturally from one game to another.
We'd been discussing what was on my laptop, then suddenly shifted to the upcoming release.
Typical ever-changing game talk from a bunch of high school guys.
That reminded me I'd added some titles to the console the other day, so I jumped in.
"Oh, I bought a few console games too."
"What'd you get?"
"Island of Beasts."
Seokjun perked up the moment I mentioned console games.
The title I'd dropped was Island of Beasts.
It was the game Hyeonseo was obsessed with these days.
When I said the name, Seokjun's eyes widened.
"I quit that one. Want me to dump some items on you?"
"Hyeonseo plays it way more than I do..."
He claimed he'd dropped the game and immediately showed weird enthusiasm about handing over all sorts of high-tier stuff.
Since it wasn't really my main game, I steered the conversation by saying Hyeonseo played it more.
"Then just give them to her after you get them."
"Aw, come on."
Seokjun kept trying to force stuff on me anyway.
I made it clear I was uncomfortable accepting.
Was this what it felt like to become the queen bee in an RPG?
I was one step away from getting showered with unwanted handouts.
That was when it happened.
A faint but nasty cigarette smell suddenly grew stronger.
The scent was so distinct it might as well have been a footstep. I whipped my head around.
"Whoa, you scared me."
A male student flinched like he'd been caught and quickly pulled back his outstretched hand.
The source of the cigarette stench was a classmate whose face I barely recognized. He only showed up at lunch and then vanished.
He was the classic hopeless delinquent who chain-smoked and treated school like nothing more than a cafeteria.
Why was he talking to me?
The awful smell made my head throb.
At least try to hide it a little.
I pinched my nose, frowned, and asked shortly.
"What…?"
"Lend me some money. I'll pay you back tomorrow."
The guy was demanding a loan without any shame.
Money was something you had to be careful about even with family.
My brain short-circuited at a kid I'd seen maybe three times asking to borrow cash.
"Huh?"
"Everyone says you're rich. I'm not asking for it. I'm asking to borrow it."
He spoke like we were close friends, acting entitled after my dumbfounded reaction.
Every hair on my body stood up. I already knew.
This was a straight-up threat. Every word out of his mouth was a lie.
Still, getting on this idiot's bad side would be annoying.
But if I gave him money now, he'd keep coming back.
I was stuck, unable to move forward or back, hesitating.
Then—
BANG!
The back door of the classroom flew open with a violent kick.
The enormous noise made me jump too.
"You!"
"Dad?!"
The familiar voice that followed left me stunned.
Dad had suddenly burst into the classroom from who knows where.
He gave a sly smile, jerked his chin toward the back so the extortionist could see, and didn't waste words.
"Hey. Outside. Now."
"Who the hell are you, old man? His dad?"
Cigarettes, showing up only for lunch, demanding money.
The guy had the full trio of traits that made parents give up, so of course he spat casual speech even at Dad.
The classroom froze in dead silence at the sudden scene.
What the hell was going on?
I'd thought Dad had gone to work. Why was he at school?
"This little shit… the way this bastard talks..."
"What are you gonna do abou—urk."
The kid who had been acting tough in front of everyone got his neck grabbed in one swift motion.
He was dragged out of the classroom completely overpowered.
His face twisted in pain instantly.
I was faced with a situation I couldn't handle in a completely different way.
Should I stop this? Or not?
It felt wrong to help the guy who tried to shake me down.
But stopping Dad right now also felt wrong.
Just leaving it like this wasn't an option either.
"Hey, shouldn't you stop him? That's your dad."
"I mean… yeah, it is..."
The weird atmosphere made Seokjun ask in a low voice.
No matter how much of a delinquent the kid was, the opponent was our dad.
That was why he sounded so uneasy.
Until just a few years ago, our dad had been a construction site foreman.
He'd spent years hardening himself in that brutal, backbreaking world.
He worked as a safety manager now, so the physical toll wasn't as bad, but he still exercised consistently.
Seokjun knew all that, which was why he was speaking with such worry.
He wasn't concerned for our dad.
He was worried about the thug who'd been dragged out by the neck.
"Is your dad gonna be okay?"
"Yeah. No need to worry about my dad..."
The real problem was the friend who'd been hauled away.
Let's think about this logically.
A high school delinquent drunk on superficial toughness, smoking like a chimney and acting hard.
Versus a former construction foreman who worked out every weekday without fail.
Who wins in a fight? It wasn't even a question.
Dad had carried the kid out one-handed when he left the classroom.
Crash. Bang.
Violent noises echoed from the hallway.
The sound of one person getting absolutely demolished.
The same kid who'd been threatening to take my money was now flying around like a rag doll beyond the hallway windows.
The person flew up like a cushion before crashing back down.
That vulgar, rough construction-site swear jar had finally been unleashed.
Those double curses only came out when he was truly pissed.
This was the second time in my life I'd heard it directly.
The first time was when I was very young. We almost got hit by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the road to a beach trip.
So today makes two.
Extortion was just as unforgivable as drunk wrong-way driving.
"Father, please calm down!"
"Does the school just stand by while students get shaken down? Huh?!"
Teachers who'd heard the hallway commotion rushed out.
They started trying to stop Dad from beating the delinquent trash, no matter how awful the kid was.
It was embarrassing.
It was also reassuring.
I felt happy to be protected, but ashamed that my dad had come all the way to school and was causing such a scene.
This strange, complex feeling couldn't be captured with a single word.
"How am I supposed to stop that?"
In the end, I gave Seokjun a short answer like I was explaining the situation.
Even if I tried to intervene clumsily, I'd just get swept up in the storm of force.
I wouldn't have been able to stop him even before I caught the Beast Disease.
No matter that it was my own dad, that was completely uncontrollable.
He had to keep going until his temper was fully satisfied.
It was truly a relief that this violence had never once been aimed at me or Hyeonseo.