Public Execution
Riha's Side.
The siren wailed through the broadcast room—weeeooo weeeooo! Eunhye looked startled, clearly unsure what the sound meant, but I knew exactly what it was. I calmly picked up my phone and switched the alarm off.
Success. Well, I already knew it would work.
“All right, let’s begin. I’ll say it one more time… from now on, you’re an accomplice too.”
“I know.”
“…Good.”
If she knew, that was enough.
Time to start the public execution for the scum who had tormented Aju.
“Let’s see… turn this on, press this button… Perfect. We’re live.”
I linked the broadcast to every speaker in the school and leaned in close to the microphone.
And then—
By Lee Riha.
The public execution had begun.
Aju's Side.
Apparently a cat had wandered into our classroom just moments ago. I’d been busy putting my books in my bag and hadn’t seen it clearly, but it seemed the cat had snatched Seung-a’s phone and run off with it.
Still…
“It looked like Hahu. I must have seen it wrong…”
It had happened so fast that I couldn’t be sure, but I’d caught a glimpse of black fur as it left the room. And unless I was mistaken, I thought I’d seen a silver collar glinting around its neck.
…No, it couldn’t be.
“Haaam, time to eat.”
Even in the middle of this chaos, Jihui remained completely uninterested. She stretched with a huge yawn and stood up from her desk.
The sight made me think of Riha again. He was the same way—never paid much attention to his surroundings unless it involved me getting hurt.
“Hehe.”
Just remembering that fact lifted my mood, and a small laugh slipped out before I could stop it.
“What? Why are you suddenly laughing by yourself?”
“Huh?”
Jihui tilted her head, looking at me strangely.
…Wait, was she actually talking to me?
“Jihui…?”
“Yeah. What’s up? Aren’t you eating?”
“What?”
I blinked, utterly confused, and stared at her with a puzzled expression.
There was probably a giant question mark floating above my head right now.
“Whoa, how do you do that… There’s actually a question mark floating over you.”
Wait, it was really there?
More importantly—
“Why are you—”
I was about to ask why she was suddenly talking to me, but a voice swallowed my words. It rang out across the classroom. No—across the entire school.
I recognized the owner of that voice instantly.
I still had no idea what exactly was happening, but—
“R-Riha… oppa?”
“Huh? Wait, that voice… no way…”
Jihui was saying something beside me, but I couldn’t focus on her at all.
Why was I hearing Riha oppa’s voice right now?
What on earth was he trying to do?
Those questions swirled inside my head like a storm, growing louder by the second.
Despite my growing worry, Riha oppa’s voice sounded perfectly relaxed. Did he even realize what he was doing…?
“Pfft. Riha oppa really is something else.”
“Hm?”
Jihui’s voice finally registered. She spoke as if she knew him, but I didn’t have time to ask.
Riha oppa didn’t wait for me to catch up. He kept moving forward without pause.
“Hey, should we actually turn it on?”
“Turn it on, this sounds fun.”
“You think?”
The students who had been confused at first quickly caught on to the entertainment value. They switched on the classroom TV just like he’d asked.
On the screen…
There was Seung-a and her whole group of friends. It looked like the video had been shot near the school annex.
The video began.
The students in the recording started moving and their voices came through clearly.
“Hey, did you see it yesterday? It was about An Aju.”
“Oh, yeah. Wasn’t that her brother or something?”
“Her brother’s dead, idiot. Couldn’t have been him.”
“Her brother’s tiny like her. The guy yesterday was… tsk.”
It must have been from the day after Riha oppa had carried me away. So they really did know that Daeho oppa had died. And they were talking about it so casually.
I had known, but hearing it out loud still hurt. Until now I had told myself that as long as I was the only one getting hurt, I could endure it. But the moment they dragged my precious family into it, anger flared up inside me without warning.
And what they said next only made me angrier.
“That bitch is always shaking her ass everywhere. Must’ve been one of the idiots who fell for it.”
“Haha, she really hates Aju, huh? Well, of course she does. Aju’s cuter and smarter. Who wouldn’t be jealous?”
“…The fuck did you just say?”
“Whoa, easy with the death glare. You shouldn’t look at your friend like that. She’s the one helping you by making sure everyone hates Aju more than you do.”
Listening to them, I turned my head toward the group that always hung around Seung-a. They were already looking at me. Our eyes met. They quickly looked away, flustered.
…I had expected it.
I had known someone was deliberately isolating me. But hearing the proof with my own ears made an ugly emotion I’d tried to keep buried start to rise.
“You’re the same, idiot. You fell for her flirting too.”
“…”
While I kept staring at them, the video continued.
The conversation jogged my memory. Last year, the boy visible on screen right now had confessed to me. I’d turned him down, saying I needed to focus on studying. He’d suggested we date after the Suneung, but I rejected that too.
“…All of this… over something so small?”
For the first time in a long while, I spoke directly to my classmates. The same kids who used to ignore me without a second thought still didn’t answer. But this time the atmosphere was different.
“Ah…”
“Ugh…”
They weren’t ignoring me on purpose. They were desperately trying to avoid me.
I wanted to walk over and say more, but—
The playful tone Riha oppa had used until now dropped sharply. I knew this voice.
It was the one he used when he could no longer hold back his anger.
He had sounded exactly like this on the day Daeho oppa died.
How did Riha oppa even know Seung-a’s name? I had no idea, but right now I just wanted to keep listening. I had to hear this.
A clear scoff echoed through the classroom. Not just Seung-a’s group—other students began shifting uncomfortably in their seats.
Why were they acting like that…?
At that moment, another memory from last year surfaced. Before the boy I had just seen on screen, there had been an even earlier confession from a senior.
We had worked on a joint writing assignment between second and third years. That was how I met him.
Maybe…
…You really didn’t have to do that, Riha oppa.
I almost said it out loud. So it really was that senior he was talking about… I could barely remember his name now. But why was Riha oppa bringing this up all of a sudden?
In that instant, every question I had been carrying inside me finally clicked into place. The friends who had suddenly started ignoring me. The kids who had begun whispering about me from a distance.
Riha oppa was clearly trying to keep his voice calm, but I could feel it—the rage he was barely holding back.
Even though I couldn’t see him, I knew his fists were clenched tight. That was just the kind of person he was.
“…You all knew?”
I spoke loud enough for the entire classroom to hear. The students exchanged glances but said nothing.
That silence was the answer I had been looking for.
“So that’s how it was…”
It wasn’t as if I had never had friends here. There were kids I had been close with since freshman year. Others I had helped with their studies until we grew close.
But every single one of them had turned their backs on me, manipulated by Seung-a.
I never thought I would feel this way toward people I once considered friends.
“…All because of something so trivial.”
To be honest, I was disappointed.
Not because it hurt my feelings. It was just so stupid and incomprehensible that they would abandon me over something so small.
Voices that didn’t belong to Riha oppa suddenly cut through the broadcast—thuds, shouting, and what sounded like a girl’s voice…
When I looked around, students from other classes—and even other grades—were crowding into our classroom.
…How do you even know that, Riha oppa?
Every student in the room turned to stare at me. The attention felt overwhelming.
Riha oppa’s voice grew even lower. He had dropped all pretense of politeness now; he was too angry to maintain it.
I had never once thought I was amazing. I simply did what I could and produced the results I was capable of.
I had lost someone precious, but there were still precious people left by my side.
Because of them I could keep going. Just like how Riha oppa was shouting for me right now.
As Riha oppa’s roar echoed throughout the entire school, I thought I heard something.
Maybe it was my imagination, but from somewhere far away…
“…Aaaaaaaaah!!!!!”
It sounded a little… like a beastly, crude scream.
Of course, it might have just been my imagination.