Why (2)
The bipa fish in the tank looked listless.
I had fed them and kept the water clean, yet every one of them drifted without a spark of energy. It was as if even those fish had somehow heard last night’s news… They swam about dejectedly and nothing more.
“I’m heading out, you lot.”
I offered a morning greeting to ornamental fish that could never answer, then left the house. I boarded the bus, and yesterday’s events came flooding back the moment I sat down.
Had Yoo Min-soo changed his mind the instant he answered my call and hung up, or had someone been right there the second he picked up…?
Until the day I was named the perpetrator, he had always been the type who tried to stay on Choi Byung-su’s good side by tearing others down, running his mouth for no good reason. Because of that, no one ever took him seriously. Not me. Not anyone else. I had even stopped other friends when they tried to grab him by the collar and tell him to cut it out.
Word was that Choi Byung-su had approached him first, all warmth and friendliness. Yoo Min-soo’s circumstances were poor enough that he fell for it. What Choi Byung-su wanted was only one thing: a clown. From that day on, Yoo Min-soo became the loyal trumpet for the politician’s son. He took the lead in every divide-and-conquer scheme Choi Byung-su cooked up behind the scenes. And when the cyber school bullying finally broke the surface, everyone dumped the entire mess on him alone. No one lifted a finger to help. Choi Byung-su never even bothered with a word of farewell—just a cold notice that the donkey was no longer needed after it had left the mill.
The moment I stepped off the bus, a blue wind swept past, but it carried no freshness with it.
I nearly went sprawling. Staggering, I caught hold of the guy who had barreled into me.
“What do you think you’re doing? Watch where you’re going…”
It was Park Jun-woo. Come to think of it, he hadn’t shown his face yesterday. More than that, his expression… was pure panic.
“Park Jun-woo. Are you… sick or something? Why are you sweating this badly?”
“Ah, Hae-in hyungnim… I didn’t sleep well last night… You don’t have to worry about me.”
He claimed it was nothing more than a bad night’s sleep and hurried off, yet his face had “I did something terrible” written all over it in bold letters.
Kim Do-hoon had left early yesterday for personal reasons. Had Park Jun-woo simply never come to school at all? Come to think of it, Yoo Min-soo had also said he stayed home instead of attending… And how exactly had Kim Do-hoon known I spent the weekend with Eun Na-rin and asked to meet me because of it…?
I couldn’t dismiss it as absurd suspicion. The followers of the White Flame Cult—people who should never have resurfaced—were already rising again. It wouldn’t be easy. Still, I would stand against this fabricated fate. I still had…
A slender white arm reached out and lightly tapped a finger against my cheek.
Looking down, I found Eun Na-rin smiling up at me. She quickly turned her head, pretending she hadn’t been looking at all.
“What? You’re supposed to say hello.”
I gave a short laugh and told her I was glad to see her. Eun Na-rin snuck another sidelong glance at me, then looked away again. At some point her hand slipped gently into mine; she stole another peek and once more pretended she wasn’t looking.
“You’re embarrassed, aren’t you?”
She still didn’t answer. Instead she watched me slyly from the corner of her eye, then softly squeezed my hand tight and began leading me forward. The mild morning sunlight fell across us like a spotlight, and the cool breezes brushing past became the audience for our little performance. Eun Na-rin, holding only my hand and glancing at me again and again, seemed today… whatever game she was playing… somehow…
“Oh Hae-in. Don’t you know that?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me what it is before I can answer.”
“So clueless! At this point you should’ve figured it out without me saying a word.”
“Hmm, not a clue~ Maybe I’m just an idiot.”
“Tch…”
Before I realized it, I had interlaced my fingers with hers and walked her all the way to her classroom. We had arrived so early that no one witnessed our secret little meeting—small mercies.
“Stay a little longer. I’m bored.”
“A second-year hanging around in a third-year senior’s classroom is a bit much.”
“You’re a boring guy.”
“A lot of things happened before I got here. We haven’t known each other that long, but the time I spend with Noona is really…”
“If you’re grateful, then you should keep playing with me, Hae-in~”
“I haven’t really done anything special… so why do you care about me this much?”
“Looks!”
Ah. Brutally honest, isn’t she?
“Judging people by their faces alone can get you into serious trouble, Noona. You really ought to be careful.”
“What do you take me for! I don’t do that with just anyone.”
“Then?”
Eun Na-rin gently took hold of my school necktie and pulled me down. In a soft, melting voice she whispered against my ear:
“Only you. Because it’s you.”
The sunlight streaming warmly through the cracks in the corridor windows felt unusually gentle today. Even my footsteps on the way back to class seemed to make only the softest, kindest sounds.
“Oh Hae-in. You’re late.”
Kim Do-hoon was waiting for me, glaring with ice in his eyes.
“Late? I came to school ridiculously early today, Do-hoon.”
“Late is late. But you…”
He cut himself off mid-sentence and closed his eyes as if trying to calm down… then answered without having calmed at all.
“You! Why do you keep hanging around Eun Na-rin sunbae…! If you get mixed up with a problem student like you, your college entrance will be ruined!”
“Do-hoon, you’re being far too emotional… Let me speak first. You need to settle down for a moment.”
“What? I still haven’t finished—”
But Kim Do-hoon never got the rest of the words out. I answered him with an easy, good-natured smile and simply covered his mouth with my hand.
“Mmph—mmph…!”
I restrained him, shoved him into the empty chemistry lab next door, and locked the door behind us. Just the two of us.
“Hey! What do you think you’re—doing right now…? This is basically school violence—”
His words died again. All I did was look down at him, yet he fell silent on his own.
“Do-hoon, you’re surprisingly cowardly, aren’t you? I was only looking down at you.”
“…”
“I won’t waste time. Tell me everything—how you knew I was with Eun Na-rin on Saturday.”
“You think… I’d tell you that? I’m the student council president—”
“Student council president, my ass. You’re a real stalker. You can’t even show your face in front of Eun Na-rin anymore.”
Kim Do-hoon’s face twisted beyond control; heat surged up and spilled across his features. Just as I expected.
“All this time the student council guys stuck to you like glue, fretting over every little emergency… that was because you’d been causing trouble with the people around Eun Na-rin, wasn’t it?”
“N-no. I didn’t—”
“So it is. Do-hoon, yesterday one of Eun Na-rin’s friends saw you and started crying on the spot. You looked at her like she was nothing and answered as if you were being kind—telling her to get lost. Remember?”
“I just asked her to leave because I had something to discuss with you…”
“That’s the same as telling her to get lost, isn’t it?”
Kim Do-hoon could no longer hold the huffing, glaring stance. His head dropped as he crumpled. Without ceremony I lowered my own head and spoke right into his face.
“Planning to exercise your right to remain silent? Fine. I won’t demand to know how you found out I spent the weekend with Eun Na-rin.”
At that, Kim Do-hoon couldn’t hide his confusion and simply stared at me in silence.
“Instead—you know Choi Byung-su, right? Assemblyman Choi Byung-jin’s son.”
“That bastard is… ah…”
Just as I had thought: Kim Do-hoon and Choi Byung-su had some kind of connection. The way he reacted like he’d misspoken suggested he might have known a little about my history with Choi Byung-su from the start. Still, time to press harder.
“So you do know him. I have some rather sad news I urgently need to pass along to Choi Byung-su. Help me get in touch with him and I’ll stop doing this.”
Kim Do-hoon almost took the bait, then quickly looked up again, glared, and twisted his mouth into a sneer.
“Come to think of it… I really was too scared, just like you said. You can’t keep me locked in the chemistry lab forever, and you can’t hit me either, right?”
To the student council president who had decided his fear was unnecessary, I simply took out my phone.
“What are you doing?”
“You’ll see.”
The video began to play. Kim Do-hoon, harassing Eun Na-rin’s circle—school violence straight out of some overwrought drama. There was no physical assault, yet the footage was more than enough to destroy him completely.
“Wh-what is this? What… what the hell?!”
“Eun Na-rin gave it to me. A while back, when we were together, I told her I had deep connections with the prosecutor’s office and that I’d take care of the stalking problem for her. That’s how this happened.”
“That’s impossible… I made sure no one would know…”
“Sorry, but the evidence is right here. Every single student you targeted in this video has parents who work at DM Industries Development. How despicable—only ever picking people you could pressure.”
“It’s not like that! I was trying to stop the guys who kept hitting on Na-rin sunbae—”
“That’s you, though. Just because they talked to her or joked around a little… who do you think you are to do any of that?”
“I… I…”
“Grandson of the chairman of DM Industries Development. That bloodline got you the student council president title, too. But deep down you’re just a despicable breed that only bullies people who can’t fight back.”
Kim Do-hoon dropped to his knees, eyes empty. I kindly matched his gaze and laid out my demands.
“The kids you targeted put up with it because of their parents. If their families didn’t work for your company, they would have reported you long ago and gotten their revenge. They endured not because they were scared of you, but because of their families. You understand that now, right?”
“……”
“If speaking is too hard… just nod. I’m only saying this once. If you understand, nod. Right now.”
Kim Do-hoon eventually nodded.
“Choi Byung-su’s contact information. And why you disappeared with Park Jun-woo yesterday. Every last detail. No omissions.”
“……”
“You’re not nodding? Then… I’ll upload it.”
In the end, Kim Do-hoon had no choice but to nod.
The owner family of DM Industries Development—three generations of them—bowed their heads to our house.