The Student Council President's Warning
The dream replayed in my head. A time before they were subjected to the verbal and psychological violence called school bullying.
"Hae-in-ah. Let's go watch a movie together today~. Just the four of us."
"Forget the movie, let's go to a cafe. There's nothing worth watching anyway."
"Gong Na-rin! You always oppose everything I say!"
"Stop trying to start a fight. Let's just study together today. I'll teach you."
"Cha Sang-hui! You only ever study. Do you even know how to have fun? Seriously."
It was a dream. Back when the girls hadn't yet been crushed under the weight of that label. An ordinary day replayed in my mind. Their faces, bright with smiles… were already fading. Had it been over before it even began? The ending credits seemed to have rolled long ago… but there was still a post-credits scene left as a bonus.
"Oh Hae-in. Because of your father, our family… you all deserve to suffer too—!"
My fist was already flying toward the bastard's face, shutting him up. Some four-eyed prick with a face only a mother could love. I couldn't even remember his name—just that he was a dog for some political family. Bloodied and glaring up at me from the floor, he kept staring like I was the scum of the earth. Disgusted, I kicked him in the face and woke up.
Thud—!
Why was the blood so vivid? I didn't even want to see it.
* * *
"Ah… this is fucking shit."
I woke from that dogshit dream sprawled across a desk in my new classroom, some magazine spread open in front of me. I couldn't even remember if I'd done the self-introduction. Bad memories get tossed aside easily enough. A few guys glanced my way, met my eyes, then quickly looked away like they hadn't seen anything. I tried to keep reading the Aqua Life magazine but gave up. I'd already finished this month's issue ages ago. My uniform was still damp from the rain, clinging uncomfortably, and I had zero desire to do anything. The classroom was noisy—must be break time.
Someone from the crowd approached. Not from my class, apparently. He looked down at me still seated and smirked, then rapped his knuckles on the desk.
Tap, tap.
"Hey. Transfer student."
"Piss off."
I told him to fuck off, but he just kept grinning and lingered.
"Heard you got caught in the rain on the way to school this morning. Some third-year senior held an umbrella over you, right?"
"Oh, so that girl was a senior. What's it to you?"
What the hell did this idiot want? He snorted, voice turning cold.
"If you try pulling that same extreme bullshit here using other kids' weaknesses… I'll make you pay. Remember that."
…So it was a warning. I was too dumbfounded to reply right away. His expression had gone icy.
"Eun Na-rin sunbae helped you because she didn't know any better, so don't even think about touching her. Stay quiet. Answer me."
"Who the hell are you?"
"Kim Do-hun. Student council president here. Keep your mouth shut and behave."
"Behave…? If that's how you're gonna be, I don't think I can play nice either."
Kim Do-hun clicked his tongue, looking at me like I was pathetic.
"The son of Prosecutor Oh can't even reflect on his own school bullying, huh."
"…I'll make sure you regret this. Even if you're a good person, I'll make you cry tears of blood. Just wait."
I shot him a glare full of promised revenge from below. He looked down at me with contempt.
"Acting like some savior after gaslighting kids at your old school. Pathetic."
With that, Kim Do-hun shook his head and walked back to his group. Fuck. I had to sit through a lecture disguised as a warning for something I never even did. I tilted my head back and stared at the ceiling.
Last year. Garang, Na-rin, and Sang-hui had been hit with vicious cyberbullying on SNS. The kind of truths you couldn't even say out loud. Just remembering how I'd held them while they sobbed was already too much. The culprit was identified soon after. It was me. I'd supposedly ordered others to do it. They showed Telegram chats… as if I were the one behind it all. The account was registered under my name, even though I'd never joined. Before I knew it, I was painted as the mastermind who'd orchestrated the whole operation. My father's influence barely got me a forced transfer instead of worse. And the label of psychopath who'd tried to make the girls dependent on me stuck to everyone else's tongues.
"Haa…"
I stood up. Rain was still pouring outside the window. Break time wasn't over yet. I walked over and just watched the rain fall, like staring into an empty fish tank. I couldn't live with this injustice. I had to find the real culprit. Everyone would say smashing this perfectly constructed frame-up was like trying to break a rock with an egg, but I wasn't planning to break it—I was going to drown them in the yolk. There was one suspect… but his alibi looked solid, so I couldn't move recklessly. First, the underlings.
I reached into my pocket for my phone… right, it was in the teachers' office. The teachers had confiscated it at my parents' request. That four-eyed teacher had taken it with trembling eyes. This was urgent—no, it was already past urgent. I couldn't hold back anymore. I turned toward the teachers' office.
"Oh Hae-in, where are you going?"
Kim Do-hun had appeared again, trying to pry out my destination.
"What's it to you? We only met today, yet you're getting way too close."
I told him to stay out of my space, but he stepped in even closer.
"As student council president, it's my job to keep an eye on a violent transfer student who committed school bullying."
"Ha. You like guys, huh? Didn't know you were gay."
"You little—! I'm just doing my duty—!"
Kim Do-hun nearly exploded but barely swallowed it down. His lackeys rushed over and surrounded him, like they were shielding him from the situation. Guess he had decent friends. Real nice ones.
—Hey, just cooperate with Do-hun. This is all your fault anyway. Keep acting crooked and you'll only hear bad news, got it?
These noisy bastards throwing all kinds of shit at me—scratch that "good friends" comment. They were just Kim Do-hun's lapdogs.
"I'm going to the bathroom. Move."
I spoke to the big guy blocking my path. He didn't look like he had any intention of moving.
"I said move. You deaf?"
He just stood there silently, true to his hulking appearance. Kim Do-hun seemed to have calmed down and spoke again.
"Either way, you came here because of school violence. That means you don't get even an ounce of freedom. Remember that."
"No freedom…? So you're a bunch of commies. The partisans have me surrounded!"
—What the fuck did you just say?!
One of the guys got riled up and lunged, only to be held back by the others. My childish wordplay seemed to have drained the life out of all of them.
"Oh Hae-in. Go to the bathroom with the student council guys. You have to be escorted everywhere."
"Am I a girl? Why do I have to go with those bastards?"
I hadn't expected them to try controlling my every move so blatantly. From the atmosphere, it looked like the big guy was assigned as my main watcher. The student council crowd was becoming a more pressing problem than the underlings.
"Kim Do-hun. Even if I did something wrong, I can't let you monitor me like this every second. There's no law that allows it."
"I'm not sorry, but there was a huge fight at this school before you transferred. It got pretty noisy."
I swallowed a sigh and stopped arguing. I shoved past the big guy and headed for the teachers' office as planned. Since it wasn't actually the bathroom, the big guy plus Kim Do-hun and the rest followed me. It looked ridiculous, but I couldn't laugh. I had stalkers on my tail.
I entered the open teachers' office and went straight to the four-eyed teacher who was working.
"Hey— I mean, Teacher."
"Oh, uh… yeah. Hae-in-ah. What is it…?"
The teacher was more of a coward than he looked. He'd been intimidated by me from the first meeting. I spoke without compromise.
"Even if I did something wrong, that doesn't mean you can have them monitor me like this every time, right? It's creepy, and no one has the right to do that."
The teacher just glanced nervously behind me—at the student council group, or rather, at Kim Do-hun.
"Hae-in-ah, I understand your situation, but… this is happening because you made a mistake. You're the one who created this situation in the first place, aren't you?"
He told me to endure it. That it was my fault. But I couldn't accept that.
"They're just the student council, aren't they? What gives them the right?"
One of Kim Do-hun's lackeys answered instead of the teacher.
—Do-hun hyung is the son of this school's chairman and the grandson of a conglomerate owner. Not "just" anything.
Arrogant bastard. And the one with the heavy background who wielded power so naturally. I let out a sigh internally and ignored the group, speaking again.
"Whatever. At least let me use my phone. I need it to study."
—Study my ass. A guy like you isn't going to college anyway.
The same arrogant one again, speaking informally.
"Haa, what's your name? Answer me."
The arrogant guy quickly hid behind the big one like a weasel. Pathetic.
"Hae-in-ah. Come find me later. And you all, don't push him too hard…"
The teacher tried to control the situation, but I didn't get the conclusion I wanted. I shoulder-checked both the big guy and the arrogant one on my way out of the office. I could hear them cursing behind me. For now, I just had to deal with the new problems that had appeared. My uniform was still soaked, carrying the scent of rain. An unpleasant smell. No—an unpleasant bunch of bastards.