Man vs. Man
In a clash of man against man. It was a man who had beaten another man. It wasn’t a woman striking a man, nor a man striking a woman. A man’s clenched fist had slammed into another man’s face. The price was three teeth knocked loose, popping out like corn kernels. It was an incident so monumental that if the news reported it, the entire world would be thrown into an uproar. The female students on the third floor who had seen it with their own eyes all held their breath in unison.
“Hoo.”
In the midst of that heavy atmosphere, only Shinwoo felt a refreshing coolness in his heart. Wiping the blood from his fist with a casual swipe of his hand, he looked down at the pathetically collapsed Yoo Duhak.
‘He’s not dead, is he?’
He had been so worked up that he hadn’t controlled his strength when throwing the punch. If this counted as murder, would he have to go to prison? A belated twinge of worry hit him. But he didn’t regret it. This bastard had done plenty to deserve a beating. The moment he had addressed his only sister like she was a mere object, Shinwoo had lost all restraint.
Still, to make sure the guy was alive, Shinwoo started walking toward the motionless Yoo Duhak.
That was when it happened.
“Shinwoo, hey...! Calm down!”
Han Chaewon, who had rushed over and grabbed her little brother. In her eyes, Shinwoo looked like a soldier about to deliver the coup de grâce. Though she was the one telling him to calm down, she was the one who couldn’t calm herself. She stuttered, her mind going completely blank.
‘Wh-what do I do? What’s the right thing to do? How do I fix this?’
Causing injury to a man could not be forgiven under any circumstances. It was unconditionally the harshest penalty. No matter one’s age or profession, touching a man in this world meant turning the whole world against you. Even an accidental injury to a man’s body meant at least a life sentence. Such phrases were tossed around like common sayings in courtrooms.
And yet, to kill a man!
With no options left, tears began to stream from Han Chaewon’s eyes.
“What do I do? What do I do? What am I supposed to do?”
“Noona. Calm down first.”
Shinwoo pulled his sobbing noona tightly into his arms with both hands in an effort to soothe her. Despite the grave atmosphere, the female students watching the scene swallowed their drool instead of holding their breath.
Shinwoo was just as worried. He had finally gained a family after so long. Was he really going to end up in prison for taking out one piece of garbage?
Wrinkles formed on Shinwoo’s forehead as well.
The sight of a man’s face twisted in a frown, his distinct features visible without any puffy cheeks. The two of them looked dead serious. Many of the female students who had been quietly observing had even forgotten who had fallen because they were so captivated by that face.
But then it happened.
“You... you ordinary male bastard! How dare you hit me?! Me, who hasn’t even been hit by Dad!!”
The expressions of Shinwoo’s group, who had been sighing, instantly brightened.
The two, still locked in their embrace, turned their gazes toward the hallway where the voice thick with fat had come from.
Luckily, it seemed the fat padding his head had acted as a cushion. Yoo Duhak stood tall, blood trickling from his head.
“Incredible. Standing up after a hit like that.”
Shinwoo spoke with genuine admiration.
Meanwhile, perhaps because she was relieved that her brother wasn’t a murderer, Han Chaewon suddenly realized the position she was in. Her eyes began to spin.
“Ch-Chaewon noona?!”
The stimulation was too much. If he had hugged her with his original blubbery body, her temperature would have shot over 40 degrees. But with this perfect male god’s body embracing her, she melted on the spot and lost consciousness.
“Noona? Are you all right? Why did you collapse all of a sudden?!”
“Haha. Can’t you tell by looking? She fainted because of my sexy look right now.”
Yoo Duhak winked at Shinwoo as he said this while looking at Chaewon. He also provided a bit of ‘service’ to the female students behind them. All to make Shinwoo feel the ‘difference between their walls.’
“Ha, I don’t normally do this kind of thing...”
“?”
Yoo Duhak took the blood flowing from his scalp with two fingers as if it were cosmetic product and licked it with a smack of his lips. Blinking an eye along with the sleep crust he had brought from home without washing, he swept his hair back and took the opportunity to pop a few pimples on his forehead.
In Shinwoo’s original world, it would have been a scene both men and women would have denounced as visual terrorism. But this was a world where men had become fantastical creatures.
The female students who had been watching all lost strength in their legs and crumpled where they stood. They sent a thunderous round of applause toward Yoo Duhak, who spread both arms wide as if inviting their worship.
But Yoo Duhak was still not satisfied. Under normal circumstances, the women would have been staring only at him without any of this theatrics. A few of the female puppies who were always desperate to catch his eye still weren’t looking at him.
“Wow. He’s going that far just because it’s his sister?”
“A man... can actually do something like that...?”
“The vice president must have saved a country in his previous life...”
Yoo Duhak kept flaunting himself, his breast fat and belly fat jiggling with every move. Meanwhile, Shinwoo, who was completely ignoring him, held the unconscious Chaewon protectively in his arms. He had considered laying her on the floor, but it was cold and dusty, and holding her like this put his mind at ease.
Yet the mere act of a man worrying for a woman and embracing her had already shifted the entire school’s opinion almost entirely in Shinwoo’s favor.
“Vice president. Your younger brother is blocking the view—we can barely see anything...”
“Sigh. Why don’t I have a little brother like that?”
“Hey, let’s break up.”
“Huh?! Why all of a sudden?”
“Anyway, no matter how much we lesbians fool around, do you think we can produce synergy like that? Let’s just quit! I actually want to try dating a man too!”
The third floor of the school had turned into a sea of tears as the girls gazed at Chaewon with pure envy. Even the couples who had broken up as if someone in their family had died stopped fighting, hugged each other, and sobbed uncontrollably.
Yoo Duhak stood stupefied at the sight. He, a man in the top one percent worldwide, had gone so far as to put on a full ass-shaking performance, yet they still wouldn’t focus on him? The hotter he grew, the more his sweat pores were smothered by layers of fat, leaving him huffing and puffing.
He pulled himself together, ignored Chaewon who had startled again at his current pose, and finally unleashed his ultimate move.
“Hey! You’re a trap! Don’t lie! Where in the world is there a man with a body like that?!”
Squealing like a pig at the slaughterhouse, Yoo Duhak ripped off his top right there. The female students who saw his bare torso stopped crying and erupted into cheers. Public opinion swung back to him in an instant.
Sagging belly fat and breast fat. Layers of flesh folded over one another at every joint, a body that was clearly approaching morbid obesity. Yet the female students went wild with excitement. Especially the man’s nipples visible just above the breast fat. On anyone but the skinniest of men, those nipples would be buried under fat and completely invisible. That was how perfectly Yoo Duhak’s physique ranked at the absolute top of male beauty standards in this world.
“You bitch, pretending to be a man and daring to hit me!”
Yoo Duhak strode toward Shinwoo, his upper-body fat jiggling with every confident step.
“You hit me while being a girl! You deserve at least the death penalty! I’ll kill you myself at the execution ground! Take this chance to pray next to the little sister I’m going to kill along with you!”
He was utterly convinced Shinwoo was female, and the female students watching his continued overconfident deductions were beginning to waver.
“Th-then that kid really was a girl...?”
“Then the vice president has been lying to us this whole time...”
“Student council president! Shinwoo is a boy! What are you suddenly saying...”
“Enough.”
Unable to listen any longer, Han Chaewon tried to defend Shinwoo even if it cost her life. But Shinwoo could not stand to hear another word.
“If I prove I’m a man, will you shut that mouth?”
“O-of course! If you can actually prove it...”
Because of his shorter height, Shinwoo bent at the waist to meet Yoo Duhak’s eyes. His deeply lowered voice frightened Yoo Duhak, but the latter kept smiling until the end.
Because there was no way Shinwoo could ‘prove’ anything. Most men in this world were losers—trash who simply enjoyed privileges for being born male. More than half the male population consisted of men who could not even leave their rooms, let alone attend school. Moreover, a man who would confidently strip off his top in front of women? Even Yoo Duhak himself felt nervous under the weight of so many female gazes, yet he endured it. Because he was one of the chosen few in the top one percent of men.
But the pride Yoo Duhak had boasted about—the pride of being in the top one percent—shattered into pieces smaller than grains of desert sand.
Rustle. Shinwoo took off his top without the slightest hesitation. In that instant, every brain watching the scene froze.
The human mind worked frantically to process the sight before it as if seeing it for the first time. The first thing the female students’ eyes locked onto was the firm back muscles. A density of muscle that could never emerge from a female frame—only from the powerful physique of a true man. More than half the girls had already lost brain function at that point.
And when he finally turned to reveal himself, everyone reacted exactly like Han Chaewon, who stood right beside him. Cheers or simple squeals were not enough. Their brains broke from the shock; nosebleeds poured from one or both nostrils while their pupils transformed into heart shapes. They could not even swallow their own saliva and drooled freely. Some lost their minds like beasts, yet what they saw was a perfect male form that could have been a model even in Shinwoo’s original world. The girls who had already lost their senses lost them all over again, foaming at the mouth as they happily collapsed.
Firm pectoral muscles that stayed tight and narrow without sagging. Abdominal muscles shaped like chocolate. Shoulders that looked downright criminal. The atmosphere had grown so quiet that Shinwoo wondered if something was wrong and flexed the bicep of one arm to emphasize his physique even more.
Time began moving again. The female students swarmed around Shinwoo in an instant. They could no longer hold back the desires they had suppressed for so long.
And Yoo Duhak, who had been proudly displaying his own jiggling belly fat, was suddenly flung aside. He stood alone, shedding the ugly tears of defeat.