Chapter 143
Chapter 143
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: Part 2 Chapter 6
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On the way back to the dorms.
Yeo Hu-hee clung tightly to Lee Sae-byeok's side, who was trudging back to her room with a dazed expression, and hooked her arm through hers.
"Sae-byeok, I was a bit harsh earlier, wasn't I? Sorry~ I just got worked up for no reason."
"Yeah."
"Did it hurt your feelings?"
"Nah, just pissed me off."
"I didn't think you'd even care about that... You were right again this time. I was the idiot. It was advice because I was worried you'd get kicked out again, right? Unnecessary worry, but next time, I'll treat the Association Chairman nicely."
Yeo Hu-hee spoke in a solemn tone filled with resolve for reform, then squinted her eyes and let out a soft laugh.
"Do a U-turn and tell it to the person himself. That uncle seems to be hit with reality because of you."
"Of course. I'll go apologize for being so arrogant."
The cold expression Lee Sae-byeok had given her earlier still lingered in her mind, making her scared.
A chilling gaze, as if looking at a stranger.
Sure, Lee Sae-byeok was much weaker than her now, but the thought of being cast aside by that kid made her anxious for no reason.
She felt safe only when she was in Lee Sae-byeok's sight.
Compared to the other kids, Yeo Hu-hee had always been particularly frail and uneasy, so she had many memories of direct and indirect help from Lee Sae-byeok, who had the loudest voice and strongest presence among them.
She had once admired her greatly, just like the other kids.
Now, it annoyed her a bit that this powerless girl was trying to leech off her, a strong one.
And after hanging out with Lee Kyung-seop and Woo Ji-yoon, her acting nice had gotten even more frequent, which pissed her off more.
"Uh, Sae-byeok!"
She called out to stop Lee Sae-byeok, who was striding toward her room without a care.
"You'll keep looking out for me, right?"
That cold expression from earlier left an afterimage, suddenly stirring up fear.
"You'll keep protecting me, right?"
She reached out and hugged Lee Sae-byeok tightly. A deep scar running up to her neck caught her eye.
It was a scar from when she was little, taking a beating from the overseer in her place.
Yeo Hu-hee pulled back and checked Lee Sae-byeok's expression.
"I'll do school life properly! For real!"
Meeting the weary eyes of the exhausted Lee Sae-byeok, Yeo Hu-hee grinned widely.
§ § §
Proper school life?
Total bullshit.
I lay on my bed in my room, lost in thought.
Yeo Hu-hee would just tighten her control over the kids she bullies even more and enjoy herself. She never listens.
Since when did she get so tenacious?
I scrolled through YouTube videos popping up in my algorithm, deep in thought.
It felt like she started changing a bit after overcoming her own weakness by crushing other mentally fragile kids.
'Fucking hell. She had that "this is my limit" look.'
Lee Yoo-hyun's expression from earlier stuck in my mind.
It was the face that screamed, "Am I going through all this just to hear this crap?"
Like the moment in a movie when the good citizen who's been holding back finally snaps and awakens.
If someone like Lee Yoo-hyun turns dark, it'd be a complete disaster.
He's pretty smart underneath, so if he snaps, he'd be a tougher opponent than Kim Woo-sung.
'I need to keep the Association Chairman focused on work, not this stuff.'
I'll handle any parts that could turn into emotional labor.
To organize my thoughts, I opened my bag to grab a sheet of paper and a pen.
『Korean 32 points』
Yeah, studying's not my path anyway.
With some rare free time and nothing to do, it seemed good to solve this tangled issue and put off the stress of facing the college entrance exam as a non-awakener.
I pulled out a notebook and mechanical pencil and listed the names of the Abyss Class A kids in a row.
Device.
What we need now is another device to draw lines on our actions.
Back then, fear of the overseers drew those lines; now, we need to redefine behavioral boundaries using different psychology.
'How can I make them definitely cautious in their actions.'
Simply telling them not to do it is useless. They'll just hide it more thoroughly.
If they were awakeners, I could threaten with mana, but with Moon Se-rim, Yeo Hu-hee, and the rest, they'd just ignore it like, "Why are you mad? What's the problem?"
The situation's changed. Force won't work on me anymore.
Time to use my head.
I picked up the pencil to draw a relationship chart.
'......'
Since I've never done this before, I have no feel for it, so it'll be good to think about it slowly while going to school.
* * *
My usual desk mate, who always greeted me in the morning with "Sae-byeok, want some Maigumi?", had become quiet lately.
She'd glance at me sometimes, then suddenly disappear to the other kids.
I thought it was just bad weather or personal stuff, but this was the sign that things were starting to get messy.
Observation starts now.
I clicked the mechanical pencil and glanced at Woo Ji-yoon.
Woo Ji-yoon was digging through YouTube to blend in with the kids from yesterday, then headed to her old group with a slime that popped up in her algorithm.
Suddenly, I recalled what Woo Ji-yoon said last night.
'I made up my mind! I'll prove that not everyone in Abyss is heartless like that!'
'Suddenly?'
'Yeah. From that conversation earlier, I realized I need to try harder to get along with the kids. Treat them better.'
'With a slime?'
'You don't know? To blend with muggles, you gotta follow their trends a bit~'
Sorry, but after yesterday's incident, she was already plenty nice to the normal kids for it to be called a "resolution."
She just found a good excuse for what she wanted to do anyway, so her behavior wasn't much different from usual for a big decision.
"Hey, kids, know what this is?"
Woo Ji-yoon proudly pulled out a jjajangmyeon-shaped slime in front of the chatting kids.
"Uh... a slime?"
"Right! But it's jjajangmyeon! Super squishy. Wanna touch?"
......She's trying.
If she acted normal, half the class would avoid her.
The kids burst into laughter at Woo Ji-yoon's out-of-nowhere slime play suggestion.
"What, she's secretly a total 4D~"
"So pure, so pure."
The words sounded like praise, but they started exchanging glances and smirking among themselves.
"Ji-yoon, you thought this was cool?"
"Moon Se-rim said she was locked up all the time. Can't help falling behind on trends."
"Hey, how can you say she's behind when Ji-yoon brought a slime."
The kids poked each other, signaling not to laugh.
"It's fine. Our Ji-yoon's nice, unlike those other thugs."
Hurt showed clearly on Woo Ji-yoon's face, but when compared to the others, she forced a smile.
'Why's she holding back.'
Normally, Woo Ji-yoon would've snapped back. She's especially meek at school.
"Yeah, can't help being behind. But coming out here, there's tons of fun stuff. Like this."
Not just holding back, but even hyping herself up.
I thought about saying something, but judging the situation comes first.
Lee Kyung-seop and Woo Ji-yoon seemed to keep getting ignored by the kids in a similar way.
Even when they first came to school, they were stiff, and after Yeo Hu-hee and crew started causing issues, they got even more awkward and ended up getting dragged around every time.
What's the reason.
Since they influence each other, I grouped the Abyss kids by similar tendencies to dig into it.
[Yeo Hu-hee, Moon Se-rim, Seol Do-yoon(?)...]
-Create a fear atmosphere, want to be like overseers.
[Woo Ji-yoon, Lee Kyung-seop...]
-Nice...? Want to blend in?
[Byeon Woo-jin, Seol Do-yoon(?)...]
-Just breathe and survive.
Kinda tough.
Especially hard to grasp Woo Ji-yoon and Lee Kyung-seop.
I never dug deep thinking they were just nice, so I hadn't considered why they put up with being ignored.
Is putting up with being ignored really "nice"?
I've seen Seol Do-yoon tempt indecisive, needy people with "nice" praise to bend them to her will.
Those types always get easily swayed by others.
Too nice? Deep down, they want to kill those who ignore them in secret.
[Woo Ji-yoon, Lee Kyung-seop...]
-Nice...? Want to blend in?
-Get heavily dragged around by kids.
Added one more note.
I spun the pencil between my fingers a few more times.
I could relate to Yeo Hu-hee's group, so easy to grasp, but this side was the problem.
Suddenly, I overlapped my own cringy behavior in front of Lee Yoo-hyun with Woo Ji-yoon's.
Adding my personal memories, I jotted down some guesses.
-Yearning for normal life.
-Want recognition for being normal.
-Aware of Abyss's rock-bottom rep.
And another guess based on Woo Ji-yoon suppressing anger when compared to others earlier.
-Want to prove different from Yeo Hu-hee's kind.
All brain farts, but since they started acting weirder after Yeo Hu-hee began causing trouble, it fits roughly.
"Hey, kids, what're you watching?"
See, even ignored, she hovers around the phone kids, wanting to add one more word.
"Ah! I saw that too!"
Trying to keep the convo going with common ground, but no dice.
Poor kid.
Summing up the situation, it's about like this.
[Yeo Hu-hee's antics create fear and anger in school kids. Arrows point to kids who can take the anger. Woo Ji-yoon's group absorbs it all. Keep getting dragged by mean kids to be recognized as different. Decent kids avoid Woo Ji-yoon's group.]
Problem is, both Lee Kyung-seop and Woo Ji-yoon are way stronger than normals. They're definitely sharpening knives inside.
This might be the calm before the storm.
Mess up, and they could turn dark and become jokers too.
Then Lee Yoo-hyun might call Ira-hee crying.
"No, you crazy bastard! Why are you analyzing me getting ignored!!"
Smaaack!
A sharp smack hit my back.
The dejected Woo Ji-yoon had quietly approached, peeked at what I was doing, and saw the notebook contents.
I was so focused organizing I didn't notice.
Even I was a bit flustered. I'd definitely debate this for 100 minutes in my room.
It was kinda creepy behavior.
"Bored, playing Seol Do-yoon game. Super fun."
"......"
Woo Ji-yoon looked at me like I was a bug.
"I thought you were sleeping. How bored were you to play that? Why didn't you call me?"
"Was immersed."
Separately, Seol Do-yoon's rep is hilarious. To get understood like this.
Swallowing a laugh, I finished organizing when I felt all the class kids' eyes on me.
"Wow, that smack earlier was so crisp?"
Woo Ji-yoon smacking my back drew aggro.
Then whispers about me started. My superior physical abilities gave better hearing too.
I focused all attention on the sounds from the back of the classroom.
"Isn't that Lee Sae-byeok? The only non-awakener."
"She swung a tumbler at an awakener without fear last time and got called to the office."
"Dumbass, pfft. Tumbler? At an awakener?"
"Right before total defeat, Lee Kyung-seop sent her to the office cuz her crying was annoying. Plus, she took all the blame for Moon Se-rim's crew's stuff!"
"Damn. Zero loyalty in their group. Must be the easy punching bag position. Woo Ji-yoon treats her rough too."
"In their world, yeah. Non-awakener though."
"Nothing going for her but a shitty personality."
What the hell happened to my rep. Even took the fall.
Just a week ago, it was decent, now crashed to the bottom.
'Wait a sec.'
I looked at my earlier memo.
[Yeo Hu-hee's antics create fear and anger in school kids. Arrows point to kids who can take the anger.]
When judging a group's actions, the relatively meek side takes the aggressive side's shit.
And the more pushover, the easier target.
And in Abyss, the biggest pushover is......
'Me.'
Fuck, I got stuck with the dishonor of bottom of the hierarchy crown.
Feeling shitty, I rubbed my chin.
Separately, a good idea to use this situation popped up.
Not a very pleasant method, but.