Playing the Game I'd Been Waiting For.
Playing the Game I'd Been Waiting For.
Seoul Private Elementary School.
A school where tuition alone ran ten million won a year.
That was why the complaints never stopped, no matter how hard the school tried to steer things in a positive direction.
Everything from class placement to the kids' social skills—every last little thing got scrutinized.
Above all, the overwhelming majority of parents whose children attended this elementary school were the kind of people who'd show up if you typed their names into the Green Window.
And so the PE teacher sighed as he looked at the boy with blood streaming from both nostrils.
"Haaah..."
Beside him, a girl sat perfectly upright, chin propped in her hand, gazing at the ceiling.
She carried a distinctive aristocratic air, yet she'd just wrecked the face of the boy sitting in front of her.
'This is a mess...'
I locked eyes with Ji-hoon, whose treatment had just finished.
Something felt off about our bodies.
Ji-hoon seemed to be feeling the same thing I was.
Once we exerted ourselves and got worked up, adrenaline and endorphins seemed to surge through us, and we could no longer control our bodies.
The excitement from our competitive drive fueled even greater excitement, and our self-control vanished—we'd ended up fighting like actual little kids.
Ji-hoon was just as flustered that he had gone that far with me in a situation neither of us had experienced before.
While that was happening, the PE teacher broke the silence.
"Who told you to hit your friend?!"
I lowered my head and spoke.
"I'm sorry..."
There was no making excuses to the PE teacher, who had witnessed the entire situation.
The PE teacher called our homeroom teacher.
Looking at Ji-hoon with cotton shoved up both nostrils, I spoke teasingly.
"If you'd gotten that picture-perfect flying knee kick on video, it'd be a guaranteed million views on Neotube."
"What are you talking about? Me catching the ball with my eyes closed is what'd get a million."
"Bullshit. You took it right in the face when I drove it into you like a meteor."
"Huh? You saw me block it with my eyes closed, easy as hell, and you’re still saying that?"
We were still arguing when the PE teacher shouted.
"Be quiet!"
"".....""
A moment later, our homeroom teacher arrived at the nurse's office and was horrified the instant she saw Ji-hoon.
"Kim Si-yoon..."
"Yes."
Our homeroom teacher rubbed her forehead as she looked at us.
"Haaah... I'm going to have to call both of your parents."
'I'm screwed...'
Ji-hoon had taken a lot of hits from me over time.
Before he met me, Park Ji-hoon hadn't had a single trace of social skills.
Because meeting me was how he'd made his first friend.
So Ji-hoon's parents were under the impression that Ji-hoon liked me so much he'd start the mischief, and I'd end up hitting him because I couldn't hold back.
Which meant Ji-hoon's parents weren't the problem, but...
If this got to Dad's ears, the rule was thirty minutes of kneeling with my hands raised per hit.
Fortunately, this time I'd only landed a single blow.
It wasn't long before the parents arrived at the school, and Ji-hoon's mother was laughing awkwardly.
"Here we are... again..."
Dad took in the situation and immediately lowered his head.
"I'm sorry."
"No, I've never once seen Si-yoon hit anyone other than Ji-hoon... I'm sure Ji-hoon must have done something wrong too."
"No. I'm truly sorry."
Ji-hoon's mother waved her hands dismissively.
"It's really fine. Ji-hoon likes Si-yoon so much, he just teases her an awful lot..."
I stared at the ground as if I were quietly reflecting on my actions.
Dad watched me the whole time.
"Si-yoon."
"Yeah."
"Why did you do it?"
I answered, my voice subdued.
"I don’t know. At first we were both just fooling around... and getting competitive, but when Ji-hoon taunted me, I lost control of my emotions..."
Beside me, Ji-hoon nodded, and his mother immediately flicked him on the forehead.
"I’m really sorry I hit Ji-hoon..."
"No~ Friends fight sometimes. You’re Ji-hoon’s only friend, so I’m the one who should be asking you to keep being his friend~"
As I stood with my head bowed, apologizing, Dad stared at me without a word.
I offered another formal apology.
"I'm truly sorry."
"I said it's fine, didn't I? If you're really that sorry~ come over to our place often~"
"Excuse me?"
Ji-hoon's mother was beaming at me with a warm, kind smile.
More than anything... Ji-hoon's mother saw me as future daughter-in-law material.
"We've got tons of good stuff to eat at home~"
...Marriage... to Jae-hyeong?
Bullshit... it was never going to happen, and if some unavoidable situation ever came up, I'd personally perform Ji-hoon's neutering surgery and make him just like me.
So I needed to draw a clear line in advance, but given the circumstances today, I just answered with a bright, innocent smile.
"Okay~"
Our homeroom teacher was exhaling in relief too, as if she was glad things had been resolved amicably.
The fight with Ji-hoon resulted in us both being dismissed early.
Since Dad never scolded me in front of other people, he was talking with Ji-hoon's mother while hiding his anger.
While Dad waited, I returned to the locker room to change into my school uniform.
There were signs that someone had opened my locker, and the stench of spoiled milk was overpowering.
I opened the locker and found my uniform soaked in milk right in front of me.
"Huh?"
I remembered the brats who always looked at me with disdain and watched my every move.
They said even pigs bullied and ostracized one another, and faced with something this blatant...
They'd started to look less like little kids and more like pig bastards.
But for me right now? What an absolutely beautiful situation this was.
When it was painfully obvious I'd be stuck doing punishment detail the second I got home... those pig bastards had become a ray of light for me.
'Oh... God... thank you so, so much.'
I willingly changed into the school uniform soaked in spoiled milk.
For the sake of my perfect plan, I deliberately dabbed a little milk into my hair,
then walked out of the locker room looking as pitiful as some tragic heroine from a novel.
"Ugh, the smell!"
The kids snickered as they made fun of me.
For their benefit, I put on a gloomy expression and crossed the gymnasium—and was spotted by the PE teacher.
"Oh my god! Si-yoon! What happened?!"
"....."
At his words, I made my expression even more grim and walked right past the PE teacher.
The PE teacher must have felt faint when he realized I was about to meet my parents looking like that.
My navy-blue uniform jacket was blotchy with white from the milk, and my plaid skirt was the same.
With my face slightly flushed, I crossed the schoolyard slowly, looking a little weak...
I crossed the yard, passed through the hallway, and reached the office where Dad was waiting.
"".....""
"Dad..."
Our homeroom teacher gaped in horror when she saw me.
The moment Dad spotted me, he went rigid, and his voice shook as he spoke.
"S-Si-yoon... what happened to your clothes?"
I answered Dad as if it were nothing.
"Somebody poured milk in my locker..."
Dad's expression began to turn ice-cold.
"Seriously...?"
"Yeah... when I went back, that's what I found..."
The homeroom teacher, who'd pulled up the CCTV footage at once, was aghast.
There were no cameras inside the locker room itself, but at the entrance, you could see a brat walking in carrying five cartons of milk.
It was the same kid who'd said I smelled.
"Ah...! That's the one who said I smelled the second I walked out..."
Dad's expression rapidly began to twist.
'Wow...'
That look on Dad's face... I'd never seen it before in my life.
No, everyone in the world who knew Dad was probably seeing it for the first time.
The sight of him angry at someone other than me... it was completely unlike Dad's usual gentle, mild image, and it wasn't the face of the rapper Kim Ji-ho either.
The adults around us, seeing Kim Ji-ho angry for the first time, held their breath.
Dad spoke in a low, drained voice I had never heard before.
"Let's... have a word."
Watching him, our homeroom teacher swallowed hard and nodded.
I spoke to Dad.
"Dad, I want to wash up."
The moment he heard my voice, Dad started reining in his emotions fast.
Still, maybe because seeing me looking so pitiful made it hard to stay in control,
he began suppressing his anger without looking at me.
After making a concerted effort to get his emotions under control, Dad apologized to Ji-hoon's mother once again.
"Once again, I'm very sorry."
Given the circumstances, Ji-hoon’s mother understood Dad’s stiff, formal apology.
"Ah... no, I really think... you should take Si-yoon home and get her washed up right away."
"Yes, thank you."
Without a word, Dad gathered my milk-reeking body tightly into his arms and carried me to the car.
As he drove, Dad's face was utterly expressionless.
I rolled down the window to air things out and stared outside.
"The kids were cute."
"...What?"
I smiled as I looked out the window, and Dad checked on me through the rearview mirror.
"Eight years old... that's the age when kids are naturally self-centered and selfish."
Dad, apparently thinking I was telling him to forgive the brats, lost control of his expression.
"You're saying that right now?!"
I'd been looking out the window, but I met Dad's eyes and smiled—lifting only the corners of my mouth, my eyes utterly cold and devoid of feeling.
"Which is why they need an adult."
"....."
"Someone has to put a ring through their noses while they're still young... so they never do it again... even if it makes them howl from the pain..."
Dad nodded at my icy smile.
The next day, Seoul Private Elementary School was turned upside down.
News that Kim Ji-ho’s daughter—first revealed on Next-Door Hyungnim—had been bullied spread across the country together with blurred CCTV footage.
The scandal gripped the entire country so fiercely that even the children’s parents climbed the search rankings.
In Korea, Dad’s fame and influence far surpassed that of most National Assembly members.
And more than anything, my best friend was Da-yeon.
Lee Da-yeon, the second child of Hanseong—the country’s second-largest conglomerate.
The day the school violence committee convened.
The parents of the kid who'd poured the milk told Dad it was just kids being kids and pushed to reach a quick settlement, but...
Right then, the door opened and Lee Jin-seok entered with a security detail to support Dad.
The moment those parents spotted Lee Jin-seok, they couldn't hide their shock.
Unlike the version of him I usually saw, Lee Jin-seok was dressed in a suit that anyone could tell was expensive.
The principal and the board chairman, as if they'd already known Lee Jin-seok was coming, entered together with him and took their seats without ceremony.
As the school violence committee proceeded, Lee Jin-seok spoke with calm, icy composure. He no longer looked like the friendly man next door I knew.
The Lee Jin-seok who was always at Da-yeon’s and my mercy—the man whose hair I had yanked while fooling around with him—was nowhere to be seen.
In his place stood a business leader who could shake the nation. He made even the air feel heavy and cold, silencing every breath in the room.
He was, in the truest sense, utterly overwhelming everyone present.