Park Ji-hoon vs Kim Tae-oh.
Park Ji-hoon vs Kim Tae-oh.
I wasn't the only one praying for the repose of the departed; Da-yeon seemed to be doing the same.
The kid who'd hit Park Ji-hoon suddenly lowered his head, draped an arm over the top of Park Ji-hoon's head, and looked over at Da-yeon and me.
"You're cute. Wanna go out with me instead of these dipshits?"
I sucked on my milk carton through its straw and watched the situation unfold with sparkling eyes.
'Should've bought popcorn instead of milk.'
A big kid, looking straight at me while he said it.
"You're fucking pretty—maybe 'cause you're a celebrity's kid? Want me to make school life easy for you?"
That was when Kim Tae-oh got up and spoke to Park Ji-hoon.
"Calm your anger, Ji-hoon. There's no need for you to dirty your hands over this."
Park Ji-hoon shot Kim Tae-oh a look that said, the hell is this bastard on about?
Kim Tae-oh faced the five kids.
"Apologize."
"What?"
"Apologize to Ji-hoon's friend first. Then apologize to Da-yeon and Si-yoon as well."
"His face looks fine to me... what, you a little slow? The way you talk is creepy as shit."
The kid who'd smacked the back of Park Ji-hoon's head threw the bread he'd been holding.
Thwump.
Kim Tae-oh caught the bread and calmly set it on the table.
"Ohhh~"
The kid pushed Park Ji-hoon's head aside and stepped forward.
And crumpled—not with a thud, but with a sharp pat.
""...?""
I was probably the only one who saw it clearly.
The way Kim Tae-oh turned his gaze elsewhere just as his fist drove into the kid's jaw.
Even the jaw rotating in time with the speed of his punch...
He was slower than me in a lot of ways, but his fists were overwhelmingly faster than Ji-hoon's.
Ji-hoon had seen Kim Tae-oh's punch too, and he was watching with genuine interest.
I could see why they called Kim Tae-oh the little monster of HSW.
If anyone still called him a nepotism hire after seeing that, they'd be out of their mind.
The kids who rushed at Kim Tae-oh all hit the floor just the same.
I didn't admit Lee Jin-seok's judgment had been right until I saw it with my own eyes.
Just imagining what a genius like that would become when he grew up sent a chill down my spine.
Of course, right now Ji-hoon would flatten him—but once they got a few more years on them... well...
Ji-hoon must have been thinking the same thing, because he was nodding along.
In the past, there was Jae-hyeong—the one I'd seen as a genius, taken in, and raised myself.
Unlike everyone else, Jae-hyeong had been a natural-born fighter.
He'd been born with a brawler's body and had a gift for throwing punches without fear among blades. The very definition of a genius.
I'd roughed him up plenty, but he never let anyone else get the better of him.
By the look on Ji-hoon's face, this seemed to be the spark he'd been missing, having gone soft lately.
Losing to a kid like that—he couldn't even imagine it, probably hated the thought more than dying...
I sat down next to Da-yeon and watched as Kim Tae-oh ate the bread the kid had thrown.
Once school ended, Park Ji-hoon went home, and I headed to the art academy with Da-yeon.
Kim Tae-oh walked behind Da-yeon, sweeping his eyes over our surroundings.
As if he intended to protect her.
After seeing Kim Tae-oh fight just now, I finally felt at ease.
The older that kid got, the more at ease I'd feel.
When I went into the art academy, Kim Tae-oh followed me inside, checked the area once, then stepped back out.
A breathtakingly handsome kid glancing around the interior before leaving must have seemed pretty out of place, because my teacher Go Min-su spotted me and asked,
"Who's that little boy?"
"Da-yeon's bodyguard."
"Huh...?"
Then Go Min-su caught sight of Da-yeon walking in and did a double take.
Da-yeon was famously known as the daughter of Hanseong's Lee Jin-seok, after all...
"She's been my friend since kindergarten."
Go Min-su suddenly remembered Lee Jin-seok showing up back when my elementary school violence committee had been convened.
"Ah...!"
I pulled a chair over and sat Da-yeon down.
"Sit back and watch~"
"Okay!"
I kept an eye on Da-yeon while I knocked out the demonstration painting I'd promised in an hour. Then I walked over to her.
"What were you doing?"
"Hm? I was painting this~"
I looked at Da-yeon's work.
A painting like a riot of colors playing together.
I sketched an underdrawing beside her for her to use.
"It's a landscape—want to try coloring it in?"
"Yeah!"
I drew one more underdrawing exactly like hers, then mixed colors on a single palette and dabbed them onto the canvas.
Da-yeon watched where I was painting and followed along.
Once Da-yeon started having fun, I caught fire too and got completely absorbed painting alongside her.
"Whoa..."
"Pretty, right? Now you go over this part with orange."
To capture the sunset glow, I dabbed in orange in places here and there, but Da-yeon found it difficult.
"It still looks pretty even when you do it rough."
"R-really...?"
Da-yeon was working cautiously, afraid she'd ruin the beautifully finished painting by putting her own hand to it.
The picture she finished without my hands touching it—the forms wavered, but if anything, it looked even better that way.
"Oh... you're really good at this."
"Nah... it's all wobbly."
"No it's not~"
I put my own painting away in storage, then showed Da-yeon's painting to Go Min-su.
"My hand didn't touch this one."
"Da-yeon painted this? Wow... she's got real talent."
Da-yeon, looking embarrassed, said carefully,
"I just copied what Si-yoon did..."
"Nope~ even so, you did a really great job."
I placed a hand on Da-yeon's shoulder.
"Right? I was right, wasn't I?"
"Yeah..."
Go Min-su smiled as he watched us, and I said goodbye to him.
"We'll get going now~ take care~"
"All right, get home safe~"
"Will do."
The evening had gotten late, but my dad didn't come pick me up.
Was it because I'd grown too old to be kept inside the fence of his protection? Definitely not that.
As long as I got in by 7 o'clock, he didn't really say much.
And today—since he'd heard I was out with Da-yeon—he'd probably been even less worried.
Da-yeon is always accompanied within a 500-meter radius by bodyguards disguised as ordinary people.
And right beside her was Kim Tae-oh.
I provoked Kim Tae-oh while he was scanning the area.
"Hmm... how do you think you'd do in a fight with Ji-hoon?"
"I won't lose."
I knew it—I hadn't misread him. The kid looked composed, but underneath he was nothing but fire.
"Yeah? But Ji-hoon's way bigger than you, you know."
"Body size isn't everything..."
I nodded and said,
"Hmm... Ji-hoon looks stronger, and skill-wise... you two seem about even... but he's got a much bigger frame, hmm... no matter how I think about it, Ji-hoon seems stronger."
Tae-oh liked me.
When the object of his one-sided crush brushed him off, his expression soured.
Da-yeon shot me a look full of worry and kept poking me as if to ask, what are you doing?
"I'm just curious. I thought Ji-hoon was definitely the strongest among everyone our age, but Tae-oh too—whoosh, whoosh, just like that."
Tae-oh nodded at the compliment, but I immediately undercut his confidence by continuing.
"Ah... well, I guess if Tae-oh had a weapon it might be a different story..."
"".....""
"You get that thing on your waist going—whoosh! whoosh!—and maybe, just maybe, you'd have a shot at beating Ji-hoon?"
At the alarmingly sharp glint in Tae-oh's eyes, Da-yeon started trying to read mine.
"Even without it, I'd win."
"With talk like that, even I could beat you. Same goes for Ji-hoon."
"....."
The kid went quiet. Sure enough, he must have had his eye on Ji-hoon.
Before I knew it, we'd made it home, and I parted ways with the silent Tae-oh in front of the apartment building.
"Si-yoon! What was that for!"
The first time Da-yeon had ever gotten angry at me.
Da-yeon was one hundred percent pouting at me.
I'd been watching over Da-yeon since she was little, so it did sting a bit in a godmotherly way—but I gave her the excuse I'd prepared in advance.
"I was just trying to help them get closer~"
Da-yeon's eyes went round at my reply.
"Huh? How does that make them get closer?"
"Rivals have to fight to get close. You've seen that in comic books, right?"
Da-yeon's eyes sparkled.
"Really?!"
"Of course~ They fight, shore up each other's weak points, and both of them push each other toward becoming the best in the world!"
Da-yeon imagined it for a moment, then nodded with a flushed face.
"Sounds awesome, right?"
"Yeah!"
After I sent Da-yeon off, I headed inside the house, smirking darkly as I imagined Kim Tae-oh's reaction the next day.
The next day, sadly, the two didn't fight.
If anything, they spent the whole time acting like the other didn't exist.
An insane popcorn-worthy matchup had practically been gift-wrapped for me... such a letdown.
But I still had a hidden card up my sleeve.
Namely, the sports festival.
I fixed my gaze on the class president, who was selecting participants for the sports festival.
"So we need to pick people for our soccer team..."
The class president's eyes roamed around until they met Ji-hoon's, and the president flinched.
I looked at Kim Tae-oh.
"You any good at soccer?"
"There's nothing I can't do."
Kim Tae-oh recoiled slightly at my bright, innocent smile, and Park Ji-hoon broke out in a cold sweat.
"Is that so? Da-yeon, looks like we'll get to watch these two play soccer later, right?"
"Yeah!"
I shot the class president a meaningful look, and the president carefully glanced between Ji-hoon and Tae-oh.
A fearful expression when looking at Ji-hoon; a fluttery expression when looking at Tae-oh.
Wow... today was the day I learned a person's expression could flip like that from moment to moment.
'They're doing face-changing with their bare face...'
"And running..."
"Ji-hoon's really good at that!"
"".....""
Inside the suddenly cold and silent classroom, Ji-hoon's face twisted.
I immediately spoke up.
"Hey~ Tae-oh's no joke either~ his hands are so fast you can't even see 'em."
"...Running is done with your feet..."
In the end, Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh were both signed up for running and soccer.
This... I was starting to look forward to it. A lot.
They both seemed to know exactly what my ulterior motive was...
But seeing the way the two of them locked eyes, I knew it—you guys were looking forward to it too.
Park Ji-hoon's signature smartass remark followed.
"You're gonna compete with a kid and—"
"...I should be the one saying that."
"...?"
Maybe you two didn't want a popcorn-worthy matchup...
But I'd already finished sizing up both of your personalities.
I was stuck between Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh, grinning, while the rest of the kids in class kept glancing over nervously.
When Da-yeon and I went into the bathroom, the two of them waited outside.
I washed my hands with Da-yeon, then came back out and whispered into Park Ji-hoon's ear.
"You do realize you're gonna look fucking pitiful if you lose, right?"
"I'll... just this once... go along with what you want..."
I spoke just loudly enough for Tae-oh to overhear.
"But honestly, soccer aside, you'd probably lose the running. Admit it?"
"Bullshit—why the hell would I lose to some little kid like him?"
Park Ji-hoon, who'd just declared he wasn't going to dance to my tune, went and provoked the Kim Tae-oh right next to him.
Park Ji-hoon only realized he'd taken the bait a moment later, and I smiled at him.
"Tee-hee."
"...fuck."
One week before the sports festival, we were taking exams.
I demonstrated solving one problem every three seconds; I cleared the thirty multiple-choice questions in one minute and thirty seconds, finished all ten short-answer questions in under three minutes total, then flipped my test over and laid my head down.
"".....""
The teacher saw me with my head on the desk way too early, walked over, looked at my test paper, and was struck speechless.
It couldn't simply be written off as guessing, since the short-answer section was completely filled in...
Da-yeon and Park Ji-hoon, who already knew me well enough, had sat far away from me ages ago in case my performance tanked their morale. Kim Tae-oh, who'd ended up closest, had likewise lost the ability to speak.
Haaaaaahhhp..... fwooooooo...
Haaaaaahhhp..... fwooooooo...
A mere thirty seconds after putting her head down, Si-yoon achieved the glorious feat of falling asleep.
Every five minutes, her breathing echoed through the classroom.
Only after ten cycles of Si-yoon's breathing did the bell finally ring to mark the end of the exam period.
Da-yeon carefully woke me, then handed me her test paper.
"Si-yoon... grade it for me..."
"Nnn? Okay..."
I quickly circled her answers and marked the ones she'd gotten wrong on the short-answer section. Da-yeon got visibly agitated.
Kim Tae-oh couldn't hide his bewilderment as he watched. I looked at Park Ji-hoon's test paper and said,
"Give me yours too."
"...No."
"Hurry up. You know your mom's obviously gonna chew you out for not having me check it."
"....."
Once I took Park Ji-hoon's test and quickly marked the circles, Ji-hoon's face brightened.
I could spot answers that were clearly guesses at a glance.
After I finished checking it fast, I slid the paper back to Ji-hoon with a dissatisfied look.
"Decent?"
"Fuck off."
I stole a glance at the test paper Kim Tae-oh was holding, and he quickly whipped it behind his back.
Heh heh... he seemed to be underestimating my kinetic vision.
"You got 3, 6, and 10 wrong."
"!!! No I didn't."
"What do you mean no? I saw numbers 1 through 10. Want me to list 'em off in order?"
Kim Tae-oh stared at me like I was some kind of monster.
"....."
In the end, Kim Tae-oh silently held out his test paper.
Da-yeon, curious herself, looked at the paper from next to me.
I checked off three on the front side just as I'd glimpsed, then flipped it over and quickly checked the rest of the answers.
Park Ji-hoon snorted at Kim Tae-oh from the side.
"Hahk? Korean's that shit? Yo, you're Korean, shwa~ gotta be good at Korean."
"...Be quiet."
I confirmed the look on Kim Tae-oh's face right now was exactly the same as the one he'd worn long ago when he'd met my eyes as a child and blushed.
The bell rang for the next exam period, and the kids who'd been chattering during the break refocused on studying.
I definitely should have gone to a private middle school.
By now I could've been done with exams and off painting...
'Oh? I'll just draw instead~'
As soon as math started, I went through checking off one problem every three seconds just like before, finished all the questions in four minutes total, and started drawing on the back page.