Chapter 48 (1/2)

“You’re not coming?”

“I am.”

O Shin, who had been watching it all with crossed arms, said so as if it was nothing wrong. Myohan looked at him with confusion. He thought he would be mad at him and call him a reckless cat, but to his surprise, he followed them without saying a word.

“Shit, we should have knocked out at least three of his teeth!”

“Cheong, please calm down.”

“He’s so different from our class president.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he gets punished for this.”

“…Is your family really that rich?”

The boys got noisy in no time, making Myohan miss O Shin looking at the bully for the last time, his eyes gleaming coldly. Dark clouds were rolling over.

***

The bully got sentenced to 10 hours of volunteer work, thanks to the trust Myohan had built at school, Jagyeom’s testimony, and Sajun’s influence. The punishment was too light compared to what he had done to Miho, but Myohan thought that wasn’t a bad price for one punch.

But he didn’t come back to school. As he had pretended to be a nice student, his homeroom teacher wanted to deny his act of violence, but he continued to refuse to go to school, and the teacher had to give up eventually.

Myohan, Miho, and the bully finished talking and came out from the teachers’ office, but Jagyeom stayed a lot longer.

They couldn’t possibly know what he and the teacher talked about, but when the teacher came out later, she patted Miho’s shoulder and said, “Miho, please know that I’ll always be here for you. For all of you.’

When Miho looked at Jagyeom, he looked kind of embarrassed.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Hmm. Myohan nodded. He was sitting on the taps with a popsicle bar in his mouth. He then lightly jumped down. O Shin brushed the dust off his pants for him. Miho just looked at him.

“So, he stopped bullying you after that?”

“Oh, he…”

Miho seemed to think about it. A day after Myohan and his boys got revenge on him, he came to school with his body full of big and small wounds. One of his legs was in a cast. He looked really tired, and he was startled and left the room the moment Miho’s eyes met his. After that, he wouldn’t even look at Miho.

“I heard he fell on slippery road, it rained a lot that day.”

“But then why is he avoiding you?”

Myohan frowned and narrowed his eyes. He did give his final warning that day, but the bully had looked like he wasn’t going to stop bullying Miho at all. He had been terrified, but that couldn’t last long as he was supposed to forget all about it and resume his usual act.

“Well,”

O Shin put a hand on Myohan’s shoulder. Myohan got a huge bruise on his face after that and had to get around with a mask. Of course, now the bruise was nearly gone.

“I guess he had a change of heart.”

“….All for the better.”

Myohan gave him a suspicious look, but then he grinned. Whatever, it was all for the better. Miho looked away and scratched his cheek. Then he muttered, “Thank you.”

Instead of an answer, a hand gently stroked his hair. Myohan whispered to him.

“Let me tell you something good.”

Miho’s eyes widened. Myohan made him come closer and put his lips right on his ear. O Shin crossed his arms, but he didn’t try to stop it.

“Listen carefully.”

Myohan covered his mouth with a hand and whispered to Miho, slowly but clearly. Miho looked shocked. Myohan stroked his hair again. And then, he playfully bumped his shoulder and winked.

“Bye.”

Miho didn’t stop him. He just watched him blankly as he went away. O Shin, who followed Myohan, put an arm around his shoulders. He asked with a sweet voice, “Why did you tell him?”