She was no different from a beast

Chapter 30

—–CROW—– 

“Um, Jeongwoo… You’re close with Yuna, right?”

“Huh? Young-sam? Why the long face?”

The exams were over. I was sitting alone at my desk, not just checking my answers, but also redoing any problems I got wrong, writing down the reasons for my mistakes and correcting them. I was about to head home when…

Heo Young-sam.

He goes to the same Taekwondo dojang as me. We’re not that close, but he’s nicer than his sixth-grade brother, Young-shim, and we talk sometimes. He was waiting for me at the classroom door.

Why?  Why is Young-sam looking for me?

We greet each other when we see each other, but we’re not exactly close.

I wondered why he’d come to find me.  After a moment’s thought, I remembered Young-sam acting particularly annoying around Yuna during our study sessions, grinning like an idiot.

Ah, that poor Young-sam…

‘He must like Yuna.’

My older sister used to say things like that at home.

Why do boys tease and bother girls they like, instead of being nice to them?

Once, while I was doing push-ups in the living room, she made the outrageous and horrifying claim, “You were picking on Yuna because you like her, weren’t you?”

Me, liking Yuna? Ugh. Crazy. That’s crazy.

Love, dating, couples.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what was so great about them, but I knew from dramas that it was a particularly close relationship between a man and a woman.

A closer, more special relationship than friendship.

Yuna is definitely special to me, but…that kind of “love” feels distant.

‘She’s someone I can learn a lot from, someone I want to be equals with when I’m older, not someone I have to be careful around like now.’

Watching her every day, I often find her baffling, but there’s so much to learn from her every action, her thoughts and intentions different from mine, Yuri noona’s, or our other friends’.

For example, she always greets people first, but rarely initiates conversations.

She listens attentively, nodding and reacting to what others say, then naturally continues the conversation with her reply.

It’s subtly different from how my classmates or the older kids at the dojang act.

By observing these little things, I learn how to make people happy and make a better impression.

Anyway, Young-sam must be here for Yuna, not me, right?

But Yuna went straight home after lunch, bragging about getting perfect scores on all her tests.

‘She teased me relentlessly for getting a simple question wrong…’

I only missed one question in Korean because of a careless mistake.

I’m so frustrated that I accidentally wrote down number 3 instead of number 2.

“Yeah, we’re close, but Yuna went home already. She’s been going straight home after school lately.”

“No!  That’s… I needed to talk to you. You…you’re dating Yuna, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

That’s ridiculous, Young-sam.

In the past, I might have yelled and hit him for saying that, but I knew how unreasonable and wrong it was to throw punches, so I sighed deeply.

Calm down. I don’t do things like that anymore.

It’s much better to calmly explain misunderstandings than to get angry.

That’s the lesson I learned after reflecting on the body-slam incident with Yuna.

It’s the lesson I learned by thinking about how I would act if I were Yuna.

“Hoo, Yuna and I are just friends.”

“R-really? But you’re the closest to her out of all of us.  Well…my brother likes Yuna.”

“What?!”

Seriously? Both brothers, why *her*?

Why the girl who can lift and throw people, single-handedly defeat 30 people in dodgeball, and make the Master’s wrist swell with a roundhouse kick?

‘Young-sam’s parents have failed as parents.’

I remembered Mom saying, “Thanks to Yuna, our harvest is bountiful this year,” whenever Yuna came up in conversation at the dinner table.

Mom calls Yuna a golden fertilizer, but wouldn’t she be a beast that not only steals from the field but also destroys it completely, from Young-sam’s parents’ perspective?

…Or not? Young-sam isn’t a bad kid, but he’s not as amazing as Yuna.

And I heard Young-shim, his brother, is a delinquent who bullies other kids.  I even heard he smokes.

Since they’ve already failed as parents, it wouldn’t make much difference even if a beast appeared.

I’ll have to think about it seriously when I get home.

Would the brothers, deeply infatuated with Yuna, be unaffected since they were already lost causes, or did they have a sliver of hope that Yuna, the beast, crushed?

“So, my brother told me to stay away from Yuna… He said he was going to confess and ask her out today…”

“Wow.”

Young-shim saved Young-sam.

Instead of both brothers getting crushed, the older brother sacrificed himself to save his younger brother.

I nodded and patted Young-sam’s shoulder.

“Your brother saved you.”

“???”

Young-sam tilted his head, confused, wondering what I meant.

You wouldn’t understand.

“When you get home, leave your brother alone today.”

“Huh? Why?”

“You’ll see.”

If you’re curious why I’m saying this, go ask Yuri noona the same question.

She’ll probably give you the same answer.

“Young-shim came to school today.  Guess you didn’t hit him.”

“Huh? What are you talking about… Ah, who told you about yesterday?”

“Young-sam told me his brother was going to confess to you.  You know who both of them are, right?”

“No? I didn’t know until now, but I think I get it after hearing the story.”

The only person I’ve done anything to recently that warrants a beating is Big Buzz-cut.

Honestly, what happened yesterday justified me smashing his head in.

He’s not a celebrity, so confessing like that is a visual crime.

Confessions in dramas and movies aren’t just about the atmosphere and direction, but the actor’s face is the most important.

“So, what happened? I thought you would have beaten him up in front of everyone.”

“Ugh, what are you talking about? You know you can’t show that kind of violence in public, right?”

“…? Then what about me back then?”

“Ahem! It’s unfair to bring up the past.”

I coughed and averted my gaze, hit by Jeongwoo’s truth bomb as soon as I arrived at school and sat next to him reading a thick book.

That time was a real mistake…no, it wasn’t a mistake, I just lost control of my emotions, which is unlike me.

“Anyway, here’s what happened…”

I told Jeongwoo, who was looking at me with curious and slightly intrigued eyes, everything that happened after the exams yesterday.

How Big Buzz-cut lured me like a creepy guy from a story, saying, “Follow me, I’ll buy you something delicious. Hehe.”

How, while I was enjoying my tteokbokki, he confessed in front of everyone, saying, “Since you ate the tteokbokki I bought you, we’re dating starting today,” with a greasy smile on his ugly face.

How I was so furious that I contemplated twisting his nipples, which were uglier than our neighborhood boar, Burari’s, or smashing his mouth for saying such outrageous things.

How I finally decided to smash his head in, chased him with a wooden stick, and then let him go out of pity when he peed and pooped his pants out of fear.

After hearing about my glorious achievements yesterday, Jeongwoo said…

“His pee and poop saved him.”

“You’re telling me~ If he hadn’t wet himself, you would have beaten him with that stick.”

“No, I mean his pee and poop saved *you*.”

“???”

What? Why did that disgusting mess save me?

Jeongwoo, that makes me feel a little…weird.

“That guy…even if he hadn’t confessed, you would have beaten him up if he did anything weird in front of you. He’s a bad guy.”

“Oh, right. He bragged about extorting money from people.  So I told him I’d deal with him if I ever caught him doing that again~”

“I’m sure you did. You wouldn’t do anything bad like that.”

“Hehe. Right~”

I’m a good kid! Ahem!

“His pee and poop saved you from getting a bad reputation. The kids in our class are already scared of you, so if that kind of rumor spread throughout the school, it would be even harder to make friends.”

“…Oh?”

“He wet himself because he was scared of a girl much younger than him. He’s not going to tell anyone about that.”

“That’s true.”

I didn’t think of that.

Now that you mention it, that’s true.

A wannabe tough guy, obsessed with his image, confessed to a younger girl and got rejected…and then peed and pooped his pants out of fear?

Wow. That guy, with his huge ego, isn’t going to brag about that.

“And even if the rumor spreads, I’ll say it’s not true, so don’t worry. If that happens again, just say you have a boyfriend.”

“Wow~ Jeongwoo! Are you worried about me?”

He’s looking out for me and worrying about me. He’s grown up so much.

Just two months ago, he would have wet himself and cried just by looking at me, but now he’s grown enough to say that to the super-elite Han Yuna!

I was so proud and happy that I stretched out my skinny arm and put it around his shoulders.

“Hehe.  So, if I get another confession, should I say I’m dating Jeongwoo?”

“No. That’s horrible… Sigh, do whatever you want.”

“Really? Pfft. Then I’ll be relying on you.”

Well, who would confess to me now anyway?

‘The rumor must have already spread.’

Several students saw him make that ridiculous confession in the snack bar and get thrown out by me, live and in person. How could the rumor *not* spread?

But since he’s worried about me…well, a little rumor is no big deal.

“Yuna, what… what happened yesterday?”

“W-well…”

It is a big deal. Damn it.

I never imagined I’d become a soldier…no, a student of interest, having counseling sessions with the teachers just for rejecting a confession.

—–CROW—– 

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