The noisy classroom instantly went silent, as though someone had turned down the volume. Moon Ki-Jin was terrified, so he lowered his head even further, burying his head in his food tray.

Considering he didn’t have any money, he might have to stand in front of his classmates with kimchi in his mouth again if the bullies came looking for him. He wanted to die. He should’ve run yesterday, but he didn’t have the courage to. Hence, he cried for a long time on his apartment’s balcony instead.

“Moon Ki-Jin! Which one of you is Moon Ki-Jin?”

Moon Ki-Jin teared up.

Strangely, he teared up whenever he was teased while he was eating even though he knew his classmates would tease him even more if he did.

“It’s him.”

The figure of a person appeared before Moon Ki-Jin. It seemed somebody had given him up.

“Are you Moon Ki-Jin?”

“Yes.”

Even though they were in the same grade, talking to the bullies with respect was better for him. He clenched his teeth hard in a bid to hold back his tears, but he also felt afraid the other party might misunderstand and think he was trying to resist.

The classroom was dead silent.

The rice, soup, and kimchi had blurred because of his tears.

“Look up.”

Moon Ki-Jin swallowed the food in his mouth and slowly lifted his head. However, he couldn’t look up, so he stared at the waist of the student standing before him. The student was holding a bundle of papers in his left hand.

“Moon Ki-Jin?”

“Yes.”

He felt a little more at ease since he had already made up his mind. If they were to torment him today, that would be it. In the evening, he would certainly…

“I’m Kang Chan from the twelfth grade. Can I talk to you for a second?”

Moon Ki-Jin slowly looked up. He looked at his waist, belly, chest, and then his face.

‘Oh my goodness!’

It was Kang Chan, the winner of the fight against four gangsters in front of their school, and the twelfth grade senior that used a fillet knife to cut off the finger of an unconscious person.

Moon Ki-Jin was scared at first, but his fear soon turned into disbelief.

“Are you not done eating yet?”

Was there something wrong with his food? He struggled to even give Kang Chan an answer.

Moon Ki-Jin shook his head after wiping his tears with the back of his hand.

“I guess not. Let’s go. I’ll buy you something good. Okay?”

Moon Ki-Jin nodded.

Smack!

Moon Ki-Jin felt like he couldn’t breathe for a moment since Kang Chan had just hit him on the head, but it didn’t hurt.

“Hey, if a hyung asks you a question, you should answer.”

“... Yes.”

When he nodded and barely answered, Kang Chan smiled softly.

“Let’s go.”

Kang Chan gestured toward the door with a nod and looked at the students around them.

And then he grinned, causing all the students to lower their heads. In truth, Moon Ki-Jin was also scared.

***

Eleventh grade, Class 5.

Cha So-Yeon was eating a piece of bread in a hurry in the classroom today as well. This was because the bullies would surround her if she were to go to the school cafeteria, harassing her or throwing banchan[1] at her.

Cha So-Yeon became a loner once it became known that her mother was selling salted fish at the market. Her mother had worked hard to move to Gangnam. She told her to study hard, but all Cha So-Yeon wanted to do was go back to Daejeon. It was Daejeon,[2] but the other students teased her by asking, ‘You take the cultivator[3] to school, right?’

And after she was seen with her mother at the market, they completely isolated her. When Cha So-Yeon found out that a close friend was at the market, she introduced the friend to her mother, but that became the source of trouble for her.

She got choked up. Even though she was beating herself in the chest, Cha So-Yeon couldn’t bring herself to drink water because she didn’t want to hear sarcastic remarks like, ‘Who put salted fish in the kettle?’

She hated it––school, Gangnam, everything.

She felt apologetic toward her mother for resenting her even though she sometimes shivered in the cold market just to provide for them.

“Cha So-Yeon?”

Startled, Cha So-Yeon lifted her head, finding a student with a bandaged left hand standing by the front door.

“Hello.” Cho Se-Ho was a bully who was said to have connections to a gang. He got up to his feet and greeted Kang Chan.

“Who’s Cha So-Yeon?”

“Over there, hyung-nim[4].”

As soon as Cho Se-Ho politely pointed to her, the student with the bandaged hand walked toward her with long strides. Cha So-Yeon’s heart pounded so hard that she had trouble breathing.

The student was now standing in front of her desk.

“I’m Kang Chan from twelfth grade.”

“Huh?”

“I have a favor to ask of you. Do you have time?”

“I’m sorry?”

Kang Chan smiled at her.

“Why are you so shocked? I have something to talk to you about, which is why I’m asking you to spare me some of your time. Would that be okay?”

Ah! Kang Chan, the terrifying twelfth grader!

Cha So-Yeon subconsciously nodded.

Kang Chan smiled again.

“Do people in this school only ever answer with nods?”

“I’m sorry?”

He didn’t look like a bad person when he smiled. However, he did use a fillet knife to cut off the finger of an unconscious person.

“Let’s go.”

Cha So-Yeon got up from her seat. Kang Chan glared at Cho Se-Ho. The latter’s eyes looked truly terrifying. Had he always been such a person?

“Who are you?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m Cho Se-Ho from eleventh grade. I was one of the people that went over to your classroom to greet you.”

When Kang Chan smirked, Cho Se-Ho flinched.

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Yes!”

Cha So-Yeon truly didn’t know what he meant.

***

Kang Chan, Seok Kang-Ho, and the fourteen other students they had rounded up during lunch had gathered at the storage room they decided to use for the athletic club.

“I’m going to form an athletic club. Mr. Seok Kang-Ho over here… will be the teacher-in-charge.”

The students stared at them, looking puzzled.

“There’s nothing we can do if you don’t want to be a part of it, but if you’re interested in signing up, write your name on the application form. And since I decided to skip the first afternoon class, let’s eat pork cutlet before leaving.”

It was evident that Seok Kang-Ho would be paying from how he licked his lips.

“Any questions?”

“I…”

“Yeah, you! What?” Kang Chan pointed to one of them.

Moon Ki-Jin had already made up his mind. “What kind of exercises will we be doing?”

“Basic physical strength training, self-defense, and Dakyu[5].

Moon Ki-Jin and everyone else were dumbfounded after hearing Kang Chan’s unexpected answer.

“Sounds fun, right?” Kang Chan said with a smile. Who would dare to reply to him, ‘No, I don’t think it would be fun.’?

Squeaaak.

The door opened at that moment, and the owners of the snack bar in front of the school walked in with a huge container.

“You ordered pork cutlet, yes?”

“Yes, please bring it over here.”

Seok Kang-Ho got up and greeted the owners.

“Hey! Why aren’t you guys getting your food?”

One by one, the students got up and went to get their food. Just like what Kang Chan said, there was pork cutlet on each of the huge plates.

“You brought chopsticks, right?” Seok Kang-Ho asked the owner.

“Of course, sir.”

The owner took out a handful of wooden chopsticks from his back pocket. He had also given them three plastic bottles of soda and coke each.

Where were they going to eat?

Kang Chan and Seok Kang-Ho sat on the floor when the students were looking around the room.

“You two female students. Put those on the floor and sit on them.” Seok Kang-Ho was pointing to the cushion on the chair.

“Pork cutlets taste best when you cut them into pieces and eat them with a pair of chopsticks.”

When Seok Kang-Ho and Kang Chan cut the long strips of pork cutlet into squares and picked them up with the chopsticks, the female students followed suit too.

“It’s delicious, right?”

“Yes.”

“Eat slowly or you’ll get indigestion. Do you want cider or coke?”

“Huh? Cider, please.”

It was the first time in two months that Cha So-Yeon had such a pleasant lunch. She made up her mind and decided to write her name on the application form.