Chapter 7: You’ve Never Been Given A Good Beating, Have You? (1)
The students crowded around them while the girl named Eun-Sil observed the situation with her arms folded. The guy seemed to be getting irritated.
“Get in the car quick, you bastard.”
Kang Chan glanced at Eun-Sil, who lowered her gaze as though to say, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ But in an instant, Kang Chan saw her mouthing the word ‘dick’.
Kang Chan smirked. Whenever he let things slide, be it in front of the school or because of gangs and girls, things always turned out this way.
These guys were professionals, but they were also disgusting fellas that intervened in students’ affairs. That being the case, it was only right for Kang Chan to treat them accordingly––give them a real fight, not a squabble with children in school uniforms.
“Let’s do it your way.” He lowered the bag slung over his shoulder and approached the thug.
“Oh?” The guy was startled.
Bam!
Kang Chan landed a headbutt that could have knocked out even the 130kg Dayeru. The thug fell backward, and Kang Chan grabbed him by the chin and the back of his head before delivering a powerful knee strike.
Crrk.
Kang Chan’s knee landed on the thug’s groin, making a terrifying sound that left all the male students petrified. made all the male students petrified.
Crack.
He then twisted the thug’s neck, causing an injury severe enough to put him in a cast for about six months. The thugs didn’t expect a mere student would dare charge at them.
“Did you come here to play?”
Another thug had been at the side, observing Kang Chan with a dumbfounded look. Only when they made eye contact did he come back to his senses. Kang Chan knocked away the fist thrown by the guy on the left like he was swatting a fly.
Cha-ak. Pow pow pow.
He then jabbed the guy in the throat, abdomen, and armpit with his thumb.
“Cough.”
Clenching his fist and extending his middle knuckle, Kang Chan punched him hard in the jaw.
“Cough!”
Kang Chan grabbed the guy by his hair and jaw in the blink of an eye, then twisted his neck, just as he had done to his previous opponent.
Craaack.
“You bastard!”
Nevertheless, even though time was ticking, the guy swung a fillet knife at Kang Chan. Kang Chan quickly twisted his upper body.
Swoosh.
Professionals were indeed different. The knife cut across Kang Chan’s waist fairly deeply, triggering tearful screams from the female students.
“You bastard, I’m going to kill you!”
It didn’t matter how much the other person yelled––Kang Chan only focused on the side of his body. His clothes were torn apart, and blood was oozing out of his wound. Since he was no longer in his original body, his speed and power were no longer at the level they used to be.
“Tsk!” Kang Chan shook his head and expressed his annoyance. But even though those guys could seize the opportunity to win the fight, they didn’t attack him.
‘They probably didn’t see this coming.’
They most likely didn’t think that things would turn out like this when they were simply trying to capture a student. He was so strong that they were forced to use their knives. They checked their surroundings, looking all flustered. Things would take a turn for the worse if the cops were to come.
“You've never been beaten to a pulp, have you?”
“The hell did you say, motherfucker?!”
Kang Chan waited for the enemy to let their guard down before taking the opportunity to attack them. It was clear that the guy had experience using a knife. Instead of stabbing him, the guy swung the knife a little to the right. Kang Chan stretched out his left hand toward the hilt as far as possible.
Tok. Pok.
The sound rang almost at the same time. Kang Chan’s left palm had been sliced, but he had curled his right hand and used his index and middle fingers’ second knuckles to stab the guy in the eyes.
Pok.
“Ack!”
As the fillet knife fell to the ground, Kang Chan quickly grabbed the guy’s hair with his left hand and took two steps back. The last remaining thug could only flinch, unable to attack him.
Regardless of how hard he tried, Kang Chan couldn’t twist the heads of the last two guys, who had witnessed him doing that to their other two colleagues. They had instinctively stiffened—that was their bodies’ way of protecting themselves. If he were to try and twist their necks, they would end up dead or paralyzed. Kang Chan pressed the thug’s head down with his left hand instead and hit his face with his right palm.
Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow.
The thug struggled.
“Fuck! Let go of me! Let go!”
Blood clogged the thug’s mouth and nose. He struggled, but Kang Chan, holding his hair, continued hitting him in the face. It sounded gruesome, and Kang Chan menacingly glaring at the last remaining thug only made it even more gut-churning.
Huge drops of blood dripped onto the floor and splattered everywhere whenever Kang Chan hit him.
Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow.
The guy he was beating up lost consciousness, and the thug witnessing everything looked utterly terrified.
Finally, Kang Chan stopped. He grabbed the guy’s chin and hair, then twisted his neck.
Crack. Thud!
Blood dripped from Kang Chan’s left hand, making it look as though he was wearing a red glove on his right hand, made from the blood of the thug that had collapsed.
Sadly, a lot of time had been wasted here. When Kang Chan abruptly lunged forward, the guy backed away from him, startled. Kang Chan picked up the knife with his hand that was covered in blood. He then grabbed the right hand of the guy whose neck he had just twisted.
“Hey, you motherfucker!” The last man standing yelled at Kang Chan.
Smirk.
Slice. Kang Chan cut a finger off the hand in his grasp.
“Aaaghhh!” A scream echoed, as though there was a choir harmonizing together.
He only needed a thumb anyway. Even if Kang Chan were to cut any of the other four fingers at the base, this guy would still be able to use a pair of chopsticks, albeit barely, from now on.
“Fuck off.”
“You crazy bastard!”
Gangsters would always be gangsters, even if they were intimidated. The guy swung the knife again.
“Get the fuck out of here before the police come, you imbecile. And bear this in mind––I will break your neck.”
Kang Chan meant what he said. He didn’t want the police to come and kick up a big fuss, while on the other hand, he absolutely didn’t want to let the guy that had attacked him with a knife get away scot-free.
“Hey! Get out of here now!”
The man seemed to have come to his senses the moment he heard Kang Chan mentioning the police. As soon as Kang Chan yelled, the sloppy-looking students looked at his face and moved the guys that had collapsed to the car.
“I’ll stab you in the fucking gut!”
“Don’t embarrass yourself. Take good care of your neck.”
Meanwhile, the other students continued loading the thugs sprawled out on the floor into the car.
“If you want to work out, you have to do it right, you moron.”
Kang Chan muttered to himself as he looked at the wound on his left palm. It was a mistake that never would’ve happened before. If Dayeru—no, if Seok Kang-Ho were to see that, he would’ve laughed at Kang Chan. Nonetheless, Kang Chan still had unfinished business.
Kang Chan approached Eun-Sil as he watched his opponents getting into the car. After seeing the knife and blood, witnessing the guys that had collapsed being beaten up, and meeting Kang Chan’s glaring eyes, Eun-Sil trembled and her lips paled.
“I’m warning you.”
“Don’t do it.”
With a trembling voice, she retracted what she had said, while Kang Chan kept telling himself not to twist her neck.
“If you get in my face one more time, you’ll get it from me.”
“I’m sor—”
Smaaaack!
It was a full swing. Kang Chan didn’t care whether she was terrified or trembling with fear. Instead, he made sure to thoroughly teach her a lesson so he wouldn’t have to twist her neck, break her arm, or kill her later.
Thud.
The girl fell to one side, and her skirt rode up, revealing her gray underwear.
“Get her out of here.” Kang Chan ordered her three useless friends that were hiding at one side.
The girls hesitated.
“Get moving already.”
They flinched and supported Eun-Sil up by putting their arms below her armpits.
“Snow White.”
“Huh?” Kang Chan’s words seemed to have confused Kim Mi-Young. Naturally, she didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Get my bag.”
“Huh? Oh!”
Kim Mi-Young quickly walked over and picked up his bag, and Kang Chan headed back to school first. Even though Seok Kang-Ho would be the one left picking up the pieces, Kang Chan had to treat the wound on his hand.
***
Kang Chan wrapped his left hand with the handkerchief Kim Mi-Young had given him as he went to the nurse’s office. The nurse in her forties was bewildered upon seeing his wound.
“We have to disinfect your wound first,” the nurse said, not knowing whom she was talking to. She brought a glass bottle containing an antiseptic solution, along with a pair of tweezers.
“Do you have a needle and thread?”
“I’m sorry?”
“I can’t even sew, but disinfecting it will open the wound, and it'll take quite some time for it to heal. So, do you have a needle and thread?”
“You have to go to the hospital to get it stitched up after we disinfect your wound.”
The hospital? Wouldn’t that be cumbersome? At a glance, the wound was approximately ten centimeters long and had to be stitched up since it was deep. It was so big that Kang Chan almost couldn’t grip it properly.
Rattle.
Just then, Seok Kang-Ho rushed into the nurse’s office.
“What happened?”
Kang Chan showed Seok Kang-Ho his palm.
“Let’s go to the hospital.”
Unlike how he was like in Africa, Dayeru had become a lot more quick-witted.
“In that case, let’s disinfect the wound first before you go. He’s bleeding at the waist too.”
Kang Chan picked up Kim Mi-Young’s handkerchief and wrapped it around his left hand once again.
“Don’t do that. We have to disinfect the wound and bandage it,” the nurse protested.
“Are you going to use that on that little punk?”
As soon as Seok Kang-Ho intervened, there was nothing the nurse could do.
“Are we…going to the hospital?” Kim Mi-Young was gaining on them, so Kang Chan had to be careful with his words.
“We should.”
Kang Chan obediently followed behind Seok Kang-Ho without saying a word. Seok Kang-Ho pointed to an old subcompact car parked right next to the school.
“Go home,” Kang Chan told Kim Mi-Young.
“I’ll go to the hospital with you.”
“It’s okay. Just go home. I heard you have to go to hagwon[1]?”
“Yeah, I’ll take care of it, so go home. High school seniors have no time to waste. Run along. Give me his bag,” Seok Kang-Ho chimed in.
Kim Mi-Young looked as though she was about to cry. She didn’t leave. Without saying a word, Kang Chan took his bag from her and threw it into the back of the car.
“Let’s go.”
“Okay!”
Seok Kang-Ho nodded at Kim Mi-Young and got into the car.
“What happened?”
“The gangsters were waiting for me.”
Seok Kang-Ho’s driving skills were questionable. He clumsily drove out of the school gate and noticed a patrol car on one side of the road and two policemen in uniform in a store.
“This might pose a problem,” Seok Kang-Ho muttered as he looked at the police.
“Hey!”
Screeeech!
That startled a student. They looked even more startled after seeing Seok Kang-Ho and Kang Chan.
“Move out of the way!”
After Seok Kang-Ho gestured to the student to move, the student quickly stepped aside.
“Pay attention!” Kang Chan yelled.
“I was looking at the police.”
Kang Chan wanted to take over the steering wheel, but because of the current circumstances, he cooled off by tying the handkerchief that was wrapped around his hand a little tighter.
“It’ll be okay, right?” Seok Kang-Ho asked.
“What now?”
“The cops,” Seok Kang-Ho replied.
Was this person really the imprudent Dayeru?
“The police came, so I took care of everything and bounced. Those people wouldn’t report to the cops, and I have no intention of reporting it, so it’s not an issue.”
“That seems to be the case.”
“And how would they be able to bring themselves to tell the students that three of them had their necks twisted?”
“You twisted their necks?” Seok Kang-Ho was shocked.
“Yeah.”
“How bad was it?”
“They won’t be able to get into fights for about six months.”
Seok Kang-Ho was relieved.
“We can’t go to the hospital right now. Come to my house first and change out of your bloodstained clothes.”
Kang Chan looked down at his wound. As expected, there was a huge, dark, hideous bloodstain spanning from his abdomen down to the bottom.
“Tsk. Do whatever you want.”
Kang Chan stared blankly out the window, leaning his head against the passenger seat. It was a peaceful world, a world that was far from combat or death, but he didn’t feel very happy. How would things be if he were in Africa right now?
1. It’s a private academy/cram school for students in Korea. ☜