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Chapter 10….
A Social Outcast’s Wise School Life (4)
“Hey, Oh Gwang-jun, your swollen cheek is quite the sight. Hahaha.”
“The guy who bragged about boxing got beaten up by a skeleton?”
“If your mom finds out, she’ll lose her mind.”
“Shut the hell up!”
Although Cheonghwa High School enforced strict discipline, there were exceptions.
One of them was the athletic equipment room tucked away beside the school field.
Not every student at Cheonghwa High was admitted solely for academic excellence.
Those whose grades fell short could enter prestigious universities through athletic talent.
Equestrian, golf, ice hockey, canoeing…
Expensive sports that only wealthy families could afford.
Naturally, these were exclusive athletic programs beyond the reach of ordinary people, created for children of the upper class.
Even if they couldn’t become top scholars, these students could preserve their family’s social standing by devoting themselves to elite sports.
First, they entered prestigious universities through less competitive sports departments.
Later, they quietly transferred majors, allowing them to polish their resumes while keeping the prestigious university name.
In that regard, Cheonghwa High was unrivaled.
It was practically the cradle of Korea’s elite athletic programs.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that most students in the nation’s prestigious university sports departments came from Cheonghwa High.
“Don’t let it get to you. Here, have a smoke. At the end of the day, he’s just a social outcast.”
“Us big brothers will stomp him for you. Hahaha.”
“Loyalty!”
Using lunch break, Oh Gwang-jun had come to see the athletic department students.
Rather than eating the cafeteria food they disliked, they often settled their stomachs with cigarettes.
Whiiiiiirrrr.
The air purifier roared as it struggled against the cigarette smoke.
The athletic equipment room was, in practice, a smoking area quietly tolerated by the school.
“Damn it. Lee Hyo-joo told me not to make things any messier.”
Grinding his teeth, Oh Gwang-jun cursed.
“Lee Hyo-joo?”
“Wait… is she flirting with that outcast?”
“What nonsense are you talking about? If her family heard that, all hell would break loose.”
The boys hanging around Oh Gwang-jun all came from reasonably affluent families.
Children of private hospital directors, regional savings bank executives, and small accounting firm owners.
They were masterpieces meticulously raised by overprotective mothers.
Even these arrogant boys instinctively feared Lee Hyo-joo.
To them, she belonged to an entirely different world.
Someone who lived above even the wealthy.
The heavenly class.
She wasn’t someone anyone wanted to provoke.
“So you’re just going to let it slide?”
Yang Cheol-gyu asked while holding a cigarette between his lips.
“Me? I’ve got a plan… a perfect plan.”
Oh Gwang-jun took a long drag.
A sinister smile slowly spread across his face.
* * *
“…?”
Park Ji-woong stared blankly at the person who casually sat across from him.
Ha Tae-woong?
One of the five students admitted that year under Cheonghwa High’s special admission program for social outcasts.
Three of them had already dropped out.
Only two remained.
It would have made sense for them to rely on each other.
Instead, they avoided one another.
If two outcasts stuck together, they’d only attract more attention.
Everyone would mock them as some “peasants’ club.”
The mentally weaker students had fallen away one by one.
Park Ji-woong came from Guryong Village.
A truly exceptional case.
Someone who had climbed all the way from the very bottom into Cheonghwa High.
Guryong Village—
The last remaining slum in Gangnam, known by virtually every Korean.
Ji-woong had studied desperately to escape that place.
His dream was ambitious.
His father had been an honest detective whose integrity was as unyielding as steel.
But cruel fate had abandoned Ji-woong in a merciless world.
While returning from a relative’s funeral in the countryside, both of his parents died in a late-night traffic accident.
Before their funeral was even held, creditors barged into their home.
Soon afterward, police officers arrived.
They claimed his late father had accepted bribes.
It was complete nonsense.
They tore apart the entire house searching for evidence.
Their family of four had lived solely on his father’s modest detective salary.
There had been no other source of income.
His father had spent years wearing worn-out combat boots while serving in the violent crimes division.
He had never put himself in a position where he’d need to accept bribes or loan shark money.
Payday was the only day the family got to eat meat.
His parents had lived that frugally.
Even seasonal fruit was only bought during discount sales.
Most days of the year, their dinner consisted of kimchi, bean sprout soup, and fried eggs.
They also cared for Ji-woong’s grandmother.
Even then, his mother always chose to speak about what they had instead of what they lacked.
She was extraordinarily thrifty.
She even worked part-time, hoping to save enough money to help her only son with a home after he married.
Every penny had been earned through relentless effort.
After both of them died…
The family’s life collapsed overnight.
His grandmother, who knew nothing about the modern world, fled with only a few million won in cash.
Together they ended up in Guryong Village.
Ji-woong, who had grown up like any ordinary child until then, experienced true poverty from that day onward.
To make matters worse…
His father had also been an only child.
There wasn’t a single relative left to ask for help.
Supported only by government welfare, he and his grandmother barely survived from one day to the next.
Even so…
He never associated with the other kids from Guryong Village.
He couldn’t dishonor the memory of his parents by going down the wrong path.
Instead, he buried himself in his studies.
As Ji-woong grew older, doubts began to surface.
The more he learned…
The more suspicious everything about his parents’ deaths seemed.
Perhaps…
Someone had been involved.
Memories that he’d overlooked in the chaos at the time slowly resurfaced.
Several years after the accident, one of his late father’s colleagues came to see him.
That meeting only deepened his suspicions.
The man had traveled all the way to Guryong Village just to say one thing.
“I’m sorry.”
He left behind an envelope before quietly walking away.
Ji-woong had never once lost first place throughout elementary and middle school.
Just like hidden truths revealed in revenge dramas…
He became convinced there had been someone behind his parents’ deaths.
That conviction drove him to study even harder.
To uncover the truth…
He needed power.
His outstanding middle school grades earned him admission to Cheonghwa High.
Only after desperately pleading with his principal, who had strongly opposed the idea.
The principal had worried because Ji-woong would be entering as a social outcast.
Ji-woong hadn’t cared.
After losing his parents…
He had learned the hardest truth.
A life without money or connections was miserable.
Cheonghwa High was the playground of the rich.
He wanted to enter somehow, befriend them, and use those relationships as a ladder upward.
Reality, however, wasn’t so kind.
It had been a naive, foolish dream.
A social outcast…
That was all he was inside Cheonghwa High.
An untouchable.
That was exactly how everyone treated him.
To students who had grown up wanting for nothing…
People like him were little more than foul-smelling garbage.
Academically, too…
The gap remained enormous.
Though he’d graduated from a respectable middle school in Gangnam…
No matter how tirelessly he studied…
He couldn’t catch up.
It felt as though an invisible wall of reinforced glass separated them.
Recently…
Ji-woong had been struggling.
Was there really any point in enduring this humiliation?
Was staying here worth sacrificing years of his life?
He had begun blaming himself for the foolish belief that he could borrow power through connections.
“Don’t agonize over it.”
“…?”
Ha Tae-woong spoke while piling a mountain of bulgogi onto his chopsticks.
He looked directly at Ji-woong.
“You look exactly like half-and-half fried chicken.”
“W-What?”
“What? Thinking about dropping out?”
“…”
Crunch.
Tae-woong stuffed the entire mouthful of bulgogi into his mouth.
Watching him eat so enthusiastically made even Ji-woong, who had no appetite, suddenly crave the food.
Despite taking enormous bites…
He somehow didn’t look gluttonous.
Gulp.
He swallowed quickly.
Without pausing, he grabbed a huge serving of spicy stir-fried pork.
He looked ready to film a mukbang.
“The college entrance exam is only one year away. If you quit now, your parents will be heartbroken.”
“…!!”
Eyes closed, Tae-woong savored every bite with heartfelt satisfaction.
What the hell is this guy talking about?
Rumors had spread throughout the school since morning.
The social outcast Ha Tae-woong beat up Oh Gwang-jun, the school’s bully!
Hearing it had made Ji-woong happy.
But he’d also thought Tae-woong was an idiot.
If violence could solve everything…
Ji-woong himself would have acted long ago.
His police officer father had trained him in Taekwondo from childhood.
His father had held black belts in several martial arts and had been an extremely strict instructor.
His broad frame came from his father’s genes.
Even against the athletic department students…
He could easily hold his own.
But there was a reason he’d never acted.
Real power didn’t come from fists.
It came from the pen.
Anyone with common sense knew that.
Yet Ha Tae-woong seemed too foolish to understand.
He had chosen violence.
Though…
He had endured plenty until this morning.
Tae-woong had suffered just as much humiliation as Ji-woong.
But today’s incident…
Had ended his life at Cheonghwa.
“You feel sorry for me?”
“…”
What…? Can he read minds?
It was as though Tae-woong had read every thought inside his head.
Feeling strangely pressured, Ji-woong lowered his eyes.
“You should try it once.”
“It’s unbelievably satisfying.”
Tae-woong spoke with the innocence of an elementary school kid.
“Get lost.”
Without even looking at him properly, Ji-woong muttered coldly.
“That’s Ha Tae-woong, isn’t it?”
“So that’s the outcast who dared throw punches?”
“Isn’t Oh Gwang-jun’s father the deputy chief prosecutor at the Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office?”
“He got carried away…”
“They suit each other.”
Students from every grade whispered while staring at the pair.
Within half a day…
The entire school knew.
It was that sensational.
And the very person responsible…
Was sitting right across from Ji-woong.
“Scared?”
Tae-woong smirked.
“I don’t have time to waste talking to you, so get out of my sight!”
Ji-woong’s eyes blazed.
If this was some kind of joke…
His fists had already clenched.
Then—
Step. Step.
Tap. Tap.
Shadows approached from behind him.
The first thing that caught his eye was three girls wearing school skirts rolled high above the waist.
The school constantly tried to discipline them.
They never cared.
“Even if this is your only meal today, don’t you think you’re taking way too much just because it’s free?”
One girl sneered, raising her sharp eyes.
It was obvious she’d come looking for a fight with Ji-woong from the beginning.
“Seo-ra, let him be. My dad says kids like him have holes in their stomachs.”
“The cafeteria food tastes awful anyway. At least someone’s finishing it.”
“Still, our little bear is eating way too much. If there’s no leftovers, the animals won’t have enough feed. What if they go hungry?”
“The school’s pet bear comes first.”
“Then… should we let him off?”
“Our kind Seo-ra should show some compassion. Animal welfare, you know. Every creature has the right to survive.”
“Fine. I’m feeling generous today. Piggy out as much as you want, little outcast. Oink, oink. Hohoho!”
Crunch.
Keeping his head lowered…
Park Ji-woong clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white.
His jaw trembled from gritting his teeth.
It was humiliation he’d suffered countless times.
But he had to endure it.
Every lunchtime, his classmate Oh Seo-ra deliberately provoked him.
The illegal house in Guryong Village where he lived with his grandmother…
Her father owned the land it stood on.
As midterms approached, her bullying only grew worse.
Ji-woong consistently outperformed Seo-ra academically.
Yet she always treated him like a modern-day slave.
But today…
“Ohhh… looks like the crazies are having a bumper harvest this year.”
