007

When Song Yi-heon frowned, Hakjoo coughed and slipped behind him, hiding the ruler. He asked him what he was doing pointing out his chest patch.

“Where’s your name tag? Name tag. What grade and class are you in?”

This upset Kim Deuk-pal as well. Song Yi-heon’s old uniform was tattered from bullying and he had to buy another one. However, when he came home excitedly and took out his newly acquired uniform, he realized that his name was “Kim Duk-pal” on it.

For some reason, the school uniform store owner double-checked his name. After 47 years of being Kim Deuk-pal, he knew how his name was treated. It’s an uncommon name among his peers, and nowadays, it’s even teased among teenagers. He felt a sting in his stomach as he tore off the threads that held his name tag together with the knife. However,he tried to remember his name so he wouldn’t make a mistake when he returned to school tomorrow. Song Yi-heon. Song Yi-heon.

‘My name is Song Yi-heon. Not Kim Duk-pal, but Song Yi-heon.’

The distance he had consciously maintained to return to the body when Song’s spirit returned cracked over the name tag. This was about the size of a finger. It was so small and insignificant that I didn’t even realize it.

“Sorry, I’ll put it on after school!”

He folded his arms at the waist and shouted like a boss. Being caught on the first day of the semester was not an idealthing, but how dare that student step on his teacher’s shadow? When Kim Deuk-pal was growing up, a teacher was a ‘learning person’ whom the whole village had to treat with reverence and respect.

The teacher coughed in disbelief at the student’s obedience.

“Hmm, hmm. You’ve been boiling in train tanks, and your voice rumbles.”

After 30 years of teaching and guiding delinquents, the dean was vulnerable to the rebels’ unwavering respect. But he didn’t just let them go, he lectured them from behind.

“You, man. Do you think I caught you with just a name tag on the first day of the semester? You’re not even a teacher, and you drove your car to the school gate. You’re gonna get in trouble with other students, do you have any sense or not?”

“I won’t let this happen again.”

Kim Deuk-pal shook his head, just like he did when he was a young gangster. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to listen to his boss and teacher, but there was no limit to what they could say. In my experience, it’s better to admit your mistakes quickly and reflect on them.

Apparently, organizational life tricks worked at school, too, because the dean stopped nagging and craned his neck.

“You know what, I’m not planning to give you a detention? Just stand over there and stand for ten minutes, then go up to the classroom. You tell them I told you not to write my name down.”

“Thanks!”

The dean pointed to where the Residence Life kids wrote down the names of the caught kids, their grade level and class. It was the first day of the semester, so no name tags were used. However, the students in line were very distinctive, with brightly colored hair, flashy piercings, and mended uniforms that were way out of line with school rules.

Kim Duk-pal stood against the wall, a few feet from the line. As he held onto his bag strap and stared ahead, waiting for time to pass, a boy with yellow bleached hair at the end of the line called out to him.

“Stupid asshole, that’s not in the line. Stand here.”

He jerked his chin over his shoulder, behind him. At first, Kim Deuk-pal stared at the cocky asshole who called him stupid. He had yellow hair that was obviously bleached yellow. He had a gruff way of speaking as he stood on his hind legs, and a beard that he couldn’t keep clean. He reminded Kim Deuk-pal of a sunburned kid trying to get into an organization.

“Can’t you hear me?”

As Kim Deuk-pal looked on, the yellow bleached hair turned and glared at him, as if to say he ignored him. But it wasn’t Kim Deuk-pal. When he turned to face him, his expression became even more ferocious as he glared at him in anger.

“Stop! Motorcycle, you’re a freshman, aren’t you standing there?”

Shouting at the top of his lungs, Hakjoo ran out of the school gate wielding a 30-centimeter ruler. The last of her hair whipped around as she disappeared down the hill, followed by several Residence Life Department students.

Unsure of what was taking place on, they stood in a circle of students, giggling at yellow bleached hair. The students lined up in front of them. When they realized what had happened beyond the gates, they chattered among themselves.

“It’s the Lord. He’s crazy. I heard you got fired from your delivery job, so you stole a motorcycle, and that’s what you rode on?”

“Assholes.”

“What’s wrong with you on the first day of school, assholes?”

The lack of answers didn’t seem to matter between those outside the gate and those inside. The only men at the gate were the disheveled-looking Residence Life Department members, and they tried to escape.

“Hey, I don’t have a degree. Should we just go?”

“Should we?”

The group agreed to run away, but the man with yellow hair dragged his feet and he approached Kim Duk-pal. He held back because of Hakjoo, but when Hakjoo disappeared, he stood close to Kim Duk-pal to intimidate him.

“Are you in first grade? Where did you study to middle school? Do you know me?”

“…….”

“I looked at it. Damn, I don’t remember you. Dude, where do you live?”

The boy’s talkativeness is annoying. He wasn’t interested in showing him the ropes. Besides, he’s just a high school student. He didn’t respond, but the bleached hair persists. He even grabbed her chin.

Kim Deuk-pal, who was in an uncomfortable mood, jerked his chin from side to side to admire the bleached hair.

“Wow, that’s a lot of hair.”

“…….”

“But really, where did I see that?…”

The schoolboy held Kim Duk-pal’s face in front of him and studied it. It was familiar. Especially the lower jaw, the line that ran from the chin to below the ear. As his gaze settled on his thin lips, he remembered someone, but quickly denied it. It couldn’t be Song Yiheon. Not only does he not look like him, but the insubstantial bastard is dead and won’t be able to stand straight in front of him when he wakes up.

At the memory of Song Yi-heon chewing on his phone over winter break, the boy’s mood turned nasty. His tone quickly changed from profane to threatening.

“Don’t you have a mouth? Senior Waku is also very handsome, don’t you think? You’re a cowardly first-year. Do you want me to teach you a lesson and make your school life suck?”

The gray-haired man was a first-grader, Kim Duk-pal believed. He couldn’t remember where he’d seen him before, so Kim Deuk-pal assumed he was one of the middle schoolers he’d met in the fish room and threatened her. It was cute to see a bunch of misfits trying to mimic an organization’s culture and pretend to be disciplined.

Meanwhile, Kim Deuk-pal grabbed the wrist of a bleached-haired man who swings at his chin. Deuk-pal tried to cut him some slack because he was young, but if he didn’t know any better, Deuk-pal was willing to step on him. The gray-haired boy pulled his hand away from Deuk-pal’s chin and made the wacky comment he wanted.

“You look like a good night’s pants.”

As he watched the thin lips trace an arc across his cheeks, he finally understood what he meant. Suddenly, his neck nape rose in heat.

“What, you bastard?”

He was impatient, and his hands were rough. It didn’t occur to him that this was a school, and that there were students from the Life Guidance Department right next to him. He grabbed Kim Deuk-pal by the neck and punched him. No, he tried to punch. He was about to slam his fist into Kim Duk-pal’s cheek when he caught the slap and it landed lightly. However, Kim Deuk-pal’s palm first covered his bleached hair, blocking his view.

“No-!”

Although Song Yi-heon’s body lacked muscle, he was agile. Combined with Kim Deuk-pal’s skill, the result was quite satisfactory. Panicked by the obstruction, Kim Deuk-pal grabbed him and slammed him into the wall. With a thud, the pain of being hit by a solid brick shot through his back and into his chest.

“Ouch…….”

“Let’s go to school quietly.”

Kim Deuk-pal slammed his fist against the wall as the bleached hair struggled. As the bleached hair struggled, he fell to his knees. The other members of his clique and the student leadership, whose eyes had turned to molten glass as they witnessed the fight, were too overwhelmed by Kim Deuk-pal’s fiery aura to intervene.

Kim checked his wristwatch and stepped back. His legs untangled. The bleached hair slid down the wall and curled into a ball, holding his stomach.

“Ew…….”

“Jae, Jae-min……!”

Students crowded around the startled student, calling out his name. Kim Deuk-pal held on to his spilled bag. Ten minutes passed. Time to go to the classroom.

•

Third year, first class. Kim Duk-pal looked at the nameplate protruding horizontally from the sliding door frame and curled his lips to stop his mouth corners from rising to the sky. According to the woman called ‘Butler’, Song Yi-heon’s seat was number 12 in the first class of the third year.

As expected, the woman who came to Song Yi-heon’s hospital room was the butler. She was assigned by the chairman to keep an eye on the hidden government and illegitimate children and make sure they didn’t show up. Although she found Song Yi-heon and his mother pathetic and tiresome, she dutifully followed the chairman’s orders.

She cleaned up after Song Yi-heon’s accident. She settled with Kim Deuk-pal’s henchmen, who demanded the truth about the accident, with a lawyer, and notified the school that Song Yi-heon had missed make-up work due to the car accident. He didn’t bother to send Song Yi-heon a note or prepare for the upcoming semester, but she gave him half of his assigned classes, barely falling into neglect.

Her one act of kindness was to inform the new grade teacher that Song Yi-heon’s car accident was suicide-related, which she did with disgust and contempt.

The original Song Yi-heon would have been hurt by her indifference, but Kim Duk-pal was grateful. It meant he could go to school without suspicions. He took a final breath before entering his third grade classroom. With a long breath, he pushed open the door, keeping his composure.

Drat-. The laughter of the first class was cut short. The cheap eyes of the students clustered in the classroom focused on the open door. Once they realized the teacher hadn’t entered, they continued their conversation without a second glance.

They had already established a rapport and paid no attention to the outsider. The odd-numbered group showed a faint interest in Kim, but they still looked the new face up and down, sizing him up.

“Uh…….”

Kim Deuk-pal froze in embarrassment; he hadn’t felt this cold in a long time. How to get along with fluffy baby kids?Kim admitted being overconfident. Despite attending a national school, he hadn’t made any friends in the up coming semester. All he knew how to socialize was eel and soju, but this was school.

He couldn’t stay in the doorway forever, so he entered the classroom. I sat at the back of the class, trying not to stare at the students too much. As I walked across the classroom, my blood dried up and I felt like my life span had been shortened by five years.

Kim Duk-pal’s legs trembled involuntarily. He didn’t mean to pry, but his eyes kept turning to the students and his mouth was dry. They had already gotten to know each other and were chatting and playing with each other. Only Kim Deuk-pal sat like a sack of potatoes in the bustling atmosphere. Is this loneliness in a crowd? The paradox that I hadn’t understood for a hundred days suddenly became clear to me.

When I was outside the school gate, I thought that once I went to school, my life would be like a beautiful youth movie with a solid foundation. However, once I got to school, I was nervous. He picked at his nails, wondering if he could get along with the kids who were so far apart in age. He also wondered if he had done something wrong.

But just as his years as a vendor were not in vain, he was not discouraged by reality. When he realized there were children sitting in front of him, he patted the girl in front of him on the shoulder. It was a careful touch, touching someone else’s precious daughter. When the girl, who was chatting happily with her friends, looked back at him in annoyance, he shook his head.

“Why?”

The small thing has a temper…. The corners of Kim Duk-pal’s mouth twitched as he forced a smile. Better to play with boys, girls are young at any age. However, at least she wasn’t so young that she didn’t feel like a girl, so he could maintain his artificial friendliness.

“Friend.”

He had chosen a friendly title, but the girl’s expression was rotten.