PEN Vol 2 Ch. 12

“Hey, did you hear that Flex is acquiring Caplet?”

“What…? Why would Flex go after that?”

The classroom was noisy as usual. Fortunately, since Lee Haegyun and his gang hadn’t arrived yet, Sejin was able to sit quietly by himself. He lay his head on his desk, trying to ignore the noisy chatter about games from the kids around him. Right before the class bell rang, he stood up and walked out into the hallway. He headed straight to the nurse’s office.

“What now, what is it this time? If it’s just a headache, I’m not taking it.”

The school nurse at East Seoul Boys High School was used to many students faking illnesses, so she only treated those with clear symptoms of being sick. Luckily, Sejin had been running a mild fever for a week.

Moreover, the old thermometer in the nurse’s office, which seemed to be malfunctioning, measured Sejin’s mild fever at about 37.9 degrees. It wasn’t serious enough to send him home early, but it was enough to give him some fever medicine and a chance to let him rest. The nurse, delighted to have a rare, legitimate patient after a long time, smiled broadly and nodded.

“Alright. You’re not faking it. Kwon Sejin, did you have breakfast?”

“I did.”

Despite being close to retirement age, the stern school nurse always checked whether the students had eaten before giving them any medication. Upon hearing that Sejin had eaten breakfast, the nurse handed him two fever-reducing pills, a glass of water, and directed him to the innermost bed in the nurse’s office, where the cold wind wouldn’t reach him.

However, even after lying down there until lunchtime started, Sejin’s fever showed no signs of going down. If anything, his condition seemed to worsen, with the numbers on the thermometer gradually increasing. Finding it odd that the fever wasn’t subsiding, the nurse woke Sejin up.

There had been a time before when Sejin had run a mild fever for over a week, only to fall seriously ill afterward. At that time, he’d had a growth spurt, so Sejin figured his current symptoms were just signs of growing pains again.

But the nurse, mentioning scary diseases in such a serious tone and grave expression, made Sejin nervous. Following the nurse’s advice, Sejin headed to the cafeteria intending to leave school early and go to the hospital. But first, he thought, he needed to eat lunch.

“Hey!!”

Lee Haegyun and Kim Byungjun appeared in the cafeteria just as Sejin sat down alone and started to eat. At a secluded spot farthest from the return carts, Sejin quietly moved his chopsticks with a flushed face. Lee Haegyun placed his tray on the table in front of him.

“Hey, when someone calls you, you should respond.”

Sejin glanced up briefly to see who the owner of the tray was, then immediately lost interest when he saw who it was and looked away.

It was the first time he had seen them since the argument near the school gates last week. Although a part of him wanted to confirm exactly what Lee Haegyun had said that day, his body was in such bad shape that he couldn’t be bothered.

Not only was his mood bad, but his entire body felt like it was growing heavier and heavier as if it was cotton soaked in water, as time passed. He wished they would just go away. He was really sick of hearing that disgusting voice.

“Hey, Kwon Sejin.”

Once again, it was Lee Haegyun who grew irritated at Sejin’s lack of response. He stared down at Sejin’s indifferent face with an offended expression for a while before a sneer suddenly crept onto his pursed lips.

And then, recalling the words that had triggered Sejin’s outburst last week, Lee Haegyun brought them up again.

“So, I heard your mom got sold off?”

Unfortunately, this was something Sejin couldn’t just ignore.

Doubting his own ears, Sejin set down his chopsticks and looked up. His sharp, cat-like eyes flashed with anger, and his thin eyebrows furrowed.

Noticing Sejin’s reaction, Lee Haegyun seemed pleased, staring at him with satisfaction before launching into the rumors he’d heard from Sejin’s former landlord.

“Your dad gambled away everything, so your mom got dragged off to the red-light district, right? Word got around the whole neighborhood. I heard you’re selling yourself alongside your mom to that man… Sh!t, what the—!”

Sejin couldn’t hold back any longer.

The tray that had just grazed past Lee Haegyun’s head slammed into the wall behind him before crashing to the floor.

Sejin stood up from his seat, his hand burning red from the hot soup that had splashed onto it. He picked up Lee Haegyun’s tray in front of him as he spoke.

“Say that again, you b*stard.”

A husky voice filled with murderous intent reverberated through the air.

You lack patience.

Kim Hyunkyung often told Sejin. She was half right and half wrong.

Sejin had more than enough patience when it came to insults and mockery directed at him. He could easily let the words of others pass in one ear and out the other. However, his mother was the exception. Sejin could tolerate any amount of slander aimed at him, but he couldn’t stand even the slightest negative comment about his mother.

Every incident in which Sejin lost his temper up until now has always been related to Kim Hyunkyung. But since Sejin had never spoken about it, Kim Hyunkyung didn’t know the truth, and she simply believed that her son lacked patience.

“F*ck, Kwon Sejin’s gone crazy!”

There was no way Sejin would overlook someone insulting his mother, who was probably washing dishes until her hands were swollen to pay off their debts. With his eyes flashing with rage, he swung the tray he had been holding and hit Lee Haegyun.

“Hey!!”

The cafeteria instantly descended into chaos. Lee Haegyun, along with his lackey Kim Byungjun, rushed at Sejin, and Sejin fought back, swinging the tray wildly at them.

“There’s a fight in the cafeteria!!”

As the excited shouts from the other hot-blooded high school boys rang out, the cafeteria staff, who had been preparing ingredients for the next day’s lunch, came running out after hearing the commotion. Seeing the two large boys surrounding and beating Sejin, they screamed and rushed toward them.

“Stop it! What do you think you’re doing, fighting in school?!”

“You little brats! Hey! Stop now!”

The teachers’ dining hall was right next to the students’ cafeteria. Hearing the screams, the student supervisor who had been eating a late lunch burst out, and students who were heading to the snack shop glued themselves against the windows, eager to watch the spectacle.

But even in the midst of the chaos, Sejin never let go of his weapon.

Thwack, thwack—

The stainless-steel tray was swung mercilessly, bending from the force as he persistently struck Lee Haegyun.

“Agh!”

“You d*mn bastard! Argh!”

Kim Byungjun, who had circled behind Sejin, grabbed him and knocked him down to the ground. Not missing his chance, Lee Haegyun also began kicking him. Even as Kwon Sejin took their kicks, he didn’t let out a single groan, continuing to swing his arms. The sharp edge of the tray struck their ankles as he flailed.

When Lee Haegyun fell to his knees in pain, Sejin hit him across the cheek with the side of the tray. With a loud clang, Lee Haegyun’s lip split open, and, enraged, he swung his fist at Sejin in retaliation.

“You little brats! I said stop! Can’t you hear me?!”

“Lee Haegyun! Kim Byungjun! You little sh!ts, come here right now!”

Even the vice principal, who came running and arrived on the scene, tried to intervene, but it wasn’t easy.

Sejin was completely out of his mind after hearing someone insult his mother, and Lee Haegyun, humiliated after being beaten and bleeding at the hands of someone much smaller than him, was equally furious.

As the two lunged at each other, as if trying to kill one another, all the male teachers in the school had to join in to subdue them. It took a long time to finally separate the two, both of them were panting heavily, and everyone was a mess.

Lee Haegyun was covered in food from the tray that had been spilled all over him, and even the teachers who had tried to restrain him smelled like dried pollack soup.

Sejin wasn’t much better off. Limping from the kicks he’d received and with his cheek swollen red from where he had been punched by Lee Haegyun, he still stubbornly clutched the tray. The student supervisor tried in vain to snatch it from his grasp before giving up with a sigh. Sejin seemed to hold onto the tray like it was a weapon that could protect his life.

“You brats, are you out of your minds?! What do you think this place is, huh? Do you think this school is your playground? What kind of complaint do you have when you’re just about to go on break the day after tomorrow, and you’re here fighting in this sacred school, fighting! Are you trying to ruin your lives? Don’t you know that if stuff like this gets out, with all the talk about school violence these days, it’ll be all over the news and cause a huge uproar?! You’re about to become seniors, for god’s sake!”

The vice principal’s face was flushed with rage as he pointed fingers and yelled at them.

With his retirement set after finishing this semester, he had no interest in why the fight had started. He was simply worried about his farewell ceremony being overshadowed by a school violence scandal, which was why he was so agitated. As the vice principal’s barrage of scolding dragged on, the crowd of students who had gathered to watch began to disperse one by one. However, the flames of the fight between the two main instigators were still burning fiercely.

Sejin listened to the vice principal’s words with one ear and let them out the other, glaring at Lee Haegyun. Spitting out the blood onto the floor that had pooled at the corner of his mouth after being struck by the tray, Lee Haegyun also glared back at Sejin, silently mouthing the word,

‘Prostitute.’

Reading the word on Lee Haegyun’s lips, Sejin once again shook off the student supervisor’s grip and lunged forward.

“Hey, Kwon Sejin! D*mn it! Hey!”

“You wh0re’s son!”

Lee Haegyun, seemingly waiting for this, also charged at him. The teachers, who had momentarily let their guard down thinking the situation was under control, now had to throw themselves between the two once again, desperate to restrain them.

It was absolute chaos.

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖

“Sejin-ah.”

“……”

“Kwon Sejin.”

“……”

Receiving no response, the homeroom teacher of Class 2, Section 3, Seo Bohyung, let out a sigh, frustration evident on their face.

It had already been an hour since the fight in the cafeteria had broken out. And yet, Sejin, who had been subdued by the PE teacher and dragged to the counseling room like a prisoner of war, hadn’t spoken a single word during that entire hour.

Seo Bohyung, who needed to contact Sejin’s parents, was growing increasingly desperate.

Had this been an ordinary fistfight, they could have easily resolved it by having the boys shake hands and apologize. However, because Lee Haegyun, the main instigator of the fight was threatening to report Kwon Sejin, who had hit him with a tray to the School Violence Committee, they had no choice but to involve the parents.

While the parents of the other two boys had already finished their phone calls and were on their way to the school, Sejin had remained silent until now. The phone numbers listed for Sejin’s parents in the school records were both out of service, leaving Seo Bohyung stuck calling Sejin’s name for the past hour, hoping for some cooperation.

“Sejin, if you keep acting like this, things are going to get really serious. Haegyun’s parents are already making a fuss, threatening they’re going to call the police. If you hit someone with a tray, it’s considered aggravated assault, which could lead to even harsher punishment.”

Seo Bohyung rattled off, saying whatever came to mind in an attempt to get Sejin to open his mouth. Seo Beohyung was hoping that Sejin would get scared and finally contact his parents.

Bzzt, bzzt.

Messages kept coming through on Seo Bohyung’s phone.

The vice principal, who was close to retirement, was persistently nagging them to come up with a ‘peaceful’ solution, saying that as long as he was the vice principal, he would never allow a School Violence Committee to be convened.

Opening the preview of the messages from the vice principal, Seo Bohyung let out another sigh in annoyance and sat down across from Sejin.

Kwon Sejin had always been a quiet student who was hardly noticeable. He came to school, but it seemed like he mostly came just to eat, and he didn’t cause any major trouble with the other students. Seo Bohyung had also known all along that Lee Haegyun had taken an unusual interest in Sejin.

However, with the school authority no longer as strong as it once was, there wasn’t much Seo Bohyung could do to control boys who were easily two heads taller than them.

If Lee Haegyun and Kim Byungjun started acting out, it was the teachers, like Seo Bohyung, who would end up at a disadvantage. As a result, Seo Bohyung had turned a blind eye to their misbehavior, thinking,

Surely nothing too serious will happen.