DMH Ch15

Wan sighed, looking at the two-hour block on his schedule. While the physical education teacher was at a seminar, gym class had been replaced with self-study, but now that he was back at school, gym class was unavoidable. Physical education was Wan’s least favorite and most dreaded subject. He never put his textbooks and gym clothes in his locker again, in case of another milk bomb. Wan’s locker was completely empty, and his bag became heavier.

Wan went to the bathroom to change. Despite it being summer, the gym uniform was long-sleeved and long-legged. He didn’t want Choi Gilhyun to pick a fight with some ridiculous excuse if he changed in the classroom. It wasn’t that he was scared, but that he was disgusted. Wan locked the door and took off his school uniform piece by piece.

“Oh.”

The gym shirt was slippery and loose. It felt cool against his skin. The thin, long sleeves had a cooling fabric lining. It was cool enough to dry quickly even when sweating during exercise. It was the same kind of sportswear that advertised its functionality whenever he passed by a sportswear store.

Wan always had the same thought whenever he saw sportswear ads. The purpose of exercise was to eliminate waste accumulated in the body through sweating, thereby facilitating metabolism, but he never understood why they made it dry so quickly as if it were a bad thing. However, the moment he put on the school gym uniform, he realized his thinking was wrong. He could understand why people spent so much money on functional sportswear. Wan tore off the tag with the UV protection rating dangling from his wrist. Then, he put on the pants. The rustling pants were stretchy and comfortable. They felt so good that he wanted to wear them instead of his school uniform pants.

Good schools were different in every way. In fact, since attending this school, he had never once fanned himself while walking around the school. He didn’t wipe the sweat from his neck or flap his clothes. There were air conditioners installed in the hallway ceilings, so cool air poured down from above. He folded his uniform and returned to the classroom. The classroom was empty. Students who had changed elsewhere, like Wan, returned to the classroom one by one.

“Hey, it’s raining! Gather in the gym!”

The head of the physical education department shouted to the kids left in the classroom. Sure enough, it was pouring rain outside. It was better this way. Rather than sweating and exhausting himself in the scorching sun in this weather, exercising in the air-conditioned indoor gym was a hundred times better.

Wan’s mood, which had turned towards the gym instead of the sports field due to the rain, plummeted to the bottom in less than ten minutes. The gym was about the size of an indoor arena where regular sports games were held. There was a large basketball court overall, and around it were numerous spectator seats where people could sit and watch whenever inter-school matches were held. The physical education teacher sat in the orange chair where the coaching staff sat during games and approached the students when they gathered. A whistle dangled near the teacher’s navel.

“I’m a little tired today, so divide yourselves into teams and play dodgeball.”

The area for playing dodgeball was already set up. There were 30 students in the class. Dividing the class would make two teams of 15 people each. However, there was one absence. Due to Mu Jeonghoo’s empty seat, the total number of students was 29, an odd number. As if by agreement, the children left Wan in the middle and scattered to both sides.

Wan, standing on the white line that divided the center, stood still, unable to do anything. A dodgeball flew towards Wan, who was dragging his feet.

“Hey, you’re in the way!”

His head throbbed. The dodgeball that hit Wan’s head and fell rolled away. The ball returned to the other team on the opposite side. In the class without Mu Jeonghoo, a fox was running wild. The fox was Choi Gilhyun, who was unnecessarily proud and had a high inferiority complex. Choi Gilhyun’s eyes gleamed as he spun the white ball on his fingertips. Watching the rotating white ball, Wan felt a headache coming on. Just as he was estimating how many more times he would have to get hit before this tedious time could end, a sharp pain struck his abdomen.

“Ugh!”

Wan was terrible at sports. He received the lowest score in physical education performance evaluations, filling in all the points related to physical education with exams. There was no way he could avoid the dodgeball thrown by Choi Gilhyun. The children around him showed some surprise at the force with which Choi Gilhyun threw the ball at Wan. They didn’t expect him to throw with so much force. The guy who started the prank shook his head as he watched Choi Gilhyun licking his lips. As expected, no one stopped Choi Gilhyun, who was running wild.

“Hey, kick the ball over here!”

A kid on the opposite side rolled a volleyball to Choi Gilhyun. The heavy ball flew back towards Wan’s shoulder. Wan fell backward, landing on his butt. This time, it hurt quite a bit, as if his tailbone had been shattered. The physical education teacher sitting in the coach’s seat blew the whistle. Peep! The sudden noise made the students cover their ears.

“What are you guys doing!”

Still, the teachers at this school seemed to know about respecting human rights. The physical education teacher blew the whistle, smaller than his thumb, and approached. It was like a savior to Wan. Wan clutched his aching stomach and stood up. He threw the dodgeball next to his foot towards Choi Gilhyun with all his might.

“Hey, you stop it too.”

The physical education teacher pointed at Wan. However, the ball had already been thrown, and Choi Gilhyun had quickly dodged it as soon as Wan raised his arm. As a result, a student behind Choi Gilhyun was hit by the ball instead.

“Ah…”

The dodgeball hit the person’s face squarely. As the face of the intended target changed, Wan’s face turned as white as the dodgeball. He didn’t want to make any more enemies. Moreover, that kid was separate from Choi Gilhyun’s group and was so indifferent to Wan that he had no interest in him.

“Oh, sorry…”

Just as he was about to approach and apologize in embarrassment, the kid who had been hit in the face turned red and hurled abuse at Wan.

“That fucking…!”

He acted as if this was the first time he had ever been hit by someone in his life. His face, filled with anger, panted as he rushed towards Wan. Wan closed his eyes tightly, thinking that he was going to get punched in the face here, looking at the solid fist the kid was holding. However, the whistle sounded again. The physical education teacher, who had intervened, grabbed the kid’s shoulder blades as he ran towards Wan with frightening speed.

“Didn’t you hear me tell you to play dodgeball?”

He turned the kid’s back away from Wan. The kid, who had been hit in the face by Wan, still glared at Wan with a reddened face and said with his lips.

“You’ll see later.”

Wan wished time would stop here forever. Wan rested alone in the spectator seats far away from the physical education teacher. He should have brought an English vocabulary book. It was a waste of time. The clock in the gym showed that there were five minutes left of break time. The students gathered in a circle. The physical education teacher, wearing a windbreaker, looked at the gym window where the sun was starting to shine and shouted to the students.

“The rain has stopped, so gather on the sports field next period!”

Immediately, boos poured out from the students. Then, the physical education teacher grabbed the kid at the front and stood him next to him.

“Look at this pale face. You should get some sun in the summer!”

Still, the booing didn’t stop. The school bell rang, signaling the end of break time. The students who had gathered gradually left. Some had brought money to go to the cafeteria, while others sprawled out on the hard indoor floor. The majority of the students leaving the space patted Wan on the shoulder as they passed by at the front.

Wan didn’t want to be alone in a place with only hyenas targeting him. If Wan mixed with the students in the gym, they would surely nitpick and despise every action, breath, and word he said.

Since it was break time, the physical education teacher had also gone up to the faculty office.

“Where does that fucking omega think he’s getting off…”

The kid who had been hit by the ball from Wan was harshly cursing Wan. Wan quickly left the gym before he got hit in the back of the head. He headed to the building behind the main building, where there were few people. Only the nurse’s office and the library were there. The building behind was always shaded. Since the amount of sunlight entering the building was less than other buildings, the air conditioner was not running.

Wan walked down the empty hallway towards the bathroom. Because there were few people going in and out of the nurse’s office and the library, this bathroom always had plenty of soap, and the toilet paper was piled high in the storage. Wan washed his hands in the cold water, only thinking about the advantages he had gained from coming to this school. Things would only go well if he only thought good thoughts. The face of his dad, who was overjoyed to be attending a good school. The comfortable indoor environment where he didn’t sweat. The gazes of others looking at him with admiration when he walked down the street wearing a school uniform that looked expensive at a glance. The optimal environment for studying and a high-quality education system.

Ah, he decided to exclude the optimal environment for studying. Because living things were constantly eyeing him to harass him. He squeezed out foamy soap and rubbed his hands vigorously. Small bubbles rose one by one. While he was diligently washing his hands covered in foam, drops of red blood fell into the sink one by one. He felt an unpleasant sensation on his philtrum. Wan immediately raised his head and grabbed a tissue. Bright red blood flowed down his mouth.

He roughly blocked his nostrils with a tissue. The water remaining on his hands slipped down his wrists and onto his arms. Wan held his nose with his other hand and washed his soapy hand again. After washing, he washed the other hand as well. The blood gradually spread on the white tissue protruding from under his nostrils.

“Oh… Not enough.”

He pulled out the tissue he had stuck in his nose again. He pulled out a clean new tissue and wrapped it around his nose.

“Did I get hit in the back of the head with the ball earlier?”

His head was throbbing. Imagining himself as nothing more than a human target in the next period made him sick of walking out to the sports field. Moreover, wasn’t it a late summer afternoon with the sun shining brightly outside? Wan sighed and groped under his nose in the tissue. It was gradually stopping. When he slightly removed the tissue, it seemed that he didn’t need to block it anymore. He bent down to throw away the tissue. Then, his abdomen, which had been hit by the dodgeball thrown by Choi Gilhyun, ached as if it were bruised. He threw the trash in the trash can under the sink and raised his upper body, but he heard a sudden presence and stepped back.

“Ah, you scared me.”

Mu Jeonghoo entered silently and stood by the door, watching Wan. He lowered the hand that had been clutching his abdomen. He had been missing since before gym class. Yet, he was suddenly standing right there; he was like a phantom. Wan was secretly envious of Mu Jeonghoo, who acted as he pleased. From the teachers’ nonchalant attitude when he disappeared from class without a word, to his uninhibited behavior of appearing whenever he felt like it.

“Do you know why there’s so much physical activity?”

Mu Jeonghoo said to Wan, who looked like he would rather die than go out. As he said, there were four hours of gym class a week, two sessions each. Usually, a student preparing for the college entrance exam only had about one hour of gym a week. The rest of the time was for studying other subjects. In fact, even that one hour a week was just for show. At the previous Oham High, the gym teacher was even called a cushy job, and the soccer goalposts in the shabby field were practically just models. Not many kids played soccer on the rocky field.

“…”

Mu Jeonghoo slowly walked behind Park Wan, who didn’t respond.

“It’s to wear the kids out.”

A large hand covered his thin shoulder. Mu Jeonghoo looked at Wan through the mirror. Wan looked so weak that his legs would buckle and he would collapse onto the bathroom floor with just a little force. A pale, skinny boy stood before him. His unkempt, shaggy black hair made his pale face look even paler. There were traces of red blood under his nose, as if he had had a nosebleed. Mu Jeonghoo bent down and put his lips to Wan’s ear. He firmly grabbed the shoulder that was trying to pull away.

“There’s a whole bunch of kids full of energy and vigor.”

“…”

Wan pulled his body away with force. The shoulder where his hand had touched felt heavy. Mu Jeonghoo looked down at Wan with indifferent eyes, as if looking at the bottom of something. Then, he opened his scarlet lips again to continue the words he had stopped.

“So incidents and accidents happen often.”