Eighteen's Bed-Chapter 15.2: Vacation, Rainy Season, Revenge (2)

Kang Jun. You’ve always done well, haven’t you? Like a bat, you’ve managed to survive just fine.

It’s pathetic that I’ve ended up acknowledging that I’m the bat in this scenario, but still, I’m surviving better than those who talk down on me. Come to think of it, maybe my parents are right. The kids probably hate me because I’ve survived, and it makes them jealous. No, it’s obvious.

“Yeah... definitely.”

The door creaks open.

“Get everything cleaned up before the next class, and finish all the handouts!”

Ignoring the noise, I hear the thumping of slippers stomping through the hallway. The teacher didn’t even glance at the back door where I was sitting before heading straight to the teacher's office. Thud, thud. The sound of smarter high school students hurrying to fill their stomachs is mixed with the chaos, and it’s getting closer to both the front and back doors. I stood up quickly so the kids wouldn’t see me. It was then that I leaned toward the back door.

“Huh?”

One of my classmates called out, surprised, as he noticed me.

I pretended to meet his eyes, then slowly shifted my gaze. Naturally, my initial focus was on Yohan. Always start by scanning the most important things, right?

Yohan had stretched out his left arm and laid his head down, propped on the desk. Surprisingly, there was no one around him. A few people were standing near him, talking to each other while gathering their wallets.

I quickly scanned the room.

Im Yungi was there, with an empty seat beside him. It seemed like Baek Haon had rushed out immediately after class. What had happened? I could see Shin Jaehyun and a few other scattered students, like islands in the room. I squinted and looked toward their pockets. Was there a phone there? Or in their bags...

“Kang Jun? Why are you coming in now?”

A sudden unfamiliar voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I quickly turned my head and saw the source of the voice, a student who greeted me cheerfully as soon as he saw me.

“Huh? What?”

“Why are you coming in now?”

“Oh, oh! Sorry. I was looking at the board... Sorry again, but did we have homework today?”

I nearly ignored the guy right in front of me, but I quickly changed the subject.

“Homework? Uh... yeah. English reading. And there’s a handout too.”

“Really? That’s great. What pages for the reading?”

Sorry, this kid really has bad luck. Now that I think about it, he was just innocently sitting near the back door, greeting me, but now he’s caught up helping me with the homework. It’s not that he’s in a bad situation, but if he hadn’t talked to me, he might’ve had time to eat lunch earlier.

“From here to here. Make sure you finish before the next class.”

I moved my black ink-stained fingers over the pages a few times before returning to where I started. I gave him the sweetest smile I could manage.

“Thanks.”

I loosened one strap of my bag, turned around, and pulled out a snack from my front pocket to offer it to him. A small gesture of thanks. I never expected help with my homework from someone I barely remembered, a random guy I hadn’t even noticed.

“Want some?”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

I patted his arm with a smile, still feeling grateful.

I adjusted my bag and stepped back as he unwrapped the chocolate and popped it into his mouth. As I watched him, I casually glanced at the name on his desk. Lee Yeonwoo. A pretty ordinary name.

“Well, Yeonwoo, enjoy your lunch.”

“Yeah, you too.”

It was a short conversation, less than three minutes. Yeonwoo slapped the back of the kid sitting in front of him and dashed out of the classroom. I turned back to my seat and set my bag down.

And, just like always, I stole a glance toward a certain spot.

That spot, as always, was predictable. Kang Jun is always obsessed with love. It’s a habit I don’t want to admit, but one I have to acknowledge to make my future look beautiful.

Still, there was some comfort. Since Yohan had been lying down earlier, I trusted he’d still be resting.

Unfortunately, that belief shattered terribly.

“...”

“...”

When did he wake up? Yohan, who had just woken up, had one arm resting on the desk, his body propped up halfway as he stared at me. His half-closed eyelids were evident, and his pupils moved between me and the back door.

“Uh... hey.”

I waved, trying to act like nothing was wrong, even though it felt completely ridiculous. It’s strange—acting like I hadn’t done anything wrong when I actually hadn’t done anything wrong at all. I felt uneasy about my reaction, but I shrugged it off and quickly walked over to Yohan, sitting in the empty seat next to him.

“When did you get here?”

“Just now.”

His sleepy voice asked as his gaze shifted to my wrist. I quickly raised my hand from my lap, showing it to him.

“I went to the hospital. They said my hand’s fine.”

“Same here.”

It seemed like the conversation was supposed to be about my wrist, but instead, Yohan casually placed his hand on the desk. I smiled more brightly than I probably should have and looked at his empty palm.

“What’s with this hand?”

“Give it to me too. Chocolate.”

...What is this guy doing?

Is he really ignoring me like this, or is he just messing with me? Of all people to like, it has to be this guy who’s all over the place. I sighed quietly to myself but stood up and acted like I was more than happy to get him some.

“Fine. Wait a second. I’ll bring it to you.”

"Yeah. Hurry up."

Am I your servant?

I sighed, cursing Yohan’s name a hundred times as I returned to my seat and grabbed a few pieces of chocolate. But my hand, which had automatically reached into my bag, stopped. I dropped the chocolate and took out the biggest wrapped chocolate bar instead. I don’t even know why, but it just stood out to me. When I looked up, I spotted Shin Jaehyun, now surrounded by another group, talking excitedly. His voice was so loud, his words reaching all the way to my seat.

“I got caught while spending on the game, and I’m broke now.”

“Why the hell would you spend money on a mobile game? That’s not even fair.”

Shin Jaehyun laughed heartily and blamed one of his friends. His tall head moved this way and that, but his body was lost among the group.

“Games are fun when you spend money to get stronger, man. You don’t get it.”

“I’m strong without spending money.”

“Yeah, right. Let me see. I bet I’m stronger by a hundred percent. If you don’t spend, you’re gonna lose for sure.”

“Look.”

Shin Jaehyun passed something to his friend. I narrowed my eyes, watching closely as something white passed through a small gap.

“Wow, crazy. Jaehyun, have you been playing without eating or something?”

“No, he spent money, then pretended he didn’t play. You should’ve seen it.”

“Bullshit. I never pretended.”

Shin Jaehyun poked his teasing friend with his elbow, laughing. The friend who had received something from Jaehyun took a step back. With a "hey," his body twisted as they lightly bumped into each other, laughing. At that moment, the friend’s body turned, and I finally saw what was in his hand.

It was a phone.

“Hey, help me level up too. Damn, your level is insane.”

“No way. You do it yourself.”

I heard them laughing, and then, cutting through the noise, a sharp voice stabbed at my back.

“Kang Jun.”

The movement of eyes scanning the group near the front door stopped abruptly. I bent down to grab the chocolate, then turned my body, still in the same position. Yohan, now sitting up with his back straight, slowly scanned me and the front door. I felt a sharp pressure at the top of my foot.

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll be right there.”

“...”

The wrapper I was holding slipped from my fingers.

“I was just picking the best one.”

My bag left my hands, and all my attention was on Yohan.

I walked quickly toward Yohan’s side, placing the chocolate bar I had chosen on his desk. Yohan silently looked at my face, then reached out and grabbed the item on the desk.

“Eat it.”

I smiled and encouraged him, and Yohan raised one eyebrow, peeling the wrapper. The brown stick was bitten down by his sharp canine teeth.

“Hmm?”

But it didn’t go smoothly. Yohan furrowed his brow and stared at the chocolate he was holding in front of him, his expression strange. Then, looking at me, he said:

“What’s this? You don’t like this.”

A wave of dizziness hit me. Crap. The shiny gold wrapping glinted and reflected the past. The memory of Yohan, hungry, and me, playfully complaining. The day my awkward kindness exploded. The happiest time of my life. That period flooded my mind, making my brain feel like a cake soaked in water.

“Ah, well... I thought you liked it back then.”

I screwed up. Damn it. My only option left was to lie.

“I remembered... and chose it.”

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My voice came out slowly between breaths, and I lowered my head slightly, trying to hide what might have been an expression I didn’t even recognize. Despite that, my eyes still flicked toward Yohan, curious about his reaction.

“...”

“...”

Yohan, still facing the front door, turned his head. His fingers brushed his ear, and I noticed his earlobe, redder than usual.

****

Lunch was a rotten atmosphere, like an apple rotting from the inside. It looked fine on the outside, but if you looked closely, it wasn’t. If you pressed it, you could tell it would burst open any moment.

The last supper, which started with six people, ended with just two. It seemed like they had all silently agreed to leave, glancing at each other before standing up, scraping their trays. They probably think I’m a joke. They probably suspect that I told Kim Minho or Yohan something, but they don’t know for sure.

There’s clear evidence of their hostility toward me. The three who had been talking about me subtly left me out of their conversation. The first to leave was Kim Minho, and based on his quiet behavior, they probably started suspecting me.

The scraping sound of spoons against the trays was the only noise.

“...”

I had every right to feel wronged. It wasn’t that I was upset about not acting fast enough. It’s just that they committed the wrongs and now suspect me, the witness. It’s infuriating.

“I’m leaving first.”

I heard this at least two or three times.

Then, they joined up with a new group they had made in their class. They looked like mid-tier male lions who, after being chased off by the alpha, went to find a weaker group to dominate. In the end, only Yohan and I were left at the table. Yohan, holding the tip of his chopsticks, said in a slurred voice:

“Ha, these guys really know how to ruin the atmosphere. Thought I was gonna choke.”

Choke? The guy had already gotten seconds and said it tasted great. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Why are you laughing while eating? You got a problem?”

I quickly covered my mouth with the back of my hand to hide the ugly expression. I forced myself to stop laughing and gave a slight shake of my head.

“Hey, why are you laughing so much?”

Yohan abruptly stopped his graceful movements with the spoon and started questioning me. I didn’t respond, still smiling, because my mouth was full of food I hadn’t swallowed yet. Yohan’s face tensed as he probed, and then, still with that stiff expression, his lips twitched awkwardly. His lips finally parted, and with the tone of someone who had figured something out, he said:

“Oh, you did well on the final exams, didn’t you? That’s why you’re in a good mood.”

...In an instant, my smile froze.

A chunk of food I hadn’t finished chewing slipped down my throat, and I choked. My throat tightened.

“They’re handing out the report cards today, right? You must be happy.”

Yohan’s spoon scraped across the tray. I couldn’t eat anymore, so I set my spoon down. The inside of my throat felt rough and dry.

“You’re gonna be number one again, right?”