My Seven Wives in One Body and Me, her Manager-Chapter 57: The Silent Treatment and Gossip

The next day, after dropping Daisy off at her class, Dennis walked toward his own. As he was about to enter, "thud," a short student with glasses and a bowl cut, carrying a pistol at his hip, slammed into him and fell onto his backside. The student put his fallen glasses back on and immediately saw Dennis standing tall above him, looking down. His face turned pale and his lips trembled; when Dennis leaned down and reached out a hand to help him up, the boy instead crawled backward until he hit a chair.

"Wait... what’s wrong, Andrew?" Dennis asked.

"S... sorry, Dennis, I didn’t mean to bump into you. I just wanted to turn in my report to the teacher’s lounge, sorry," the student named Andrew answered in a panic.

"It’s fine. Go ahead, get through," Dennis said, stepping away from the door.

Andrew scrambled to his feet, hugged the books he was holding, and rushed out with a quick pace, head down as he passed Dennis. Dennis was baffled. He turned to look at the front of the classroom, and "sraag," every face instantly snapped forward.

"Wait... what is going on?" Dennis asked in his heart, confused by how the room had gone dead silent and all his classmates were looking away to avoid his eyes.

Dennis watched his classmates, who seemed unusually orderly—silent with their shoulders slumped, looking slightly shaky and staring down at their desks as if the wood could answer their questions about the universe. Confused, Dennis walked to his seat casually and sat down quietly. He pulled out his smartphone and only then realized he had been kicked out of the class group chat. He looked up again toward his friends, who still refused to turn and look at him.

Suddenly, "thud," someone tapped his shoulder from behind. He turned to see Jason and Kimberly standing beside him. Their faces clearly said that something had happened.

"What’s up, bro? Why is the vibe so weird?" Dennis asked Jason.

"Come with me for a sec, I’ll explain," Jason answered.

"Yeah, go on. Sorry, I won’t be joining you guys," Kimberly added.

Finally, Dennis stepped out of the class with Jason while Kimberly sat casually in her seat. Dennis and Jason walked toward the stairs leading up; all along the way, plenty of students avoided meeting Dennis’s eyes. When they reached the senior floor, many seniors also looked away until Dennis started to feel uncomfortable and isolated. Once they reached the rooftop, Dennis and Jason leaned against the perimeter railing. Then, Jason turned to look at Dennis and showed him his smartphone screen without saying a word.

Dennis took the phone and read it. It turned out the group chat had been exploding all night after he was kicked out. Everyone was discussing yesterday’s sparring match, and there was even a video from someone who had recorded the mezzanine screen showing the progress of the fight. The footage showed, specifically, when Dennis went on a rampage—killing crawlers with ease, taking on all the seniors by himself, and most terrifying of all, when he killed Ivan by piercing his chest with a hand-thrust and slashed Sasha’s neck right next to him after the match was already over.

After that, Dennis had charged toward Hyunjin, Minji, Gary, and Kimberly, who had already stopped fighting and were shouting, trying to snap him out of it, until he was finally stopped by Daisy. The discussion in the chat following the video concluded that Dennis was a monster, a murderer, and didn’t deserve to be in the group because they were all terrified—plus they considered him a thug. Some even suggested talking to the teachers to have Dennis expelled from school.

In the chat, Jason and Kimberly could be seen defending Dennis, but they were outnumbered and eventually silenced by the sheer volume of people cornering them. However, what really made Dennis’s blood boil was that quite a few were also saying Daisy was miserable with him—and to make matters worse, since he also attacked Daisy in the footage, they assumed Dennis abused Daisy at home too. Dennis’s hand trembled as he held Jason’s smartphone, but Jason immediately pulled the phone away, not letting Dennis type anything in response.

"Easy, dude. They don’t know the truth. Just ignore it and don’t let them get to you," Jason said.

"Yeah... I get it," Dennis replied calmly, even though his heart was actually pounding and he desperately wanted to defend himself—to show them he wasn’t actually the person they were accusing him of being.

"Kimberly and I already talked it over last night. We’re planning to leave the class group chat—actually, Kimberly already left last night, haha," Jason said while looking up at the sky.

"You don’t have to go that far, bro," Dennis said.

"It’s fine. Kimberly and I were thinking—the group chat is only used for assignment reminders, and mostly it’s just for gossip. It’s annoying being in there anyway. Besides, now we know where our classmates stand. It’s clear they’re still gossiping without knowing the truth, and it makes me sick," Jason said casually.

"Thanks, bro," Dennis replied, looking down.

"Relax, dude. We’re on the same team, and I know for a fact Daisy is happy with you, so you don’t need to worry about what they say," Jason replied while gripping Dennis’s shoulder.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks, bro," Dennis replied with a sad smile as he turned to look at Jason.

After that, Jason opened his group chat, intending to leave, but before he could, several messages popped up. Dennis glanced at the screen of Jason’s smartphone; the incoming messages mentioned that Bella was transferring to a school in the south, that she had divorced Brad and was currently handling the legal process.

Naturally, the follow-up chatter linked her move to Dennis, claiming she left because he had bullied her too—and they even tied it to Dennis "killing" Brad during yesterday’s sparring match. But in the very last message before Jason finally quit, Rika said that what their friends were talking about wasn’t true. Jason turned to see the gloom on Dennis’s face and immediately gave him a hard slap on the back.

"Forget it. I don’t even want to read the rest of it anyway. Don’t let your face get all sour like that, dude," Jason said.

"Yeah, I get it," Dennis replied.

"Let’s head back to class. Like it or not, we’ve still got lessons to get through, right?" Jason said.

"Yeah, you’re right, bro. Let’s go," Dennis replied.

"How about after school we go out to eat with Gary and Olivia too," Jason suggested, putting his arm around Dennis.

"Sure, why not. I think I could use some distraction," Dennis replied, putting his arm around Jason.

"Good. Exactly, dude, you really do need a break. But how did you not know you were kicked out of the group? What were you even doing last night?" Jason asked, curious.

"Hmm... last night, huh," Dennis murmured. Dennis’s mind drifted back to the previous night, where after dinner, he had spent his time being intimate with Daisy as a sign they had made up, alternating with the six other personalities that came out one by one until almost morning. "I fell asleep early last night," Dennis answered firmly, turning away his blushing face.

"Why’d it take you so long to answer me? Give me a break," Jason said, though he actually knew exactly what Dennis had been up to with Daisy and was just playing dumb.

"It’s normal, I just didn’t remember," Dennis replied, his face turning bright red.

The two of them walking back toward the entrance of the school building. However, as they were heading down, they saw Hyunjin and Ivan walking with Brad. Brad looked like a mess, clutching a manila folder that appeared official, bearing the name of a law firm. Ivan turned to see Dennis and Jason standing by the stairs as the three of them passed by. Ivan winked at them, his face seemingly saying, "Don’t show your faces just yet; there’s trouble, and don’t make the situation any worse."

Hyunjin also turned and smiled, giving a nod before pulling Brad closer and walking a bit faster than before to pass Dennis and Jason. But just as Ivan and Hyunjin, who was holding Brad, had passed them, "driiing," the smartphone in Dennis’s pocket rang. He immediately pulled it out and looked at the screen. Dennis’s eyes widened when he saw who was calling; then he showed the screen to Jason, whose eyes naturally widened too.

They instantly turned to look at their three seniors, who had stopped and turned back to face them. Ivan and Hyunjin’s faces seemed to say, "oh boy, here comes more drama," as they watched Brad—who looked like a total mess with bloodshot eyes—staring at Dennis and Jason. To top it all off, the name popping up on Dennis’s smartphone screen was Bella.

"Hello, good morning, seniors?" Dennis asked stiffly with a resigned smirk at Brad, Hyunjin, and Ivan, who were all staring him down. Meanwhile, his finger scrambled to shut off his smartphone, but every time he rejected the call, Bella called him right back as if she were in an emergency—and it seemed like she really was in some kind of trouble, though he had no idea what it was—while Jason could only cover his face with his hand.