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At some point, I began observing the transfer student. Thinking about him made me feel a little better about coming to school.
Unlike his cold, unapproachable appearance, he seemed to get along with everyone. It didn’t really matter if they were close or not. There didn’t seem to be any such notion.
Hairstyles in boys’ schools are almost always the same, but the transfer student was good at recognizing small changes. It was the same when Kim Donghoon, who sat behind him, got a haircut. As far as I had been watching, those two had never spoken to each other before, but he spoke freely to him, just like he did to me.
“You cut your hair?”
Kim Donghoon replied, rubbing his shortened hair, “Ah, fuck, that ahjussi cut it too fucking short.”
“It’s not bad. Where’d you get it cut?”
“Hair Coco under the Baek Bridge.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“You gonna cut your hair?”
“Yeah, I’m not going there.”
“You son of a bitch?”
Kim Donghoon had a character so rough that it reminded me of Kang Woojung, and for a moment I was worried that he might be in danger. But Kim Donghoon just smirked and said, “Don’t fucking go. I’m pretty sure that old man’s being bribed by the student dean.”
The kids around Kim Donghoon clicked their tongues playfully and chipped in, “Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with your hair, it’s your face that’s the problem.”
“Yeah, just push it back with hair clippers. Why’d you go to a hairdresser?”
Unlike my worries, nothing happened. On the contrary, he got to know the kids by talking to them.
From some point on, he was always with his friends on the way home from school. It was like I was the transfer student, not him. He transferred in the second semester, but he blended in as if he’d been a part of the class since the beginning.
“Wanna go to the ManKyungGwan today?”
“Let’s go.”
“Wanna eat tteokbokki?”
“Hmm… You think you can break my Self-Protection Fortitude?”
“Quit it with the bullshit. I’m gonna make you fall into qi deviation today!”
“Wooow… I’m so scaaared.”
That wasn’t the only amazing thing. My first impression of him was that he smoked, and the conversations he had during break time were about martial arts novels, updated games, and new comic books, but he was good at studying too.
After taking the second semester midterms, the teacher called out the transfer student’s name during assembly. When he stood up, the teacher told us to clap because the number one rank in the entire school was in our class. I also quietly clapped my hands under my desk.
As soon as the teacher left, the kids swarmed around the transfer student.
“You bastard, didn’t you stay up all night playing dungeon games with me during exam period?”
“Shit, isn’t it that he went home and pulled an all-nighter? Look, look, his super pale face is proof of it!”
“What the hell is your secret?”
The transfer student opened his mouth with a serious face in response to the outpouring of complaints and questions. “The secret is…”
All the eyes in the classroom turned to the transfer student. He continued quite solemnly, “There is no problem… that I can’t solve.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
There was a moment of silence. As if to break the silence, the transfer student laughed playfully. Only then did the kids come to their senses, and they shouted, “Ah, you asshole!”
“Xfa atf tfii bea!”
“Cujlc, jujlc, yeiirtla, yeiirtla.”
“Abxfr jikjsr mbwf bea bo atlr yjrajgv’r wbeat.”
Pok, pok, the kids cursing him even hit him on the back. But it was a far cry from the criticism and violence I was used to experiencing. The look in their eyes was a mixture of laughter, disbelief, longing, and jealousy.
Ktf bcis oijk lc atlr xlv, ktb kjr qfgofma ab atf fzafca atja la wjvf tlw j yjrajgv, kjr tlr mbcrajca jaafwqar ja kflgv pbxfr. Qtfc tf abiv j pbxf atja fnfc jc biv afjmtfg bg vlgfmabg kbeivc’a afii, atf xlvr kbeiv pffg jcv rjs, “Fut, ktja atf tfii,” jcv “Qts’r tf jmalcu ilxf atja jujlc?” yea lc atf fcv, atfs kbeiv ijeut. Zjsyf la kjr yfmjerf atfs pera ilxfv atf wbwfca tf ijeutfv wbgf atjc atf biv, ecoeccs pbxfr.
At that moment, it looked as slow as if a slowed-down replay button had been pressed. But even that was a pity. It was a moment so brilliant that it made me want to stop time.
As the days grew cooler, the sun grew shorter. After school, the sunlight was now dim. The children’s faces were bright as they finally headed out the door after a long class. They rushed out of the school in bustling groups.
Autumn roses bloomed on the school walls. The vines that wrapped around the rusting green fence were as old as the school, overgrown with leaves in the summer and red roses in full bloom in the fall.
I walked along the fence and looked at the sidewalk blocks as I always did before suddenly stopping. I felt signs of him.
I raised my head. I spotted him on the other side of the fence, on the green basketball court on one side of the schoolyard.
He was playing basketball with his friends. I couldn’t see any of the other kids around him, as he was sparkling alone. I’m sure it wasn’t like that only in my eyes. With his vest off, shirt sleeves rolled up, and gym pants on, he was sure to catch anyone’s eye.
He caught the ball passed to him and threw it into the goal. The big basketball left the boy’s hand and flew in a parabolic arc, circling over the rim and narrowly being sucked into the goal, the orange ball grazing against the net and falling to the floor with a tang. The boy smiled brightly under the autumn sunlight as his teammates ran toward the opposing goal and patted him on the back.
Suddenly, my hand stung. I released my grip on the fence and looked down. Red blood dripped in beads from various areas on my finger. My palm smelled heavily of rusty iron.
I had leaned closer to the fence to get a better look, even if it was just a little, and grabbed the metal pillar, but a rose thorn pricked my hand. Only then did I snap back to reality. What the hell… What am I doing…?
For a moment, an orange basketball rolled towards the inside of the fence, in view of my lowered head. It stopped only after it hit the iron fence with a tang.
Running Nike sneakers stopped in front of the ball, and a thin, white hand grabbed it. My gaze rose along with the orange ball.
Through the fence of rose vines, I made eye contact with the transfer student.
“Hello?”
He greeted me in a strange way and pointed with his chin toward the basketball court. When I froze, unable to even blink, he asked again, “Wanna play together?”
“Ah…”
The transfer student seemed to think I was watching because I wanted to participate in the basketball game. My stiff body then relaxed a bit. It was a relief. If he had realized I had only been staring at him like a stalker, I would’ve been unable to come to school the next day.
“N-no…”
“Come on, we’re missing one more person, so we’re playing two against three right now.”
The transfer student turned his thumb back over his shoulder and pointed toward the basketball court. Come to think of it, there were four people either leaning on one leg or squatting on the court. I didn’t know how many of them were playing basketball.
But now I could see all of their expressions. Faces mixed with questions as if wondering what the kid who went to get the ball was doing over there, but when they recognized me, their faces changed to ones of displeasure. The kids shouted from afar, “Jwon! Whatcha doing?!”
“Come quickly!”
I shook my head. He just shrugged, as if the suggestion had been made without much thought. Tang, tang, the ball bounced lightly on the floor, and he was turning around when he tilted his head.
“Oh, you’re bleeding?”
His eyes landed on the drops of blood on my finger. My heart, which had been pounding earlier, seemed like it was about to explode with a bang! I quickly clenched my fist and shoved my hand in my pocket.
“Hold on.”
The transfer student dug into the pocket of his gym uniform and pulled something out. He handed me what looked like a small piece of crumpled paper between the fence tangled with rose vines.
I stretched my hand out in the confusion of the moment. A disposable band with a bespectacled penguin on it fell gently onto my palm.
“Ah…”
Not even allowing me the time to thank him, the transfer student turned and dribbled away. Before he even stepped onto the green basketball court, he yelled, “Five-point shot!” and threw the ball toward the goal.
It was too far, so of course the ball didn’t reach the goal and landed absurdly with a thud on the floor. The noisy sound rang dazedly in my ears.
“Is that even possible?”
“Will you admit the five points if I succeed?”
“Alright!”
At some point, the kids rushed out of the court and threw the ball toward the goal, calling it a five-point shot. Even as the ball bounced in ridiculous places, the sound of laughter erupted.
Suddenly, the strong smell of roses hit my nose. Only then did I realize I hadn’t even been breathing properly.
I walked quickly, as if running away. Because it would truly look weird if I stayed there any longer.
At dawn, when everyone was asleep, I quietly got out of the bunk bed. I stepped out of the room, careful not to wake the children sleeping in the same bedroom.
The unlit hallway was dark and quiet. The front door of the facility was double-locked, inside and out, but with my talent as a thief, it was no problem opening it.
I headed to the playground at the back of the building. The playground, with clouds of dust puffing up, had a jungle gym with all the paint peeled off, a slide, and a basketball hoop that looked like it was about to fall over. During free time, it was so popular that I couldn’t get anywhere near it, so I had no choice but to come out at night.
I grabbed the deflated basketball I found in a yellow basket on one side of the playground. Tang, tang, I dribbled it, and it managed to bounce.
I bounced it, ran to the base of the basketball hoop, and threw the ball. The dirty orange ball cut through the night sky and fell into the goal.
Tang!
I grabbed the ball that had fallen to the ground and threw it towards the goal again. The ball flew in a parabolic arc and went through the tattered netting.
“…Five-point shot..!”
I threw the ball from outside the court, and it went through the rim again and again, but I felt no joy. It was just the same as always, boring and uninteresting. I plopped down on the playground. The basketball, having lost its way, rolled across the floor.
After all, I didn’t want to play basketball like the transfer student did. I wanted to play basketball with him.
I pulled the unopened disposable band out of my pocket and stared down at it for some time. I put it under my nose and smelled it carefully. For some reason, it seemed to smell like roses.
At some point, the days grew cold. It was now a full-blown winter.
I shrank my body and hurried up the stairs. I impulsively followed him again today and missed my curfew.
His house was in Sungil-dong, so his route back from school was completely different from mine, but… I wanted to walk with him. I was aware that secretly following him wasn’t walking home together but rather something like stalking. But otherwise, I would’ve never been able to walk home from school with him.
This disgusting act must never be discovered by anyone. Luckily, I’m pretty confident I won’t be found out, as erasing and detecting signs is one of my specialties. I suppose I shouldn’t brag about it, but… I shook my head to clear my mind of the sombre thoughts.
Climbing two hundred and one stairs in a single go isn’t that hard. I wasn’t out of breath or exhausted, but my steps were getting slower.
At the entrance of the alleyway, a small yellow car was parked.
With a clack, the driver’s side door swung open, and my heart also sank with a clack. Kang Sunghyun stepped out of the car.
Not only did my steps slow, I also stopped and stood far away, but his gaze went straight to me. Dressed in a patchy red padding jacket, he stuck his hands in his pockets and walked sleazily toward me.
Soon, Kang Sunghyun was standing in front of me. Standing slanted, he said, “Did you make any money?”
Instead of answering, I pulled a wallet out of my pocket. Kang Sunghyun looked at the sluggish me with displeasure and snatched the wallet away before I could even hand it to him.
“What, only one?”
Opening the wallet, Kang Sunghyun’s face contorted even further. All there were were two 10,000-won bills, one 5,000-won bill, and a few cards.
I was distracted by other things today, but fundamentally, pickpocketing no longer made as much money. People carry more cards than cash, and there are CCTVs and blackboxes everywhere.
It’s not as profitable to do it professionally and systematically as before, but there are people everywhere who live off even a small amount. There are a lot of people who specialize in pickpocketing at the facility. Whether it was because if they got caught, they wouldn’t be punished because they were underage, because they had a talent for stealing, or because they wouldn’t hold grudges even if they were ordered around.
“We need to pay up soon, are you kidding me?”
Kang Sunghyun raised his thick palm. He’s not just trying to intimidate me. Kang Sunghyun had a habit of being violent. He’s good at stealing and hitting.
The hand slicing through the air looked slow. If I take a step back, I can avoid it. It’s not hard to evade and run away from a fat pig.
But what would happen after I did that?
If I don’t want to freeze to death on the streets or starve to death, I’ll have to come back here anyway. I might have to get beaten up for several days for Kang Sunghyun to cope with his anger after making such an ugly miss. So, it was better to stay here and get beaten. As always, the future is more frustrating, so I might as well just endure the present.
Pok!
Kang Sunghyun’s hand hit me on the side of the head. It didn’t hurt, but the weight difference was not negligible, so I almost fell over. But I couldn’t fall. As I stumbled, a large hand grabbed my hair.
At the same time, I was punched in the stomach.
Clutching my stomach, I rolled over on the cement floor. Pok, pok, Kang Sunghyun gave a few rough kicks and said irritably, “Hey, don’t you know that you don’t even bring in any public funds?”
I faced down and covered my head. But Kang Sunghyun didn’t seem to want to hit me in the face anyway. It wasn’t even vacation period yet, and wearing a bruise on my face while wearing a school uniform was something that both I and Kang Sunghyun wanted to avoid.
In the winter, you don’t have to be as careful as in the summer to avoid getting hurt. So winter is not bad. Because it’s an easy season to hide violence.
“Jeez, you good-for-nothing mute bastard.”
Looking at me as if I were pathetic, Kang Sunghyun spat out his spit.
“You have until the day after tomorrow to get one million won. It’s peak season after all.”
Kang Sunghyun turned around, dragging his slippers behind him. Clack, I heard the sound of the car door opening, the sound of the car engine starting, and the sound of the car driving off all in turn. After that, I slowly sat up after lying down for a while.
The worn winter sun had long since faded, and darkness descended on the cold cement floor. How am I supposed to get one million won…? I was worried, but I also wasn’t.
It would work out somehow.
My exhaled breath turned into white frost, spreading in the black air, and then dissipated in the cold wind. Despite the chill coming from the cement floor, I dusted myself off and didn’t get up. I stayed where I was, sitting, and stared at the sky in a daze. There was a saying that said you should rest after falling, so wasn’t it okay for me to stay like this for a while?
It was a slum, so the terrain was high enough that I could see the stars without any obstructions. The stars that filled the winter sky in the early evening were a little different than they were on an autumn evening. Strictly speaking, the stars haven’t changed, though.
Many stars looked like they were moving from east to west, but it was actually the Earth that was moving, and the stars were just dying in place.
“It must be nice…”
I wish I could be something dead, like a stone, the wind, or a dying star.
I shook my head as I watched the reddish-blue sky at sunset. Living in this world was hard, it wasn’t only difficult for me. But why wasn’t the fact that others were having just as much or even more difficulty than me giving me any consolation?
orcinus comments:
psssst… does anyone remember what inheon said when he was asked how he got through the repain dungeon so quickly? 
inheon’s pov is a bit gloomy… well, he’s always been that kind of person, we just don’t know it because we’ve been seeing him how juwon sees him this entire time. chapter 7 is a bit of a turning point, since from now on and in the side stories, we get a bit more perspective on how others view juwon
… I did not expect that
Damn that’s shitty
Thank you for translating
I bet he got his time freezing ability because he wanted to see Juwon smile longer. ☺️ But damn he had such a miserable childhood. 😭
what did he say in the repain dungeon?? :O
his answer was almost the same as juwons when he was talking about his grades in this chapter! he imitated juwons unfunny joke
To those who are curious, I forgot the exact words but it was something along the lines of “There are no monsters stronger than me”
I was worried, but I also wasn’t.
Inheonie’s so relatable…:(
I cant remember what KIH said but I remember the british research that speculated how hunter’s powers is affected by their belief etc. 😉
the first thing i thought of when reading juwon’s unfunny joke was what inheon said abt the repain!!! you’re such a good translator <3 heart heart heart