.
Looking at the watch, I found that it was ten minutes since I came up here on the rooftop. If we dashed to the cafeteria right now, we could barely arrive during the sophomore meal time.
I wasn’t able to grab his wrist, but instead held his sleeve then urged him toward the door.
“Ah, come on,” I uttered.
“Hold on.”
At that moment, Ban Hwee Hyul pushed my hand away. His voice sounded the lowest I’d ever heard of, so I was bewildered for a second. He then said with a heavy expression, “There’s something I need to know ahead of it.”
“What?”
“The reason why you’re helping me this much.”
“…”
Scowling at me with a cold glance, he continued, “First, when I was getting beaten in the alley, you came forward to help me even if you’re alone that time. When I saw you for the second time at the PE facility, you suddenly asked me to become friends, didn’t you?”
“Oh…”
“And when we became the same class, you would’ve got my position; however, you kept saying hi to me. Even you poured water to Hwang Siwoo early in the morning.”
“Hey, you…” I uttered but soon paused to drop my words. Since Ban Hwee Hyul was staring at me in wonder, I just shook my head. He only had a bad memory when it came to people’s names… which made me ooh-and-ah for a moment.
He concluded, “Why you keep helping me for nothing?”
“Um, that is…” Thinking about his question for a second, I simply decided to go straightforward. ‘All right, let’s just speak the truth!’
“I actually thought you’re the missing, nationwide Number 1.”
Ban Hwee Hyul asked, “… What?”
Looking at his red eyes suddenly being ablaze, I stepped back with a flinch involuntarily. Even though I was now aware that he wasn’t such a bad kid, no, just a pushover, my heart was pounding hard. The look in his eyes was almost a lie. If this was a game, the pair of his eyes were like ‘red eyes of the devil’ which was two thousand cash or something like that.
I quickly put my hands up as a surrender.
“No! I ain’t saying that you have a bad impression!” I shouted, but actually, he looked like a bad boy.
“You know you have the same name… and… your eyes are red. Those aren’t color lenses, are they? In my opinion, I think it’s better if you wear contact lenses! Honestly, red eyes aren’t something common you know. And…!”
Bringing back the calm look in his eyes, Ban Hwee Hyul listened to my words carefully.
“… And you’re so tall and big… above all, the way you talk…!!”
At the very moment, Ban Hwee Hyul, who was scowling at me like a stone statue, finally detached his lips.
“… I got you wrong, Ham Donnie,” he replied.
“Yeah, that’s it! That way of speaking!”
When I pointed at Ban Hwee Hyul with an applaud, he stared at me fiercely as if he would soon chop off my fingers. Quickly putting down my hands, I continued speaking in a hurry.
“Do you remember what you said to me when we first met? ‘I remembered, Ham Donnie.’ That’s what you said,” I spoke in a low voice, even following his expression.
Ban Hwee Hyul slightly loosened up the strained look on his face. I kept acting more enthusiastically.
“You even just said in the classroom like this, ‘I owe you, Ham Donnie.’ Hey, you know most of the high school students in Korea don’t speak that way! So, you should understand me getting you wrong, right? Come on!”
Watching me almost begging desperately in the end, Ban Hwee Hyul perked the corners of his brows upwards.
“Getting me wrong?” he asked.
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve thought you’re hiding your identity of the nationwide Number 1 like, ‘I actually grasped your attack pattern: light, medium, and hard…’ something that way.”
“…”
I continued, “So when you get really pissed off, you seem to have the power to sort everything out, but now I don’t think so…” Pulling his sleeve again, I uttered, “You’ve got nothing to lose when you’ve done nothing wrong. Don’t let people harass you. You don’t deserve it.”
“…”
“If you let them treat you bad, they’ll act worse! Find out the truth and stamp out the problem.”
I never knew I would drop this remark, which I had heard from Ban Yeo Ryung at some point in the past. Now I had come to think of it, the reason why I couldn’t let Ban Hwee Hyul acting this way was probably because of the memory back then.
As I got to observe the look on Ban Hwee Hyul’s face, he returned to his usual, innocent lamb-like expression. Hesitating for a second, he soon replied, “That doesn’t mean that I didn’t do anything wrong…”
“You mean… to Hwang Siwoo? Wasn’t this year your first time to see him?” I asked.
Ban Hwee Hyul slowly mumbled in a pale face, “Not to Hwang Siwoo… but to others…”
“Then just apologize to those people instead of acting like this. Though you expiate your wrong over here, those people won’t know it at all,” I uttered.
Ban Hwee Hyul looked absentminded again.
I pulled him and shouted, “Ah! Anyway, only a few minutes are left until the end of the sophomore lunchtime. Come on!”
“Hold on…” said Ban Hwee Hyul as if he still left some things unspoken.
I said, “Oh, and I can have lunch with you. Even if I don’t have any fighting skills, I have good connections.”
I promised to myself using those good connections just once this time. Since I got to live in the world of web novel against my will, I thought I deserved to enjoy this much privilege.
Dragging Ban Hwee Hyul’s sleeve to the cafeteria, I felt like being the main character appearing on the stage for the first time. That much attention was on me.
Turning my head abruptly, I found the Four Heavenly Kings and Ban Yeo Ryung looking in this direction with their eyes open wide. When I turned my head to the other side, my friends in Class 2-8 came into view. They were looking at me quite delightfully as if they had expected this would happen, eventually.
When I turned my head for the last time again, there were Hwang Siwoo and his boys scowling at us with flames of hell in their eyes. I shortly stepped back hesitatingly but soon tapped my pounding chest then bent my steps in high spirits.
Although I wasn’t able to neglect Ban Hwee Hyul and dragged him to this place, in the end, I didn’t intend to burden my friends going through a challenging time against Hwang Siwoo and his clique. Thus, I took a seat at a far distance from them on purpose; instead, they moved to the seats beside us while holding their plates.
“Hey, you’re hurting me. How come you pretend like you don’t know us?” said Yoon Jung In while hitting the corners of the food tray with a spoon.
Smiling awkwardly, I thought, ‘No, it’s just that… if I do something like that and Hwang Siwoo notices it, I’m afraid if I’m causing you trouble.’
However, as if he had the ability to read other’s minds, Yoon Jung In heaved a sigh apathetically and said, “Hey, let him do what he wants. Do you think we’ll leave you out in the cold just because we’re scared of a haphazard baster who can’t even take care of attendance and repeat a year?”
I stared at Yoon Jung In while thinking, ‘I knew you’re audacious, but man… you’re awesome, dude!’
Then I threw a glance beside me. Ban Hwee Hyul was there reading my countenance as if he was a son dragged to his mother’s neighborhood meeting against his will. I also seemed to catch him dropping his gaze onto the floor and heaving a small sigh.
Yoon Jung In and the other kids already finished most of their plates. However, they didn’t get up but just kept their seats beside us and chitchatted for a while.
Turning his head toward Ban Hwee Hyul, Yoon Jung In asked, “Something happened in the morning, huh?”
“Oh,” moaned Ban Hwee Hyul. He switched his gaze to Shin Suh Hyun.
Receiving his attention, Shin Suh Hyun just quietly shrugged and said, “Since he’s our class president, I think he must know anyway. Sorry that I didn’t tell you ahead though.”
“Is there anything we can help?”
After Shin Suh Hyun’s composed apology, Yoon Jung In’s question followed. Ban Hwee Hyul just shook his head. He then showed some mixed feelings on his face while knitting his nose under his glasses, which looked like a kid getting a gift for the first time in his life. Though he revealed those unfamiliar expression, there was also a hint of embarrassment as if he was an uncle receiving attention from his nephews and nieces.
‘Why is he showing that look?’ I tilted my head in wonder but waited for his answer.
