TW 8

Chapter 8

In this neighborhood, it seemed as though everything ultimately came down to money.

The students’ social rankings were determined by the thickness of their parents’ wallets, and even the teachers couldn’t bring themselves to offer some hollow lesson like “Money isn’t everything.” Perhaps they, too, were part of this solidly established pyramid—or simply people who had learned to live in its shadow.

The children here learned from an early age that money was synonymous with status, and perhaps their arrogance was an inevitable consequence.

After all, this really was a world where money could solve everything.

It was only natural that Danbi would become isolated at such a school.

She barely knew the names of luxury brands. She couldn’t play an instrument, and she had never traveled abroad.

There was simply no common ground for her to share with the other students.

Knowing painfully well how much her parents had sacrificed for her, Danbi buried her nose in her books and did nothing but study.

Then came her first midterm exams.

At her previous school, she had never once lost the top spot in the entire school.

Here, however, she had to settle for seventh in her class and twenty-first in the entire school.

Yet at a school boasting cutthroat competition and an impressive rate of admission to prestigious universities, those grades were still a valuable achievement.

After finishing her first exams, Danbi finally reached her limit with loneliness and tried various ways to make friends.

She approached people first.

She started conversations.

She smiled at them.

But they wouldn’t even spare her a glance.

A corner of her heart ached, but she couldn’t blame them.

Everyone wanted to spend time with people they were naturally drawn to.

She simply wasn’t that kind of person to them.

She wandered around groups of girls, hovering nearby and trying to find an opening.

Eventually, she gave up.

Making friends here is probably impossible.

Her nose stung, but she desperately held her emotions in.

She wasn’t a little child.

She didn’t want to cry over something like this.

Her mother’s desired “good friends” seemed to be out of reach, but there was a goal more important than that.

College.

Just get used to it.

All I have to do is study hard.

I only have to endure three years.

Just as she decided to become invisible, some rough-looking boys began hovering around the isolated Danbi.

It started when Suhyeon’s group sat down at the table where Danbi was eating alone.

They naturally took the seats around her and began talking to her as though they were close friends.

“Danbi. Do you have a boyfriend? If not, wanna go out with me?”

“Wow, but your boobs are really big.”

“How many cups are you?”

“I guess all those girls are flat as boards, so they’re bullying you because they’re jealous. Girls’ jealousy is scary. Seriously.”

“Girls don’t like girls who are prettier than them.”

“Wanna hang out with us after school today? I’ll show you something fun.”

Their snickering, lecherous laughter and sticky gazes crawled across her skin.

Danbi immediately realized that they weren’t treating her as an equal human being.

They were treating her as nothing more than entertainment.

This was attention she absolutely did not want.

“Huh? No. It’s okay. I have an academy to go to…”

“Ooh, model student. But your skin is really nice.”

Suhyeon suddenly reached out and gently stroked Danbi’s cheek with the back of his hand, faintly carrying the smell of cigarettes.

At the cold, unpleasant sensation, Danbi’s entire body stiffened.

It was obvious that these were people she shouldn’t get involved with, but their attitude was strangely coercive, making it difficult for her to push them away outright.

She had the feeling that an awkward refusal would quickly turn into violence.

She looked around, silently hoping someone would help her.

But the other girls merely clicked their tongues or frowned in disgust at Suhyeon’s group.

Not one of them willingly stepped forward to help Danbi.

From that day on, Danbi was subjected to sexual harassment and ridicule.

There was nothing she could do about it.

They say that if you don’t like the temple, the monk should leave…

Should I try talking to Mom and Dad? Tell them I want to transfer schools…

Transfer. Transfer. Transfer…

The words circled endlessly through Danbi’s mind all the way home.

But the moment she saw her exhausted parents, they were swallowed back down her throat.

Her mother, who had undoubtedly been worn to the bone once again from her work as a visiting home-study teacher, forced herself to put on a bright smile the moment she saw Danbi and prepared dinner.

Her father looked at Danbi’s report card and patted her on the back.

“My daughter, if you keep this up, there’ll be no problem.”

Faced with such warm encouragement, Danbi couldn’t bring herself to say,

Going to school feels like hell.

Having come this far, her life was no longer entirely her own.

The weight of that realization pressed down on her young shoulders.

That night, Danbi pulled the blanket over her head and cried silently.

I have to find a way out on my own somehow.

The next day at lunchtime, Danbi squeezed out the last of her courage and wandered around the table where the girls were gathered.

But their world was so firmly closed that she couldn’t see even the smallest opening to squeeze through.

Worse, even the girls who had previously ignored her now openly looked her up and down with displeasure.

It seemed that once Suhyeon began showing interest in Danbi, they had started to dislike her as well.

In the end, Danbi found an empty seat and sat down alone.

How did things end up like this?

Where did everything go wrong?

Her repeated efforts and failures had ground what little remained of her self-esteem into dust.

Now, she had begun to believe that every problem was her own fault.

“Is this seat taken?”

At the quiet voice, Danbi raised her head.

Hae-il was standing directly in front of her, holding a cafeteria tray.

Black-rimmed glasses.

A neat school uniform.

And yet there was something about him that made it impossible to mistake him for an ordinary model student.

Danbi stared at him in surprise.

Why is he talking to me?

She couldn’t understand it at all.

Caught completely off guard, she let out a blank,

“Uh…”

Hae-il seemed to take that as permission and naturally sat down across from her.

Then he began eating as casually as though they had been doing this together for years.

When Danbi continued staring at him blankly, he asked again,

“Why? Is someone sitting here?”

Only then did Danbi snap back to reality.

If she had to eat with someone, Hae-il was a hundred times—no, a thousand times—better than Suhyeon’s group.

“No… no one.”

“Then eat.”

It was a short, dry exchange.

Danbi instinctively lowered her body and glanced toward Suhyeon’s group, who had just received their food.

They looked curiously at Hae-il’s presence before eventually turning away.

Danbi quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although Danbi was an outsider at school, she had instinctively understood that Hae-il occupied the very top of the hierarchy in their class—perhaps even in the entire school.

The first reason was undoubtedly his powerful family background.

The second was his uniquely arrogant and cold personality, which gave the impression that anyone who messed with him would pay dearly.

And finally, there was his height and solid physique, which made him larger than most adults.

All those things combined to make Hae-il someone no one dared to touch.

And now, that person was sitting in front of her as though he were a giant shield protecting her.

Danbi felt an inexplicable gratitude toward him.

At the same time, she couldn’t shake her confusion over his actions.

“Um… but why, why did you come over here…?”

Danbi stammered out the question.

Hae-il replied with the same indifferent expression.

“Because it was noisy.”

“Huh?”

“They got fucking loud after they started sitting with you.”

He frowned slightly.

“They’re hurting my ears. It’s annoying.”

Danbi thought of Suhyeon’s group, their snickering laughter, and the other students who had frowned unpleasantly while watching them.

The students’ expressions and even Hae-il’s complaint that they were annoying somehow felt like criticism directed at her.

Danbi shrank back.

So I’m the problem after all?

It seemed that the reason he wanted to separate her from Suhyeon’s group was simply because they were bothering him.

Still, whatever his reason, the result was that he had rescued Danbi from that hellish situation.

Even as they ate together in silence, Danbi kept sneaking glances at Hae-il.

His presence was far more overwhelming than she had expected.

It wasn’t simply because of his large build.

There was something else.

The aura radiating from him.

The atmosphere that dominated everything around him.

All of it was unfamiliar, yet strangely reassuring.

For the first time in a long while, her loneliness seemed to fade a little.

She could taste every grain of rice clearly.

Until now, lunchtime had simply been about eating as quickly as possible and getting up. She had never even known whether the food was going into her mouth or her nose.

But perhaps because of his presence—or perhaps because of the unexpected silence he had created for her—she finally felt as though she could breathe again.

Then Danbi noticed Hae-il’s friends gathered at the neighboring table.

Rumor had it that they, too, were sons of prominent families known throughout the school.

When Danbi stole a glance in their direction, Hae-il spoke casually.

“I didn’t bring them over because I thought you might be uncomfortable.”

He paused.

“You looked scared of men.”

“Huh?”

“You were eating while trembling earlier.”

He glanced toward Suhyeon.

“With Lee Suhyeon.”

Was I?

Danbi briefly reflected on herself.

It was true that Suhyeon’s group had frightened her terribly.

The way they casually put their arms around her shoulders.

Their blatant stares.

Everything about them had been unpleasant and creepy.

“I’m not scared of men.”

Danbi quietly corrected him.

“I just don’t like those guys…”

“What?”

Hae-il looked surprised.

“You can actually talk properly. You kept stammering earlier.”

A grin tugged at his lips.

“So I guess you’re not scared of me?”

Danbi stared at him for a moment.

The famous student in school.

The top student in the entire school.

The rumored only son of LD, the IT company.

The handsome face.

The neat school uniform.

And that arrogant aura that seemed to radiate from somewhere within him.

At first, that gaze—which seemed to look down on everyone—had made her uncomfortable.

Now, however, it actually made her feel at ease.

Unlike the other students who singled Danbi out and looked down on her, Hae-il seemed to look down on everyone equally.

Because everyone was already beneath his feet anyway.

There was something comforting about that fairness.

He didn’t discriminate against Danbi.

“Yeah.”

At Danbi’s simple answer, Hae-il raised an eyebrow slightly, as though surprised.

“Really?”

He glanced toward his friends’ table.

“Then want me to introduce you? You looked like you didn’t want to eat alone. You’ve been hovering around them since earlier.”

He gestured toward the table where his friends were sitting.

Although they were pretending not to, they were still sneaking glances in their direction.

Danbi looked horrified.

“Your friends? Guys?”

“Yeah.”

“No! It’s okay! Really, it’s fine!”

Danbi vehemently shook her head.

Hae-il let out a small laugh.

“Looks like I’m the only guy you’re not scared of.”

He tilted his head.

“Why?”

Who knows?

Perhaps it was because, unlike Suhyeon’s group, who stared at her chest and hips while making crude jokes, Hae-il looked her directly in the eyes when he spoke to her.

He could be somewhat self-centered, but he wasn’t frightening.

At the very least, he treated Danbi as a human being.

And because of that, she had a strange feeling that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.

Danbi didn’t answer.

Instead, she looked at him and gave him a faint smile.

Hae-il stared at her face for a moment before turning his attention back to his tray.

The way he neatly scooped up his rice with his spoon.

The way he chewed his food without making a sound.

The fact that he barely spoke while eating.

Everything about him was strangely comfortable.

Danbi chewed her food carefully and swallowed.

Without realizing it, she wiggled her toes beneath the table.

It was a small sense of peace.

One she hadn’t felt in a very long time.