What if Doyoung had given up in front of the teacher today and just turned around and left?
He would have had no presence at all, just like before. Kang Hyun would surely not have even known Doyoung was there.
But as raised voices were exchanged between the teacher and Doyoung, Kang Hyun became aware of the existence of Cha Doyoung. If he heard the entire conversation, he might even know the situation Doyoung was in.
A meeting that was not in the original work was created, and Kang Hyun learned content that he should only have learned after the original story began.
'I see. The story has gotten properly twisted. That's why the error occurred with both of us.'
But even so, other questions remained.
If Doyoung's guess was correct and the meeting between Kang Hyun and Cha Doyoung was the problem, then as mentioned before, everything would be resolved if the system just rewound it all so that Kang Hyun wouldn't remember Cha Doyoung. But why couldn't it restore the situation, leaving such an easy method aside? Why did the system overload?
It seemed there was something Doyoung didn't know. It was clear there was something the system couldn't touch, though he didn't know if it was Kang Hyun himself, something within Kang Hyun, or something else entirely beyond Doyoung's current understanding.
Doyoung had to find out what it was. Only then could he seize the initiative in this fight where that detestable system held all the advantages.
For now, the hint was Kang Hyun. He needed to get a little more involved with him.
He had been put through the wringer spectacularly on his very first day of school, and trying to organize his thoughts to the point of a headache while also making deductions left him truly, thoroughly exhausted. The places he was hit genuinely ached, but his entire body felt battered as if it had been beaten all over. Because of this, he had barely managed to return home, repeating only one thought: 'I'm definitely washing up and sleeping immediately.'
The moment he got home, Doyoung heard Dohee's shrill scream as she was horrified by the sight of his face.
"Oppaaaaaaaaaaaaaak! What happened to your faaaaaaaaaace!"
Ah.
He must have frantically said "I fell" at least ten times to Dohee, who was half-crying as she interrogated him, but she wouldn't let it go so easily.
"No. I don't think so. Does your face get this messed up just from falling?"
"…It's true. Look at this."
He showed her the scrape on his palm that he got when he fell (after being hit) earlier.
Fortunately, he had stopped by the nurse's office, so the neatly applied bandage seemed to earn him a few extra points. Dohee looked back and forth between Doyoung's face and hand, uncertain.
To reassure her, he said, "Actually, my face only looks this dramatic because I have this plastered on it. It's no big deal," but Dohee's eyes shot up sharply as she yelled back.
"It is a big deal!"
She then fumed, "What kind of dangerous stumbling block is in that school?" and "How dare that crazy stumbling-block-bastard touch my oppa's most prized face…" Doyoung, left speechless, pressed his lips together.
And the way she was cursing the "stumbling block" as if it were a person made him flinch, wondering if she somehow knew and was just pretending not to.
"Why did you fall? Were you dizzy?"
"…Yeah, a little, a little."
"Want to go to the hospital? Should we go to the emergency room?"
"No! I went right to the nurse's office! I'm really fine now. You were really scared, weren't you? I'm sorry."
He said he was fine and sorry a few more times, worried she would be concerned for nothing, but that seemed to upset her even more. Dohee sniffled, "What are you so sorry about…." Startled, Doyoung was about to reflexively apologize again but managed to keep his mouth shut.
He didn't know what to do in times like these. All he knew how to say was "I'm sorry."
Dohee, who had been watching Doyoung at a loss, finally swallowed a sigh and reached out to hug his shoulders tightly. Doyoung, momentarily surprised, tensed up….
"My oppa must have been really scared too. Right?"
At Dohee's following words, Doyoung was finally able to release the tension that had filled his entire body all day.
Dohee, being in direct contact with him, was probably the one who best felt his visible relief. Thanks to that, she let out a small, scattering laugh and followed up by gently patting Doyoung's shoulder with her fingertips.
It felt like it meant, 'You went through a lot.'
"How much it must have hurt."
Hearing her affectionate voice, tinged with sympathy, Doyoung almost burst into tears before he knew it. He had pretended he wasn't, pretended it was nothing in front of others, but it seemed Doyoung had been in pain.
He had told Cha Dohee he was fine dozens of times. But in truth, he had been more scared… and in more pain than anyone. But he couldn't complain about it anywhere. Who could he tell this kind of story to? Even if he could, no one would believe him.
And in the midst of that, to hear those words.
Those warm words, spoken as if she understood everything, even though she really knew nothing, were surprisingly comforting. Because of them, Doyoung was afraid he might break down and sob, so he could only squeeze his eyes shut, unable to say a word.
Dohee's conclusion was, in the end, meat.
Saying he couldn't get dizzy again, she had raided every corner of the refrigerator last night and grilled every kind of meat she could find. The problem was that the exact same menu was served again for breakfast the next morning. Doyoung, who had a naturally small stomach and an even harder time eating in the morning, had no way of finishing it all.
"Meat, first thing in the morning…"
But he soon felt like he'd witnessed a devil's smile, one he'd seen somewhere before, and quickly changed his tune, "It, it looks delicious." It seemed he would be trapped in meat-hell for the foreseeable future.
Since he had even come home injured, Doyoung had been firmly bracing himself since the night before for the fuss Dohee would make when he left for school. But surprisingly, he just stared blankly at Dohee, who waved her hand obediently with a completely different demeanor.
At that, Dohee, her face even brighter in the morning sun, tilted her head innocently. "Why?"
"…It's nothing. Nothing."
When she asked like that, he had no choice but to just shake his head. Oh well. She couldn't treat him like a child forever. If she was less worried, that was a good thing.
Doyoung waved back at Dohee from inside the taxi and departed for school.
Perhaps because of that, it was a relaxed morning, quite different from the whirlwind of yesterday. It seemed he had gotten used to attending high school again in just one day.
Of course, last night Dohee had said she couldn't bear to see him walking around bruised like that, so she had placed a giant piece of gauze—God knows where she got it—on his face, making him look even more pitiful. Everyone he ran into flinched and stepped back. Other than that one fact, it was perfectly peaceful.
Of course, considering Doyoung's goal of teaching those bastards a lesson, it shouldn't have been such a relaxed and peaceful day. But then again, he figured the life he wanted after all this was over would be just like this, so enjoying it for a moment wasn't so bad.
He'd thought so.
During the morning meeting, Doyoung was staring intently at a single sheet of paper placed on his desk.
At the very top of the paper, it read: 'School Violence Survey.'
As he passed them out from the front row, the homeroom teacher was overtly staring at Doyoung. His gaze wasn't exactly kind, making Doyoung scoff slightly, wondering if this was the aftermath of yesterday's incident. No matter how he looked at it, this did not seem to be born from the good intention of helping a kid in his class who was being bullied.
'"Let's see if you were telling the truth," is that it?'
Perhaps, because of yesterday's commotion, this was the teacher's way of creating evidence that he hadn't just sat back and done nothing about Doyoung's situation.
[Are there any students in our class who are being bullied?]
The guys around him, upon seeing the question, were noticeably glancing at Doyoung. But at the same time, not a single one of their pens moved.
What was the use if they didn't have to write their names? In this very moment, they had all become each other's watchmen.
Who is holding a pen?
Who is writing?
Who is writing something unnecessarily long?
'Are there students being bullied?'
He could find that out just by coming to Doyoung's desk and looking at its condition, without wasting this pointless effort.
'This is practically a joke.'
Doyoung was glaring at his own paper, which was, of course, blank.
After some time had passed, the teacher told the person in the very back to collect the papers from the front. In the process, the students were able to check each other's surveys one more time.
Doyoung was also sitting in the back corner, so he got up and collected the surveys from his row. As he did, he could see that the kids in front had, as expected, checked 'No.' Some of them, perhaps feeling guilty for handing it directly to Doyoung of all people, avoided his gaze, while others brazenly wore blank faces.
When he had gathered them all and brought them to the teacher, he, too, seemed to have scanned through them and motioned to Doyoung as if to say, "See?"
Was he taunting him, "You made such a fuss, but it says there's nothing"? Or was he trying to back out, "I went this far, but since it says nothing, there's nothing I can do"?
Doyoung barely suppressed a sigh that threatened to escape. His teacher was really… giving him an excellent lesson on what kind of adult not to become.
Doyoung had been half-expecting to be called out separately later for some more nonsense, wondering what new stories he'd get to play for his recorder friend.
But when the time came, the ones who called him out weren't the teacher, but Ha Sangwoo's crew.
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