Ch.8Life as a Middle School Bully?

“I definitely see that even in a second life, I don’t remember everything.”

Honestly, how much can one remember about the trivial moments of middle school?

That’s why my current middle school life was similar to my first time around.

Except for the major events.

Perhaps that’s why it took me quite a while to recall who Kim Minhyeok was.

He was probably part of a famous group of bullies since elementary school.

‘But does being a bully even matter in a place where kids get teased for going to the bathroom?’

It’s a thought I had as an adult, but back then, it was truly a big deal.

Going number two in elementary school meant becoming a laughingstock.

In severe cases, it could lead to ostracism—one of life’s pivotal events.

A bully in such an elementary school.

‘No, they were actually terrifying.’

Elementary, middle, and high school.

Among these, middle school was when bullies ran the most rampant.

The physical difference between kids who had hit puberty and those who hadn’t was significant.

Since they weren’t fully grown, instincts definitely took precedence during this period.

Plus, it was 2010 now.

Smartphones were just becoming widespread, and men would appear at the back gate after school to sell cigarettes to kids.

That’s the kind of lawless world it was.

Scary older guys hung out at arcades.

PC rooms had no separate smoking areas, so people smoked openly.

Compared to now, it was practically a lawless zone.

And bullies during such times? They were naturally terrifying figures.

Glance, glance.

Peek, peek.

As I reluctantly took my seat at the back, I could feel various gazes on me.

Normally, a new semester, especially for first-year middle schoolers, should be bustling with excitement.

But everyone was watching me cautiously because of me alone.

‘Why am I the class enforcer?’

I just wanted to be the handsome kid in class.

I strongly declined such a terrifying position of intimidating others.

So the conclusion I reached was…

“Hello.”

“Uh, uh, uhhhhh.”

To greet my desk mate first.

With Kim Minhyeok and his gang moving to the front seats,

The person sitting next to me was currently floating in the class.

A child who hadn’t formed a group even after the first day.

With chubby baby fat, a visibly overweight build,

Short stature, and slightly slow responses.

‘That’s me.’

He reminded me of my past self.

A body shrunk from being told I was ugly since childhood.

Eyes still unfamiliar with people, panicking even when classmates spoke to him.

Every bit was just like me.

“What’s your name?”

“I, I… I… Ka-ka-ka-Kangsik.”

“Kangsik?”

“Y-yeah, Na Kangsik. Na-ah, I mean, Na Kangsik.”

“I’m Kim Donghu. Let’s be friends.”

The beginning of school inevitably featured awkward scenes.

Introducing names, saying let’s be friends, let’s hang out, let’s be buddies, and so on.

Because we had to recite lines that seemed to come straight out of boys’ manga.

But that was also the charm of a new semester.

“Uh, um, y-yeah.”

I could feel it.

Everyone was focused on the conversation between Kangsik and me.

‘They’re testing me here.’

Whether I was aggressive like Kim Minhyeok or a friendly type.

At 14, an age of great timidity, they couldn’t help but be cautious.

‘I need to show them I’m harmless.’

What’s the best connection when guys talk?

Games, of course. Nothing beats games as a conversation topic.

“What games do you play?”

“I, I-I play, a-animal…”

“Animal Tekken?”

“Fa-farm…”

“…That mini-game on Junior Naver?”

“Yeah.”

This was bad.

I never played that.

Feeling desperate to continue the conversation, I blurted out something random.

“Do you do any sports? Any sports you like?”

“S-sports? Sports, um…”

“I’ve been learning mixed martial arts. It’s been about 7 years now?”

“Huh?”

That “huh” wasn’t from Kangsik.

It was an exclamation from Minhyeok, who had been glancing at me.

“What? Is there a problem?”

I responded as gently as possible to Minhyeok’s surprise.

But the kids must have heard it differently, as they quickly lowered their heads.

What’s wrong with you guys?

“…Wow, our class is too quiet for a new semester. Are there only quiet kids here? Haha.”

The homeroom teacher, Jang Boseok, came in for roll call.

No one answered his question.

There was only the silence of quiet lambs.

+++++

Why are school bullies scary?

Because they act like a pack of wild dogs.

Known by the term “backing” or connections,

Like in boys’ manga where defeating one reveals they’re just the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings, with the next level approaching.

They had this step-by-step structure.

Stomp on one, and another comes, or they swarm in as a group.

That’s why most people don’t fear the bully right in front of them.

Thinking of the consequences, they just endure being bullied a few times.

Of course, the bullies knew this too.

That’s why the group under the so-called main bully, the second-tier bullies, could run rampant.

Even as lackeys, being under a bully gave them authority.

To use an idiom: a fox borrowing the tiger’s power.

It means a fox pretending to have a tiger’s might.

I’m explaining this at length because of my current situation.

‘Right, someone like Kim Minhyeok couldn’t possibly be a real bully.’

How could someone who cries and makes a fuss over a little thing be a real bully?

After school.

During the time when walking home together was the norm.

While I was walking with Kangsik, whose home was in the same direction as mine.

“Hey, you come with me.”

We encountered the emboldened Kim Minhyeok, his gang, and the mass behind his gang.

This was like a sudden street battle in Pokémon.

A moment you absolutely couldn’t avoid.

“Kangsik, you go ahead.”

“Huh? Uh, uh, um…”

Kangsik didn’t budge despite my telling him to go ahead.

I was touched, thinking it was loyalty.

Tremble, tremble, tremble.

Looking closely, his legs were too weak to move.

Right, at this age, a group of kids can be scary.

I understood.

“Let’s go somewhere quiet, we have a lot to do, okay?”

Even though they’d just end up taking us to the nearby playground anyway.

‘I just want to run away.’

There’s no way these kids could handle someone with 7 years of athletic training.

If I just ran, clearly no one would be able to follow.

‘But then Kangsik would be left behind.’

Why did Kangsik’s name sound so familiar?

I felt like I’d heard it somewhere.

‘No, I need to focus on the present.’

I had no choice but to follow.

If I ran alone, who knows what they might do to Kangsik.

“Alright.”

I nodded and let out a small sigh.

How did it come to this?

Why was I getting into trouble on the first day of school?

And on the second day, facing a group beating, or in technical terms, getting “destroyed”?

It was truly sad.

+++++

Kim Minhyeok was, as Donghu expected, a second-tier bully.

Strictly speaking, between second-tier and top-tier.

The head of the second-tier, and the tail of the top-tier,

A snake with a dragon’s tail.

But this Kim Minhyeok had shown the entire class a scene of him crying and sniveling.

He’d even been thoroughly humiliated in front of teachers with his parents present.

How could he let this slide?

Kim Minhyeok mobilized all his connections to gather kids.

He didn’t even think of contacting the scary second-year seniors.

Instead, he summoned the first-year top bully group.

In return, he had to pay half of his future allowance.

He was also told never to call them for such matters again.

But these restrictions and promises were a small price to pay for moving them.

‘You’re dead now.’

Good looks? That face would soon be caved in anyway, so what did it matter?

‘Too scared to speak?’

The fat loser next to him was already visibly trembling.

What difference did 7 years of martial arts make? There’s no fighting against numbers.

‘You’re dead!’

That’s what Kim Minhyeok thought.

That bastard Donghu would soon be crawling on the ground begging for his life.

Later, I’ll piss on his face while watching that.

The thought of this imminent future made him smile.

‘We’re here.’

A playground deep in the park.

Known as the hideout of Shinbit Middle School’s bullies.

Kim Donghu would be executed here today.

Thinking this, he turned around.

“Bleeeeegh!”

Someone was vomiting.

“Huh?”

The owner of that sound was none other than.

Above Kim Minhyeok’s superior.

The true mastermind behind the first-year final boss.

Park Seokgu, known as the Black Wolf, the number one at Shinbit Middle School.

+++++

At my gym.

Pilseung Gym’s master, Paek Sangha, said:

-In a street fight, unlike a match, always strike first.

Proclaiming that glory lies in the first blow.

-If you hit the liver precisely, kids your age will definitely go down.

Especially advising to hit the liver.

-They’ll vomit, right? But they’ll also fall down. If they vomit where they fall, they can’t fight.

They’ll not only vomit immediately but also collapse.

-Plus, it doesn’t show. At most, it leaves a bruise? No hospital bills to pay.

Since it was also perfectly cost-effective.

Who could stop Paek Sangha’s glorious middle school bully normalization?

Thwack!

“Bleeeeegh!”

One hit, one vomit.

The gap between someone trained in martial arts and an untrained person is like heaven and earth.

Add a physical difference? It would be strange if they could match up.

Numerical advantage was meaningless.

This wasn’t a historical war, and they weren’t well-trained soldiers.

Just middle school kids with the confidence of being in a group.

But what if their leader falls?

‘It’s over.’

Bleeeeegh.

As the first one hit rolled around, a butterfly knife clattered to the ground.

Wow, scary. How could he think of carrying a knife?

“Bleeeeegh!”

“D-don’t, don’t come near—bleeeeegh.”

One by one.

After calmly dealing with them, suddenly Minhyeok was in front of me.

Poor Minhyeok.

14 years old and still can’t control his bladder.

“Minhyeok, you need to wear diapers.”

Since you need to wear something, let me give you a chin guard too.

“Bleeeeegh!”

“I haven’t hit you yet, why are you pretending to vomit?”

Thwack!

A satisfying straight punch.

I didn’t feel like I was teaching him a lesson.

It just felt natural in this romantic era.

“Kangsik, let’s go.”

“W-w-w-w.”

But Kangsik seemed unfamiliar with this situation.

He was also broken.

‘Hmm.’

The only good thing was that Kangsik hadn’t wet himself.

‘Well, that’s fine.’

I’ll just take him with me—I thought, when suddenly:

“Hic!”

I heard a girl hiccupping.

“Ah.”

Then I remembered.

That bully groups don’t just consist of boys.

Girls who don’t know how to apply makeup properly, so they just put it on thick.

Female bullies naturally existed too.

‘Huh?’

But this was a face I’d seen somewhere before.

While Na Kangsik was vague in my memory,

This was definitely a face I knew.

‘Wow, fancy seeing you here.’

Features emerging through thick, ill-fitting makeup.

Someone who almost became a successful model,

But fell from grace when her past as a bully was revealed.

And.

‘How ugly must I be for her to cry just from making eye contact with me?’

One of the factors that showed me how terrible my appearance was.

“Shin Yerim.”

She was there, crying in shock.

“…”

But if even Kangsik didn’t wet himself, why did you?