Ch.94Call Me Brother (11)

“Are you okay, student Lee Jeong-gyu? Has your nosebleed stopped? Any ringing in your head or dizziness?”

“Leave me alone, fuck.”

“Don’t tilt your head back right after a nosebleed. It’s bad for you.”

“Stop pretending you care. Like you’d give a damn if I died.”

“Then do a handstand and tap dance so you can die faster.”

“B-Ban Do-young…!”

They say the rod is medicine—an old-fashioned educational philosophy.

After being dealt with by Do Ha-min, Jeong-gyu had gotten up and was now sitting quietly in a hospital chair, calm enough for somewhat peaceful conversation.

“Haa, to think I’d get knocked out by a punk like that just because I was bedridden for a month…”

“Don’t take it so seriously. Maybe you were more pathetic than you thought.”

“Fuck… What did you say? Say that again, you bitch.”

“Want me to dislocate another joint for you?”

“Fucking bitch…”

“Oh, sharper than I expected. How did you know?”

Of course, he still had some pride left,

and his language remained as foul as ever.

“Hey, Do Ha-min. Why are you sitting over there? I told you to sit close to me.”

“S-Sorry… I just feel safer keeping this much distance.”

Ha-min replied with a slightly nervous tone,

then sat in a chair quite far from Jeong-gyu, who was lying in the hospital bed.

He wanted to keep his distance from Jeong-gyu so badly

that he was actually closer to the empty bed in front than to Jeong-gyu’s bed.

“H-Ha-min, it’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. It was an accident. And Jeong-gyu has regained consciousness now.”

“I-I know. But just to be safe, I’ll sit a bit further away. He probably doesn’t want to see my face up close either.”

Ha-min was still shaken by what had happened earlier.

When Jeong-gyu tried to throw his crutch at Teacher Miso, Ha-min had grabbed him by the back of the head and slammed him to the floor.

According to him, it was the first time in his life he had ever knocked someone down.

He must have been quite shocked himself.

Not only had he knocked someone unconscious with his own hands for the first time,

but he probably hadn’t expected to so easily knock out Jeong-gyu, who was a head taller than him, even if Jeong-gyu’s body had weakened from his long hospitalization.

Gradually but surely, the effects of the kendo training he had been doing with Ban Do-young were beginning to show in his body.

Though he seemed frightened by the results of that training.

“You acted all high and mighty since the entrance ceremony, but you don’t have the guts to come close? You can hit me from behind but can’t face me directly?”

Despite the blood still visible under his nose, Jeong-gyu sneered at the trembling Ha-min, trying to provoke him.

He probably thought Ha-min’s fear was directed at him.

“Umm… I-I need to be careful. If it happens again by accident, it might not end with just knocking you out this time…”

“…What?”

“S-Sorry…! I didn’t even think I used much force earlier, but I didn’t expect to hit you that hard! You’re already hurt, and you shouldn’t get more injured here. As long as you don’t try to harm Do-young or Teacher Miso, I’ll just stay crouched over here…!”

“Pfft!”

Hearing Ha-min’s excuse for keeping his distance from Jeong-gyu, I couldn’t help but laugh and quickly covered my mouth.

Ha-min himself was probably too flustered to realize what he was saying.

At first glance, it might sound like he was too scared to approach Jeong-gyu, but in reality, he was saying he didn’t want to go near him because he was afraid of accidentally crushing him like a baby chick.

In other words, he viewed Jeong-gyu as nothing more than a chick in his palm.

“This fucking nerd trying to intimidate me…”

Either Jeong-gyu’s pride was hurt by Ha-min’s words,

or he had already forgotten that he’d just been knocked out with a bloody nose by those same hands.

He snarled and tried to lunge at Ha-min, but—

“That’s enough posturing. Just eat some bread, you fighting cock.”

*Thwack*

“Baguettes are so versatile.”

I stopped him by whacking the back of his head with a French riot baton pulled from the bread bag.

“I don’t need it. I’m not hungry. Even if I was, I wouldn’t eat anything from you bitches.”

“What nonsense. That’s why you got your ass handed to you by Ha-min, who’s only been learning kendo for a little over a month.”

Looking at Jeong-gyu’s body, which had become much thinner over the past month and a half, I could guess what was happening.

He hadn’t been eating properly during his hospital stay.

He was probably skipping meals or barely eating because the hospital food didn’t suit his taste or wasn’t to his liking, further damaging his body just as it was starting to recover.

“Hey, Ha-min and I personally became your bread shuttles today. The bread from the bakery downstairs is pretty good.”

I dumped the bread bag onto the meal table over Jeong-gyu’s bed.

“…”

As expected.

Though he said he didn’t want to eat,

Jeong-gyu couldn’t help but glance at the bread placed on his table.

He couldn’t help it.

He was so weak that he could barely walk down the hallway from his room without collapsing.

Even though he knew there was a bakery on the first floor,

he probably never had a proper chance to visit it.

Judging by his personality and the way he talked,

he definitely wouldn’t have swallowed his pride to ask Teacher Miso to buy him bread when she visited.

And since he had been hiding the fact that he was hospitalized,

he couldn’t ask anyone else to bring him anything either.

“I didn’t know what you’d like, so I grabbed one of everything.”

And now, the bakery items that had seemed like an unattainable dream

were being tossed onto his table, one by one.

He must have been eyeing them from afar whenever he passed by the cafeteria.

His feelings were probably similar to a military trainee visiting the PX for the first time after six weeks of basic training.

“…”

Jeong-gyu stared at the bread in front of him for a moment, then quietly reached for one of them.

“Then I’ll take this sausage bread…”

“Ah, I was planning to eat the sausage bread.”

*Snatch*

I grabbed the sausage bread Jeong-gyu was reaching for.

“What the hell? You told me to choose! You tell me to choose and then take it yourself?!”

“I told you to choose, not to choose first. And what kind of guy goes for sausage bread so suspiciously? Are you interested in sausages?”

“Fuck…”

I can give up anything else, but not the sausage bread.

“Come on, hurry up and choose. Everything except the sausage bread is fine.”

“You should have said that from the beginning, damn it…”

“Come on, don’t be shy. Teacher Miso, please take a bread you like too. My mom’s son is treating.”

“Thank you, Do-young. But I should send Solyoung money for the bread later…”

“Ah, I need to give some of the remaining bread to the nurse noonas too. Hurry and choose.”

“Fine, fine…”

Though he pretended not to care at first,

after losing his first choice of sausage bread, Jeong-gyu began more actively looking for a bread he wanted.

“Do you like bread, Teacher Miso?”

“Of course! Unless I was eating with friends, lunch was always bread during my college days. I was known as quite the bread lover among my friends.”

“…I don’t think ‘bread lover’ is the right term.”

“W-What are you looking at when you say that, student Ban Do-young!”

“Hehe, sorry. Then what was your favorite bread?”

“W-Well, I like most kinds, but… I think my favorite was the coffee bun with mocha cream they sold at the women’s dormitory cafe in college. I used to buy it for Solyoung often too…”

*Crinkle*

The sound of bread packaging being gripped,

Jeong-gyu’s arm suddenly froze in mid-air as he made his choice.

“…”

In his hand was the mocha cream coffee bun that Teacher Miso had just mentioned as her favorite bread from her memories.

“Oh.”

“I-It’s okay! Teacher… Jeong-gyu, you eat it! I used to eat it often in college! Of course, I haven’t had it since graduating and coming to Bulsa High… But please, take it! The coffee bun would be happier if you ate it…!”

“…Sigh.”

*Toss*

Jeong-gyu frowned and threw the coffee bun he was holding toward Teacher Miso.

“Th-Thank you… Jeong-gyu! Teacher is really touched…!”

“Wow, I’m jealous, Jeong-gyu. You’re getting the same praise I got when I scored a 72 average on midterms, just for giving up a piece of bread. Isn’t this student favoritism?”

“How would I know, fuck.”

With his second choice of mocha cream coffee bun also a failure,

perhaps none of the remaining bread appealed to Jeong-gyu.

Much faster than his careful second attempt,

he grabbed a thick red bean cream bread that was closest to him.

“Um…”

“What now, fuck? Are you going to tell some story about red bean cream bread too? Like it was the first bread your mom ever bought you or some shit?”

“No, no…! If you like that one, it’s fine with me…”

“Hah, this is ridiculous.”

*Rip*

Jeong-gyu tore the plastic wrapper with his teeth and took a big bite of the red bean cream bread.

Though it was his third choice and he just grabbed whatever was nearby, it seemed to suit his taste as his frown softened a little.

“S-So you like red bean cream bread. That’s good.”

“What’s good about it?”

“Well, I was going to offer you the sausage bread I have in my bag, since it’s the only one left from what Do-young brought.”

“…What?”

Jeong-gyu glared at Ha-min with red bean and cream smeared around his mouth.

“D-Do you want it now?”

“…You eat it. I don’t like sausage bread anymore.”

And so, Ha-min enjoyed the remaining sausage bread.