Ch.95Call Me Brother (12)

“Fuck.”

“Huh…?”

“Give me more, bread.”

Jung-gyu Lee, having quickly devoured the red bean cream bread he had chosen as his third choice, demanded more bread from Ha-min Do’s bag.

“Ah, I already ate the sausage bread.”

“Who’s asking for sausage? You must have something else. Even if it’s red bean, I’ll put up with it, so hand it over.”

“…Oh, okay. Here.”

“Ha, red bean cream bread and now red bean donuts? Fine, just bring everything.”

Despite complaining about getting red bean pastries twice in a row, Jung-gyu tore open the plastic bag containing the donuts.

“You’re eating well despite complaining. Don’t you actually like this stuff?”

“Fuck off. I’m just putting up with it because this crap is all there is.”

“Hmm, I see. Personally, I think red bean pastries should have the beans ground so finely that you can’t feel any skins or chunks.”

“What? You have no taste. The best part is when you can feel the bean chunks when you bite into it.”

“See, you do like it.”

“…Fuck.”

Caught in the trap, Jung-gyu briefly avoided my gaze and stuffed an entire sugar-coated rice donut into his mouth, chewing noisily.

Though he acted like he didn’t like it, if that were true, he wouldn’t have shoved that greasy donut whole into his mouth. Nor would he be licking each sugar-coated finger one by one.

Before long, Jung-gyu had single-handedly polished off all five rice donuts in the package. Having rapidly lost strength from not properly eating the meals provided in the hospital, his body must have welcomed the sugar and calories after so long.

“Hey, if you’re done stuffing your face, let’s talk. What happened? Why weren’t you coming to school and instead got into that accident riding a motorcycle on the street?”

“…”

“Did you find another girl? Got someone pregnant from throwing your seed around?”

“…I don’t give myself the chance for such bothersome relationships in the first place. Even if I did, I wouldn’t do such stupid things for their sake.”

“Oh, so you’re the type who’s careful about contraception. Then what was the problem? Talk to me.”

“…Why are you asking me now? Can’t you just ask that person who brought your brats here?”

*Thwack*

As Jung-gyu glared at Teacher Miso while answering, I found his expression so impudent that I hit the back of his head with a baguette again.

That look in his eyes might have been because his pride was wounded, but it wasn’t the kind of look one should give to someone who had been keeping his secrets and looking after him all this time.

“What the fuck was that for?!”

“A wet-behind-the-ears kid like you has no business glaring at a teacher.”

“Ha, you talk like such a virgin, fucking bitch.”

“Aren’t you the virgin? Even Do Ha-min beat you up.”

“What?”

“Until we arrived at this hospital, Teacher Miso didn’t say a word about your condition. We didn’t come here to mock you, but because you caused that scene on the first day of school and never showed up to apologize, so we came to get an apology in person.”

“Hmph…”

“Do you know how much legwork we did just to get an apology from someone like you? Especially my mom’s son spent over 40,000 won at the bakery on the first floor with his military salary!”

“No, that’s because you, Do-young, bought way more bread than necessary…”

“There’s no such thing as too much bread!”

In this situation, instead of taking my side, he points out the facts. Why are you acting like you’re on someone else’s side, Do Ha-min?

“I’m right, aren’t I, Bread Teacher! Bread is better when it’s big and plentiful, right?”

“Huh? Y-yes, Do-young! I’m not sure about that, but I agree with your thinking…! If we don’t speak directly, it’s hard for our true feelings to reach each other!”

“…”

“…I also think it’s better to speak directly to avoid creating misunderstandings.”

Do Ha-min, who had been keeping his distance from Jung-gyu, finally took my side and lent his support.

“I-if you don’t speak for yourself, we can’t properly understand what happened to you. And if we hear your story from Teacher Miso, you’ll just get angry at her for revealing your secrets, and we’ll only develop more negative prejudices about you while watching that. Throwing away any chance for things to change.”

“…How do I know you won’t spread it around school after hearing it? Especially that bitch Ban Do-young. With her big mouth.”

“I haven’t tried mouth stuff yet.”

“Would you talk with someone like her in front of you? I can already see how much you’ll make a fool of me at school as soon as you hear it.”

“…”

Jung-gyu brushed the sugar powder from his lips, as if to say he’d only consume the bread bought with my mom’s son’s money but wouldn’t say anything more.

“…It’s about showing trust.”

After hearing Jung-gyu’s words, Do Ha-min took off the backpack he was carrying and placed it on the floor.

With the sound of the zipper opening, Do Ha-min reached between the many books and workbooks inside, and after a moment, he pulled out a book with a very familiar cover.

“Hey, Do Ha-min, that’s…”

“Why are you so surprised, Do-young? At first glance, it looks like a novel… Oh my goodness!”

Teacher Miso was startled when she saw what Do Ha-min had taken out, covering her reddened face with both hands.

“…What’s this?”

Jung-gyu lowered his head to check the book cover Do Ha-min had pulled out.

[Magical Girl Marina★Hwarina]

The book Do Ha-min took out was the [Mari★Hwana] volume he had accidentally brought on the first day of school.

I remember hearing that it had ended up in his bag by chance while organizing his bookshelf at home.

It seems it had been sleeping in that bag since the first day of school until now, nearly May.

“That’s the [Mari★Hwana] from back then.”

“W-what did you say? Marijuana?”

“Ah, no, no, nurse. It’s not what you’re thinking.”

The nurses outside the room were startled and looked in our direction.

Fortunately, when we showed them the title of the book, the nurses quickly cleared up the misunderstanding and returned to their posts.

“Hey, hey, how could you bring something like [Mari★Hwana] to a hospital? And you’ve been keeping it in your bag all this time?”

“Yeah, I’ve been carrying it around since then. Somehow… I didn’t want to take it out of my bag.”

The [Mari★Hwana] that he had been so anxious to hide from everyone,

Do Ha-min now held it out toward Jung-gyu in front of Teacher Miso and me.

“H-Ha-min! What is this book with such a bold and violent art style? Why do you keep something like this in your bag?!”

“Ah, Teacher Miso. Don’t worry too much. Despite the cover, it’s not that erotic or dangerous. It’s a story about a magical girl with the power of hallucination and another with the power of addiction fighting together against a world that rejects them…”

“S-so it is a dangerous book after all…!”

“No, no, it’s not like that. There are some intense battle scenes and yuri kiss scenes, but it’s still a masterpiece!”

“Oh my… I-I don’t have the courage to look at it…”

Teacher Miso covered her flushed face and slumped weakly into the caregiver’s chair.

For conservative teachers like Teacher Miso, the cover of [Mari★Hwana] must have seemed quite dangerous.

It would be judged no different from contraband that should never be brought to school—not only reading it, but merely possessing it could be seen as disrupting the school’s moral atmosphere.

I also had my suspicions about what kind of story it might be when I first saw the cover.

“Why are you showing this to me?”

“If we ever spread your story at school later, you can go tell everyone: Do Ha-min is a pervert who brings dirty books to school and reads them secretly… That way, some of the attention might shift from you to me.”

“…”

“There are probably still more people who would believe you over me, since I don’t have any friends from middle school.”

What happened with that book was purely coincidental, but it’s also a fact that it led to our first date.

In a way, [Mari★Hwana] was a secret known only to Do Ha-min and me, not even Sahyang and Hyerang knew about it.

A precious yet intimate secret that you wouldn’t want to tell anyone.

By presenting such a secret to Jung-gyu,

Do Ha-min hoped that he would voluntarily come to this negotiation table.

Perhaps he thought he could now be confident even if such facts were revealed.

Or maybe he wanted to persuade and reform Jung-gyu even if it meant taking such a risk.

Either way, it was extremely protagonist-like of him.

“W-well… wouldn’t this allow us to talk a little?”

“…”

“With this, you have some insurance that your story won’t leak out.”

Do Ha-min cautiously extended his arm, closing the distance with Jung-gyu.

“What are you saying?”

“Hmm…?”

“You don’t need to show me this crap. You look exactly like the type who would read this stuff anyway, kid.”

Ah, that’s true.

“Ugh…”

*Thud*

Crushed by the serving of facts, Do Ha-min clutched his chest and collapsed to the ground, apparently quite hurt by those words.

“T-that’s right… this isn’t enough after all.”

“…Sigh. If I just tell you to get lost now, that Ban Do-young bitch will definitely spread rumors that I got a bloody nose from someone like you.”

Jung-gyu glanced at me and rubbed his face.

“…The bitch who abandoned me and my dad came back home after ten years. She came to steal anything valuable while thinking I was at school.”

“…Huh?”

“I got into this mess trying to catch her as she was escaping in a taxi. Are you satisfied now?”

Jung-gyu finally sat down at the negotiation table we had offered.