Chapter 69 : Our dog doesn’t bite

“Jinwoo, I’m sorry. I didn’t manage my kids  properly.”

[Shin So-eun] regretted it.

She should have taken her right to the front of her house and watched her go inside.

She never imagined that just because they were in the same apartment, she would only see her off in front of the elevator, and she would wander around outside and cause an accident.

‘I knew she didn’t like going home.’

Still, she thought she would go home since her house was right in front of her and it was late at night, but who knew a high school girl would wander around alone until after 10 p.m.?

“It’s not something Jin-ah unnie needs to feel sorry about.”

Lee JeongWoo wasn’t really okay, but he gritted his teeth and pretended to be okay in front of [Shin So-eun].

Despite all the terrible things that had happened, he didn’t want to look weak in front of the woman he liked.

‘I shouldn’t have been caught spying on her broadcast! Why did I make such a slip of the tongue!’

That’s all he regretted now, inadvertently confessing that he watched Mangnani’s broadcast.

“HaYul, you need to apologize properly, right?”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Hiiiik!”

BangHaYul apologized with her mouth, but she still looked terrified and not at all relieved.

It seemed she wasn’t just frightened by being surprised.

Why was she so afraid of Lee JeongWoo? [Shin So-eun] felt she needed to find out the reason.

“So-eun, talk to Jinwoo for a bit. I’m going to ask HaYul something.”

‘What does she want me to talk about with this man?’

[Shin So-eun] and Lee JeongWoo were incredibly awkward with each other, but [Shin So-eun] left without considering their situation.

So, it was up to the two of them to bear the silence and awkwardness that ensued.

[Shin So-eun] took BangHaYul out of the lobby lounge and into the elevator room and asked,

“HaYul. Why are you so afraid of men? Did something happen to you in the past?”

BangHaYul kept her mouth shut and didn’t easily open up.

But instead of getting annoyed, [Shin So-eun] wrapped her arms around her shoulders and patted her gently.

“I’m not trying to scold you. I just want to know more about HaYul.”

Still, she didn’t open her mouth.

“I won’t hate you no matter what you say. So, please tell me. Okay?”

“……Really?”

“Of course, of course.”

At [Shin So-eun]’s gently smiling face, her tightly closed mouth barely opened.

The ethics textbook didn’t teach such things.

That realizing righteousness requires corresponding resolve and meticulous attention.

She wasn’t an acquaintance. Just a girl she passed by.

However, BangHaYul, a first-year middle school student, was too full of justice to ignore the existence of the camera filming up her skirt just because she didn’t know the person.

“Hey! What are you doing!”

The boy whose hand was grabbed was a head shorter than BangHaYul.

The guy who hadn’t fully developed secondary sexual characteristics was just a kid who barely had any masculine traits.

“You took pictures up her skirt!”

It was an undeniable arrest of a criminal caught in the act.

In the most recently taken photos that could be viewed directly from the cell phone camera app, the inside of the victim’s skirt was vividly depicted.

So, he should have obediently accepted his fate, but the boy questioned her.

“Who are you! Are you her friend?”

“Does it matter whether I’m her friend or not? Let’s go to the faculty room now.”

BangHaYul was going to take the boy to the faculty room as is.

But instead of obediently following her words, the boy threw the first punch at BangHaYul’s cheek.

“What? Did you hit me?”

BangHaYul, who wasn’t one to stand idly by, retaliated by hitting the boy’s cheek.

But she, a freshman in middle school, didn’t know it yet.

That the ecosystem of male students was completely different from that of elementary school.

Unlike elementary school students who would just feel slightly wronged and embarrassed if they were hit by girls, pride was more precious than anything else to middle school boys.

Especially for those who were desperately trying to maintain their pride in order to fit in with the group of kids who played around, like this child.

Thwack!

A punch that was thrown with all her might hit his solar plexus, a vital point on the human body.

And then thwack!

The second punch hit his chest, and the mammary glands were far more sensitive and vulnerable than the pectoral muscles.

And again, thwack!

The merciless third punch hit her cheek, and by this point, the thought of fighting back was no longer in BangHaYul’s head. She was just scared.

She fell and curled up.

And she cried.

But middle school was when boys’ fights began to become truly violent.

The house rule that they would stop hitting you if you cried only applied until sixth grade.

The voyeuristic offender mercilessly trampled on BangHaYul as she curled up and cried.

“Stop! Heuk! Stop! Heueuk!”

BangHaYul, who was known as a tomboy and had often bickered with boys, was experiencing attacks filled with genuine malice for the first time.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

“You btch! You’re so good at fighting? Why are you acting up, you cnt!”

Her voice begging for mercy didn’t reach him, and the violence continued, ignoring her words of forgiveness.

Fortunately, because he was still a boy who hadn’t developed secondary sexual characteristics and was still weak, she didn’t sustain any fatal injuries, but the malicious attacks that relentlessly struck her vital points and the trampling that continued even after she fell left a great trauma in her heart.

It was really fortunate that it was at school; the assault ended because a teacher came soon after.

Nevertheless, BangHaYul, overwhelmed by the mental shock that was difficult to overcome, wanted someone to embrace her and pat her on the back, but

“I mean, how did they raise their child to be punching boys? Don’t they know the simple fact that they’ll obviously lose if they fight a man?”

“Did I raise the child alone? I make money too, what are you so proud of!”

“Since it’s their daughter, she probably learned from her mother! Isn’t she learning because you’re always yelling at your husband!”

“Hmph! I’d treat her like she was heaven if she did things right! Does she want to be treated well without doing anything to deserve it? She thinks she’s so precious! She’s so great!”

Her family wasn’t very harmonious.

Her family, which had reached a breaking point to the point where they were seriously considering divorce due to personality differences, made her feel like all the blame was hers.

Eventually, her parents divorced, and they didn’t want to take responsibility for BangHaYul, so she was sent to her mother’s side as if she were being passed on, and her mother hardly came home, and her head was filled with severe trauma, and her body trembled, and she wanted to run away and was terrified just at the sight of men, and it all felt like it was because she acted up, it all felt like it was her fault.

Her heart became desolate, and she hated everything, and she hated the world, and so on.

“It felt like the world was gritting its teeth and trying to kill you, and saying, ‘You’re still not dead? You’re still not dead? Then how about this? You still won’t die? ‘ It felt like it was mocking you like that every day, right? You felt that way every day, right?”

That was why I couldn’t help but care about BangHaYul.

Because she had a look in her eyes that made it seem like she would die soon if I took my eyes off her even for a moment.

The reason why small dogs bark loudly is because the world is so scary.

The reason why large dogs are docile and don’t bark much is because they know they’re safe.

HaYul was like a wounded, small, and young puppy.

So, as a senior who had a lot of suicide attempt experiences, including one successful attempt, she continued to be concerned because she resented and hated the world so much.

“No, the world never hates you. You’re too small and unremarkable for the world to specifically hate you. So, the world doesn’t care about you at all. It doesn’t pay attention to you.”

That was too cruel, and that was why it was a blessing.

“Because it doesn’t care that much, it doesn’t hate you either. The world is just there. We’re just struggling in it.”

No one saves you, but the truth is that no one is stopping you either.

If you try, you can save yourself as much as you want; that’s the kind of world it was.

At least this land wasn’t a battlefield where bombs were falling every morning or an extremely poor country with no water to drink. That was enough.

“So, the only one who can save you is yourself. You have to be strong if you want to stop being miserable.”

But wasn’t it too cruel to tell that small, young girl to stand on her own two feet and overcome everything?

“If you feel lonely because it seems like no one cares about you, I’ll care about you.”

I always wanted someone to save me, and when [Shin So-eun] pulled me out of the swamp of loneliness, I made that resolution.

“If it’s difficult because no one is helping you, I’ll help you.”

The next time someone is crying in the street, let’s give them a big hug at least once.

“And men, well, it’s true that they’re stronger than women, but not all of them are just beasts? They’re actually much easier to handle than you think. Should I go show you in a bit?”

I patted HaYul’s shoulders, who was trembling as she forcibly recalled her terrible trauma, and then hugged her tightly and continued to convey my body temperature to her until she calmed down.

Finally, the child stopped crying.

Well, I guess there are times like this when I think it’s fortunate to be a woman.

Extreme awkwardness, silence where no one could utter a single word.

[Shin So-eun] and Lee JeongWoo, who were left in the lobby lounge, were too awkward to even do something else on their phones, and just spent their time being awkward.

And finally, [Shin So-eun] returned, with a young child hiding behind her as if she were her daughter.

[Shin So-eun] couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of her trying to hide behind her even though she was bigger than [Shin So-eun].

But Lee JeongWoo, who had been wronged, couldn’t just laugh.

“Okay, watch carefully from here, okay?”

[Shin So-eun] stood BangHaYul near the seat where [Shin So-eun] was sitting and moved a little closer to Lee JeongWoo.

Then she took about three steps back, created a distance of about five steps, and called Lee JeongWoo from there.

“Jinwoo, come here.”

“?”

He was taken aback by the sudden treatment as a dog, but it would be best to follow her for now.

Lee JeongWoo, guessing that she had something in mind, went and stood in front of her.

Then [Shin So-eun] said,

“Now, give me your hand.”

[Shin So-eun] held out her right hand with her palm facing up.

Was she really going to train him like a mutt?

But Lee JeongWoo inadvertently placed his hand on hers because her small, white, and delicate hand was too attractive to question it.

“Good, good boy, well done!”

“???”

There was still no explanation, and the situation was still extremely perplexing.

But [Shin So-eun] sat down as if it were only natural, and told him to sit while she was sitting, and when he did that well too, she petted his chin as a reward.

“Good job! My Jinwoo!”

“?????”

Thoughts of “What is this?” and the realization that he was doing something incredibly embarrassing, and yet it wasn’t at all unpleasant, a fragment of unrequited love that made him wish he could keep doing this forever, were all mixed up.

“Look, he’s just big, but he’s a completely docile pet. He’s like a golden retriever, so don’t worry. Our dog doesn’t bite.”

“???????”

[Shin So-eun] whispered to Lee JeongWoo, who was bewildered, just loud enough for him to hear.

“I’m sorry. There’s a reason for all this. I’ll explain and apologize later. Please just bear with me a little longer.”

[Shin So-eun] called BangHaYul and made her shake hands with Lee JeongWoo.

BangHaYul was still trembling slightly, but she wasn’t panicking, perhaps she had calmed down a bit now.

Rather, Lee JeongWoo seemed much more afraid that BangHaYul would scream again.

“Haha, I’m not a dangerous person.”

“I, I’m really sorry!”

BangHaYul bowed deeply, and although she resented him for making her go through this situation, she felt that she could forgive him to some extent because BangHaYul seemed to have felt more threatened and frightened than he, who had been on the verge of ruining his life.

‘I’ll let it go because she’s a child.’

After achieving such a dramatic reconciliation, BangHaYul finally went home this time, and [Shin So-eun] patted Lee JeongWoo’s butt and said,

“You really went through a lot. Go in and rest.”

[Shin So-eun] was speaking just like a senior soldier, but he couldn’t care less about such a tone.

‘Why is this crazy woman touching my butt? Is she trying to make me misunderstand on purpose?’

Lee JeongWoo froze solid at the skinship that wasn’t easily allowed even between lovers, the kind of thing that would only be natural between a husband and wife.

[Shin So-eun], who was the one doing it, was too out of it and just did it naturally out of habit, like she used to touch the butts of her same-s*x friends in high school.

It was a confusing night in many ways.