Look at These Guys?-2

The roll call was nothing special. A neatly dressed teacher came in and said things that were pointless.

I was briefly excited about starting school in another world, but it quickly became boring, like rewinding a tedious documentary tape.

When I die and Dimensional Shift again, I hope the next world is a fantasy setting with an academy.

I want to learn magic and build a harem.

What good is it to be loved to death by women if it doesn’t last?

“……..”

I felt a gaze and turned my head slightly to see Shin Jeonga quietly glaring at me.

Stop looking. You’re going to make a hole in my face.

There might have been a gentler way to send her back to her seat.

I pushed her away a bit too harshly, thinking I should distance myself from the friends I used to hang out with.

Haven’t I already experienced the backlash from pushing too hard?

Garam’s crazed eyes as she tried to tear down the front door flashed through my mind, and goosebumps rose on my skin.

Even when pushing away, I shouldn’t be too strong.

But, this is the only way I know.

I’ve never slowly drifted away from people, nor have I ever had it done to me.

Severance and farewell always came to me suddenly.

[Don’t you have anything more to say?]

The voice of my ex-girlfriend, whom I thought I had forgotten after several Dimensional Shifts, played in my head.

Ah, let me correct that. ‘Ex’-girlfriend.

There was no need to deliberately recall the memories with her, who coldly left me, so I shook my head.

Jeong Sanghoon looked at my actions with a bizarre expression.

“Okay, that’s the end of the roll call… Inho? Can I see you for a moment?”

Before I knew it, the roll call was over, and the homeroom teacher called my name.

I got up without a word and followed him.

I felt the gazes of the students stabbing into my back like throwing stars.

The roll call seemed to have ended around the same time, as students were out in the hallway, walking around in pairs.

Some were sticking their faces into other classrooms to borrow gym clothes, while others were stamping their feet because they couldn’t borrow books.

I took in the somewhat different but familiar scenery as I followed the teacher.

After passing through a hallway with warm colors and going down a few flights of stairs, the faculty room appeared.

“Come in.”

Following the homeroom teacher into the faculty room, I saw teachers of various ages sitting at their desks.

When I was young, the faculty room was a place that was difficult to enter, but now it just felt like an office for working adults.

When I think about it, probably half of the teachers in this faculty room are younger than me.

With that thought, I saw them less as sacred educators and more as tired office workers getting paid.

The essence of the world seems to reveal itself only with time.

“Sit here.”

The homeroom teacher unfolded a simple chair and placed it in front of me.

I sat down without a word, and the homeroom teacher moistened his throat with water from a mug on his desk.

“So, nothing happened during your suspension?”

I was a little surprised by the more friendly tone than I expected for dealing with a troublemaker.

“No. Nothing happened.”

“Good, that’s a relief.”

And then a tedious silence flowed.

Like a blind date where both parties don’t like each other.

After a few minutes of sizing each other up, the bell rang in the faculty room, signaling the start of the first period.

I watched as some of the teachers, who had been staring at their monitors, gathered their teaching materials and left.

“Um… Did your father say anything?”

The homeroom teacher, after hesitating for a long time, finally spoke.

“No. He just told me not to cause any trouble.”

“Oh, I see. He didn’t say anything about the teacher, did he?”

The homeroom teacher shifted his posture several times, like a dog about to poop.

“No…? He didn’t say anything in particular.”

“Okay, I see. If he asks, please speak well of me. Class has started. Go on now.”

The homeroom teacher let out a sigh of relief and patted my shoulder a couple of times.

I stood up and looked down at him.

“How should I speak well of you?”

The words blurted out.

“Huh?”

“I don’t know how to tell my father if he asks.”

“Just… that I take good care of you… something like that?”

The homeroom teacher avoided my gaze, as if he was embarrassed to say it himself.

Ah… that’s what it was.

I think I know why I’ve been feeling uneasy.

“Teacher. Kim Suho transferred, right? His father didn’t contact you, did he?”

Kim Suho.

The name of the student that the original owner of this body used to bully.

“……..”

“Ah… I said something unnecessary. I’m sorry.”

I bowed and left the faculty room.

A world where the perpetrator is confident and the victim has to hide in the shadows.

Experiencing a dark side that I had only seen in news and dramas made me feel bloated and left a bitter taste in my mouth.

As if testing my resolve to change my evaluation by diligently attending classes, the crisis came sooner than expected.

Lunchtime.

I couldn’t shake off Shin Jeonga’s persistent advances to eat lunch together.

In the hallway leading to the cafeteria, I met the original gang that I had only seen in messages.

“Oh, you’re here?”

Kim Jin-tae. That was his name on his school uniform.

He greeted me warmly with a rather fierce-looking face.

I smiled awkwardly and took the lead, and Shin Jeonga, as if the resentment from the roll call had already dissolved, chattered beside me.

Kim Jin-tae, along with Seong Yunho, Jeong Ara, and Lee Mijeong, joined us.

As we walked down the hallway in a group, the other kids moved to the side, clearing the way.

This isn’t some cheesy delinquent manga from the 80s; this is too contrived, and I was momentarily speechless.

In front of the cafeteria, students had already formed a long line.

“Wow, the line is so long.”

Seong Yunho said.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

I quietly stood at the end of the line, and Kim Jin-tae, seeing this, laughed as if he was dumbfounded.

“I have to stand in line.”

When I pointed to the line with my chin, Kim Jin-tae’s eyes widened as if he had experienced a cultural shock.

Shin Jeonga, who was next to me, also looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.

“Did something happen to you during your suspension?”

Kim Jin-tae’s serious face turned to me.

I shrugged in response.

“Suspension must be scary. He’s become a complete scaredy-cat. Hey, did your dad beat you?”

Kim Jin-tae looked around at the gang and smiled wryly.

I was a little annoyed by the somewhat dismissive words, but he’s actually 10 years younger than me.

It’s right to deal with this like an adult.

“Oh! Sorry. That was a mistake.”

As I was thinking that, a male student who was talking with his friends bumped into Shin Jeonga.

Shin Jeonga, who was caught off guard, stumbled forward and then swept back her long hair, glaring fiercely at the student who had bumped into her.

“Ah, shit.”

Wow, Jeonga. Your curse diction is amazing. Are you going on Show Me the Money?

As if Shin Jeonga’s curse was a bell, Kim Jin-tae strode forward and pushed the male student’s shoulder.

The male student, with a bewildered expression, looked at Kim Jin-tae.

“What? It was a mistake on my part too.”

The male student’s pupils began to shake at Kim Jin-tae’s attitude of puffing out his chest and laughing.

Perhaps he was calculating the odds of winning if they fought?

After calculating for a while, he apologized to Shin Jeonga again, meaning he was sorry.

Shin Jeonga, however, was still not appeased and continued to mutter curses under her breath.

From then on, Kim Jin-tae acted suspiciously.

He subtly turned his body towards the student from earlier and then stretched out greatly, pretending to talk to us.

His fist, stretched far back, hit the male student’s side of the head.

The male student, suddenly hit by a fist, staggered without even being able to groan.

“Oh, sorry. Were you there?”

Kim Jin-tae smirked and ridiculed the male student.

The male student trembled with humiliation but couldn’t look at us properly.

His friends pulled the friend who had been unexpectedly attacked towards them, offering a timid resistance.

Shin Jeonga’s curses continued, and Kim Jin-tae didn’t stop.

Kim Jin-tae tapped the student’s forehead with his finger.

“Why?”

-Tap tap

Each time he moved his finger, the student’s head tilted back.

“Hey, stop it.”

I couldn’t leave it alone any longer, so I quietly said, but Kim Jin-tae didn’t hear me or didn’t stop.

The force in Kim Jin-tae’s finger gradually increased, and the student’s neck creaked pitifully as he was pushed back.

“I said stop it!”

I went behind him and put my hand on Kim Jin-tae’s shoulder, trying to stop him more actively.

“Ah~ let go.”

Kim Jin-tae shook his shoulder greatly, as if he was very angry, and shook off my hand.

…Look at this bastard?

“You got a problem? Huh? You got a problem?”

-Tap tap

Now he’s kicking the other person’s joints.

The emotion of humiliation was gradually filling the eyes of the student being kicked.

“Scared?”

Kim Jin-tae smiled gleefully, as if he liked the sight, and raised his palm.

Was he going to slap him?

The whole process seemed to be in slow motion to me.

Ah… I can’t let this happen.

You need to get hit a little.

I grabbed Kim Jin-tae’s shoulder as it was and turned his body around.

As Kim Jin-tae, who had suddenly turned around, was trying to figure out what was going on, I kicked his knee with a low kick.

“Argh!”

With a short scream, his body bent over.

I raised my hand high, as he had done, and swung it down as if striking downwards.

-Smack!

Kim Jin-tae’s face turned sharply.

Slapping is an attack that focuses more on humiliation than pain.

I swung my hand again at Kim Jin-tae, who was looking up at me with a bewildered expression.

-Smack!

“I told you to stop.”

–

Smack!

–

Smack!

–

Smack!

As I slapped him repeatedly, Kim Jin-tae’s cheeks turned red.

They’ll probably swell up after a while.

“You… you… you bitch….”

Kim Jin-tae stuttered, as if he didn’t expect me to hit him like this.

A look of bewilderment and anger mixed appropriately.

But, what are you going to do about it if you look at me like that?

I forcibly lifted his body, grabbed his collar, and lifted him up so that he could barely stand on tiptoe.

“Hey… Kim Jin-tae.”

“……..”

“Jintae.”

“……..”

“I’m calling you. Your name. Jintae.”

“…Uh.”

I didn’t like the way he was looking at me with insolent eyes, but I decided to let it go.

Because I’m an adult.

“Let’s quietly stand in line and eat, okay?”

I smiled and looked up at him.

Kim Jin-tae had a staring contest with me for a long time.

I don’t know in detail what kind of struggle is going on inside him.

I only vaguely guess that he is hesitating between resistance and submission.

“…Okay.”

And then, as if the conflict was over, Kim Jin-tae lowered his eyes to one side.

I let go of his collar and patted his shoulder.

“Hey, but what’s on the menu today?”

When I spoke to him in a friendly manner as if nothing had happened, Kim Jin-tae treated me like I was crazy.

I’m a little sad.

Friends can hit each other, can’t they?