‘No matter how many times you live a second life, you can’t remember everything.’

Honestly, how much can you really remember about the insignificant moments of middle school?  

So for me, middle school felt almost like a first experience again,  

except for the major events, of course.  

That’s why it took me quite some time to recall what kind of person Kim Min-hyuk was.  

He was probably part of a well-known group of bullies since elementary school.  

‘But really, does being a bully even mean anything in a place where kids get teased just for going to the bathroom?’

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

In elementary school, using the bathroom for a number two was an invitation for ridicule.  

In severe cases, it could lead to becoming an outcast, one of those life-altering events.  

Being a bully in that kind of elementary school…  

‘Actually, yeah, it was pretty scary.’

Elementary, middle, high school—  

Middle school was the time when bullies ran the wildest.  

There was a significant size difference between kids who had hit puberty and those who hadn’t.  

At this age, instincts were more dominant because we weren’t fully mature yet.  

Plus, this was 2010.  

Smartphones were just starting to become popular. 

And strange men would show up at school gates after hours to sell cigarettes to kids.  

It was an unruly world.  

Arcades had intimidating older kids, and internet cafes didn’t even have separate smoking rooms, so people just smoked openly.  

Compared to now, it was practically the Wild West.  

Being a bully in such a time? Of course, they were scary figures.  

Glances.  

More glances.  

As I reluctantly took my seat in the back, I could feel multiple sets of eyes on me.  

Normally, a new semester should be noisy and chaotic, especially for first-year middle school students.  

However, because of me, everyone was walking on eggshells.  

‘Why am I the class enforcer now?’

I just wanted to be the ‘really handsome kid’ in class.  

I had no interest in taking on a terrifying role that would make others uneasy.  

So, the conclusion I came to was—  

“Hi.”  

“Oh, uh, h-hi.”  

—to start by greeting my seatmate.  

Since Kim Min-hyuk and his gang had moved to the front, the kid sitting next to me was now someone who was already somewhat isolated in the class.

Even after the first day, the kid hadn’t found a group to fit into.  

He had chubby cheeks and an undeniably overweight frame. He was short in height and a bit slow to respond.  

‘That’s me.’  

He reminded me of my past self.  

A personality that had given up on itself, having heard all his life how ugly he was.  

A gaze that showed discomfort when others approached, revealing unfamiliarity with human interaction.  

Every detail felt like a reflection of me.  

“What’s your name?”  

“M-my… my… Kang-Kang-Sik.”  

“Kang-Sik?”  

“Y-yeah, Na-Kang-Sik… no, it’s Na Kang-Sik.”  

“I’m Kim Dong-hoo. Let’s be friends.”  

The beginning of the school year often involved some awkward moments.  

For example, the introduction, saying let’s be friends, let’s stick together—all lines straight out of a shonen manga.  

But that was the charm of the new school year.  

“O-okay. Y-yeah. Sure.”  

I could feel it.  

Everyone was focused on the conversation between Kang-Sik and me.  

‘They’re testing the waters.’  

They wanted to see if I would act as rough as Kim Min-hyuk or if I was more friendly.  

At fourteen, an age full of insecurities, it was natural to be cautious.  

‘I need to show them that I’m harmless.’  

What’s the best common ground when talking to other guys?  

Video games, of course. 

Nothing bridged a conversation better.  

“What games do you play?”  

“I-I-I, an-animal…”  

“Animal Tekken?”  

“F-Farm…”  

“… The mini-game on Junior Naver?”  

“Yeah.”  

Oh no.  

I’d never played that one.

In my urgency to keep the conversation going, I blurted out whatever came to mind.  

“Do you do any sports? Is there a sport you like?”  

“S-sports? Sports, um…”  

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

“Huh?”  

That ‘Huh?’ didn’t come from Kang-Sik.  

It was an exclamation from Min-hyuk, who had been glancing at me.  

“What? Is there a problem?”  

I tried to respond to Min-hyuk’s surprise as gently as possible.  

But the kids misinterpreted my tone and quickly bowed their heads.  

Why are you acting like this, guys?  

“… Wow! Our class is really quiet for the start of a new school year. Is everyone just shy? Haha.”  

Our homeroom teacher, Jang Bo-seok, had come in for the morning assembly.  

No one responded to his comment.  

The timid lambs remained in a awkward silence.  

———

Why are school bullies so scary?  

Because they act in packs, like wild dogs.  

They’re often associated with the term ‘backing.’

It’s like a storyline in a shonen manga—take one down, and it turns out they were the weakest of the four, leading to the next challenger.  

It follows a stair-case structure.  

You take down one, another comes, or they show up en masse to cause chaos.  

That’s why most people aren’t just afraid of the bully right in front of them.  

They think about the consequences, so they endure the abuse a few times and let it slide.  

Of course, the bullies knew this as well.  

This allowed the so-called second-tier kids under the bullies, the ones in their group, to run wild.  

Even if they were just lackeys, being under a bully gave them some sort of authority.  

In idiomatic terms, it’s ‘ho-ga-ho-wi’, the fox that borrows the tiger’s power.  

The reason for this long-winded explanation is due to my current situation. 

 

“Right, there’s no way someone like Kim Min-hyuk is an actual bully.”  

Someone who cries and makes a scene after a little scuffle isn’t likely to be a real bully.  

After school, when it’s the unspoken rule to go home together, I was walking with Kang-Sik, who happened to live in the same direction as me.  

“Hey you. Follow me.” 

I ran into Kim Min-hyuk, who was now more full of himself, along with his gang and the heavies behind them.  

It was like suddenly being challenged to a street battle in Pokémon.  

A moment you absolutely couldn’t avoid.  

“Kang-sik, you go on ahead.”  

“Huh? O-okay, b-but…”  

Even though I told Kang-sik to go ahead, he didn’t budge.  

For a moment, I thought it was loyalty, and I felt moved, but—  

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Looking closer, I saw that his legs had gone weak from fear, making it impossible for him to move.  

Well, at this age, having a bunch of kids gang up on you can be terrifying.  

I got it.  

“Let’s go somewhere quiet; we’ve got a lot to do, alright?”  

As if they were actually going to take me anywhere other than the nearby playground.  

‘I just want to bolt right now.’  

No way these kids could keep up with someone who had been training for seven years.  

If I sprinted away, none of them would be able to catch up.  

‘But then Kang-sik would be left behind.’  

Why did Kang-sik’s name sound so familiar?  

It felt like I’d heard it somewhere before.  

‘No. Focus on the present for now.’  

I had no choice but to follow.  

If I took off alone, who knows what they might do to Kang-sik.  

“Alright.”  

I nodded and let out a small sigh.  

How did it come to this?  

Why did I get targeted on the first day of school?

And now on the second day, I was facing a group beating.

It was a truly sad situation.  

——— 

(Third POV)

As Dong-hoo had predicted, Kim Min-hyuk was second-tier.  

Strictly speaking, he was between first and second tier.  

The head of the second-tier, and the tail of the first-tier gang—  

A snake with a dragon’s tail.  

But Kim Min-hyuk had shown the entire class a spectacle of him crying, sobbing, and running snot.  

He even had to bring his parents to face the teachers. It was utterly humiliating.  

No way he was going to let this go.  

Kim Min-hyuk called in every connection he had.  

He was too afraid to call in the second-year seniors

So he summoned the first-year top-tier gang.  

The cost? Half of his future allowance.  

He even got told never to call them for something like this again.  

Considering those restrictions and conditions, it was a cheap price to pay to get them involved.  

‘You’re dead now.’  

Good looks? Those would soon be smashed in anyway, so who cared?  

‘Too scared to say anything, huh?’  

I could already feel the chubby coward next to him trembling.  

Seven years of martial arts training—what difference does it make? 

Numbers always win.  

‘You’re dead meat!’  

Kim Min-hyuk thought to himself.  

That bastard Dong-hoo would soon be crawling on the ground, begging for his life.  

And then, he’d piss on his face while laughing.  

The thought of the soon-to-be reality brought a smile to his face.  

‘We’re here.’

The playground deep in the park.  

It was known as the hideout of the Shinbit Middle School bullies.  

Today, Kim Dong-hoo was to be executed here.  

Thinking this, Kim Min-hyuk turned around—  

“Uuurgh!”  

A retching sound filled the air.  

“Huh?”  

The one who made that sound was none other than the true mastermind, the power behind the throne of the first-year top dog.  

Known by the alias ‘The Black Wolf’, it was Park Seok-gu, the leader of the first-year bullies at Shinbit Middle School.  

————

{Dong-hoo’s POV}

The coach at the gym where I trained, Coach Baek Sang-ha of the Pilseung Gym, once said.

“In a street fight, it’s all about the first strike.”  

In his words, the first strike carried power.  

“Hit them in the liver. For kids your age, they’ll go down every time.”  

He specifically mentioned aiming for the liver.  

“They’ll start throwing up. And then they’ll fall down. If they puke where they fall, they’re done.”  

They will instantly start to vomit and collapse on the spot.  

“And the best part is, it leaves no obvious marks. Maybe a bruise at most? No medical bills, you get me?”  

It was a perfectly cost-effective attack.  

Who could possibly stop Baek Sang-ha’s holy mission to normalize the middle school bullies?  

Thud!  

“Uuurgh!”  

One hit, one puke.  

The gap between someone who has trained in martial arts and an average person is as vast as the sky and the earth.  

Add a difference in physical strength? It’s strange even to compare them.  

Numbers don’t matter.  

This wasn’t some historical battle, nor were those well-trained soldiers.  

These were just middle school kids banding together with fake confidence.  

But what happens when their leader falls?  

‘It’s over.’  

*Uuurgh.*  

As the first hit fell, a butterfly knife clattered to the ground.  

Oh wow. How scary. 

Who carries a knife around?  

“Uuurgh!”  

“D-don’t. Don’t come near—uuurgh!”  

One by one.  

I calmly took them down until Min-hyuk stood before me.  

Poor Min-hyuk.  

Fourteen years old and still couldn’t control his bladder.  

“Min-hyuk, you should be wearing diapers.”

Since you’ll need to wear them anyway, might as well add a bib too.  

“Uuurgh!”  

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

Thud!  

A straight punch to the gut.  

I didn’t feel like I was delivering some righteous lesson.  

It just felt like the natural course of events in this romanticized era.  

“Kang-sik, let’s go.”  

“W-w-w-w…”  

But Kang-sik didn’t seem to be on the same page.  

This situation was too foreign to him.  

Kang-sik was also looking pretty wrecked.  

‘Hmm.’  

At least the silver lining was that Kang-sik hadn’t wet himself.  

‘Well, whatever.’  

I thought I could just take him and go, when suddenly—  

*Hic!*  

The sound of a girl hiccupping reached my ears.  

“Ah.”  

I remembered something.  

Not all the bullies were boys. 

Girls were also part of the gang. Girls who didn’t yet know how to properly apply makeup and caked it on way too thick.  

‘Wait.’  

But this face looked very familiar.  

Unlike Na Kang-sik, who appeared vaguely familiar, I recognized this one for sure.  

‘Wow. Didn’t expect to see her here.’  

An appearance piercing through layers of mismatched, thick makeup.  

She almost became a successful model at one point.

Only to have her history as a former bully come to light, leading to her downfall.  

And—  

‘Just how ugly was I for her to cry just by making eye contact with me?’  

She was one of the reasons I realized just how terrible my looks were.  

“Shin Ye-rim.”  

There she was, shocked and crying.  

“…”

‘But come on, how are you the one wetting yourself when Kang-sik managed not to?’