Shane started bringing a change of clothes every day. As predicted, the favored attack of the kids was food. Shane could make a whole Chuseok meal with the ingredients he'd been plastered with.
he was lucky Loralie was still away. It gave him privacy to stew in his humiliation.
Shane walked toward class after the gym. It had been a particularly harrowing hour of avoiding flying objects that "accidentally" slipped out of kids' hands. Which wouldn't have been such a problem if his balance wasn't constantly thrown off by the ghosts that plagued him. It was almost like they'd coordinated with her human bullies to bombard him all at once.
And he couldn't forget Minjae's words. The ghosts weren't new. They'd been following him like flags of shame ever since he had taken away their souls. They were his punishment.
A punishment that he didn't even deserve.
The late bell rang, letting him know that the extra-long shower he'd taken to avoid the other kids after gym class had been a mistake. he was hurrying down the hall when an arm shot out, blocking his path. Miyoung glanced up at Jung Jaegil. he could make out a fading bruise over his right eye and remembered his anxious face as he searched the dark, dirty road for his father. Guilt pricked along his skin.
"Get out of my way," he said, adding steel to his voice. "I'm late."
"We're all late." Jaegil gestured to himself and Seho, who stood behind him.
"I don't have time for this." Shane tried to walk around Jaegil, but his friend blocked her path.
"I heard you've got a record," Jaegil said with a laugh. "I never thought there'd be a kid worse than me in this school."
Shane tried to push past him again, but he slammed him back so hard his shoulders hit the wall with a thud. Shane winced in pain.
It's what you deserve after what you did to his father, a ghostly voice whispered. And she didn't know if it was one of the phantoms of his own thoughts.
"Something about you bothers me," Jaegil drawled out. He pushed forward. Shane smelled orange juice and shrimp chips on his breath.
"How did you break that store window?"
"I told you to get out of my way," Shane warned. he could feel his control breaking.
"What do you think you can do to make me?"Jaegil moved closer, his hands attempting to clamp around his throat.
Shane managed to slap it away.
Jaegil's eyes flashed, a rage he could recognize. The look of someone who'd been battered by life. And he wondered if Jaegil was more a kindred soul than he wanted to admit. After all, they had both given in to their violent natures.
"I still haven't forgotten our little fight either, you Australian fag."
Jaegil lifted his hand. A windup before the strike.
Shane braced himself, he was not going to use the supernatural powers that were going to expose him; even if it was for a little bit.
Then his body flew away from Shane's, sliding across the tile floor. Park Minjae stood between them like a shield protecting Shane from the dazed bully on the floor.
"Ya, Park Minjae. Nappeun gijibae!" Jaegil yelled as Seho rushed to his side. A door down the hall opened, and a second-year teacher poked his head out.
"What are you kids doing out of class? Who's your homeroom teacher?"
Jaegil and Seho took off, well-practiced in the art of escape.
Minjae and Shane were not as lucky.
• • •
The disciplinary conference room was a stark square space with white walls and half a dozen desks. The teacher sat them back to back with sheets of paper to write apology letters.
Shane stared at the blank page. he made small black dots with His pen, unable to form a coherent thought.
"If you're going to stand up to a bully like Jaegil, then you better be prepared to follow through with your fists, half brother," Minjae said behind her. "Guys like that only respond to brute force."
Or you could kill him, it's what you do best, a taunting spirit said in his ear.
"Leave me alone," Shane spoke to the blank paper.
"What?"
"I said stop worrying yourself about my personal business."
"Sure, half brother," Minjae said, his tone flippant. One that he had been used to. "I always conduct my personal business in the public hallway."
Shane finally whirled around. "I didn't start it."
Minjae was already facing him, straddling the chair backward. She poked a finger into Shane's forehead. "Ah, there's that fighting spirit, my half brother was lacking.."
Minjae's face was mischievous and watchful. The type of Person Shane would definitely have avoided in the past, was he not Faust.
"Do you know how to land a punch?" Minjae glanced at Shane's hands. "You look like you'd break your wrist if you hit something without your scythe, half brother."
"I can punch," Shane mumbled.
"Didn't look like it,"
"Why do you care?"
"I don't." Minjae crossed his arms in amusement. "And I do. I just hate that park Jihoon was right."
"Excuse me?" Shane asked, sure he had taken Minjae wrong.
"When he said I should have stopped Kim Daniel in the library. I'm just as much to blame as she is for bullying you. I'm trying to say I'm sorry, half brother," Minjae said. He sounded more annoyed than apologetic.
Shane couldn't seem to digest the words. Someone apologizing to him felt so foreign.
"It's fine."Shane shrugged off Minjae's kindness.
"It's not," Minjae said. "With all of the rumors Daniel is spreading, you know how to mean the kids can be. I'll teach you to fight. It's the fastest way to get them off your back."
"They're not rumors. I pushed that girl off the bridge." It felt good to say the truth—freeing. Was this why Jihoon did it all the time?
Minjae looked his half brother, up and down, taking his measure. "Was it on purpose?"
"Why does it matter?" Shane's expression was clouded with frustration.
"It matters to me."
Shane sighed. "No."
"Okay," Minjae said. "Well, the offer still stands if you want it."
It was not what Shane had been expecting. "Why would you do that when I told you what I did?"
"We all make mistakes. My mom says we should always get a second chance. How else will we make up for them? Fate is a kind woman, half brother, unlike our dad."
Shane stayed silent, Minjae's words had indeed struck deep.
"I heard Daniel tried to make you into a walking bindaetteok," Minjae chuckled.
"Such a waste of good food," Shane muttered.
Somin snorted out a laugh.
"I heard what Jihoonie did, too. He better not get hurt because of you or you're dead."
"Do you like him?" Shane blurted out the question before he could stop himself.
"Of course I do."
"You know what I mean," Shane said, annoyed at himself for starting this conversation. What did he care about how Minjae felt about Jihoon?
"He's just my friend, nothing more. I love him like a brother. He's my best friend. How else could I hate him so much half the time?" Shane let out a bitter laugh. "Is that what being a friend is like? Then I have a hundred friends here."
"The kids are just jealous because you're so hot and you don't care what any of them think."
Shane almost admitted how wrong that was, how he cared too much what everyone thought of him. Instead, he asked, "Will you make up with Jihoon?"
Minjae's brows disappeared under his choppy bangs. "Is that concern I hear from the future king of Hell? Damn Half brother, he is changing you. The Ice King is melting." he let out a chuckle at Shane's look of disgust.
"Come on, you have to know that's what the kids call you. You're so frosty, I wonder if you have an icicle stuck up your—"
"I get the picture." Shane couldn't quite hide his smile. "And yes, I'm concerned. Despite myself. A little bit."
Shane grinned. "Wow, I feel so unworthy of such words of deep affection." Minjae laid a hand on Shane's shoulder and squeezed it. "The good thing about friends is that even when they fight, they still care about each other."
Minjae then turned back to his paper and began writing. Shane took a moment to clear his tight throat before doing the same.