"Hey dumbass, I've come to pick you up," Kim Jyejin shouted from below. The day was still too young for such high energy. "You should be thankful. I deliberately went on foot."
Lee Dojin walked out the door with unkempt hair. "What the hell?"
"Don't you look at me like that." Kim Jyejin puffed her lips. "You'd have skipped again right? We can't have that." She calmed down, her tone was now serious. "I understand that you had your reasons for occasionally ditching class, but I've never seen you go this hard. You know that if you can't reach their attendance quota, you'll have to repeat a year?" She straightened his hair to form bangs. She whispered gently, "You know, if you have anything going on, you can talk to me. Right?"
Lee Dojin grabbed her hand and brushed her aside. He swept his hair back to reveal his forehead. "I'm fine. Promise."
"You sure?" Kim Jyejin rested her hands on her hips. "You don't seem that fine quite honestly. There's no reason for you to take on the burden by yourself you know. You have me, and you have your mother, auntie Seunhee. We are here for you."
Lee Dojin put his hands up in the air. "Fine, fine. You win. I'll go to school." He sighed out. "But I'll leave if I feel like it's too boring, alright."
"Of course school is gonna be boring. That's the whole point." She grabbed his arm. "But whatever. As long as you walk through the gates. That's a step forward for me." The two of them made their way to school, though one more willing than the other.
"You're in luck, your muse is in school," Kim Jyejin said. "You know, Ji-ah Seungsengnim."
Lee Dojin glanced at her. The Mother of Ravens had gotten better? Now that was something worth listening to. "And why would you know that?"
"I found out because she resided in one of my dads' hospitals."
"Uwah, The niece of CEO Illsang is casually breaching patient confidentiality." Lee Dojin held his mouth. "Scandal. What a scandal."
"It was a coincidence, coincidence! I just went there to take a look!" In anger, she hit Dojin's head with her bag. "If I really wanted to pry, I'd have asked the nurses what her reason for fainting was, but I respect a patient's privacy." The girl pouted, her pink lips forming a heart.
Lee Dojin rubbed his head. He stared into the distance. "Well, that's good for her, I guess."
"Hey by the way, did you get taller?"
The two continued with their idle chatter. It was hard for Lee Dojin to adjust since he had never even seen her a month ago, and seeing the previous him was close to her, it would not be wise to appear strange. Thankfully Kim Jyejin was not a woman to harp around the details. Soon enough they arrived at the school, though the scenery was not what they expected to see.
Around the gates, a few older men wearing black clothing and sunglasses were screaming around. They had their hair slicked back, some even with tattoos on their bodies—not an appearance that facilitated learning. In fact, they seemed rather out of place within this prestigious school ground. They screamed something, though the men were too far away for Lee Dojin to understand.
"Is it that one?" One guy shouted. "He looks dubious."
"You idiot, that's a damn teacher." Another one hit his head. "We are looking for a high-school student. High-school student. Got it?"
"Alright, alright Hyung." The first guy rubbed his head in pain. "But can you please stop hitting me? I feel like that's the reason I'm turning dumber."
"Hey you two, don't fight!"
The students fled into the school grounds. Every person passing those gangster-looking people turned quiet and to appear as unseemingly as possible.
As Lee Dojin and Kim Jyejin arrived by the gates, the men also placed their attention on them. One guy even walked forward, carefully scrutinizing them. Though what he did not know was that Lee Dojin had been doing the same. The man had short brown hair, a rotund belly, and a short scar running down his lips. One could tell a lot with just a glance, at least Lee Dojin had trained himself to do so over the years of war. He could see that he was short-tempered, prone to anger, and drank too much alcohol.
"That ain't him," the man said and turned around, continuing to look for someone or something. Their attention in Lee Dojin dissipated like the wind. At the same time, Lee Dojin's interest also faded away. In the first place, even if they wanted anything from him, the problems of the past would soon be irrelevant starting from The First Advent.
"That's kind of weird," Kim Jyejin said, as she turned around to serve these strange men. "I wonder who they are searching for?"
"Well, who cares? As long as they have nothing to do with us." He shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, maybe they are actually the good guys, who knows?"
In the meantime, Park Hansoo stared at the two of them from the distance. One of the girls asked him, "Hey, Hansoo, why are you spacing out? You are going to crash into the wall."
But he did not hear her. "What the hell? Jyejin is coming to school on foot? That Jyejin? And who is that guy next to him?"
"Oh, that's Dojin," a girl answered as she glanced at the couple. "We are in the same class. Thought he was sick though since he hasn't been coming to school lately. Glad to see he's okay." She looked at Park Hansoo again. "Why? What's with him?"
Park Hansoo gritted his teeth. So that was the infamous Lee Dojin (infamous only in his mind). He thought they weren't particularly close, only distant friends, but seeing this now, he was not so sure. "What're his parents do for a living?"
"How should I know?" The girl was surprised by the random question out of the blue. "I don't think they have a lot of money though. Heard he was bullied because of that by Sanbaek. Well, what can I say, I'm not particularly friends with that guy. He seemed kinda gloomy."
"So his parents aren't wealthy like mine, huh?" He bit his nail. Then why was Kim Jyejin hanging around with him? To use him as a goofer? But why him? He did not understand.
The men kept searching for their target, though there seemed to be no luck. At that point, they even thought that he wasn't in this school. They were thinking that maybe their person had already entered school grounds. If so, that would be rather bothersome.
"Hey, you all!" An unexpected voice screamed at them. They turned their heads to see an out-of-breath lady approaching them with a broom. "This is a school! A place for learning, not for some hooligans like you to do your shady business."
The woman caught not only the attention of these men but also the students and teachers. Kim Jyejin followed the voice with her sight then gasped audibly. "Ji-ah Seungsengnim?" Baek Ji-ah angrily swung the broom in her hand, making these men back away. "Holy hell, it really is! Has she gone mad?"
"Come on Miss, no need to be like that," the man with a scar said, an amicable smile on his face. He put his hands in the air, trying to appear non-threatening. "You see, just like you have your work, we have ours. We won't enter the school, so why don't you let us do what we are good at?"
"Can't you see you are scaring all the students away? How will anyone feel safe and concentrate on studying if you guys are lurking at the gates like hyenas?" Ji-ah puffed her cheeks in defiance. Her brows pointed downward, as she continued berating the people. "Go away!"
"Dojin, what should we do?" Kim Jyejin panicked as she watched the situation unfold. "What if she gets hurt?" Her face turned white. She thought about interfering, but she did not know how.
The other students had similar ideas, but they were scared of the consequences. Lee Dojin remained silent.
"Miss Ji-ah," another teacher walked forward. It was a middle-aged man, wearing a tracksuit. He placed his hand on her shoulder. "You should not make a scene. What if you get the police involved."
"How can you say that?" Ji-ah jerked herself from his grip. Her neck turned reddish from screaming. The anger rushed to her head. Her delicate face scrunched into a knot. "What will our students think if we let this slide? How can they maintain their trust in us like that?"
"Now, now. They'll probably leave when class is in session."
"That teacher is speaking sense," the scarred man said. He rubbed his hands together. "Just let this one go. I promise you we will be gone before you can say 'lecture'. Give us some leeway please," he laughed, "you could say we are both good at teaching others a lesson."
"Don't you dare even insinuate that," Baek Ji-ah shouted and threw her broom. The wood hit the man's face, causing him to fall back.
The man touched his face, a red scratch had appeared on his nose. He clenched his fist. "Miss, I have been nothing but patient with you. however, there's nothing I hate more," He approached her with a cold tone and lifted his hand. The other teacher ran away, seeing that. "than being disrespected!"
Like a small deer caught in the headlight, she turned petrified, her whole body not moving. Ji-ah flinched back and closed her eyes. She grit her teeth to brace for the pain. But there came none. Instead, when she opened her eyes again, she saw that one student, Lee Dojin, in front of her.
He was grabbing the scarred man by his face, pushing him back. The man tried clawing his way out, but Lee Dojin paid him no heed. "What's with everyone and being so riled up in the morning?" In his other arm, there lay Ji-ah, who had fallen back while eyes closed—though her eyes were now wide open.