#14
What should I answer to Jisoo's question.
"Pikachu? What's that. That's a funny name."
She decided to pretend to be innocent. However, Ji-soo's sharp eyes stuck to Ji-hoon and didn't fall off.
"Don't you know?"
"I don't know. The only Pikachu I know is the Pikachu from Pokémon."
You know, that Pikachu thing, like a yellow fur ball. Lee Ji-hoon added. Ji-soo hasn't erased the suspicious eye, but she can't be pointed. Because she has no physical evidence. She was forced to take a step back.
"I thought you were 'Pikachu'."
"Why?"
When asked by Lee Ji-hoon, Han Ji-soo put his arm on the desk and spoke in a strong confident tone.
"Of course. Who else in the world uses strange abilities? As far as I'm concerned, you're the only one."
Jisoo was full of conviction.
***
in high school.
Han Ji-soo was best friends with Kim Min-joon and Lee Ji-hoon. It was because their fathers were police officers working at the same police station. And each of the parents of the three died in an accident. Although Ji-soo was lucky to have her mother alive, she suffered from trauma due to the aftereffects of a serious car accident.
Having such a past, the three became close friends. We always hung out together, but strangely, only Lee Ji-hoon did well. The teachers at the school were also surprised. At the end of the first semester of my first year of high school, I took a private mock test nationwide, and I won third place there, so what more can I say.
Even so, it was difficult for the school's staff to touch Lee Ji-hoon because he had a shadowy face and even studied well.
When the three were together, the first team members avoided it on their own, but when there were only Jisoo and Minjun, they could not avoid it.
"Hey~ Stealers."
Ji-su and Min-jun avoided the group as much as possible, but there were times when they were forced to meet like this.
Ji-hoon is also absent. He is representing the school at a national competition. Ji-soo and Min-joon were caught by some of their top teammates while they were leaving school.
Normally, they would have laughed at the two by insulting and mocking each other, such as "The orphan boy" and "The one with no parents" and just walked away. But somehow today, they seemed very uncomfortable.
He falters and approaches them with a steady step.
There are already few people on the way home from school. This is because the two were late to leave school because they were cleaning the classroom. Min-joon cursed Korea's backward education system in his head.
"You have to clean up where you study."
Although it is an unreasonable system in which the Japanese-style teaching relationship was projected as it is, such a bad practice was still maintained because the school did not have a budget.
However, the group of Iljin surrounded the two to prevent them from running away. One put his arm on Minjun's shoulder.
"Shall we move for a while?"
Ji-su is an exception. Ji-su, who was not wearing an arm around her shoulder, laughed and threatened Ji-su.
They all looked bad. Despite the ban on cigarettes, their bodies smelled like cigarettes, and school uniforms that were told to dress neatly were loose.
The one who seems to be the leader of the first class is just a freshman in high school, but he is over 180 tall. He must have exercised quite a lot, so he has a pretty muscular body.
With a group of about eight people, the two moved like sinners. Walking along, taking steps that did not fall, they arrived at the dark back of the school building, toward the garbage dump.
There were no students or teachers' eyes in the dark place. Smoking cigarettes in a place that is completely blocked from the outside gaze is the behavior of the first team, but it was a little different today.
"Get down."
"What?"
The one who is the leader of the first team said that all of a sudden. Ji-su and Min-jun, who were dumbfounded, asked back stupidly. The one who smirked.
In line with that, the other guys kneel down roughly and take away the bag. I try to rebel a little bit, but I'm just getting beat up for nothing.
While kneeling down, the wallets of the two are torn apart. There is more dust than money.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?"
The man who robbed the wallet carefully pocketed several 1,000 won bills from their pockets while bruising. He flips and throws the wallet.
Min-joon and Ji-soo's eyes are drawn down. I was ashamed and afraid. They were ashamed of their poverty and absence of parents and afraid of the ridicule and contempt they spewed. No one held it back.
Or would someone hold back if they saw it? In this society, deficiency is a felony 罪.
It's not their fault, but it's a sin. Lack is what's lacking, and lack is what's missing, and it's what's different. Being different is a sin.
Crimes require punishment. It is at the discretion of the first team members to impose punishment and determine the sentence.
What rights do they have? Well, I don't know. It's just different. It doesn't matter if you touch it. That's why I'm doing it. I just happen to feel really bad.
"They've laid eyes, though. They've got a sense of it."
All of them laugh in unison. The two criminals awaiting execution do not know their exact names.
"Did you text me?"
"Yes, I did. I even took a picture and sent it to you."
"Ha! Good job. He's going to come with his eyes upside down. He took his friends."
Min-jun's smart head deduces what that means.
Jihoon.... These guys are trying to lure Ji-hoon back to the team. I can hear Min-joon's head. Ji-soo raised his head as if he thought the same thing at the same time.
Puck! Puck
"What do you mean, raise your head?"
They are relentlessly squeezed one by one. There is a little blood flowing around the lips of the two people who were beaten hard. Their heads shake.
Pick-
Laughter flows again. Dopamine flows through their heads in response to sadistic scenes. The joy of bullying the weak. The dark joy kept them smiling.
"Oh, it's coming, it's coming."
The first team giggles. The goal is approaching. It's not quick. It's walking slowly.
"I thought you were only good at studying, but is your courage hypothetical? Huh? You don't give up your friends."
Iljin, who was already biting a cigarette, laughed as he pumped out white smoke. Other kids also laugh face to face. They can see the brutality in their eyes.
"Jihoon..."
Min-joon murmurs, "A short hair in compliance with the school rules, and a neat uniform." His good looks and eyes full of intellectual energy are still cool-headed despite an outright crisis.
"What?"
The leader of Iljin did not like his attitude. The subordinates, who knew what the general was up to, rushed in all at once, knocked him down, and were about to step on him, but it did not move easily.
Lee Ji-hoon slowly approached slowly. He seems to have no strong presence in front of him.
Lee Ji-hoon approached the center of the garbage dump. The first team confronted him. Ji-soo and Min-joon are surrounded by the first team. The sunset sun casts a dark cloud over the place.
The Iljin leader, who was crouching and puffing at a cigarette, got up from his seat. He takes his time to shake off the cigarette ash. It's a skill he's had a lot of experience.
"What is this?"
Lee Ji-hoon said coldly, "However, it was ridiculous for a group of first-class players who had the upper hand in numbers.
You said you were smart, but you don't understand the atmosphere at all, right?
"Hahaha- What do you mean? I heard you're smart. Don't you understand the mood? I called you to calm down. I'm going to calm down with all your brooding friends."
"Yes."
Lee Ji-hoon's expression remains unchanged.
Ji-su has seen it since then. It was not a "ordinary person's" move. They exchange battles like skilled martial arts masters, and it is not that dimension. They just had different physical abilities.
If others were usually in the boat, Jihoon moved at twice the speed alone. The distance of about 10 meters was narrowed down, leaving only an afterimage. The fist-bumped Iljin flew several meters.
They had their arms and legs stretched out one by one, so they were all over the place.
Jihoon, who literally smashed the first team in a blink of an eye, walked the two people out of the place with no expression as in the beginning.
He beat the first team members like that, but there was little noise. The first team members tried hard to talk about Lee Ji-hoon's mysterious powers, but they were dismissed as excuses that were smashed even when they made an 8-1 attack, and were not taken seriously.
Jisoo and Minjun also kept silent.
They knew. Ji-hoon, a friend of mine, had some mysterious power. Ji-soo thought it was like a "bully force" or superhuman speed.
The Iljin, who was beaten by Jihoon, sought help from the older Iljin. The condescending senior Iljin called out Jihoon separately, and Jihoon wiped out all of them without fail.
But I couldn't let it go this time.
The eldest son in the group was the son of a lawmaker. The wife of the angry lawmaker turned the school upside down when her son broke his arm and came in.
It didn't matter whether Lee Ji-hoon studied well or not. This is why hysterical shouts that parents should not be a child broke through the school office and rang in the hallway.
At that time, Lee Ji-hoon's grandfather, who appeared as Lee's guardian, was also a great man. With his white hair and a suit like armor, he appeared.
"Lee Ji-hoon, you're paying all the money. You're a lawyer for 'Lee Byung-hak'."
Yes, he was. Ji-hoon's grandfather was a lawyer. He took abusive language from his wife, one of the lawmakers, and gave them a big laugh at the school teachers' bystander education.
Then he stuck out something with his chin.
"What is this?
The school principal asked Ji-hoon's grandfather, holding onto his stinging ear because of his wife. He shouted loudly.
"Dropping out. He's so smart, but he doesn't have to go to school."
"No, grandfather. Don't do that. Talk to me..."
The principal tried to catch Ji-hoon, recalling his grades, but it didn't work. Ji-hoon's grandfather, who simply rejected the invitation, left school with Ji-hoon. He didn't look back.
After that day, Min-joon also quit school. It was my plan to take the GED. I had no regrets because I didn't have any regrets about studying at school anyway.
Jisoo was the only one left at school. She was the only one inside the school, although she could see each other often. But no one treated her poorly. Ji-hoon was living and breathing somewhere near the school.
Her school life went flat. At one point, she even made friends. Still, her best friends were Ji-hoon and Min-joon.
***
Ji-hoon's eyes are steady. He looked into Ji-soo's eyes and said clearly.
"That, it's not me. Just in case, there might be someone else besides me."
Ji-Soo's answer shook her mind. Is it true? However, all of the eyewitnesses testified of Pikachu's superhuman physical ability. A mysterious physical ability. And an illegally modified electric shocker...
As far as Jisoo knew, Lee Ji-hoon was the only one who could do that.
"No?"
"Yes."
Jisoo was deterred by his firm expression. It is difficult to push him because there is no evidence. There is a suspicion left, but there is nothing we can do.
Blowing out
"Lawyers! Are you there?"
Someone walks in through the door. It's an urgent voice. Ji-soo and Ji-hoon's heads are turning at once.