Chapter 45

# 45 < Younger Sibling >

***

“The broken glass will be compensated by the Ssirum Club. Any objections?”

The high school captain shook his head.

Park Man-su, the 3rd-year captain of the Ssirum Club, struggled to recall what had happened.

He had come to the 1st-year middle school classroom to check after hearing that some 3rd-year middle school members had been beaten by a new student.

*

“Was it you?”

The new student didn’t answer, just tilted his head.

“You little—!”

Enraged by the kid’s disregard, Park Man-su reached out his arm. With eight years of Ssirum experience, he knew that even the toughest guy would scream and beg for mercy if he just grabbed their shoulder.

But why did it suddenly feel like he was experiencing zero gravity?

“Whoa-!”

He had tried to grab the middle schooler’s shoulder, but the new student spun around and dug into Park Man-su’s armpit. Suddenly, Park Man-su’s body floated and slammed into the classroom floor. It was a clean throw.

The classroom ceiling spun, and the back of his head and spine ached. He couldn’t grasp what had happened until it hit him.

‘Ah! I came to catch the new student.’

Cough-cough.

It hurt, but he could still breathe. The only thought that came to mind was the fear of the punches about to rain down on his face. He hadn’t fought or been hit since starting Ssirum, but from his childhood memories, boys would usually climb on top of someone they knocked down and start punching.

But what came wasn’t punches—it was a voice.

“Do you feel like resolving this through conversation now?”

“Uh, y-yeah.”

Park Man-su looked up at the new student with bewildered eyes. Even though it seemed like Park Man-su had started the fight, this kid was suggesting a conversation. Usually, that’s what the weaker ones do.

‘Or maybe he’s just a good kid.’

Park Man-su took Jin-hyeok’s outstretched hand and stood up. He could feel the new student’s strong forearm. It could easily support Park Man-su’s weight.

“Let’s talk outside.”

“I have to eat lunch with my friend. And we’ll need witnesses, so let’s talk here.”

“Fine.”

Park Man-su answered while rubbing his chest. He fell on his back, but his chest hurt. The human body is strange.

“How did you get here? This is the middle school building.”

“You hit our kids.”

“Didn’t they tell you why they got hit?”

The tone was sarcastic, but Jin-hyeok was doing his best to be polite. He could’ve easily knocked out the guys who barged in and tried to show off, but he held back.

“Hey, you 3rd-years. You didn’t tell the truth, did you?”

Jin-hyeok asked, looking at the 3rd-year middle schoolers standing behind.

The boys avoided Jin-hyeok’s gaze and fidgeted. It was embarrassing enough to get beaten, but being interrogated in a 1st-year classroom made them want to hide in a mouse hole.

“They were trying to call their friends to steal money. They even tried to hit us. What would you have done if you were the high school senior?”

“Is that true?”

Park Man-su wasn’t asking Jin-hyeok.

The Ssirum members just rolled their eyes, avoiding Park Man-su’s gaze, unable to say anything. It was weird. With Jin-hyeok, Lee Seung-hoon, and Shin Woo-sung as witnesses, they couldn’t deny it. But admitting it was also hard.

“Why can’t these guys talk?”

Park Man-su gritted his teeth.

But silence is affirmation, right?

In situations like this, it’s good to help with the confirmation. Jin-hyeok wasn’t some rookie who’d only been around for a year or two.

“Seung-hoon, Woo-sung. Did I hit your Ssirum seniors while they were just standing there?”

What better evidence than eyewitnesses?

Not just one, but two.

“The class rep is right. Since the first day of middle school, they’ve been trying to establish dominance by punishing us and even stealing money from the kids.”

“Yeah. Ugh-.”

The soft-hearted Shin Woo-sung even shed tears of frustration.

Crack-.

Park Man-su gritted his teeth.

The Ssirum Club was known for having skilled members who weren’t troublemakers. But recently, bad rumors about the club had been circulating. Finally, he had caught the evidence.

“I messed up. I’m sorry.”

Park Man-su was quite manly.

Embarrassment aside, he offered a handshake to Jin-hyeok. When Jin-hyeok took his hand, Park Man-su finally turned his neck and winced.

“Ouch, I thought my neck was broken. You’re really strong. Ever thought about doing Ssirum?”

“No. I have a younger sibling at home.”

Jin-hyeok shook his head with a serious expression.

Refusing someone’s offer was always hard for Jin-hyeok. How many times had he turned down Director Hong Soo-jung’s offer to stay for ramen? It never felt good.

But Park Man-su seemed to take it differently.

“I see…”

At the mention of a younger sibling, a pitiful look flashed in Park Man-su’s eyes. He seemed to have misunderstood something. Despite his towering frame and almost neckless appearance, his eyes were kind.

“Alright, let’s meet again under better circumstances.”

“Take care.”

Jin-hyeok had saved Shin Woo-sung and Lee Seung-hoon from the seniors’ bullying.

Thinking he had handled it well, Jin-hyeok took out his lunchbox.

Chae Kyu-ho, who had been waiting with chopsticks in his mouth, also opened his lunchbox.

Then, a loud noise echoed from the hallway.

It sounded like a buffalo was charging.

Jin-hyeok turned his head toward the noise.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-.

‘Jumanji?’

The sound effect naturally reminded him of adventure movies.

“Man-su-yaaaa-! You can’t do that-! Ugh-.”

Choi Tae-yang burst in.

He was late because he didn’t know which class it was and had to search from the back.

“Ugh-! This is exhausting-.”

Jin-hyeok tilted his head, spoon in mouth, as he watched Choi Tae-yang kneel and catch his breath.

That look, that dry heaving…

Where had he seen that before?

“Ugh-!”

Jin-hyeok thought he smelled cow dung.

***

After school, Jin-hyeok went to the newspaper delivery office.

He had delivered papers there before.

“Can I work until summer break?”

“Yeah, sure. You’re a high schooler, right? You look like a middle schooler without the uniform.”

The delivery office manager, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, asked. He looked unsure, given Jin-hyeok’s large build but youthful face.

“I’m a middle schooler. Can’t middle schoolers do it?”

“Why not? Do you have a bike?”

“Yes.”

His dad had bought him a steel TB bike when he started middle school.

His dad had offered to buy a more expensive one in Seoul, but Jin-hyeok had refused, saying any bike that worked was fine.

The manager, peering over his glasses, asked.

“Can you handle two routes? We’re short on people lately. I’ll pay you more.”

Jin-hyeok stifled a laugh.

How could the script be exactly the same as before? He used to do three routes, but now he didn’t need to. He wasn’t planning to make a fortune delivering papers.

“I’ll just do one route. I have a younger sibling at home.”

“I see…”

The manager also seemed to misunderstand, giving Jin-hyeok a sympathetic look.

To Jin-hyeok, it looked like the kind gaze of a good person.

‘I’ll save enough to buy five chickens for the family.’

With Jang Gun-i, that made five mouths to feed.

Jin-hyeok wanted to earn money to have a chicken party with his family.

Now that he was in middle school, it was time to put that plan into action.

With his bike, one delivery route would only take 30 minutes.

***

A few days after middle school started, the hallways were buzzing.

Rumors about Son Jin-hyeok and the Ssirum Club’s dramatic encounter spread from middle school to high school. It wasn’t even that dramatic, but somehow the story got twisted into Jin-hyeok taking down five high school Ssirum seniors single-handedly.

Jin-hyeok buried his face in his desk and scratched the back of his head.

‘Ahhh-, a normal life. A normal life.’

Taeyang High School wasn’t fully co-ed, but it had some mixed classes. High school girls even peeked into the middle school classrooms to catch a glimpse of the new student who had taken down the Ssirum Club captain.

As Jin-hyeok tried to avoid the stares in the hallway, he spotted a familiar face.

‘Ga-young noona?’

His aunt’s second daughter, Hwang Ga-young.

She was three years older than Jin-hyeok and had once visited him in her underwear, effectively killing any interest he had in the opposite sex.

Thinking about that day made his face burn with embarrassment.

“Kyaaa-! So cute!”

It wasn’t because of them.

Misunderstandings were inevitable, but with a crowd forming, Jin-hyeok couldn’t think of a solution. Was there even a solution?

‘Ahhh-, should I transfer?’

At least the messy encounter with the Ssirum Club seemed to have ended well. The 3rd-years who had been dragged away by the captain wouldn’t bully his friends anymore. He just hoped time would pass quickly and people would forget.

He quickly pushed thoughts of Hwang Ga-young out of his mind.

Not that it would work, but he needed to try. The silhouette of her naked body in the dark attic still haunted his teenage mind.

‘At least she was kind.’

Thinking about what had happened to her left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Hwang Ga-young didn’t know who Jin-hyeok was or their past relationship.

She wasn’t the type to deliberately hold him back.

But he was still worried.

‘What if she comes to our house someday?’

What would he do if she did?

He didn’t want to see her.

Most of all, he was worried about his mom.

***

Ten kilometers from school to home.

He thought about running, but if he ran back and forth every day, he’d be too tired to do anything else.

‘So refreshing-!’

So he biked to school.

The route had a good mix of uphill and downhill, which helped improve his strength and stamina. The speed was a bonus.

On rainy days, he took the bus with Choi Mi-kyung, Kim Eun-jung, and other friends who had enrolled in the local girls’ middle school.

He had no intention of learning Ssirum.

But when he arrived at school, he warmed up at the Ssirum Club’s training ground.

The new Ssirum Club building had a large shower room, so he could freely use it. He could sweat in the morning, shower, and change clothes.

“Huff-puff.”

Every day without fail, he climbed the rope. It was a piece of equipment with thick ropes hanging from a high bar.

Jin-hyeok used only his arm strength to climb the rope about ten times, then carefully descended. It was a great core workout that strengthened his wrists, shoulders, and back muscles.

“Hey, why don’t you join Ssirum?”

“Not interested.”

Ssirum Club coach Seong Bu-hyeon approached.

A middle schooler who could climb the rope ten times using only arm strength without resting? At first, he didn’t believe it.

‘Boys tend to exaggerate. Especially in the countryside.’

But all the Ssirum members testified that such a monster existed. So he came early to see for himself.

Days, weeks passed, and the 1st-year middle schooler Son Jin-hyeok kept repeating the exercise. His time to reach the top kept getting shorter.

‘He’s a real monster.’

So he latched on.

He’d show him what a leech was. During his athlete days, he was small but had a strategy of sticking to larger opponents to drain their strength. He didn’t win often, but still.

“Join Ssirum. I’ll buy you meat every day.”

“I have a younger sibling.”

Jin-hyeok tightened his shoelaces as he answered.

He expected the usual “I see” response.

“Bring your sibling too.”

Is he crazy?

Jin-hyeok gave him a look like he was seeing a madman. Was he supposed to carry his not-yet-four-year-old sister to school every day? First the Ssirum Club captain Park Man-su, then the newspaper delivery manager, and now this coach—they all seemed to have some serious misunderstanding.

The coach froze under the middle schooler’s pitiful gaze.

‘Is this really a kid’s gaze?’

His eyes were bright, but there was an indescribable dignity that set him apart. It was a gaze that hurt a man’s pride. Without realizing it, the coach took a step back.

Anyway, Jin-hyeok had to go home early to play with his younger sister Yoo-jin.

Lately, she’d been talking a lot, and watching her antics made the day’s fatigue disappear.

“Ah, just join Ssirum…”

The coach licked his lips as he watched Jin-hyeok’s broad shoulders and well-defined back muscles.

Jin-hyeok glanced at Seong Bu-hyeon as he ran across the field.

‘I’ve never seen him before.’

Back when he wanted to join the Ssirum Club, there was a dark-skinned, rough-talking man who looked like a bandit. Now, there was a pale, young coach who spoke softly, almost cautiously.

‘It’s like a different world.’

The Ssirum Club’s training facility had grown, and there were more athletes.

But so what? The world had already changed.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

But it wasn’t just the Ssirum coach who was latching onto him.