Spin, spin, spin. The radar of Lee Eun-Chul, who has just become a high school student, is sweeping the area.
New school, new classroom, new classmates.
Lee Eun-Chul, sitting at the back of the classroom and sizing up the atmosphere, has sharp, predatory eyes. Who will he place beneath him, and who will become his friend.
With a single glance, decisions are made swiftly.
This is a world of the strong devouring the weak.
Having already ruled the neighborhood with his fists since middle school, most of the kids in the class looked like prey to Lee Eun-Chul.
Almost all who met his eyes looked away.
'...Not much here.'
But.
There was one kid who actually came toward him with a smile.
'Jo Sung-Ho.'
A guy who had some pull in the neighboring district.
They had run into each other a few times while drinking with mutual friends.
"So you ended up here too?" "Yeah."
They exchanged greetings and caught up on mutual acquaintances, and a brief power play passed between them in the process—but only for a moment.
Jo Sung-Ho, who had heard plenty about Lee Eun-Chul's reputation, backed down first.
"Let's get along."
Lee Eun-Chul grinned and clasped the hand Jo Sung-Ho extended.
He held the higher rank, but a guy like this was a 'friend.'
While he was sorting out the class hierarchy, one kid kept catching Lee Eun-Chul's eye.
Not a model student sitting up front, and not some tough guy posturing in the back either.
A strange kid sitting in the middle of the classroom who didn't avoid his gaze.
They always exist.
One per class, at least.
The dense ones who don't know their place and only figure out the pecking order after something happens.
That kid, who had been looking behind him, sighed as if disappointed, then turned back to the front. Unable to hold back, Lee Eun-Chul stood up.
Screech. The sound of his chair dragging rang noisily through the classroom.
Naturally, every pair of eyes in the room turned to Lee Eun-Chul.
Savoring those gazes, feeling puffed up, he approached the kid who didn't know his place.
"Hey."
He reached to grab that kid's shoulder and turn him around.
But then, an unexpected challenge came from a direction he hadn't anticipated.
"Hold on."
Seeing Jo Sung-Ho gripping his wrist, Lee Eun-Chul spoke.
"What?"
His voice was dripping with displeasure. Jo Sung-Ho, already on edge, gulped hard and swallowed.
"We went to the same school. Don't mess with this guy if you can help it." "...Same school?"
He was shielding him just because they went to the same school?
That meant one of two things.
Either there was a reason so difficult to explain that he shouldn't be touched.
Or he was looking down on Lee Eun-Chul.
Lee Eun-Chul's face hardened. He kicked the chair of 'that kid,' who still hadn't turned around despite all the commotion.
"Hey, hey. Who do you think you are? Say something, why don't you. You don't have a mouth?"
Jo Sung-Ho, who had gone pale, stepped forward trying to intervene.
Having reached the limit of his patience, Lee Eun-Chul slapped Jo Sung-Ho's hand away with force and glared at him.
"You, come with me."
As Lee Eun-Chul headed out of the classroom, two goons who had attended the same middle school followed behind him.
Standing in the doorway, Lee Eun-Chul looked back. He could see Jo Sung-Ho breaking into a cold sweat, and 'that kid,' who still showed zero interest.
Grit. A pale, murderous gleam swirled in Lee Eun-Chul's eyes.
* * *
"Gah!"
Jo Sung-Ho's face was a mess as he staggered.
But Lee Eun-Chul's eyes still burned with fury, clearly not satisfied.
Lee Eun-Chul had backed Jo Sung-Ho against the wall and demanded answers.
"Who the hell is that guy? Why are you covering for him?"
Jo Sung-Ho spat blood-tinged saliva toward the floor, breathing raggedly.
He lifted his head. His expression was exhausted.
"The toughest guy at our middle school." "...?"
Lee Eun-Chul tilted his head.
This guy—had he lost his mind from taking a few hits?
It was well-known that Jo Sung-Ho's crew had run those neighborhood schools.
But Jo Sung-Ho shook his head and emphasized.
"He's someone we couldn't even touch. I only stepped in on my own because I was afraid things might go wrong here too."
At first Lee Eun-Chul thought he was spouting nonsense, but Jo Sung-Ho's eyes were dead serious.
'This guy... is he for real?'
No. If someone like that existed, there was no way rumors wouldn't have spread.
Seong Su-Ho.
Lee Eun-Chul had lived in this neighborhood since elementary school, and he had never once heard that name.
Besides, what could that meek-looking kid possibly do to him?
The fact that Jo Sung-Ho had been so intimidated by a nobody like that, humiliating Lee Eun-Chul in the process, sent his anger boiling to the top of his head.
Whack! Jo Sung-Ho's head snapped to the side from the full-force swing of Lee Eun-Chul's hand.
The struck cheek quickly swelled an angry red.
He'd learned boxing since he was little, and it showed—Lee Eun-Chul's arm strength was no joke.
But what Jo Sung-Ho truly feared was something else entirely.
That was when Jo Sung-Ho, who had been silently enduring Lee Eun-Chul's brutal violence, spotted something.
'...!'
Seeing Jo Sung-Ho's eyes go wide, Lee Eun-Chul turned his head.
From far away.
That meek-looking kid was walking toward them.
Jo Sung-Ho didn't seem to want to make eye contact with the approaching figure. He lowered his head and muttered.
"Just... apologize. This is a sincere warning." "You little—"
Lee Eun-Chul grabbed the back of Jo Sung-Ho's head and shook it, but Jo Sung-Ho simply clamped his mouth shut.
Just before another string of foul language could fly from Lee Eun-Chul's mouth—
Su-Ho, the cause of all of this, stood before them.
Was it because of what he'd just heard from Jo Sung-Ho?
Lee Eun-Chul, who would normally have thrown punches first and asked questions later, stepped back from Jo Sung-Ho and guarded himself against Su-Ho.
His height wasn't short, but compared to Lee Eun-Chul or Jo Sung-Ho, both well past the typical first-year high school build, Su-Ho didn't look particularly tall either.
An average frame.
The neck and wrists visible through the school uniform looked somewhat sturdy, but his body was definitely not that of someone who trained in sports seriously.
Lee Eun-Chul couldn't believe Jo Sung-Ho's words.
Regardless, Su-Ho stood right in front of Jo Sung-Ho and examined his badly battered face.
Tsk, tsk.
The sound of clicking his tongue in sympathy came out involuntarily.
"Sung-Ho." "...Yeah." "Let's say you did it again this time. At this point, it's pretty clearly self-defense."
Jo Sung-Ho nodded without hesitation.
"Yeah."
Do what, exactly?
Lee Eun-Chul scowled in confusion.
"Hey."
The moment he reached out to turn Su-Ho around by the shoulder, a blinding flash of light suddenly exploded in front of Lee Eun-Chul's eyes.
Thud!
Lee Eun-Chul crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
Almost simultaneously, the two henchmen standing behind him also lost consciousness.
Thud, thud!
'What a terrifying guy...'
Jo Sung-Ho clicked his tongue in amazement.
If it hadn't been for the visual acuity sharpened by athletics, he wouldn't have been able to follow the movements at all.
One blow to Lee Eun-Chul's face, one precise strike to each of the lackeys' vital points—hits as mechanically accurate and brutally powerful as a wild beast.
The first time 'Seong Su-Ho' had gotten into a confrontation by 'accident,' even Jo Sung-Ho himself had wondered whether this was really human strength.
After that, school life had become surprisingly easy—unlike what he'd expected.
Watching the fallen Lee Eun-Chul and his crew, Jo Sung-Ho scratched the back of his head.
'...'
Lee Eun-Chul's shattered nose, the henchmen with broken bones.
The rumors would spread fast.
That Lee Eun-Chul of such-and-such Middle School had been taken down by Jo Sung-Ho of so-and-so Middle School.
It was better than the rumor being that he was knocked out by some unknown nobody, so Lee Eun-Chul would keep his mouth shut too.
'Well then...'
Another victory added to his record.
A victory that was handed to him on a silver platter—somehow, it felt a bit embarrassing.
While he was mulling these thoughts over, Su-Ho had quietly walked up and extended a hand to Jo Sung-Ho.
"Since it turned out this way anyway... take care of me here too."
Jo Sung-Ho, who had been scratching his cheek, silently clasped his hand.
Well... not a bad deal.
* * *
"Wow, Jo Sung-Ho took on all three of them?" "I knew from the first time I saw him—he had serious presence." "He's been doing judo since he was little, so he's famous around here." "Maybe I should learn judo too?"
The news that all of Lee Eun-Chul's crew had been carried off to the hospital set the classroom buzzing.
Jo Sung-Ho, in particular, was treated as a hero for getting into a fight while protecting someone from the same school.
As the new school year had just started and everyone was still awkward with one another, the excitement over the topic filled the room. Su-Ho, meanwhile, stared blankly out the window alone.
Before long, the after-school period was nearly over, and the sky was turning yellow.
For some reason, yawns kept threatening to spill out, and he forcibly held them back.
'...Boring.'
He was bored.
Lately, he'd been yawning for no reason and feeling bored in moments more and more often.
A faint feeling—like there had once been something that made his heart race, something more wondrous that he used to know.
Whenever that feeling surfaced, Su-Ho couldn't stand the tedium.
Creak—
The classroom door opened.
Every student's gaze shot to the back of the room.
Jo Sung-Ho walked in without any particular reaction and sat down in his seat.
Ooh—
The kids' eyes filled with admiration as they looked at Jo Sung-Ho's bruised and battered face.
The master of the classroom had shifted from Lee Eun-Chul to Jo Sung-Ho.
"Hey, hey."
Someone kept poking the back of Su-Ho, who still showed zero interest in anything besides the window.
He turned around. A neat-looking girl was talking to him.
"That friend who helped you ended up like that and came in, and you're not even going to say thank you?" "...I did." "Oh, okay."
The moment Su-Ho answered bluntly, the girl, flustered, quickly opened her textbook.
Su-Ho turned back to the window.
'Boring.'
The sun was sinking low.
* * *
Dismissal time.
While everyone was busy heading outside, Su-Ho alone stood by the window, gazing at the athletic field.
Students were filing out through the school gate in rows.
He disliked crowds.
His mother always laughed and said that was one thing he'd inherited straight from his dad.
He had been reading a book borrowed from the library and was about to leave. When he looked up, the classroom was already empty.
Su-Ho took his time packing his bag and slung it over his shoulder.
There was value in taking it easy, but if he delayed any longer, he would definitely be late for dinner, and then he would have to face his mother's wrath.
If it ended there, that would have been fortunate.
If the news of his mother's fury reached his father's ears...
'Ugh, I just imagined it.'
A sudden chill ran through Su-Ho, and he shook his head.
How old would his father have to be before he became a little less frightening?
Even if his father became an old man, Su-Ho didn't think he could ever win.
Shuddering, Su-Ho hurried over and tried to open the back door of the classroom.
'The door... won't open?'
It wasn't just locked. Even with all the strength he was putting into it, the door wouldn't budge an inch—something that wouldn't happen even if it were simply locked by someone other than him.
The door sat as motionless as a wall that had been there from the very start.
'What the...?'
Su-Ho's eyes went wide. He ran to the front door and grabbed the handle.
Same result.
Alarmed, Su-Ho rushed to the window and looked outside.
What unfolded before his eyes was an impossible sight.
Students leaving through the school gate, students exercising on the field, cars driving down the road, people walking on the sidewalk beside it—and even a ball suspended in midair.
Everything had stopped.
'How is this possible...?'
Su-Ho clenched both fists and slammed them against the window with all his might.
Thoom!
But instead of shattering, the window bounced his hand back as if he'd struck rubber.
'...!'
That was when it appeared.
Su-Ho had backed away from the window and was stepping backward, desperately trying to make sense of the situation in his head.
It showed up.
Su-Ho saw a round, black hole that had suddenly appeared at the back of the classroom.
At first it was about the size of a volleyball, but it kept expanding until it quickly became large enough for a person to walk through.
A gate of thick darkness, as if you would be sucked right in.
Any normal child would have been frightened half to death by this.
But Su-Ho placed a hand on his chest instead of crying or screaming.
Thump, thump, thump.
His excited heart was pounding wildly.
Perhaps.
Perhaps he had been waiting for something like this for a very long time.
'Mom always said I took after Dad.'
If this were his father...
What would he have done in a moment like this?
The answer was clear.
Thump, thump, thump.
His heart was already carrying his feet forward.
Standing before the Gate, Su-Ho reached his hand toward its surface.
Crackle, crackle.
Light sparks of static danced across his skin, but there was no pain at all.
No—if anything, now that he was standing before the Gate, he felt a sense of ease, as if he had returned to a hometown he had left long ago.
A strange sense of déjà vu, as if he had wandered through a place like this before.
Su-Ho took a slow, deep breath.
His wildly pounding heart settled down, and his mind cleared.
Good.
A brief smile passed across Su-Ho's face.
In that instant.
Without a moment's hesitation, Su-Ho leaped inside.