Chapter 2
He remembered it clearly even now.
It was lunchtime.
Students, full from their meals, were chattering noisily, and Kim Hyunsung was just another student immersed in that scene. Unaware of what was about to happen, he chatted casually with a friend—talking about their game rankings, whether they’d finished homework for the next class. Then it happened—a moment that would completely change Kim Hyunsung’s life.
Bang!
“You fucking bastard!”
A furious voice rang out.
While talking with his friend, Kim Hyunsung instinctively turned toward the source of the noise.
A violent scene unfolded before his eyes.
The one who had shouted was Park Mincheol—a typical member of the Golden Circle who barely paid attention in class and constantly tormented his peers. At his feet lay a slightly chubby classmate, sprawled on the floor. His glasses were crooked and barely clinging to his nose. Before Lee Jungmin—his name—could react, a flurry of kicks rained down on him.
“You fucking piece of shit. What? You’ll take care of it yourself now? You bastard, if you could, why would I have told you to do it?”
Wham! Wham! Wham!
It was a brutal sight.
Park Mincheol didn’t care if Lee Jungmin screamed or not—he stomped on his face and body without mercy.
Kim Hyunsung quickly understood the situation.
Park Mincheol played a game called Legend Online and had dumped all the character leveling responsibilities onto Lee Jungmin. The problem was that Lee Jungmin was one of the top students in school. As he got into the game, his grades dropped, and now Park Mincheol was demanding money for in-game items. When Lee Jungmin finally resisted for the first time and looked up at him, instead of the outcome he imagined, he was slapped across the face and thrown to the ground.
Wham! Wham! Wham!
“S-Stop! I-I won’t do it again!”
Screams rang out.
This was the first time Kim Hyunsung had witnessed such blatant violence.
He usually avoided trouble, but the fact that Lee Jungmin was the target made it hard to ignore.
Lately—
He had been studying with Lee Jungmin.
He couldn’t just stand by after seeing how Lee Jungmin had patiently taught him things.
As Kim Hyunsung took a step forward, the friend he’d been talking to suddenly grabbed his wrist.
Tap.
“Don’t. Just don’t.”
“But this is too much.”
“Are you nuts? That’s Park Mincheol. Get involved and your life will be hell.”
He understood what his friend meant.
But he didn’t care.
That was the kind of person Kim Hyunsung was.
He was athletic and in good shape—he wasn’t the type to be afraid of someone like Park Mincheol. It wasn’t like he had never fought before. Having proven himself in the typical male pecking order at the beginning of the school year, Park Mincheol’s reputation didn’t intimidate him much.
He shook off the hand.
More accurately, his friend let go, and Kim Hyunsung walked to the back of the classroom and stood beside Park Mincheol.
“Stop.”
Freeze.
“…What?”
Park Mincheol turned his gaze toward Kim Hyunsung.
But his expression was odd.
Like a predator who’d spotted prey, his fierce eyes scanned Kim Hyunsung.
Then he spoke.
“Interesting. Think you can handle what comes next?”
At the time, Kim Hyunsung didn’t know.
Didn’t understand the meaning of that grin.
A teacher soon arrived, and the situation was roughly diffused, but from that day forward, the bullying led by Park Mincheol began. It was a relentless form of harassment—even someone like Kim Hyunsung, who could hold his own in a fight, couldn’t endure it. A calculated group assault.
* * *
Freeze.
He stopped walking.
As the memory ended, the scene before Kim Hyunsung was exactly the same as back then.
“Cut it out.”
“…What?”
Park Mincheol turned his gaze to Kim Hyunsung.
And then, he grinned.
Just like in Kim Hyunsung’s memory, he scanned him sharply and sneered.
“Interesting. Think you can handle what comes next?”
Park Mincheol turned his body.
As he straightened his back from beating Lee Jungmin, his towering figure—easily in the high 180s—looked down on Kim Hyunsung. His unkempt hair and tanned skin made him an intimidating sight by appearance alone.
“Hyunsung. You think just because we didn’t pick on you before that you’re different from Lee Jungmin? Don’t kid yourself. You’re nothing but—”
Smack!
“Gasp.”
“Oh my god…”
His head snapped to the side.
The watching students gasped as if stifling screams.
Kim Hyunsung had slapped Park Mincheol across the face.
Startled, Park Mincheol’s face turned red as he looked back.
“You son of a bit—”
Grab.
Slam!
Kim Hyunsung seized Park Mincheol by the hair and smashed his face into the desk.
It all happened in an instant.
Without any real exchange of words, Kim Hyunsung moved. It wasn’t a reaction—it was premeditated. The unexpected attack made Park Mincheol’s legs give out. As his face bounced off the desk, blood splattered out. But even that wasn’t enough—Kim Hyunsung followed up by slapping him several more times.
Smack!
Smack, smack, smack!
Everyone’s mouths fell open.
They couldn’t process what they were seeing.
Kim Hyunsung.
To his classmates, he had never been like this.
He was the diligent, well-rounded student with good relationships and athletic talent. A textbook example of an “insider.” So dependable that he was even class president. But now, he was assaulting Park Mincheol.
This moment—
This situation—
Kim Hyunsung had relived it countless times in his mind.
His classmates feared Park Mincheol, but the truth was, he wasn’t all that strong.
‘The typical type who relies solely on physical size. Not used to taking hits—if you land the first blow, he crumbles.’
From the moment he spoke up—
Kim Hyunsung had visualized this exact moment in his head.
The desk nearby. The timing of grabbing his hair right after the slap. Smashing his face down before he could react. It wasn’t impulsive. Even with blood pouring from Park Mincheol’s face, something that would normally make anyone stop, Kim Hyunsung didn’t halt the beating.
Thud.
Crash!
He swept his leg.
As Park Mincheol toppled over, Kim Hyunsung immediately stomped on his head.
Wham.
His skull slammed into a locker.
Even Park Mincheol, just like Lee Jungmin, could do nothing but curl up and defend himself.
Did Park Mincheol know?
How long Kim Hyunsung had waited for this moment?
It wasn’t just a day or two.
Living as a vegetative patient for over a decade, Kim Hyunsung had played out this exact scene in his mind like a madman—mercilessly beating Park Mincheol. In Kim Hyunsung’s world, this guy had died a thousand times already. Whether this beating killed him or not—he didn’t care. If Park Mincheol lifted his face, he kicked it. If he raised his hands to block, Hyunsung stomped with the intent to break them.
And then—
Crash!
“Stop, you fucker!”
“Mincheol!”
A chair smashed into the lockers.
Kim Hyunsung didn’t dodge. He turned toward the direction of the voice, just barely grazed by the flying chair.
At the classroom entrance—
Three boys glared through the crowded hallway with furious expressions.
They were Jung Minho, Kang Changseok, and Jo Yongtaek.
Members of the same group as Park Mincheol, they had jumped in the moment they saw him being beaten, hurling a chair into the fray. It was a new development. It would’ve been natural to panic now that it was one against many, but Kim Hyunsung’s expression remained calm.
He had expected this.
He knew they would show up.
The bullying had always been done as a group, so this reaction was well within his predictions.
So—
“What if I don’t stop?”
Kim Hyunsung stared coldly at them.
* * *
One of the group—
Jung Minho—swallowed dryly with a nervous expression.
“…Is this guy seriously insane?”
They were rattled.
Park Mincheol’s crew—
They weren’t the undisputed rulers of the first-year class, but they had enough presence to walk around with their heads held high. That’s why this situation was so baffling. Kim Hyunsung had to know that touching Mincheol meant dealing with the entire group, yet he wasn’t flinching at all.
Unlike the calculating Jung Minho, Kang Changseok—who had thrown the chair—was already fired up, ready to charge at any moment.
“You’ve lost it. Fine, I’ll kill you today.”
He had quite the frame too.
A former judo trainee, Kang Changseok strode forward, and Kim Hyunsung moved to meet him.
A dry chuckle escaped.
Despite being outnumbered, Hyunsung didn’t back down, which only made Changseok more determined to cause serious damage—even if it meant getting suspended.
The tension peaked.
And then—
“Teacher’s coming!”
“Scatter! Break it up!”
Chaos erupted in the hallway.
As students hurried to return to their seats, Kang Changseok glanced at Park Mincheol and then shot a glare at Kim Hyunsung.
“You’re fucked. I’ll be coming for you right after class, so don’t even think about running.”
“Looking forward to it.”
The fight couldn’t continue.
With the teacher arriving, they would need more time to “properly deal with” Kim Hyunsung.
So Park Mincheol’s crew backed off.
Barely regaining his senses, Park Mincheol returned to his seat and didn’t even look at the teacher throughout the lesson.
* * *
That whole event—
Park Mincheol barely remembered any of it.
He hadn’t expected the first hit. By the time he came to, he was curled on the floor, taking a beating. The entire class, he clenched his teeth in rage. The thought of being humiliated in front of everyone by Kim Hyunsung was unbearable.
‘I’ll seriously kill him.’
Crack.
He ground his teeth.
Truthfully, Park Mincheol wasn’t the strongest in his crew.
He was called the leader because he acted the most like a thug and bullied people the most, but if it came down to actual fighting skill, Kang Changseok was stronger. Once class ended, the rest of the crew would gather in the classroom. There was no way Kim Hyunsung could handle that. If he hadn’t let his guard down, he wouldn’t have lost to a goody-two-shoes like Kim Hyunsung in the first place.
He was boiling with rage.
Up at the front of the class—
Sat Kim Hyunsung.
Appearing focused on the lesson, his back made Mincheol’s blood boil even more.
‘Is that bastard seriously crazy?’
He didn’t get it.
This wasn’t the Kim Hyunsung he knew.
Sure, as class president, he got involved here and there, but he always kept his distance—never enough to be worth bullying. Now, it was clear that the “line” he thought existed was only in his own head. Kim Hyunsung had always been someone willing to cross it. He just hadn’t looked closely enough to see it.
One thing was certain.
He had crossed the line.
To overturn the disgrace of being trampled by Kim Hyunsung, Mincheol would need to exact a far more brutal revenge.
‘The moment class ends, I’ll half-kill him.’
He waited.
He didn’t care about the pain.
Not the teacher’s lecture, not the throbbing in his face—nothing mattered except revenge against Kim Hyunsung.
The long class finally ended.
The bell rang, and the teacher left.
As he rose from his seat, ready to strike—
Park Mincheol was stunned to see a sneaker filling his vision.
Wham!
Crash!
His face was kicked.
He rolled across the floor, the impact scrambling his brain.
And then—
With his hair yanked up violently, he found himself staring into Kim Hyunsung’s eyes.
“Shouldn’t we finish what we started?”
Chills ran down his spine.
It was certain.
This guy—unlike others—wasn’t the least bit afraid of facing a whole group.
