Chapter 144: Lawless Zone (6)
Teacher’s lounge.
After the chaos had somewhat subsided, Jang Won-gi and the other teachers were catching their breath.
One teacher spoke up.
“…I don’t understand what’s happening anymore.”
“Exactly. At first, we were told all we had to do was stay out of it, but now there’s been a knife fight in the school. Are we going to get dragged into this? This doesn’t seem like something we can just sweep under the rug.”
Everyone wore anxious expressions.
At Daeseong Future High School, most of the teachers were aware of the Golden Circle’s existence. But unlike Jin Kyung-hee or Jang Won-gi, they didn’t know all the details. They had assumed that, as usual, they could simply stand by and let things play out, earning a little on the side. They never expected it would escalate into a violent incident involving dozens of students.
Of course.
Some teachers knew more.
Jang Won-gi was one of the key figures who did, so he kept his mouth shut while the others expressed their concerns.
“But now that things have gotten this far, what can we do? You all know the moment we chose to stand aside, we became part of this. As Vice Principal Jin said, we should quietly wrap things up. From the way she’s acting so confident, it’s unlikely this will blow back on us.”
“Let’s hope so.”
“Let’s head back upstairs. There’s still a lot to deal with.”
They all started to move.
It was a relief.
If there had been any division among them, even if they tried to cover it up, it would’ve led to bigger problems.
They were all too deep into the rot of the system to even think about defying the status quo.
Jang Won-gi blended in with the group.
As they ascended the stairs, a teacher suddenly rushed down to meet them, calling out to Jang.
“Mr. Jang Won-gi! We have a problem!”
“What is it?”
“Hurry! Vice Principal Jin Kyung-hee says we need to take care of Myung Su-chan right away!”
“…Myung Su-chan?”
For a brief moment.
Jang Won-gi’s mind went blank.
As he tried to process what was happening, it finally dawned on him. Myung Su-chan was a special case, under special management. The fact that they were being told to look after him in a situation like this could only mean things were heading in a very bad direction.
“Oh no!”
Like lightning had struck him, Jang Won-gi bolted.
He sprinted as fast as he could, arriving at Myung Su-chan’s classroom, only to witness an unbelievable sight.
“…Grrgh.”
Myung Su-chan, beaten and battered.
His collar gripped tightly by none other than Kim Hyun-seong.
Jang’s heart sank.
If Myung Su-chan’s parents found out about this, there would be hell to pay for Daeseong Future High School.
He wanted to shout.
He wanted to stop Kim Hyun-seong, but.
“…”
“…”
All the students in the classroom.
They were all staring at Jang Won-gi with cold, dead eyes.
The silence was so eerie, the collective gaze of the students so unsettling, that Jang couldn’t bring himself to speak.
* * *
Just moments earlier.
As Myung Su-chan’s body went limp from the beating, Kim Hyun-seong gripped him by the collar and looked at the other students.
“Are you curious why I’m hitting him?”
“…”
No one responded.
They were terrified.
For most of the students, this was the first time they had ever witnessed such brutal violence.
Understanding their reactions, Kim Hyun-seong continued speaking in an even tone, as if nothing was wrong.
“When Myung Su-chan was a first-year in high school, he came in second place during his first midterms. That’s a pretty impressive ranking. In a school like Daeseong Future, being second in the whole school means you can pretty much choose whatever university you want in the future. But do you know what Myung Su-chan thought? He couldn’t stand the fact that someone who wasn’t from Gangnam, someone who didn’t get expensive tutoring like him, came in first place. So he took a rather interesting route. He reached out to the Golden Circle, a group that takes money to ruin students’ lives, and asked them to destroy the person who ranked first, to make sure they couldn’t maintain their grades.”
He deliberately didn’t mention the name of the top student.
But.
The students knew who it was.
The person who had come in first during the first semester’s midterms, and who had since been relentlessly bullied.
It was Kang Jae-wook.
They all glanced over at him.
“That’s right. The bullying you all saw and experienced—it all started because Myung Su-chan made that request. You all noticed something was off, didn’t you? Teachers openly protecting certain students, blatant favoritism. Here at Daeseong Future, outside influence carries a lot of weight. If someone’s parents are powerful or rich, those students get the same privileges at school. So let me ask you all: Do you think it’s just a coincidence that all of this started happening the moment I transferred here?”
“…No, it’s not.”
It was Kang Jae-wook.
His expression had grown cold.
He had endured those hellish days without realizing that it had all been orchestrated by someone else. Since hearing Kim Hyun-seong’s explanation, he had been struggling to keep his composure.
“Exactly, it’s not. Just like how you were targeted for being the top student in your class, I was also someone’s thorn in the side for being ranked first nationally. And if anyone here doubts what I’m saying, let’s see what happens now. While I was fighting dozens of students, not a single teacher showed up. But now that I’ve laid my hands on Myung Su-chan, let’s see how they react.”
He glanced at his watch.
1:50 PM.
He had confronted Myung Su-chan at 1:45, so only five minutes had passed.
Then, at exactly 1:51.
“You bastards!”
Led by Jang Won-gi, the teachers stormed into the classroom.
* * *
The atmosphere in the classroom was strange.
But Jang Won-gi knew he had to play his part.
Deliberately twisting his face into a scowl, he raised his voice.
“Kim Hyun-seong! Have you lost your mind? This is a crime! It wasn’t enough for you to beat up dozens of students, now you’re attacking an innocent one too?!”
“Teacher.”
“Stay out of this.”
“Teacher!”
Jang flinched.
It was Kang Jae-wook.
He had always remembered him as a quiet, obedient student, so he was shocked to hear him shout.
Kang Jae-wook spoke.
“I have a genuine question. When I went to the teachers’ office to report a problem, why did you send me away, saying you were in a meeting? A student reporting something serious shouldn’t have been brushed off like that, yet you shut the door in my face as if you were forced to ignore it. Why?”
“…That, that was because it was a very important meeting.”
“Then why are you going around to each classroom now, telling everyone to stay quiet about what happened? We had a brawl involving dozens of students, and Kim Hyun-seong was even stabbed. Is this how you’re supposed to handle things?”
“And what exactly are you trying to say?”
Jang Won-gi’s tone shifted.
He couldn’t afford to show any signs of panic, so he doubled down, speaking with confidence.
That attitude.
It was disgusting.
Kang Jae-wook felt sick to his stomach, realizing that this was the school he was part of.
“Jesus, this is messed up. When people like me or Kim Hyun-seong have a problem, you act like you can’t hear us, turning a blind eye no matter what. But the moment Myung Su-chan takes a few hits, you show up in just five minutes. And not just one of you—all of you. Can you explain that? This isn’t normal. Kim Hyun-seong said the teachers were taking money through some group called the Golden Circle. Is that true?”
“…!”
Jang Won-gi’s eyes widened.
He never expected Kang to bring up the Golden Circle.
Knowing the situation Kim Hyun-seong had created, Jang realized he couldn’t afford to provoke Kang Jae-wook any further.
Jang’s voice softened.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We couldn’t respond quickly to Hyun-seong’s situation because we were in an important meeting, and any teacher you ask will tell you the same. As for Su-chan, we weren’t favoring him. The incident just happened moments ago, and no teacher was in the middle of preparing for class, so of course we rushed over when we heard about another case of school violence. You don’t seem to realize how dangerous the things you’re saying are. If you want to graduate peacefully, I suggest you stop.”
He shut his ears to everything else.
Ignoring whatever Kang Jae-wook might say next, Jang turned his attention to Myung Su-chan.
Kim Hyun-seong released his grip on Su-chan’s collar.
As Su-chan slumped to the floor, Jang carefully picked him up and added a final comment.
“Calm down. We’ll talk about this another time.”
He left the classroom.
He knew that dealing with the enraged students now wasn’t wise.
Avoiding this confrontation for the time being was the best course of action.
* * *
At that moment.
Broker Park Hyung-joon found himself in a difficult situation.
Ever since he received the call from Vice Principal Jin Kyung-hee, a wave of dizziness had crashed over him.
“…So, does this mean the mission failed?”
[To be precise, it’s the Golden Circle that failed. All we had to do was sit back and watch, but things went sideways. And now, we’re in a very tough spot. If they were going to use a knife, they should have done it properly. How are we, as educators, supposed to clean up this mess? We haven’t let the situation escalate to the public yet, so please try to clean it up on your end.]
“I-I understand.”
*Click.*
The call ended.
Jin Kyung-hee’s attitude had been extremely irresponsible.
She had dumped all the cleanup work onto the Golden Circle, but that didn’t make her wrong.
The blackout.
It had been an order to remain completely uninvolved.
If teachers openly interfered in the violence, their jobs would be at risk. Usually, they were expected to assist through passive means, either staying out of it entirely or providing just enough intervention to give plausible deniability. Occasionally, they were promised large severance packages to help cover things up. But in a case as large as this, it wasn’t easy to demand sacrifices.
‘Things are getting messy.’
The chain of events.
It was absurd.
Dozens of students, plus two S-rank fighters.
Park had been certain that Kim Hyun-seong wouldn’t be able to handle that level of force alone, but the reports he was receiving now were shocking.
All the students who had been sprawled out on the stairs had been taken down by Kim Hyun-seong alone, and even while facing Choi Myung-hoon, he had blocked a knife from Jo Min-seok with his bare hand. None of this made sense. Kim Hyun-seong was just a high school student, after all—how could he possibly pull off something so incredible?
Across the entire Golden Circle.
There had never been a monster like this.
Of all the students who had been assigned ranks, none had ever demonstrated this level of performance.
‘We can’t make this public. The chaos that has unfolded in a situation where we were supposed to remain uninvolved is far too much to handle. The teachers’ negligence, the police’s delayed response, the violence that far exceeded normal high school fights. This wasn’t an incident planned with public opinion in mind; it was pure, unrestrained brutality.’
They couldn’t frame Kim Hyun-seong as the aggressor.
But they could bury the fact that he had been the victim.
That was the intention.
The blackout operation had lost all meaning the moment Kim Hyun-seong took down Choi Myung-hoon.
“It’s impossible to handle Kim Hyun-seong at the high school level.”
This was a first in the history of the Golden Circle.
Given the situation, they had no choice but to take the fight beyond the school grounds.
It was no longer just a matter of school violence—it would require other schools and outside forces to drag Kim Hyun-seong down by any means necessary.
What a troublesome situation.
Some people might suggest bringing in gangsters to deal with him, but the founder of the Golden Circle had established strict rules.
Golden Circle missions.
They had to remain within the realm of school violence.
The reason this group, with its absurd structure, had managed to survive for over a decade was because they kept their operations limited to what society dismissed as “school violence.” If gangs or adults got involved and the problems escalated, the whole system would collapse under its own weight.
It was all about the perception that “kids will be kids.”
The careless attitude of a generation that had turned a blind eye to the violence of the past had created the monster that was the Golden Circle.
In the end, it seemed the most ideal solution would be to involve other schools.
‘Things are about to get busy.’
For now.
Park needed to clean up this mess.
He was about to start making calls when his phone suddenly rang.
*Vrrr.*
*Vrrr—!*
At that moment.
Park Hyung-joon felt an ominous chill.
The name displayed on the phone’s screen.
[Myung Hyun-seok]
The father of Myung Su-chan.
An executive at a major corporation.
A call from him at this timing could only mean trouble.
