.

Suddenly, Choi Yuri’s sense of reality seemed to go far in the distance. Ham Donnie’s brown hair waving in the wind again scattered faintly as if it was a scene inside a dream. Ham Donnie’s sharp retort came through.

“Oh, yeah… if you deceive yourself that you’re doing all these for others’ sakes, I’m at a loss of words, but believe me, mess with the bull, get the horns one day. That’s all there is to say and I also heard enough, so I’m leaving.”

Choi Yuri then saw Ham Donnie pulling the iron door slowly. At the very moment, she gathered her senses again with the squeaking sound.

Ham Donnie’s words flew alongside the chilly breeze and scratched Choi Yuri’s cheeks sharply. And at the next moment, Choi Yuri scraped all her strength up and shouted out loud.

“Stop! Where are you going? Are you saying that I’m shifting my responsibility to others?”

Ham Donnie paused herself pulling the iron door. She then turned back to see Choi Yuri at a slow pace with her eyes wide open.

In the sunset, the space was enveloped by a heavy silence. Choi Yuri then detached her lips first. She, at last, laughed out loud and flung a question.

“What makes you act so confident?”

“What?”

Ham Donnie looked quite perplexed. Choi Yuri continued carelessly.

“Because Ban Yeo Ryung and the Four Heavenly Kings are your friends? Is that why you’re acting arrogant like this now? Who do you think you are? Are you pretty, good fighter or rich? No, you aren’t. There’s nothing brilliant about you. You’re being so confident because of them, right?”

Ham Donnie blinked her eyes. A moment after, she put nothing less than a sneer on her lips.

She then said, “Hey, you shouldn’t be close to Ban Yeo Ryung and the Four Heavenly Kings, huh? No matter what you say, other kids would ask you, ‘Are you acting arrogant from being close to the Four Heavenly Kings?’ What are you gonna do then?”

“Are you kidding me?!”

“I didn’t know that only those who are pretty, brilliant, smart, and rich can talk about their thoughts. Yeah, do as you please. Adios!”

Ham Donnie then raised her hand again to bid farewell. Choi Yuri’s eyes grew bigger. Her clenched fist and lips were about to tremble. Her head seemed to blank out in anger. Choi Yuri called her back.

“Hey… you! Stop there, I’m not gonna let you leave.”

Pulling the door, Ham Donnie looked dumbfounded.

“How dare you say that? You drove me to the corner as the craziest bitch in front of the entire school and now you’re blaming for saying my thoughts to you? Earlier, you’ve said that you’re advising me for Ban Yeo Ryung and other kids, aren’t you?”

‘How arrogant this bitch is to yet not grasp the situation!’ with that thought in mind, Choi Yuri raised her voice.

“You! You hurt me!”

Still, Ham Donnie didn’t look as if she was regretting any of her wrongdoings.

Instead, she leaned against the iron door with her elbow on and displayed a more dumbfounded look on her face. The words that came after from her mouth were fierce enough for Choi Yuri to flinch.

“Nope, it was you who hurt me first. Have you ever gotten hurt from my words?”

“…”

“Because of your groundless remarks, I got verbally attacked by not only you but also by others, even strangers. You, however, got hurt from my trivial words and wouldn’t let me leave? Then, in my situation, I should kill you, huh?”

“You… you?!!”

“It’s not only you who got hurt. Please, act your age and have some thoughts.”

After her comment, Ham Donnie’s face grimaced as if she was about to cry; however, Choi Yuri didn’t feel refreshed at all. Of course, she shouldn’t feel refreshed. Facing Ham Donnie, Choi Yuri bit her lips tightly.

None of the plans went well. Choi Yuri wanted to hear Ham Donnie confessing what she did wrong and how suffering she was. She longed for her to leave the school; however, Choi Yuri had no idea what was going on right now.

Ham Donnie told her that she wasn’t troubled at all and lost nothing from the rumors. She didn’t even think about moving to another school. ‘No, this can’t happen,’ thought Choi Yuri, biting her lips. On the other hand, she suddenly felt unfair. With a flame in her eyes, Choi Yuri gazed at Ham Donnie, who was facing her in wonder too.

Her brown hair, scattered in the wind, got attached to her cheeks. She had a narrow chin and a round forehead, the usual face of a run-of-the-mill girl. The things inside her were also nothing brilliant. She used average tone, knew how to swear, and didn’t seem to be that nice though. Regardless of all these aspects, Ham Donnie was taking everything away from Choi Yuri.

Ham Donnie was doing effortlessly the thing she always longed for, being next to the Four Heavenly Kings. She was even beloved by not only Eun Jiho but also Yoo Chun Young.

Choi Yuri gnawed her lips firmly. A voice, boiling from the bottom of her, leaked through her bitten lips.

“How could they like such a girl like this…”

“What?”

Before Ham Donnie was about to ask back, Choi Yuri strode toward her involuntarily.

Ham Donnie then stepped back a little as if she tried to resist the closer distance between the two. Her feet stopped right in front of the stairway down the rooftop. Missing a step back, Ham Donnie would roll down the staircase. Choi Yuri stretched out her hands in spite of herself then grabbed Ham Donnie by her collar.

Ham Donnie stared at her with roundly opened eyes. Choi Yuri detested her face that seemed to know nothing.

If she didn’t exist, Choi Yuri could’ve been in her position. What was so different between the two?

Although she hated to admit it, Choi Yuri was quite identical to Ham Donnie in many ways. She, however, tried to hide about her family on purpose. She thought she could steal Ham Donnie’s position and worked hard for it. Eun Jiho, however, didn’t show any interest in her at all. So were the Four Heavenly Kings.

‘Why? How come? Because they already had her? Her face and personality were nothing so different from me, but why her not me?’ One thought following on the heels of another began to dart off like a broken merry-go-round. Choi Yuri looked in front. Standing under the shadow of the building, Ham Donnie’s face was half-buried in the shallow shade. Choi Yuri laughed at her dark face.

She then said, “No one messes with me. You’re gonna pay for talking impudently like that. Your family and you… do you know who I am?”

“Why? Do you have a hidden identity?”

Ham Donnie acted laid back till the end. Her feet were almost on the edge of the staircase by a hair’s breadth. Choi Yuri glanced down furtively.

‘Does she know that there’s a staircase right behind her? No, I don’t think so,’ she thought. Ham Donnie wasn’t even grabbing the stairway handrail.

‘No one’s watching,’ Choi Yuri murmured to herself.

‘If she doesn’t realize her situation, I must let her get aware of it,’ thought Choi Yuri. To the entire school, she was already a nice friend who cared about someone’s misfortune, whereas Ham Donnie a bad girl who spread out bad rumors about her longtime friend and created a haters club out of jealousy.

‘No matter how many people gossiped about it, a rumor is nothing? It’s ineffective to us at all? If you think so, I’ll show you the truth.’

‘If I push you from here,’ Choi Yuri kept thinking with a smile, ‘You’re gonna tell others that I pushed you, but would there be anyone who would believe you? You’re already a bitch to them. I can talk to the kids while crying that I gave you a piece of advice regarding your situation, but you were already too mad that now you were maybe lying. Who would then gonna trust your words?’

As if being captivated by something, Choi Yuri applied a strain to her hands seizing Ham Donnie by the collar. She then saw her eyes growing bigger at a slow pace. Taking a deep breath, Choi Yuri pulled her hands to grasp Ham Donnie harder. It was then when she tried to push her behind.

An icy cold voice flew over from behind Choi Yuri’s neck.

“What are you doing?”

Choi Yuri thought from a while ago that the rays of sunset pouring from the rooftop, somehow, shed a shadow to her. She, however, considered herself being under the delusion that she was losing a sense of reality out of extreme rage.

It was wrong. Someone, for real, came toward her back. A person who was tall enough to shed a shadow on her and had a frigid voice like this… there was only one who she knew around her.