.

Shin Suh Hyun, who was right after Ban Hwee Hyul, also passed the assessment test with ease; So did Yoon Jung In and Lee Mina.

With the blink of an eye, it was finally my turn. Standing in front of the ball, I took a deep breath. As soon as the teacher blew the whistle, I stormed out, dribbling the ball. There were a few mistakes, but thankfully, I didn’t miss a kick more than twice.

Once I returned to the starting line, the teacher, looking at the timer, said, “Ham Donnie, B .”

“Thank you!”

Yay! Clenching my fist, I turned around. Then at the moment, someone blurted out from behind my back, ‘They’ll think she got an A !’

As I looked back in that direction, it was indeed someone from Hwang Siwoo’s group who always objected to Yoon Jung In.

I turned back to the front with a shrug. He might have not known that my goal was to just avoid re-taking the assessment test.

As I approached the stage, Kim Hye Woo, perching on the stairs, stretched out his hand to me. Giving me a high five, he said, “Hey, I thought you’re gonna re-take the test, but you did a good job, huh?”

I replied with a bright smile, “Exactly! Of course, I thought myself taking the test again, but geez, didn’t I kill it?”

As if he dropped those words to tease me, Kim Hye Woo, who looked enigmatic, soon giggled at my response. Pointing at Ban Hwee Hyul, he uttered, “Why don’t you talk like that in front of Ban Hwee Hyul then?”

“Um, that’s too…”

Wouldn’t my conscience hurt too much to compliment myself in front of the kid who got an A even with slippers on?

Ban Hwee Hyul, who couldn’t overcome his instinct to hide-in-the-corner even on the stage and was covering half of his body with a curtain, lowered his head in perplexity as soon as he received the spotlight.

Watching him, I giggled and said, “Hey, the teacher admitted you, at last. I was concerned that he would give you a bad grade on purpose since you didn’t say that you’d lost your sneakers.”

Kim Hye Woo agreed immediately, “That’s what I mean. I also worried so much if he won’t give you an A regardless of your excellent performance. However, that was too perfect to give you other grades other than the best score.”

“Exactly. You just killed it, instead of being ambiguously good, so if the teacher gives you a bad grade, it’s him who’ll look odd,” I added.

As I diverted my eyes back onto Ban Hwee Hyul, his face turned red. While Kim Hye Woo and I kept praising him like, ‘A person must indeed talk by his actions,’ or ‘Totally! Ban Hwee Hyul, your moves were awesome,’ he utterly hid behind the curtain while wrapping his whole body with it.

Pulling the curtain that Ban Hwee Hyul shoved himself into, we teased him, ‘Are you a hermit crab? A snail?’ something like that. At that moment, Kim Hye Hill, staring vacantly at the entrance of the gym, suddenly said, “Uh, it’s Hwang Siwoo’s turn.”

“Eh? Really… he’s the last one taking the test, right?”

Kim Hye Woo and I fastened our gazes in that direction as if we’re gonna watch a TV drama that we’d been waiting for. Ban Hwee Hyul also stuck only his head out through the curtain.

Even though we turned on the lights, it was still dark inside the gym since it was raining outside and the entrance was quite far away from the stage. However, we were able to distinguish the figure and moves.

Looking at Hwang Siwoo attentively, I soon knitted my forehead.

“Geez…” I sighed involuntarily. Although he was kind of my enemy, it was painful to watch someone’s disastrous downfall. Especially, when it came to something that I also wasn’t good at, I became more absorbed in the emotions unnecessarily.

Kim Hye Hill, sitting beside me, also murmured with an uncomfortable expression, “He made more than three mistakes, right…?”

While we were all paying attention to his performance, Hwang Siwoo, who heard something from the teacher, turned around and trudged toward somewhere. He was heading to none other than the middle of the kids preparing to retake the assessment.

Clicking my tongue, I said to myself, ‘I knew he’d retake the test from making a lot of mistakes, but geez…’

Hwang Siwoo kicked the ball a couple of times with no enthusiasm then soon plopped down on the floor in exhaustion. If he kept practicing that way, he wouldn’t be able to pass the test again. However, that was none of my business at all. Thinking that way, I turned my head away from him.

Shortly after, the class was over. The teacher gathered us and made an announcement.

“Those who failed to pass the assessment will re-take the test before the class tomorrow. If you can’t make it on the next round again, you’ll get an F, so make sure to put all your efforts into practice.”

“Yes, sir!”

“That’s all for today.”

‘Bow to the teacher,’ chanted Yoon Jung In.

Following his order, we all bowed deeply at the waist then soon scattered away with whispers. Mingling in the crowd, the Kim twins, Ban Hwee Hyul, and I also headed toward to our classroom. No, we tried to head back to the class.

BANG!!!

That was when a sharp and threatening noise resonated in the wet air.

Suddenly turning my head back, I shrieked, “BAN HWEE HYUL!”

With a loud thud, the big Ban Hwee Hyul collapsed to the front. Before he completely fell down, Kim Hye Woo, who dashed into him like a bullet, supported Ban Hwee Hyul’s head, so he, fortunately, avoided hitting his head on the ground. Gasping hard, Kim Hye Woo soon looked up fiercely with a scowl on his face.

He retorted, “Hey, are you out of your mind? F*cking insane!”

Since Kim Hye Woo always behaved calmly, the words he just dropped sounded surprisingly blunt and abusive. However, the look on Hwang Siwoo’s face didn’t change at all. Instead, his expression looked cold and spiritless as if he was wearing a mask. It made me flinch my shoulders.

Amid the bizarre silence, the ball that hit the back of Ban Hwee Hyul’s head bounced noisily on the ground. As if the ball was kicked as strongly as possible, it rolled on the ground for quite a while then stopped once it bumped into a wall.

Looking at the sight, I furrowed my face. If Hwang Siwoo had enough strength to kick the ball that way, why didn’t he perform the best he could during the assessment test earlier? Why was he venting his anger to someone innocent when it was his fault not spending much time to practice?

However, Hwang Siwoo seemed like he had no perception of himself committing something very ridiculous and weird. Looking at Kim Hye Woo, who was still helping Ban Hwee Hyul to stand up, Hwang Siwoo compelled, “You better get off him.”

Not walking on eggshells-that was the strength, and at the same time, weakness of the twins. Shortly after getting frozen at the look on Hwang Siwoo’s face, Kim Hye Woo also showed an expression as frigid as his.

“Will you if you’re in my situation? Your eyes have gone completely insane,” said Kim Hye Woo.

“Ha, so you’re thirst of blood, huh?”

Speaking that way, Hwang Siwoo turned his mouth up contortedly to resemble a sneer. As he cracked his knuckles and stepped forward, it was, instead, his boys who became in a fluster.

One of them asked cautiously, “Hyeong, wouldn’t this be enough? The teacher just left the gym…”

“That’s right, sunbae. If those losers go bring the teacher back, we’ll gonna be in a trouble.”

Hwang Siwoo stomped his feet, grinding his teeth. Popping his vein, he shouted, “What should I do then when this fu*king loser ran around with those slippers on as if he’s teasing me?”

“Uh, sunbae…”

One of the boys raised his hand hesitatingly. He looked quite run-of-the-mill. As far as I’d seen him in the cafeteria, he was just close to ordinary kids during freshmen year but became Hwang Siwoo’s clique once he turned a sophomore. The group that harassed and attacked Ban Hwee Hyul at the garbage dump was now those whom he hung out with.

Looking at his strange attitude, I quickly realized that it was him who threw out Ban Hwee Hyul’s sneakers. Besides, it was his own will to do such a thing without getting Hwang Siwoo’s order.

As if Hwang Siwoo noticed nothing about it, he kept yelling at the boy threateningly. Perhaps he felt offensive against people interrupting him.

“What?! What do you want? If you have something to say, just drop it out without a pause!”

Closing his mouth shut immediately, the boy shook his head. He uttered, “Ah, no, nothing at all.”

“Why? Are you also afraid of the teacher coming back?” asked Hwang Siwoo.

My eyes then widened at the name that slipped from his mouth.

“Since Eun Kyum sunbae, who had my back, graduated school and is now gone, you feel like I’m nothing? Is that what you think?”