.

Staring at Jung Yohan and Ban Hwee Hyul quietly, Eun Hyung asked with a calm voice.

“Is that why you want to take revenge on Ban Hwee Hyul? Because he was just a bystander watching you get beaten and harassed?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Yeah, there’s one thing I didn’t tell you yet.” Lifting his chin in the air, Jung Yohan added composedly, “About Ban Hwee Ahn, Ban Hwee Hyul’s little brother. How we became to know each other and so on…”

“Oh,” exclaimed Eun Hyung.

Pulling his arms into his chest, Jung Yohan showed a darker look in his eyes.

He uttered, “Once I got to get bullied, maybe I started to smell like a loser or something was engraved on my forehead. Weirdly, things kept happening to me in the streets such as someone picking a fight on me or trying to steal my things. Sometimes, those who called me, ‘Jung Dong Woo’s walking wallet,’ came and stole my money like nothing. Every time those things took place, a kid appeared and helped me.”

Speaking to that extent, Jung Yohan bit his lips for a moment.

“He was… no, he was smaller and skinnier than me, but strangely, when he showed up and said something to the big dudes, they just stepped back and couldn’t move an inch. At first, I didn’t know why, but after hearing his name, I got it right away.”

Switching his gaze back to Ban Hwee Hyul, Jung Yohan giggled sharply.

“Ban is quite a rare last name, isn’t it?”

At that moment, I directed my eyes aside reflectively. Just in time, Ban Yeo Ryung also looked dumbfounded as if she wasn’t sure whether the words were aiming at her or at Ban Hwee Hyul.

Diverting my gaze back onto Jung Yohan, I calmed down and murmured, ‘Okay, Jung Yohan, the only mistake you’ve done is that you’re living in a world of a web novel…’

Meanwhile, Ban Hwee Hyul, who got to listen to the mystery of his little brother’s past, just cast his eyes down to the floor.

Amid the little fuss, Jung Yohan continued his words.

“Of course, Ban Hwee Hyul’s name didn’t always work as an amulet. Sometimes, Ban Hwee Ahn also got beaten in which I had to help him to escape. It made me wonder why was he putting all his efforts to save others when he’s also very weak. Then he told me one day that being weak doesn’t justify abandoning scruples.”

“…”

“It was an eye-opener, but that doesn’t mean that I agreed to his words. Instead, I realized something else about conscience. The thing that he never tried to look into…”

Did he just say something else? Tilting my head in wonder, I paid attention to his story.

“Conscience is just a device for the weak to control the strong from overpowering them.”

In the weird silence, Jung Yohan kept babbling, “The only thing that the weak can expect to the strong is ‘conscience’ and ‘justice.’ The strong must respect those virtues so that the weak can survive without losing their things to the strong. Don’t you think so?”

Finishing his words, Jung Yohan raised his head up to see the audience seats on the second floor, not the stage where the ranked fighters were.

Throwing a glance at the crowds of people upstairs, he finally directed his eyes back to Ban Hwee Hyul.

He shouted, “But that little bastard kept trying to keep ‘conscience’ in which his strong, big brother never tried to respect it at all. That weak dude helping other weak people… I told him to stop in fear of him getting in big trouble one day, but he didn’t listen. Then in the end…”

“…”

“Now you get it, Ban Hwee Hyul? I will never ever forgive you. While you wasted your innate power and force and acted indifferent, saying that we should just live the way we’re born, your brother, who even had way less power, struggled to help others as much as possible and suffered in the end. People like you are those who pushed Ban Hwee Ahn into the corner. You’re the same offender!”

Jung Yohan retorted fiercely to Ban Hwee Hyul who was sitting stiffly as a rock. Then all of a sudden, Jung Yohan revealed an insane smile.

He added, “Ah, but don’t worry, of course. I also don’t want to support Ban Hwee Ahn’s useless, idealistic theories. Once I take your Number one title, things are gonna be done in my way. In the end, it’s what the strongest wants, isn’t it?”

“…”

“You’re gonna regret the things you said to me back then.”

I stared at Jung Yohan blurting out a threatening remark. Then I turned my head back to Ban Hwee Hyul.

He was fixing his eyes upon Jung Yohan with a serious look on his face, but in my view, Ban Hwee Hyul seemed to have a hard time grasping Jung Yohan’s words, so perhaps he was thinking about the meaning in his head.

Being difficult to watch him struggle, I lowered my head and whispered, “Jung Yohan is saying that he’s gonna keep the current hierarchical system and operate it under the law of the jungle way even more. Thus, he won’t be helping the weak.”

“Oh…”

That was when Ban Hwee Hyul exclaimed like a moron. Flickering his eyes a couple of times, he finally opened his mouth.

“I have a question.” His voice echoed around the huge gym.

“What?” asked Jung Yohan with a sharp, ringing voice.

Ban Hwee Hyul tossed a question severely, “The things I said to you back then… What do you mean? I never said anything to you.”

I looked at Ban Hwee Hyul pathetically. Geez, considering his memories, he shouldn’t talk so confidently that way…

Indeed, Jung Yohan became at a loss for words. With a sneer, he replied, “Don’t you really remember that? The only one time when you saved me…”

“What?”

“One night, on another unlucky day, I was getting beaten again in the alley. Suddenly, someone appeared and saved me. First, it was Ban Hwee Ahn; next, it was you. You looked very sick and tired of your little brother intervening in the situation. Once you raised your first, the bastards all ran away.”

“…”

As if he had never heard about it before, Ban Hwee Ahn paid attention to Jung Yohan’s words.

“I was very happy that you helped me. Yeah, ridiculously, I still had a little crush on you, admired you until that moment. But you told me this.”

“What did I say?”

“Why are you alive when you’re so weak? Is there a reason for you to live? That’s what you said to me.”

A cold silence weighed us down.

I lifted my blank eyes and directed them to Ban Hwee Hyul. He shook his head desperately.

“I never said that.”

“Really?” I asked, having an endless distrust toward his memories.

Looking shocked, Ban Hwee Hyul touched his lips then replied, “I’m twisting my brains, but it ain’t in my memories.”

“You aren’t able to remember that because you attacked him verbally, not physically, no? Maybe your brain is actually categorizing it as indirect violence, instead of direct violence.”

“Uh, no… no, it isn’t…”

Watching him stammer, I turned my head, feeling that I could be interrogating the wrong person.

‘Then what’s going on?’ I murmured, looking at Jung Yohan. ‘One of them is lying…’

But why would Jung Yohan make up a lie in this situation? Besides, the look in his eyes seemed to be very determined to disclose all the truth in every aspect.

At that moment, Jung Yohan brought it up again. His voice rang the entire gym.

“You really don’t remember anything at all? Alright, then let me tell you in detail. While your brother wasn’t there, you asked me what I was living for. It was such an unexpected question that I became bewildered, and since you’d been the object of my admiration for a long time, I wasn’t sure what answer you’re looking for, so I just replied, I don’t have any.”

Jung Yohan smiled contemptuously, “Then you said, ‘Yeah, I knew it,’ or else I wouldn’t be wandering around late at night. You kept telling me that living a life for no reason was incomprehensible, and you wasted your time. What else can you explain about it unless you already judged me as a loser just because I’m weak?”

“No, I’m…”

“In fact, you’ve been thinking about your brother that way too, right? Weak and worthless weirdo who can’t even defend himself. Even if we get beaten for nothing, it’s our fault, being careless to avoid the situation. That’s how you view us. If you didn’t think that way, you would have not disappeared, but instead, you might have searched for the culprit who brutally assaulted your brother.”