A Scorching Day Chapter 14

A sharp breath caught in his throat like a thorn. Ki Joon’s pupils stiffened and stopped. The innocent joy and fresh anticipation he’d felt imagining Gawon munching on the bread scattered from his mind in an instant.

[Tonight we’re going to your mom’s chosen spot haha]

[Why even study? You’re gonna end up in the red-light district like your mom anyway]

[Yeah~ get lost and sell your body too]

Three pieces of paper, filled with sharp hostility and crude mockery, laden with nothing but the intent to humiliate, were spread out in the locker as if on display.

Ki Joon’s gaze, always steady and unwavering, trembled finely. He bit his lip tightly and let out the breath he’d been holding.

Before he could even make a rational decision, his hand moved on its own. With rough motions, Ki Joon crumpled all the notes and shoved them into his own school uniform pocket. So that not a single piece of paper remained, so that not a single humiliating word would reach Yoon Gawon.

“Did you skip academy yesterday?”

“Ah, shit. I wanted to, but that old bastard was waiting in front of the gate….”

Just then, a loud voice pierced Ki Joon’s ears. Inhaling a shaky breath, Ki Joon slowly turned his head. The moment his eyes met Heo Yeonggyu’s, who was just entering through the doorway.

“…”

Rage surged up like a flame. Like a wildfire spreading across dry fields, the hostility swelled in an instant.

His clenched fist tightened with force. His gaze toward the target boiled coldly. His feet moved forward of their own accord. As he approached, glaring at the bastard as if to kill him, Heo Yeonggyu unconsciously stepped back, retreating. His face showed confusion at the inexplicable hostility directed at him.

“…Ki Joon?”

But the next moment, all of Ki Joon’s actions stopped. What reined in his uncontrollably trembling body in an instant was Gawon’s voice, which had by now grown familiar to his ears.

A voice that crumbled softly like a sweetly ripened persimmon called his name. Yoon Gawon, who almost never called Ki Joon first.

“…Wha… what’s wrong?”

The kid who had come closer touched Ki Joon’s arm very gently, cautiously. Gawon’s voice trembled thinly. Having keenly read the murderous emotion in Ki Joon’s eyes, Gawon was clearly uneasy.

The rage that had boiled over still churned in his chest. But slowly, Ki Joon’s reason in his head shook its head.

If he hit Heo Yeonggyu now… Yoon Gawon might end up in trouble. A commotion would break out, teachers would come running, and if that happened, he’d hear and see all those vile words. Even in front of the whole class.

He was already a kid who was very sensitive to others’ eyes. Yoon Gawon, who acted as if it were a disaster to be seen with him in front of the other kids—would he really want such a situation…

“…No. It’s nothing. I was just… about to go out to see when you’d get here.”

Ki Joon forced the corners of his mouth up. Grinning, he took out the bread and milk from the plastic bag hanging on his wrist and handed them over.

“You didn’t eat breakfast, right? Here.”

“…Thanks.”

Yoon Gawon said in a small voice, bowing his head deeply. After glancing uneasily toward Heo Yeonggyu, he quietly took the bread and milk and quickly headed to his seat.

It was just as Heo Yeonggyu was about to pass Ki Joon with a bewildered look on his face. Ki Joon took a step forward and deliberately squared his shoulders. Heo Yeonggyu, bumping squarely into Ki Joon, staggered back a couple of steps.

“Ah, you son of a—”

Heo Yeonggyu, who had been cursing uncontrollably, stopped short. Ki Joon’s slanted gaze caught his like a trap.

“…”

A sharp look pulled the air taut. It was a raw emotion incomparable to the standoffs they’d had before. The livid edge carried a clear warning.

At a distance close enough for their noses to almost touch, Ki Joon didn’t yield. Pushing forward with his broad, solid upper body, he pressured Heo Yeonggyu. Pressing his lips close to Heo Yeonggyu’s ear as he looked up, cowed, Ki Joon whispered in a low voice.

“The note in Yoon Gawon’s locker. You wrote it.”

Heo Yeonggyu couldn’t answer and swallowed dryly. His eyes rolled aimlessly. The cold sweat seeping out dampened his back.

“You’re dead meat. You fucking bastard.”

The warning was brief but intense. A gaze that pinned the opponent down without mercy. Cowed by the arrogant bearing of a male who had clearly seized the upper hand, Heo Yeonggyu trembled, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Having delivered his short warning, Ki Joon pulled away without hesitation. Then he sauntered over to Yoon Gawon, who was calmly sitting and taking out a book, and sat down in front of him. As if nothing had happened, he smiled goofily, personally opened the milk carton, inserted the straw, and handed it over.

“Hurry up and eat. You must be hungry.”

“I can do it myself.”

Gawon said with a grumble, taking the chocolate milk from Ki Joon’s hand. Feeling burdened by Ki Joon’s sparkling gaze, he quickly looked down and put the straw to his lips.

Then, perhaps he sipped it wrong, a couple of drops leaked from the straw and fell onto Gawon’s knee. Gawon quickly reached for the tissue he’d placed on the desk, but Ki Joon was a beat faster. Quickly pulling out a tissue, Ki Joon personally patted Gawon’s knee, wiping away the milk.

“I know, I know. I know our Gawon does things well too.”

“…Don’t tease me.”

A drop had splattered on his chin too, so Ki Joon tried to wipe it, but was immediately stopped. Gawon snatched the tissue from Ki Joon’s hand, glared at him coquettishly, but quickly wiped his chin and lips. Seeing him flustered made Ki Joon chuckle foolishly for no reason.

“Stop grinning and go back to your seat.”

“I’ll go after I see you eat the bread.”

“Just go, I said. The kids… are watching.”

The last words were whispered, leaning in close so only Ki Joon could hear them. Even though it was clearly a dismissal, Ki Joon just kept grinning. Because he loved the feeling of Yoon Gawon whispering near his ear. He thought he’d turned into a pervert, but… he couldn’t help what he liked.

“Go quickly.”

“Okay, okay. You’re really kicking me out.”

Ki Joon feigned a pitiful look, drooping his eyebrows, and reluctantly got up from his seat. Even so, his gaze stayed on Gawon’s hands until the very end. Only after seeing those white, slender fingers tearing open the bread bag did he head to his own seat.

The sly smile that had been on his face moments ago vanished, leaving only a cool expressionlessness behind. He’d smiled and joked as usual in case Yoon Gawon noticed, but inside, he was restless and troubled.

So you were enduring this alone.

It had been as sharp as a blade, as ruthless as a heavy rain. The hatred directed at Yoon Gawon. Even Ki Joon, seeing it, felt his chest tighten as if blocked, making it hard to breathe—how must that kid have felt alone?

They’d been in the same class since first year, he’d heard. That meant he’d been suffering this kind of bullying for over a year already. Lately, thanks to them hanging out together a lot, that bastard didn’t seem to be laying a hand on or harassing Yoon Gawon, but the violence Ki Joon had witnessed directly at the start of the semester had been quite severe.

At the time, it had been nothing more than an uncomfortable and unpleasant scene. But recalling that moment now, Ki Joon realized that a completely new emotion had taken root inside him.

‘I know you’ll handle yourself well, but… don’t go getting into fistfights or anything. The boss has his eye on you.’

Manager Hwang’s face, smiling bitterly as he said that, flickered past.

‘So you’ve become the thug you said you never wanted to be, Joon. For all your pretensions of being above it all. Huh?’

His father’s face, grinning crookedly and blowing harsh smoke into his own face, also passed by.

And yet, even though his own dreams and future were at stake, even though he knew his own situation all too well… if something like that happened again before his eyes. If Yoon Gawon were humiliated again.

Then, he was sure he wouldn’t be able to hold back.

“Hah….”

A long sigh burst from his core. Ki Joon laid his head on the desk with a troubled expression.

The filthy words he’d seen earlier floated before his eyes. No matter how tightly he squeezed his eyelids shut, no matter how deep a breath he took, they wouldn’t fade. Ki Joon’s chest was still rigid with anger. The unpleasant tremor that spread through his body with each heartbeat wouldn’t easily subside.

So Gawon’s mother… was that kind of person.

Ki Joon quietly closed his eyes and recalled the women of that world he’d seen over the years. The ones who were treated like commodities for a few measly coins.

While other kids went to piano academies or taekwondo dojangs, Ki Joon grew up being led around by his father’s underlings, the so-called ‘uncles.’ The uncles weren’t the type to watch their words and actions in front of young Ki Joon, who was like family to them, so Ki Joon grew up seeing every filthy corner of the world. He thought that was just how the world was.

And there, those women were. Wearing clothes so short their skin was fully exposed, clinging to the uncles as if they knew no shame, smiling coquettishly with their eyes.

To Ki Joon, all the uncles were good people, but not to those women. They hit them carelessly, treated them carelessly. Like tissues to be used and tossed away.

Pretty as flowers, fragile as candles, rough and crude in speech but tearful and slender-boned. Ki Joon couldn’t understand why the men, including the uncles, treated those women that way. Every time he saw it, he felt inexplicably worried and sorry for them.

Inside his slowly opening eyelids, eyes deepened with troubled thoughts were revealed.

Yoon Gawon, so you grew up in the same world as me.

…That’s why you had those eyes.