-Yes. You just need to keep going straight when you see the convenience store.

He ran as he listened to Bangjoo’s explanation. When he walked down the street, he saw Bangjoo who was waving his hand above his head.

“They went into the noraebang here.”

“Noraebang?”

“Yeah, but seonbae-nim. I think I saw Daemyung-seonbae, am I wrong?”

“Daemyung? He’s at the restaurant right now. Looks like we crossed paths.”

“Really? Looks like I was wrong then. Oh, this is the drink you asked for.”

Bangjoo gave him a plastic bottle.

“Thanks. I felt thirsty all of a sudden.”

“I was wondering what it was since you told me to run and buy it all of a sudden. But why did you tell me to follow those guys? Did something happen?”

“They’re friends of mine.”

“Your friends?”

“Yeah. It’s too long to explain right now. Here’s the money for the drink and the food. Once you enter the restaurant, Daemyung should be there. You should start eating. Also, if Daemyung asks what happened, just tell him that I’m out to meet some friends. Don’t explain anything in detail.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

Bangjoo received the money and took a step before turning around again.

“But seonbae-nim.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m asking just in case, but are you going to fight or something?”

“Fight? Me?”

“I just had a hunch. You wouldn’t normally tell others to tail your friends. Also, I feel like you are a little upset.”

“I just have some things to talk about with them. Anyway, tell Daemyung that I’m just meeting some friends to not make him worry. I’ll be back in a bit, so take your time eating, okay?”

“...Uhm, seonbae-nim. I don’t have experience fighting, but I do have the confidence not to get hit.”

“I said I’m not fighting. It’s nothing serious, so go and eat. I told you I’ll be back real soon, didn’t I?”

Maru pushed Bangjoo’s back. Bangjoo looked at him worriedly before nodding and walking. The annoyance seemed to have gotten the better of him, causing him to not manage his expression properly. It seemed that Bangjoo had noticed that.

Before he arrived at the store, Maru saw Daemyung who was across the road. He was with a few other people so he wondered if they were Daemyung’s friends, but he realized that they weren’t friends when he remembered Daemyung’s middle school stories that he had told him before. He prevented Bangjoo from looking across the road and checked on Daemyung’s status. Daemyung was flinching back as he was surrounded by those guys. He wondered if he should walk over, but he decided not to, believing that Daemyung would be able to handle it by himself and crossed the pedestrian overpass.

He was talking to Bangjoo while he watched Daemyung, and just then, he saw the other guys pressure Daemyung and push him into an alley.

It was obvious from where he was standing that Daemyung was clearly being forced. Daemyung, that naïve guy didn’t act back and just stood still like a turtle, even when he eventually got pushed. Maru pointed at the convenience store on the other side of the alley and told Bangjoo to buy a drink. After sending the confused Bangjoo into the convenience store, he ran towards the alley where Daemyung was dragged to.

He just entered the alley thinking that he should pay back double what they did to Daemyung, and then he saw Daemyung being slapped. A swear word rose up to his throat. Just as he was thinking about crashing into the boy at the back, he saw Daemyung looking back at the boys with a confident expression. He didn’t look like he was scared. He looked calm, and some kind of fighting spirit could be seen.

The moment Maru saw that expression, he stopped and hid behind the corner and growled. The students that were playing delinquent became startled and all rushed out the other side.

Maru went around the building and watched them before telling Bangjoo, who had returned with a drink in hand, to tail them. Bangjoo was confused but he still listened to Maru’s words.

“Damn those bastards.”

Delinquents were usually calm when they were alone. At most, they would swear. But, for some curious reason, once they grew in number, their daringness and courage shot up rapidly. It was quite absurd.

Such traits would continue even when they entered society. The reason bullying in companies was even worse than bullying in schools was because those same people became a little smarter and did things even more sneakily. When Maru first became a whistle-blower, he realized that there were actually quite a lot of delinquents who hid their fangs. The moment they found any person that went below their baseline that they came up with all by themselves, they would sneakily approach that person and prey on them. Once that person became weaker and resigned from the company, or perhaps even chose the path of no return, the one that preyed on the flesh known as gossip all this time would put on the sheep masks again and start worrying once again. Watching them made Maru think that maggots were better than them. Maggots at least stuck to corpses for survival.

Maru went into the noraebang. After telling the lady at the counter that he was here to find some friends, he looked inside the booths. As it was just past 6, most of the rooms were empty, and finding them was too easy.

He saw the boys through the glass door smoking and singing with some girls. There were places like this in every neighborhood. Also known as the ‘weak spot’. The owners of such places would not care what happened inside. They just wouldn’t sell drinks.

Maru went to the bathroom and opened his bag. Inside was a roll of tape he used to wrap around his hands to hit the sandbag after martial arts practice. Director Choongho had given him a roll, telling him to wrap it around his hands before wearing gloves. It would take some time to tape himself properly, but there was no need to do that right now. He just wrapped his hands so that he wouldn’t injure his knuckles.

As he taped himself lightly, he looked at the mirror. A young boy was glaring from the other side. Maru looked at that figure for quite a while before chuckling.

“How young.”

He knew well that what he was doing was reckless. Nothing would change even if he went in and beat them up. There was no way they would reflect on themselves, not to mention repent. They would just leave because they were annoyed that they were beaten up. However, Maru felt that he would feel satisfied as long as they felt the pain.

After pressing on the tape, he took the bag and left the bathroom. He walked past the lady that was just dazedly watching TV and stood in front of the door to the booth where those people were inside.

“Han Maru. You became really childish.”

He clenched his teeth slightly as he opened the door. The guy that was looking at his phone while singing with his arms around the girls looked at him. Just as he squinted while trying to think about who Maru was, Maru threw his bag at the guy. At the same time, he grabbed the guy that held a microphone on his right by the neck and slapped him on the cheek. The guy that was slapped looked at him in disbelief. The singing stopped. The guy that was dancing with the girls at the front looked at him as well.

Amidst the strange silence where only the accompaniment was flowing out, Maru slapped the cheek of the one he was grabbing again. He decreased the surface area of his palm as much as possible and slapped him on the lower cheek. If he opened his hand too much and hit him wrong and ended up giving a shock to the ears, it would be quite a pain. The loud slap would be heard over the accompaniment from the noraebang machine.

The guy that was hit twice covered his face and closed his eyes. It looked as though he had no intentions of fighting back. He looked at the other two just in case. The girls looked like they were about to scream, and the two boys just looked at him scared.

‘Do I look that vicious?’

He even planned his escape after causing a ruckus, but now that they were looking at him obediently, he felt rather confused instead.

“S-sorry.”

The one he was grabbing spoke in an awkward voice. When he had a closer look, he saw tears forming in the corner of his eyes. Maru pressed on that boy’s neck with his arm and scanned him from top to bottom.

‘...They all look like they’ll snap with a hit from Daemyung.’

Daemyung had endured Miso’s harsh training. At first, he couldn’t run a single lap around the school field, but now he was able to run five laps while chatting. He knew how to use his body well to the point that he could teach the first years.

‘He should’ve tried shaking them off.’

He felt angry when he thought that Daemyung got hit by such feeble-looking people. Maru thought that he should bring Daemyung to the boxing gym. The master should probably give that naïve boy some fighting spirit.

Maru sighed after watching the guy that looked at him with tears.

* * *

“Where have you been?”

On their way home, Daemyung asked in a quiet voice after smiling at Bangjoo, who was overly cheerful again.

“I met up with some friends.”

“Friends?”

“Yeah. Rather than that, the owner seems to have taken a liking to you. That was the first time I saw him give out free food.”

“R-really?”

“He looks a little tough but he’s not a scary person.”

“That’s true.”

They got on the bus to Suwon. Bangjoo, who sat down, fell asleep immediately as though he was tired. He was snoring as he leaned on the window, and the noise was a little loud.

“Looks like the lessons are hard,” Daemyung spoke worriedly.

“It’s because he’s hyperactive. He doesn’t take a break.”

“Well, I guess Bangjoo does have really good reflexes and is in good shape. He did Judo, right?”

“Yeah. Perhaps thanks to that, he’s really quick to learn. The instructor praises him a lot as well.”

“I wish I had a body like him as well,” Daemyung said as he looked down at his stomach.

“Hey, grab my hand.”

Maru turned around and reached out with his right hand. Daemyung was confused but grabbed his hand anyway. The hand was rather thick, but it wasn’t just flesh. Perhaps it was because his body was rather round, but he really had a big build. He just looked weak because of his personality. If he could make a scary expression, the bully in class would probably be him.

“Try pulling, with all your power.”

“With all my power?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not that strong.”

“Try anyway.”

Daemyung nodded faintly before pulling Maru’s hand. Maru abruptly opened his eyes and did his best not to get pulled, but his body was too easily pulled by Daemyung.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

Maru hit Daemyung’s neck with a knifehand strike. Daemyung, who had a clueless smile, coughed slightly and looked at him with confusion.

“Ah for god’s sake.”

“What?”

“You have such a body and yet….”

Why did you get bullied? - Maru almost uttered those words out loud. This guy probably never thought that he could hit others. He probably developed a mindset that he should avoid everything like a herbivore and just follow the flow if he was caught. The world was too harsh for people like him.

“Next Monday at 11. Do you have plans?”

“N-no.”

“Then meet me at 11.”

“Why?”

“I’ll introduce you to someone good.”

“Someone good? Who?”

“Someone like that,” he spoke as he put on a thick smile.

* * *

“Please take care of him.”

“Alright.”

He saw Daemyung make a dazed expression through the gaps of the door. Hearing the sandbag popping sounds, Maru waved at him. He received text messages from Daemyung, but he didn’t read them. Instead, he just texted back ‘good luck’.

After dropping Daemyung off at a boxing gym, Maru immediately headed to Seoul. He had Miso’s lesson today. He got off at Gangnam station and walked to Film Academy. When he opened the door to the fourth lecture room, he saw Sungjae doing some warmups.

“I’m here.”

He greeted him before doing some warmups next to him. He could only follow Miso’s training if he warmed up properly. Just as he was stretching his waist on the ground, the door opened once again. Gyunglim entered, wearing skin-tight jeans.

“Aah, it starts once again.”

“Don’t complain and get stretching already. The instructor will probably get started as soon as she comes.”

Gyunglim headed to the bathroom with a crying face. When she returned, she was wearing baggy training clothes.

“Good day!”

Gwangseok had arrived as well. Although he started off with a cheerful greeting, he looked like he chewed on something bitter the moment he started doing some stretches. On Mondays, there was a physical training session, though, it was still called ‘acting lessons’. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the lessons were only two hours long, but on Mondays, the lessons were 3 hours long. The extra hour was for physical training.

“Good morning.”

Miso entered with a cup of coffee in one hand.

“Wow, looks like you’re all energetic, doing exercise. Then let’s kick it up a notch today, shall we?”

Maru heard someone say ‘demon’ from the side, and he deeply sympathized.