.  I hesitated for a second then smiled at Ban Yeo Ryung. It had been a while since I last did so.

  I said, “I’d like to hear it, so tell me.”


  “No…”


  “I’m not here to be with you only on your happy days.”


  At that troubled night, I had some untold words inside me which I did not speak in fear of acting childish. I did not want Ban Yeo Ryung to go through the same situation.

  She opened her eyes wider and suddenly wrapped her arms around my neck. Then she yelled out loud while almost hanging herself on me.

  “I don’t want you to have a boyfriend!”


  “…?”


  What the heck is this groundbreaking bullshit she’s spitting?

  As I frowned my brows while my neck remained wrapped around Ban Yeo Ryung’s arms, she screamed again while looking at me.

  “If you have a boyfriend, you wouldn’t hang out often with us anymore and… um, you wouldn’t text back often too!”


  “I never went out with anyone yet, so how would you know that I would do any of that?”


  “Whatever.”


  “Dude, aren’t you treating me like a bitch? Do you think I’d run away from you guys if I have a boyfriend?”


  When I asked her back, that was when Ban Yeo Ryung came back to her usual smiling face and walked right beside me. Her face was blushing red under the glow of the setting sun.

  She said, “I don’t know, but anyway, no hair-dyed guys.”


  Her words might refer to Yi Ruda, which felt like total nonsense. While I tried to ask her thoughts about the hair and eye colors of the Four Heavenly Kings, someone stepped toward me from behind and grabbed my arm.

  Before I could look back in surprise, Ban Yeo Ryung had already spoken with a dumbfounded voice.

  “Eun Jiho, are you acting like a ghost or what? Why are you sneaking in silence like that?”


  “Hey, Ban Yeo Ryung, shut up and follow me. Let’s go to the backdoor.”


  “Eh? Why?”


  Eun Jiho ignored her question and pulled us promptly, which seemed as if he said that something was at the entrance, and we should not know about it. It made me realize something. I said to Eun Jiho what I had in mind.

  “Oh, I see. Is it because you’re giving me a ride?”


  “We will share a ride, but it’s not what you think! What a carefree creature you are.”


  “Then what?”


  Ban Yeo Ryung asked again in response to Eun Jiho’s remark. When we arrived at a black car in front of the backdoor that was within a few minutes away from where we once stood, Eun Jiho opened the car door and pointed the backseats. Kids around us were throwing their glance towards us in curiosity, but he did not care about their gaze.

  I could see that he was urging us to get in as soon as possible, so as we took our seats, Eun Jiho followed behind, slamming the door. He then spoke while looking at the driver’s seat.

  “Please go to Sung Sam apartment.”


  “Yes, young master.”


  Young master…? It was not my first time to share a ride with him, but the title, young master, seemed quite brand new. As I stared at Eun Jiho, Ban Yeo Ryung murmured from the side.

  “I thought Eun Jiho was the one driving since he was acting so aggressively.”


  “What?”


  “I mean, in the movies, when escaping from somewhere, they’d say ‘get in’ and turn the handle powerfully to reverse the car, right?”


  Yeo Ryung looked at me with that remark, which made me burst out laughing after shrugging at a loss of words. Eun Jiho muttered in a flurry.

  “How on earth can I lose to this idiot?”


  “You lose?”


  As I asked, Eun Jiho replied while frowning his brows.

  “Huh? Oh, yeah, I lost again. It was all because of two questions. Ban Yeo Ryung sure is good.”


  “Shut up. You guys are both assholes.”


  “Yeah, yeah.”


  As if my words did not make him upset at all, Eun Jiho shrunk up his shoulders and suddenly showed an enlightened expression on his face.

  Oh, I still did not hear the reason why he dragged us to this car yet. When I looked at him in wonder, Eun Jiho spoke with a serious face.

  “Hey, Ban Yeo Ryun, you better watch out.”


  “Why?”


  “Remember Hwang Siwoo? That bastard and his minions were all over the entrance. Eun Hyung and Yoo Chun Young texted me about it. Woo Jooin also saw the text, and he seemed to have left the school safely.”


  “Text? Not by a call?”


  “It was noisy out there for us to speak through the phone.”


  Eun Jiho then showed us his phone. Eun Hyung wrote his message in a less-organized fashion, which was unusual; however, what he wanted to say was roughly readable.

  Sent by: Scary Kwon Eun Hyung

  Donnnot let YeoRYung and Donnie to theee entrance

  While reading the message, I stumbled upon something.

  “Dude, but why is he called Scary Kwon Eun Hyung in your contacts?”


  “There’s something you don’t know about that guy, but that’s not the point. Oh, also, don’t worry about Kwon Eun Hyung and Yoo Chun Young, even though you guys wouldn’t worry about them, anyway.”


  “No, I won’t.”


  I replied while sitting straight on the car seat. Kwon Eun Hyung was a man with the strength of a hundred warriors. I checked out Woo Jooin’s message next, which was almost the same as what Eun Hyung sent. Ban Yeo Ryung asked in wonder from the side.

  “So, what is he going to do? He’s picking a fight with Chun Young and Eun Hyung, which seems that he’s targeting someone among us.”


  “That’s the problem. We’re not sure if he’s upset because you refused him or if he wants to give us a hard time because we acted cocky that day. Be careful anyway since we have no idea if he’s looking after you, us, or all of us. Ham Donnie, you should…”


  Eun Jiho slurred the end of his sentence while looking at me. Me, what? As I shrugged nonchalantly, Eun Jiho heaved a deep sigh.

  “Be careful, too. You behaved out of sight the most, but who knows what will happen. It would be better to go back home separately with Ban Yeo Ryung.”


  “Okay.”


  “Are you listening to me?”


  No, to be honest, I wasn’t. All I could think about was that these kids could even shoot a spy film in school if they so desired. I just nodded, saying nothing out loud. However, as if he read my mind, Eun Jiho hit my forehead once.

  What the… I raised my head immediately. Eun Jiho’s eyes were, however, unexpectedly looked very much stern. He stared at me with his jet-black eyes before speaking in a voice mixed with a sigh.

  “Just be careful. Please, I beg you.”


  “Oh, alright.”


  “Good.”


  He then swept his platinum blond hair back while looking out the window as if he felt embarrassed. All we could see over the tinted black window were gray sceneries, but he looked outside the whole time on our way back home even though he couldn’t see anything.

  I smiled silently while looking at his back. Maybe Yi Ruda could be right about what she said. I came to think that maybe I could be the one and only irreplaceable person to these guys.

  When I turned back after bidding farewell to Eun Jiho in a brightly smiling face, Ban Yeo Ryung grumbled from behind.

  “Donnie.”


  “Huh?”


  “I thought about it but no blonds and no silver hairs either.”


  “…”


  That silver-haired dude was yours, not mine. I gazed at her with cold-hearted eyes then strode into my house and shut the door. Tomorrow was Saturday, so why should I be worried?

  * * *

  Things happened just as I expected at home. Although our parents were close with Ban Yeo Ryung’s parents, my next-door neighbors, there was usually a competitive spirit existing between them. Especially, regarding the mock exam, a cruelly objective evaluation system of educational backgrounds, their competitive spirit became more obvious.

  What happened to me yesterday then? I’d tell everyone that things happened just as I expected. They blasted me till my soul melted. It did not mean that they beat me with a golf club or a cane; however, they showed their fury through verbal nagging.

  A cold silence loomed around the dinner table. While I nibbled the food with a spoon, I was dying to ask someone to remove my widely opened report card from the table. I could barely swallow the food over my throat.

  My mom had a courtesy grin on her face, but she remained speechless. My dad enjoyed the food as usual but soon threw a glance at the report card on the table then turned his head with a mutter.

  “Geez, what should I do with this bonehead…”


  I became so upset that I just ate rice with no side dishes. My dad’s mutter became more abundant using different words. “Bonehead”, “idiot”, “moron”, “what is wrong with her”, et cetera, et cetera…


  I, however, did not think I did terribly at it.