.  Needless to say, the girl was Ban Yeo Ryung. She looked pissed as hell. Just by looking at her slim legs, skinny arms, and slender waist, Yeo Ryung hardly passed as the athletic kind; therefore, boys burst into cheers.

  “Oh my god, she’s so hot!”


  “FWEET~ Ban Yeo Ryung!”


  Regardless of the roars, Ban Yeo Ryung stared at Lee Mina with flame in her eyes. She then suddenly dashed forward to cast the ball. Those who weren’t that athletic like me fled with horrified faces. The ball then hit the girl beside me on the side.

  The game now entered into a crash between the two monsters. Running away to survive, I got a chance to turn back and glance at the court where the boys were playing basketball.

  With a rattling sound, I saw the tall basketball hoop shaking vehemently. As I looked up at the direction through my trembling sight, I grew breathless. Holding the rim, Eun Hyung jumped up high and threw down a massive dunk. Although he was tall, Eun Hyung didn’t reach 190cm; thus, it was sure that the overwhelming leap he made just now covered for his predicament regarding his height.

  Then, at the next moment, a triumphant cheer filled the gym shrilly and spread to this side.

  “Kwon Eun Hyung! Kwon Eun Hyung!”


  His classmates shook their heads and stretched out their hands to tap Eun Hyung’s shoulders and back.

  Wow… as I turned my head back, filled with admiration, I found that Kim Hye Hill was also looking at the same scene. She then turned her head to my side and whispered in a low voice.

  “Holy Christ, how can that be just a regular high school students’ match? It almost looked like Yi Ruda and Kwon Eun Hyung is leading the game?”


  “Even Yi Ruda?”


  “Uh-huh, I saw Ruda flying around!”


  When I tried to look back and check them play, a ball passed by my eyes. I quickly swallowed my breath. Kim Hye Hill, who turned to see the front again, pulled my arm and ran across the court.

  The ball was now in our opponent’s hands. Mina and Ban Yeo Ryung still looked vigorous regardless of their aggressive performance.

  A striker from the opposing side picked up the ball that rolled far over the line before letting it bounce while looking at our direction.

  Oh, she was the same girl from earlier, one of Choi Yuri’s friends whom I encountered shortly in the cafeteria. At that very moment, the ball flew toward me menacingly.

  It was unavoidable. My god… at the next moment, the ball exactly hit my head.

  With a bouncing noise, the ball dropped under my chin, and, at the same time, I grabbed my burning nose. The ball hit my nose so hard that the sound exuded quite a loud noise. It stirred up the audience, too; however, I couldn’t see the teacher since he was at the basketball court.

  In the middle of the commotion, Lee Mina gestured with her hand to pause the game and walked toward me. She then stretched out her hand and lifted my chin.

  “Donnie, are you okay? That noise was no joke!”


  “Argh…”


  Holding my nose, I just swallowed my groan, for I couldn’t respond. My vision was still blurry, so I continued to hear my head rang in pain when I tried to speak. ‘Why are people these days throwing a ball so violently?’


  When I barely gathered my senses back and looked around, I saw that everyone was staring at me since the game paused. Standing still wouldn’t help anything, so I gave a signal with my eyes to continue the game.

  “Would you be okay?”


  That was when Mina tried to get away from me. I heard a kid in Class 1-1 mumbling something.

  “When the ball hits the head, the player won’t be out. Just let her stay there.”


  “I know, but she isn’t just roughly hit.”


  Lee Mina retorted and looked back at me. I nodded as a response to say that I was okay. The game then continued.

  “Ouch!”


  It didn’t take a few minutes before a ball hit my head for the second time. Grabbing the back of my head, I turned to look back with my eyes open wide. Through my blurry sight, I saw a familiar girl waving her hand in the air.

  “Oh, sorry! You got hit on the head, so you’re not out.”


  As I observed her with my eyes narrowly opened, I suddenly realized something. She seemed to be one of Choi Yuri’s friends.

  When Ban Yeo Ryung, who was outstandingly athletic, held the ball, she never targeted me. Not that I was her friend but because I was always standing behind other kids.

  ‘I mean, don’t we usually cast the ball to hit the opponent closest to the thrower? Since the ball is flying a short distance, the opponent doesn’t have much time to escape.’ This was a common sense when playing dodgeball; however, for some reason, the girls in Class 1-1 was tenaciously targeting me. Rubbing the back of my head, I mumbled, ‘Am I getting it wrong?’


  However, the ball hit my head twice more. It then passed by my shoulder at last.

  When it bounced off the ground with a thud, Kim Hye Hill stretched her hand to pick up the ball. I smiled at her, then walked out of the line while fetching a sigh of relief.

  Well… I wanted to remain in the lines for my class if possible, but having the ball hit my head four times was too much… I furrowed my brows and rubbed my yet stinging forehead. If the ball hit someone’s head, it wouldn’t be considered an out for that player; however, now that I got hit on the head for the third time, I said that I would rather be out instead. Thus, for me, this was a good thing.

  When I stopped at the attack line, I heard a whisper going through the girls in Class 1-1.

  “Oh, we almost made it, though…”


  The voice sounded loud through a short silence that prevailed in the space as I stepped out of the lines. ‘What did she just say?’ with that thought in mind, I turned my head to look at the direction where the sound came from. A girl whose face grew pale came into my sight. As if she also thought that her voice was too loud, she covered the lower half of her mouth. I wasn’t the only one who saw her. Everyone who heard that voice fixed their gazes at her.

  A moment of silence hung among us. Lee Mina then broke the ice. She might have already grasped the strange atmosphere surrounding us. She stepped forward with embers sparking within her eyes.

  “Hey, what did you just say?”


  Her voice was so sharp and aggressive that no one could help but flinch. I saw the girl, whom she questioned, quailing her shoulders. She, however, showed a sneer as if she had calmed down.

  “Why? Well, I tried to target someone else, not her. That was why I said that we almost made it… Is there a problem?”


  “Why are you so salty, anyway?”


  Another girl intervened and sided with the girl who talked out loud, but Mina still looked stiff. ‘Oh, hold on,’ that was the moment when I tried to step forward. A quiet voice came over behind Lee Mina’s shoulders.

  “Then, hitting her head four times is also a coincidence?”


  It was Kim Hye Hill. How could she talk so sharp and serene at the same time? Her marvelous way of speaking always made me wonder about her. Anyway… I touched my forehead. In Kim Hye Hill’s blue-black eyes, a fit of threatening anger rose. I stepped forward.

  “Um… guys…”


  “What if it’s just a coincidence?”


  Before I could appropriately deliver my voice, one of the girls in Class 1-1 raised her volume. Geez, I paused for a second, then continued my words.

  “Um… guys.”


  “Hey, I saw everything, and it was always one of the three of you who attacked her head four times. Now I can see that you’re all Choi Yuri’s friends, aren’t you?”


  Lee Mina replied with a burst of anger. I found Kim Hye Hill nodding from the side. Oh my… the story was, again, developing strangely… I tried to walk through the kids who were defending outside the attack line. As soon as I attempted that, I heard a shriek again.

  “What? Why are you bringing out Choi Yuri here out of the blue? You guys are so ridiculous! Why are you bringing up something that’s already over?”