22: Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The night air was cold . Dojin walked out of his home with a thick hoodie and a basketball in hand .

[You want to play basketball?]

Daemyung sounded very conservative with his request .

“Want to? Why couldn’t he be upfront and tell me he wanted to play basketball?”

Dojin thought Daemyung could get much more confident as a person . The guy was alright, but awkward expressing a lot of his opinions .

It was a week ago, for example . He, Maru, and Daemyung were trying to decide what to eat for dinner after school . Maru wanted soup, and Dojin wanted noodles . Daemyung just answered with a ‘I’ll have whatever of the two’ at the time .

Dojin was not a fan of the way Daemyung spoke . He wanted to tell the boy to be a bit brave, but Maru just kept stopping him . In any case, he made his way to the park as he lightly dribbled the ball between his hands .

It was cold, but not freezing . He could see plenty of other people in the park exercising . Some were playing badminton, and others were running or doing jump rope . Thankfully, the basketball court was empty .

“Here!”

He could see Daemyung wave at him from afar . The two of them lived surprisingly close to each other . Dojin lived in Sangdong Apartments, at house number 201 . Daemyung lived right across the street, at Hanra Apartments, 403 . Not even ten minutes apart .

“What’s up with wanting to play basketball and all?”

It was just supposed to be an opener for the conversation, but Daemyung took it in the worst way possible .

“R-right? Sorry . I called you for nothing . It’s too late, isn’t it? I shouldn’t have called . Sorry . ”

Daemyung’s voice crawled back nervously . Dojin threw his ball into the other boy’s chest . He was feeling something hot rise up in his chest .

“Ouch,” Daemyung stepped back . He picked up the ball with a scared look .

“What’s wrong, Dojin?”

“Hey . ”

“Yeah?”

“Did I say something to you? Like, I can’t play basketball, or something? Or was I complaining to you?”

“ . . . . . . ”

“Dude, what the hell are you sorry for? I was just surprised that you were out playing basketball . Did I sound like I was picking a fight?”

“N-no . ”

“Why are you being like this, then? I didn’t hit you or anything either . ”

“ . . . . . . ”

“Jesus . ”

Dojin was frustrated . Weren’t they friends? Why the hell was he acting like this, then? Daemyung looked down at the floor nervously, which ended up pissing his friend off even more . He walked forward and straightened the other boy’s shoulders .

Their eyes met for a split second . Daemyung looked away immediately .

“Hey,” Dojin said .

“Yeah?”

“Are you uncomfortable around me?”

“No, it’s not that . ”

“Did you do something wrong, then? Why are you so apologetic? Why do you keep trying to act pitiful?”

“ . . . Sor . . . ”

Daemyung stopped himself there and looked at Dojin worriedly . There it was again .

“Is something going on?”

“No . ”

“You’re lying and you know it . Dude, I’ve only known you for a month, but even I know better than that . You’re a lot better than this . What’s going on?”

That must’ve been it . Daemyung dribbled the ball a little bit with a little sigh . The ball eventually escaped his grasp with how lightly he was dribbling it . The ball rolled away, and Daemyung sighed a little deeper .

“I was just thinking of old times . I used to be bullied . ”

He smiled, trying to make light of the word ‘bullied’ .

“ . . . What?”

Dojin became confused . Bullying? Out of nowhere? It also made his blood run cold a little bit . Bullying… was a word that had a lot of meaning to Dojin as well .

* * *

Dowook opened the door to his home with his bike . He lived in a 2 floor single home surrounded by a tall fence . Even now, he didn’t feel very used to living in a home like this . A little dog ran over to greet him with an excited look .

The dog’s name was Little . The only thing in the house he’s gotten used to living with . Dowook had no idea what breed the dog was . He just knew it’s been five years since he picked it up from the old lady on the street .

At least it was growing healthily .

He pet the dog a little bit as he parked the bike on the wall next to him .

Dowook walked up the three stairs up to his front door . A warm air greeted him upon his first step inside . He didn’t bother saying his greetings, since he knew there was no one was home . He slipped into his slippers and walked over to the kitchen .

More cold food again for him to reheat .

He warmed up the rice and soup in the microwave . He watched the plate inside spin for a few seconds before walking out with some dog food . The dog greeted him with its wavy tail .

Good boy .

“What were you doing all this time?”

Dowook asked, pushing the food bowl towards it . It didn’t answer . Obviously . Dowook pet its head before walking back into the kitchen . The microwave beeped from inside to let him know the food was done . He started eating his food .

There was a sticky note under the bowl of rice had originally been, he noticed . It was a message from his mom, he had no need to read . It was probably the same thing as always anyway . He finished eating and turned on the TV . It was pretty cold in the living room, so he turned on the heater as well .

After laughing at a random reality show for 30 minutes or so, he went to use the restroom . A laugh track was playing the moment he stepped outside . The timing got on his nerves, for some reason . He pressed the power button on the remote to no avail . He tried again . Still nothing . Again . Finally . He walked up to his room on the second floor where he could hear the dog barking outside after finishing its meal .

He decided to ignore it . He turned on his computer and opened up messenger after a bit of hesitation . 13 friends were currently online . They were all his middle school friends . None of them responded to his messages . Then again, they weren’t really great friends to begin with .

Dowook turned to look at his phone . He scrolled through his contacts, trying to find a friend that he could call . His face turned stiffer with each scroll upon each realization that there wasn’t anyone he could really call .

“Fuck . ”

He closed his phone . Why was he feeling so nervous right now? Trying to call his friends wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about so why was he hesitating? 0

Then again, what would he even say to them?

What was the name of the kid up front again? Ah, Jichul, right . Why was he thinking of that guy now? The guy always stayed alone by himself because of how quiet he was . Dowook could remember Jichul’s troubled expression lingering as he looked around every time there was group work .

“ . . . Hah . ”

Crap . Dowook was just like that guy right now . That was what made him feel nervous . It was even worse, actually . At least Jichul had people who occasionally talked to him . He recalled everything he said at school in the previous week .

“ . . . There’s nothing . ”

Just conversations with the teacher was all . He’s never talked to the other students . No, he ‘couldn’t’ talk with the other students . Was this what being bullied was like? For some reason, the faces of his previous victims started popping up in his head clearly .

Please, he didn’t want to remember . Crap . Their faces wouldn’t leave his mind . About how they could only ever say “I’m sorry” and “please forgive me” in school .

“Fuck . ”

Dowook turned on a song at full volume . A quiet ballad shook his room like a heavy metal song . Hopefully the noise will drown out some of his feelings .

“ . . . Crap . ”

The voices of his victims still wouldn’t go away .

* * *

“Come out?”

- Yeah . I need your help . You’re better at this kind of stuff than me .

“What stuff?”

- Daemyung .

Daemyung? At 11 at night? Why? He’d have to bike for 20 minutes to get there .

“Damn it, fine . ”

People don’t change that easily . Maru didn’t want to ignore someone when they needed his help . Especially friends .

“I’ll be out for a bit, mom . ”

“Where are you going?”

“Friends . ”

“What?”

“Don’t worry mom, I’ll be fine . ”

“ . . . . . . ”

Mom hesitated before telling him to come back quickly . That reminded him, he’s always thought of raising a kid freely when he grew up . Like his parents . That’s exactly what he did with his daughter . She’s hurt him occasionally, but she did grow to become a fine lady .

‘Helicopter parenting is no good . ’

Maru peeked into the fridge as he stepped out of his parent’s bedroom . Talking with friends, huh… Well, that meant he would need a certain thing with him, then . He pulled out a can of beer and put it in his pocket before walking outside .

* * *

There weren’t many people outside when Maru arrived . They all probably went home . He spotted a few couples in the park before turning to go further inside .

“Oh, you’re here . ”

“Ugh, so cold . ”

Maru grinned, looking at his two friends sitting close to each other for warmth .

“Why not go to a PC bang if you’re so cold?”

“We’re poor, dude . Besides, we came out for that,” Daemyung’s shivering finger pointed at the basketball .

His fault for coming out in gym clothes, Maru thought .

“Let’s go to a convenience store for some instant noodles,” Maru suggested .

“Oh, you’re paying?”

Dojin’s face instantly bloomed with excitement, whereas Daemyung’s expression brightened briefly before shaking his head glumly .

“I’m good . ”

“What, you trying to lose weight?”

There was no other reason why the boy would call Dojin out for basketball otherwise .

“ . . . . . . ”

“Just one, man . You’re going to get sick if you don’t have something warm . Let’s go . ”

Maru walked into the convenience store nearby with his bike . It was a big store, so there were quite a number of people inside still . Maru bought three cups of noodles and walked over to the hot water station .

“Let’s eat first, men,” Maru said, splitting the chopsticks in his hand .

The others nodded and dug into the noodles . They smiled as they slurped in the hot soup .

“God, I feel so much more alive now . ”

“Me too . ”

They licked every inch of their bowls clean before walking back to the park . It was still bright out, thanks to all the lights .

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Maru asked, sitting on a bench nearby .

“You tell him,” Dojin said .

Daemyung sighed . He didn’t look like he could get it out of him .

“Come on, man,” Dojin urged . It didn’t really work .

Maru nodded . This was probably really important to Daemyung . But he couldn’t go back without hearing anything . He pulled a can of beer out of his pocket, earning a surprised look from the other two . Maru grinned .

“A medicine to make you start talking, buddy . ”

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