Projection Novel (Completed) - Chapter 20

Their weekend passed that way. After the meal, Cheon Sejoo instructed Sejin to solve 30 pages of a middle school math textbook and then left the house. Sejin procrastinated on studying, cleaning the house until it shone, and only began solving problems around dinner time, when the man was expected to return. But despite saying he’d be back late, Cheon Sejoo hadn’t returned even by midnight.

 

Sitting in the dark living room, studying, Sejin glanced up to check the clock. The long hands had passed 12:10.

 

Did “late at night” mean dawn? Then he should have just said he’d come tomorrow… Sejin bit his pouting lips and tidied the table. He gathered his notebook, mechanical pencil, and eraser, stacked them neatly, and placed the textbook on top. He felt a thrill of excitement, thinking he had solved the problems well. He wanted to check the answers right away, but imagining the man’s surprised face when he graded them himself, he decided to wait until tomorrow.

 

After tidying up, Sejin went into the bedroom and immediately went to bed. His brain had been working hard, and as soon as he closed his eyes, he fell into a deep sleep. The next morning, he woke up at his usual time.

 

Staring blankly at the ceiling, Sejin soon remembered what had happened last night. His gaze, full of pride, went to the textbook on the bedside table. Sejin immediately got up and headed to the bathroom. After showering and changing, he grabbed the textbook and notebook and went out to the living room.

 

It was 7 AM, too early for the man to wake up. Sejin ate breakfast and tidied the kitchen, waiting for him to come out. Since they were going to the mart today, he neatly organized a list of things to buy on a memo.

 

However, even after 9 AM, the man still hadn’t woken up. Sejin, alone in the living room, was memorizing English vocabulary again when he felt frustrated and stared at the door to the man’s bedroom. He sighed, wondering when he would study, given how late he came home and slept.

 

Time passed, and finally, around noon, Sejin couldn’t wait any longer and knocked on the man’s door.

 

“Are you awake?”

 

His quiet question received no answer. He didn’t want to enter a room where someone was sleeping, but Sejin knocked again and gently pushed the door open.

 

“Still sleeping?”

 

His whispered voice seeped through the open door. Sejin eventually sighed and pushed the door wide open. He intended to wake him up, telling him to get up quickly because they had to go to the mart and had many things to do.

 

However, there was no one in the bed that came into view. Sejin’s heart instantly chilled, and he calmly looked around the room. The man’s room was exactly as Sejin had left it. The bedding was untouched, the lights were off, and there was no trace of a person.

 

Cheon Sejoo hadn’t come home. The moment he realized that fact, Sejin’s expression froze like frost. He felt the hidden expectations he had secretly built up in a corner of his heart crumble down.

 

His hand gripping the doorknob tightened, and a fleeting expression of disappointment crossed Sejin’s face. Then, he immediately turned expressionless, silently closed the door, and moved away from the man’s room.

 

Returning to the living room, Sejin went into his own room instead of contacting the man, and grabbed his outerwear. He left the house and headed to the mart. There was no longer any need to wait for company.

 

Cheon Sejoo returned on Sunday evening. It was a bit late to go to the mart. He faced Sejin in the kitchen, and a look of embarrassment crossed his face as if he had just remembered their appointment, but Sejin had already gone grocery shopping alone that afternoon.

 

“You arrange the delivery for the vacuum cleaner and rice yourself.”

 

Sejin said this to Cheon Sejoo, who was leaning against the island bar, reeking strongly of alcohol, and turned his back. Kwon Sejin, he heard a voice calling him from behind, but he didn’t look back.

 

Sejin felt a deep disappointment that Cheon Sejoo, like his father and uncle, had broken his promise to him. And Sejin hated himself for feeling that way. You knew this would happen. Annoyance surged through him at his own foolishness.

However, Sejin’s disappointment did not end there.

 

The next day, Sejin, as always, prepared and ate breakfast alone. He made Cheon Sejoo’s protein shake and waited for him, but even though it was past the time he should have returned, there was no sound of the door opening. As 8 AM approached, Sejin felt something was off and once again approached the man’s room, turning the doorknob.

 

Through the quietly opened door, he saw a bed with disheveled bedding. It was empty. “Did he go out for exercise?” Sejin thought, and came back to the living room. It was getting close to time to leave for school, so he went back to his room and changed into his uniform. However, as he left the room and checked his phone, a message from the man had arrived.

 

Landlord

 

Something urgent came up, can’t drive you today. Take the subway.

7:32 AM

 

It had been sent when Sejin was still eating. It was now 8:15 AM. It was definitely too late to take the subway without being late. Sejin’s lips tightened, and he frowned. Soon, a faint sneer formed on his small lips.

 

He felt the last stubborn flicker of hope, which had persistently lingered in a corner of his heart despite the disappointment, finally vanished.

 

It seemed the expiration date had run out on his pretense of being a good person, of worrying about a future he had no responsibility for, and of trying to teach something to an ignorant person. He had thought Cheon Sejoo would be different, considering it had lasted longer than a few days, or at most a week, he had expected, but in the end, he was just the same.

 

How many more days will it take for him to kick me out of the house now? Sejin scoffed, thinking of Cheon Sejoo’s imminent change in attitude. A chilling ache spread in a corner of his heart, but he tried hard to ignore the pain.

 

That day, Sejin did not go to school. Since he didn’t come to pick him up with the excuse of being busy, Cheon Sejoo didn’t even notice.

 

Sejin started going to school again on Thursday. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, since the man hadn’t come home, Sejin spent his time looking for part-time jobs near his home and school that he could do during vacation. This was because, given the man’s recent behavior, he didn’t seem to care if Sejin didn’t even look at his textbooks during vacation.

 

Thus, it was on Thursday morning, when Sejin finally found a part-time job, that Cheon Sejoo returned home. Having been out for several days, he looked visibly tired, with a small scratch near his eye.

 

Sejin ignored him and ate his breakfast. As he thought, “I have to go to school today,” Cheon Sejoo, who had made his own protein shake, sat opposite him.

 

“Did you study hard while I was gone?”

 

“…”

 

Sejin stared blankly at Cheon Sejoo with an expressionless face, then looked away. Since there was no supervisor, he hadn’t studied at all. Sejin wasn’t passionate enough about academics to study on his own, and since there was no one to explain mistakes to, he felt doing it alone would just be a waste of time.

 

At Sejin’s silence, Cheon Sejoo chuckled as if he had expected it, then said he would start again this evening and got up from his seat. Watching his back as he headed to his room to change, Sejin swallowed his annoyance. He didn’t want to play along with the man’s inconsistent moods. He was not a tool to satisfy the man’s petty moral vanity.

 

Unable to hide his displeasure, Sejin got into the car with him, his face sullen. Sitting in the passenger seat, surrendering to the now-familiar reckless driving, Cheon Sejoo, who had hit the brakes at a traffic light, casually asked, “Are you mad?”

 

“Me? Why would I be mad at you?”

 

Being angry meant he still held some expectation. Sejin wasn’t angry at Cheon Sejoo. He no longer expected anything from him. The target of Sejin’s anger was himself. His foolish self, who, despite everything he had been through, still couldn’t come to his senses and placed expectations on someone.

 

At Sejin’s counter-question, Cheon Sejoo silently closed his mouth and looked at him. Then, he pressed a spot on his forehead until the skin reddened and said, “I’m sorry. Things were busy. It was something only I could do, so I couldn’t help it.”

 

And what came back was an unexpected apology. Sejin doubted his ears and looked to his side.

The always-cool face wore an embarrassed expression today. It was an expression unsuited to that handsome, aloof man. Seeing it, Sejin felt a sudden lump in his throat. He really didn’t want to get angry, but he unconsciously retorted in a sharp voice, “Busy making another bastard like me, I suppose?”

 

“…”

 

The man frowned. He subtly closed his mouth, his brow furrowed, and stared at Sejin for a long time before his gaze broke away at the sound of a horn from behind, and he pressed the accelerator. The brief conversation ended, and silence returned.

 

Sejin regretted what he had said but had no desire to take it back. After all, that’s the kind of person he was. He was the kind of person who did those things, so whatever it was, it couldn’t have been wrong. He’s just keeping quiet because he’s a thief being called a thief. Sejin tried hard to convince himself of that.

 

Cheon Sejoo opened his mouth again when the building of Dongseoul Nam High School began to appear. With the distant spot where he parked every day in sight, he said to Sejin, “I’ll make sure you can see your mother next Wednesday. And it’d probably be better if you just went to a private academy.”

An academy? It was inexplicable why that remark made him so angry. His stomach churned for a moment, and heat surged to his eyes. Sejin whipped his head around, glaring at Cheon Sejoo with reddened eyes. Looking at his beautiful profile, Sejin opened his mouth, his voice full of resentment.

 

“You’re really kind.”

 

“…What?”

 

At the unexpected remark, the man, who was parking, turned to Sejin in bewilderment. Meeting his eyes, Sejin continued, “You’re completely handsome, gentle, kind, a saintly person unparalleled in the world, with great morals. You’re full of compassion, deeply understanding, and a very kind person who knows how to help the weak.”

 

“…”

 

Ignoring Cheon Sejoo’s gaze, which seemed to ask if he had suddenly gone crazy, he finally spoke what he truly wanted to say.

 

“So stop now. Stop pretending to care about my future, pretending to worry, pretending to try and teach something to an ignorant me. You’re tired of it now, aren’t you? It’s been two months, you’re sick of it. I know. I understand that feeling. So let’s just stop here. That’s what you want too, isn’t it?”

 

“…Hey.”

 

Cheon Sejoo’s eyebrows furrowed. He opened his mouth as if he had something to say to Sejin. But in the end, he closed it again without saying anything. Seeing that, Sejin intuitively knew his guess was correct.

 

The man wanted to stop too. He was tired of pretending to be good, so he had briefly escaped responsibility and returned. Now that Sejin had given him an excuse to stop, he would readily agree. Sejin thought this as he watched the man remain silent.

 

“You don’t have to pick me up from today. I’ll take care of myself. But I won’t think of you as a bad person. I’ll think of you as a good person, so don’t worry.”

 

“Hey, Kwon Sejin.”

 

As he declared this, the man frustratingly ran a hand through his hair and called Sejin’s name. But Sejin didn’t answer him, instead pressing the switch on the door trim to open the door himself. He ignored Cheon Sejoo’s voice trying to stop him and got out of the car.

 

“Hey!”

Cheon Sejoo opened the passenger window and shouted Sejin’s name from inside, but Sejin didn’t look back. His heart was too heavy to open his mouth.

 

He had only said what needed to be said. The man was annoyed by him, and Sejin had given him an excuse to leave him alone. Now that he wouldn’t bother him with interference, he could do his part-time job freely and quit studying, but he didn’t know why he felt so bad. Sejin took steps as if escaping, unable to understand himself. That’s how he headed to the classroom.

 

By the time he reached his seat, Cheon Sejoo was already calling him for the second time. But Sejin pressed the reject button and just turned off his phone. He didn’t want to talk to him. After all, it was obvious what the man would say.

 

“Hey, hey, did you hear that Flex is acquiring Capulet?”

 

“What…? Why would Flex acquire them?”

 

The classroom was noisy again today. But since Lee Haegyun’s gang hadn’t arrived yet, Sejin could sit alone quietly. He lay on his desk amidst the noisy children talking about games, then got up just before the bell rang for class and went out into the hallway. He headed straight for the infirmary.

 

“What, where do you hurt now? I don’t treat headaches.”

 

Due to many students feigning illness, the school nurse at Dongseoul Nam High School only dealt with students who had clear evidence of illness. Fortunately, Sejin had been suffering from a low-grade fever for a week. Moreover, the old thermometer in the infirmary seemed to be acting up, measuring Sejin’s low-grade fever at around 37.9 degrees Celsius. It wasn’t enough to recommend going home, but it was enough to give him antipyretics and let him rest. The nurse smiled, seemingly pleased to have a patient after a long time, and nodded.

 

“Good. Not a false claim then. Kwon Sejin, did you eat breakfast?”

 

“Yes, I did.”

 

Despite being close to retirement, the strict school nurse was someone who always checked if students had eaten before giving them medicine. At the answer that he had eaten breakfast, he gave Sejin two antipyretic pills, a glass of water, and the innermost seat in the infirmary, where no cold wind entered.

 

But even after lying there until lunchtime, Sejin’s fever showed no signs of breaking. Instead, the numbers displayed by the thermometer grew steadily larger, as if his condition was worsening. The nurse, finding it strange that his fever wasn’t going down, woke Sejin up.

He had experienced something similar before, a low-grade fever lasting over a week followed by a severe illness. At that time, Sejin had grown significantly taller, so he thought his current symptoms were also a prelude to a growth spurt. However, the nurse mentioned a scary disease with a serious face, scaring Sejin, who then headed to the cafeteria with the intention of going to the hospital after school as instructed. He had to eat lunch first, after all.

 

“Hey!!”

 

Lee Haegyun and Kim Byungjoon appeared in the cafeteria just as Sejin, sitting alone, began to eat. Lee Haegyun put his tray down on the seat in front of Sejin, who was sitting in a secluded, quiet spot farthest from the tray return cart, manipulating his chopsticks with a feverish face.

“Hey, if someone calls you, you should answer.”

 

Sejin glanced up, identified the owner of the tray, and then, realizing it was them, lost interest. It was the first time he had seen them since the fight in front of the school last week. He did have a desire to confirm exactly what Lee Haegyun had blurted out back then, but his physical condition was too poor for that.

 

Not only his mood, but his whole body felt like waterlogged cotton, becoming increasingly limp as time passed. He wished they would just leave him alone. He was truly sick of that disgusting voice.

 

“Hey, Kwon Sejin.”

 

Once again, it was Lee Haegyun who got angry at his unresponsiveness. Looking down at Sejin’s indifferent face with a displeased expression, he suddenly curled his lips into a smile. Soon, Lee Haegyun remembered the words that had made Sejin react like a seizure last week and uttered them again.

 

“They say your mom was sold off?”

 

Unfortunately, that sentence was something Sejin absolutely could not ignore. Doubting his ears, Sejin put down the chopsticks he was holding and looked up. A fierce glint appeared in his cat-like slanted eyes, and his thin eyebrows twisted. Lee Haegyun watched Sejin’s change with satisfaction and began to recount what he had overheard from Sejin’s former landlord.

 

“They say your dad racked up gambling debts and your mom was dragged off to a brothel. The whole neighborhood’s talking about it, aren’t they? You and that hyung are selling your bodies with your mom… Damn it, you scared me!”

He couldn’t take it anymore.

 

The cafeteria tray that grazed past Lee Haegyun’s head hit the wall and fell to the floor. Sejin stood up, his hands reddened from the hot soup that had splattered, and picked up a new tray that was in front of Lee Haegyun, saying, “Say that again, you son of a bitch.”

A murderous aura permeated his husky voice.

You lack patience, Kim Hyunkyung used to tell Sejin, which was half true and half false. Sejin had an abundance of patience for criticism and insults directed at himself. He had the ability to let whatever others said to him go in one ear and out the other.

 

But his mother was the exception. Sejin could tolerate insults about himself, but he couldn’t tolerate even the slightest negative evaluation about his mother. All the times he had lost his temper were related to Kim Hyunkyung. But since Sejin didn’t speak, Kim Hyunkyung didn’t know this fact, and she only thought her son was just an impatient child.

 

“Damn, Kwon Sejin must be crazy!”

 

Sejin had no intention of tolerating words that insulted his mother, who would be washing dishes until her fingertips cracked today to repay debts. Blinded by rage, he slammed the tray he was holding onto Lee Haegyun.

 

“Hey!!”

 

The cafeteria instantly turned into chaos. Lee Haegyun and his minion, Kim Byungjoon, lunged at Sejin, who retaliated by swinging the tray at them.

 

“There’s a fight in the cafeteria!!”

 

The passionate shouts of the high school boys, excited by the commotion, made the cafeteria ladies, who were preparing ingredients for tomorrow’s lunch, rush out. They saw two large figures surrounding and hitting Sejin and screamed, heading towards them.

 

“Stop it! What are you doing at school, you brats!”

 

“You bastards! Hey! Don’t you stop!”

 

The teachers’ cafeteria was right next to the student cafeteria. The student dean, who was having a late lunch, also rushed out screaming, and children going to the snack bar stuck to the windows to watch. Amidst the chaos, Sejin did not let go of the weapon in his hand. Thud, thud, he relentlessly struck Lee Haegyun with the stainless steel tray until it bent, repeatedly and mercilessly.

 

“Aagh!”

 

“You son of a bitch! Aagh!”

 

Kim Byungjoon, who had gone behind him, grabbed Sejin and knocked him down. Lee Haegyun didn’t miss the moment and kicked him too. Kwon Sejin, even while being kicked by them, didn’t let out a single moan and swung his arm. The sharp edge of the tray struck their ankles as it passed. As Lee Haegyun winced in pain and stumbled, Sejin slapped his cheek with the side of the tray. Clang! Lee Haegyun’s lip split from the impact, and he retaliated by punching Sejin, as if he wouldn’t hold back.

 

“You bastards! Stop it! Don’t you hear me?!”

 

“Lee Haegyun! Kim Byungjoon! You bastards, come out right now!”

 

The vice-principal, who had rushed over, also joined in, trying to separate them, but it wasn’t easy. Sejin, having heard insults about his mother, was out of his mind, and Lee Haegyun, who had been hit and bled by the much smaller Sejin, had his pride utterly shattered.

 

All the male teachers at the school clung to Sejin and Lee Haegyun, who were lunging at each other as if to kill. After a long struggle, they finally managed to separate the two panting boys, and everyone was a mess. Lee Haegyun was covered in food from his tray, and the teachers who had held, stopped, and hugged Lee Haegyun all smelled of dried pollock soup.

 

Sejin was not much different. His kicked leg limped, and his cheek, swollen red from Lee Haegyun’s punches, still hadn’t let go of the tray. The student dean struggled to take the tray from him but eventually gave up with a sigh. Sejin wouldn’t let go of the tray as if it were a weapon that would protect his life.

 

“You bastards, you’re out of control! This! Huh? Do you think school is your playground? Huh? You brats who are going on vacation the day after tomorrow, what are you unhappy about, fighting in this sacred school, fighting! Are you determined to ruin your lives! Don’t you know that something like this, if it gets out, like school violence or whatever, it’ll make news and cause a ruckus! Are you guys, who are becoming seniors the day after tomorrow, in your right minds?!”

The vice-principal, his face beet red, shouted, pointing his finger. The vice-principal, who was scheduled for retirement at the end of this semester, had no interest in why they fought, and seemed angry only because he feared the ‘filth’ of school violence would stain his retirement ceremony.

 

At the vice-principal’s lecture bomb, the students who had come out to watch one by one dispersed. However, the flames of the two instigators of the fight still burned fiercely. Sejin let the vice-principal’s words go in one ear and out the other, glaring at Lee Haegyun. Ptooey Lee Haegyun, spitting blood from his torn lip onto the floor, also glared at Sejin and mouthed words.

 

‘Whore.’

 

Sejin, reading Lee Haegyun’s lip movements, once again shook off the student dean and bolted from his seat.

 

“Hey, Kwon Sejin! You punk! Hey!”

 

“You whoring bastard!”

Lee Haegyun also rushed out as if he had been waiting. The teachers, who had relaxed thinking the situation was under control, once again threw themselves in to subdue Sejin and Lee Haegyun, their faces distressed. It was a complete mess.

 

“Sejin.”

 

“…”

 

“Kwon Sejin.”

 

“…”

 

At the lack of response, Seo Bohyung, the homeroom teacher of Class 3, Grade 2, sighed with an annoyed expression.

 

An hour had already passed since the fight broke out in the cafeteria. And Sejin, who had been subdued by the PE teacher like a prisoner of war and dragged to the counseling room, hadn’t said a word for that hour. Seo Bohyung, who had to call Sejin’s parents, was now exasperated.

If it had been a normal fistfight, there would have been no need for this; they could have just embraced and apologized. But Lee Haegyun, who was the main aggressor in the fight, insisted on reporting Kwon Sejin, who had hit him with a cafeteria tray, to the school violence committee, causing parents to be contacted.