WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈
Chapter 143: Downfall (2)
──────
‘Who is it?’
I couldn’t comprehend.
‘Who the hell is coming after me over Kim Yul?’
Kim Yul has no relatives, or might as well not have any. The ostracism of Kim Yul happened before he could even make friends, leaving him with no one to turn to. Why else would I have chosen him as the scapegoat!
‘Anyway, I have to confront Kim Yul. He must know something. Anything.’
I hurriedly ran to the back of the school. At this time, Kim Yul would be tending to the animals in the barn. I knew Kim Yul's schedule by the hour. And sure enough, there he was, distributing feed to the chickens in the barn.
‘Right. You should be there.’
A loser who barely props up his pride by feeding animals weaker than him. That was how I understood Kim Yul’s attachment to the animal enclosure. In the end, humans are beasts too, and weak beasts have no choice but to serve strong ones.
[Your immersion rate is currently 100%.]
The school is just like that barn. A slightly larger animal pen. And here, I am a stronger beast than Kim Yul.
“Hey! Kim Yul!”
I growled.
“What the hell have you done!”
Kim Yul did not turn around, nor did he react. It was as if he couldn’t hear my voice, continuing to distribute the feed.
‘Ha. Are you ignoring me now?’
I was infuriated. I walked over and grabbed Kim Yul’s shoulder roughly.
“Hey, you bastard. When someone calls you…”
The moment Kim Yul turned around, something fell. It was an earphone. I belatedly realized Kim Yul had been wearing earphones. From the dangling earphones, classical music loudly played.
"......."
Our eyes met.
I flinched.
Tears were welling up in Kim Yul's dark eyes.
“What……”
For a moment, I was at a loss for words.
I couldn't quite understand why I was speechless. Was it because it was the first time I saw tears in Kim Yul’s eyes? Maybe. No matter how relentlessly he was tormented, Kim Yul never shed tears. That very fact must have further provoked the ‘clients’.
But it wasn’t just for that reason.
‘Who are you?’
He seemed unfamiliar.
‘Who are you? This guy?’
Kim Yul's eyes felt strangely alien. His gaze was distant. As if he was looking past me, at something beyond. Kim Yul, with his shoulder in my grasp, silently cried. Those tears seemed as if they would fall not here but somewhere else entirely.
“You……”
“Beautiful.”
Kim Yul spoke.
“What?”
“The song. The music I’m listening to. It’s composed by a deaf person.”
Dadadum, Bam-
Music flowed from the earphones. A rhythm I had heard somewhere. But I was only suspicious of how this beggar managed to get an MP3.
“I think about the humiliation and curses this deaf person must have endured in his life. Someone must have cursed him as a deaf idiot. Laughed at him, saying look at that deaf idiot.”
“What the hell are you babbling about, you…?”
“It is sad. Wounds have such a long history that someone hundreds of years ago also had to endure a life of humiliation. It must have been the same a thousand years ago. It will be the same a thousand years from now.”
This kid, has he lost his mind?
“There is nothing beautiful in this world by itself. Only those who are wounded can see beauty. Only those whose lives have been ruined can look at an unruined life and feel relief. To those who endure even when broken, tears are shed.”
Kim Yul’s gaze was still hanging in the air.
“If someone finds the whole world beautiful, they must be someone who has been broken by everything in it. Only those living in hell praise the world. I think of the dishonored life of the deaf composer from his music.”
“Where did you pick up such nonsense… Hey, you. What have you done?”
I grabbed Kim Yul’s collar. Grab! Kim Yul’s body shook, and he dropped the feed bag. The yellowish grains spilled out from the bag that fell to the ground.
“What have you done to my clients, you recycling bastard!”
"......."
Kim Yul finally looked at me.
“I haven’t done anything, King of Death.”
“Death…, what?”
“I am merely looking to see what it was that I threw away.”
Kim Yul arrogantly grabbed my wrist. I was dumbfounded and tried to shake off his grip.
It didn’t budge.
‘What?’
And Kim Yul easily broke my grip on his collar.
It happened in an instant.
Startled, I reached out again, but Snap! Kim Yul struck my wrist. The path was diverted. My hand embarrassingly flailed in the air. In the blink of an eye, my hand missed its mark.
“...What?"
I stared at Kim Yul in a daze.
“How regrettable.”
Kim Yul calmly picked up the feed bag.
“[Kim Yul] is angry. What Kim Yul wants is not physical violence. More precisely, it is revenge far deeper than physical violence. And [I]... want to grant Kim Yul’s wish.”
Kim Yul.
No,
“I, too, agree with that sentiment.”
Someone unknown to me watched me intently.
“Wait for me, murderer of Kim Yul. The sun is setting, and the road I must travel is long. Very long. We will meet again after that.”
Kim Yul walked away leisurely with the feed bag.
“Hey! Hey! You stop right there! Stop......!"
At that moment, my phone vibrated in my pocket. A text message had arrived, probably from a client who saw the missed call and responded. I glanced in the direction Kim Yul was walking and quickly checked my phone.
+
Never contact me again.
If you do, I’ll kill you.
+
I was dumbfounded. In confusion, I called the client who sent the message. But they didn’t answer, no matter how many times I tried.
My body shivered uncontrollably.
‘What’s going on…’
The situation didn’t change the next day.
‘What’s happening?’
It got worse.
“Uh, Eun-Seo.”
As soon as I entered the classroom, a friend hesitantly approached me. They had appeared in the [Kim Yul Game] dozens of times. They were popular among the clients for their knack for hitting people. They seemed to enjoy it, basking in their popularity.
“What?”
“I-I have a message for you. To pass on.”
They were visibly terrified.
“What’s with you?”
“This… I’m sorry.”
They put the note on my desk and scurried away. I furrowed my brows and unfolded the note.
There, the note was scribbled in a messy handwriting.
[Hwang Eun-Seo lives in a garbage dump. The indoor shoes and uniform are all recycled. There is only one piece of trash that cannot be recycled, and that is Hwang Eun-Seo.]
"......."
My delay in reacting was simply because it was too absurd.
“Ha."
I let out a hollow laugh, looking at the friend.
“What’s this…. Are you kidding me right now?”
The friend flinched and retreated behind other students, cowering.
Already stressed from the clients treating me like crap all night, and now this bastard of a friend is doing this, my rage boiled over.
“Did Recycling tell you to do this? Hey. Hey. Look at me. Look at me. Even between friends, there are things you can do and things you cannot. Huh? Did Kim Yul tell you to deliver this note?”
The friend couldn’t say a word. They just looked terrified. I was about to confront them when another classmate approached my desk.
“Hwang Eun-Seo……"
“What?”
“Sorry. This.”
The classmate almost threw another note on my desk. Reflexively, I snatched it and read.
[I feel so sorry for our juniors. They have to call you a senior, Hwang Eun-Seo. Ever thought about how they feel? Doesn’t your conscience bother you?]
I felt dazed.
Taking advantage of the moment, three more classmates dropped notes and left. Just like the first two, these guys had also actively participated in the ‘Kim Yul Game’.
[Hwang Eun-Seo, you're really disgusting. Even more disgusting than our math teacher.]
What is this?
[I’m shocked! There’s a student who doesn’t wash his uniform!]
I couldn’t understand why they were doing this to me.
[You smell really bad. Seriously, you reek.]
Something happened yesterday.
It happened, and I’m the only one who doesn’t know.
Something made all the clients turn their backs on me. Not only that, but they also coerced my friends into staging this farce.
‘Stay calm.’
My heart was pounding furiously.
‘Calm down. Think calmly. Did Kim Yul do this? No, he couldn't have. He was a bit weird yesterday, but no. Who did this then?’
That’s when it happened.
“Hwang Eun-Seo!”
The homeroom teacher poked their head in through the classroom door. The students all looked at them at once. The teacher scanned the classroom atmosphere, spotted me, and gestured.
“Come with me for a sec.”
“Me…?”
“Gosh, isn’t there only one Hwang Eun-Seo in our class, not two? It’s nothing serious, so come on. Oh! Class president! Bring the collected phones here.”
I hesitantly followed the teacher out of the classroom. As I left, the surroundings were eerily quiet.
It felt ominous.
It seemed like the classmates knew why I was being called out. They showed no wonder at the fact that the teacher had called me. Only the studious nerds, busy with their morning prep, glanced at their notes.
“Hwang Eun-Seo.”
In the staff room.
“Yes…”
“Have you been up to any bad stuff lately? Anything come to mind?”
The teacher asked casually as if it was nothing serious. In the staff room, students in uniforms were moving around, collecting scrap paper from the printers. Teachers were organizing printouts for the first period.
“Huh?”
“No...”
My heart raced.
“Nothing?”
"Hmm."
The teacher scratched their head.
"Hey. Hwang Eun-Seo. Don’t go around talking about what I just asked you. Got it?”
“Yes…”
“Listen to this.”
The teacher handed me earphones. I took them. They were connected to the teacher's computer. Click, the teacher pressed the mouse, and recorded voices started playing through the earphones.
-Hey, hey. Don’t hit yet! Just make him kneel!
-Eh. We received many submissions this time. Among the five requests we received, we will draw lots to decide today's concept.
My nape felt cold.
-Ah, today's chosen one is Queen. Congratulations, Queen. What are you doing? Clap, everyone, clap.
-Wooooo!
My voice.
And the voices of the friends who just threw notes at me.
-Queen’s request is, let me see. Ah, you even gave a budget, 100,000 won. Saying, don’t go hungry, here’s money for food. And for our star, mix Jajangmyeon and Jjamppong….
Click.
The teacher stopped the recording.
“Did you hear? The voices just now, you heard them, right?”
“Yes."
“Yesterday, this recording file came to my email. The sound quality isn't that great, but it sounded like your voice and others’. Just checking in case you guys are pulling some prank. Hwang Eun-Seo. Is this you?”
“No, it’s not.”
I pretended to be confused.
“What’s this ‘Queen’? Is it a play or something?”
“Not sure. I listened to the whole thing and it’s odd. Anyway, it’s bothering me. The email said [To be played for 2nd year, Class 5, Hwang Eun-Seo], so I thought maybe it’s some prank you guys played….”
Crazy. This is it. They're blackmailing kids with this method.
Fortunately, this teacher was a fool. Even after hearing the recording, they suspected it was just a kids' prank. Well, they are such a fool that they didn’t even realize what was happening in their own class. For me, it was a stroke of luck.
‘This recording can’t do anything. It’s just a scare tactic.’
Probably some kid, or one of the clients, copied the recording file. They’re playing around with it. If they had more incriminating evidence than the recording, there’s no reason they wouldn’t have sent that to the teacher instead….
‘Problem is, the kids are scared of the scare tactic. Damn it.’
The teacher looked up at me.
“This isn’t really your prank, right?”
“No, it’s not. Uh, but am I not supposed to tell the others about this?”
“No, don’t talk about it. Anyway, it’s not you, so it’s fine. Go back to class.”
“Okay."
I quietly left the teacher's place.
‘Damn. Damn, damn!’
Click.
The moment I opened the staff-room door, I found myself face-to-face with someone standing on the other side.
"......."
It was the class president. He was holding a blue plastic collection bin, having collected the phones from the classroom.
“Oh. Sorry.”
The class president, with his usual expression, a typical nerd's face, said and then slightly stepped aside to give way. Normally, I would have thanked him, but now I didn’t have the luxury. I just briefly made eye contact and stepped into the hallway.
‘I don’t know which bastard stole a copy, but I’ll crush them before today is over! Son of a bitch. Treating me like a fool. This has gone beyond a prank. How could anyone do this to a classmate?’
Click.
The door closed softly behind me.
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