I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 42
“Make sure to carry it carefully, don’t shake it.”
Woohee received the lunch box Jaewoo handed him with a smile and cherished it the entire time. He spent the whole morning waiting for lunch, worried that it would break if he shook it too much. Because of that, he couldn’t properly appreciate the Kids Career Exploration Center1, but it was all worth it. He had a homemade lunch box waiting for him.
As the day passed and lunch time finally arrived, Woohee opened his bag with a pounding heart. Inside was a beautiful lunch box, something that Woohee had never seen before. Previously, it had always been gimbap wrapped in silver foil that was waiting for him.
Woohee cautiously took out the lunch box and stroked the lid. It was really cute. He grinned and opened the lunch box, only to let out an exclamation without realizing it.
“Wow!”
It was a colorful, cute, and pretty character lunch box. There was also a lion-shaped fork to go with it, which Woohee liked.
‘What should I eat first?’
Woohee carefully looked at the lunch box. His small lips stuck out as he concentrated. Should he eat Harold first? No, no, that was too much of a waste. Instead, he tried the cherry tomatoes that were on the side. They weren’t Woohee’s favorite fruit, but today they tasted sweet.
“Wow, what is that?”
Around then, another child passed nearby and spoke to Woohee. It was Sera, a girl that was quite popular in class. It was the first time that Sera had spoken to him without Woohee speaking to her first.
“It’s Harold!”
Sera shouted his name out loud and immediately sat down in front of him with her own lunch box. It was the first time Woohee had eaten a meal with a friend.
“I have a Harold too.”
Sera smiled and showed Woohee her lunch box. As expected, there was a Harold in Sera’s lunchbox as well. Maybe it was because of Woohee’s mood, but he thought that his Harold looked cuter than Sera’s Harold. Woohee shrugged his shoulders and ate his octopus-shaped sausage with his fork.
“There’s an octopus and a chick!”
Although the lunch box was Woohee’s, Sera seemed just as excited. The two left their Harolds for last and ate the food around them. Woohee was usually the first to dig in when something delicious was served, but he didn’t do that today. The Harold was too perfect. Instead he saved it, wanting to cherish it, when suddenly he heard another voice coming from next to him.
“What’s that?”
It was Taeho, a boy who always bullied Woohee.
“What? It’s Harold.”
Sera answered for him.
“No, I meant it’s weird. How can he have a lunch like that when he doesn’t have a mom or dad?”
“If his mom isn’t there, someone else could have made it!”
Sera tried to speak out for him, but Taeho was relentless.
“Yeah? Like who?”
“My uncle.”
Woohee said with an unpleasant expression.
“My uncle gave it to me. Now go away, I’m eating.”
“That’s a lie! You only have a brother. Where’d this uncle come from? Did you steal the lunch box instead?”
Taeho pointed and mocked him. This child truly believed that what he was saying was right, because Woohee was a child without any parents.
Taeho didn’t think that Woohee could possibly have a lunch box like that when Taeho couldn’t even get one. His mom said that she was busy, so all he got was some gimbap and snacks wrapped in tin foil. But Woohee got a Harold lunch box! It was ridiculous.
Besides, wasn’t Woohee someone that it was okay to bully? Even when he was harassed, he only whimpered and never fought back. And Taeho knew that no one would ever scold him for it. So he could bully Woohee as much as he wanted.
“Woohee said he stole his lunch box~. He said he stole it~!”
“I didn’t!”
Woohee shouted.
“Woohee said he didn’t! Now stop!”
Sera also got angry, but Taeho didn’t stop his mockery. Instead, Taeho and some of his close friends got even closer and started pushing and jostling Woohee.
“I told you to stop!”
The angrier Sera got, the more violent Taeho became.
“Are you two dating? Why are you taking his side?”
In that situation, Woohee tried to protect his lunch box however he could, but it was no use.
“You’re just a beggar!”
Woohee picked up his lunch box to try and save it from the other kids, but then a sudden shove came and he ended up dropping it on the ground.
Whang!
The lunch box fell down with a loud sound. The children all froze.
“What did you do! This is all your fault!”
Sera was the first to get angry.
“How is it our fault? It’s Woohee’s fault for stealing it in the first place!”
“That’s right!”
Taeho insisted loudly. Meanwhile, Woohee looked at his lunch box with blank eyes. His Harold lunch box. For the first time in his life, he had a lunch box that had been carefully prepared by someone else. Tears slowly began to form in his big eyes. Then he remembered what his brother had told him.
‘You can’t fight at school. If you fight back, it’ll just make things harder on you.’
Hyeonu had told him that repeatedly. Yes, he shouldn’t fight back. If either of them did, it just made things more difficult for Hyunjin. Woohee knew that, but this time, he just couldn’t bear it.
Woohee bit her lip and lunged at Taeho.
“Give it back2!”
He hit Taeho with his tightly clenched, small fist.
“Give me back my lunch box!”
“Ouch, ouch! Are you crazy?”
Taeho was confused at first, and took a few blows, but he quickly started fighting back. Since Taeho was bigger and stronger than Woohee, the tables started to turn. Vicious punches landed on Woohee’s body, but Woohee refused to give up.
He continued to swing his fists, trying to hit Taeho just one more time. Was it the result of his determination? In the end, Woohee succeeded in striking Taeho hard on the nose with his fist.
Had Woohee really done that? In a children’s fight, the one to draw first blood wins. Blood began to drip from Taeho’s nose. Taeho continued swinging a few more times before he realized what had happened.
“W-Waaaaah!”
Then a cry rang out. The amount of blood coming from Taeho’s nose was too much for him to handle. Woohee struggled to get up, kicking Taeho away. He’d won!
“Apologize!”
Woohee boldly made a request to Taeho. However, Taeho didn’t apologize. He just cried and ran off somewhere.
“Are you guys going to fight too?”
When he said that to Taeho’s friends, they just shook their heads. Like Taeho, they were children who loved to bully others, but didn’t have the courage to stand up to bullies themselves.
“That was awesome.”
Sera looked at Woohee with amazement in her eyes.
“You defeated Taeho?”
An admiring voice could be heard next to him, but it didn’t matter to Woohee. After the aggressors left, Woohee sat down on the floor and picked up his fallen lunch box. The fried tofu wrapped rice balls that looked exactly like Harold had been ruined, along with the rest of his food. In his heart, Wohee wanted to pick it up off the floor and eat it, but he knew he shouldn’t do that.
Tears still lingered in Woohee’s eyes as he picked up his food piece by piece. Sera, who was watching from next to him, asked carefully.
“Would you like to eat some of my Harold with me?”
Woohee shook his head.
“No, it’s okay. Your Harold is yours.”
It was a lunch box made for Sera by her loved one. He couldn’t eat something like that himself. Sera’s eyes widened at Woohee’s words. She’d just sat with him because he had the same Harold lunch box, but she felt like she’d caught a glimpse of something unexpected. Her heart was pounding for some reason.
While Sera was learning more about Woohee’s character, Taeho went into a corner and took out the kid’s phone he’d received as a gift earlier that year. He flipped it open, pressed a button, and was connected to a familiar number.
─ Taeho? Is that you?
When he heard the familiar voice come over the phone, his tears poured out again.
“Mommy!”
─ Taeho? Are you crying? What’s wrong!?
Taeho cried sadly while listening to his mother’s voice. Then he stuttered out an explanation of the injustice he’d suffered. As soon as she heard what had happened, his mother instantly got angry and took his side.
─ What a violent child! Mom will call the teacher. Mom will be there as soon as she can, so be good and go with the teacher to the hospital.
“’Kay, ‘kay!”
─ This has been going on since the start of the semester, I just know it.
Taeho’s mother got irritated and hung up the phone. It wasn’t long after that when their homeroom teacher received a call.
In the late afternoon, a text message arrived on Hyunjin’s phone.
[Since you didn’t pick up your phone, I’m leaving a text message. This is Woohee’s homeroom teacher. When you see this, please call me.]
During a break from his construction work, Hyunjin checked his phone and his face turned white. A teacher was trying to get in touch with him from Woohee’s class? What on earth was going on? Hundreds of ominous thoughts passed through his mind, and he immediately called the number shown in the text.
─ Hello?
“Hello, this is Woohee’s brother. You asked me to call you. What’s going on with Woohee?”
─ Ah, yes. To be precise, there’s nothing wrong with Woohee, but an incident happened between him and one of his friends.
“One of Woohee’s friends?”
At home, Woohee was always boasting about how many friends he had. Hyunjin couldn’t understand what could have happened between them. And something serious enough to warrant a call home, no less. He really had no idea what was going on.
─ Would you be able to come to the school and help us sort things out?
“I’ll come as quickly as possible.”
Hyunjin answered, urgently looking around the construction site for the foreman. The foreman was a person who really hated it when people left work early, but it couldn’t be helped. To Hyunjin, his younger siblings were more important than work. The whole reason he’d gotten this job in the first place was to provide for them.
As soon as he was given permission to leave early, he immediately got in a taxi and headed to the school. It was worth the expense. He didn’t even bother changing out of his work clothes. As soon as he arrived, he went to the teacher’s office and found Woohee standing in a corner, looking depressed. Across from him, the homeroom teacher and a stylishly dressed woman were talking.
“Mother3, please calm down a little.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down! My only son was hit and had a nosebleed.”
“I heard the hospital said he was okay.”
“Does that make everything alright? He was hit until his nose bled! What about the psychological damage?”
The homeroom teacher was obviously embarrassed by the woman’s comments. Then she spotted Hyunjin just entering her office.
“Woohee’s guardian!”
As soon as those words were uttered, the woman turned around.
Footnotes
키즈 직업 체험관 – Kids Occupational Experience Center. They’re places where kids can go to learn about different jobs, and act out the jobs. For example, they might wear hard hats and vests and pretend they’re working at a construction site, or wear waders and help work in a small garden like a farmer. Top 5 Kids Career Centers
물어내 – Ask for it! Woohee is figuratively asking Taeho to replace what he took, I think.
어머님 – mother. A very formal and polite way of saying mother. It’s apparently not uncommon for people to address others by their roles or titles, as using their name is considered rather informal. ‘Ma’am’ would probably be a reasonable equivalent. ‘Madame’ might be another possibility, but that’s not used commonly in the modern day.
