Siblings Work in Business (95)
Jo Kwang-soo was sitting on my desk, doodling with a compass.
The compass wasn’t even his; it belonged to the student sitting in front of me.
“Hey, you got any money?”
“No.”
“Heh, what do you expect from a beggar. Damn it.”
“Are you poorer than me?”
I asked, looking at him, after listening to his contradictory words.
Jo Kwang-soo turned to me with a bewildered look.
“What?”
“Oh, was I wrong? My bad.”
“This bastard, I was being nice to you, and now you’re acting up.”
“I just thought you were trying to extort money from a beggar because you were broke.”
When was he ever nice to me?
I wasn’t good with euphemisms back then.
So, I wasn’t trying to provoke him.
“Ha, fuck.”
Jo Kwang-soo, a vein throbbing on his forehead, stabbed the compass into my desk.
Then…
I felt a sharp pain on my cheek.
“You little shit, say that again.”
“Are you trying to extort money from me because you’re poorer than a beggar?”
Smack!
The sound of the slap silenced the classroom.
“Again.”
“I said, are you trying to extort money because you’re poorer than me?”
I repeated myself, no matter how many times he slapped me.
“Hey, hey, Kwang-soo, the teacher’s coming.”
Jo Kwang-soo’s hand stopped as a teacher’s shadow appeared in the hallway.
“You… be careful from now on.”
Jo Kwang-soo patted my cheek and left.
I tasted blood; my cheek throbbed, swollen from the slaps.
“I’m going to the nurse’s office. Can you cover for me?”
“Uh, y-yeah.”
I asked the student whose compass was stolen and left the classroom.
“Hey, you! Come here. Where are you going? Class is about to start.”
“I’m going to the nurse’s office, my cheek is split open.”
“Oh, okay. Go ahead.”
The teacher gestured for me to go after seeing my cheek.
Jo Kwang-soo already had a history of violence, having been reported twice before.
But both times, it was dismissed as ‘just a prank.’
This was 2010. Even if things had changed now, back then, the school’s disciplinary committee was useless.
Victims were left to suffer.
The committee was easily manipulated, and even blatant violence was dismissed as a ‘prank’ with a bit of money.
‘Kids will be kids,’ a teacher on the committee would say, refusing to even take a report.
And for someone like me, without a guardian, I was nothing but a toy to them.
I hated trouble, so I just endured it, thinking it would be fine if I just kept quiet.
I had no idea what would happen a few years later.
9th grade.
Around the time everyone, including the nuns and teachers, kept saying we looked alike, despite us thinking otherwise…
Lee Eun-ji entered the same crappy middle school as me.
And that’s when Jo Kwang-soo started bothering me again.
“Hey, beggar! There’s a kid in 9th grade who looks just like you! Do you have a younger sibling?”
She’s a beggar.
She lives in an orphanage.
And so on…
Countless rumors about me spread because of him.
I didn’t say anything, not wanting to drag Lee Eun-ji into it.
“…”
Jo Kwang-soo, perhaps used to my silence, just patted the back of my head and left.
I didn’t answer because I wanted to avoid trouble, but perhaps I should have.
A few days later, Jo Kwang-soo went to the first-year classrooms, seemingly looking for Lee Eun-ji.
The problem was that Lee Eun-ji, unlike me, didn’t just ignore things.
14-year-old Lee Eun-ji was like a rabid dog, still unsocialized.
And Jo Kwang-soo, clueless, spoke to her the same way he spoke to me.
Bang!
Jo Kwang-soo and his gang barged into the 9th-grade classroom.
The first-year students stared at them with wide eyes.
Jo Kwang-soo cracked his knuckles and smirked, trying to look cool.
“What are you looking at, you little shits? Keep your eyes down. Now, which one of you is the beggar’s sibling?”
No one raised their hand at the mention of “beggar’s sibling.”
“Is Lee Eun-ho’s sibling here?”
“I am.”
“Oh, what the… I thought you’d look like a beggar too, like Lee Eun-ho, but you’re not bad looking.”
Eun-ji, sitting in the back of the classroom, raised her hand and answered when Eun-ho’s name was mentioned.
Her eyes were sharper than Eun-ho’s, and her voice was edgy.
‘He looks scary…’
The other first-year students, looking at Jo Kwang-soo and then at Eun-ji, thought…
‘But she’s scarier.’
Eun-ji did look more intimidating than Jo Kwang-soo.
But Jo Kwang-soo, looking down on her because she was “Lee Eun-ho’s sibling,” asked,
“You’re Lee Eun-ho’s sibling?”
“I just said I was. Are you deaf or something?”
“Look at her talk. Lee Eun-ho kept denying it, but she’s definitely his sibling. They even talk the same.”
Jo Kwang-soo and his gang laughed.
Eun-ji smirked, but her wide, unblinking eyes had a chilling glint.
“Hey, is your brother my footstool or something?”
Jo Kwang-soo sneered.
“I should teach that Eun-ho a lesson for lying to me.”
His intention was probably to humiliate her, but the problem was that Eun-ji didn’t know what ‘footstool’ meant.
Eun-ji tilted her head.
‘He’s in the same grade, but he’s calling my brother ‘hyung’?’
Thankfully, she seemed to sense it wasn’t a compliment.
‘He’s nothing but a…’
She had made up her mind; it was time to take him down.
“Teach him a lesson? Who are you?”
Eun-ji, still smiling, stared at Jo Kwang-soo.
“Wow, haha. Our little beggar princess.”
“I have a name, Lee Eun-ji, so shut the hell up about ‘princess.’”
“This little shit has some nerve.”
“I have a lot of nerve.”
“Haha, are you pissed because I’m picking on your brother? Are you?”
Jo Kwang-soo poked Eun-ji’s head with his finger.
Eun-ji, her smile unwavering, said,
“Yeah, I’m pissed, you bastard.”
“You little brat.”
“Me? What a load of crap.”
Eun-ji glared at him, her expression full of mockery.
She stood up, towering over him. Eun-ji, shorter when sitting, stood up so she could look him in the eye.
“I don’t look that much smaller than you.”
Jo Kwang-soo’s gaze followed her.
He was 172cm tall.
But Eun-ji, already 173cm in 6th grade…
Jo Kwang-soo’s eyes widened in surprise. He hadn’t realized she would be this tall.
His gang, the other students…
He knew he would be humiliated if he backed down here.
“Hey, you—”
“Oh dear.”
Eun-ji, covering his mouth, smiled sweetly and leaned closer, then pinched her nose dramatically.
“I pity your mouth. Please, shut that sewer-smelling trap of yours. Brush your teeth, for god’s sake. The stench is unbearable!”
“Pfft…”
The classroom buzzed.
The other students chuckled at Eun-ji’s fluid insults.
Jo Kwang-soo, flustered, glanced at his gang.
They didn’t look much better; some were snickering, trying to hide their laughter.
“You little…!”
Eun-ji, her eyes wide and unwavering, continued to corner Jo Kwang-soo.
If he retreated now, he would be utterly humiliated!
Jo Kwang-soo raised his hand.
“This bitch needs to be taught—”
“Hey! Sewer mouth! Shut up and listen. I’m not done talking yet.”
Eun-ji grabbed his wrist and twisted it.
“Aaaaaah!”
Not only was the pain excruciating, but Eun-ji’s amplified voice, from her yell, rang in his ears.
Jo Kwang-soo instinctively covered his ear, a ringing sound echoing in his head.
“You think you’re so cool just because you’re two years older? You look like shit, and you talk like a beggar, so just leave our classroom before I crush you and your dickhead, you bastard.”
After unleashing a torrent of curses, Eun-ji shoved Jo Kwang-soo’s twisted arm.
Thud!
Jo Kwang-soo fell with a loud crash.
“Fuck. You… you’ll regret this.”
“Regret?”
Jo Kwang-soo tried to get up nonchalantly, brushing off his clothes.
But then…
“Boo!”
Eun-ji raised her hand threateningly, and Jo Kwang-soo flinched.
“Hahaha, I’m not going to hit you, idiot. Regret my ass.”
As Eun-ji laughed loudly, the other students chuckled.
This was utterly humiliating.
Jo Kwang-soo’s gang, trying to suppress their laughter, dragged the red-faced Jo Kwang-soo out of the classroom.
“Damn it, let go of me! Let go!”
“Hey, hey, that’s enough.”
Jo Kwang-soo didn’t get the chance to retaliate.
Sitting dejectedly on the cold hallway floor, his pride seemed as trampled as his dignity.
And as if fate wasn’t on his side, they ran into the first-year homeroom teacher.
“Who are you?!”
“Run!”
“Kwang-soo, I’m sorry!”
Jo Kwang-soo was abandoned by his gang.
“Teacher! It was him!”
“You’re a third-year, and you’re causing trouble in the first-year classrooms?!”
Jo Kwang-soo was forced to bend over and receive a spanking with a cane in front of the first-year classroom.
It was the ultimate humiliation.
“You little fucker!”
And when Jo Kwang-soo returned to his classroom…
The humiliation he suffered from Eun-ji was redirected towards Eun-ho, who was lying on his desk.
“Ow.”
Eun-ho, hit on the back of his head, slowly sat up, and upon seeing Jo Kwang-soo’s face, he sighed.
“Fuck, you think I’m a joke too, huh? You little shit.”
“Yeah.”
I swallowed my reply…
…Or so I thought. It seems I said it out loud.