Chapter 13

* * *Dowook glared at Maru from the back for a second before returning to his friends.“What the hell did that guy come here for?” his friends asked.“No idea. He just provoked me for no reason.”“What did he say?”“Something about burning holes in the clothes or something?”“Ah! What, that was it?”One of his friends seemed to know something about it. The guy had a beanie on to fuel the appeal, but that just made the dude look like some sort of a street merchant in the slums.“What, you know something about it?”“You got out after just one cig, right? Saying you needed to use the restroom.”“Sure.”“We were gonna go out as well, and then we noticed the costumes in the corner. We looked around a little, and then...”He looked at his friend with a grin. The group of four collectively started laughing. Dowook was able to get what happened pretty easily from there on.“So you burned holes in it?”“Ey, it wouldn’t look good without em.”“For sure.”His friends took another pull from the cigarettes before shouting towards Maru.“Hey! Han Maru! We did that!”He could see Maru turn back to look at them. Dowook looked at his friends confusedly. Why the hell was this dumbass saying this stuff right now? His friend smiled back at him awkwardly.“What? It’s fun, isn’t it?”“Fun my ass. Christ, you fucking idiot.”“...What the fuck? Why would you call me a fucking idiot for that? What, you scared?”Scared? Dowook threw his cigarette down on the ground. He felt like shit. He’s hung out with these people for around a week now… The only reason why he talked with them to begin with was because of the free cigarettes. Because he’d look stupid if he wasn’t in a group.“What the hell did you say?”“What, wouldn’t you be mad if you got called a fucking idiot?”The guy in the beanie was getting noticeably mad now. The three others who were laughing along looked between the two before crawling over to the beanie dude.“Hah, seriously.”Dowook suppressed his anger some more. He didn’t want to start a fight here. He’s decided that from the start. He would study his ass off and go to a good college. That was his goal for high school.“You fucking scared?” beanie smiled at him.It was really getting hard for Dowook to stifle his anger now.“Hey, hey, guys, let’s stop here.”“Calm down, Dowook.”“Yeah, Dowook, what are you getting mad for? Hey, why don’t we just go to the PC Bang?”The three of them calmed the beanie dude down. All the while using subtle language to put down Dowook a bit. The beanie guy split on the ground saying ‘I’m not mad, that guy’s just overreacting’. Wow. That was it. Dowook’s vision tunneled right onto that beanie dude’s chin. If he just punched right there, the guy would be down. Yeah, just one hit. He remembered that the beanie dude’s family was pretty rich, but whatever. Beating his stupid ass came first. But right as he pulled back his shoulders to punch…“You guys did this?”A voice came from behind him. It was Maru. How did he not notice the dude walking towards them till now? The other guys were all aware of it, though. “I thought it was trash. Right guys?” the beanie guy said. His friends smiled twistedly with him.“Why’d you do it? To someone else’s stuff?”“Because I thought it was trash. What, are you deaf?”The beanie stepped forward. Dowook tried to step forward as well, but Maru grabbed onto his shoulder.“Is that so.” Maru said.Dowook tried to escape Maru’s grasp, but it was more firm than he first thought. Maru dragged Dowook all the way back to his bike. At this point, Dowook wasn’t able to even say anything. This was absolutely ridiculous to him.“So you didn’t know.” Maru asked.“What?”“That they burned holes in the costume.”“Does it matter?”“It matters. In any case, you didn’t do it.”“Hey!”Dowook shouted at Maru. The guy was ignoring him way too much. But just as he was about to shout at the dude, he got cut off.“You should try to make better friends. High school friends last forever, you know? Good job on being patient back there, by the way. I saw your shoulder twitch several times. I probably would’ve punched him if I were in your shoes as well.”“Fucking no, just liste-”“You were very mature back there. People who are patient in fights are the real adults. I’ll see you tomorrow. It’s cold out, so be careful on the way back.”Dowook stared at Maru for a second as the other boy biked away.“Hah.”He couldn’t even say anything. What kind of a guy…“Fucking!”He kicked a pebble right in front of him and walked out. He was just going to go home. No point in going back to his ‘friends’ right now. And…“Why the hell doesn’t that guy listen...”Ah! So annoying!The wind was cold, but he was feeling like his insides were on fire. In the end, Dowook decided to buy some ice cream for himself at the supermarket.