Chapter 24- Wrong Color
Shaking his head, Jin-woo said.
"You can go ahead first; I'll catch up soon."
Jin-woo was glancing behind Yoon-min at the remaining people in the classroom, but Yoon-min suddenly frowned at him and asked.
"Why, is it because I'm gay?"
Jin-woo, completely caught off guard, looked at Yoon-min with a stunned expression.
"Jin, what are you doing? Hurry and apologize."
Seong quickly said from the side when he saw Jin-woo had frozen up.
Jin-woo hurriedly bowed and apologized.
"No, sorry, that wasn't what I meant. I-"
"Pfft."
Jin-woo was interrupted by a stifled snicker and he couldn't help but look up to see that Yoon-min was on the verge of bursting out laughing.
Jin-woo silently rose from his bow but his eyebrows were twitching incessantly. Yoon-min managed to calm down enough to pat his shoulder and said.
"Don't be too upset since you started it first. We'll get going, but I want to ask, do you plan on changing after we leave because you're one of those guys who gets embarrassed to be seen? I wouldn't expect that from Mr. Multitalen-Ugh!"
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Micah, who had been silent up until now, suddenly bonked Yoon-min on the back of his head and said in English while dragging him away.
"Mate, that mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble!"
"No, my head is going to crack open before that happens."
Yoon-min jumped onto Micah's back and the two friends bickered even as they left. Jin-woo watched as they exited the classroom, and he was somewhat reminded of Seong and him.
But without a word, Jin-woo then turned and looked at the remaining people in the classroom once again.
Seo-joon was seated on top of a desk at the front of the room, and he stared back at Jin-woo along with his two lackeys next to him.
Jin-woo had long realized he was sitting there waiting for him while blocking off the only door leading out of the classroom. Jin-woo knew this was going to happen, so he wasn't surprised.
The plan he formulated to deal with Seo-joon flashed passed Jin-woo's mind and after confirming there were no footsteps in the hallway, he slung his draw string bag over his shoulder. Then, without hesitation, he turned and dashed toward his desk.
Seo-joon didn't react at first, but he quickly realized what Jin-woo was planning and he jumped up from the desk to chase after him.
However, it was too late.
Jin-woo, having already calculated the distance between him and Seo-joon, was quite relaxed as he ran to his desk and jumped.
The windows that showed a view of the hallway from the classroom were those large glass sliding windows. On normal days they would only be open about halfway, but Jin-woo's average height frame slipped through the window over his desk, which was uncharacteristically all the way open. He went through without touching the window frame and landed in the hallway with a roll.
After delaying for so long, everyone had already entered their class, so no one was there in the hallway to witness Jin-woo's crazy actions.
Hurriedly getting up, the soles of Jin-woo's indoor shoes squeaked against the ground as he practically glided down the empty hallway.
Seo-joon's threats to stop drifted into his ears from the window, but Jin-woo ignored them and kept running.
"Hey, Jin. Is this really a good plan? You might have gotten away today but he's going to be more cautious next time."
Seong said while running alongside Jin-woo as they turned a few corners.
Jin-woo didn't stop as he decided to find a bathroom to quickly change. In response to Seong's question, he frowned and said.
"It's not that I'm running away from Seo-joon because I'm afraid of confronting him, it's just because I realize he's targeting me before I take my medication."
Seong seemed to sink into his thoughts for a moment before he agreed.
"Yeah, this is the first time since the Track Club that he's specifically targeting you before lunch."
Jin-woo frowned having been reminded of that incident. When he first entered middle school with Seong, he had joined a few clubs, and the Track Club was one of them. It was there he first met Seo-joon, and they got along at first.
However, when Jin-woo started to perform better than him Seo-joon became antagonistic towards him.
It started with his clothes going missing, but it got to the point where they would get into fistfights on almost a daily basis. Both their parents were called each time, but it was just kids getting into small scuffles until it took a maddening turn when Seo-joon almost accidentally killed him.
Seo-joon had been stealing his medication from his bag, but Seong always had backups on him, so this wasn't a problem. However, rather than stealing his medication this time, Seo-joon replaced them with some other pills.
Jin-woo quickly realized the difference in taste and forcefully vomited them out. But he was still slightly affected by them and based on his symptoms it was likely the pills he swallowed were illegal drugs.
Things then escalated after his mother brought him to the doctor and found out that if those pills had fully dissolved before he spat them out, they would have clashed with the medications he was already on and potentially led to a seizure or cardiac arrest. His parents obviously went mental, especially his father, and they went straight to the police rather than the school.
If not, they knew Seo-joon's grandmother would just try and cover it up.
However, this all happened in private. Seo-joon's grandmother seemingly had some friends in the police department who kept everything under wraps so that even the teachers and students in ISH didn't know.
When questioned, Seo-joon denied having replaced his pills with drugs, but because the pills were lost after Jin-woo vomited them in the toilet, and no one saw him personally go into his bag, Seo-joon got off scot-free. It also didn't help that his grandmother during the entire investigation persistently claimed that Jin-woo was the one who took them himself and lied to get her grandson in trouble.
However, Seo-joon was eventually forced to face a two-week suspension after other students testified that he was bullying Jin-woo.
Jin-woo ultimately left the Track Club, and Seo-joon came back from suspension to become the main star there like he wanted.
However, during his initial meeting with Seo-joon, Jin-woo's impression of him was as good as Seong's. So, he told him about his illness. As he suspected, Seo-joon was understanding and for a short period, he and Seong were practically on the same wavelength when it came to helping him.
So, after Seo-joon came back from suspension, rumors of him having schizophrenia began spreading among the students.
Jin-woo and Seong thought that Seo-joon was the one who was spreading it, but because his reputation of being an athletic star sort of damped the rumors Jin-woo didn't confront him.
Seong, however, was especially angry at Seo-joon for revealing his illness and went looking for him, only to come back with a bruised cheek.
Ever since then, Seo-joon would make trouble for them every chance he got and Jin-woo would immediately retaliate despite Seong's protests.
Inside a bathroom stall, Jin-woo, after putting on his shirt, went to pick up his glasses from the water tank. However, he stopped and instead reached into his school pants pocket to take out the small clear white bag. He stared down at the slightly blurry pill inside as he recalled his relationship with Seo-joon.
There were no pockets on his P.E. shorts, but he didn't want his medication to leave his sight for even a second.
As Jin-woo was thinking about where to put the small bag, he suddenly frowned and squinted at the pill inside of it.
"Jin, what's wrong? Are you okay in there?"
Seong suddenly called from outside.
"I'm fine… It's just that, this pill…"
Jin-woo picked up his glasses from the water tank and put them on. Then looking down at the grayish pill inside the clear white bag, his brows furrowed even deeper.
"…the color is wrong."