Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 449

450. Sharp Object

“Don’t forget what I said, okay? Let’s make our school life easier.”

Irami, with her meticulously applied clear nail polish, pressed down on Seolrae’s shoulder.

“Alright! Everyone got their papers?”

“Yes.”

“The video isn’t long. It’s about 15 minutes, and if there’s anything you want to jot down while watching, feel free to make notes at the bottom of the paper and summarize the content in English at the top. Got it?”

“Yes.”

With the teacher’s explanation, the video appeared on the projector on one side of the blackboard, and the performance evaluation began.

The video was about the destruction of nature and climate change—not extremely difficult, but with a certain level of challenge.

As soon as the video started, Seolrae focused intently, writing down important words.

“That’s it for the video. Not too difficult, right?”

After the video ended, the teacher spoke to the students.

“It’s totally hard.”

“Teacher, the difficulty is too high. I can’t understand anything.”

“A lot of the words you’ve studied so far came up, so don’t exaggerate. Summarize the content; I’ll give you 20 minutes from now.”

Seolrae summarized the video without hesitation, filling the paper. Five minutes passed, then ten minutes.

The smile disappeared from Irami’s face, who had been doodling and otherwise occupied at her desk until now.

Time was running out, but Lee Seolrae was not reacting at all.

“Lee Seolrae, what the hell is she doing?”

Avoiding the teacher’s eyes, who was briefly looking at a book, Irami and her group exchanged glances and mouthed conversations.

“Is she crazy?”

“Time’s almost up; she should be handing it over by now.”

Irami, who was mouthing with her friend sitting next to her, suddenly poked Seolrae’s back with a pen.

“……!”

Surprised by the sudden pain in her back, Seolrae flinched and straightened her back. She didn’t need to see who poked her to know it was Irami.

“Hey! Lee Seolrae, you! What are you doing?”

Irami put her face close to the back of Seolrae’s head and spoke in a very small voice.

“Quickly hand over the summary.”

“…….”

“You’re not making this fun, you b*tch. Hey! Lee Seolrae, you crazy b*tch. Hand it over within 1 minute while I’m being nice.”

The demands for the summary kept coming from all directions in small voices, but Seolrae didn’t budge.

She had already finished the summary a long time ago, but she had no intention of doing the performance evaluation for the bully group as they wanted.

“This little b*tch is driving me crazy.”

With those harsh words, Irami poked Seolrae’s back once again, and that’s when it happened.

Screech-

“Teacher?”

Seolrae suddenly jumped up from her seat and called the teacher.

“Oh, Seolrae, what’s wrong?”

“These kids keep bothering me.”

“……!”

With that unexpected remark, not only Irami’s group but also all the students in the class had surprised expressions.

In particular, the bully group seemed to have frozen as if they had been doused with ice water.

There was something Irami was mistaken about.

Seolrae was not yet greatly afraid of the bully group.

Of course, Seolrae was also human, so she felt scared when several students surrounded her and cursed at her for no reason.

But she didn’t want to show those strange kids that she was scared and give in.

Because she knew that if she did, their bullying would get worse.

Her stepbrother, that is, her stepmother’s son, Lee Seonwoo, often said this when he first came home.

‘Seolrae, don’t you have any kids bullying you at school?’

‘No.’

‘If those weird kids pick a fight and bully you for no reason, never be intimidated and be confident. Got it? They bully because they enjoy stepping on people, so if you’re confident, they won’t be able to ignore you.’

Her stepbrother’s words were helpful, but it was true that Seolrae’s mentality was not ordinary.

Even if you hear such advice, it is not easy to be as confident as Seolrae when trapped in the cycle of school violence.

“Seolrae, what did you just say?”

The teacher, who was at the desk, put down the book she was reading and approached Seolrae to ask.

“Irami, Kim Chansol, Choi Suri, and Kim Hayoung keep asking me to do their performance evaluation for them. And Irami keeps poking me with a pen and even cursed at me.”

“What!? Irami, is that true?”

The teacher gave strength to her eyes and approached Irami to interrogate her.

“N, no. Teacher. I didn’t do that.”

“So, are you saying that Seolrae is lying right now? You’re not playing around during the performance evaluation time, are you?”

“How could I do that to the kid who’s number one in the class unless I’m crazy.”

Irami shook her hand and denied it as the teacher looked back and forth between the two.

“Irami? You’re acting crazy right now. I’ve never lied. Teacher, you know that this is the first time I’ve shown this side of me.”

Pouring dirt into her bag and soaking her textbooks in water was nothing. More than these things, the fact that her mom and dad divorced. The fact that she can’t contact her mom.

The fact that these ridiculous things are ruining her grades was just making Seolrae annoyed.

Seolrae, whose annoyance had reached its peak because of Irami, who kept poking her back, couldn’t stand it and told the teacher the truth.

“Teacher, can you see this?”

Seolrae turned her back to the English teacher and continued.

“If you look closely, there will be pen marks. Irami poked me very hard exactly twice.”

“Oh my! That’s right. These are pen marks.”

The teacher, who was looking closely at the uniform, could see that Seolrae’s words were true. Then Irami and her group were at a loss, looking dumbfounded.

“Irami, did you really poke her with a pen?”

“W, well, teacher, I think Seolrae misunderstood something. I was just trying to borrow some white-out…….”

“Irami, Kim Chansol, Choi Suri, Kim Hayoung. You guys get up right now and stand in the hallway. You know you’re going to the faculty room after this.”

Lee Seolrae, who has good behavior and has never caused problems, and who is good at studying, which is the duty of a student.

And Irami’s group, who don’t study and hang out together, with bad rumors and wearing thick makeup and short uniforms.

When looking at the former and the latter, anyone would have no choice but to believe the words of the former, Lee Seolrae.

“Teacher? I, I really was trying to borrow white-out. I accidentally poked her with the pen, I’m telling you.”

“Don’t say nonsense and get out of here quickly!”

The teacher pointed at the door and sent out the students who were stubbornly insisting that it wasn’t true.

“That, you b*tch like a dog!”

“That b*tch is really crazy.”

Irami and her group, who came out into the hallway, spat out curses with fierce eyes.

“Lee Seolrae, that b*tch is not normal.”

One of the group standing with her looked at Irami and said.

“I was in the same class as her in the first grade, and she spent half a year as an outsider without a single friend, but she was so confident without batting an eye.”

“Yeah! After we bullied her, she walks around alone without any friends, but she’s not intimidated at all.”

“Irami, should we just ignore her? If we mess with that crazy b*tch, we’ll just…….”

“Just what! That crazy b*tch embarrassed me in front of all the students; are you saying we should just stay still?”

“No, I’m just saying that because Lee Seolrae doesn’t bat an eye.”

“Then we’ll have to make her bat an eye.”

Irami bit her lower lip and gritted her teeth.

* * *

A few hours later, after all the school classes were over, Seolrae came out of school and stopped by the convenience store.

She was planning to have a simple meal before going to the academy [private educational institution in South Korea].

Her dad gave her plenty of allowance to make sure she didn’t skip meals, but she didn’t really want to eat.

“The calculation is all done. You can take out your card.”

Seolrae, who bought a cup ramen and a triangle kimbap [a common convenience store snack in South Korea], took a seat by the window.

“I still haven’t seen it…….”

While the ramen was cooking, Seolrae clicked on the text message app and was bothered that her mom still hadn’t read the text.

-Hello.

After hesitating for a moment, Seolrae pressed the phone call button, and her mom’s voice was heard. Unable to hide her joy at the unexpected development, Seolrae said.

“Mom? It’s me.”

-Oh, Seolrae. Are you doing well?

Unlike the happy Seolrae, her biological mother’s voice had a somewhat formal feeling.

“Mom, why is it so hard to get a hold of you?”

-Seolrae, I’m busy these days, so it’s hard to contact you. I’ll be busy for a while.

“Really? Th, then…… can’t I go see you, Mom?”

-No, you can’t. It would be difficult if you came to where I work.

“I’ll go to where you live, Mom.”

-That’s even more impossible. Seolrae, I’m sorry, but I’m busy right now, so let’s talk later.

“Mom…….”

There are so many things I want to say and ask. What is she so busy with? Her mom cut off the phone that had been connected for the first time in a month without hesitation.

‘She must be busy. She must be busy. But it’s okay because we talked.’

Swallowing her disappointment and sadness, Seolrae opened the acrylic box in her bag.

She took out one piece from it and put it next to her, then ate the ramen and triangle kimbap.

“Goodbye.”

Seolrae, who had finished eating and came out of the convenience store, stopped walking suddenly.

“You b*tch, did you finish eating?”

“Yeah. I ate it all.”

“You were eating so deliciously.”

Irami and her group were waiting in front of the convenience store with fierce eyes.

“Woah! Woah!”

When Seolrae, who answered the question, tried to go her way, Irami blocked her way.

“You can’t just go like this. Can you?”

“Then. We’d be sad if you just went like this.”

“I have nothing to do with you guys?”

“Don’t you think we have something to do with you? Let’s go somewhere for a bit.”

The bully group put their arms around Seolrae’s shoulders and moved to a secluded place nearby.

“Hey! Lee Seolrae!”

Irami pushed Seolrae to a place with a wall and surrounded her with her group.

“Are you crazy? I’m going to have to write a lot of reflection papers because of you.”

The group, who had been dragged to the faculty room after class, were scolded by the homeroom teacher and had to write 10 handwritten reflection papers each.

“I told you, right? To help me a little? Was it that precious to help me with that?”

“It’s knowledge that I gained by studying and working hard, so of course it’s precious. You guys should study even just one thing instead of doing this to innocent people. That’s how you go to college.”

“What! Is this b*tch crazy! Do you think you’re so great?”

Slap-

Irami, who was angry, suddenly slapped her cheek, but Seolrae didn’t hold back and slapped Irami’s cheek.

Slap-

“You hit me first, so I did it in self-defense.”

“You little b*tch!”

Irami, surprised that she had been hit, had her group grab Seolrae’s arms.

“Do you know what this is?”

Irami, who took out something sharp, put it on Seolrae’s cheek and teased her.

“Just because you’re good at studying, do you think you’re some great person? I heard your mom is a stepmother?”

“……!”

Irami poured oil on Seolrae, who was already upset because of her family affairs, and teased her.

“Tsk tsk! You’re not doing well either. Poor you.”

“Let go of me!”

“Why would I? I’m going to make sure you never act up again.”

“Let go of me!! Ah!”

After a while, Seolrae screamed in agony as she struggled violently, and her painful voice echoed in the empty lot.

“Ah! Stop it!!”

“You should have listened to me. If you had, this wouldn’t have happened, and we would have been good to each other. Still, how could you snitch to the teacher during the performance evaluation? That’s why I got so pissed.”

Irami grabbed Seolrae’s hair, who was sitting on the floor, and cursed at her to her heart’s content, then left with her group after leaving one more word.

“Try telling the teachers one more time. Then I’ll make you go through something even more terrible. School life will be so much fun from now on. Look forward to it.”

Seolrae, sitting on the floor in a ridiculous situation, wiped away her tears and got up from her seat, dusting off her dirty bag and uniform with her hands.