Life, Once Again!

* * *“Han Maru.”“Yessir.”“You got any complaints?”“No, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”“Let’s not do this again, alright?”“Yessir.”His hamstrings were burning in pain after each slap. Maru knelt on top of his desk, getting slapped by a wooden stick. Each and every hit burned uniquely. Just what kind of wood did they use for this stuff? It’s thinner than even his finger, but it hurt like hell. Even more so than getting hit in the butt by a PVC pipe. The English teacher had an apologetic look on his face, but that didn’t make the stick hurt any less.“I’m letting you off with just this, since this is the first time. Alright?”“Yessir.”“And for the guys who copied Maru’s homework today, I hope you won’t be doing this kind of thing again.”“...Yes,” said a few of the students with a dejected voice. Maru sat down in his chair to massage his throbbing legs. Sharing his homework was fine, but he glossed over a major problem. He was ass at English.He solved the problems on the homework with some unorthodox grammar rules, and the other boys copied them word by word. The teacher probably felt ridiculed after coming across the eighth kid with the same mistake.“Yo, does it hurt?” Dojin whispered to him.“Hurts like a mother.”“Damn though, I didn’t think he’d just check it on the spot like that. Let’s not copy each others’ English homework from now on.”“...Oh, you’re telling me?”“Sorry.”The English teacher returned to his podium. Maru thought the class would resume there, but he was mistaken. The English teacher’s mouth curled down into a frown. Another one, huh.“Kang Dowook, Lim Jichul.”Two this time. Dowook and Jichul stood up from their seats.“Eh? We had a guy like that?” Dojin exclaimed. He was looking at Jichul.Maru was pretty surprised, too. He thought he knew everyone, but he hadn’t even talked with Jichul before. The boy was incredibly skinny, wore metallic glasses, coupled with long hair to Maru’s notice. Jichul probably didn’t get caught by the disciplinary teacher because he looked so normal.“Who copied?” the teacher asked.Maru could tell Dowook was the one who did it. The others probably thought the same. After all, Dowook’s established himself as the delinquent pretty strongly since the first day. Jichul, on the other hand… seemed to be one of the outsiders. There was no way a kid like that would ask Dowook to copy homework. Maru doubted that Dowook would’ve done his homework to begin with either.‘No, I’m just assuming things again,’ he realized.Maru decided to watch for now.“I asked who copied the homework,” the teacher said. He was sounding pretty pissed now.The students called this teacher the pink pig, Maru recalled. Not because the teacher was fat, but because the man’s cheeks always had a pinkish hue to it. Right now, those pink cheeks were starting to turn crimson. The stick in his hand was starting to tremble from how hard the man was gripping it, too.Man, that’s gotta hurt. Maru massaged his legs again. Right then, he saw Jichul’s hands move a little bit. He was probably planning on confessing.“I did it.” The answer came from somewhere else, though.“Dowook, you?”What a surprise. Dowook raised his hand?“Yessir.”“Ridiculous. You guys should realize that I’m not giving you homework to keep you kids busy, I’m giving them because they’re much needed practice for you. You get it?”“I’m sorry, sir.”“Get up on your desk, Kang Dowook. Don’t you know how much I hate people who let others copy their homework?”Dowook got up on the desk without another word. Maru looked at him with a surprised face. Did Dowook really let Jichul copy his homework? Nope, couldn’t be it. Jichul was standing in his spot with a very surprised look on his face as well. Then why did he confess?‘To get hit in Jichul’s place?’Maru looked at Dowook thoughtfully as the teacher’s stick whooshed down with brutal retribution.