Only I Level Up Recollections/After Stories
Part 3: Approach
Spin, spin....
The radar of a boy named Lee Eun-Cheol, a recent addition to the ranks of high school students, began spinning around.
A brand new school, a new classroom, and new classmates.
The eyes of Lee Eun-Cheol, sitting right at the back of the class, as he scanned the atmosphere of the place remained harsh, predatory. With just one glance, he quickly judged who was beneath him, and who was qualified to be his friend.
The laws of the jungle reigned supreme in this world called the classroom.
Even back in his middle school days, Lee Eun-Cheol ruled the roost with his fists. To his eyes, the majority of his classmates looked like a bunch of easy prey. Almost without exception, those that met his glare all quickly averted their gazes.
'....How lame.'
However, there was a dude that walked closer to him with a grin on his face, instead.
'That's Jo Seong-Ho.'
He was one of those 'friends' who did his thing in the neighbouring district. Also, they ran into each other every now and then while sharing casual booze with his other friends, too.
"You were also here?"
"Yeah."
They greeted each other and shared news on their particular circle of acquaintances while measuring each other up, but that only lasted for a short while.
Jo Seong-Ho had heard the infamy of Lee Eun-Cheol plenty of times before, so he lowered his head first and got under the latter's wings.
"Take care of me from now on, alright?"
Lee Eun-Cheol smirked deeply and grasped Jo Seong-Ho's extended hand. They might be in the process of establishing their hierarchical positioning at the moment, but a guy like this would be classified as a 'friend'.
And so, as he was about halfway done with establishing the hierarchical relationship with the rest of the class, there was this one guy who kept getting on Lee Eun-Cheol's nerves for some reason.
He wasn't some model student who sat right in front of the class, nor was he a punk trying to show off while sitting at the back, either.
It was a strange kid who sat in the middle and didn't even bother to avert his gaze away when their gazes collided.
There would always be one like this guy in every class – a dimwit who didn't know his place and needed an 'incident' to figure who was on top and who was at the bottom.
That punk was looking behind him, right at Lee Eun-Cheol, before sighing out, as if he found this whole thing ridiculous, and reverted his gaze back to his front. Obviously, the high school thug couldn't take that lying down anymore and stood up from his seat.
Dururuk...
The noise of the chair dragging against the ground loudly rang around the classroom. Of course, the gazes of the whole class were instantly focused on Lee Eun-Cheol.
The boy enjoyed all the attention and, while feeling pretty good about himself, strode right over to the dimwit who didn't know his place.
"Oii."
Just as Lee Eun-Cheol reached out to grab the punk's shoulder and turn him around, a tackle came in from a rather unexpected quarter.
"Hold up."
After confirming that it was Jo Seong-Ho that grabbed hold of his wrist, Lee Eun-Cheol opened his mouth.
"What now?"
There were distinct signs of displeasure thickly melted into the voice, and that caused Jo Seong-Ho to nervously swallow his dry saliva.
"We went to the same middle school. If you can help it, you shouldn't bother him."
".....Same school?"
Just because they went to the same school, he was trying to protect the punk?
There could be two potential reasons for that. One, a reason that couldn't be brought up but still forbade anyone from touching this punk.
Or, they were looking down on Lee Eun-Cheol.
The high school thug's expression hardened instantly and he began lightly kicking the chair of the 'punk' that didn't even bother to turn around in the middle of this commotion.
"Hey, hey? Who the hell are you? Why don't you say something? Don't you have a mouth?"
Jo Seong-Ho's complexion paled really quickly and tried to jump in front to stop this. Lee Eun-Cheol's patience ran out then and he slapped the latter's hand away while shooting a fierce glare.
"You, come with me."
As Lee Eun-Cheol left the classroom, two of his underlings that graduated from the same middle school followed after him, too. He stopped right at the doorway and looked back. His eyes caught Jo Seong-Ho sweating buckets, while the 'punk' didn't seem to care one jot either way.
Grit.
A chilling murderous aura filled up Lee Eun-Cheol's eyes.
***
"Keo-heok!"
Jo Seong-Ho and his messed-up face were tottering unsteadily on his feet. Maybe that didn't satisfy him yet, Lee Eun-Cheol's glare remained frigid and murderous.
He shoved Jo Seong-Ho against the wall before asking his question.
"Who the hell is that punk? Just who is he that you're trying to protect him?!"
The wounded boy breathed heavily and painfully before spitting out saliva mixed with traces of blood to the ground. He then raised his head, his expression one of fatigue.
"He was the strongest in our middle school."
"...??"
Lee Eun-Cheol's head tilted to the side.
This kid, did he lose his mind after getting smacked around for a bit?
It was a well-known story that Jo Seong-Ho and his gang had completely conquered his middle school. However, he shook his head and emphasized his point.
"We couldn't even lay a hand on that guy. I stepped forward today, cuz I was scared that something might go wrong here, too."
Initially, Lee Eun-Cheol wondered what kind of horse crap this was, but Jo Seong-Ho's eyes were far too serious for something like that.
'This son of a b*tch... He's being serious?'
But, that couldn't be.
If there was a scary b*stard like that, then there was just no way that a rumour wouldn't have gotten around.
The name of the punk in question was Seong Soo-Hoh.
Lee Eun-Cheol lived in this neck of the woods since his elementary school days, but he had never heard of that name before. Besides, what could a nerd like that do to him, anyway?