The Bum Class, where those who didn’t make it into the top 10 percent in the entrance exams ended up.
In Dapcheon Academy, where only skill was the measure of a person’s worth, the value of those without exceptional skills was extremely low. The Bum Class was where they were gathered and practically abandoned.
Judging by the naming, which lacked even a shred of effort, one could see how Dapcheon treated them.
Since the academy didn’t provide much management for this class, the management naturally fell to the students.
Naturally, to the strongest student.
*
The stinging shock that spread from the back of her head was more than enough to drag Fuyuno Tsubaki from her imaginary world back to reality. Unlike the colorful world of her imagination, reality for her was a drab, achromatic world, closest to gray.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t distinguish colors, but the colors of reality held little meaning for her.
“You should greet someone when you arrive. Just gonna sit down? We’ve been letting you off easy lately, and now you’re climbing all over us, huh?” Because Fuyuno Tsubaki’s reality had never been kind to her.
“Do you think it’s right to treat your savior like this? Huh? Tsubaki.”
Jinsook invoked the idea of being Fuyuno Tsubaki’s savior while poking her chest with a pointed finger.
Even this finger-poking was a major shock to Fuyuno Tsubaki, the weakest both physically and mentally in Dapcheon Academy, and her body was helplessly pushed back by Jinsook’s finger.
“Hey, are you gonna answer?”
Fuyuno Tsubaki had known for a month that Jinsook’s words, the talk of being a savior, were nonsense.
Because even if the two of them hadn’t appeared, she could have escaped on her own, and nothing life-threatening would have happened.
Rather, Jinsook and Soonhee were like enemies who had threatened her life.
When the sky cracked and a rift opened, the two had pushed Fuyuno Tsubaki down and ran away, telling her to buy them some time.
Therefore, the talk of being a savior that Jinsook was spouting now was utter garbage.
But even though she knew that Jinsook’s words and actions were wrong, Fuyuno Tsubaki couldn’t point it out. “S-sorry. I was wrong, Jinsook…”
Instead, she said that she was the one who was wrong, offering an apology.
This wasn’t because she was a stupid idiot who couldn’t tell right from wrong.
It was because she already knew that speaking the truth would be useless.
In a society of superhumans, the sophistry of the powerful was not sophistry, but justice.
“You know that, and you still do this? Doing it even though you know means you really look down on me!”
“N-no, that’s not it…”
“It’s not? Are you saying I’m wrong right now?”
“Ah, ahh…”
Of course, following the justice established by the strong didn’t guarantee safety.
In fact, whether she followed it or not, Fuyuno Tsubaki could only suffer.
Because she was just a toy to her classmate Jinsook and…
“What’s going on? What’s all the noise, Jinsook?”
Soonhee, who then opened the classroom door and entered.
Fuyuno Tsubaki knew very well how useless it was to think ‘why?’ in such an absurd situation.
Even if she kept asking ‘why?’ and was lucky enough to find out the reason, she couldn’t solve the problem.
That’s why Fuyuno Tsubaki only felt the question and asked herself, without seeking an answer.
That way, she could at least make the excuse that this happened because she didn’t know.
It was better than knowing the reason but not being able to fix the problem.
“What? She didn’t greet you? And on top of that, she sat down wherever she wanted and even smiled creepily? Wow… I thought I was getting a little closer to Tsubaki, so I was going to try and shield her if possible, but this is a bit much. So, did Tsubaki apologize? Ah, she did apologize? Then it didn’t go to the worst-case scenario. That’s a relief.”
Soonhee, who arrived late, listened to Jinsook’s words and spoke as if she were mediating the situation.
But Fuyuno Tsubaki knew that the words Soonhee was uttering now were just sweet-talking bullshit.
Because she had been physically experiencing for a month that Soonhee, who had appeared later and was speaking in such a relaxed voice, was far more vicious than Jinsook, who had suddenly slapped her on the back of the head and gotten angry.
“But, you know that apologies with words alone are meaningless, right? If words were enough, why would there be laws and police? If you do something wrong, you have to be punished. Only those who have committed a crime can truly atone for it. Right? Tsubaki.”
Just like now.
“Punishment…?”
“Yeah, punishment. You don’t have to worry. Just do what I tell you. It won’t be too difficult or painful. Just like always.”
At Soonhee’s words, the gazes of some of those sitting in the classroom focused.
It wasn’t at all because they couldn’t stand the abuse towards Fuyuno Tsubaki any longer and were sending her looks of justice and anger.
Rather, they were chuckling and sending her looks of anticipation.
“Then, stand up and follow me.”
“Y-yes.”
The reason they weren’t helping Fuyuno Tsubaki and were instead feeling interest and anticipation in her being bullied was because her surname was Fuyuno.
The Fuyuno family, ranked third among the world’s prestigious families, the sky above the sky, the most prestigious of prestigious families.
The sight of a member of such a Fuyuno family suffering like this brought catharsis to the students of the Bum Class.
Because they were students of the Bum Class.
Ordinary people who had gathered here because they weren’t exceptional.
“Hehehe. Look at her. A member of that Fuyuno family is suffering like that and can’t even say a word.”
“See? That bloodline stuff is all a lie. You can tell by looking at Fuyuno Tsubaki. She’s the weakest in Dapcheon, even though she’s the daughter of that great former head of the family. It’s no wonder she was kicked out of the Fuyuno family.”
“Ha, I wonder if I should ask Soonhee to lend her to me for a bit later? When else would I get to play with someone from the Fuyuno family?”
The name Fuyuno had a difference in status that ordinary people couldn’t even dare to look up to.
But Tsubaki, who bore the name of such a great Fuyuno and yet showed such a weak appearance, was a very satisfying spectacle for these ordinary people.
Of course, they had never been harmed by the Fuyuno family, but everyone in this place was a superhuman.
They had all lived in a society that ran on the logic of power, so they all had experience being oppressed by the strong.
That’s why they were cheering at the sight of Tsubaki of the lofty Fuyuno family being abused.
“Tsk.”
Of course, not everyone was like that, and there were definitely some who frowned, but in this Bum Class, no one helped Fuyuno Tsubaki.
“Now, Tsubaki. If you’ve done something wrong, it’s right to apologize, isn’t it?”
“Y-yes.”
“But apologies with words alone are meaningless. So, you have to show how much you’re reflecting with your actions, right?”
Soonhee, who had come to the front of the podium in the circular classroom, pushed Fuyuno Tsubaki and said.
“Go up.”
At Soonhee’s command, Fuyuno Tsubaki, who had climbed onto the podium against her will, trembled with her shoulders hunched.
Soonhee felt a sense of superiority from her hunched figure and smiled sweetly as she said.
“Now, tell our Jinsook that you’re sincerely sorry while….. yeah, that. Dogeza. Do that.”
“H-huh?”
“Say you’re sorry while slamming your forehead on the floor.”
Fuyuno Tsubaki had been swayed by the strong to avoid getting hurt as much as possible, but she couldn’t help but feel resistance to doing dogeza in front of everyone like this.
The very act of doing dogeza when she hadn’t done anything wrong was wrong in itself.
But even if she felt resistance to the unfair actions that others were ordering her to do and knew that the situation she was in was wrong, she was already adapted to resignation and giving up to put the right path into practice.
‘Why do I have to suffer like this?’
That’s why Fuyuno Tsubaki, this time again, only asked ‘why?’ in her mind and slowly bent her knees as she was told.
‘Why do only these things happen to me? I didn’t do anything wrong, so why am I the one who’s wrong? Why is this world so drab and gray?’
Just as Fuyuno Tsubaki’s knees were about to touch the floor, having avoided coming to a conclusion and only repeating the questions, one memory came to her mind.
[Get that straw out of here, you dirty mosquito!]
The first salvation in Fuyuno Tsubaki’s 20 years of life.
The figure of a very handsome man with black hair and white skin flickered before her eyes.
Being saved by a man as a woman was a very humiliating thing in this superhuman society, but for the weakest Fuyuno Tsubaki, the distinction between men and women was meaningless.
What was important to her was the single fact that that person had saved her.
‘Just one more time…’
That memory was her only hope, the only thing in Fuyuno Tsubaki’s achromatic world that had its original color.
That’s why, even though she had seen with her own eyes from the closest distance that the man who had saved her had suffered a serious injury that she didn’t even know if he could survive, she couldn’t help but wish for it, shamelessly.
“Please, just one more time, save m—’
Bang!! Clatter!!!!
Just as she was about to finish saying the words to ask for help, the door, which had been violently opened by a strong impact, hit the wall and made a loud noise, cutting off Fuyuno Tsubaki’s words.
Since the front door that the professors used had been opened in that way, Soonhee and Jinsook froze, wondering if the professor had come in earlier than scheduled.
But when they checked the figure walking in with rough steps beyond the wide-open door, the two’s eyes changed from tension to bewilderment.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The one who had opened the front door and entered was a man wearing the Dapcheon Academy uniform with sexy and healthy tanned skin, red eyes full of yang energy, and golden hair shining like the sun.
The man swept his gaze over the gazes focused on him, turning his head with an expression that was about to explode from irritation.
“What is this?”
Then, he stopped his gaze when he saw Fuyuno Tsubaki, who was frozen in an awkward posture just before kneeling.
After thinking about something while looking at her, he lightly hit his palm with his fist as if he remembered.
“Ah, right. She’s the girl I saved. What’s with that posture? What kind of awkward posture is that, about to kneel or not… Ah.”
Yang Woo-bin, who had remembered Fuyuno Tsubaki, was about to ask about her strange posture, but then he grasped the atmosphere in the room and roughly figured out what had happened.
Then, he turned his gaze away from Fuyuno Tsubaki and opened his mouth towards Soonhee and Jinsook, who were standing right in front of her. “What are you doing, bullying the girl I risked my life to save? You wanna die?”
“W-what?”
“What are you suddenly saying…”
Being told “You wanna die?” by a man, not a woman, and especially by a delinquent-looking man with blonde hair and a tan, who looked like he had been through a lot, was too unfamiliar even for the two delinquents of the Bum Class.
Because of that, they were flustered and couldn’t speak as casually or aggressively as they usually did, but Yang Woo-bin’s gaze had already returned to Fuyuno Tsubaki.
“U-uh…”
Although her appearance had changed drastically, Fuyuno Tsubaki immediately recognized that the man looking at her now was her only hero, who even appeared in her dreams.
He had really appeared because she had desperately wished for him in her heart.
In a world of gray, he was the only one who shone with a vibrant array of golds, reds, and coppers. At the appearance of such a hero, straight out of a dream, Fuyuno Tsubaki offered her thanks in a trembling voice.
“Th-thank y―”
“And here I went through all the trouble of risking my neck to save you. Why are you letting yourself get bullied? You wanna die?”
“Huh?”
Fuyuno Tsubaki’s one and only hero was a crazy son of a bitch.
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