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1. A Hooligan with a Story <2>
The banging stopped with Changgong’s yell.
Changgong opened the door and walked out raising both of his hands.
“You’re under arrest for assault and battery and property destruction! You have the right to remain silent! Anything you say can……”
As the police recited the Miranda Rights while taking out a pair of handcuffs, Changgong pushed through and ran.
“Catch him!”
As if they had been waiting for him to run, the police rushed in, blocking the aisle from all three directions.
They had been ready for this situation.
‘Shit……!’
He had really gotten himself into a pickle this time. He’ll never work with fucking gangsters anymore. Spit!
In that instant, Changgong’s eyes fell upon the fully open balcony.
“……”
‘Should I jump?’
Fuck it. It’s better than getting caught.
Changgong ran towards the balcony and threw himself off.
“H-hey! That piece of-!”
The police were flustered, not knowing what to do.
That was only natural since the balcony was easily 5 meters above the ground.
The police rushed towards the railing in a herd and looked outside. Surprisingly, Changgong rolled forward once to break his fall and sprang up to sprint away.
“Wow……”
A senior officer slapped the amazed police officer upside his head.
“Chase him! And radio the team on standby!”
“Gasp, gasp!”
Changgong ran to the taxi stand and cut in front of the line to get into the backseat of the frontmost taxi.
“Hello.”
“Mister, please go.”
“Where would you like to go?”
“Just start the car already. Anywhere, hurry!”
“I couldn’t go even if I wanted to. The light’s red.”
“Can’t you just please go?”
“Hey now, do you know how much the fine is for running a red light? Can’t do that.”
Changgong looked out the window. The police and detectives were frothing at their mouths trying to catch little old Changgong and quickly swarmed into the taxi stand.
‘God, this is crazy.’
Changgong laid himself flat onto the backseat. ‘I guess shitting bricks would be the appropriate term for this situation.’ He was so nervous that it felt like his asshole was really flaring.
‘Please God……I’ll fucking go to church, so please……’
Anxiety makes you think of anything and everything.
The signal finally changed. But when it seemed that the taxi would finally depart, it abruptly stopped.
“What’s wrong now?”
“Hey, did you happen to commit a crime?”
“What’re you talking about?”
“Police cars are blocking the way.”
“……!”
Changgong shot up in surprise. It wasn’t only police. Police and detectives were completely surrounding them. A detective with a military haircut knocked on the window. He grinned when the taxi driver lowered the window and flashed his badge.
“Good work, man. I have some business with your passenger here. Would it be okay to borrow him for a bit?”
“Sure thing.”
The military haircut detective opened the backdoor, still grinning.
“Since you took the effort to run away, you could have done a bit better, don’t you think?”
“……”
“So, do you want to get hurt, or are you going to come out like a nicely?”
“I’m getting out.”
Changgong got out of the taxi. The detective grabbed onto Changgong’s collar and pushed him into the wall a bit roughly. He tapped Changgong’s ankles a few times to spread his legs and handcuffed his hands behind him.
“This would have been a lot easier if you hadn’t run.”
“I’m sorry……”
“Whatever, this is our job so you don’t have to apologize. You already heard the Miranda Rights a while ago, right? Let’s talk about the rest down at the station.”
Changgong kept his head down as the police dragged him away.
I guess my life ends here.
***
“Ex….pulsion?”
“We are very sorry to tell you this.”
Inside the conference room of Silla High School.
The middle of the three teachers sitting at the rectangular table spoke. The words were apologetic, but the teacher’s expression was anything but.
Changgong, who had been sitting across the table like a criminal, dropped his head even lower. It had fortunately been settled as mutual combat, but the school’s punishment was another story.
Next to Changgong, a middle-aged man, who looked as if he had just run out of a factory, sighed.
“Can’t you be a little lenient just this once? He’s a little rough around the edges because he didn’t get enough of his parents’ love growing up, but he’s kind at his core. He hasn’t caused any problems before today has he?”
“We can’t be sure of that. We are planning to carry out a survey on the prevalence of violence at this school. If he’s involved, we could take legal action.”
“Please, do you really have to go that far? He’s only 18. If you take pity on him this one time, I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything like this in the future.”
“You should have done that before.”
“You’re right. It’s because I’m incompetent…… What are you doing! Hurry up and beg for forgiveness!”
Changgong’s father, Seungjeong Lee, pressed down on his son’s head while lowering his own.
“Just this once, please.”
“We have already reported it to President Lee and cannot reverse the decision.”
“Wouldn’t you be able to make some small changes and report it again? I know this is asking a lot, but…… it’s going to be a very hard time for this kid.”
“You’re asking us to make a false report?”
“Not a false report, but you could take the various situations into consideration…… you teachers have children, too, do you not? Please just look over it this one time as a parent……”
“Crimes must be punished. I would punish my children the same way had they done something like this.”
“Yes, crimes need to be punished.  But the level of punishment is a little……”
Changgong was crushed.
His father had been working at the factory when he got called in and was begging in his stead. He felt an unfathomable amount of shame.
“Continuing like this won’t change anything. If we look over this incident, we’ll all be criticized by our superiors and the media.”
“Criticized……?”
“We’ve received orders from the school board. We are to publicly announce Changgong’s punishment and take a firm stance against him. What would happen to us if we let him off easy?”
“But that doesn’t mean it has to be expulsion, right? M-maybe probation or something. If that doesn’t work what about a transfer……”
“How many times must we tell you. It’s over. Nothing can be done.”
“You could still try asking your superiors……”
“Jesus, really. Why can’t you understand what I’m saying?”
“……”
“Since it’s come to this, I’ll say what has been on my mind. How would we look this over? Entry into a bar, assault, property destruction, obstruction of justice, assault of a police officer. This here is a gangster, not a student. If you’re so worried about your child, why didn’t you take care of him from the beginning?”
Changgong was overwhelmed.
“I didn’t attack an offi……”
“Be quiet!”
He could not finish his statement because of Seungjeong’s roar.
“The police said that they would leave the punishment up to the school. If you give me a chance, I’ll take responsibility and discipline him.”
“You can do that from now on then.”
“……”
“Do you know how much of a laughingstock the school has become because of Changgong? I won’t say much. We have decided to make an example out of Changgong and will by no means forgive him.”
“Teacher…… Changgong is your student. Stepping on the sprouts of barley is to make them grow stronger, not to kill them, isn’t it? He’s at an age where he’ll make mistakes.”
“Just as you say, we are pulling out the roots.”
Seungjeong lost his words.
“Pulling out the roots……?”
“Changgong is not barley. He is weed. He is only a bad influence on the students.”
“……”
“We do not teach criminals. That’s all we have to say. If you have no more to say, please leave.”
The teachers blatantly expressed their annoyance.
There was an awkward silence.
They’re saying that they’re going to pull the weeds out by the roots. They’re saying I’m a criminal.
Seungjeong looked over at Changgong. He had his head lowered, completely dejected.
Seeing such a spiritless Changgong, Seungjeong boiled inside.
Seungjeong glared daggers at the teachers and spoke.
“You guys sure are full of yourselves.”
“…… What did you say?”
“Are you people really teachers!”
Seungjeong got up, knocking the chair over as he did. All eyes were on him now.
Changgong also looked at him in surprise. This was the first time that he saw his father who had always known his place in society so worked up outside.
“Weed? Criminal? Should a teacher really be calling their own student such words!”
“Mr. Lee……!”
“Who are you to judge my child like that! You finally hold a worthless government position and you think you’re all that now?”
“You’re going too far!”
“Have you tried to understand Changgong even once? Have you ever listened to his story? What if my son is the victim!”
“……”
“You’ll punish him because you’re in trouble? What kind of teacher spits out such shit! You should be protecting your disciple, but you throw him out instead!”
“We haven’t done anything to yell at us like that! Do you think we’re staying calm because we can’t yell?!”
“You supposedly educated people intimidate and threaten one student. Rebuking him! It’s this bad when I’m right next to him, how bad is it when he’s alone? What’s the difference between you and gangsters, you fucking thugs!”
“The nerve of this man! You think your words mean anything!”
“The nerve? You’re still green and you talk to me like that with your disgusting mouth! I should just crush your head right in!”
Seungjeong took the light stick he had hanging at his hip and tried to whack him in the head. The young teacher flinched and covered his head.
“The apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree! Go ahead! Hit me! It’ll be fun to see both father and son behind bars!”
“What? Fine! You son of a bitch! You’re dead, you prick!”
Seungjeong grabbed the young teacher by the collar. The young teacher, too, grabbed onto Seungjeong’s collar. The two wrestled wildly on the floor.
Then, the teacher grabbed onto Seungjeong’s hair.
“Ah! You fuck! You grabbed my hair! Let go! Let go!!”
“What’re you going to do if I don’t!”
Sparks flew from Changgong’s eyes at that instant.
“Don’t touch my father!”
Changgong grabbed onto a handful of the teacher’s hair and swung it back and forth.
The teacher screamed and let go of Seungjeong’s hair.
“Good job, my son! Rip it all out!”
For the first time in the history of the prestigious Shilla High School, a brawl broke out in the teachers’ lounge.
The two were shortly chased out of the school.
***
“Wow, that’s good!”
Inside a tented restaurant.
Seungjeong tossed a sea snail into his mouth after downing his soju.
Seungjeong did not ask any questions. Why he had done something like that, didn’t he know it would turn out like this.
That made Changgong’s heart even heavier. It would be easier if he scolded him, if he slapped him.
“Why don’t you ask anything?”
“What would I ask?”
“Something like why I did what I did.”
“Why’d you do it?”
“……”
“See, you can’t answer even if I ask.”
Seungjeong muttered to himself as he picked out the sea snails one by one.
He might not look like it anymore, but Seungjeong had worked at an electrical construction company 10 years ago. Then, he had lost the house on stocks and Changgong didn’t know what went wrong, but he resigned from the company and was working hard labor now.
It was a little better now, but when he first started working he barely survived.
For half his live, he had sat at a desk doing white collar work before suddenly jumping straight into the construction site, so it was only natural for his body to give out. He would vomit all the time and had multiple hospital visits before he got to where he was now.
He struggled like that and now earned around 3 million won a month.
You think that’s great?
Nonsense. 1.8 million goes out every month to pay for rent and debt. Changgong’s grandma is staying at a nursing home because of dementia and that takes half a mil monthly.
After you factor in the phone bill and the various utilities, there’s exactly enough to eat. Can’t even dream about saving.
That’s why he wanted to help. If he earned my share, my father would suffer that much less.
That’s why he hung out with thugs even when he knew it was wrong. That was the only thing he could do. By the time he had come to my senses, he was in too deep.
“I’m sorry.”
“You jerk, you’re making me lose my appetite. What now?”
“I got expelled.”
“You keep getting the wrong address, buddy. Was it okay for you to deceive me and go around getting into fights?”
“You know I don’t mean that.”
“Whether I know or not, speak correctly. Why is getting expelled your fault? It was the teachers who chased you out to save their own skins. Man, I’m getting worked up just thinking about it. Jeez! Why are there so little sea snails!”
“It happened because of my actions, anyways.”
“Forget it. What could you learn from those people, anyway. It’s actually for the better. Just think that you’ve entered society a bit earlier than others.”
Seungjeong emptied his glass and filled it again.
Changgong let out a heavy sigh.