CH 22

EP.22 The end of one’s first love

A blow.

The extent to which self-defense is allowed, as the police often say, was a single blow to me.

If you hit more than this, it would be excessive force, so you win only with a punch.

The man with slicked-back hair hit by the counter punch flew in the air like a toy.

White teeth fluttering like petals as a result.

Thud!!

The man with slicked-back hair, which flew with a large amount of blood coming out from its mouth and nose, barely stopped flying after hitting the vending machine about 3 meters away.

“Hyung-nim!”

“Hayashi hyung-nim!”

The frightened gangsters ran toward the man with slicked-back hair.

I stood behind the two men, who were shaking the man who fainted, clasping my right hand with a heavy touch.

“You messed with my friends, are you ready?”

Then the two men, wearing casts on their necks and arms, were surprised, fell back, and shouted desperately.

“You, if you touch me, I’ll call the police! My dad knows someone from the Metropolitan Police Department!”

“My father is a police officer! You know what happens if you touch me, right?”

They were all stereotyped threat.

“You guys don’t know the saying ‘the law is far away, and the fist is close’?”

I grabbed each of their faces with my palm.

“I’ll fix your rotten brains.”

Iron Claw, a technique commonly used in professional wrestling.

The advantage of this technique is that it can cause a lot of pain by pressing the temple with one hand, but if you control the force, it leaves no special wound in appearance.

“Argh! Aaargh! It hurts! It hurts! I’m gonna die!”

“Please save me! Somebody, please! I made a mistake!”

The two men, caught by me and lifted up in the air, struggled with their limbs, shedding tears with runny noses at the tremendous pressure and pain on their temples while their vision was completely blocked by my palms.

When I held them for about 30 seconds and let it go, the two peed on their pants and begged for their lives, still looking terrified.

Looking down at those two with cold eyes, I said,

“Go, and don’t show up in front of Tо̄jо̄ and Sakamoto ever again.”

Then the gangsters nodded and hurriedly left the park, helping the man named Hayashi, who fell down after being hit by my fist.

“Wow.…”

In the end, I saw blood on a good day.

If the same thing happened another time, I wouldn’t hesitate to use my strength for my friends, but I felt bitter because I felt like I was getting out of the human category.

Was this the fate of a muscular comic character….

As I looked down at both palms with a strange lingering feeling, Kishimoto, who was watching the fight from afar, ran waving her hands.

“Ryu-chan! Are you alright?!”

“Huh? Yes, I’m alright. Except for minor abrasions, there’s no injury.”

I tried to reassure Kishimoto by saying that, but she still pointed at me in a flustered look.

“But your forehead is still bleeding!”

It was only then that I remembered that my forehead had been torn and pressed on it with the handkerchief I took out.

“This kind of wound is cured with saliva.”

Then Rika pulled my arm with a rare angry expression.

“Don’t be silly. Let’s go to the pharmacy!”

Eventually, I was defeated by her power and headed to a small pharmacy near the park.

***

I was able to return to my original place only after applying the wound medicine I bought at the pharmacy on my forehead and attaching a square bandage.

While I was dealing with the gangsters, Tо̄jо̄ had carried Sakamoto on her back and laid him on a bench nearby, and seemed to have recovered a bit.

Sincerely, I wanted to ask if they were okay, but because there was a subtle atmosphere between the two, Kishimoto and I did not immediately approach and watched the situation from afar.

Soon, Tо̄jо̄ spoke first.

“I’m sorry, Sakamoto. You got hit because of me.”

Sakamoto, who was sitting side by side with Tо̄jо̄, answered with a shake of his head.

“I’m rather sorry. They came after me because they had a grudge against me.”

There was a momentary silence between the two.

Soon, Tо̄jо̄, who was wiggling her hands with her head down, said first, with courage.

“Sakamoto! I like you! Please go out with me!”

Then Sakamoto opened his eyes slightly wide and said with a bitter smile.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can give a positive answer to your confession.”

“Why? Is it because I look like a tomboy? If that’s the case, from now on…!”

Sakamoto waved hurriedly and said,

“No, it’s not like that. Tо̄jо̄ you’re definitely too good for me. But I have a reason, too.”

“A reason?”

“There’s a girl I promised to get married to when she was young. I don’t want to go out with anyone, at least until I meet her again.”

Then Tо̄jо̄ turned her head forward and asked.

“Do you still like her a lot?”

“It’s… I don’t know. But I remember I loved her. The day she moved; I cried my eyes out.”

“Was it your first love?”

“Yeah, I can put it that way. This child was my first love.”

“…I see.”

Saying so, Tо̄jо̄ nodded, and soon rose from the bench with a bright smile.

“I can’t help it if you don’t like me. I’ll give up cleanly, too. I had so much fun today! See you at school next week! Sakamoto!”

She left like that, then ran out of the park recklessly, leaving Sakamoto behind, sitting on the bench.

Sakamoto gazed dimly at her receding back but did not chase her.

Maybe he meant it when he didn’t want to go out with her.

“What should I do…”

Kishimoto murmured so with her dark eyes, covering her mouth with her hands.

I stared at Tо̄jо̄’s back, which was moving away, and talked to Kishimoto, who was next to me.

“Rika, go home for today. I’ll go after Tо̄jо̄.”

“You’re gonna be all right by yourself?”

“Even if it’s not okay, she’ll need at least one person to follow and comfort her.”

Then Kishimoto hesitated and nodded.

“All right. I’ll leave Tо̄jо̄ to you Ryu-chan.”

“See you at school next week.”

“Yes. Ryu-chan, you did a great job.”

I said a short goodbye to Kishimoto and just started running with all my might in the direction where Tо̄jо̄ ran.

***

Fortunately, Tо̄jо̄, who ran out of the park, did not go very far.

Maybe it was because she was wearing high-heeled shoes, which she was not used to.

Sitting alone at a deserted bus stop, staring blankly at the car passing by, as shadow suddenly cast over her head, she looked up at me with a tearful face.

“Are you okay?”

Then Tо̄jо̄ replied with a forced smile.

“I can’t be okay.”

I was going to give her a handkerchief to wipe her tears, but I wiped the blood off my forehead earlier and realized it was a mess, so I put it back in my pocket awkwardly.

Instead, I wiped away her tears with a tissue I had put in my other pocket.

“How clumsy of a girl. Come on.”

“Ugh!”

When she wiped her face covered with tears and runny nose with a tissue, her original appearance hidden under her makeup was revealed.

With her makeup removed, she scraped her back hair, pretending to be bright.

“This is embarrassing. I’ve never shown myself crying before.”

I looked down at such a Tо̄jо̄ and sat next to her.

“We’re friends, who cares.”

“We’re friends.”

Tо̄jо̄ murmured, looking up at the blue sky.

“Actually, I knew from the middle that you and Kishimoto were following.”

“…Really?”

This was frankly unexpected.

No matter how noticeable a love comedy may be, it’s the rule that the people involved never know.

As I turned awkwardly to the shame that came late, Tо̄jо̄, who was next to me, patted me on the shoulder and said,

“I’m not gonna say anything about it. That’s how unreliable I am. If even the guys who gave me advice are following me all day long.”

“We didn’t mean that…”

“I’m sorry. After all, I failed.”

Tо̄jо̄ suddenly bowed to me, saying so.

“I thought I could change Sakamoto’s mind if I changed. But it was my arrogant delusion. There was no room for me to squeeze into his heart from the beginning.”

She spoke on the verge of tears.

“You knew it already, but you turned your head from the truth. And this is the result.”

Tо̄jо̄ Karen gripped her chest with indignation.

Then she beat her heart and said,

“It hurts here, it hurts like crazy. But there’s no way to solve it. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt like this in my life.”

She threw up her anger with her head down.

“I-!!”

Like an evil being, she shouted with all her might with only the two of us at the stop.

“I really liked him!”

Gasp… Gasp…

I stared at the side of Tо̄jо̄ Karen, who was in pain from being dumped by her first love.

In fact, at first, I thought of her as a manga character.

It was the same for Kishimoto.

On the surface, even if we were together with a smile, there was a definite line between us.

It was probably because I’m a foreign body stuck in the fictive world of ‘Scrambled Love’.

However, what was in front of me was not a manga character.

It was a living human being, called “Tо̄jо̄ Karen.”

There was only a slender girl who suffered and was in pain alone due to the pain of failing her first love.

I realized it belatedly, so I decided to act as I wanted from now on.

“Karen, get on your feet.”

“…What?”

Karen looked up at me with a startled look, perhaps because I suddenly use her name without her permission.

“If you scream in such a place, you will be reported to the police for being loud.

Then Karen looked up at me blankly, and soon she laughed.

“You… you’re really saying this in this situation?”

“Yeah, just smile. Because it looks better on you.”

As I said that, I forced Karen up from her seat on the bus stop bench.

Karen, who stood up after me even though she was puzzled, looked up at me with red eyes like a rabbit and asked.

“I stood up like you said, what are you going to do now?”

I took off my hoodie and put it on her and said, putting on a hat.

“We’re going to the karaoke. That’s where you throw up all your anger. Then you can accept the fact that you were rejected.”

“…What?”

I searched for karaoke near here on my smartphone, ignoring Karen, who raised her voice absurdly.

The nearest was on the second floor of Sunshine City.

As expected from a general cultural center, there is everything.

I beckoned Karen, who was almost covered in a blanket because of my size, to follow me, and then took the lead in walking.

“Hey! Kim Yoo-sung! You! Let’s go together!”

When I looked back, her face, which had been gloomy as if it were covered by dark clouds, was clear.

***

“…That friend Kim Yoo-sung was a very good guy.”

“I’m glad she has a friend like that.”

“This guy, it’s been a while since I saw someone this good…”

The yakuza stand up to go home, spouting words about him.

Tо̄jо̄ Naoto looked at the back of Kim Yu-sung and his daughter, who were moving away, and laughed.

“He’s a rare fellow in a tough world like this.”

Benevolence!

Tо̄jо̄ Naoto, the sixth president of the Donsung society, recalled the words that had been forgotten by the years while watching the man named Kim Yoo-sung!

If it were him! The names of the spectators who are becoming the specter of the times may rise again in this country!

“I’ll see you again when I get the chance, young man.”

Saturday, April 22nd [PM 3:18]

The date was over!