Chapter 16 - The Offer

Muyeol firmly believed that human beings only existed to sell their souls in exchange for money. Writing and keeping his diary at home would be an act of suicide; the hired help at home would tattle. And that’s why he left his diary in the school, further ensuring its safety by putting an extra thick lock on the locker he kept it in. 

“Whatever that was about, I won’t look at your diary, so don’t worry about me.” Yiyoung tried to act friendly.

But Muyeol was going to hide it from her sight regardless. He frowned and expressed his discomfort by staring at his desk in silence on purpose.

Yiyoung hung her bag on the hook attached to the desk and left to find someone else whose business she could poke her nose into. She always acted like she knew everything, even going as far as wiping the blackboard clean even though she hadn’t been asked to do so.

‘Yeah, yeah. Work harder. That’s the only way you can survive,’ Muyeol thought as he watched her clean the blackboard. Then, he opened his diary again.

‘Shitty Yoon is here again. Today, she’s wearing her hair in pigtails, so her head looks smaller. With the way she meddles in others’ business, her self-esteem must be as small as her head. What else did I expect?’ he wrote.

His head jerked up, and he stopped writing when he heard a loud laugh. Muyeol didn’t know what she found so funny, but he watched as she laughed, her eyes lifting into the shape of small crescents in delight.

He tried observing the surroundings, but his eyes landed back on Yiyoung. With the warmth her laugh brought him, he thought he was hearing the sun itself. It was like the small tinkles of the sun rays shattering, spreading their bright, golden dust all over the place.

Muyeol turned to his diary again, filled with his thoughts penned down in the black ink. He hadn’t finished writing today’s entry, all because of Shitty Yoon. He decided to stop and put the diary away in his locker, making sure it was secure by locking it properly.

Muyeol huffed, his lips twisted up in a sarcastic smile. He was expecting it to be another loud day filled with that fly’s annoying buzz.

***

Muyeol looked straight ahead as he walked. He didn’t care who was near him. He simply moved ahead, not paying any attention to others. All the other kids moved out of his way. They always avoided him because they were afraid. The fear had developed in them after they watched Muyeol beat up Jaeho on the first day of junior high school.

When they started going to the same school, Jaeho began to approach Muyeol in front of everyone, pretending like he was a nice older brother. So Muyeol beat him up, and ever since then Jaeho was labeled as the pitiful, angelic brother. And that’s exactly what Jaeho wanted. His habit of acting like the victim hadn’t changed. This incident was no different.

However, since their awful relationship had been revealed to the whole school, Jaeho couldn’t use Muyeol’s name and pretend as if they had always been on good terms.

After that incident, Muyeol was given a new nickname by the students. For a 14-year-old, it was a pretty fancy nickname. They called him ‘Supercilious Muyeol’ or ‘Brazen-faced Muyeol’, the shameless fellow who controlled everything with money.

Of course, they didn’t dare say anything to him directly. He was the heir of S Corp, after all.

Muyeol had decided to attend this junior high school because there were no other options. It was the best school out of all the elite private junior high schools. Besides, if he had no other choice but to compete against Jaeho, then he considered it better to compete while attending the same school as him. Who knew what Jaeho would plot behind his back. Muyeol would rather he knew what was coming instead of remaining oblivious to Jaeho’s plans to attack him and letting him get the upper hand.

His fast, firm steps came to a sudden stop when a girl blocked his way. Muyeol looked at the exhausted girl, who seemed as if she was out of breath from running.

“Why do you walk so fast? I almost tripped on the stairs while trying to follow you,” she complained.

‘What’s going on?’ Muyeol wondered as he silently stared at her.

Yiyoung lifted her head, one hand moving to wipe the sweat off her forehead.

Muyeol squinted his eyes, carefully observing her figure. ‘Huh? What happened to her pigtails?’

Her hairstyle had been perfect, not a single strand moving out of place despite the long day, but now it was an absolute mess, like it had been forcefully tugged at. His eyes widened in shock. One of her cheeks was bright red. Someone had slapped her. His eyes narrowed as he silently questioned what happened.

‘What happened, Shitty Yoon? Did you get into a fight?’ Muyeol wanted to ask.

His eyes silently tried to probe an answer before Yiyoung opened her bag and pulled out a notebook with a black cover.

“I got it back because it seemed important to you,” she said, one hand stretched out to return the notebook to him.

Muyeol’s gaze fell on the object in her hand and his eyes trembled slightly, brows rising in faint shock. It was his diary, the one he had locked away in the school locker in his classroom. It was here, in front of him. That meant… someone broke into his locker, and Muyeol knew exactly who it was. There was only one person capable of doing such a thing.

Jaeho had probably thought that no one would be in the classroom. Unfortunately for him, Shitty Yoon must have seen him. Her hair was all messy and her cheek was red…

‘Darn it… This is so annoying,’ Muyeol thought, his brows furrowed into a cold frown.

“Here. Take it,” Yiyoung urged, not caring much about Muyeol’s expressions.   

Muyeol reached out and took the diary from her.

“I’ll get going then.” Yiyoung turned around and walked away, not even waiting for him to say thanks. 

Muyeol watched her back disappear into the distance before turning around with a violent force. The rough action forced him to bump into someone’s shoulder. The person cursed without looking up at who they had bumped into.

“Look where you’re—” The person couldn’t finish his words when they finally realized they were talking to Muyeol. 

But Muyeol didn’t care. He simply pushed the random student away and started walking. This reaction of his had never happened before. The usual Muyeol would have pinned them down with his unique, contemptuous stare that could almost kill someone and then would have dusted off his clothes, trying to get their scent off himself. But this time, he continued down his path, too busy to care about anything else.

* * *

The door creaked open to reveal Jaeho, who looked at Muyeol as if he was waiting for him to appear.

“You really came? It’s so hard to see your face these days,” Jaeho said, a huge smile gracing his face.

People often said that one can’t spit at a smiling face, but today, the world witnessed Muyeol’s fist land on Jaeho’s smiling face. Muyeol threw himself forward to close the distance between them and swiftly threw a punch.

Jaeho’s smile disappeared in an instant, his cheeks turning bright red. But Muyeol wasn’t satisfied. One punch wasn’t enough for him. So, he threw another one.

“Ouch! Why are you being so violent?” Jaeho shrieked as he fell to the floor.

His question sounded so ridiculous to Muyeol that he didn’t bother responding, choosing to stare at him instead.

“I was worried because I heard you had become mute. That’s why I came here, gosh!” Jaeho frantically explained.

Muyeol’s eyes landed on the wrench lying on the floor. This jerk already knew what his target was when he came here. Jaeho was excellent at digging up information, and he deceived everyone with that sweet smile of his.

And in that moment, Muyeol felt his heart calm down slightly, as if a cool, pleasant breeze had touched it. Yoon Yiyoung… Jaeho’s killer smile didn’t work on her.