Seongji Yuk looked at the three kids in front of him. Vin Jin, Warren Chae, and Eli Jang knelt down with their hands raised. He rubbed his forehead and sighed.
"So, Vin Jin, you fought because Eli here tried to hurt Sujin, right?"
Vin Jin nodded. Seongji shook his head with slight disappointment. "Did he really try to do it though?" Seongji had already heard about Eli's past from Sally and Sujin. "You know that this situation occurred because of his trauma." Seongji sympathized with Eli. In a way, both Seongji and Eli were the same. "I don't condone what you did. What I find bad is—why did you let the situation escalate to this extent?"
Vin Jin knew that if he had truly wanted to restrain Eli, he could have done it. But because of his anger, he just wanted to inflict as much damage as possible.
Seongji then looked at Warren and Eli. "And you two, why would you fight to the death over Sally? She isn't an object that you can win over. She will choose what she wants to do."
"...No." Eli muttered.
Seongji asked, "What?"
Eli replied, "What I wanna have... isn't Sally."
This time Seongji became confused. All his life, he had never faced such an awkward situation. "T-then what do you want?"
Eli pointed at a uniform on the ground. "I... just wanted... her uniform. I... just wanted to try it on too. I... wanna be a middle school student too..."
Derrick nearby said with a nervous smile, "O-oh, right... you ran away when you were ten."
Max asked with a nervous smile, "That was one hell of a game of hide and seek, bro... By the way, why did you like playing it with your mom so much when all she did was beat you up?"
Eli answered, "...because she looked for me. At least when we were playing hide and seek, my mom would look for me..."
Warren suddenly stood up and looked the other way. "Take it. I don't have a mom either. I'm not giving it to you because I lost. You got that? Let's call it a draw. 129 matches, one draw, one defeat."
Seongji Yuk smiled at the situation. "You're a good friend, Warren." Warren became embarrassed hearing the sudden compliment. Though he didn't know Seongji Yuk that well, he could tell that Seongji Yuk was a great person, as far as he'd heard from Sujin and Vin Jin. He replied, flustered, "T-thanks."
Seeing the warm atmosphere, Sally and Sujin started to laugh. Their contagious laughter made everyone else laugh too.
---
"Woah! This tub is so huge! Sally's house is so cool!" Warren exclaimed. Besides him were Max, Derrick, Eli, Vin Jin, and Seongji Yuk.
Suddenly Max asked Seongji, "Seongji-hyung, why did you come here? I heard that you were from Cheonliang."
Before Seongji could answer, Vin Jin bragged, "Not only is teacher from Cheonliang, he's also known as the King of Cheonliang."
Hearing this, everyone exclaimed, except Eli, who seemed oblivious to all this. Warren immediately pressed on, "Do you belong to any royal lineage in Cheonliang?"
Hearing this, Seongji replied with an embarrassed smile, "No... King of Cheonliang is just a title that others gave me."
Warren seemed confused, then suddenly exclaimed, "Oh! It's like how everyone calls me Gangdong's Mighty!"
Hearing him, Vin Jin sneered, "Tch! How can your title even compare to teacher's? Teacher is a regional king, just like the King of Seoul."
Though Warren felt angry to be dismissed by Vin Jin, he was more shocked to know that even Seoul had a King. He asked, "Does that mean every region has their own kings?"
Seongji Yuk nodded. "I'm not sure if every region, but most regions have their own kings."
Warren finally understood. Then he asked, "Then how do you manage your territory? You must have your own gang, right?"
Seongji smiled. "Most Kings do. But I don't. As I said, King of Cheonliang is just a title others gave me."
"Oh..." Warren seemed a little disappointed. Then he suddenly asked, "If you are a King, does that mean... What was his name...? Ah! Yes! Is Baki Hyung also a King? I heard Vin Jin say that he is your friend."
Seongji shook his head. "These are all just titles for us. Baki has a different title."
"Oh! By the way, where is he? Doesn't he live with you guys?"
Seongji replied with a tensed face, "He's out on business."
---
A man on a phone call said, "No. It's not him. But even better. I got Gangdong's Mighty Warren Chae's... girlfriend and her friends."
Sally shouted at him, "I told you! I'm not his girlfriend!"
But the man ignored her and continued, "I caught her in front of her cram school, along with the others."
The man on the other side of the phone said, "Let them go! He doesn't even go to the same school!"
One of Sally's friends said, "Sally, step aside. A man should know how to take care of hairy situations like this. If I give them some money..."
The goon seeing this started to beat up the boy. "I'm gonna slap you for every bill you got."
The boy cried, "Ugh, I'm sorry..."
The goon asked, "Who the fuck are you?"
The boy cried out, "A friend from academy! Ugh!"
Sally grabbed the goon from behind and said, "Hey! Quit it! Let him go!" While she internally thought, "Ugh, Warren! What the hell did he do to piss them off?!"
Suddenly, Eli came into the alleyway and said, "Sally. I'm hungry."
The goon muttered, seeing Eli, "What, is that Warren Chae?"
One of the other goons pointed at the name on Eli's shirt and said, "Yeah, he is. It says right there. Warren Chae."
But Eli seemed oblivious to what was going on. "I'm hungry. Why aren't you going home?"
Sally thought internally, "How did you even find me?! It's not safe here! Go! Now!"
The goon grabbed Eli's collar. "You got some nerve for a middle school kid, you know that? You think you can mess with the 'Back Door' and get away with it?"
Seeing Eli glare at him, he sneered, "What you staring at? You fucker."
One of the other goons mocked, "Woah, we got a fighter here! Haha! Darius will love him, haha!"
Eli grabbed the chain of the goon who was holding him and thrashed him on the ground.
"You shouldn't wear a necklace in a fight, or you'll be in big trouble."
One of the other goons rushed in. "You cheatin' son of a bitch! That ain't fair!"
But Eli poked his eyes.
"Argh! My eyes!" the goon cried.
One of the other goons closed in from behind, but Eli gave him a headbutt. What happened next was a one-sided thrashing.
"Wh-whoa... you're so cool," the boy who was beaten up before muttered.
The girl beside Sally said, "Th-thank you."
Then Sally introduced Eli. "He's not Warren Chae... you know what I mean. Say hi, everyone. His name is Eli Jang. He lives with me."
Eli suddenly asked, "I don't have to fight anymore?"
Sally answered, "...No."
Then she introduced her friends to Eli. "She's Heather, my classmate."
Heather asked, "Eli Jang? You're the one who came to our school looking for Sally last time, right?"
Sally introduced the beaten-up boy. "And this is... my friend from the academy from another school."
The boy exclaimed, "Ah! I'll do the introduction myself! Hey! My name's Olly Wang!"