I Escaped the Exile Story Only To Find It Was a Regret Trope

18 – 3# What happened in his first year? (5)

It happened in his childhood.

Children are pure yet have a strong mischievous side. For example, to attract the attention of someone they like, they might instead bully that person.

Hayoung, who was shy but kind-hearted and cute in appearance, was no exception.

The problem was that Hayoung was bullied too severely. Unfortunately, the one who took an interest in young Hayoung was a so-called bully.

It might be childish, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.

Because if he did, he would be bullied. As a result, young Hayoung had no choice but to become a loner. If he played with others and got caught, he would be beaten.

Hayoung, who had a tender heart, couldn’t even speak properly out of fear.

[What are you doing here?]

The only person who approached Ha-young was her childhood friend, Yoo-shin.

Yoo-shin listened to all of Ha-young’s stories. And from then on, he stayed with Ha-young. Of course, that bully would pick a fight.

Yoo-shin never backed down and fought with that bully every time.

Although Yoo-shin mostly lost, he never gave up. If he lost today, he would challenge again the next day, and if he lost again, he would challenge the day after that. He kept on trying.

[Crazy! Don’t you ever get tired?!]

[I can’t just stand by and watch something wrong.]

[Oh, great! Take her, take her!]

[Ha-young is not an object!!]

It could be laughed off as a childish act, but for Ha-young, it was salvation. It was something too difficult to tell others, but Yoo-shin stepped in and solved it for her.

It was probably from that time.

The reason she started to harbor feelings she couldn’t tell anyone.

It must have been, but how did it get twisted?

At first, she wanted to help Yoo-shin more. So when she told Hyun-woo and got out of the bullying, Ha-young was really happy.

She thought she had finally helped Yoo-shin.

[Ha-young, that guy Hyun-woo. He doesn’t seem like a good guy.]

[Why are you saying that? He saved us!]

[That’s…]

[If it weren’t for Hyun-woo, we would still be getting bullied!]

She remembers that it was from then that she started to distance herself from Yoo-shin.

From that day, Ha-young was not in the class and always stuck with Hyun-woo. Her feelings for Yoo-shin faded, and Hyun-woo took his place.

And as Hyun-woo said, she monitored and reported Yoo-shin’s behavior.

Why didn’t I realize that it wasn’t normal? If I had thought about it a little, I would have known it wasn’t normal.

I don’t know.

But, I know this one thing.

What I’m going through now is divine punishment.

I already said such harsh words to Yoo-shin. But to expect Yoo-shin to come and save me again, that’s impossible.

‘It might be better to just disappear like this.’

Hayoung was mocking herself. Feeling as if she had been thrown alone into the darkness.

Her body trembled with the fear of not being able to see ahead. But Hayoung thought that this was a punishment given to her for ignoring Yushin.

However, it seemed that the heavens did not think so.

Bang!! Along with the sound of the door breaking, she heard someone walking towards her. Normally, it would be natural to be scared in such a situation.

Strangely, Hayoung was not afraid, as if she knew who the person was.

Rather, she felt relieved. And as expected, the person removed the blindfold that had been covering Hayoung’s eyes. Hayoung lifted her head.

“Are you okay?”

The one who removed Hayoung’s blindfold was none other than Yushin. Perhaps because she felt relieved, Hayoung started to sob as soon as she confirmed Yushin’s face.

She was so grateful that Yushin had come to find her once again.

She felt so pathetic for ignoring and turning away from Yushin’s words all this time. In the end, Hayoung couldn’t hold back her tears and let them flow.

‘They’ve really turned her into a wreck.’

At this point, Yushin felt more pity than any other emotion.

Anyway, he had dealt with all the people who had threatened him. In fact, Yushin had beaten up everyone except for Gangjikhan.

This should be enough.

Yushin was satisfied with this. He had long grown tired of the bloody revenge carried out in dark fantasies. In a place where people died over trivial matters.

He was now sick of boasting about killing people over trivial things.

In fact, there were even people who would tear apart the limbs of a child and their parents just because they had bumped into them. Perhaps Yushin was exhausted.

Meanwhile, there was someone watching all of this from behind.

He was a man wearing a mask and a black hoodie. Through the holes in the mask, red eyes filled with anger were shining.

“Those useless b*stards.”

He had even used precious items to forcibly strengthen them.

How could they lose to someone like that? In terms of defense alone, they had defense that even surpassed that of Class A’s Selena.

It didn’t matter if they couldn’t win the fight. They just had to hold out for a while.

Then the time bomb would explode, and only the designated target would be caught in the explosion. It was a perfect plan. How could they lose in just 30 seconds?

However, there were two things the masked man had not considered.

First, forcibly injected power does not make a flower bloom properly. Moreover, he had forcibly exposed a heart full of negative emotions to the world.

It was only natural that it would come out weaker than he thought.

And the second reason, victory is not determined by specs alone. Of course, having a higher rank increases the chances.

However, Yushin had experience and skills that transcended specs.

It was only natural that they couldn’t win against Yushin by simply holding out. But not knowing this, the masked man clicked his tongue and retreated.

Don’t think it’s over with this.

Next time, I’ll definitely crush you.

* * *

The rampage of Class C reached the ears of the principal, who was the head of the academy.

In fact, she already knew everything that happened in the academy. However, she usually refrained from direct intervention and observed from a distance.

Because she knew that it was part of the students’ growing pains.

The vice-principal, who served as the principal’s secretary, was a man with black hair and black-rimmed glasses. He looked extremely strict at first glance.

“Principal, have you heard about the rampage of Class C this time?”

“Rather than hearing about it, I was watching it myself.”

“And yet, you didn’t stop it?”

“I was interested in a kid named Baek Yushin.”

He was a kid who had been running around saying he would change the academy during his first year, but ended up doing nothing. He helplessly succumbed to power.

His appearance at that time was quite amusing and left a lasting impression.

But unfortunately, that amusing appearance didn’t last long. He was devoured by the survival of the fittest he had built and eventually collapsed.

At that time, I was disappointed, thinking he was just an empty barrel making a loud noise.

But then, I thought he had completely surrendered, only to find out he had been honing his skills with a determined heart? He even defeated Selena from Class A.

However, despite the situation completely deviating from my expectations,

The principal was not particularly angry. Rather, she had a pure smile on her lips, like a child who had found a new toy after a long time.

“Humans are strong even though they seem weak. That’s why I can’t help but be delighted.”

“What will you do about the aftermath?”

“A 60-day suspension for the students involved should be enough.”

“Isn’t that too light a punishment?”

“But we can’t just get rid of the few awakened ones, can we?”

It wasn’t wrong. The number of awakened ones who could fight monsters was limited. And those limited resources couldn’t be replaced.

But expelling more than 20 of such awakened ones?

That would be like throwing away usable resources. If they have value, the principal’s policy was to use them somehow.

Of course, she anticipated resistance in the process.

So, to quietly settle this matter, the principal judged that the top priority was to align with the parties involved.

“Are you really okay with that?”

“Is there a problem?”

“The victim in this case might end up with tremendous trauma.”

The vice principal immediately took out the standard argument. This wasn’t just any other incident; it was an abduction, an abduction. It was something that could shatter the heart of a young student.

But to end it with just a 60-day suspension? Does that make any sense?

In reality, the vice principal’s judgment was extremely idealistic. From a purely human perspective, that is. The principal tilted her head at his words.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. No one died, did they?”

“……”

The vice principal barely managed to suppress the expression that almost crumpled like a piece of paper. Yes, that’s right. To her, people were nothing more than numbers.

Add more, subtract more, such simple arithmetic.

Even though he thought it was twisted, the vice principal couldn’t even dare to rebel against her and could only lament inwardly.

“Then what do you think?”

“As far as I remember, the S-class promotion is just around the corner.”

“No way…?”

The principal responded with a sly smile to the vice principal’s words.

“I’m thinking of including Baek Yushin in this S-class promotion.”