Don't Text Me | Taesan X Woonhak

28: Staying the night

The rain had turned the world into a sheet of blurred grey outside the police station windows, every drop loud enough to echo in the cramped waiting room where four teenagers sat like they’d been collectively sentenced to lifelong suffering.

Woonhak sat in the middle, bruised, swollen, and looking like a stray dog who got hit by a bicycle. His lip was split, cheek scraped, shirt torn, and yet he looked kind of… proud.

Jihoon groaned into his palms. “Bro… I swear, if I knew you were dragging me into THIS, I would’ve blocked your number.”

“You wouldn’t,” Woonhak said with what he thought was a charming smile. It was not. It looked painful and deranged.

Jihoon slapped his arm. “DON’T smile! Your face is already messed up enough.”

Beside them, Kyujin crossed her arms so hard they nearly broke. “Forget the police, forget Jihoon, HAVE YOU CALLED YOUR PARENTS?”

Woonhak froze.

“…No.”

“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!” she yelled, smacking the back of his head. Hard.

“OW! WILL YOU STOP, THAT HURTS MORE THAN JISEOK—”

“GOOD!”

Eunchae gently pulled Kyujin back before she committed murder. She sighed, brushing her hair out of her face. “Okay, okay, everyone breathe. Yelling won’t fix his brain cells. They’re already gone.”

“HEY!”

Jihoon leaned back, still looking exhausted. “Where’s Yujin? He’s supposed to be here too.”

“I sent him home,” Woonhak said. “Police were coming and he was panicking like a traumatized puppy, so I forced him to run. He actually cried a little.”

Eunchae covered her face. “And you stayed?”

“Well one of us had to get caught so the video didn’t get deleted! Hero stuff!”

Kyujin smacked him again.

“STOP ABUSING ME! I’M AN INJURED PERSON!”

“You’re an idiot,” she corrected. “A certified, premium, high-quality idiot!”

“It was for a good cause,” Woonhak muttered.

Jihoon raised a brow. “WHAT cause justifies being beaten half-dead by a college thug?!”

Woonhak didn’t answer.
He just silently turned his phone around.

“Look.”

It was the Naver post Yujin had uploaded.
Title: H University Student Beats High Schooler on Street — Caught on Camera

The video auto-played.

The moment Woonhak’s face got punched, they all collectively screamed.

“OH MY GOD! HE HIT YOU SO HARD—”

“THAT IS NOT NORMAL, NOT NORMAL AT ALL—”

“ARE YOU SURE YOU’RE NOT DEAD? MAYBE YOU’RE A GHOST—”

Kyujin slammed his shoulder. “THIS IS HORRIBLE! THIS IS TERRIBLE! WHY DIDN’T YOU DODGE?!”

“I needed CLEAR footage!” Woonhak argued, rubbing his throbbing cheek. “And anyway, I DID hit back after Yujin stopped recording!”

His three friends stared at him like he had personally invented stupidity.

“You WHAT?!”
“You fought back?!”
“Why would you DO that after all that?!”