Wick | 민윤기

Forty

1 December 2009

Victoria was admiring the leaves, her face resting in the palm of her hand peacefully. She was eyeing the golden pigment that somewhat shimmered in the light of the burning late-afternoon sun. Her eyes moved over the thin branches that held the beautiful leaves at the top of the tree she was looking at through a window in the cafeteria.

It was then that she was violently ripped from her peaceful thoughts by a blaring sound from the loudspeaker. An angry voice she recognized as Secretary Kim shredded the air. "Jeon Wonwoo!" she yelled, broadcasting across campus. "You know what you've done—now come to the office!"

She turned around to stare at the black box in the corner but instead was met with Hoseok standing behind her with a bright blue sweater vest on and another in his hand. Expressionless, he held it out to her. "Put this on."

Victoria wondered how long he had been standing there, but instead of asking, she only stood and took the shirt. "What's this for?"

"Rich kids. We're gonna go down there and we need these in order to fit in."

As she thought about it, turning the tacky material over in her hands, these were the shirts that the rich kids always wore. She looked up at him with a bit of unsureness but only nodded. Hoseok smirked and turned around, not checking to see if she followed—because he never did.

He waited outside the girl's bathroom while she changed, only giving her body a sweeping glance and nodding when she came out. It was a bit unnerving how quiet he was being, but Victoria figured that he was just thinking and the idiot couldn't do two things at once. The thought brought a cheeky smile to her face, but Hoseok was too engrossed in his thoughts to notice. That and he was walking a few steps ahead of her due to his longer legs and brisk pace.

She had to jog to keep up with him as they crossed over the south bridge to old town. The old boxing place was close by and it didn't take long for them to reach it. Hoseok pushed through the doors with intent, immediately turning to the left to meet a group of rich kids by the stairs.

Mingyu, one of the taller richies with particularly tanned skin, saw them immediately and pointed. "There they are!"

The others turned around, among them being Jaehyeong. He smirked as he faced them, clasping his hands together. "I was wondering if you'd show up, Jung." His snake eyes slithered over to Victoria and she recoiled. "Victoria. Good to see you." After seemingly critiquing their outfits, he finally smiled. "Nice aquaberry sweaters. Trés chic."

"Yeah," Jiho said mockingly behind him.

"You look a bit like my maid and gardener at home."

Hoseok fixed Jaehyeong with a dead stare. "Yeah? So what?"

Clearly intimidated by his demeanor, the rich kid cleared his throat. "Yes, well, enough about gardeners—the boys and I want to play a trick on old Mr. Yoo. We don't like what he did to that old soak, Mr. Do." He paused, feigning anger. "A man can have a drink if he damn well wants to!"

"So?" Hoseok asked, eyes narrowing.

"So, my friends," he began, looking from Hoseok to Victoria and back again. "Are you—as they say—in?"

Victoria didn't really want anything to do with this, but she wouldn't leave Hoseok to do it alone. "Sure," he said with nonchalance, his hostility fading.

"We're going to egg that old dick's house," Jaehyeong informed them with a small giggle.

"Cool."

"Great! You two go get some eggs and meet me and the boys back at my house."

Hoseok still said nothing as they walked out. He was silent while buying the eggs from the corner store. He only looked at the ground as they trudged up the hill, passing large houses on the way to Jaehyeong's. It was beginning to bother her.