Mint Is Pure Love - Chapter 43

The next morning, I got called into the teacher’s office, but I had nothing to say.

They couldn’t reach my father. Whether it was because he was too wrapped up in his new wife, or maybe because he was finally trying to fix that nasty habit of mine when demanding a hundred million won from him.

The teacher looked baffled, and I could understand why. What kind of father ignores a call from his underage daughter’s school?

“Ji Yeonseo, did you really do this to Lee Yoonhee out of spite? You picked the fight first, didn’t tell your parents because you were scared of getting scolded?”

That’s where they’d landed, assuming I was just too afraid to tell my parents and was avoiding the whole thing.

I was told to “bring him in or else,” and sent away. There was nothing I could do about it.

When I got back to the classroom, my desk was a wreck. A thick, bright red liquid—who knew if it was paint or bl00d—had been dumped all over it. They’d even kept it from drying by dripping water in spots, leaving little puddles.

I could feel everyone’s eyes on me.

Turns out, one thing Kim Eunho said wasn’t complete bullshit—school life was definitely about to get wrecked for me.

The bullying, which had only been going on for a day or two, had gotten sharper, more deliberate, and more direct.

Every morning when I came in, my desk would be trashed. Sticky paint splattered everywhere, or ink smeared all over. By the time I cleaned it up, my skirt and blouse would be ruined.

The day I found knife-like scratches gouged into my picture on the attendance sheet, my heart dropped hard and fast. My breathing went shallow, like it had back in middle school.

Third-year girls who were close to Yoonhee’s sister started wandering into our class. Everywhere I went, cold, cutting stares followed me.

The bruises didn’t fade—they bloomed more vividly. Before one even healed, fresh ones would burst red and blue across my face. I was starting to look like a complete mess.

Dad handled the whole meeting with the teacher in a single phone call. I got punishment instead of suspension. Daily reflection essays and a month of cleaning the flower beds.

It had been a week, and I still hadn’t heard from Cha Seokyung.

“You know why Seokyung’s not coming to school, right?”

I was picking up trash in the flower bed with long tongs when Lee Hojung sidled up.

“I don’t know. How would I know?”

“Weren’t you two dating? How do you not know?”

I really didn’t know anymore. I wasn’t even sure if we were dating. Did we actually agree to that, that day?

“Maybe something’s going on at home. The Korean teacher hasn’t said anything…”

Hojung tapped at the flower bed shrubs while talking. I put my trash bag and tongs neatly in the tool shed and slung my bag over my shoulder.

“Hey, Ji Yeonseo.”

“What?”

She hesitated, like she was about to say something, then shut her mouth. I didn’t have the strength to wait her out. My body had been in such bad shape lately. I couldn’t even remember the last proper meal I’d eaten. Sniffling against the sting in my nose, I started walking.

I thought of the face that had promised to always be by my side. Always right there if I turned around.

But no matter where I turned, Cha Seokyung wasn’t there.

The worry that had kept me awake at night—wondering if something happened to him, if he’d gotten into an accident—slowly shifted into resentment after the thousandth time I stared at my silent phone.

You said you’d be here.

I bit my lip, and it hurt just like my heart did.

As usual, I unlocked the gate, crossed the yard, and opened the front door. But something felt… off. There was sound inside—a house that was supposed to be empty.

Instead of stale furniture smell, the living room was filled with the warm, rich scent of doenjang stew.

Someone shuffled out of the kitchen.

“Yeonseo.”

A voice I knew. A smell I knew. A face I’d missed so much.

“…Mom…”

The dam broke. I crumbled completely.

***

“How can you expect me to calm down when my kid’s face looks like this, teacher?”

My stepmom’s voice shook with anger, her hands clutching her chest. The homeroom teacher looked troubled.

“The kid who hit her just got toilet-cleaning duty? Why’s my Yeonseo getting a harsher punishment? Anyone can see she’s the victim. How does the one who got beaten become the aggressor?”

“Uh, Yeonseo’s mother… The thing is, we did manage to get in touch with her father after several tries. That student got hurt because Yeonseo poured spicy sauce in her eyes…”

My stepmom had driven here at dawn when I wouldn’t pick up her calls. She said her chest had gone cold with dread.

She almost fainted twice—once when I collapsed after coming home yesterday, and again when she saw my face. She cried, asking who did this, saying it was her fault for leaving me, beating her chest while sobbing.

Even after I told her it was already over, she got ready to come to school with me in the morning and dragged me straight to the teachers’ office.

She made the teacher promise to call her instead of Dad if anything happened again before she left.

“Yeonseo, skip class today and come home with me, okay?”

“No… If I fall behind—”

“Ask me if you need help with notes or homework.”

“…If anyone gives you a hard time or something happens, tell me.”

His voice was so vivid in my ear, I could almost believe he was right beside me. That made me think of the Korean teacher.

If I saw him now, maybe I could ask about Seokyung naturally.

When I scanned the teachers’ office, I spotted him—wearing his usual hanbok, his head half-bald. And in front of him… was Cha Seokyung, in a suit instead of a school uniform.

A whole week without a word, and now he was here.

Our eyes met. I quickly looked away.

“I’ll try to stay for class. If it’s too much, I’ll go.”

“I’ll be at home. Come straight after school—I’ve got something to tell you.”

I nodded, said goodbye to my stepmom at the main entrance, and hurried up the stairs.

I’d already skipped zero period—couldn’t be late for first. But as I stepped onto the next stair, a voice came from behind.

“Ji Yeonseo.”

I ignored it and kept going.

Ji Yeonseo.

One more step—

Yeonseo!

And then—

Ji Yeonseo!

Before I could take the next step, someone grabbed me.

“Yeonseo.”

It was Seokyung, his voice close, raw with the longing and anger I’d felt for a week. In such a short time, what had he done to me? How had he turned my familiar world upside down in just days?

“…About the calls, I—”

“It’s fine. You must’ve had your reasons.”

I didn’t want him to see my face, so I mumbled and tried to get away. But he tilted his head, trying to catch my eyes.

“…Just stay with me for a bit.”

“I skipped zero period. Let’s talk later—”

“Ji Yeonseo.”

His tone changed, and my shoulders jerked. His gaze scanned my shadowed face, and then a voice I’d never heard from him came out—low, tight.

“What happened to your face?”

I wanted to tell him. To cry and say they did it, and demand to know why he hadn’t called.

But what would change? He’d be hurt, I’d be hurt—nothing would get better. And maybe I was scared, too. The way his energy shifted when he looked at the marks on my skin wasn’t normal.

“Yeonseo, aren’t you going to tell me?”

The bell rang for first period. Relief and urgency hit me at once.

“Let’s talk after school, okay? We’ve got things to say.”

But before I could finish, he gently but firmly turned my chin toward him. That tenderness hurt worse.

When he saw my face, his eyes went pitch-black, like a blackout had fallen over them. I slapped his hand away and bolted up the stairs. No footsteps followed.

When I slipped into class, everyone’s eyes landed on me.

“You think you can just stroll in after the bell?”

“…Sorry.”

I was heading to my seat when—

“You even skipped zero peri—”

He stopped mid-sentence. And then the back door slammed open.

“Hey! What do you think you’re—”

A man in a suit walked in. The teacher didn’t recognize him at first.

It was Seokyung.

All eyes were on us like they’d found their next big spectacle.

“I asked you what happened to your face.”

Seokyung’s eyes were down, his jaw tight like he was holding back fury.

“If you tell me, I’ll leave quietly. So—”

“Hey! I’m talking to you!”

The teacher was yelling, but Seokyung didn’t budge—he was waiting for my answer. I couldn’t say it here. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. I just… couldn’t.

His gaze drifted past me—to my desk, covered in paint, garbage, and chewed gum.

“What the hell is this?”

Something about him scared me. This wasn’t the usual Seokyung. His face had gotten sharper, his eyes red, and the tension rolling off him felt dangerous.

“…It was Lee Yoonhee.”

The answer didn’t come from me. It came from the far end of the room—Lee Hojung’s small, trembling voice.

“Lee Yoonhee and Kim Eunho…”

And that was it.

The room went still. Then Seokyung strode out, long legs eating up the distance.

A moment later— Screams. The sound of something breaking. By the time I got there, the hallway was chaos.

Seokyung was on top of Kim Eunho, fists pounding into him over and over. His eyes were pure black—neither blue nor green, just void.

Bl00d splattered. No one dared go near him.

“Seokyung…”

I called his name between ragged breaths, but my voice couldn’t reach him through the screams and shouts.

When Eunho’s face looked like a lump of raw meat, the teachers finally pulled Seokyung away.

His hands, usually so clean and neat, were streaked with bl00d. And the way everyone looked at him… it was the same way they looked at me.

I already knew—pure love can turn into madness. And someone had turned his purity into this. Like someone stirring a calm sea into a storm.

My vision went black.