Chapter 37: Collusion

NOTE: "Italicized" is Korean speech

XOXOXOXO

"Won-san!"

Soo-Jin turned around in response to hearing her name being carried down the hallway she was walking in and was surprised to find that it wasn't Himuro or Liu—not even the lumpish Murasakibara who suddenly decided to stop addressing her by her given name—but Yamamoto Haruma. Being towed behind was that boy who had sat next to him on the bus on the way to the Interhigh game. Koi-something Yat-something-something.

This was certainly unexpected. She had a feeling that she would run into Yamamoto again, but she didn't think that it would be this soon. Furthermore, why did he call out to her? Did he want something from her? Soo-Jin watched the cheerful boy make his way towards her, his friend reluctantly following.

"Won-san! Good afternoon," greeted Yamamoto.

"Good afternoon," she parroted.

"You remember Koizumi, don't you? I introduced you to him when he was sleeping—"

"Wait, you did what?" Koizumi shot him an incredulous look.

"Don't worry about it," the other boy brushed it off casually. "You weren't drooling or anything."

Koizumi groaned.

Well, talk about rude, Soo-Jin thought. Koizumi didn't even bother to give his salutations to her. (Not that she's one to judge, but who cares? Himuro didn't mind the lack of drinks and snacks yesterday. Obviously.)

"Anyway, fancy catching you here. How's your day been going?" Yamamoto asked.

Uh oh. The annoying one wanted to make small talk. Abort, abort!—hold on a minute. How can she do this without being offensive? There were quite a number of students around them and she couldn't afford to do something that would just burrow her reputation deeper to its grave. From one ear, people will hear speculations that she's just some stuck-up diva from Korea (note: just Korea), and from out of the other ear, she would be a royal bloodline descendant with hoity-toity mannerisms from North Korea. And the gossip might just worsen if she was especially terrible (straightforward) to a popular guy like Yamamoto. Nope. That wouldn't be good at all.

Just so recently had she been very conscious of what others thought about her ever since she got word that people heard about her little, ahem, wrangle with Fukui during the summer, if that was the best way to describe it. Now, not only did she stab someone's hand, but she also exploded into a fit of rage and delivered a knockout by bulldozing the vice-captain of the basketball team over with her head. Never mind how Fukui was picking on her and bruised her nose—no, no one cared about that. Everyone just paid special attention to the violent Korean.

If she didn't know any better, even the teachers seemed wary of her. Soo-Jin believed that they were either overcome with suspicion or skepticism by the rumors that drifted into their ears because their eyes would land on her every time they would walk in class. To say that she wasn't hurt by gossip circulating in the school…would be true, actually. If anything, she was annoyed by the fact that the people were treating her as such and that she had to go through the effort of disapproving their assumptions about her.

It was a major pain.

Soo-Jin decided that she might as well humor Yamamoto. He'll eventually get bored of her anyway; if not, then she'll make up some excuse that would allow her to slip away. "Good. How about you?"

"I'm good too!" Yamamoto replied while giving her a sunny smile "You know, it's lucky that I caught you here. There's something that I want to tell you."

"Yamamoto," Koizumi said, frowning.

"You can get going if you want. This might take awhile."

Koizumi sighed and departed. Soo-Jin adopted his friend's expression, rather put off that it was unlikely that she was going to escape this one; albeit, she had to admit that she was curious. Did Yamamoto have something worthwhile to say or will he end up talking to her in that annoying fashion of his that would have her grounding her teeth in irritation? The latter, really, would be no surprise.

"What?" she asked.

"Well, before I go ahead and tell you, how about you take a walk with me?"

"Erm…"

"A little stroll can't hurt anyone," he insisted.

Of course it didn't, but Soo-Jin couldn't help but feel as though she was placed at a disadvantage. It was silly, but she imagined herself being led to Yamamoto's playing fields where she couldn't call for help. But…that was her intuition alerting her with red lights—her hunches were stupid. What part of Yamamoto was something beguile and sly? Nothing, that's for sure. That's right, Yamamoto was a wholesome good guy with good intentions—he just had a problem with being unaware when he was saying something insensitive or irksome.

She followed him outside of the school building to the courtyard. They passed by a couple students who were eating lunch or playing a game with a soccer ball; a few guys waved at him and gestured for him to join them, but Yamamoto declined. Soo-Jin was absently taking in the view until she looked ahead and blinked a couple times in bewilderment.

"Fugui?"

"It's Fukui," corrected the upperclassman, stepping out of the shade the tree next to him provided.

"Thanks for coming over just as I requested, sempai," Yamamoto said.

Fukui cocked a brow. "Oi, Yamamoto, what's going on?"

The boy gave him a disarming smile, one that nearly replicated Himuro's. An uncomfortable sensation pooled in her stomach; Soo-Jin kept getting the notion that something particularly bad was going to happen and she couldn't just label it off as nothing. It was real…

"You'll see," Yamamoto replied airily. "You'll just have to follow me…"

"Yeah, I don't think so." Fukui crossed his arms and frowned. "Don't expect me listen to you without hearing a proper explanation."

"Sempai, what are you being difficult for? I'm just taking you somewhere."

"Maybe because I know you're in allegiance with Miura since middle school? I did get info about how you're still in cahoots with him and that you applied for this school because I attended it," he retorted evenly.

Yamamoto sighed. "Well, if you gotta be that way…" He took a step back, brought two fingers to his mouth, and let out a loud whistle. Fukui cursed under his breath and pushed Soo-Jin behind him, who nervously obeyed. She gaspedin surprise when the foliage behind the fence began to jostle and out popped up five scruffy-looking boys. Delinquents. They were delinquents.

Soo-Jin squeaked and, without a thought, grabbed hold of Fukui's sweater. She was right! She was right! For once in her life, her hunch wasn't being stupid! Yamamoto wasn't a good person—he was evil! He worked for the league of evilness! Delinquents! Delinquents!

The delinquents slowly circled around them until both Fukui and Soo-Jin were in the center. The Korean turned her head and noticed that, much to her dismay, Yamamoto had taken her at a much further distance away from the students outside. She doubted that she could slip by and cry for help, especially not with these ruffians surrounding them.

"Yup, I should have realized that meeting at this place was a bad one," grumbled Fukui. "Why am I so dumb?"

"You're just losing your touch, sempai."

"Enough. What is this? Some kind of manga? Yamamoto, you better have a good explanation; otherwise, you'll definitely get a notification that says you're off the team."

"Whatever it is, sempai, I'm sure it won't come to that. Besides, didn't you say that I'm a valuable asset?"

"I think we'll manage without."

Fukui and Yamamoto exchanged leveled looks, expressions giving nothing away and tensions rising between the third-year and first-year. It was like she was watching a replay of Murasakibara and Shintaro's cold war. Soo-Jin didn't know which one was worst because, although the encounter with Shintaro was terrible, their current situation could result with them getting pummeled if this hostility escalated any further.

Soo-Jin was tempted to say something—like reprimand Yamamoto for being disrespectful to his sunbae or demand what he was doing with the likes of hooligans—yet apprehension constricted her throat from letting her utter anything. Her impression of Yamamoto wasn't the greatest, but she had certainly thought better of him.

Suddenly, Fukui chuckled. "You know, you really had me fooled. It was just yesterday that I learned shocking news that you weren't the cute kohai that I always thought you were."

"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings." Yamamoto grinned. "Well, anyway, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. Just know that Won-san is here." Soo-Jin didn't quite understand what he meant by that, but it didn't sound good. She tightened her grip on Fukui's sweater.

"I never thought that you would sink that low, Yamamoto," Fukui said. "Did you bring her here for conveniences?"

"That wasn't my initial purpose, to be honest. Miura-san only wants to speak with you, and if you don't comply then there are other means that will persuade you to do so."

"Oh yeah? And what makes you say that?"

"Because he will allow inexplicable harm to Won-san. Whenever. Wherever."

Fukui grimaced. Soo-Jin blanched.

"I'm just relaying his words, of course," Yamamoto chirped.

"Doesn't make you any less of a scumbag." Fukui's shoulders slumped in resignation. "Fine, I'll come, but the girl stays here."

"No, she has to come."

"You really are pushing it. You seriously want to get kicked off the team, don't you?"

"I'm pretty sure you don't make that call, sempai. I'm just following Miura-san's orders. Why else would I bring her here?"

Soo-Jin really didn't like that darkening look on Fukui's face.