Hajun Gu gritted his teeth. The veins in his neck throbbed with fury; he'd never been treated like this in his life. He took a heavy step forward, raised his fists, and assumed the classic boxing stance.
"Don't you dare mock me!" he roared, launching himself with an explosive right hook at Seo Joon.
The crowd gasped. Everyone knew Hajun Gu was truly powerful; usually, when he threw the first punch, his opponents fell before they even had time to blink.
But Seo Joon barely tilted his head. The fist grazed his hood… and with a faint echo, the impact slammed into the wall behind him, leaving a small crack.
"Good power, but too slow," Seo Joon commented without a trace of emotion.
Hajun Gu took a step back, surprised. He couldn't see Seo Joon's face; the hood completely obscured his expression. But, just from his tone, Hajun Gu was sure he was being looked down upon.
The crowd eating melons murmured uneasily. Even Yakuza opened his eyes slightly behind his glasses, just enough to make his youthful yet aged face look even more miserable than it already was.
"Suhyeon… did you see that?" he whispered.
"No…" Soohyun replied, looking foolish. "Did you?"
"Me neither," Yakuza answered solemnly.
¿!¡?
Soohyun stared at him, speechless.
"Then why are you saying it like you did see it?"
"Hahaha, well, I don't know," Yakuza replied, scratching the back of his neck as if that were his specialty.
Soohyun sighed.
At that moment, he felt someone push him aside.
"Loser, move it, you're blocking my view."
Soohyun was about to snap, but when he turned around, he saw that it was Baek Chaerin who had pushed him.
Chaerin had elegant features: a delicate nose, long eyelashes, hazel eyes, and a slender, well-proportioned figure. She also exuded an aura of absolute queenliness that intimidated anyone who breathed too heavily near her.
Soohyun swallowed hard and immediately stepped aside.
"Hehehe… sorry, Chaerin," he stammered, his cheeks slightly flushed.
Chaerin frowned.
"Whatever, loser. Tell me what's going on."
Chaerin's cold voice snapped Soohyun out of his lovestruck trance, and he began to explain the situation with clumsy enthusiasm. Yakuza, watching this scene, winced as two tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Soohyun has grown up… he can finally talk to a girl," he thought dramatically.
…
Hajun kept throwing attack after attack, but Seo Joon dodged with insulting ease.
"Stop dodging!" Hajun spat. "Fight for real!"
He launched himself forward again, frantic, unleashing a flurry of rapid punches, each one harder than the last. The air whistled with every blow.
"Whatever," Seo Joon replied flatly.
He adopted a peek-a-boo stance, Mike Tyson-style, and lowered his body just in time to slip a left hook.
"Too open. Too impatient," he whispered. No one else heard him, but Hajun did… and that enraged him even more.
Seo Joon slipped into his guard with pinpoint precision. With his feet firmly planted on the ground, he spun at the waist and, before Hajun Gu's trembling eyes…
He landed a perfect left hook to the liver.
For any normal person, executing those movements would take time. But Seo Joon did it all like a machine. If a professional trainer had seen it, they would undoubtedly have said:
"A move straight out of the modern boxing handbook."
And it wouldn't be an exaggeration: there wasn't a single unnecessary movement.
Baaam!
The impact resounded loudly. Hajun Gu, still in shock at Seo Joon's fluidity, snapped out of his daze just as the pain shot through his side.
Hajun Gu felt like the whole world was shrinking into a single point.
The impact to the liver wasn't just the pain at the point of impact; there was another consequence that Hajun Gu, as a boxer, knew all too well.
It was an incurable paralysis.
It was as if lightning had struck his body from his waist to his throat, due to the overwhelming number of sensations he felt just seconds after the impact. His legs trembled; An involuntary spasm tightened his diaphragm, leaving him breathless. His mouth opened to groan in pain, but no sound came out. He blinked several times, trying to ease the dizziness that gripped him and the nausea that was beginning to rise.
What… what is this force?
Hajun Gu thought. Normally, the direct effects of a blow to the liver would take minutes or seconds, depending on the recipient.
But the strength of the man in front of him was so immense that the sensation was immediate. Hajun Gu felt as if he had been struck by a hammer.
Hajun leaned forward automatically. He tried to back away, but his body wouldn't obey. His body was practically screaming, "Stop and wait, or you'll fall."
"Tsk," Seo Joon clicked his tongue. "Too stiff. You should breathe better when you attack."
Seo Joon could naturally see that Hajun Gu was having trouble breathing, so he wasted no time mocking him.
Hajun Gu glared at him resentfully, his eyes practically blazing.
Seeing Seo Joon's actions, a student said unconsciously,
"Um... am I seeing things?" a student asked, his face full of disbelief. "Why does it look like Hajun is about to lose?"
"Hmm... no?" another student replied, but seeing Hajun Gu standing motionless, however impossible it seemed, he said, "I think he's going to lose."
Yakuza leaned towards Soohyun, whose eyes were wide with shock.
"Suhyeon… was that… the liver?"
"Yes…" Soohyun whispered, still staring, but at the same time his face turned strange, and he looked at Yakuza with a puzzled expression. "How do you know that?"
Yakuza adjusted his glasses and said smugly, "Hahaha, well, my mom watches UFC, and sometimes I watch it too." Yakuza paused for a moment, then continued in an odd tone, "Now that I think about it, my mom doesn't let me watch this kind of thing."
Soohyun blinked a few times and found it odd. "Could it be because of the violence?" he thought, but then shook his head. Impossible, that shouldn't be the case. Without wanting to think about it anymore, Soohyun nodded slightly. "Wow, I never thought your mom liked that kind of thing."
"Hehehe, me neither," Yakuza replied, embarrassed.
"I don't think so either." Meanwhile, Baek Chaerin watched with her arms crossed, making her ample breasts, with her arms tucked beneath them, stand out even more.
"It's over..." she murmured indifferently, though a faint glimmer of surprise flickered in her eyes. "That move was so clean, and besides, I barely saw anything."
Soohyun heard his and nodded quickly, though to be honest, he understood very little.
Back in the thick of the confrontation, Hajun Gu finally managed to catch his breath and recover momentarily. Naturally, Seo Joon let this happen; otherwise, Hajun Gu would probably have been kissing the ground by now.
Seo Joon bowed his head.
"Kid, will you join God Dog?" he said in that flat, expressionless voice. "Otherwise, you'll have another one just like him, or even stronger."
Hajun gritted his teeth, completely humiliated by the tone of the unknown man in front of him. His pride burned, he wanted to take a step forward, but the pain in his liver still lingered. He gritted his teeth and didn't care. Though a little unsteady, he advanced.
Hajun gritted his teeth, seething with humiliation at the indifferent tone of the stranger before him. His pride screamed at him to continue, even though the throbbing pain in his liver was a sharp reminder that his body couldn't take any more. Even so, he advanced, unsteady but determined.
"Tch… this… isn't over…" he muttered, his eyes burning with fury.
Seo Joon didn't respond. He only let out a bored sigh.
Hajun Gu attacked again, but his blows no longer had any power. They were slow, shaky; more a reflection of rage than skill. Seo Joon dodged effortlessly, as if time moved differently for him. After seeing Hajun Gu's pathetic state, he stopped fighting. Honestly, although he expected this outcome, Hajun Gu's performance disappointed him; after all, he was one of the "protagonists" of Questism.
He dodged a series of wild jabs and a straight right that lost power midway through its trajectory. In one fluid movement with Muhammad Ali-esque footwork, Seo Joon moved back into Hajun Gu's guard, this time without hesitation, using a bit more force.
From below, he threw a precise, sharp uppercut that lifted Hajun's chin with an impact that echoed in the air. The punch was precise, clean, and powerful, making it seem inevitable from the start.
Hajun's world collapsed in an instant.
"Im... impossible... how...?" "How is he so fast? How can he move like that? How is he so strong?"
That thought crossed his mind. There wasn't even any pain; his brain was practically shut down without warning, and his body began to fall backward, completely defeated.
With a thud, Hajun Gu fell unconscious. Seo Joon watched him for a few seconds, assessing the outcome. Looking at the unconscious Hajun Gu, his brow furrowed.
Perhaps… he had gone a little too far.
He shook his head inwardly and looked up. Among the students who formed a semicircle, the atmosphere immediately tensed at being observed. Everyone froze, not daring to speak.
Seo Joon scanned the crowd until he found Soohyun.
He extended a finger toward him.
"You. Come here."
Soohyun froze instantly. Even though this stranger hadn't harmed his before, he was still a little afraid of him.
"W-w-what? Me?" he stammered.
Beside her, Yakuza opened his mouth so fast his glasses almost fell off.
"S-S-Suhyeon…" he whispered, grabbing her sleeve. "Don't move. If you don't move, he might think you're a lamppost."
"A lamppost?!" Soohyun whispered, horrified. "How on earth am I supposed to look like a lamppost?! I'm shaking!"
"Poles shake in the wind too," Yakuza said with completely questionable logic.
Soohyun glared at him.
"You're not helping me at all!"
"There's no way to help you," Yakuza whispered dramatically. "If he chose you… you're marked."
Soohyun swallowed.
"W-marked for what?"
Yakuza pulled him slightly closer, as if he were about to reveal a deadly secret.
"I don't know… but it sounds terrifying!"
Soohyun felt his legs tremble even more.
"I don't want to go… I want to go home."
But Seo Joon kept pointing at him, motionless, though beneath his hood he suppressed a laugh at the interaction between these two strange guys.
Yakuza gave him a light push from behind. "Go, go. If you run, it'll only get worse."
"Damn it! What kind of advice is that?!"
"Remember, don't make eye contact. Predators interpret it as a challenge," Yakuza advised.
"STOP MAKING THINGS UP!" Soohyun whispered desperately.
"Idiots," Baek Chaerin, who was standing next to Soohyun and watching their interaction, muttered with a cold expression.
Soohyun let out a helpless sigh. With short, clumsy, and trembling steps, he moved toward Seo Joon as if he were walking toward Judgment Day.
Seo Joon crouched beside Hajun Gu's body and picked up his phone from the floor. He held it up, saw the face lock, and did the same thing he had done before with his sexy Noona: he placed the device in front of Hajun's unconscious face.
A soft click indicated that the phone had unlocked without any resistance.
The students were petrified.
"That... that was legal? He didn't steal from him, right? Oh crap, he didn't check his history, did he?" one whispered.
"Dude, after what happened, do you think anyone's going to stop him?" another replied quietly, speechless at his classmate's idiocy.
Seo Joon ignored the reactions, opened the contacts app, and leisurely typed in the number, saving it under his own name. Then he turned off the screen with a gentle tap.
Soohyun finally arrived, swallowing hard, and asked,
"W-what do you need…?" he asked, his voice trembling.
Seo Joon handed him Hajun Gu's phone as if he were returning a lost pen.
"When he wakes up, tell him he's now part of Dog God. If he dares not answer, I'll find him and kick his ass again."
"W-what… what? G-God Dog what?"
Seo Joon looked at him like he was an idiot.
"God Dog."
"Who's God Dog?" Soohyun asked, with a nervous laugh that he wasn't sure was appropriate or just his defense mechanism kicking in, though curiosity was evident in his voice.
Seo Joon thought for a moment and replied, "It's me." His tone was absolutely serious, without a trace of deceit.
Soohyun froze.
"A-ah… right… right…" he said, though he still didn't understand at all. "So… I'll just tell him that… right?"
Seo Joon nodded.
At that moment, Yakuza suddenly appeared beside them.
"SOOHYEON! DON'T SAY YES TO THINGS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"
Soohyun nudged him with his elbow, still looking at Seo Joon so as not to appear disrespectful.
"What else should I do?! Look at him! If I say no, he'll kill me! And if I say yes, it looks like he'll kill me too!"
Seo Joon raised an eyebrow at the interaction between these two comical guys.
"Are they whispering something?"
They both jumped like startled cats.
"NO, NO, NO, LORD GOD DOG!" Soohyun suddenly shouted, bowing his head without realizing it.
Seo Joon stared at them both in complete silence, speechless. Even though he claimed to be the God Dog, he honestly had no idea what Soohyun was thinking. This sudden silence only increased Soohyun's psychological pressure.
Finally, he said,
"Whatever. Just give him the message."
And he turned to leave, no longer caring about these two funny guys.
Soohyun and Yakuza watched his back disappear.
"Suhyeon…" Yakuza whispered like a Buddha. "I think you've just become his official messenger."
Soohyun covered his face helplessly. "I just wanted to see the fight…"
Yakuza gently patted his back. "Sorry, brother, do you need some comfort?"
"¿!¡?"
....
At that moment, a small figure among all the students saw Seo Joon's back as she left. She silently slipped out of the crowd and walked toward him, careful not to be seen.
Seo Joon was about to leave when suddenly...
"Hmm, wait!"
A soft voice stopped him. Seo Joon raised an eyebrow and turned around to see who was calling him.