Behind him, the noise of the school slowly began to fade.
The voices.
The laughter.
The whispers.
Everything disappeared little by little.
Yeo-Jun kept his head lowered as he walked deeper into the deserted path.
For the first time that day, he couldn't see anyone watching him.
And for now…
That was exactly what he wanted.
After walking for a while, Yeo-Jun finally reached a quiet spot.
The moment he was sure there was no one around, he stopped.
His back slowly pressed against the wall, and he let his head fall against it.
Then he took a long breath.
And another.
And another.
He breathed deeply, trying to calm himself down.
It felt as though he had forgotten how to breathe properly for the past several hours.
His chest rose and fell unevenly, and he kept taking slow, deep breaths until the tightness inside him began to loosen, even if only slightly.
After a while, he quietly slipped his school bag from his shoulder and placed it on the ground.
Then he slowly lowered himself beside it and sat down, resting his back against the wall.
For a few minutes, he simply stayed there.
Doing nothing.
Thinking nothing.
Just trying to make himself feel normal again.
But then a dull pain began to spread through his stomach.
He frowned slightly and placed a hand over it.
He was hungry.
Really hungry.
The realization came so suddenly that he almost forgot about everything else for a moment.
When he thought about it properly, he realized something.
He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten a proper meal.
For the past several months, he had barely been eating anything.
Most of the time, he had simply skipped his meals.
It wasn't because he had been trying to avoid food.
He just hadn't felt hungry.
For weeks, food had barely seemed important to him.
Miss Ji-Eun had noticed it.
She had repeatedly encouraged him to eat something, and because of her, he would sometimes eat a few pieces of fruit just to make her stop worrying about him.
But today…
He was hungry.
His stomach hurt from it.
Yeo-Jun looked toward the school building.
For a moment, he thought about going to the dining hall and having lunch.
But the thought of walking into a crowded room made his body tense again.
There would be so many students.
So many eyes.
So many whispers.
He immediately pushed the thought away.
No.
He didn't want to face everyone again.
He would rather endure the hunger than walk into that crowd.
His gaze dropped to his school bag lying beside him.
And suddenly, he remembered something.
This morning, he had been in such a hurry to leave the house that he had skipped breakfast.
Miss Ji-Eun had said something to him while he was getting ready.
She had told him that she was putting something inside his bag.
But Yeo-Jun had been too busy getting ready to properly listen.
The memory of her made his expression soften.
A small smile appeared on his face.
For the first time since morning, something warm passed through his expression.
He quickly pulled his bag closer and opened it.
Inside was a small packet of snacks.
He took it out.
There were two stuffed buns inside.
A small instruction was printed on the packet, telling him to warm them in the microwave for a few seconds before eating.
But he didn't want to go anywhere right now.
So, forgetting everything else for a moment, he quickly opened the packet.
He took one of the buns out.
The bun was cold.
But he was too hungry to care.
He immediately took a bite.
The second bun was still in his other hand.
And then—
Something happened.
Yeo-Jun froze.
The bite in his mouth wouldn't go down.
He tried to swallow.
Nothing.
His throat seemed to close around it.
His eyes suddenly filled with tears.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
The bite remained stuck in his throat, and suddenly he couldn't understand why.
Why couldn't he eat?
He was hungry.
He had been hungry for so long.
So why couldn't he swallow even one bite?
His fingers tightened around the bun in his hand.
He looked down at it.
Then something inside him broke.
Tears spilled from his eyes.
With an anger he didn't understand himself, he suddenly crushed the bun in his hand.
Then the second one.
He squeezed both buns between his hands.
Harder.
And harder.
Until the soft bread was completely ruined.
The stuffing spilled between his fingers.
He kept crushing them anyway.
His hands moved almost mechanically, as though his mind had stopped working properly.
He didn't know what he was angry at.
The food?
Himself?
His classmates?
The things he had heard without actually hearing them?
Or the fact that he didn't even understand what was happening to him?
He didn't know.
He simply kept squeezing.
His tears continued falling.
Then, after a few seconds, he finally seemed to realize what he was doing.
Yeo-Jun stared at his hands.
The two buns were completely crushed.
The stuffing was scattered across the ground.
He went still.
And then he began to cry even harder.
Not loudly.
Just helplessly.
As if he couldn't stop the tears anymore.
He looked down at the mess he had made and, through his tears, slowly began gathering everything from the ground.
The fallen stuffing.
The small pieces of bread.
Everything.
He picked up every piece he could find and carefully put it back into the packet.
Even though the food was ruined, he still gathered it.
When he finally finished, the bite that had remained in his mouth was still there.
He swallowed it.
Then he reached into his pocket and took out his handkerchief.
His hands were shaking slightly as he wiped them.
He gathered the remaining crumbs and stuffing with the handkerchief as well, tears still slipping down his face.
He wiped his tears with the back of his hand.
Then he carefully picked up his school bag.
He stood.
And without looking back at the place where he had been sitting, he started walking away.
He headed toward the bathrooms.
On the way, he passed the playground.
There was a dustbin nearby.
Yeo-Jun stopped
He looked down at the snack packet and the handkerchief he was holding.
He threw it into the dustbin.
He turned away and continued toward the bathrooms beside the playground.
When he reached the bathroom, he turned on the tap.
He washed his hands.
Then he splashed water onto his face.
Again.
And again.
He kept washing his face, trying to get rid of the tears and the redness around his eyes.