Chapter 6. The Fabricated Truth
The school was strangely quiet.
From the moment Kim Do-yoon stepped through the school gates, the students scattered around the field and hallways all turned to look at him.
Whispers spread like ripples.
There was surprise in them.
Curiosity.
And a fear that was difficult to explain.
The outcast who had arrived in a black sedan.
The student who had come to school with a lawyer in a suit.
Until yesterday, Kim Do-yoon had existed unnoticed in one corner of the classroom.
Now, overnight, he had become the center of the entire school.
"Who is that guy?"
"I heard the man beside him is a lawyer."
"Was Kim Do-yoon's family always rich?"
"I heard they weren't."
"Then what the hell happened?"
Voices continued to brush past his ears, but Do-yoon did not bother turning around.
After risking his life against Mutated Rats in another world, gazes like these no longer frightened him.
Mockery and curiosity could never be more frightening than sharp claws and teeth.
If he was being honest...
It even felt a little good.
It was better than being ignored like before.
Back then, people treated him as if he were invisible.
Now, every step he took drew someone's attention.
But the moment he felt satisfied by that attention, Liana's words crossed his mind.
Pride is never satisfied.
Do-yoon slowly exhaled.
He could not get drunk on attention and fool himself into thinking he had already changed.
The power he possessed was still incomplete.
And there was still a mountain of problems left to solve.
This was only the beginning.
Do-yoon entered the main building without breaking stride.
Seo Ji-hoon walked quietly beside him, completely ignoring the stares around them.
A waiting teacher guided the two toward the principal's office.
When the door opened, everyone inside looked at Do-yoon at once.
The principal.
Vice principal.
Head of student discipline.
His homeroom teacher.
They were seated around a long table.
On the opposite side sat Park Tae-seong and his parents.
The moment Do-yoon saw Tae-seong's parents, he understood a little better why Tae-seong had been able to do whatever he wanted at school.
Tae-seong's father wore an expensive suit.
A clearly high-end watch was visible beneath his sleeve.
His eyes looked like those of a businessman who had spent years calculating both people's value and their weaknesses at the same time.
The woman beside him was even more obvious.
Rather than looking at Do-yoon as a person, she examined him from head to toe as though judging the grade of a product.
His clothes.
His expression.
Then Seo Ji-hoon beside him.
After checking everything, she frowned as though displeased.
Do-yoon did not feel particularly fond of her either.
"Please, take a seat."
At the principal's words, Do-yoon and Seo Ji-hoon sat down side by side.
Tae-seong's mother immediately let out a mocking laugh.
"A student brought a lawyer with him?"
Seo Ji-hoon smiled calmly without showing any irritation.
"A legal representative attending an investigation involving a minor is a legitimate right."
"A right?"
Her voice grew sharper.
"What right does a student who threatened our Tae-seong with a weapon have to talk about rights?"
Do-yoon's gaze turned cold.
But he did not answer emotionally.
Seo Ji-hoon did not respond immediately either.
Instead, he simply wrote something down in his notebook.
The fact that he recorded her words instead of arguing seemed to irritate Tae-seong's mother even more.
Her lips twisted.
The principal quickly cleared his throat.
"We are gathered today to verify what happened on the rooftop yesterday. We will hear both sides in order."
"Good."
Tae-seong's father spoke first.
"We brought evidence as well, so I hope the facts will be clearly established."
At the word evidence, Seo Ji-hoon's eyebrow moved slightly.
Do-yoon also felt a vague sense of unease.
There was no properly functioning CCTV on the rooftop.
And no one had seen the entire incident.
Then what evidence had they brought?
Park Tae-seong slowly opened his mouth.
"Yesterday, Kim Do-yoon pulled out a knife first."
The atmosphere in the principal's office froze.
Tae-seong looked at Do-yoon for a moment.
Fear was still visible in his eyes.
He clearly remembered what had happened yesterday.
But beneath that fear was a strangely strong confidence.
The expression of someone who believed that someone would definitely protect him.
"He pointed the knife at me and threatened to kill me."
"That's a lie."
Do-yoon spoke for the first time.
Tae-seong's shoulder flinched.
But after glancing at his parents, he forced himself to raise his head.
"It's true. It happened to me."
"Do you have evidence supporting that statement?"
Seo Ji-hoon asked calmly.
Tae-seong's father smiled as though he had been waiting for that exact question.
He took a black USB drive from his bag and placed it on the table.
"It's here."
Do-yoon's heartbeat became irregular.
This was more than simple anxiety.
His instincts screamed as though danger were approaching.
A staff member connected the USB to the principal's computer.
A moment later, a video file began playing.
Everyone in the room looked toward the monitor.
Do-yoon did too.
Then he froze.
The location was clearly yesterday's rooftop.
Park Tae-seong was there.
So was Do-yoon.
The problem was what happened in the footage.
In the video, Kim Do-yoon pulled out the dagger first.
Holding it in his hand, he approached Park Tae-seong.
He raised the blade threateningly.
There was even a distorted smile on his lips.
He looked as if he had intended to hurt Tae-seong from the beginning.
Do-yoon could not speak.
That had never happened.
He had not pulled the dagger first.
He had never threatened to kill Tae-seong.
Everything in the video was false.
But the footage was far too natural to simply shout that it was fake.
The movements.
The shadows.
The positions of the people.
