WARNING: MENTIONS OF BULLYING

Warm orange hair fell into doe-like eyes, petal-like lips pursed in the urge to not squeak as the small figure was pushed down on the ground. For a moment, everything was silent: even the soft buzzing of a fly could be heard. And then, there was a small whine. Little droplets of warm blood surrounded the hand of the petit boy who was now sat on the ground. A cut, not too long but quite deep now ruined the soft paleness of his skin, dying it an odd shade of red. 

By then, not a single soul was left to watch as the wounded teenager pushed himself off the ground. As always, he had been left alone. The first sign of his pain was always enough to make his schoolmates laugh. They would just hurt him and then, run away. As if they gained some kind of sick satisfaction from seeing his clumsy form crumble. 

"Jiyong, what are you doing out here?" An older professor appeared at the end of the wide hallway, her eyes filling with confusion. It was not the first time that she caught her favorite student there, seemingly straying away from class, but until then she had not asked. After all, some youngsters just tended to be late from whatever lesson they had. She could recall the time when she had been that age, albeit just faintly. Everything was more important than education no matter what she claimed so many years later. It wasn't that she would never punish her tardy students, quite the opposite. But most of the time when seeing some rush to their classrooms when walking down the hall to her own, she would not bother to bombard them with questions: she would just let them run. Maybe some of them could be there on time - before their teachers, anyway - that way. 

"I was just on my way to the bathroom, Mrs Choi," the soft-voiced teenager uttered, running his left hand through his messy hair."I fell and cut up my palm..." the shy boy bit down on his lower lip with a quiet sigh, reaching into his pocket as if he had done that many times already."I have P.E class with Mr Kim," here he stopped for a bit, looking at the ground with shame."Do you maybe know how late I am from it?"