Eli walked the girl to her classroom. She had stopped crying after ten minutes of being rocked back and forth by Eli in the restroom. Nobody came through, thankfully, which means Eli had enough time to convince the girl she had to go to class. He hadn’t learned her name, but he wanted to know for a reason. She seemed precious, like a gemstone that needed to be taken care of with great care. If she wasn’t, she’d be broken in a second.

            Eli stood with her outside the classroom. “May I ask your name?” he asked.

            The girl was surprised, but she still whispered something.

            “What was that?”

            The girl looked up and said as loud as she could, “Han Hae Mi!” Then she bolted into the classroom.

            Eli looked at her back as she closed the classroom door. He spun on his heels a few seconds later. “Han Hae Mi,” he mumbled. Then he walked away.

            “Eli! What happened earlier?”

            Eli looked up from his desk that his homework was on, half-finished. Kevin and Dongho both ran up to Eli’s desk in a hurry. Eli answered them after the question processed through his head. “You mean with the girl?”

            “Yeah!” Dongho chided. “We saw you with her in the hallway in between classes.”

            “Oh, that… Well, I probably shouldn’t tell anybody…”

            “Let’s go in the restroom. You can tell us there,” Kevin suggested.

            Dongho grabbed Eli’s arm and pulled him up. Eli reached backed dramatically for his homework, but Kevin caught the clue and helped Dongho help drag their best friend to the restroom. The three boys left the classroom.

            Inside the bathroom, Eli washed his hands as he explained. “I was going to the bathroom when I walked past the girls’ restroom. I heard some girls talking nasty so I decided to go in the bathroom to see what was going on. Guess who was the bully.”

            Kevin made a face. Dongho pretended to throw up. Eli chuckled. “Yeah. So, Eunbi and her friends were bullying another girl. I got them to leave eventually.” Eli got a paper towel and dried his hands before going on with his story. “I helped the girl to calm down and stop crying. That’s when I walked her back to class.”

            Kevin nodded, understanding the situation. He knew Eunbi was rude, but would she really stoop so low as to hurt a surprised girl in the bathroom? Then again, it was possible, the girl did something to intimidate Eunbi and make her mad.

            Dongho asked, “What’s her name?”

            “Han Hae Mi.”

            The three friends left the bathroom. It was just about time to leave for the next class. Kevin commented, “I think I’ve heard of her…”

            “Isn’t she that one depressed girl from Biology, Hyung?!” Dongho gasped to Kevin.

            Kevin nodded vigorously. “Yeah, that’s her!” He turned to Eli. “Haven’t you heard of the rumors about her?”

            Eli shook his head slowly. He hadn’t heard anything about her. He hadn’t even seen her before. How did his friends know about her and not him? “No…”

            Dongho couldn’t stop himself from filling in the biggest, juiciest details about the most depressed student in the school. “She’s broken a mirror in the bathroom before just to cut herself, and she’s come to school with cuts all up her arms and down her legs. She’s even tried to hang herself before in the teacher’s lounge!”

            Eli, totally stunned, didn’t know what he was supposed to feel. Such a person would’ve normally made him feel sorry and that was it. No sympathy, no compassion. Just… sorrow. He couldn’t decipher the feeling he detected brewing inside of him. Was it disgust or more powerful sorrow than before? Whatever it was, he would have to figure it out later. He had to get to his next class.