Myungsoo kissed the top of my nose before he let me go.

I staggered to my classroom, utterly bedazzled by him, my boyfriend, Kim Myungsoo.

Yes, you heard right. The brilliant Kim Myungsoo is my boyfriend.

And he never missed an opportunity to bedazzle me.

So I didn’t see the punch coming.

It hit me right on my cheekbone, and I instantly knew it was going to bruise.

I felt myself fly backwards and hit the ground with my rear end.

Covering my cheek bone and barely stopping from crying out in pain, I looked up, confused.

There were three girls in front of me, all of whom I’d never seen before in my life.

“You !”, one of the girls said.

“Um”, I said, clearing my throat, “I think you’ve got the wrong person here…”

I didn’t even know their names!

“Oh, really? That wasn’t you that just kissed Myungsoo!?”, the girl with braids said.

“Well”, I responded, “technically, no, it wasn’t. ‘Cause, you see, he kissed m-“

At this point the girl with nine-inch nails grabbed me by the collar.

I was starting to get mad. Why couldn’t they just tell me what their problem was? Humans have voices for a reason. Violence provoked me. It made me irrevocably angry. And when I get mad, I get cheeky.

“Look, can you let go? It took my mom an entire minute and a half to iron this shirt”, I said, glaring at the girl as she glared back.

“We have something to discuss”, she hissed at me.

“Oh, really, I couldn’t tell”, I said sarcastically.

She slapped me in the face again. My cheek bone throbbed, but my voice was still loud and clear as I said, “We still haven’t ‘discussed’ anything here”.

The other girl kicked my shin.

Ow.

Keeping the pain out of my voice, I said, “You have to use vocal chords to discuss, people. Say something.”

“That’s only how wimps discuss things”, the third girl said, as she slapped the same cheek. God damn, it hurt.

Barely managing to keep my voice strong, I said, “Or maybe this is how wimps discuss things. Perhaps you’re just hitting me because you can’t face the truth.”

I felt three different blows in three different places at once.

I almost, almost let out a whimper of pain. I tried to hold my head up high, but I felt tears forming. It really hurt.

“That’s right. Who’s the wimp now?”, the girl with the nails asked.

I choked out, “You” before I was lost in a flurries of kicks and punches.

I tried by best to protect myself, especially my hands (which I used to play acoustic guitar and cello) and my already-throbbing cheek.

But the blows kept raining down, and I couldn’t think of anything but to wait it out.

Suddenly, I heard a shout.

The blows stopped all at once.

I didn’t want to risk looking up and getting punched viciously in the eye or the cheek, so I continued to cover up my face with my arms.

I heard my name somewhere, but I stayed under cover.

So it came as a complete shock when I felt someone pick me up.

Whoa!!!! Where was I-?

I looked up at whoever had done such a thing.

It was….  “Woohyun?”, I croaked out. Ugh, I sounded terrible.

I tried to clear my throat, but it made my stomach tense up, which hurt.

I winced.

“So Eun-sshi, do you need to go to the hospital? I can take you there.” His voice sounded so urgent, so afraid. For me.

“No, I’m totally fine”, I answered, trying to sound stronger. “Hey, where are you taking me?”, I asked him. 

“The nurse’s office… Why? Is there somewhere else you would prefer?”, he asked me. His voice sounded strange.

“Um…  how about you drop me off at that bench over there? I really don’t want to get in trouble with the principal…I’m not ranked high enough academically to avoid suspension”, I admitted, blushing.

“Your health is more important than getting suspended”, he answered, serious .

“No, really”, I insisted, “just drop me off there.”

We walked (well, he walked and I hung on for the ride) to the bench where he gently set me down. Despite his carefulness, I still felt a sharp prod in my stomach region and on my . I carefully disentangled my arms from around his neck and sat upright on the bench.

“Thanks, you can go now.”, I said, not wanting to inconvenience him.

“Yeah, guess I’ll call Myungsoo then”, Woohyun said, his voice slightly bitter. He wasn’t looking at me when he said that.

And then I suddenly realized…

He was Myungsoo’s best friend… he’d even told Myungsoo that he liked me… and then Myungsoo and I…

Oh god.

“Wait, Woohyun”, I called out.  

He’d already started walking away, but he slowly turned to me when I called his name.

A plethora of words were sitting in my mouth, but I felt like all of them were just excuses, so I said the only thing I possibly could, “I am so sorry.”

Woohyun was still for a moment before he let out a sigh. He looked away again before I heard him mutter, “And I thought I had a chance… but I didn’t know who I was competing with…”

He turned back to me and said seriously, “I’m not that mad that you two are… together. Seriously, I wish you two the best… I just don’t understand why he didn’t tell me… in the first place.”  His voice trailed off, but then he lightly said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m used to being second place. I’m the best friend of Kim Myungsoo, after all.”

 Suddenly, the pain in my heart throbbed worse than all of the pain in my body combined. He laughed softly before he said, “Don’t be stubborn. Go to the hospital if you’re badly hurt”, and then he turned and started to walk away.

“Don’t bother Myungsoo, please”, I called out to him, feeling guilty as I did so. I was asking the guy with the broken heart to protect the guy who’d him. But I really couldn’t have Myungsoo know. What if he decided to break up with me to “protect” me? I’d rather be beaten five hundred times over and over again than be separated from him.

I tentatively walked to my class, earning a demerit for being over twenty minutes late, and trudged through the rest of school. Luckily, I wasn’t beaten up again. Most of the school still didn’t seem to know.

When I got home, I was alone because my parents were still at work. 

I hastily ran to the medication cabinet, which constitutes as limping.

I got out whatever medication I had and the bandages.

I looked at my face in the mirror.

Oh my god.

A brilliant purplish bruise covered almost half my cheek. It was in the shape of a handprint. I groaned. This was impossible to hide! I couldn’t stagger around with bandages around my head all week long, like a mummy.

I checked the rest of myself over, hoping I wasn’t too badly banged up.

Wrong.

I had a total of eleven bruises, including the one on my face.

There was another on the left side of my neck. 

A few sprinkling over my stomach, and several on my legs.

My hands had, thankfully, avoided damage, but that was about it.

Even my sported a couple. I didn’t visually check, but I could feel them.

I set myself to work, busily dabbing medicine here and there.

I often gritted my teeth and huffed out a, “Damn”, cause buddy, it hurt real bad.

Suddenly, I heard my name.

“So Eun-ah?”

I nearly toppled over in shock. WERE MY PARENTS HOME ALREADY?

Oh my god, the bruise on my face!

I quickly dropped a towel over the medicine and bandages and dove into the couch, hiding my face with pillows.

“So Eun?”, I heard again.

Wait, that voice was far too beautiful to….

“Eun-ah?”

Oh crap, Myungsoo was here!

How? What? He didn’t even knock? How had he gotten in?

I’d probably forgotten to lock the door in my haste to get medicine.

I would have slapped myself, but I’d experienced quite enough of that for one day.

Please, go away, I prayed.

“Hm… what’s with this towel?”, I heard him say.

Crap, if he looked under, he’d know!

“Don’t!”, I yelled out from under the pillows.

I heard him shout, fall with a thud, and curse.

“Eun-ah, you scared me! Jesus!”

He walked over to me, around the towel, and tried to pry the pillow away from me.

I tried to keep my resistance as playful as possible, but after a good five minutes, we were both gritting our teeth to get the pillow away from each other.

“Eun-ah, what’s wrong?”, he asked me through gritted teeth.

I could feel the pillow slipping out of my grasp. I held on to it with all my strength, but he wrested it away from me. Unfortunately, he was still pulling when I let go, so he tumbled off the couch and onto the towel when I lost hold.

I heard a crunch and knew that was the medication. I groaned to myself when he said, “What the-? What’s-?” There was a silent pause and then, “Eun-ah, you’re hurt!?”

I shook my head, hoping my hair swishing back and forth behind my hands would let him know I was saying no.

Without warning, Myungsoo launched himself on the couch and forcefully, but avoiding any other part of my body, pulled my hands away from me.

I flinched, waiting for his reaction to my ugly state.

I heard his quick intake of breath.

“What happened?”

“Nothing”, I said bluntly.

“Tell me, I know you didn’t trip down the stairs this time”, Myungsoo said, serious.

“Did you get in a fight?”, Myungsoo asked me.

Unable to come up with a decent lie, I slowly nodded my head.

 “Who?”, Myungsoo asked, softly.

I kept my lips shut tight.

“Tell me”, he ordered, more aggressive.

Crap, why can’t I think of a lie? Anything? Anything….

“A couple of girls”, I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

And then I felt shocked as I realized that my “lie” was actually the truth.

Stupid.

“Girls?”, Myungsoo repeated, his eyebrow raised. “Why would they…..”, his voice trailed off as he realized what had happened. The truth.

My stomach clenched when I saw his eyes light up with rage.

“Myungsoo, please don’t do anything stupid”, I begged, tugging on his arm.

His eyes were still cold and hard, and he wasn’t looking at me.

This wasn’t the Myungsoo I knew.

This was the part of Myungsoo that always made me feel terrified, weak, and alone.

“Please… just stay with me”, I whispered, grasping his hand in mine.

The tone of my voice made him turn around and look at me.

His eyes softened as they traced over my bruise and into my eyes.

He leaned forward and softly kissed my nose.

Then, abruptly, he pulled away.

“Myungsoo?”, I asked, startled by the sudden movement.

“That’s what made them fight you. I kissed you… this morning”, Myungsoo said slowly.

I didn’t say anything…

I could slowly see him thinking of leaving me.

My heart was crumbling into pieces….

And he didn’t even know…

“I’m going, Eun-ah. Don’t try to hide your wounds from your parents. Let them take care of you. Don’t hide from your parents if you’re lucky enough to have them”, he said, and without looking back, he walked out.

My heart cracked when the door slammed shut.