Jieun walked through the busy hallway of Sungkyunkwan University to file her leave of absence from school. The path was so crowded that it couldn’t really be helped that she’d bump a few shoulders here and there. As usual he kept her head down as to not get attention. She remembered what YiFan told her last night to not hide her scar, but it was easy for him to say, his face was flawless.

It was already getting late and she had to get to the office before five. If it weren’t for the upside down activity hours in Mt. Shia, she would’ve been here a little bit earlier; the new time adjustment seriously screwed up her body clock.

She got to the office in good time and when she was asked why she’d take a leave of absence she just said that her father’s brother had finally found her and wanted to bring her with him to another country for a few years. It was a legit enough story so they bought it.

They handed her a few papers to sign and another one for her professors to sign. She thanked the office personnel and started walking towards her classroom hoping to find at least one of her professors. She was lucky enough to meet a few as she passed by in some classrooms or in the hallway so the process was getting pretty easy. She waited for her professor in the last classroom which was currently empty, so she just sat in her old desk to wait.

            “well, well, if it isn’t the girl with the mutilated face.” A girl with an obviously plastic nose came in with her cackling friends.

            “what do you want now, Minah?” Jieun said almost groaning. She didn’t have time to deal with this today; she had to get back before sundown. SaeMi unnie just gave her that much time, if she wouldn’t contact her before the said time she would send someone to pick her up. Somehow, Jieun just doesn’t want that to happen.

            “talking back now, are we?”  she said as she sauntered over with her irritating nasal voice. “what’s this?”

She saw the paper that Jieun was holding and she snatched it away. Jieun failed to react quickly and before she could even take it back a group of Minah’s friends had blocked her way.

There already a piling number of audiences watching them and Jieun’s getting more and more conscious by the minute.

            “give that back, Minah.” She demanded.

            “looks like our dear Jieunnie is filing for a leave of absence.” She smirked. “why? Finally got enough money for a cheap plastic surgery to get rid of that scar?”

            “you would know of cheap plastic surgeries, Minah. I can see you’ve been to those a lot.” Jieun snapped back before she could even stop herself.

Minah’s eyes flared.

            “what did you just say to me?” she glared angrily at Jieun.

There was a collective oohh’s in the room and whispered chatter.

            “I don’t want trouble so just give that back to me.” Jieun pushed forwards and snatched her files from Minah’s hand. The latter, surprised by Jieun’s actions took a step backwards and tripped over a desk and fell over.

            “! You pushed me!” she screamed.

            “no, I didn’t! it was an accident.” Jieun shook her head frantically as Minah stood up and walked towards her.

People were cheering on Minah now; Jieun never really had someone on campus that would come to her aid as she was the weird one, the freak with a scar.

Minah grabbed a fistful of Jieun’s hair and yanked her towards a desk and pushed her there.

            “let’s see if I can put another ugly scar on your already scarred face, shall we?” she was about to push Jieun’s face on the desk again when Jieun managed to pry Minah’s hand form her hair and she started towards the door.

            “not so fast, !” Minah grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked her back.

            “let me go!” Jieun yelled angrily.

            “ouch! What the!?” Minah yanked her hand back in pain. There was a red burn on her skin like it had touched some kind of acid. Jieun stared at Minah’s hand in total shock. “what did you do, freak!?” Minah got tears in her eyes now, the skin on her palm started to form red, blotchy, blister.

            “i…i…I didn’t do anything.” Jieun stammered , shaking her head frantically. She knew her powers got something to do with it, she just didn’t mean to do it.

            “Minah? What’s wrong, babe?” Minah’s boyfriend, JinGu, a tall, burly, basketball player came inside and walked towards his girlfriend.

            “that girl did something to my hand!” Minah cried as she pointed towards Jieun.

            “I didn’t do anything to her!” Jieun yelled. The people present could also say she didn’t do anything as it was Minah who was hitting her but they also couldn’t come to Jieun’s defense. This was their sick idea of fun after all.

            “liar! Look what you did to my girlfriend’s hand.” JinGu growled and raised his hand and slapped Jieun so hard that she fell on the floor; her lip bleeding.

There was now a hush of murmur in the room. Everyone there knew of JinGu’s temper.

            “I really didn’t do anything, how could I even have done it? she was hitting me!” Jieun yelled defensively. Tears now welled in her eyes.

JinGu grabbed her collar and pulled her up.

            “stop lying you freak!” JinGu pushed her to a seat and took a lighter from his pocket.

Minah was still in pain from the burn in her hand but she couldn’t help but give Jieun a smirk as saw what her boyfriend was about to do.

            “what are you doing?” Jieun said in panic. JinGu didn’t say anything but just grabbed her hand and slammed it on a desk.

            “and eye for an eye. You burned my girlfriend’s hand, so I’m going to burn yours.” He smirked; there was a sharp intake of breath from everyone in the room

            “don’t do this please!” Jieun pleaded trying to yank her hand away but JinGu’s grip of her wrist was vice-like. All eyes were on the both of them and everyone was too scared to speak or move.

JinGu lit the lighter and raised Jieun’s hand and slowly put the flame towards her shaking palm. Jieun shut her eyes and prepared herself for the burning pain.

THUNK!

The sound echoed throughout the silent room.

            “what the-?!” Jin Gu’s surprised yell soon followed the sound.

Jieun opened her eyes to see that the sleeve of JinGu’s right arm was stuck on the table and what’s pinning it there was a playing card. He tried yanking his sleeve but a quarter of the card was wedge through the wooden table that it was hard for him to yank it without ripping his sweater.

And true enough…a ripping noise was soon heard.

            “aish! This was cashmere!” he yelled angrily and looked around for the source.

He didn’t see anyone so he turned towards Jieun again whose wrist he was still holding. Jieun knew she’s in even bigger trouble now, she was sure JinGu would take the ruining of his sweater out on her.

            “you have something to do with this again, haven’t you?” he said now grabbing a fistful of her hair. Jieun screamed in pain. “now why don’t I burn your face instead?”

THUNK! THUNK!

Now his left sleeve and the already ruined right one were once again wedged on the desk.

            “who’s doing that?” Minah yelled through the crowd as she tried to pry the plastic card off the desk with her unburned hand.

“I am.” A voice said from the doorway.

The crowd parted revealing a man with shoulder length black hair tied in a half pony leaning on the door post. He wasn’t looking at the offending people but was shuffling a deck of cards flipping some of it so effortlessly that he’d put a magician or a casino card dealer’s talent to shame. He was medium built, with slightly feminine features but his eyes burned with unmistakable anger. He looked up and fixed his glare on JinGu.

JinGu may be physically bigger but the aura coming from this man was obviously even more frightening that the people standing by the door scuttled backwards.

Jieun was now panting from nervousness and from the effort of pulling her hand away.

            “let go of her hand. Now!” the man said in a commanding voice. Jieun looked up to see who it was. Her eyes widened; it was Heechul.

            “get out of here pretty boy or I’ll burn that pretty face of yours for you as well.” JinGu said unfazed by Heechul’s presence.

Heechul’s eyebrows rose. He raised a hand with three cards wedge in between and with a lazy flick of his wrist; the cards flew and scratched the hand holding Jieun and JinGu let her go with a yell of pain. He clutched his hand which was now bleeding.

            “stop over reacting it’s just a scratch.” Heechul said shaking his head. This bully only got scratched how much more if he would indeed get a cut. “ Jieun, come on, lets go.”

Jieun stood up and hurriedly started walking towards Heechul.

            “you son of a ! You’re going to pay for this!” JinGu stalked forward pushing Jieun out of the way.

Heechul just stood there waiting for the raging bull to charge. JinGu raised his fist to punch Heechul but the latter side-stepped him and tripped him causing JinGu to fall face forward to the floor.

            “come, kiddo, let’s go before Siwon finds out what happened to you. That guy’s got a bit of a temper you know.” Heechul joked putting an arm around Jieun’s shoulder; he grabbed her documents from the floor and walked out of the room.

            “hey ! I’m not through with you yet!” JinGu yelled following them out and threw a book towards the retreating back of the two.

But before it could hit either of them a hand reached out and caught the book.

            “tsk! Dude, books are for reading not throwing.” Jieun turned at the sound of the amused voice from behind them and she saw the boy who had thrown a shuriken at her and Sulli from a few nights ago. He still got that naughty glint in his eyes.

He threw the book back at JinGu who reacted too late and the book hit him squarely in the nose and it now started to bleed. The people from the classroom now filed out to watch the scene.

“look at the and how many guys she’s got.” Minah muttered to her friends and they all nodded in agreement but in reality they were jealous at the handsome men who were protecting her.

            “ you, bastard!” he said holding onto his nose.

            “tsk tsk, such language. One might think you didn’t have enough brains to study.” Lay teased with a grin.

            “I’ll wipe that grin off your face, you bastard!” he stalked towards Lay and raised his fist. Lay just stood there grinning widely then JinGu’s fist collided with a man’s palm.

JinGu stared at another new face.

            “so you hit my niece with this hand, did you?” Siwon’s burly figure appeared in the hallway. He was as tall as JinGu and obviously matched his muscles.

            “what? Niece?!” JinGu stared at Jieun who was still standing beside an amused Heechul. A murmur rang through the crowd. Then JinGu yelled as Siwon tightened his hold on Jingu’s fist. He yelled in pain as he felt the bones on his hand cracked. He kneeled in pain before Siwon threw his fist and turned his back on the crowd. Lay walked over to JinGu and squatted in front of him, the latter looked up only to see another taunting smirk before Lay flicked his forehead so hard he yelled in pain again.

            “Lay, Let’s go.” Siwon said in a commanding voice.

            “yes, sir!” he said jauntily.

            “who are you freaks?” Minah said hurriedly walking towards her boyfriend.

The party of four stopped and Heechul grinned at them.

            “us? Her family.” He grinned. “uncle, cousin and brother.” He pointed at Siwon, to himself then to Lay.

            “adios!” Lay winked at the crowd before all four of them left.

They led Jieun out of the campus and started towards the parked car.

            “thank you for helping me back there.” Jieun sniffed and wiped her tears away. They all got in the car with Siwon driving and on the passenger seat, Lay sat beside her in the backseat.

            “no problem, SaeMi sent us after you haven’t contacted her after sundown and good thing she did.” Heechul said glancing Jieun in the backseat who had a look of concentration on her face.

            “here.” Lay said handing her a handkerchief and gestured to her cut lip.

            ‘thank you.” She smiled and accepted it.

She stared out the window while wiping the blood away. Then, Krystal’s words rang in her head. “no matter the reason you shouldn’t let anyone make you feel bad. That’s the reason why there are so many bad people out there because they think they can bully the weak and it makes them feel powerful over them.”

She was right. If you let people bully you, they’d feel power and will keep on oppressing people around them just to feel being mighty.

Jieun’s brows furrowed. She will never let anything of the sort happen again. She will train hard and put all her efforts into it. She will make her parents proud and all of those who she will work with. She will become great and be the best to protect the people oppressed by those who think they can rule over the weak. She will be the maja she is destined to be.