You’re walking down a familiar busy street, when you hear a crash from far behind you. You turn around to see a young girl crouching on the ground trying to pick up some books. However, next to the girl are three other girls in school uniforms surrounding her, kicking the books out of reach. Your blood starts to boil and you slowly approach closer. The closer you get, the more you can hear the sobs of the girl on the ground. Two of the other girls are pulling at the girl’s hair, while the third tears pages out of a notebook. As you continue to move towards them, your heat rises when you notice that every passerby does not make an effort to interfere. What’s wrong with people these days? You think. This kind of behavior is unacceptable! You get close enough to finally hear the insults the girls were spitting.

“You think you’re all that just because you have nice things?”

“So what if you’re rich?’

“You’re face is all made of plastic!”

I can’t believe this! You scream in your mind. Who do these girls think they are?

“Please stop,” you hear the girl on the ground mutter between sniffles. “Stop!”

All three girls were now grabbing at various spots of the girl, pushing and shoving.

“Shut up witch!”

“We have to teach you a lesson!”

When you finally get close enough, you take a deep breath and grab the arm of one of the girls. All three girls stop unanimously and glare up at you.

You open your mouth to shout, “What are y—“

“Leave her alone!”

You and the three girls all turn your focus to a guy who had suddenly approached you all. The girl on the ground remains on the ground quietly crying.

“Leave her alone, I said. What do you think you’re doing?”

One of the girls replies. “Mister, what are you? Mind your own business.”

You return your gaze to three bullies. You are incredibly angry. “Don’t you know that you guys are bullying, AND in broad daylight. This is unacceptable!”

The same girl eyes you up and down and speaks informally, “What’s it to you?”

“You three girl are high school students. right?” the guy demands.

The three girls don’t reply.

“Hmm,” he mutters, while eyeing their nametags on their uniforms. He nods and continues. “Okay, now that I’ve remembered your names, I could probably just check the nearby schools and report your doings. This guy here has an amazing memory you see.” The guy cackles, a bit awkwardly, and the girls look at each other worryingly.

One of the girls grabs a bag off a nearby chair.

“Hey, let’s just get out of here!”

The three of them take off and you yell after them.

“Wait, come back here! I’m not done with you guys yet!”

Once you realized that they are gone for good, you sigh and turn back towards the girl. She is currently being helped back up by the guy who had come to the rescue. You look around at the ground and start to pick up the destroyed notebooks and texts. You shake your head when you see the amount of damage that had been done by the three young girls. What kind of young lady does this kind of thing? It’s unfathomable.

“Easy there,” you hear the guy say, “are you going to be okay?”

The girl sniffs and brushes off her knees.

“T-thank you,” she breathes.

“Don’t listen to what those girls say,” you assure her, “I believe you’re a great person who’s just trying to live life. Don’t let them get to your head.”

You reach your arms out to hand the girl her books. She nods her head, takes them from you, and then bows. She then takes off running in the opposite direction, leaving you and the guy behind, speechless. You watch her run until she was out of sight. You sigh loudly and turn to thank the guy who had helped. You see that he had taken a seat and was staring into space.

“Thank you so much,” you say as you approach him.

You hear him sigh. “I can’t believe people like that exist,” he states.

You are taken aback at the sudden statement, as you have been thinking the same thing all along. You take the seat opposite him and answer.

“Yes, I agree.”

He returns to reality and puts his head in his hands. You continue.

“I was just trying to get to my coffee shop when I overheard the whole ordeal. I was more shocked when I saw that everyone that walked by didn’t even attempt to do anything.”

“Mm-hmm,” he mutters, not moving. He has not looked at you once since the occasion and you were slightly irritated. Well more irritated about the previous debacle, than him.

“But really, I would not have been able to stop them on my own. I’m sure they wouldn’t have listened to me.”

Your eyes droop, but you feel that the guy had finally taken notice of you.

“Then why did you interfere?” he asks.

You look up at him in surprise and then look to the side. “It’s just…” You take a deep breath. “I just can’t stand seeing people being bullied like that. No one deserves to be treated like that.”

He continues to stare at you. You return with a strong look.

“No one deserves to be treated like trash, because I know how it feels.”

“What?” he asks.

You look down at the table in front of you.

“I know what it feels like to be bullied.” You shrug your shoulders and twirl your thumbs around each other. “There’s no worse feeling in the world. No one should have to feel that desperation.” You close your eyes and fold your hands.

You soon reopen them to see that the guy has never dropped his stare. It is here when you take notice of the guy's features. He has short brown hair, which is styled silky straight with a side bang. He had dark brown eyes hidden behind black-rimmed glasses. You can tell by his eyes that there was a hint of sadness in them. He is also wearing a black and white t-shirt with a cross necklace. He definitely has some sense. You start to blush.

“W-what are you looking at?” you question as you feel your cheeks grow hot.

“Me too,” he states.

You give him a blank stare. “What? You too what?”

He leans backward in his chair.

“I’ve also been bullied.”

“Oh,” you exclaim as you drop your gaze.

“It does hurt.”

You look at him assuringly. “Yes, it does.”

There was a silence that followed that made the situation a bit awkward.

Until he broke it. “What was a pretty girl like you being bullied for?”

It was such a sudden question that you started to cough while blushing. “Wha--pretty?” you choked out.

He laughs. “Yes, you.”

You bring your hands up and shake your head nervously. “No, no, don’t say things like that.”

He continues to cackle. His voice is definitely not normal. It was a bit strange, but quite…charming.

You regain your composure and start to blush again.

You answer. “Because my mother passed away, the kids in middle school made fun of me.” You try to prevent yourself from crying. “They’d tease me saying, ‘you’re mom died because she wanted to get away from you!’ Mean things like that.” You sigh and rub your cheek.

The guy looks at you in disbelief. “Are you freaking serious?!”he shouts leaning forward. This catches you off guard and you look at him shocked.

“What kind of kids are they! How do they think of those kinds of things!” You could tell he was getting frustrated at the things you were telling him. You shake your head and try to calm him down.

“No, no, it’s okay.”

He looks at you quizzically.

“I mean, it’s not okay, but it’s over and I’ve grown up. I didn’t let it get to me cause I know it’s not true.”

“You’re right. It’s not true!” he shouts. “Your mom must have loved you!”

You stare blankly. “How would you know?” you ask.

He slouches in his chair. “I mean, well…” he looks around and then back at you. “You seem…lovable. That’s all.”

You feel your cheeks get hot again and you bring your hands up to feel them.

The guy plays with his hands and speaks. “Well, I guess you had it worse than I had.”

You tilt your head at him. “What do you mean?” you inquire.

He sighs. "I got teased for having so much acne growing up, they called me repulsive. They actually still do, but more in a playful way by my friends.”

You take your time to examine his face. You see his scars, but they don’t repulse you at all.

“It used to be bad though, especially in high school. I still have the scars to prove it.”

You don’t reply and he catches you starting at him.

“Are you staring at my face? To see the scars?” he squirms and looks upset.

You smile warmly at him. With sudden confidence you say, “I can’t believe they couldn’t see the real you underneath the acne. You really are handsome with your scars.”

His face grows shocked and he stares at you. Realizing what you had just said, you shake your head.

“N-no, I mean, the scars are a part of you. You can’t get rid of them.” You retract. “No, what I mean is that, they make you who you are, you’re handsome with them. I mean—“

You start to grow redder by the second and you can see that the guy had started to smile at your kind gesture.

“Thanks,” he smiles.

“S-sure,” you reply, trying to calm your beating heart.

You stare at each other for what felt like eternity. As you gazed into his eyes, you saw that the sadness in his eyes had been replaced with happiness. Was it because of me? As you continued to look at him, you notice that the sides of his mouth lifted slowly. You follow suit, his happiness spreading to you. You start to imagine yourself feeling the sides of his face, which, despite the marks, was sure to be nice and smooth. You also imagine the feeling of running your fingers through his soft hair. Everything about him was just exuding kindness and warmth. Something inside of you longs to hold and be with the guy across the table. Perhaps he feels the same way? Maybe I should say something.

As you are about to open your mouth, your ringtone suddenly goes off. Your heart jumps and you see that he was scared as well at the sudden noise. You reach into your purse to answer.

“Hello?...yeah…oh yeah, sorry. Yes, I was on my way….Yes, I’m coming…okay….okay, see you soon…mmm bye.”

You put your phone down and look up to see that the guy is looking out at the street. You slowly stand up and put your bag onto your shoulder.

“I have to get going.”

The guy sighs and looks back over at you. “Going to meet your boyfriend?”

You frown and reply. “N-no. It was my friend. I was supposed to meet her at the coffee shop a while ago.”

He nods and looks down.

You admit it to yourself. You do not want to mess up the opportunity to get to know him better. I’ve gotta say something! Not wanting to ruin the moment, you continue to talk.

“I-I don’t have a boyfriend currently, right now. None.”

You die on the inside. Great, if he understood that, he must think I’m incredibly desperate. Why did I have to say that!? Why! I guess I better just go. You make a slight bow and turn to leave.

“Wait.”

Startled, you turn around to see the guy stand up from his chair and walk right up to you. Literally inches away from you. You gasp and hold your breath. He sees this and chuckles.

“Breathe,” he demands.

You feel silly and let out a forced exhale. You can feel yourself blushing once again. He smiles and looks into your eyes. He brings his left hand up to brush a few strands of hair behind your ear.

“May I see you again?” he asks.

Your eyes grow wide and you look away.

“Hmm?” he questions.

With all the confidence in the world, you reach your left hand out to touch his right, as you gaze up at him and smile.

“If you tell me your name, you may,” you wittily reply.

He chuckles and grins ear-to-ear. He takes his left hand and caresses your cheek. You could tell he was huge on skinship. He leans in even closer and softly whispers, “Changsub. Lee Changsub.”

You shyly look down and nod. “Changsub,” you repeat.

He removes his hand from your face and you let go of his other hand.

“Give me your phone,” he states and you give it to him.

Once he finished entering his information, he hands it back to you, smiling.

“Go. You’re friend is going to be mad at you for being late.”

You look at him back and nod. I wish time would just stop. I didn’t want this moment to end. You look down disappointed in the situation. But then, you feel a hand on your chin, lifting your face up.

“Don’t ever look down. You look beautiful with your head held high.”

You felt your cheeks grow hot as he let go. You confidently nod in reply and you bring your hand up to run it against his cheek. It was smooth and he closes his eyes while you do so. You gently pat it as you finish and he reopens his eyes.

He smiles. “I’ll see you soon,” he states.

“Take care,” you reply as you turn to leave.

“Oh, and one more thing,” he calls out. You turn your head to face him once again.

“Yes?” you ask.

He looks at you with a soft appeal. “Thank you for saving me.”

Confused, you question him. “What?”

“You saved me from bullying.”

You are still confused. “No, I didn’t. Did I?”

He turns down the opposite direction of the street and yells out.

“You’re my savior!”

You watch as he makes his way down the street and out of sight. As you turned to make your way towards the coffee shop, you mull over the things Changsub had said. What did he mean that I saved him from bullying? You were confused until it finally clicked. You stop in your tracks and smile. Looking up at the sky you finally realize what he meant. Showing him kindness was how you rescued him. And you knew for sure that that was how he rescued you.

You hug the sunshine and skip down the street.