The day had started badly and I had a very unpleasant feeling that it was going to get even worse. As usual, I was right.

First trouble I had to face after my unfortunate encounter with Kim Jongin, was the Minho’s gang. I wasn’t really one of their regular victims - I was probably way too boring and plain for that - but they were nice enough to grant me a couple of kicks and punches from time to time. And yeah, today was obviously just one of those days.

When I ran into the bathroom to wash my hands after art class, I managed to bump straight into Minho, quietly discussing something with Taemin. There was a small moment of a silent shock for all of us and when it passed, we all moved at once. I stumbled backwards, doing my best to get out of the bathroom before either of them could get their hands on me, and they jumped forward, obviously attempting to grab me before I could escape. We had been repeating the same old act almost every time we met, so we were all quite familiar with the ending – that is with me, pinned against the wall by one or two bullies. My poor athletic abilities were unfortunately nothing compared to their muscles and quick reflexes.

“Now, now if it isn’t mister Do.” said Minho with lazy smile plastered on his face.

I suddenly noticed how very interesting his shoes were - staring at them was definitely million times safer than looking at his face.

“I’ve just remembered I wanted to ask you something.” continued Minho with the same lazy and over confident voice. “You have an appearance of a nerd, but you’re not all that smart are you?”

There was something brown on the end of his shoelaces. Blood probably.

“You know… when someone asks you a question the polite thing to do is to answer.” He unexpectedly grabbed my shoulders, pulled me a bit closer and then slammed my body against the wall with such force that I literally felt how every bone in my body creaked.

“Mr. Choi can you please tell me what is going on in there?”

We all turned our faces in the direction of the voice that suddenly made its way to our ears. The bathroom door was now opened and in front of it stood mr. Lee. He was somehow sternly observing Minho and Taemin, clearly waiting for some kind of explanation.

“Well we were just…” started Minho only to be instantly cut off by mr. Lee, who uninterestedly waved his hand. “Never mind.” he said. “You can explain it to the principal.”

“But…” tried Minho once again, promptly earning himself a disapproving look that shut him down immediately. I definitely found it very interesting how Minho was so afraid of authorities on one side, while breaking rules on regular basis on the other. I figured his two-sided behavior probably had something to do with his parents. I met them once and they were… well, highly functional sociopaths or just two people with chronicle lack of conscience - I couldn’t really decide. I was well aware of the fact that I wasn’t precisely an expert when it came to people and their reactions, but at the same time I was pretty sure Minho’s bullying hadn’t had that much to do with actual joy (though he definitely was enjoying it) than it was a way to get attention his parents had never paid to him. One small part of him probably wanted them to know what he was doing since they only noticed his existence when he did something against their will, while other parts were scared of their anger and disapproval. I could understand why he was doing what he was doing, but that didn’t make him any less weak or disgusting in my eyes. Not that I had any actual right to have this kind of opinion though. Perhaps he was weak, but I was downright pathetic and that was million times worse.

---

Jongin hadn’t been joking when he told me we were about to see each other again very soon. Quite the opposite - it seemed he had been deadly serious. On every normal day, I would maybe see him once or twice from a distance. He would pass me on the hallway, always surrounded with his two sadistic friends and groups of y, ty girls with too much make-up and too little brains. Perhaps I would accidently set my eyes on him in the cafeteria or in one of two classes we actually shared. But that was it. We had always maintained a distance between us and we had never spoken with each other, until – obviously – today (well, maybe I should say, jongin had never spoken with me until today, since I hadn’t been actually able to open my mouth).

So, to summon up – most of the time I hadn’t even noticed Jongin existed and I was quite sure it was the same with him. Now, however… Well now he was suddenly everywhere. Literally everywhere.

After our first encounter at the lockers, I had maybe two hours of relaxation before the hell decided it might be a good time to erupt.

I just managed to pull out the text books I needed for the next class, when he suddenly appeared out of nowhere and nonchalantly shoved them out of my hands. I looked up just in time to notice his lips were curled into a mocking smile, not very different from the one he wore this morning. When I finally picked up all the books and straightened their slightly creased covers, the bell already rang and I had to hurry if I didn’t want to be late. The moment I stepped into the classroom however, I started regretting the fact I hadn’t simply skipped it.

Because there he was, leisurely sitting at my table, his head tilted a little to the left and his eyes watching me with quiet amusement, surely wondering how was I going to react. I froze on my spot asking myself exactly the same thing, even though I had actually already known the answer. No matter how much I wanted to just go over there and yell at him, I realized it will never happen. I wasn’t going to even try it, knowing very well that despite the fact I had quite a big collection of curse words and shrewd remarks, I could never actually say them out loud. The moment I would find myself standing in front of Jongin, my mind would simply go blank and everything that would come out of my mouth would be just a meaningless stutter. It really wasn’t worth a shot.

I inhaled deeply, trying to calm down just enough to be able to pretend everything was completely normal (even though it obviously wasn’t), and slowly made my way to the table where I normally sat. I casually plunked down on my seat, struggling to ignore the presence of the sadistic bastard - which wasn’t precisely easy given how close he was at the very moment.

“You know… the protocol in this kind of situations is to say hello or at least nod in acknowledgement.” he started with the same tone one could use to talk about the weather. I just bit my tongue and continued to stare towards the black board, pretending I hadn’t heard him speak.

“Oh, so you are just going to ignore me?” he asked after couple of seconds, his voice a mix of amusement and contempt. I was sure I would see one of his typical smirks plastered on his face if I turned my head.

Yes I’m just going to ignore you.

“Looks like this will be even more entertaining then I though.” he commented.

I felt my heart sank at that. Probably because it finally made me realize this particular trouble wasn’t going to disappear by itself.

---

Jongin left me alone until the end of the class and for the next hour or so it actually seemed like he was going to ignore me for the rest of the day. I was just slowly starting to relax when it turned out my sudden feeling of safety was only a well-thought illusion.

At lunch, I had always sat at the very end of cafeteria, occupying the round table for six people. There was an unwritten rule saying that the table belonged to misfits and freaks, so it was mostly empty. Sometimes I would share it with pink-haired twins or tall guy in black hood, but normally I would be alone. That was what I was looking forward to – some time without bullies and sadistic bastards lurking around every corner. I was hoping to have a nice, slow lunch in the secure corner of the cafeteria, far away from other people and their noise.

Unfortunately however, things didn’t go exactly according to plan. A couple of moments after I sat down on the usual spot and was just about to bite in my sandwich, someone pulled away a chair on my left and about three seconds later I found myself surrounded by sadistic bastards and two of the most popular girls on school. They casually placed themselves around my table, just like that was something they did every day.

“Hello again, freak.” greeted Jongin with disgustingly cheerful voice. “You seemed kind of lonely and because we are such a good souls…” one of his friends sneered and both girls looked like they were about to erupt in laughter any second, which was frankly something I could relate to – even the mere thought of sadistic bastards being good souls was hilarious.  “…We thought we would do some charity work by keeping you company.” finished Jongin, pretending not to notice the reaction of his friends.

I averted my gaze, knowing very well that everybody was staring at me and waiting for some kind of reply. Reply I wanted to give, but simply couldn’t. I just… I wanted to raise my head and look every one of them in the eye before saying something like; “Oh how very nice of you. You’re welcome to sit here as long as you wish - just don’t blame me if people are going to look at you strangely for the rest of the day, because you happened to have lunch at the same table as the school’s most famous freak.” and then nonchalantly bite in my sandwich. But I… I couldn’t. I simply couldn’t. There was this barrier in my mind - a barrier I wasn’t able to cross.

“Oh I see.” said Jongin, his lips curling into a very very unpleasant smile. “You are just going to keep ignore me, aren’t you?”

I continued to stare at the table’s scratched surface, slightly biting my tongue and praying for all of this to be finally over.

“I see.” he repeated. “I will tell you a little truth about myself, freak – I really like breaking things. The tougher and more unbreakable they seem, more joy I get from destroying them.”

His words literally sent shivers down my spine. I didn’t need to be a genius to know he was talking about me – or if we’re a bit more exact; he was talking about the enjoyment he was going to feel while attempting to break me. The problem was officially even worse than I thought.

The rest of the lunch break was horrible. They – luckily – seemed to forget I was there, but I was still forced to sit at the same table and they talked… Well mostly about who ed who and when, which made me feel slightly uncomfortable. I didn’t want nor need to know these things, I really didn’t.

---

I was hoping Jongin would decide he had enough of me for one day, but unfortunately it seemed his plan included constant contact.

“Oh, look at that – we meet again.” he said with his typical smirk plastered on his face when he placed himself on the spot next to mine in history class.

“I would say it’s nice to see you again freak, but the truth is I really don’t like your face. Maybe you should try to wear some make-up – it’s worth a shot since you couldn’t possibly look even uglier than you do right now.” he commented before he proceeded onto shoving books out of my hands for the second time in the same day.

“You know - the fact your company is so unwanted that people would rather die than sit next to you, proves to be quite handy. That way I don’t need to scare anyone into changing seats.” he stated in the last class we shared that day – math.

I hadn’t been so happy to go home in the last couple of years. The day I had behind was… honestly way too much to handle. And it was only the beginning.

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hi. first of all - i apologize if this was slightly boring, i hope promise next chapter will be much more interesting. this was actually just some kind of beginning and i  went slowly because i wanted to make things understandable and believable. and second of all - i'm sorry for all the mistakes (i bet there are plently of them -.-), i did double check everything and fix what i found, but since i've never actually written anything in english before... well. and lastly - i would just really like to know what you all think :p.