I lived in big and very poorly maintained building that rose in the sky at the very end of our street. Some windows were smashed and the landlord nailed wooden boards over them a couple of months ago, apparently because replacing them would be too expensive. Every single stair creaked when you stepped on it and plaster kept falling off of the ceiling. The building had eight floors and no elevator, which probably wouldn’t be that bad if the drug addicts and pot smokers didn’t occupied the whole width of the stairs. I wasn’t precisely scared of them – I knew they were pretty much harmless by now (at least to me) – but their more or less lifeless bodies made climbing up the stairs quite difficult.

While I was trying to get to my apartment I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that happened in the last couple of hours - Jongin, Minho’s gang, Jongin, his friends and… oh yes, JONGIN honestly managed to completely ruin my day. It’s true that I hadn’t precisely expected to have a great time at school when I woke up this morning, but I also hadn’t expected I would become an interest of some sadistic hypocrite with god knows what (evil) intentions. Tiredness was overwhelming and everything I wanted to do at the moment was to simply lie down and sleep until the next week, or – even better – until the end of high school and the start of much better times when I won’t be forced to put up with those sadistic bastards every single day.

As soon as I faced the door of my apartment – or more correctly; the piece of paper that was glued to them - however, I realized sleeping would have to wait. I took a deep breath before I pulled the note off the door, turned around and ran down the stairs as fast as I could. My heart raced and it wasn’t just because of current physical action, no, it was because I was probably experiencing a small panic attack. I seriously at dealing with stressful situations. For a couple of moments fear managed to completely cloud my mind and I had no idea where exactly I was going until I found myself standing in front of the door with number 211 painted on its’ surface.

I knocked before I could change my mind.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me.” I answered somehow hoarsely, hoping that the person on the other side of the door would be able to recognize my voice.

The door opened and mr. Chan gave me a sheepish smile, before he nodded in acknowledgement and moved away so I could enter his apartment. It was obvious that he wasn’t very happy to see me, but he offered me a cup of coffee and some chocolate cookies nevertheless. I comfortably placed myself onto one of the bloody-red armchairs and waited for him to come out of kitchen.

Mr. Chan was our landlord, so I had the opportunity to see the insides of his apartment almost every month. I couldn’t describe our relationship as a strictly professional one, but I also wouldn’t say we were friends. Good acquaintances perhaps, but never friends. If I had to guess I’d say he probably felt sorry for me. After all he knew about my big troubles with socializing – I was the same clumsy, dumb and stuttering loser around him than around everyone else at the beginning.

“How are you?” he asked when he came back from the kitchen and pushed a cup of coffee in my hands. I just shrugged my shoulders, not even a bit interested into small talk. We both knew why I came. We could really just get to the point right away.

“And your aunt?” he tilted his head a little to the left, seemingly very eager to learn the answer. I would definitely not be surprised if I found out one day that they were sleeping together on regular basis. Mr. Chan seemed lonely and my aunt was a so I guess that wouldn’t be so unbelievable.

“Still the same narcissistic drunk as before.” I murmured. “Though I haven’t really seen much of her lately.”

Mr. Chan hummed before he slowly placed himself onto the large sofa that stood on the other side of the small coffee table and turned his face towards me. “I’m really sorry Kyungsoo.” he said then, his voice indicating that he was actually telling the truth. “But you’re late with your payment. Two months late if we’re completely exact.”

I took a small sip of a bitter brown liquid from my cup. Yes I was two months late. Normally I managed to earn just enough to pay the rent and also buy some food, but last month I unfortunately lost one of my jobs and just like that wouldn’t be bad enough, my aunt somehow found my stash of money and spent it for – how very typically – heroin and about ten bottles of cheep whisky.

“Can’t you at least wait until the end of this month?” I murmured weakly. “I’m really doing all I can.”

Mr. Chan sighed. “I know you do.” he sighed again, seemingly deeply in thought. “All right then. You have until the end of the month, but if you don’t have the necessary amount of money until then, you and your aunt will unfortunately have to move out.” 

---

After that terrible day everything went downward.

At first I thought Jongin would stop bothering me once he realized I was not going to stop ignoring him, but unfortunately he didn’t seem to be a quitting kind of type. Quite the opposite actually - he was probably the most stubborn person I ever had the misfortune to meet. And just like that wouldn’t be bad enough, he also proved himself to be much smarter than I’d expected. I was sure he was doing it by accident at the beginning, but, as I soon realized, that wasn’t the case at all. He knew exactly where to hit in order to make me annoyed or plain furious. Not even one of his words went to waste. He obviously wanted me to lose the control, but unfortunately I still had no idea why.

Next week had been passing by really really slowly - no wonder given the fact I was being followed around by a sadistic, impertinent jerk with unknown but definitely evil motives. He was literally everywhere.

For example - I could trust him to appear at my locker every single morning and say something completely distasteful, as; “Good morning freak. My friends and I made a little bet yesterday. Two of them think you are just mute, but others are convinced you are too stupid to actually be here. By their opinion you should enroll in school for mentally disabled.” or; “Hello there freak, how are you today? Still alone? Well no wonder. I really can’t imagine anyone who would want to spend time with such a lost case. Maybe if you were better looking. But then I guess you can’t have everything, or in your case; you can’t have anything. You really are a loser – no brain, no looks, no talents… Why do you even live?”

I could also rely on him to appear beside me every single break and shove books from my hands or push me, before making some snarky remark about my ugly looks or damaged brain. Not to mention that I also had to put up with him – and his friends - during lunch. Ever since that horrible day when everything went to hell, the group of sadistic bastards had been sitting at my table. Most of the time they ignored me, but once in a while they would have those wild debates about what went wrong during my birth (or my childhood or my mom’s pregnancy or… well, you got the point) that I ended up as such a pathetic loser.

This is the oh-so-enlightening conversation they had the other day;

“I’m pretty sure his mom is a .” said the girl, whose name was – I think – Sooyoung, while stuffing with kimchi. Her eating habits were probably the most disgusting think I had ever witnessed.

“Yes, a dyed and unattractive woman with wrinkles and no brain.” added the other girl that happened to be sitting at the table with us (I never caught her name).

“Ah no.” Jongin dismissively waved his hand. “She has to be at least a little bit attractive. No rich man would marry her in if she was downright ugly. Well, except if they aren’t married of course. But that would make him…” he pointed at me “…a bastard.”

“Perhaps his father isn’t even rich.” murmured Sehun with bored expression on his face. I was wondering if he was actually bored or he just had a chronicle lack of energy. His face seemed to wear the same expression every time I looked at him. He seriously reminded me of some kind of a statue or maybe a porcelain doll.

“Well I guess that’s one of the options.” agreed Kris. “If you believe he’s smart enough to have the scholarship.”

“He is definitely not.” stated ‘the other girl’. “Just look at him, you can see something isn’t right with his head from afar.”

“Not to mention he would have to be a true genius to actually get a scholarship for this place.” added Jongin.

At that moment I was luckily saved by the bell - as soon as it rang, I grabbed the opportunity and darted out of the cafeteria as fast as I possibly could.

I did consider skipping lunch or simply eating it somewhere else right after I realized they weren’t planning on leaving me alone. Unfortunately however I had a feeling that would only encourage them – it would show Jongin that I’m not as indifferent and unfazed about the given situation as I had been pretending to be, which would certainly lead to a disaster. No, if I knew what was good for me, I had to play it cool, I had to give the impression their insults weren’t hurting me and that I’m not even a little bit annoyed by their company.

Easier said than done. I definitely didn’t want to admit it, but I was losing it. Slowly but certainly. It felt like I was standing on a cliff and every sight of Jongin, his every word, would push me a bit closer to the edge. I had always liked to imagine my emotional stability was higher than other people’s, but now… now I had to put that theory under question. I knew the whole thing was stupid and irrational – they were nothing to me and most of their insults were as far from the truth as they could get, but… it still hurt.

---

I felt kind of relieved when Friday finally came knocking on the door. None of my troubles disappeared, but I guess it was enough to know I had two peaceful days of rest ahead of me. So yes, I was in a good mood – well maybe not exactly good, just much better than in previous days – and even Jongin and his wicked friends weren’t able to destroy that. Or at least so it seemed until the very end of the school day.

I stormed out of the classroom as soon as the bell rang and ran towards my locker. I wanted to get out of this hateful place before Jongin could get any more unpleasant ideas. Unfortunately however, I was a bit too late. He was already there when I arrived, watching me with one of his typical smirks plastered on his face. I inwardly cursed.

“Hello there freak. You didn’t think you can actually escape me, did you?” he tilted his head a little to the left, staring straight into my eyes for the whole time.

I was staring back for a moment or two before I slowly averted my gaze. He definitely knew how to scare a person, I gave him that. I took a deep breath to calm all the emotions boiling inside of me and then proceeded to opening my locker. I was trying to ignore the presence of that sadistic bastard, which – believe me or not - really wasn’t very easy. I could literally feel his eyes burning holes through me.

“No answer?” asked Jongin before he leisurely leaned on the wall about two meters away from me. “I’ve already told you how very impolite that is, right? Somebody should definitely teach you a lesson.” he added in his usual mocking tone of voice. Even though I kept my eyes glued to my locker, I still noticed he didn’t move his eyes away from me, not even for a small second. It was… downright creepy.

“Your parents have obviously failed their duty, but then again… they’re probably exactly like you.” he continued his monologue, still looking straight at me without even blinking. If I wasn’t a complete realist I would probably marked him for a devil by now. The similarity was definitely huge. “Untalented, dumb and unattractive.” he finished.

When those words registered, my hands formed fists completely on their own accord, my nails digging into skin so hard my palms started bleeding. And my blood… my blood was boiling. He had offended my parents before, but never like this. Never so specifically. Never so cruelly. Images were dancing in my mind – their faces… their faces covered with blood, eyes completely glassy and skin so pale it was almost grey.

I couldn’t believe he actually went so far he insulted two people he knew nothing about. Good people. Better than him. Yes, emotions got the best of me – it always happened when someone talked bad about my parents and the fact that the person saying those awful things had been bullying me for the past week didn’t help at all. I was out of control, definitely no longer responsible for my actions.

“You have no right to talk about my parents.” I hissed, slightly shaking from all the pent up anger and resisting the urge to punch him. The only reason I didn’t was the fact that I still had enough sanity left to know that would – a) not save anything, b) hurt like hell, c) make everything even worse.

“Oh look, he talks.” Jongin didn’t seem to be even a little bit surprised. He obviously saw that coming - the only question here was how if even I didn’t? “Looks like I’ve finally found your weakness. And about time too.” he added, clearly very pleased with himself.

“So that was your plan all along?” I asked, still very much furious. Now not just at him but also at myself. I should be smarter than this. “I really can’t see how would that knowledge actually helped you. I’m not a person who does the same mistake twice.”

“You’re right.” he said, now no longer staring at me but observing his perfect nails. “It’s useless. But it got you to talk and that’s definitely worth something.”

I blinked a couple of times before slightly shaking my head. The whole thing was too confusing for my liking. He wanted me to talk? Why the hell would he wanted that? Not to mention there were others, much more pleasant ways of reaching that particular goal.

“What do you want?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Now, now freak. Who said I want anything? Maybe I just specifically enjoy at bullying and think you’re the perfect victim.” he answered, his typical smirk once again plastered on his face.

“Cut the crap Jongin.” I had no idea where all that courage came from, but I guess my anger managed to smash that annoying blockage in my mind. I could speak, my tongue finally obeyed my orders and I didn’t stutter or blush. I felt free. “No one enjoys torturing boring or mute people.”

“You have a point.” agreed Jongin, who was now looking straight into my eyes once again. I thought he would be angry or at least a bit annoyed, but the only emotion I saw on his face was amusement. He really was one strange human being (if he was human at all).

“So what do you want?” I repeated my question, a little bit irritated by his unclear answers. I was sure he was doing it on purpose just to annoy me even further.

“To prove a point.” he answered, confusing (and angering) me all over again.

“What point?”

His lips slowly curled upwards into a smile that was probably the creepiest thing I ever saw.