***Warning: bullying***

Friday morning got off to a spectacular start.  Jinsu was rudely awakened from reminiscing about the completed Attayear, and Minseok’s chipper personality as he’d shown her around it, by the realisation that she was running late for school.  It felt like she was doing everything on the wrong foot as she scurried around her impeccably neat room gathering the things she needed and then high-tailed it down to the kitchen for food.

Mrs Kwon was already putting everything away when she got there.

“Sungwoo’s waiting for you outside the front door,” Mrs Kwon told her, pressing a tupperware box into her hands.  “You don’t have time to eat at the table so I suggest you get that down you while you’re in the car.  Have a good day at school, darling!”  She bustled away into the pantry.

Jinsu almost whimpered with anxiety at being left the choice between ignoring Mrs Kwon and eating like a dignified person at the table, school timings be damned, or the potential and likely messiness of eating in the car.  When she saw Mrs Kwon returning, she settled for punctuality and messy eating and hurried out to the front of the house.

The car’s engine was idling and Sungwoo was flicking through radio stations when Jinsu skidded to a halt to yank open the passenger seat.

“You seem flustered this morning, Miss,” Sungwoo commented.  Breathless, Jinsu nodded.  He checked that the doors were shut and that Jinsu was belted up before starting the car up and pulling out into the driveway.  As they joined the main road, Jinsu surveyed her box of food with concern, and then decided it was better not to upset Sungwoo by eating in the car – which he hated – and that she could eat it as a snack instead, or use it to make up a larger lunch than usual.

Jinsu had just stepped out of the car when her phone pinged.  Wondering what her brother might have wanted, she unlocked the screen, only to find a text from her cousin.

Confused, she looked at the name on her screen for a good long moment before opening it up.  Chanyeol almost never texted her, and she was pretty sure the last time he had done so was the best part of a year ago when they’d been the only two youngsters at a gigantic family gathering her brother had been unable to attend and he’d wanted rescuing from a senile great-aunt.

Apparently, Chanyeol had decided it was time to repay the favour.  The message was a simple don’t come to school today.

Jinsu just stood there for several moments, trying to work out how to react.  Sungwoo had already driven off, but it was just so unlike Chanyeol to message her that she wasn’t sure what to do or what his motive behind the text might be.

Before she could make up her mind, the warning bell sounded, making her jump, and she scarpered into the building.  She’d never received a black mark for being late before, and she wasn’t about to start now.

Nothing seemed out of place during either first or second period, which she went directly to with all her books as she’d had no time to drop by her locker, and by the time she was heading towards her homeroom class, where her English class was held, she’d completely forgotten about Chanyeol and messages and anything else.  There were a couple of girls chatting in the passage outside as people came and went, and she recognised the taller one as Yoo Dahee since they’d been in the same maths class together the previous year.  Unshouldering her backpack in preparation to get into the room and set her stuff up for class, Jinsu headed for the doorway.

Dahee’s head came up and a split second later, she and her friend were inside the classroom and closing the door, very deliberately, in Jinsu’s face.  Jinsu reached out with her right hand to stop them.  For a moment, she and Dahee, faced each other through the small gap between door and doorpost, Jinsu fighting the lump in to ask Dahee to stand aside and let her in, but then Dahee smiled sweetly.

“Oh look, Minyoung, it’s the b*tch.”

There was a loud slam and the next thing Jinsu was aware of was excruciating pain in her fingers.  Breathless and with tears springing to her eyes, she stared at where her hand was trapped in the door.  Then it opened a notch again.

Jinsu’s backpack slid off her arm and she cradled her hand, too shocked to give voice to how much it hurt.  Two of her knuckles were bleeding and she gazed blankly at her crushed fingers, vaguely aware of a bruise forming on one that was at an angle that suggested it was broken.  She didn’t even look up when somebody brushed past her and entered the classroom, but she heard Dahee laughing and Baekhyun’s voice, followed by Sehun saying something, and realised that they must have been the ones who’d just walked past.

For some reason, it was the humiliation of being so blatantly ignored – especially by her crush – that was the tipping point, and the tears spilt out.  They must have seen her standing there like an idiot – heck, Dahee was probably laughing to them about what she’d literally just done.

Somebody cleared his throat beside her and Jinsu brushed