P.S it's really long. Mianhae.

Onew's past.

Jinki walked slowly, huddled in his baggy uniform sweater. He pushed up his fringe, pulling out a chemistry book out of his sling bag. He flipped past the scribbled notes that lay next to all the paragraphs, frowning as he realized that he had rubbed off a penciled sentence by accident.

He tripped suddenly, his book flying out of his hands as he crashed face first into the floor. Turning over, he saw a smirking group of older boys, two of them crouched at Jinki's side, holding a piece of string taut between them that he was lying down on the middle of. The exact same string that tripped him up.

"What now, Taecyeon?" he groaned as he picked himself up.

A muscular boy with spiky black brown hair stepped out, roughly grasping Jinki by the collar. Jinki's wallet fell out, exposing the picture held in it. Jinki's gaze fell on it, pulling him into the swirl of memories.

The picture held a background of kids playing in the playground behind the bench, where a pair sat. Jinki was smiling awkwardly, scratching his head in the picture, while a girl only slightly younger than him was posing with a big smile next to hom. The pair was odd, with Jinki's glasses and neatly pressed clothes, while the girl was dressed casually in a sky blue shirt dress and denim grey shorts.

They had their first date, as an official couple then.

The cool girl and the nerd.

People refered to Syomin and Jinki like that all the time. It bothered Jinki how he dragged the girl's popularity down. She could be the most popular girl in school, going out with Taecyeon, but she chose to be with him. He didn't like her at first, but slowly he was warming up to her. They were dating, but Jinki was still unsure.

"C'mon Jinki! Who cares if you are the apparent 'nerd'," she had said, using her fingers as quotation marks around the word 'nerd', "I like you, that's it! You're adorable, and it's pretty easy to see that! They just want face."

And he believed her. Eventually anyway.

But after that, Taecyeon and the popular guys all targeted him. They didn't lay a finger on him though. They just stirred up rumors about betrayal, cheating, disgusting jobs.

He'd even woken up one day, went to school, and had found his locker splashed in purple paint, with black paint traced through it, spelling out "gay ", "", "dog" and "bastard"

The whole school isolated him then. No one wanted to play with the bosses of school.

People whispered about him when he walked past. You'd think that it was because he topped the school's creative writing competition 6 times if you were new to the school. But you'd learn, if you ever got close to him. There would be throngs of people warning you, a few even attacking you, smirking with complete contempt, before knocking you out in cold blood.

It happened to a few.

Most of them stayed away after, but only two decided to join their group. One of them was a young boy was tall for his age, but he had enough strength in him to destroy Jinki too, claiming that he ruined his reputation. The other was Nickhun, sweet-faced but muscular and tall. Nickhun was willing to do anything to save himself, the selfish bastard.

But it was the young boy's remark that hurt him the most.

He was even beaten up by complete strangers, those who wanted to the favour of Taecyeon.

He was pitied upon by teachers, and he suffered an empty, emotionless feeling every day. He contemplated sucide, but he didn't want to be selfish, hurting his parents.

She stuck by him throughout everything. She even took a punch for him.

HanSeung had already thrown him against the lockers, the handle of the locker jabbing painfully into Jinki's back. Jinki's nose was bleeding, and he had had an arm discolated. As HanSeung raised his fist, swinging it down to meet Onew's stomach, Syomin slid in, taking the punch instead, causing her to spit blood out.

Obviously that didn't sit well with Taecyeon, and Hanseung was messed up so bad, he disappeared from school. Rumor has it that he was paralysed, having had a broken spine from the "punishment". 

Jinki was jerked up and out of his memories.

"If you ever let Syomin get hurt like that again... I don't give a damn about what she'll do or think of me, I will maim you. Hell, I'd even annihilate you." 

Taecyeong spat in his face, while the two guys beside Jinki, "Nickhun and Wooyoung" he realized, lifted the rope and tied him up.

That was nothing compared to the emotional bullying he had to endure. 

Hurtful messages flew in his email account, on his CyWorld, Me2Day, people even got his phone number.

You freak.

Go die, loser.

Why do you even bother living? 

What the , you cheated on your girl? 

Hey bastard, why don't you try cutting? Sucide might even be better.

Syomin was the one who deleted them all.

She'd melted his afraid, shy, inexperienced, frozen heart.

It was on their 2nd anniversary, though, that all hell broke loose.

The week before it, Syomin acted all nervous, and Jinki thought it was because she was worried he'd forget.

But how could I? He thought.

"Hey, Jin, sweetheart." she coo-ed, the day before their anniversary.

"yeah, Syo?" 

"Come to the canteen at 4, will you? Tomorrow, I mean" she smiled, that heart stopping smile, as she nuzzled into his neck, before getting up and walking away with the grace of a ballerina.

"Ah.. okay." he murmured, giggling to himself as he thought of the gift he got her. 

It was a bronze necklace, with a sand timer as the pendant, filling with the smallet crystals. You could flip it and the crystals would flow slowly down to the bottom. It was beautiful, watching the crystals slip down the thin glass, especially when the sunlight glinted off it. 

He mentally patted himself on the back, before he actually got jostled, with a whack to his back.

"I can't WAIT to you see you tomorrow." Nickhun smirked, before walking off.

What?

"Hey... JInki hyung." 

Jinki whirled around, hands up to block a punch.

Yet all he saw, was the boy with an abashed expression to his face.

Lowering his hands slowly, he asked, "Yes?"

"I.. i just wanted to tell you... I'm sorry for backing out on you like that... I didn't want to be in trouble wtih my dad... he demanded I get good results, and Taecyeon threatened to tell the teachers that I'd been torturing you, and the teachers never say anything against Taecyeon.. you know that, right? I'm just really really sorry.. and I'm telling you that I'm shifting school, to a place further up in Seoul. I thought I'd let you know, cos I don't want you to be mad at me and all, and erm..." the young boy shuffled on his feet, barely 13. It was merged middle school and high school, and Jinki was glad the boy would be away from the group of bullies. 

"And...?"

"Icanttellyoumuchotherwisei'llbehittoo. IjustwantyoutoknowtobecarefultomorrowIbegofyou. " he rattled off, barely decipherable. 

He bowed suddenly, before running off. 

Jinki grabbed his wrist, making him turn back to look at Jinki.

"Thank you...thank you kiddo." his eyes watered, as he felt the slightest pang of jealousy for the boy as he got to leave this hell hole, but also happiness for the same reason. The boy ran off, smiling.

As the words processed clearer... he realized he had been asked to be careful. Of what?

The next day, Jinki arrived exactly on time, at 4, in the canteen, slightly perturbed by the emptiness and silence of it.

Syomin sat in the center most table, smiling. 

The smile looked off, though, slightly cynical and angry.

"Syomin! I didn't forget! Happy 2nd anniversary!" he sang, pleased as he gave the necklace to Syomin.

She picked it up, lifting it by the chain to see the light glint of the crystals in it. 

"Why, Jinki..." she looked at him in the eyes, smiling that weird smile.

The smile changed into a henious laugh. 

She shoved the necklace in his face, still in her grasp. She tossed it off to the side, and Jinki watched as it tumbled through the air, shattering upon hitting the floor.

"Syo-syomin... Wh-" he sputtered, shocked and crushed.

"Did you really think I loved you? SERIOUSLY? A disgusting nerd like you, who only cared for his books? Do you even realize that we had NEVER kissed even ONCE, in our whole stupid relationship? Actually wait, it's not a relationship, it's called a BET." she hissed, a satanic grin on her face, as what seemed to be the whole school trooped in, laughter pouring out of their wide mouths. The sound of their laughter echoed, merging together to sound like the devil's laugh.

"Taec! I demand my money, like right now buddy." She suddenly called, swinging a hand out at her side, palm facing the ceiling. 

Taecyeon and Nickhun swaggered out, twisted smiles on their faces, as Nickhun pulled out a small burlap sack out of his back. He pulled out 3 thick rolls of 100 thousand won bills. 

"The whole school bet on it, . We both demand a 60-40 share"

"I take the 60 right?" she pouted at him, playing an act infront of Jinki.

Jinki's legs gave out under him, and he collasped onto the floor.

"Aww.. is the nerd sad? Don't be sad, Jin Jin. At least you had fun with the hottest girl in school for 2 years." Taecyeon said in a deprecatory tone. 

The crowd chortled in unison. 

"Let's go!" Syomin cheered, slinging both arms around Nickhun's and Taecyeon's neck each, leading the crowd out.

Jinki waited till he could feel everyone was out, before he wailed. 

He keened in pain and disgust at himself for trusting her. 

He sobbed at the thought that the boy had warned him to be careful, but he failed anyway.

He gasped, tears stopping as his heart hardened.

The tears stopped then, but it didn't stop now.

Onew now, with Minho. (Onew's POV)

I roughly pushed the mug across the counter, and turned and hit the wall with my fist, tearing pouring. I relished the pure pain of my knuckles when I made contact with the wall. 

My breath startled and caught, as I tried desperately to stop crying. I hadn't even finished what I wanted to say.

I felt a pair of arms come around me, pulling me in.

Minho. You need to know.

I struggled, not wanting the awkward situation should the rest come out.

"Don't. You need this right now. Taemin will understand. Jonghyun will understand. And you don't need to care about Key." he chuckled slightly.

I turned and buried my face in his shirt, hitting him on the chest at the stupid joke about Key.

"I was so ing stupid. A complete idiot. How could I have believed anything she said about me being perfect an-and hers? I was the most naive person in the world, and her playing me was the solid proof of that." I whimpered.

"I should have listened closer and payed more attention to your advice, kiddo. I should have, Min. I should have! Me, Lee Jinki, was so..."

I spilled the last of what I wanted to say, what I didn't finish before he came to surround me with his calm steadiness and strong arms. He didn't know me as Jinki, he only knew me as Onew. The others had only called me by Onew around him. But now he knows. 

I felt him freeze. 

"Jin....jin hyung?" he whispered, calling me by the name I used to introduce myself by.

I nodded numbly, ignoring the salty tears that slipped into my mouth.

"How..how did you know it's me..."

"I saw the picture of you and Jonghyun on the shelf. It was when you just left our school.... I could never forget you Minho. The only person that geniunely attempted to help me in the best way he could."

"I... i...." he stuttered, he reached out using his knuckles and rubbed away the river of tears on my face. 

"Don't cry." he murmured.