At eleven years old, girls can be so mean.

Sohee had made friends with the groups she had met in front of her apartment building four years before, but unfortunately all of those friends were older than her. That made her stick out in her classes at school, the girl with no friends who never smiled... or so they called her. If only some of the others attended her school, but of course they did not.

And so she was bullied, for her 'cat eyes' or her 'too-long legs'... things that she had no idea would be considered marks of beauty as she grew older. All she knew at the time was that she longed for the school days to finish so that she could go play with her friends.

But then, one day in the winter when the snows were piling up around Seoul and it was cold enough to have to wear gloves and earmuffs just walking to the bus stop, the girls in Sohee's class decided to take it up a notch. As class let out for the day and she stepped out of the school building, wearing her soft new red coat that her mother had bought her, she was struck in the face with something hard. And that something broke immediately, sending cold water all over her: a balloon filled with water. Several more struck her before she could find shelter, and by the time the girls had finished their evil game, Sohee's coat was soaked.

They left, laughing, and though several other students were nearby, none hurried to help the girl. She felt the cold seep in almost immediately, and tears