A couple of days after the little incident, we were on our way back from school after classes were over.

I noticed that I’d forgotten some books I needed for my homework and so I told the guys to go ahead without me.

“You sure you want to go alone?” asked Kyungsoo.

I smiled. “Classes are over, I’m sure there aren’t any bullies left to fight off in the building.”

Kyungsoo chuckled and told me to hurry and that he’d be waiting for me back at the dorms. After getting my things I began to make my way back. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Junmyeon was walking towards me. I didn’t even register it but I began to sprint away from him. 

I heard heavy footsteps behind me and I turned to see that he was chasing me.

I ran as fast as I could, I was almost to the door of the dorms but I was janked back when Justin took a hold of my arm.

“Damn you’re fast.” Junmyeon bent over panting.

“What do you want Junmyeon?” I tried to shake his hold off but he was too strong for me.

I’ll admit. I was scared of what he’d do to me. I wasn't the strongest person around and clearly, I didn’t really know how to act in dangerous situations.

“Look, I know I acted like an the other day, and I wanted to say… well, I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

“Uh-huh,” I was confused, to say the least.

“Listen, I didn’t mean to be harsh, well I did but not for the reasons you think. Truth is, I’m scared of this place. Before I came here my brother gave me a call and told me to be careful. I’m just trying to make it through.”

“I don’t quite get where you’re going,” I said.

He looked at me. It wasn’t a harsh look, he held a soft expression. “In this place, you have to be the first to show aggression, if you don’t then people see you as an easy target. The other day, that was me trying to intimidate you while also making sure that other people saw that I wasn’t an easy person to mess with. Of course, it didn’t turn out as expected, with your friends butting in and all. You don’t want to become an outcast, not here.” With that, he shot me a small smile and walked inside the dorm.

‘There’s really a lot I don’t know about huh?’

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The next few months went by without much conflict. There’d be times when people tried to mess with me after seeing how easily I gave into Junmyeon, but my friends were always there and had my back. It felt good to have a support system. 

Now, we weren’t the most well-behaved kids on campus. We often sneaked out of campus and caused trouble. We explored the city together not really worrying about anything else. There was an arcade not too far from campus, hidden down an alley that not many people knew about, the owner was a genuinely nice person, no idea how he ended up in this Sector. He let us play for free and gave us snacks all the time.

The few times that we’d gotten caught skipping class we got detentions and then we got more detentions for skipping the detentions. Whenever we did serve them we got let out early since the teacher wanted to go home.

I didn’t have very many encounters with Justin after that day. I’d see him in the halls but that’s as far as that went. Maybe under different circumstances, we could have been friends.

Mr. Choi proved to be an amazing teacher and all of the kids had gotten better at behaving in his class. Kyungsoo turned out to be super smart, he always got the best grades in the class. I wasn’t so lucky in that regard.

Our first year in Sector D was coming to an end, it had gone by so fast and so many great things had happened. I got away from my old life, my lonely life a