All the girls were gathered around Chaeyeon’s bed in the medical room, all were concerned with the look of pain etched on the girl’s face. Despite the fact they did not know the girl, they were surprised that the girl they thought was unmovable was able to make that kind of expression.

To the side of them, the door opened revealing the nurse, Miss Son. Her arms were crossed, and she tried to put on an annoyed face, but she looked more like an angry hamster instead. Miss Son studied every girl in the face before landing on the patient who was suffering on the bed.

“I have to remove her mask and hoodie to properly check her condition.”

Her voice was rather quiet, but it did enough to fill the silent room. With trepid steps, everyone parted to either side to make way for the teacher – Sakura wouldn’t let her eyes be moved from the younger girl as she prayed for the younger girl to be okay.

Once the mask was discarded to the side, Miss Son moved to try and removed the black hoodie clinging to the girl. The moment the girl felt that movement, she flinched and turned to her side before her face scrunched up more in pain. It was a bit of a struggle but after 5 minutes the nurse had successfully removed the article of clothing, but even she was not prepared for what was underneath.

The girl’s skin was littered with light bruises and half-healed cut marks that were beginning to go red- some, the fresher ones, oozed out small droplets of blood. Once seeing the teacher’s expression, it was safe to say that Sakura and the others rushed to the girl’s side. There was a harmonious chorus of gasps and shocked appearances. Yuri’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets whilst Eunbi’s eyes had a fire that could probably cut diamonds if she tried.

“Who did this to her.”

Gritting her teeth so hard everyone was worried for the perpetrator once they were found, Eunbi grumbled audibly. Though they did not know the girl, they realised that no one should be treated this way. A fire lit in their hearts as they watched the girl rest in peace – her breathing slightly strained as it hitched every so often.

“These bruises… They’ve been here for a while.”

Wonyoung commented, as her finger hovered over the bruises trailing up Chaeyeon’s arm – noticing how one colour seemed to blend into the next. Although many areas looked healed, she could tell the colour difference between the girl’s unbruised skin and the faded colours of purple and murky green. No one had even begun to mention the cuts that covered the girl’s inner forearm as they almost reached halfway up to her elbow.

“She’s been bullied since she transferred in.” Yena began, being in the same class as the other girl. “It’s mainly one group that’s been doing it.”

“Then why didn’t you help her?”

Sakura asked with a slightly raised voice. It seemed to hurt her the most to see the girl like this – it felt like someone stabbed her in the stomach and twisted with mercilessly. The pain on her face was almost like a mirror of Chaeyeon’s own countenance. The Student Council members were aware of Sakura’s empathetic nature but even she didn’t act like that to them this quickly – mentally, they made a note of the girl’s liking towards the bear girl, ready to use the information to later.

“I didn’t want to get bullied, unnie.”

The girl’s kept mum, many of them relating to what was being said. All of them could say that they knew Chaeyeon even if it was just by the name – the girl quickly became infamous for being the latest victim for bullying. Any sane person wouldn’t get involved if they wanted to live a safe student life, but it didn’t excuse the student council members from not trying to stop it from happening. For them, the guilt struck their shoulders the worst as they hung their heads in shame. They had the authority. They had the power. Yet none of them did anything to stop what had happened to Chaeyeon.

The girl’s couldn’t even begin to imagine what horrors Chaeyeon had to live through - let alone 5 months of it. Yuri and Hitomi cringed at the several possibilities that flashed in their minds - ranging from simple things to the worst things possible. The number of bruises didn’t help to censor the girls’ severity of each scenario.

Nobody had seen but Eunbi had left the room silently whilst everyone was brooding over the situation. The door clicked to a shut behind her as she leaned against it, letting her whole body weight drag her down to the ground her arm lightly pressed against her eyes to catch stray tears. Her body felt heavy as she struggled to breath; her vision cloudy from tears. She let her arm drop to her side when - it too - felt too heavy.

She felt frustrated. So frustrated in fact that she punched the hard wooden floor several times, ignoring the pain in place of releasing her anger. All her frustrations and all the time she spent watching the girl before felt in vain as she couldn’t prevent such a simple thing that was hidden from her eyes.

‘Hidden, my . Eunbi, you knew it was happening, yet you didn’t do anything to stop it. You haven’t changed a bit since then.’

The guilt that Eunbi had once hidden resurfaced it less than 1 second after it took years to suppress it.