*Sonya’s POV*

I felt a lot comforted while Hyun Joong held me in his arms and the words that came out of his mouth made me believe that he will be there for me whenever I needed him.

As we broke our embrace, Hyun Joong smiled at me before turning back to help me clean my locker.

“Komawo oppa,” I sniffed and smiled up at him.

He looked at me and chuckled, “Don’t mention it.”

For a brief second, our eyes met and his gaze made me blush and look away. Aigoo, I can’t even look at him directly without blushing!

Within 20 minutes, the locker was spotless with us two taking turns to scrub.

Our lunch break took about an hour; and we only had ten minutes left for the bell to ring for lessons to start.

We made our way back from the principle’s office to get our books and Hyun Joong spoke up gravely, “I think you should tell the teachers about the bullying and your parents; they ought to know the pain you’re going through. It’s getting out of hand now and you don’t deserve to be treated harshly for no reason.”

“Aniyo! I don’t want to cause any more trouble than I have right now, besides what good would that do?” I asked stubbornly.

“Aiish, you’re so stubborn! Of course it would be good, the teachers can handle the bullies in no time and your parents have the right to know your pain!” Hyun Joong exclaimed.

I said nothing for I knew he was right but I was too scared to tell my own parents for I did not want them to worry, they worried about me too much and if I could not tell my parents how else could I tell the teachers; I was not even close to them and I did not really trust them since they would not do anything about it just like the other time I got bullied, no teacher cared, they only cared about teaching.

“I don’t want to tell my parents because they’ll get very worried about me, I don’t want to worry them and teachers; I can’t trust them handling a situation like this, they won’t even care like before!” I exploded, I was getting so angry but I knew it was wrong to rant my anger out on Hyun Joong, he didn’t do anything wrong; he only gave me advice.

I looked at him and he looked very shocked and I quickly apologised as my anger died down.

“Mianhae oppa, I didn’t mean to yell at you, you didn’t do anything wrong and I…” I kept on apologising.

He cut me off and asked me unexpectedly, “You said ‘they won’t care about like before’ what do you mean by that?”

I gasped and bit my lip, why did I blurt out my past problems to Hyun Joong? I wished I didn’t say anything.

“Yah, answer me! Do you by any chance were bullied like this before and no one helped you, not even your teachers?” asked Hyun Joong bluntly.

I sighed and decided to trust him to tell him what happened to me.

“Well not bullied as bad like this, but I was bullied only once by a gang of three before; back in elementary school Year 2 but it has always remained clear in my mind…”

Flashback

“Let’s play horses!” said Rachel pleadingly. She was so obsessed with horses that I rolled my eyes but I played horses with her since we had nothing to do that lunch.

“I’ll go get the skipping rope!” she said happily.

She ran in our classroom and grabbed a green skipping rope and handed it to me.

“You’re the rider!” she said happily.

Rachel and I met in Year 1 and we stuck by each other all the time. Rachel was older and she was physically tougher than me. She had recently taken up taekwondo and she said once that she would be the one that would protect both of us because she knows taekwondo (even though she was only a beginner). She was my first friend in Year 1 and 2; I met her before I met Janice and Veronica. Steph was only a classmate of ours that was actually quite popular but she was kind, caring and understanding and everyone liked her, even Rachel and me.

I believed her as she was my unnie and she was so tough!

“Arraso,” I answered smiling and carefully put the rope around her waist and I held the handles and I started pretending to be the rider.

“Gi dee up horsie!” I said as I pretended to crack a whip.

She actually pretended to be a horse and trotted.

I sighed, sometimes I wondered who was actually older, when it comes to horses; she was very childish.

“You’re still playing horses are you?” teased a girl called Minji. Her three friends; Hee Sun, Chae Young and another boy called Chung Hee. They liked to tease us since we were the two loners in our class and no one liked us back in Year 2.

“So baby! When will you two grow up?” Chung Hee laughed.

Rachel and I ignored them and continued playing our game.

We accidentally ruined their beautiful ‘creation’ in the school garden; they had picked flowers from around the flowers and piled them up in a star shape. They were very proud of it but Rachel and I accidentally tripped over my own feet><. That caused Rachel to stumble and step on their creation.

“Yah! You two what do you think you’re doing? Stop playing horses and get away from here!” yelled Minji.

 Rachel and I literally ran away and left our skipping rope since we were a little afraid of Minji’s angry yell.

We went along the oval and came across a place called ‘the little forest’ as we used to call it since it has lots of tall trees with low branches where we could climb up.

Rachel had no problem in climbing up the trees, she liked to be high up where as I stayed down I at climbing trees.

“It’s so good up here Sonya! You should come up!” Rachel exclaimed.

I was about to try and climb up the tree she was on, I screamed as I saw a black caterpillar crawling up the branch I was going to climb on.

“Aniyo unnie, I don’t think I can climb up this tree, there’s a bug!” I shuffled nervously away from the tree.

“What?! You’re afraid of a tiny caterpillar? It’s not going to harm you, it’s basically going to turn into a beautiful butterfly like that book we read in class!” Rachel said with a disapproving look thrown to me.

“Still, I hate bugs and are scared of them, like any type of bug!” I exclaimed hotly.

Rachel sighed, “Mianhae, it’s just that it’s weird talking to you when you’re all the way down to the ground.”

I smiled up at Rachel and she caught me smiling and she smiled back.

“But I guess I’ll just have to put up with it for my cute dongsaeng!” Rachel giggled.

“Komawo unnie,” I grinned.

Rachel suddenly climbed down and said, “I’ll be back, I’m going to the bathroom!”

“Arraso unnie, I’ll stay here and wait, the bathroom stinks,” I screwed up my nose in disgust as I thought of the smell.

Rachel chuckled and disappeared.

I stood and walked around and decided to walk outside the forest since it was boring inside it.

As I walked out Minji, Chae Young and Hee Sun appeared in front of me (luckily Chung Hee wasn’t here or it would have been worse since he was a strong boy).

“Come here Sonya, I’m guessing you’re looking for Rachel?” asked Minji.

“Aniyo, I’m waiting for her,” I answered coolly.

“There’s no point in waiting, Rachel is at where we were; in the garden,” Chae Young lied.

I narrowed my eyes, “You’re lying, Rachel’s in the bathroom.”

“But she told us to meet you there, she wanted to show you some kind of flower she was interested in which was really pretty!” Hee Sun said smoothly, there was no hint of lying but I could not believe them; Rachel would come to me personally instead of passing a message and those three girls would be the last people she would address to.

I shook my head stubbornly and Minji and her friends grew angry and they grabbed me and proceeded to drag me where the garden was.

“Yah, let me go!” I yelled struggling.

“I said Rachel is there!” yelled Minji.

They were dragging and pushing me towards the garden.

“What are you doing?!” I yelled and as they dragged me; I saw Rachel running back in the forest.

“Yah, she’s right there running in front of us! You liars!” I struggled but they held on tighter. That was three against one.

Tears welled up in my eyes and I yelled, “Rachel!”

Rachel probably didn’t hear me, she just ran straight back out of the forest; probably searching for me.

“Over here!” I yelled and Minji pushed me with all her force towards a thin tree that was actually really strong.

“Tie her up! That shall teach her a lesson to never ruin our creation!” Minji said angrily.

“Andwae!” I cried and tears poured down my cheeks.

That was my first official time getting bullied and I really wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

As they were tying me, I kept on struggling and eventually I broke free luckily and ran as the bell rang to class, sobbing.

As I reached the classroom all the students were standing outside the classroom waiting for the teacher to come.

As I went closer towards my classmates; I tried to soften my sobs but soon a girl came up to me worriedly.

“Sonya, kwenchana?” a gentle and sweet voice rang.

I looked up and saw Steph; the girl that everyone wanted to be friends with.

“Um, kwenchana,” I sniffed.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Steph asked patting my shoulder.

“Sonya! Where were you? Omona, what happened?” Rachel shouted in concern.

I told them, “Minji, Chae Young and Hee Sun ganged up on me and tied me to a tree.”

Rachel grew very angry when she heard what those three did and yelled at them and threatened them that if they ever bullied me like they did before, she was going to use her taekwondo on them.

Chae Young and Hee Sun apologised immediately as they were scared of Rachel’s wrath but Minji denied and said that she was only there to stop them from tying me.

“We’re still going to tell the teacher,” Steph said firmly.

Steph went up to the teacher, Ms Jung as she arrived and let us in our classroom.

Ms Jung didn’t really like me that much and I had no idea why.

“Jinja?” Ms Jung said after she listened to the story.

“They’ve apologised haven’t they? Just drop it,” Ms Jung said.

Minji came up and voiced out, “I was only there to stop the other two from tying Sonya up, but I couldn’t.”

I was shocked; how could Minji lie like that?

“Arraso, you did your best Minji, it’s fine,” Ms Jung said.

“Yah! You were so lying, you were the one that was tying…” I started but Ms Jung cut me off, “Sonya, just leave it, we need to get on with this lesson, we have wasted ten minutes off our precious time on you, just drop it!”

I gasped and fumed inside but I kept my cool and nodded and sat back in my seat.

It was also on that day; Steph decided to join Rachel and me and we were a until now.

It was actually Rachel’s mother that told my mother about the bullying and my mother was horrified but it was actually a few months after that incident. I didn’t want to worry my parents about that incident.

End of flashback

“And that’s why I don’t trust teachers anymore and I have experienced bullying before; just not this bad,” I finished.

Hyun Joong gaped and was stunned and I sighed; now he’ll only pity me and that was not what I wanted.

*Hyun Joong’s POV*

“That was bad; I mean you were only seven or eight right? You already have been bullied and no teacher supported you, you’ve been through a lot,” I finally spoke. She certainly had been through a lot and I felt so sorry for her even though she was only a kid back then; that moment of her teacher disbelieving her and being unjust has made a horrible impact to her ability to trust anyone to help her out of bullying.><

“You don’t have to pity me,” I said and smiled weakly, “Just let me prove Scarlet and her friends that no matter what they do, I won’t leave you guys because we’re like best friends.”
 

“But Sonya, you will have to tell the teacher, you need to learn how to trust them, not all teachers hate you and most teachers will want to help you out of this bullying and not just teach, that teacher you had in Year 2 elementary school was probably just retarded and biased and besides as I’ve said if you tell your parents; they will give you more love and support and should know what happens to you,” I said passionately.

Sonya was silent was a moment and I knew she was digesting the words I just told her. She had pulled me out of my misery and I was determined to pull her out of hers; I also wanted her to know that what I told her was good for as it was the truth and because I didn’t want her to suffer anymore, I wanted everything to be happy in her life not just because she is my friend but because I love her and I didn’t want to see the one I love suffering.

“It won’t hurt to trust, besides you should trust me, I assure you that my way is the best,” I said.

Sonya chuckled a little which made me surprised.

“Well you’re so cocky, Hyun Joong oppa! Somehow, I guess you’re right, I should let go of my doubting and learn to trust the teachers and my parents ought to know what’s happening to me,” she smiled again and looked up and took a breath, “I’m actually going to tell my parents first so don’t worry and I trust you that what you said is right.”

I felt a swell of emotions hit me inside, Sonya trusted me and I could not help but blush.

AN: hey everyone, finally Sonya's going to tell her parents:) will everything in the next chapter be resolved? or more drama? keke^^

Anyway just to let you know I had been bullied by being tied to a tree in Year 2 so that flashback was basically something that happened to me, but of course it was not that bad (I exaggerated the story because that incident did not make me not trust anyone) since I only think of it as an experience that happened like 7 years ago and won't happen again since I moved to another school which is the most caring school ever!<3

Lol I'll stop my ramblings keke=P

Happy reading^^