Chapter 3

Hyunseung cursed as he kicked the door as hard as he could. Pain shot up through his leg causing a whimper to escape his throat as he held onto his foot. He glared angrily at the door before sitting on his desk.

“This is just ing great.” He sighed as he once again glared at the door. Hyunseung lowered his head into his heads, trying to push the oncoming headache away. This was the first time that his classmates had ever gone so far as to interrupt his learning. He had to figure out some way to get to class. There was no way that he can fall behind; his scholarship, and his family’s lives, depended on it.

After wracking his brain for several minutes Hyunseung finally remembered his cell phone. “Idiot.” He cursed himself as he pulled out his phone and began texting the only person he talked to in the school, the janitor.

“Hey Jong Seuwoo, can you come open the door to the roof? I’m locked out.” Hyunseung sighed for the millionth time as he waited for his reply.

Hyunseung ad Seuwoo had become acquaintances during the after school hours that Hyunseung hid away. After several weeks of completely ignoring each other, the janitor finally decided to start up a simple conversation. Slowly the conversations became more frequent and they started an odd friendship. It was a weird relationship, student and janitor; but it was better than having no relationships at all.

A couple minutes later, Hyunseung heard footsteps getting close to the door. He stood up from his desk and waited for the door to open. As he watched the handle turn and the door begin to move, the slightest smile appeared on his face.

“Thanks, Seu…” Hyunseung’s face immediately fell. Any trace of emotion was instantly gone and the walking shell had returned. Hyunseung lowered his eyes to the floor and waited for whatever pain he was going to experience to just get over with.

Junhyung smirked as he stepped out onto the roof, the other members of BEAST following behind.

“Look, the nerd is skipping class. Who would have thought that would ever happen.” Slowly, the members formed a circle around the silent student, all except Gikwang who chose to hold the door open instead so they all wouldn’t be locked out.

“He’s trying to act cool to try and fit in. Maybe we should teach this a lesson.” Junhyung’s smirk grew as he took a step closer to the boy, the other kingkas agreeing as they took a step as well. Hyunseung made no move to defend himself as the first punch hit him in the stomach. The punches grew in numbers as they came from all directions. Even though his body was screaming in pain, he didn’t feel it. He was numb. He wasn’t afraid that they were going to kill him; they would actually be doing him a favor if they did.

After several skillfully placed punches, Hyunseung fell onto his knees which caused the punches to turn into kicks. He coughed roughly as three hard kicks landed on his stomach one right after the other, blood coating his tongue. Then, there was a hard kick to the back of his head; he embraced the darkness that came with it.

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Hyunseung groaned as he started to gain consciousness once again. He had a pounding headache and his entire body was aching. It took him several minutes before he could open his eyes and focus on the ceiling above him. Slowly he turned his head to the side. It was then that he realized that he was in the nurse’s station. He then looked over to the clock that was hanging on the wall. He sighed when he saw that it was already past school hours. ‘Great, I missed an entire day of classes.’ He angrily threw the blanket that was covering him aside and pushed his body off the bed, ignoring how his body protested.

When Hyunseung attempted to stand, however, his legs were in too much pain to support his weight, causing him to crumble to the floor.

“Damn it.” He cursed as he attempted to stand once more only for the same result to happen. After two more tries a loud groan erupted from his throat as he punched the floor next to him.

“You know, you’re just going to injure yourself more if you keep pushing yourself.” A voice came from the doorway. Hyunseung’s eyes flew to the door before they widened slightly. He immediately lowered his head again and remained as quiet as possible.

Gikwang frowned slightly seeing the injured boy’s reaction to seeing him. “Hey, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m actually the one that brought you here.” He took a few steps into the room, standing a few feet from the boy on the floor.

Hyunseung raised his head timidly, looking into the man’s face, judging whether he was lying or not. ‘Why would he help me? He’s just like the rest of them. But…what is he still doing here if he was lying..? This is probably a trick.’ He narrowed his eyes slightly as he saw the bright white smile spread across Gikwang’s face.

With the smile still in place, Gikwang took the last few steps to the boy before placing his hands under his arms. The smile wavered slightly when he felt Hyunseung flinch at his touch but he kept it well masked. Effortlessly, he picked the boy up off the floor and set him on the bed. He was surprised at how light he was. Even though he had carried him earlier in the day, he still couldn’t get passed how light the boy was.

‘Doesn’t he ever eat? Now that I think about it, I’ve only ever seen him eat crackers and water at lunch…doesn’t his mom cook him food?’ Pushing that train of thought away, Gikwang smiled at the boy once again as he turned to get some medicine to help him with the pain.

Hyunseung stared intently at the other boy’s back.  ‘What is he up to? Why is he being so nice to me? He’s part of BEAST. He’s part of the group that bullies me more than anyone else.’ His thoughts were interrupted by Gikwang talking again as he walked back over to the side of the bed.

“Look, I’m really sorry about earlier…Junhyung took it too far this time…” the smile was now replaced with a deep frown. “I wish I could have done something to stop them…” Gikwang lowered his head as he stared at the ground.

“…Then why didn’t you?” Hyunseung asked almost inaudibly. Gikwang’s head snapped up at hearing the boy address him directly. This was the first time it had ever happened. A smile wanted to make its way to his face, but he pushed it away. This wasn’t the time for smiles.

“I…I don’t know…I guess I just didn’t know how to do anything. I didn’t want my friends thinking…” Hyunseung cut him off.

“So, while I was being beaten to near death, you were more worried about your friends thinking badly about you.” His voice was louder now as he stared directly into Gikwang’s eyes with a glare.

Hyunseung force himself onto his feet. His legs wobbled a little bit and he nearly fell over again, if not for Gikwang catching him by his arms. The injured boy angrily pushed the other boy away and glared hatefully at him.

“I don’t need your help! I just need you and everyone else to just stay away from me.” With that he walked out of the room, heading home.

Gikwang frowned deeply as he stared at the departing boy. His head lowered slightly as he looked down at his hand. “He didn't even take the medicine…” Gikwang sighed as he put the medicine back where he got it before he too left the school.