[THIRD PERSON FLASHBACK]

       “Then…the flyers…?” Dara asked in a small voice.

       TOP sighed. He couldn’t bring himself to go through with his made-up lies anymore. It wasn’t like him to act like this. He never had felt the need to lie. Why was he doing this?

       “The flyers…were printed by me.”

       Dara looked at him blankly. Laughing nervously, she nudged TOP playfully. “No, really, TOP. I’m serious. Who printed out those flyers?”

       TOP avoided her eyes. “It was really me, Dara.”

       “It doesn’t make sense at all, TOP! Why would you do something like this when it was Jiyong who-“

       “Forget Jiyong, Dara!” TOP suddenly burst out. “He didn’t have to do with any of this! In fact, he was even trying to cover up for me, though I didn’t deserve it!

       “Yesterday, when I had dinner with Bom, I told her of my feelings for you.” TOP continued, still avoiding Dara’s eyes, for fear of seeing her react to what a monster he was. “She didn’t take it well, stupid of me not to have noticed before. Bom had been secretly admiring me since we were kids, but I always thought of her as my noona. I even told her I was going to text you that night, and tell you how I felt. When I returned to our table from the restroom, I overheard her calling Jiyong. Bom was persuading, or rather bullying, Jiyong into stealing your phone, turning me down when I send the confession, and deleting the whole conversation so you wouldn’t know.

       “But…I didn’t send those messages. What’s the point of sending them when you wouldn’t see them? But I still wanted to know…” TOP sighed. “…if you cared about me in that way or not.

       “Since Bom didn’t know I overheard her, it would’ve been suspicious if I suddenly changed my mind and didn’t follow through my original plan when I had already made up my mind. So I came up with the plan of making up a non-existent conversation. In my mind, it was perfect. I would be preventing arousing Bom’s suspicion, confirming what you feel about me, and making you turn against Jiyong. No one would’ve guessed it was me. Plus…I had thought if the whole school turned against you, and I acted hurt, you would’ve turned to me.

        “But I had miscalculated one thing: Jiyong. Yes, you did get mad at him, but he knew the complete truth.” TOP buried his head in his palms, so all Dara saw was his fingers tangled in his turquoise hair. “The thing was…he knew, he knew all along what a monster I was, and yet he didn’t say anything. He could’ve told Bom, he could’ve told you…in fact, he SHOULD’VE. But he didn’t. He said…he said I was his brother, and even though I’m doing it at his expense, the most he can do for me is to give me a shot at my own happiness.”

[Bom]

        “Why did you say that?” I gritted my teeth at him. Tears of both rage and guilt threatened to fall down as I confronted TOP. After his stupefying statement over the intercom, he had taken me to an empty classroom, perhaps away from the student body that were in chaos over the latest development of the Flyer Incident.

        “You decided to come save me from the last bit of humiliation because you pitied me? Or perhaps you did it so that you could be the knight in shining armor for Dara?” Yes I was bitter, but I didn’t care. “Why don’t you just let everyone know what a monster I am? Why didn’t you-“

        “Because I’m a monster too,” TOP stated calmly. What?

        “And you know what?” TOP turned to me and smiled-yes, in this situation, t