The Boy

Somewhere in her mind, Dara knew that she was drifting in and out of consciousness.Her whole body felt hot and movements around her were swirling in her mind until an eerily recognizable picture came to her focus – a scene from somewhere she had sometimes dreamed of often. Slowly and as she expected, the picture was not a picture she was staring at anymore but a picture she was in.“I don’t think you should be doing that” a voice came from behind her and she flinched at the familiarity of it.“Doing what?” another voice said as she remained bent down, struggling to lift her head to finally see who was speaking.“Messing around with her” that same familiar and reassuring voice answered and finally light came in and Dara saw that it was Ji Yong – not the doctor but the young man in uniform who was not looking at her but at somebody right above her.“She asked for it” Bang Chul Min, one of the bullies from her year answered edgily as his hand continued to apply painful pressure to her arm, uncaring that Ji Yong, who was the notorious senior that had bombed the Science Laboratory, was the one asking him.“I didn’t see it that way” Ji Yong answered, walking nearer towards Chul Min and his group despite being on his own.Standing his ground, Dara felt Chul Min’s hold on her arm tighten but what surprised her more was to find herself in uniform.Her dream had taken her to that day then… that day when…“If you’re thinking I’m afraid of you” Chul Min started “You’re dead wrong.”“I’m not thinking anything at all” Ji Yong answered as he had gotten so near that he was only a few feet away now from Chul Min “Except that maybe you should let her go.”“And why is that?”“Coz it would not be good for you” Ji Yong answered and with very quick movements, landed a fist at Chul Min’s face, who staggered to the floor and unwillingly loosened his hold on Dara’s arm.Chul Min’s friends immediately assisted him up but no one dared go near Ji Yong who was holding Dara by the shoulders now.“Are you ok?” Ji Yong asked her and still unable to grasp or decide whether she was dreaming or not because it all felt too real, she was not immediately able to answer.Scuffles from behind Ji Yong made her look up to see Chul Min running to take a dig at Ji and as her eyes widened in horror, the older guy had already turned as quick as a door knob and landed another fist in Chul Min’s face. “I told you it won’t be good for you” Ji told the younger man again “but I don’t think you’re really getting what I’m saying.”“What the hell are you standing there for?!?” Chul Min, his lip now bleeding, shouted to his friends.“That’s Ji Yong-sunbae man, we can’t touch him” one of the other guys, Hanteuk answered shakily.“What the –““You should listen to your friends coz they seem to know better than you” Ji answered and looked directly at Hanteuk “Take him home and make sure that I don’t catch him nor any of you trying to hurt a girl again or I’ll hang all of you on top of the school building like what I did to Sungwa.”“Sorry sunbae” Hanteuk answered, helping his friend up who was raring to give a go at Ji again “Stop it man! You can’t touch Ji-sunbae” he repeated to his friend and handed him to some other friends of his and explained to Ji Yong “Chul Min just transferred last week and he really doesn’t know you sunbae. It won’t happen again. Sorry Dara-ssi. We were trying to stop him.”Dara nodded. She had forgotten what had happened before this very situation but seeing Hanteuk bowing his head like it would almost break just to convey his apologies, it would not have been right to continue to goad the fight by saying anything more.“Take your friend home” Ji answered as they both watched the retreating figures of Dara’s classmates.“Th-thank you” she told Ji as it had dawned upon her that he had rescued her from possible beating.“Next time, it would be great if you forgot to stutter and just shouted” he told her scoldingly, instead of acknowledging her thanks “You’re lucky I decided to walk home today and saw you or you’re a piece of pulp in the side streets now.”“I – I”“You’re – You’re?” Ji heaved a sigh “I keep thinking why you have such a bad stuttering problem. Do you know that people like bullying you just because you always seem so scared?”“I – I’m-““There you go again!” he told her and Dara felt her frustration mounting. What the hell was wrong with her? She was trying to speak up but stutters kept coming out.“Ji Yong!” someone called out and they both looked to their right to see Young Bae, Seungri, Daesung, and Seunghyun walking towards them.“Hey!” Ji answered as Dara felt herself shrink more with the arrival of the other boys.“Is that Park Sandara?” Seunghyun asked, his eyes narrowing to recognize the Principal’s granddaughter.“Yep” Ji answered.“What are you two doing together?” Daesung asked curiously.“She almost became minced meat for this new sophomore named Chul Min” Ji explained “I accidentally walked in on them.”Seungri’s face contorted to show his displeasure “I know him. He transferred from Incheon High and was bragging how he was such a big guy there.”“Well this ain’t Incheon” Ji countered “and no one here cares how big he is.”“You punched him?” Young Bae asked, noting Ji’s reddened hands.“Twice” Ji answered, uncaring, and then faced Dara “I think we should drop her home or somebody else might try to mince her.”The boys suddenly remembered her presence and bowed in greeting.“You stutter right noona?” Seungri asked shamelessly and Dara tried to answer but Ji’s hand had already landed on Seungri’s forehead.“Next time, try to think up of intelligent questions ok?” Ji told him off and unwillingly, it curved a smile on Dara’s face.“Hey!” Daesung commented “She knows how to smile!”Apparently feeling embarrassed by the boys’ reactions towards her, Ji covered his face with his hands. “What do you think of her – an alien?!?”“Well… this is the first time we’ve all seen her this close” Young Bae defended the others “She’s always covered in a book or running off or disappearing, right?”Seunghyun laughed as he noted how red her face was becoming “Well, she looks like she wants to disappear again” and then he turned to Dara “We’re sorry for being impolite. However, Ji Yong is right. We should walk you home at least today so you can go safely.”She was about to say something but felt surprised that she just nodded. Couldn’t she control her reactions?“You’re also new here right? You just arrived about two-three months ago?” Seungri asked her, chatting her up and surprising her because he was one of the first people who casually just talked to her.“Ye-yes” she answered and winced as he brushed against the arm that Chul Min pressed on.“Oh yeah!” Ji pronounced as though just suddenly remembering and went towards her again and lifted her sleeves “Let me look at that arm.”To her and everyone else’s surprise, Chul Min’s hands had engraved itself on her arm and it looked like it would bruise.“I have an ointment here” Seunghyun immediately volunteered and swerved his bag to the front to look for the ointment.“Wow! He almost squashed her arm” Daesung commented.“He looked stupid doing it” Ji responded angrily at the memory of how he had caught the bully trying to hurt a poor defenseless girl. Receiving the ointment from Seunghyun, he began to rub it on Dara’s arm and continued “No guy should hurt a woman coz that is not manly at all.”All four guys nodded in accord.“It was a good thing you taught him a lesson” Young Bae told Ji, watching as his best friend continued to rub ointment on her right arm.“I would have taught him more than that if Hanteuk wasn’t here” Ji answered, fully concentrating on her arm as she tried her best not to wince at the pain.“Th-thank you again” she managed to say now.“You’re welcome” Ji told her, his god-handsome eyes looking at her directly without making her afraid and as though she was like any normal high school girl, as though she was his friend “But don’t tell anyone about this.”She had not heard the last phrase for she had drowned in those eyes.It was this day… the day when he had, for the very first time, really looked at her and she finally understood why almost all the girls in their school were fighting amongst themselves just to be with him – he looked at you and the whole world dissolved into thin air.