At the beginning of the year, Jang-il and Sun-woo had never even been aware of the other’s existence. They were on two separate sides of the earth if anything even though they were in the same class. The first time he ever saw Jang-il was when a fancy black limo pulled up to the school and Jang-il stepped out with his sister. Sun-woo looked at him grudgingly, like all the other students in the courtyard, and wondered to himself how much money one had to have to come to school in a limo every day. Jang-il walked by him, unconcerned with anyone else around him and hurried off to the main building as Sun-woo shook his head.
“I wish I had his life” a boy next to him said “Money, brains, and a social status”
“Yeh but does he have a girlfriend?” the girl beside him said with a grin.
“If I had everything he did, I’d have as many as I wanted”
The girl frowned “Well too bad. You only have me”
“Who is that?” Sun-woo asked.
“Moon Jang-il. His mother is on the Board of trustees. His father runs a multi-million dollar company. He’s practically one of the richest kids here”
Sun-woo looked back at the limo as it drove away and imagined for a moment what it would be like to ride in one of those and to have people stare at him in jealousy and admiration. But what use were fantasies like that to a poor boy like him? And he was blessed enough anyway. He had a home, food, and a dad who loved him dearly. He was even more fortunate to be going such a prestigious school and having a scholarship pay for it all. His father told him he could become anything he wanted after this, that Sun-woo had an opportunity that he never had as a young man and Sun-woo was not to take it lightly.
For the past few years he wasn’t. He was studying hard and turning out excellent test scores. But in the past few weeks he began to question whether or not it was of any good to continue this way. He had applied for college scholarships and had repeatedly been turned down. According to them he would never have been able to afford the other expenses of college even with the scholarships and they needed to give it to someone who would better be able to use it. He knew that what they really meant was that they expected him to become a criminal or a lazy good for nothing before even leaving college so he would end up wasting their money, which they would rather spend on their own kind anyway. He hated people like that. But he expected to be treated this way the minute he set foot in the school, so he wasn’t particularly torn up about it. He even felt a sense of liberation having no higher expectations of himself and therefore didn’t need to work as hard as he did.
Before long Sun-woo was becoming delinquent in his studies and his teacher often berated him about it. When his father was informed about his son’s lagging grades he was very upset.
“What’s going on with you lately?” his father asked him at dinner time.
Sun-woo shook his head “Nothing” he replied.
His father pulled out one of Sun-woo’s latest test sheets and pointed to the red mark at the top.
“65%? On something as simple as math?” he said.
Sun-woo hung his head a bit “What’s the use? It’s like good high school grades are gonna be worth much if I can’t go to college” he said stirring his ramen around in his bowl.
His father put a hand on his son’s shoulder “Who says you won’t go to college? Sure those bastards wouldn’t give you the scholarship. Big deal. Something good always comes to those to work hard and have patience”
“What about you? You seem to be in money trouble more than ever and you’re the hardest working person I know” Sun-woo said.
“I don’t need a lot of money to be happy. In fact I have all that I need. And I have you. What more can a man ask for?” his father replied, to which Sun-woo couldn’t help but grin.
But in the ensuing days Sun-woo’s passiveness towards school increased and the teacher suggested that Sun-woo get a tutor. Sun-woo immediately hated the idea. The last thing he wanted to spend his spare time going through textbooks with a nerd. But at the behest of his father, Sun-woo agreed to find one. Therein lay another problem. The majority of students were all well-off and very critical of student hierarchy. As a result, he didn’t know many of them and they didn’t associate with him. Asking any of them for help would be just as humiliating as getting down on his knees and begging for money. He wasn’t prepared to sacrifice his personal dignity like that and wondered how he was going to get himself out of this situation now.
As he pondered this, he saw Jang-il running by being pursued by a group of boys who seemed angry. Those boys in particular were notorious for the amount of beatings they shared out in a day. They were going to hurt him. Sun-woo would have wanted to stay out of it, the last thing he needed was more trouble, but his personal sense of justice wouldn’t let him, so he went after the boys and turned a corner in time to see one of the bigger bullies grab Jang-il by his shirt and throw him against the wall then he took hold of Jang-il’s collar and punched him in the stomach. Jang-il doubled over and sank to the ground as the bullies prepared to hit him again.
“Hey! Leave him alone!” Sun-woo yelled at them, taking their attention away from Jang-il, who looked at him as if he couldn’t believe someone was actually here helping him.
“Why don’t you go mind your own business?” one of the bullies said as he approached Sun-woo.
Sun-woo remained unfazed and looked him in the eyes “I can’t. I saw you hit him so it’s my business now”
The intimidating boy made a motion to punch him but Sun-woo was too quick and grabbed his hand and swung it around pinning his arm behind his back. He looked at Jang-il (who was still in shock) and told him to run. For a moment Jang-il was frozen but when the other bullies began to descend on Sun-woo he took to his feet and ran, hoping none of them were coming after him. After running a safe distance away, he stopped to catch his breath. He was safe, for now. But perhaps tomorrow they’d come back worse than ever because of that untimely intervention. He thought suddenly of the boy who was brave enough to help him get away. Why did he care so much to help when he didn’t even know him? He wanted to go back now and see if he was alright. But what can you do? You were lucky enough to not get maimed do you really want to go back and get hurt even more?
The pain in his gut sank in at this moment and with a groan he walked off to the music room where he was sure no one would find him. He lay down on a bench and closed his eyes waiting for the pain to subside. He couldn’t go home like this or his mother would go berserk. He closed his eyes when suddenly the door opened and he sat up quickly, wondering if it was them coming to look for him and he made ready to run again. But the door pushed open and the boy from before walked in.
“There you are” he said as he walked up to him and tossed a bag at his feet “You forgot this” he said.
Jang-il took up his bag and put it on the bench next to him. “Thank you” he said “I really appreciate what you did”
“I didn’t do it for you, you know. I don’t even know you. I just can’t stand to see people get picked on” Sun-woo said nonchalantly.
Jang-il stood up and bowed “Even so, thank you very much. I really appreciate what you did” he said “I mean we don’t even know each other”
Sun-woo smirked “I know you. Your mom’s on the board right? You’re some spoiled rich kid, like everyone else here”
“So what if I’m rich? Is that a problem?” Jang-il said feeling offended.
“No, it just makes you better than me” Sun-woo said.
Jang-il scoffed “If I was better than you I wouldn’t need to be rescued”
“You could pay people to get rid of them or something couldn’t you? Instead of getting yourself beat up” Sun-woo added while rubbing a sore spot on his shoulder. Jang-il spotted the split lip and red-purple bruises on him and felt a twinge of guilt. After all, he was the reason this boy got hurt.
“I’m sorry for getting you hurt. I owe you. Anything you want, just name it” Jang-il said.
Sun-woo looked over at Jang-il’s bag. “I need a tutor” he said “My grades need to go up or I’ll lose my scholarship”
Jang-il nodded. “Sure” he said, happy that he could do something for him.
Sun-woo extended his hand. “Pil Sun-woo” he introduced himself. Jang-il took his hand “Moon Jang-il” he said and they shook hands, sealing their verbal contract. Then Jang-il suddenly remembered something.
“I have to go” he said and grabbed his bag “I’ll see you after our class okay?”
Our class. “So you do know me” Sun-woo said.
Jang-il paused at the door. “Of course I do. You come late to class every morning, but now I know your name” he said then ran out to meet the car sent to pick him up every day.
“Finally! I was beginning to worry about you….” Ji-soo said as he shut the door, then she stopped short of her statement when she got a good look at him “Someone hit you!” she said touching the bruise on his arm. Jang-il pulled away and put on his jacket to cover his arm.
“I just bumped into something” he said “It’s no big deal. And DON’T tell mom”
Ji-soo threw up her hands “Whatever you say hyung” she said “But you need to do something about it. It’s not the first time you’ve been bullied”
“Just drop it Ji-soo” he said turning his attention to the window to close off further conversation. Ji-woo took the hint and sat back in silence for the rest of the trip home.
Sun-woo watched the car drive off, and this time he didn’t wish he was in Jang-il’s place. He felt pretty content right now, and with a smile on his face he walked off to the bus stop.

Jang-il sat by himself in the music room and ate his lunch while he read his books. He came here often. It was quiet here and hardly anyone ever came by. He was just in the middle of astronomy when a hand waved infront of his book. He looked up and saw Sun-woo smiling at him.
“You’re reading textbooks for fun?” Sun-woo asked with a grin “Now I know I’m saved”
Jang-il threw him look and put down his textbook. “Where were you this morning?” he asked, almost annoyed. This made Sun-woo laugh even more.
“Why? Were you waiting for me?” Sun-woo asked jokingly then answered “I was at the arcade. It was fun.”
“Have you ever been to Gangnam? There are a lot of things to do there” Jang-il said, but once he thought about his own statement he realized how insensitive that sounded “I’m sorry, I forgot that-” he began then stopped before he could insult him anymore.
But Sun-woo dispelled his fears with a wave of his hand. “I’m alright with being poor. No harm done” he said “I guess I deserve it after what I said yesterday.”
“It was true though” Jang-il said “I AM a spoiled rich kid. You can thank my mother for that”
“So I guess we’re even” Sun-woo said. He looked over at Jang-il who glanced at him briefly then looked away again. Sun-woo figured he was really shy, and since he hadn’t any friends it would definitely make sense. Ever since the day he saw Jang-il, he began to take notice of him around school. Jang-il was the one boy who sat in the back quietly, who took diligent notes and knew all the answers to the teacher’s questions and made the rest of the class look bad with his impeccable test scores. He sat alone at lunch every day, reading books when he should’ve been taking a break from them. Sun-woo both admired his dedication and pitied him for his lack of socialization.
Jang-il took a plastic container out of his bag and gestured to Sun-woo “You want some?” he asked.
“Alright” Sun-woo said and drew up to Jang-il who handed him a pair of chopsticks.