After his dreaded math class and the first meeting with his personal tutor was over, Zico had gone paler than an American kid who’d never gone out in the sun in his lifetime, and he slowly stalked out the door back towards his dorm room. He was still trying to process what had just happened, which he was blaming on the teacher instead of himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that if he’d just shown up to class and done the homework at least most of the time, he could have avoided this situation, but Zico was set on blaming his professor for this unfortunate turn of events. As he walked back towards his dorm he mumbled incoherencies about stupid old hags for teachers and how he hated college.

                Poor Woo Jiho was not going to make it back to his dorm though, and before he realized what was happening, someone had grabbed him and dragged him off somewhere as he flailed and tried to scream, though his mouth was forcefully shut with a hand. Zico didn’t even have time to react or look at his kidnappers before he was swiftly kneed in the stomach by one of them, another holding him still.

                He flailed and tried to scream again to no avail, and he knew that it was hopeless. This had happened too many times to him and by now he realized that he had no escape from his assailants. And so the beating continued, some of them mocking him, laughing at his misery and pain. The one holding him laughed and said, “Heeeeey Ji Hoooooo. Or is it Ziiiico now? Thought we wouldn’t find you in college if you changed your name, didn’t you ? Some of our other friends told us they found you and we thought we’d come give you a nice visit ourselves. Hey boys, give ‘im another one just for me.”

                Zico’s eyes widened and one of the others laughed with a small, “Sure boss,” before he was roundhouse kicked in the face. That would leave a big, ugly bruise later. As time passed, the minutes of his assault felt more like hours, days even, and Zico was sure this would never be over. The boys who bullied him on a regular basis knew exactly what Zico’s weak points were. They knew that if you caught him off-guard you could easily take advantage of him, but if he was angry he became Hulk Zico and you’d better steer clear of the crossfire, and so they chose to grab Zico whenever he seemed dazed or calm. They knew well that no one would come to his rescue and the one friend he’d made in college was still in class so they had no problems grabbing him this morning.

                By the time Zico’s assault was over, the “boss” holding him threw him to the ground and laughed at his limp form. He used his foot to move the other’s cheek so he was facing him, and the other smirked. With the amount of blood coming from Zico’s nose he was sure they’d broken it, so to rub it in a little more he gave Zico one last kick right in his broken nose, causing him to scream weakly as they all laughed.

                And then they disappeared, just like that, and Woo Jiho was left a bloody, torn up mess with probably a few broken ribs, a twisted ankle and a broken nose. His shirt had been torn open in several places from the assault and it was now tattered and worn. This was the reason Zico had chosen specifically not to wear shirts he really liked around campus. He never knew when he would get grabbed like this and he didn’t want his favorite outfits ripped to shreds like this one now was.

                With the amount of blood pouring from his nose and the various cuts he now had all over his body, Zico knew well that he needed to make his way back to his dorm to clean up before he lost any more blood, but he was terrified that they would come back, so he waited silently, his breathless sobs making no noise as he laid on the leaf-filled ground in pain.

                It took Zico a good half hour to get up the courage to move, to realize they weren’t coming back, and another good half an hour just to be able to move after all the pain they’d caused him. When he did finally get himself up off the ground, he grabbed his left arm which hung limply at his side, and he limped back to his dorm, his ankle starting to swell as he tried to put as little pressure on it as possible. He made his way back to the main path to his dorm, and other college students who didn’t know him would stop and watch him quietly, seeing how bloody and torn up he was. They saw his tears, his broken nose, the swollen ankle and his ripped shirt, but none of them seemed to know what to do, so they watched silently in sympathy for the boy they didn’t know, and whispered amongst themselves as they wondered what happened.

                News around this small campus traveled like wildfire, however, and just as Zico made it back to his dorm room and limply opened the door to get inside, Taeil was making his way out of class. He left happily, humming and skipping like usual, planning on going back to his room, where his roommate was surely sitting writing in his diary, but obviously not waiting for Taeil. B-Bomb was his nickname, and he was infamous for really just not giving a . Taeil had known him a lot longer than his nickname was around though, and so he called him by his real name, Lee Min Hyuk. Taeil knew B-Bomb better than anyone else on campus and was aware that as much as he appeared to just not care about anyone or anything other than himself, he really was a great friend if you could get him to open up, something Taeil had done successfully on his first try since he was just so damn likeable.

                As he was headed back to his room though, he looked around to see many people stopping to whisper at each other about something or other, and he furrowed his eyebrows, and before he could ask, some random girl ran up to him and said, “Did you hear?!”

                He looked at her and blinked before looking around. He then looked back at her and pointed at himself. “Me..? Hear what?”

                The girl seemed excited to be spreading the news and she said hurriedly, “Rumor has it a bunch of people saw a guy who looked like he’d been beat up a few minutes ago. They said he had blond spikey hair and they’d never seen him before, but he was bleeding and limping real bad and they said he was crying, too! No one knows what happened but a lot of people saw him walking somewhere like his dorm or apartment or something!”

                Taeil almost dropped all his books, his eyes went wide and a small, “No…” came from his mouth. He stood for a moment, seemingly frozen, and without acknowledging the girl at all, he said, “Zico…” and he ran off in a flash, leaving the girl blinking in his wake.

                “Zico..?” she wondered quietly.

                Taeil had never run so fast in his life, zooming past wandering eyes and more whispers from students. As stupid as most college kids seemed to be, they all seemed to realize this event was easily connected, and they were sure little Taeil was running to the boy they’d seen with the broken nose. Taeil didn’t care about any of them, though, and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, which under the circumstances seemed to be pretty fast. He kept hoping in his mind it wasn’t true, praying to whatever deity was out there that Zico wasn’t the one the kids were talking about, that it was just a rumor, none of it was true, and he zoomed in the front door of Zico’s dorm, flying up the steps to the third floor to see if Zico was in his room.

                As he got to Zico’s door he knocked frantically, panic clear in his voice. “Zico?! Zico oh my god open your door please for the love of god!” As he waited, the seconds ticked by and he got more and more nervous as he heard shuffling within the room.

Whatever he was hoping for is exactly the opposite of what he got when Zico’s door quietly creaked open and all he saw of Zico was one eye and a little of his hair peeking out. “What do you want, Taeil..? Isn’t B-Bomb wondering why you’re not back at your room yet..?” His voice was dead and that was when Taeil knew the rumors were true, and his eyes narrowed. “Woo Ji Ho, you open this door right now.”

                Zico wanted to fight back, to tell the small junior that he was fine, but he didn’t have the energy and instead of opening the door more, he simply shuffled away from the door and turned away from the other, standing in the middle of the room. Taeil slipped in quietly and shut the door behind him. “Zico..please..turn around and look at me..” He wasn’t as forceful this time, and he saw just from Zico’s backside that the other was ripped up, the way his shirt was completely torn up and he was grabbing his left arm with his right hand.

                He was expecting the worst out of this situation, but when Zico turned around, the thing that made him gasp wasn’t the sight of how badly Zico was hurt, it was the fact that Zico was crying. The Zico he’d known for the past two weeks was strong, powerful even, and he had never expected him to cry. But what Taeil saw in front of him told a different story, one of a boy who had been so broken by society and the cruelties of the world that every time he was beaten, it simply took his already shattered heart and shattered those individual pieces even more.

                Taeil wasn’t sure what to do, but he quietly moved forward to hug the much taller boy. As immature and cute as Taeil was, when the situation called for it, Taeil knew how to be serious and responsible, and he helped Zico move to sit on his bed, rubbing his back with one hand quietly as he placed down his books from his other arm and took his cell phone out of his pocket. Without another word, he dialed a number on his phone and put it up to his ear.

                He waited a few moments before the message recorder came on. “Lee Minhyuk, the -Bomb here,” the voice called over the phone lazily. “I’m not in right now, so uh, here comes the beep. Hope ya know what to do with it.” Taeil hung up the phone and silently cursed to himself, continuing to rub Zico’s back, but he didn’t have to wait long before his phone rang.

               He immediately picked it up when he saw that it was B-Bomb, and he frantically said quietly, “Minhyuk?!”

               The other nodded on his side of the phone but the other couldn’t see it. “Sup bro? Saw your missed call, sorry, had to piss.  Whatcha need? P.O’s over here ya know, wants ta see ya. We been wonderin’ where ya been.” His voice was lazy as ever as he didn’t bother to fully pronounce his words. Normally Taeil would have been happy to hear P.O was there waiting for him, but this wasn’t a joyous occasion and Taeil wasn’t even phased that P.O was there, it just meant he had to be part of the situation now.

               “Minhyuk,” Taeil said in a still-kind-of-panicking-over-here tone, “Listen carefully to me. I need you and P.O to come over here to the freshman dorms. Bring your car and I’ll explain everything when you get here. I’ll meet you outside of the freshman dorms in ten minutes.”

               On the other side of the phone, P.O’s obvious whining could be heard as B-Bomb relayed the message. “Aaaaaw damn. So you mean to tell me I walked all the way from my dorm over here just to find out I have to go back and it was pointless? I coulda just stayed put.”

               At his whining, B-Bomb rolled his eyes and snapped at him to shut up. “We’ll be there in ten, bro, but you better explain why I’m bringing my car when we get there.” Little did he know Taeil wouldn’t have to explain as much as he thought.

               As Taeil hung up the phone, he looked down at Zico and continued to rub his back. “Come on, Z, we need to get you up, okay? Just hang in there a little longer.”

               Zico looked up at Taeil, silent tears still streaking down his cheeks. As the other helped lift him to his feet, Zico asked quietly, “Hey Taeil…what day is it..?”

               Taeil blinked at the question, looking up at the now-once-again-taller Zico. “It’s Friday, September 14^th.”

               Zico’s eyes seemed to widen a little before they became dim and lifeless again, and all he said was, “Oh..”

               As Taeil helped him shuffle towards the door, grabbing his room key for him, they left everything else behind and Taeil asked, “Why, Z?”

               As they made their way out the door and stopped for a moment to shut it behind them, Zico gave Taeil a small, sad smile through his tears that broke Taeil’s heart. “Today’s my birthday…” he said quietly, and Taeil’s heart, if it had already been broken, shattered into a million more pieces as it was stepped on and crushed and all his feelings for Zico showed in his eyes. It was Zico’s birthday? He couldn’t believe his friend could be having such a terrible birthday.

               While they shuffled toward the elevator, which was much easier than the stairs right now, Taeil mumbled, “I’ll make all this up to you somehow, Zico..I promise I will.”

               It took a few minutes for them to make it to the front of the freshman dorm, and right as they walked out onto the sidewalk, B-Bomb pulled up to the curb and stopped the car. Before he even looked up, P.O gasped and said, “Oooooh…..”

               This made the other look up as well, and what he saw before him made his mouth drop open. P.O scrambled to get out of the small car since it was a two-door, red Nissan GT-R sports car, and he pushed forward the passenger seat and helped Taeil put Zico in the car, and Taeil climbed in the back with him before P.O adjusted the front seat and sat back down in the passenger seat.

               B-Bomb stared back at the two for a second, unsure of what exactly to say, before the words finally stumbled out of his mouth. “S..So…hospital then..?” he asked, assuming it was the only place they could have gone right about now.

               Taeil nodded. “Yes, and hurry please, Minhyuk, I don’t know how long ago this happened so he could have lost a lot of blood by now. His nose is obviously broken.” Taeil pulled Zico towards him so the other was leaning on his shoulder lightly, trying to avoid more damage. Zico had indeed lost a lot of blood, and his tears still hadn’t dried.

               And with that answer, B-Bomb didn’t have to be told twice, and he raced off towards the hospital at a speed that should have gotten him pulled over multiple times.

--

Hey guys! c: I needed a bit of a break from University Days which is why I really started this story. I've been itching to do a Block B story for awhile now.

I'm sorry for this chapter being so depressing. I don't think Zico would be like this in real life though. I think if someone even tried to slap him Zico would pound them into the ground with no mercy.

It's just for the sake of the story I swear. I hate doing this to poor Zico, I love him so much ;_____;

But I do think it's good imagery for what happens to him mentally from some people. I think people verbally beat up Zico and Block B all the time and they need to leave them alone. :C

The full title for this chapter is, "Sewing Tears Together with Threads and Hanging Them Up Like Christmas Lights."

Was just too long to put in there ;P

Enjoy chapter two, Imma keep typing! xD;

Please read and review if you liked it! Subscribe if you REALLY like it. |D