The stepfather returned back home, only to be greeted in the bathroom by the corpse of Jeongmin, sunk in the water. He broke into tears and eventually arranged funerals for Jeongmin, Sunhee and his wife as soon as possible.

Then came the day of the funeral, he was about to go out and host the funeral when he heard the home phone ring.

"Hello?"

"This is the form tutor of Kim Sungjong. I need you to come to school immediately."

"I'm sorry, I can't today. How about on Friday? I will be out of town for the next two days."

"Alright, please come back on Friday. I really need to speak to you as this topic is very urgent. I have to speak to you in person regarding Sungjong's mood and happiness, in my classroom in room 3-5 during lunch break. It is very important that I speak to you about Sungjong because I have some evidence from items found in his desk as well as several acquaintances at school, including the school counsellor, head of year and art teacher."

"Alright, thank you."

He hung up the phone.

"That little brat." he muttered.

Finally Friday came, and he hurried to school, hoping he could get this over with as soon as possible.

He searched up the floors until he eventually came to room 3-5, where his form tutor as well as other adults were waiting for him.

"Mr Kim, Sungjong's father?" the form tutor shook his hand. "I'm his form tutor, Ms. Shin."

"It's nice to meet you, Ms Shin."

"Please have a seat."

The stepfather sat down on a table, with the form tutor, the counsellor, head of year, and the art teacher.

"Thank you for sparing some time to come here Mr Kim. I would like to discuss with you about something which concerns me a lot about Sungjong, because this has been happening since I have started to know him in high school."

She pulled out his drawer, revealing scrunched up paper, broken pencils, and a diary.

"I asked Sungjong to clean up his desk as it was making a lot of dust. He did what I told him to do, but the same mess kept appearing over and over again in at least two weeks time or so after the cleanup. And looking in this diary, I found this."

She pulled open the diary, revealing a page.

Monday: My stepfamily is busy again, destroying and ruining my life. I'm depressed. I'm extremely sad. And not just on another dreadful stormy Monday morning. I don't understand what I did wrong. I'm trying to make amendments with my new family members, yet none of them take a second or third glance at me. What the hell did I do wrong? I never did anything wrong. Why does it have to be like this? I don't want to live on this planet anymore. Sometimes I wish I could just float away and disappear out of this hellhole, so that they won't mess up my life anymore. I just hate them. I hate them. I wish I was raised by different stepparents, and I wish that my genuine parents were still alive.

She also flicked through the pages where there were drawings of Sungjong himself murdering and torturing other people, sobbing and weeping as he was using different weapons.

"Are you the stepfather of Sungjong?" asked Ms Shin.

"Yes."

"There is something in this diary which makes me very uncomfortable. Something tells me that there is a dispute going on in the family. What has it been like with Sungjong?"

The stepfather stared in horror. This was not the Sungjong he imagined. He was just a quiet, awkward and inquistive boy who had nothing better to imagine.

"It was a wonderful time with Sungjong. I loved Sungjong and Sungjong loved me, and we always had a great time being together. I gave him everything he wanted. He just drew it out of natural interest." the stepfather lied.

"A student is very unlikely to make gruesome drawings just out of interest." said the counsellor.

"During this art lesson, when I was teaching my students about the use of colour and shape to express their mood and feelings, I gave them an assignment to do an abstract painting so that they could paint using whatever colours they desired to express their emotions. Sungjong is a talented and born-to-be artist, and he probably is the most talented student in art class. But from this assignment, I expressed deep concern, and even more after looking in his sketchbook." said the art teacher.

She opened the sketchbook, full of more drawings of a figure murdering other people with blood spurting out, using different weapons such as axes and knives.

"This," said the counsellor, taking the abstract painting from the art teacher's hand, "Is, according to many psychologists, evidence of child abuse. According to the intensive use of shades of red and black as well as shapes, and drawings of weapons and murders in this picture, this is a symbol of abuse. Something in this drawing tells me that this boy is being abused in this family. If a student is able to reflect their emotions through the use of visual elements, then the artwork would obviously reflect that, in fact their general academic and social performance at school would reflect on their emotions, because it all depends on the students themselves about whether they are feeling motivated to do things - "

"That simply isn't true!" shouted the stepfather, "What are you talking about? This is all lies. Sungjong just has a weird fascination with blood and - "

"Back off!" snapped the form tutor. "I strongly advise you to bring Sungjong with you to school tomorrow morning, so that we again can all discuss this as a group to confirm how Sungjong is feeling. Sungjong seems to be relatively smiley around his friends at school. I can tell because he has three friends at school who can support him and make him happy when he is sad; Myungsoo, Howon and Dongwoo, but it seems that when he is home, he is turned upside down."

"I must tell you that if you admit that this is abuse," said the head of year, "I tell you right now that this is NOT acceptable to any of our students. Our students here are meant to have a safe, friendly and healthy lifestyle - "

"Excuse me?! Who's son is he? Are you - "

"Sit down!" snapped the head of year, "Just wait. I haven't finished. If you really did love Sungjong, and you did get the chance to possibly speak with him about his emotions, then Sungjong would not have started behaving like this nor having told us about what had happened. Please bring Sungjong with you to school tomorrow so that we can all make resolutions for you and Sungjong in the future when you go back home again."

The stepfather stared, wide-eyed, before he stormed out the school in anger.

The school day finally came to an end. It was Friday and Sungjong breathed out in relief as he walked out with L, Hoya and Dongwoo, who seemed to understand his emotions more.

The four were walking out when Sungjong heard a man call out his name in the distance.

"I think you should be going." said Dongwoo, gesturing him.

"No." said Sungjong.

"KIM SUNGJONG!" the voice called again, revealing it to be Sungjong's stepfather.

"Your dad is call - " Hoya began.

"He's not my dad." Sungjong grumbled deliberately.

"Uncle?"

"No."

"Grandpa?"

"No."

"Stepfather?!"

"Yeah."

"No wonder....." Hoya began, but L nudged him.

"Sungjong, you really ought to....." L began, but Sungjong stood his ground whilst the three boys stared at him, clinging tightly onto his backpack.

"No. I'm never going there again. I don't have a home. It's his home. His room. Not mine. I won't go there again."

"KIM SUNGJONG!"

The source of the voice went closer towards him, he was around 5 metres in front of the group.

"Come here now!"

"What?" Sungjong called.

"I said 'come here now'!"

"I can't hear you!"

"COME HERE NOW!"

"I cannot hear you!"

"COME HERE!!!" he screamed in the loudest voice.

He could not take it anymore, so he grabbed Sungjong by the tie and dragged him away from the group.

"You never listen!" he snapped as he punched Sungjong in the face, causing his cheek to smarten.

The stepfather turned around. Several students were whispering and pointing at the two, as well as several teachers who were walking out, whilst Sungjong was standing there hunchbacked, holding his cheek in pain, and L, Hoya and Dongwoo were staring in shock, wide-eyed.

"Sungjong....." he whispered, a wave of guilt flooding over him. "I'm sorry."

Sungjong only turned up and grinned at him. A small trail of blood was seen trickling out of his mouth. The stepfather gasped.

"You don't need to apologise." he mouthed. "No one will never love you. You will die alone and horribly."

The stepfather, in a mixture of guilt and frustration could not take it anymore.

Somehow something motivated him to do this, but he continued to slap and beat Sungjong, as well as throw him to the ground, kicking and stomping on him, whilst Sungjong screamed, cried and howled in pain.

The man was bigger than he was, so the three boys did not know what to do, whilst other students stared in fear and back away from him a little.

Now long after, the janitor as well as several teachers began to seize him and drag him away from Sungjong, as he screamed in protest and tried to escape the seize.

L helped him up, brushing off as much dust as he could off Sungjong's uniform. Hoya handed him a tissue to wipe off the tears and blood whilst Dongwoo suggested that he go to the hospital.

Sungjong limped as Dongwoo, L and Hoya helped him into a taxi, taking him to the hospital.