Why did I have to meet him here again? Why do I have to meet the person I hate the most? I look out of the bus window watching that bastard froze in shock after what I told. I scoffed, looking at how he didn't even recognise me I guess that incident didn't leave any impact on him and here look at me suffer from nightmares from that incident even years after it happened. Furious tears were flowing down my cheeks as the unwanted memories came flying back. After so many years of trying to forget, it all came back just by seeing him again. Everything was his fault.

 

"Yah.. Yoon Mi! Are you alright? Don't cry. Please don't cry! I'm sorry for bring you here. You should have told me if you really didn't want to come." Ji Min pulled me into a tight hug. 

 

I shook my head in her embrace. "Aniya. This is not your fault. It's all his fault." I mumbled softly.

 

"His? You mean Jonghyun? Why are you acting so weirdly around him? Did you meet him before?" Ji Min asked in confusion. I stiffened in her hug as the unwanted flashbacks came into my mind.

 

"We promised not to hide anything from each other so I think I need to tell you this." I said softly. 

 

 

On one particular day in elementary school, I wasn't feeling well. I felt so cold and dizzy. The words in my textbook was dancing. Just then, my stomach started have a brain of its own and started twisting itself up, I felt bile rising up my throat. I stood up and tried to make my way to the toilet, before I made it, I vomited all over the classroom floor.

 

All my classmate looked at me and gasped in shock. The teacher came over to help me and called the janitor to clean the floor.

 

"Let me call your parents to send you home." my teacher said

 

"My Umma is in Japan, my Appa is in Daegu. They can't come to pick me up. I am feeling much better already. I'll just go back to class" I replied.

 

 

I nodded my head obediently.

 

 

I walked back to the classroom and sat down on my seat. Being an hardworking student, I picked up my pencil to finish up my half done worksheet. As I realised I didn't bring an eraser, I tapped the shoulder of the boy siting in front of me.

 

 

"EWWW TAKE YOUR GERMY HANDS OFF ME!" He cut me off. His face was staring at me in disgust. Than he rubbed his shoulder on another's classmate shirt. "Yucks! Germs!" And that classmate rubbed it on another classmate. The cycle just continues. 

 

Ever since then, my name was no longer Yoon Mi it was Germs. That guy who started this was that jerk, Kim Jonghyun.  Because of him the classroom that was once warm and friendly became so foreign. No one would talk to me not even my closest friends. When I approach them, they would just ignore me. This how my warm and bubbly childhood turned in a nightmare. 

 

School wasnt fun anymore, I mean how could it be fun when your constantly ostracizes you. Going to school everyday just reminded me how lonely I was and i hated it. Whenever I try to approach any classmate they would show a disgusted face and say "Lets move. The germ is coming." During group works, no one would want to be in the same group as me. I had to wait for everyone to form into their group and join the group which didn't had enough members. I had no chance to talk to anyone. Jonghyun would made it impossible for me to get close to anyone. There was once when a classmate passed me a worksheet, that the teacher was giving out. Jonghyun pointed at her and said "Look at that.. Seems like Ye Won is quite friendly with the germ."  

 

"Aniya! I was just passing her a worksheet" Ye won panicked. Anyone who got close to me would become an outcast too. So no one would talk to me. Things became worst when the bullying increased. Classmates would throw erasers at me, doodle on my textbooks or dump my food in to bin. Everytime someone did something like that to me, Jonghyun would laugh his head off and give the person that did it a thumbs up. 

 

I was not surprise that the whole class would dislike me if Jonghyun did. He was the heart of the class. Everyone admired him. He was smart, talented and good looking. He had a good sense of humor and great leadership skills.  Everyone loved him even the teachers. Jonghyun was the class president and everyone in our class called him Jjong president. It was not a surprised that the class would follow his footsteps in making me an outcast. 

 

I have never felt so helpless in my life. The bullying never stopped. The worst was, I can't bring myself to tell my parents. So when I go home after school, I would force a smile on my face and told them how good school was. Every morning I would wake up in fear of going to school. I tried pretending to be ill a few times but I kinda overused that excuse and soon i had no more excuses to skip school,

 

But I never hated Jonghyun so much till one day when he went overboard. That day, I was sitting at my seat reading a book. Jonghyun took the class trash bin and poured the the trash all over me. He smirked at me and said "He disgusting germ, you are just a piece of trash. Stop dirtying our classroom with your germs. Just kill yourself no one wants you." The class burst into laughter watching me bring covered in trash. They all chanted "Kill yourself! Kill yourself" over and over again. Sometimes I wonder was being sick a sin, I could have just ate something bad that day causing a stomach upset, how did the situation turn so wrong. Or maybe humans were just sadistic in nature and found joy in the pain of others.

 

I didn't know how I did it, but I manage to stayed till the end of Elementary school. I moved on to a new school and I finally had the courage to tell my parents about Jonghyun. I made myself forget about the horrible past and start a new life in middle school but what stayed vividly in my mind was Jonghyun's face and his words. His words often were my nightmares that haunt in my sleep. He was the one that destroyed my childhood. He was the one that made me and introvert. He was the one that created the fear of hanging out with the popular kids. Because of him I grew up with low self-esteem and negative thoughts. For a couple of years after elementary school, anxiety attacks weren't foreign to me. I had to go through a full year of counselling and psychiatrist help to step out of that darkness. Everything was because of him. 

 

 

"I never thought you would go through something like that." Ji min said softly. "But if I were your friend in elementary school I promise  wouldn't ignore you!" 

 

"I know you wouldn't and also I'm sorry for kinda spoilling your date" I smiled sheepishly. Everything is going to be fine now. As long as I don't have to see that guy again.