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“You ing piece of !”

“Think you’re welcome here, huh? Think anyone wants you here?”

“Disgusting!”

An aggressive growl, muffled sounds of kicks and punches connecting with flesh, three spiteful voices snickering and hurling vicious comments at their struggling victim.

Jongin had been heading towards the glen he’d happened to have found in the forest located behind the school a year ago when his class had had orientation in P.E (it has become his secret hiding-place for when he’s in a desperate need of a break from everyone else in the school, and it has saved his sanity countless of times from snapping completely), but when the sounds reach his ears he stops in his tracks, eyes widening slightly and fingers twitching.

Frozen like a deer in headlights; he doesn’t need to look to know that someone is getting beat up and that he has accidentally gained himself a first-class ticket to the VIP stands, but his morbid curiosity is urging him to do look anyways and he can't resist it. Wondering idly whether the person getting roughed up is bleeding a lot and who it is, if it's just another faceless drone or if Jongin maybe knows the person, he turns his head towards the source of the sounds.

Three boys are cornering a crouched boy against the concrete of the school's wall, aiming kicks and punches at whatever body part is available for them to hit, while the lone boy seems to try to defend himself from the onslaught of attacks as best he can from his disadvantageous position.

They haven’t noticed Jongin, their silent spectator, yet, and for that Jongin feels slightly thankful. He’s well aware of his high status within the hierarchy of the school (and so are the rest of the students), but he isn’t sure whether that will protect him from the violent trio should they realize he’s there to witness them act like violent animals. They most likely won’t trust him not to tell anyone about their savage behavior without giving him any sort of incentive. An incentive that will, in these boys' case, be in the form of a good beating as well as a threat of further violence if he dared defy them, Jongin assumes.

An especially well-delivered kick makes the huddled boy involuntarily moan between gritted teeth as he curls his arms around his stomach in obvious pain, and Jongin his head and squints his eyes. He can’t see who the victim is since the three males standing around him are blocking him from Jongin’s sight. Jongin guesses he feels somewhat bad for the person, and he absentmindedly wonders what the boy did to deserve such open contempt aimed his way from his vicious attackers.

It’s laughable how the school is renowned for being extremely prestigious, only accepting children from either famous or ridiculously rich families (Jongin’s family belongs to the latter category) and is proud of how all of its students graduates with top-notch grades and perfect records, while said students are still just like everyone else no matter what sort of backgrounds or wealth they’ve been blessed with; cruel, petty, violent and oh so terribly human. 

It revolts Jongin. It makes his skin crawl with disgust, how everyone thinks that they’re so much better than everypne else when all of them are really just dirty pigs rolling around in their own feces and mud while climbing on top of each other to get whatever it is they want like the greedy creatures that they are.

Jongin's face twists into something dark. Sometimes, he feels as if the hate and the darkness within him will eat him up, consume him.

It's overwhelming.

Shifting his weight, Jongin moves to continue on his way towards his sanctuary in the forest, completely intending to ignore the prime example of human malevolence playing out right there before his eyes as the three males  thrashes their poor victim, but then one of them moves to the right, just enough to unconsciously let Jongin see exactly who their victim is in his peripheral vision.

And Jongin freezes up for the second time that day, the twisted expression on his face immediately washed away from his face as he pales in wide-eyed recognition.

Because of course it has to be Do Kyungsoo they’re beating up.