No one can figure out why my backpack and I were soaking wet. Doesn’t matter. The only thing I care about is the fact that my books and papers are fine (albeit extremely wet). It try to ignore the fact that I’m freezing cold and I’m developing a cough.

Another matter has come to my attention as well: Kim Kai is my enemy, and he is hellbent on making my life miserable. After I emerged from the lake, backpack in hand, he hissed, “You’re a fool. You actually dived in just so you could get your school stuff?”

The guys surrounding him laugh a little, but Kai and I can both tell that they’re uneasy about this situation.

“Here,” one of them shrugged off his jacket and held it out to me. Before I could take it Kai threw the jacket to the ground.

“Did I give you permission to do that?!” Kai barked. “Don’t give this anything.”

. That was the first time that particular insult had been used on me.

He snapped his fingers and his little posse followed him, throwing me spiteful glares.

My last period, chemistry, is with Kai as well. Yet again he torments me, calling me names, chucking pencils at my head. I refuse to succumb. I will be strong. I will.

The final bell rings, and Kai knocks my things to the ground again. After I’ve picked them up and exited the classroom, he corners me.

“You’re just a showoff,” he scoffs. “If you were really smart then you wouldn’t go around thinking that you know everything. You’re ugly, too. Jeez, Sojin, you really have nothing going for you, do you?”

Day after day Kai continues doing this to me. Every day he conjures up some new horror to put me through.

One day he told someone to steal my uniform while I was in Gym so I had to wear my smelly workout clothes all day.

He spread rumors about me saying that I whored myself off for a pack of gum.

He told a group of girls to beat me up in the bathroom. By the time they finished with me, I was left lying on the tiled, dirty floor in a pool of my own blood.

My classmates have began to either treat me like I’m invisible or like I’m a rag they can toss around.

No member of the staff is willing to help me. Kai’s parents are on the school board and have donated millions to the school. Even Principal Shin, who first told me to tutor Kai, refuses to side with me.

“Mr. Kim is a nice boy,” he tells me nervously, eyes darting from side to side. “He used to be... a little hard to handle, of course. But now he’s doing fine! He has perfect grades in all his classes! In fact, if he hadn’t done so poorly at the beginning of the year he would be valedictorian! Sojin, don’t be so cruel to him. Are you jealous of him? Is that why you’re accusing him?”

Turning the victim into the perpetrator. Classic.

But I still refuse to give in to Kai. I won’t apologize. I won’t cry. I will not show defeat.

Days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months. It never stops. I find myself eating less and throwing myself into my studies more. It helps me take my mind off the hell I'm faced with every day.

Final exams come around.

On the day of an English exam, a group of students surrounds me in the hallway.

“Sojin, you better help us cheat. You get good grades so we’ll get good grades too.”

“You’re worthless, Sojin, so you might as well just try to do something now.”

“Look, , you better help us!”

Suddenly a high voice pierces the air. “Everyone get out of the way! I told Sojin she had to help me today!”

It’s Jung Krystal. She grabs my hand and yanks me away from everyone, drags me outside to a bench where all her friends are sitting. When they see us the immediately straighten, purposeful looks on their faces.

When Krystal and I reach the bench, she turns back around to face me. Her cold expression has melted into one of compassion.

“Sojin... I'm sorry. I am so, sorry. You don't deserve this treatment from them,” she whispers, clutching my hand.

I remain expressionless.

“This has to stop. We've stood by watching this for too long!” Liu Amber, one of Krystal’s friends, yells. “It’s not fair. I don’t know why Kai is treating Sojin like this. She didn’t do anything to him!”

“I... I did,” I whisper, almost inaudibly. “I know why he’s mad at me.”

“What? Why?” Another one of Krystal’s friends, Victoria, tilts her head. “You’re not mean. I mean, you’re a little quiet and distant, but not mean!”

“Shut up,” Krystal nudges Victoria. “Sojin, what did you do?”

I recount the story of how Kai and I first met, how he was furious with me after I threw a jab at him. How he solved all his math problems in a minute.

“Wh-what?! That’s all that happened?” Park Luna shrieks. “That’s so stupid! So he ruined your life just because of that?!”

I shrug. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. I can cope. There’s only 1 more year until we graduate, anyway.”

“Sojin... are you sure you’re okay?” Choi Sulli asks, her voice tender. “There’s no way you’re still so unaffected after all he’s done to you.” The next thing she does shocks me: Sulli wraps her arms around me and hugs me.

“It’s okay, Sojin,” she murmurs, patting my back. “Just let it out. It’s okay.”

“We’re here for you,” Krystal smiles, joining our hug. “We won’t let anyone mess with you in the future.”

Victoria, Luna, and Amber all wrap their arms around me too. I barely know these girls. I’ve spoken a total of 20 words to each of them before this.

Yet I find myself sobbing like a baby in their arms.

It’s like something crumbled inside me; some wall built up that finally gave way to the barrage of sorrowful emotions tucked inside my hard. My entire facade of coolness has come tumbling down. I am exposed to these 5 girls.

“I-It’s been so hard,” I hiccup. “Every day I wanted to cry, to scream that it wasn’t fair. But I didn’t want to say anything. I just took it. And when I tried to tell the principal... or another adult... they wouldn’t listen...,”

Out of the corner of my eye I catch a flash of denim blue. I turn just in time to see Kai staring at me, his expression unreadable. I look straight into his eyes, ignoring the tears streaming down my cheeks.

I stagger towards Kai, keeping eye contact with him.

“You,” Amber growls, marching up to him. “I don’t care if you threaten to shut down my parents’ law firm, you’ve gone too far this time-,"

I drop to my knees, kneeling in front of Kai.

“Sojin... what are you doing?” Amber whispers.

Krystal hurries over to me and grabs my arms. “Sojin, get up,” she pleads.

“Kai, please,” I beg. “It’s been a year. Please stop. I’m sorry for everything. I’ll do anything you want. Just... I can’t take it anymore.”

There is utter silence.

Then I hear the steps of someone walking away.

When I look up Kai is gone.