I feel like a zombie. Everything I’ve been doing, I’ve only been going through the motions. Even getting out of bed is struggle, but I somehow make it to school every morning. As dramatic as it sounds, nothing seems to matter to me anymore. And why should things matter? Why should I care about anything or anyone, when in the end I am either betrayed or left alone?

I hear the school bell ring, I pack my things and I’m out the door. Keeping my head down and eyes on the floor, I make my way through the crowds and head for the school entrance.

Even though I feel sunlight hitting my face, I only see an overcast day. As I’m walking, I subconsciously zone into the sound my steps on the gravel. I almost make it to the school gates, when someone grabs me from behind. Something gets put over my head, and everything goes dark. I’m being dragged away somewhere by what I feel like is more than one person. I should struggle, but I don’t. I let them drag me away to wherever they’re taking me to.  

We finally stop, and I hear someone say, “Okay take off the bag.” It’s taken off of my head, and everything’s bright again. I see a lot of girls standing in a circle around me, and it looks we’re all behind one of the equipment sheds near the gym, where all the students come to smoke because there are no CCTV’s.

“Well Jung Yoonjin.” One the girls speak up first, smirking. She’s in the same grade as I am, but a different class. “You must be worried about why we brought you here.”

I stay silent, looking down at the ground, as she continues. “We feel that you don’t deserve this attention that the Seoul National Six are giving, especially from Hanbin. You should feel honored that they’re talking to you, but what do you do? You embarrass Hanbin when he confessed to you. How dare you!”

I finally look her straight into the eyes, still not saying a word. When is she done with her rant?

“What?” she says, stepping closer. “Are you not gonna say anything? So you think you haven’t done anything wrong?”

I don’t need to explain myself to her. “Answer me, b*tch!” she yells, and within a second, she raises her arm and slaps me across the face. I hear one or two gasps from the crowd, but most of the girls are snickering. I feel the sting from the slap, but it doesn’t faze me. If this were a couple of days ago, I would have reacted very differently. But not now.

She grabs me by the hair and yanks my head close to her face. “Are you not going to repent for your actions?” she yells, clearly mad from my indifference. What is wrong with this girl, I think. I let out a chuckle and how crazy she looks, my first real emotion shown in days. I see her eyes widen in disgust, and she pushes me to the ground.

“Fine.” She scoffs, trying to regain her composure. “Maybe if all the girls here help, you’ll finally realize your wrong doings.” She waves the girls in to come in closer, and I see that everyone has something in their hands. Water balloons, paint cans, food. They’re about to throw it all on me, but I keep my eyes looking in front. The first thing hits me is a raw egg, and then everything else hits in one big splash. Different colors, different smells; as it is all thrown onto me, I’m still not fazed by any of it. Is this the best you girls can do? What I’ve been through is a hundred times worse. My dad passing away, my mom spiraling down and getting her back on her feet, working several jobs while trying to keep up with school so I can stay in this school. Compared to all that, how is throwing eggs at me suppose to do?

When they’re done throwing things at me, I see the surprise in their eyes. They can see that this does not affect me. One of girls’ expressions changes, she quickly walks up to me and slaps me in the face. Following suit, one by one girls come up to me.

My face has become numb and my body feel like it’s about to reach its limit. I don’t know how many blows to the face I’ve taken; I’ve lost count after fifteen. A girl from a lower grade is walking towards me, and she’s about to slap me like the rest of the girls have done. This is the last one I’ll be able to handle, I think to myself. She lifts her arms up and is about give me the last strike. I watch her as she’s about to swing, but all of a sudden, her eyes widen and she is frozen on the spot.

All the girls are talking amongst themselves, also shocked. Some girls even start to find ways to get away. What has happened? I turn around slowly to see what it is, and my eyes meet Hanbin’s.

When he sees me, his eyes are immediately filled with horror. I must look like crap.

The other four guys are also shocked at the sight of me. The image of them is held at a stand still for moments, when Junhwe is the first to move.

“What the hell did you girls do to her?” he asks, using the same tone that he did the night him and Donghyuk saved me.

“We-we were trying to get revenge for you.” A girl says, voice shaking.

“Who said we needed revenge.” Yoonhyeong-sunbae says. The conversation continues, but I’m not listening. My eyes are still on Hanbin’s and his on mine. He doesn’t move an inch.

I see girls running away, some trying to apologize and explain to the guys for what they’ve done, but the guys aren’t taking any of it. All the girls have left because it has become very quiet.

I feel something warm being put around my shoulders, and I turn around. Donghyuk wraps his jacket around me, and crouches down next to me.

“You okay, noona?” he asks, trying to give me reassuring smile like everything is fine. I nod.

“You sure don’t look okay.” Bobby-sunbae says, also crouching down, checking out the damage. “Let’s get you out of here and cleaned up.”

“I just talked to Jinhwan-hyung, and he says he’s on his way here.” Junhwe says, putting away his phone.

“Okay.” Bobby-sunbae says, and then he looks back at me, and he pulls me up with Donghyuk supporting me. “Up we get.”

We walk past Hanbin, I look at him, but he’s still frozen on the spot. I hear Yoonhyeong-sunbae and Junhwe talking to him and telling him to snap out of it. I want to turn around, but I can’t.

When we get to the gates, a van screeches to stop right in front of us. The window opens, and it’s Jinhwan-sunbae. He sees me, and his eyes widen in shock. He quickly gets out of the car and opens the door to help me get in. When they’ve gotten me in the van, the guys get in as well. Hanbin gets into the front seat. Jinhwan-sunbae closes the back door and gets into the driver seat. He looks over at Hanbin, and says something that I can’t hear from where I am sitting. Hanbin nods, and Jinhwan-sunbae reaches over and put his hand on Hanbin’s shoulder.

“Here. Use this for your face.” Yoonhyeong-sunbae says. I turn to him and he’s holding out a bottle of water. I blink at him, and he pretends to put the bottle up against his cheek, showing me what he meant. I take the bottle of water from him and thank him. I put the bottle against my cheek, and my whole body wakes up from the cold. I try to be as gentle as possible because of the pain, but the cold bottle on my face feels so good.

After a silent car ride, Jinhwan parks in front of an apartment building. The guys get out of the van, while Bobby-sunbae and Donghyuk help me out of the car again, and start walking me in. Jinhwan drives down into the parking lot, and as the car passes by, I see Hanbin sitting in the front, avoiding looking in our direction.

“Come on let’s go in.” Bobby-sunbae says. We all walk through the lobby towards the elevators. I can hear people in the lobby, and I start to feel my social anxiety symptoms kick in. But I can’t see any of the people. That’s when I realize that the guys have created a human barrier around me, blocking me from seeing them or them seeing me.

The doors of the elevator close, and the button with a 27 on it is pressed. “Don’t worry,” Bobby-sunbae says, “We’re heading up to my condo. There extra clothes and everything there, so you can get washed up.”

“Thank you, Bobby-sunbae.” I say, quietly. Bobby-sunbae looks at me, and smiles.

When we get to the twenty-seventh floor, we go into Bobby-sunbae’s condo, and Bobby-sunbae shows me to the master bedroom.

“There’s an ensuite here, so you can wash up here without worry.” He says, handing me a towel and a change of clothes. “As for the clothes, all of the guys have some of their clothes here, so I just found the smallest sizes.”

“Thank you again, Bobby-sunbae.” I say, not knowing how to express my gratefulness.

“No need to thank me,” he says, smiling, “I’ll let you wash up.” He’s about to walk out of the room and close the bedroom door behind him, when he peeks back in. “And enough of that stiff sunbae stuff, just call me oppa.”

“Huh?” I say, surprised.

“Too much?” he says, chuckling, “Okay, then just call me oppa whenever you’re ready.” He closes the door behind him, and I go into the ensuite bathroom and start to peel my soaked uniform off of me. As I’m getting ready to go into the shower, I catch a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror, and I see why the guys looked so horrified when they saw me. My hair is a mess and is covered with different colors of paint, and bit of tomatoes and eggshells. But what’s worse is my face. The one side that the girls kept slapping is swollen and has hand prints marked on my cheek. Most of it is red, but I can see some purplish bruising at places. I poke at one of the hand prints, and I wince at the pain. I start to pick out the eggshells out of my hair, and I start to think what have I got myself into.

After managing washing everything off of me and getting into the clothes that Bobby-sunbae gave me, I sit on the bed of the master bedroom. I feel the exhaustion kick in and I lie down. I’m just gonna rest my eyes for a couple of minutes, I tell myself. There is no way I’m going to fall asleep, that’d be embarrassing. I close my eyes and I listen to my steady breathing. Many thoughts run through my mind, and after a few moments, my thinking becomes more and more blurry. Although I told myself not to, I couldn’t help but fall asleep. 

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Thank you for reading!!! :D