“Phew, I’m not late today. Hell yeah,” Kyung said while panting before he placed his bag on the floor and slide into his seat. He was lucky considering the fact that he woke up later than he should today. He checked his pocket a hundred times before leaving the house to make sure he didn’t forget his wallet again. Although he was a new kid here, no one actually cared to start a conversation with him. They treat him as if he wasn’t even there. Oh well, not like he cared to talk to them too anyway. He didn’t plan on making many friends here, after what had happened last year. He pressed the button on his smartphone to look at the time. Class was almost starting in about 15 minutes but there were still many empty seats. After finally catching his breath, Kyung stoned for a moment and decided to take out a book to read while waiting for the first period.

As he was flipping through the pages, a few guys surrounded him. Strange, no one would approach me, what more talk to me. In some ways or another, they gave off a rebellious aura. Why would they want to talk to me? He sensed something wrong. Kyung took a deep breath and squirmed a little, perhaps to wait for them to just go away. They were staring at him. He looked up from his book, to find 3 guys in front of him. The guy beside him bent down to pinch Kyung’s cheeks as if he’s a little preschooler.

“Transfer kid, eh? Aigoo, you’re so cute…” he teased me with aegyo, but sarcastically.

Kyung tried hard to ignore him and focus on reading. Eventually Kyung couldn’t take it anymore. He gave up.

“Wha..what are you doing…” Kyung said in a pleading voice, somehow trying to convey to him that he feels uncomfortable. Obviously they didn’t get it.

Kyung turned his face away and leaned back to avoid the guy from pinching him any further.

“Can I… help you?” Kyung asked, almost quavering while he rubbed his cheeks to relief the pain.

“Nah, you help yourself,” one of them said sarcastically then smirked to the guy beside him.

Puzzled, he opened his mouth to ask what the guy meant. Before he could do that, the guy beside him picked up the book Kyung was reading and threw it across the room, and it flew outside. Kyung’s mouth opened slightly in shock. He knitted his eyebrows and glared at them. They smirked and simply shrugged. He watched them walk to his other classmates to bother them verbally. His classmates were all staring at the 3 of them, not daring to make a single noise. Hah, school bullies, Kyung figured. No wonder no one dared to move and inch or say a word. No one even dared to ask what was going on. He couldn’t do or say anything to them since he was just a transfer kid. He didn’t know them at all. He was practically helpless.

He dragged himself to the doorstep where his book flew to. He sighed. Same again. He squatted and picked up his book. He tried to smooth out the crumpled pages with his palms. While he was still squatting right in front of the doorstep, Jiho squeezed into the small space to walk through the door since Kyung was blocking him. 

“Doesn’t he have a mouth? Can’t he say ‘excuse me’? Or even just wait for me to move away? Aish…” Kyung mumbled to himself.

Since Jiho just entered the class, all the attention went to him. He received stares of admiration and of course, girls greeting him. He kindly just nodded his head. The 3 bullies stood in front of Jiho right away when he entered to bow at him.

“Good morning, Sunbaenim*,” they said while bowing.

“Why are you here? Isn’t class gonna start soon? Stop bothering people. Go,” Jiho clearly stated to them with a strict tone.

“Got it, Sunbaenim. We’ll go now. Good bye, Sunbaenim,” the guy who pinched Kyung said with such a formal tone.

They bowed again and left right away. Woah, he even commands people now, huh. Kyung thinks its impressive how even bullies listens to him. He’s just good looking, what makes him so popular? Good looks are really something nowadays… Feeling down, Kyung rested his head on the table. Must be nice to be popular. Sigh. What luck I have.

Kyung was walking home alone on the ridiculously long road to the school gate since Na Young, Ha Yi and Jaehyo had detention. Some time to himself. This is nice… after a bad start in school... Kyung inhaled the sweet air and enjoyed the nice weather. He swung his bag to his chest and ped it to take out his earpiece when he felt a smack on the back of his head. Kyung jerked. The person who just walked past him used a thick textbook to hit him on the back of his head.

“What the hell…?” Kyung murmured.

Just a few seconds later Kyung got another 2 smacks on the same spot simultaneously. Then the both of them walked really quickly in front of him, brisk walking towards the person who hit me with his textbook. Kyung squinted his eyes. Apparently it was the 3 bullies earlier.

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author's note: i'm terribly sorry for the lack of quality for this chapter. i'm not very good in bullying topics, please pardon me... i appreciate your comments, thank you very much!