The sky was dark. The moon did not appear in the sky and the stars were nowhere to be found. It was raining hard, damn hard. The temperature outside was only a few degrees above zero, and it would only be a few days before winter comes. Even with the blazing cold and the heavy rain, Seoul still sparkled with thousands of lights and countless sounds could be heard, even in that dead of the night. But there, in an isolated school building, nothing could be heard except for one lonely sound. Sobs.

                The hallway was dark. Everything around was so silent and the only light that shone was the fluorescent light bulb that clung to the restroom’s ceiling. There, sitting on the dirty tiled floor was a shivering girl, hugging her knees, crying and waiting patiently for someone to save her. Her clothes, shoes, and bag which were once spotlessly clean, were now smudged with mud, eggs, and flour that had been mercilessly thrown at her. Her body was numb from the cold, but she thought it was okay because she couldn’t feel the pain that stung her body anymore. Her arms, legs, and face were covered in the same filth, though she tried to wash them away a few hours ago. Blood trickled out of the new scars on her knees, legs, and forehead. The putrid smell of the eggs and mud surrounded her and she stunk, but it didn’t matter. She just sat there, precious truths and thoughts realized.

                  This is the natural order of things. She thought. There would always be people who’ll be squashed under other people’s feet, and she was clearly one of them. She pitied herself. How many times have she been betrayed? Made fun of? How many times did she get hurt? In this cycle of unbreakable humiliation, she’d never once escaped. She lowered her head and the moments of her terrorization replayed in her mind. More beads of tears flowed. She’d been too stupid. She never even bothered to learn from the numerous cases of somatic disgrace and incalculable damage they caused her.

                And all of these, all these deliberated unfortunate severe events that happened to her were the imbecility of loving a single boy who held her heart but jabbed and stabbed it with millions of needles. She felt foolish. Why did she continue caring for a person who continuously shattered her? She clenched her fist, gritted her teeth. She was boiling with anger. I hate him, she thought. But she released her clutch and softened her grit. How could she hate him? She could never do that. She spent the rest of the cold night in that comfort room realizing her stupidity, yet not planning to correct it. All that time, she focused on trying to prevent her persisting urge to hug a boy surrounded with thorns. Such a beauty it is, she thought, to experience such absurd love that hurts too much.