“Beep! Beep!” the high pitch screeching of an alarm clock startled Soojung. Her hands scrambled about lazily in attempt to put a stop to this loud noise. Click. It stopped.

It was yet another Monday morning, and Soojung dreaded Mondays. To her, Mondays meant school, and school was living hell. An audible groan slipped from as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up slowly. Her long brown locks flowed past her shoulders and ended right above her waist. She pushed her hair back and dragged her feet to the bathroom, where she would soon get ready for school.

Soojung is a beautiful girl. Her small pointy nose and beautiful brown eyes would attract boys easily, if it weren’t for her large pair of nerdy glasses. Being that her eye sight was really bad, she had no choice but to wear this pair of glasses and it had brought her surprises that she never imagined.

With her long, skinny fingers, she set the pair of glasses upright on her nose, adjusting it ever so often attempting to make herself look better (although she knew it wouldn’t make a difference). Her hands swiftly brushed through her hair and then straightened out her uniform.

“I’m leaving for school, mom!” she called before grabbing her bag and leaving through the front door.

The sun shined, the birds chirped, and the flowers swayed gently to the rhythm of nature’s music. But Soojung didn’t notice any of this after she entered the gates of Seoul High School. Her eyes were constantly looking downwards, making an effort to direct all attention away from her.

She soon arrived in front of her homeroom and made her way to the back of the classroom, where her seat always was. Despite her reputation at school of being the shy and quiet one, Soojung is a really bright girl. She was always in the top 10 (grade wise) and never got a grade less than an 80.

She took her textbook out of her bag quickly and quietly as to not direct any attention towards her. But of course, her efforts were futile – there was always a predator stalking the prey. She felt their eyes on her, burning her skin. It was as if she could feel the insults coming.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. She suddenly thought. This made her chuckle a little, the thought that innocent little 5-year olds could believe that this was true had amazed her. The reason why? It was because words do hurt.

The footsteps neared, and so did the insults.

“Hey you 4-eyed monster!” Her eyes dashed to the owner of the voice, Sunggyu, one of the popular boys in school, and the leader of a group called “Infinite,” which consisted of a few other boys who behaved just like he did.

Soojung sighed quietly, “Hi, Sunggyu,” she said and looked back down at her textbook quickly.

“What, is the freak scared of me? There’s no reason for you to be scared, I am the nicest person ever.” Sunggyu said acting offended.

“Right, I must be stupid to be scared of you.” she replies growing more and more threatened by the second.

“Smarty pants Jung Soojung is stupid, guys!” Sungyeol chimed in. The other few burst out into fits of unstoppable laughter as Soojung remained afraid of looking into their eyes.

Infinite behaves like a group of elementary school students, even thought their actual age was years beyond that. They respond to any challenges given, occasionally laugh because of the word, “”, and think that “fists work better than words.” They haven’t matured at all since then. But even so, Soojung was still afraid – afraid of a bunch of elementary school students who held the most authority in the student body.

Sunggyu began to walk away and the rest followed him. She kept looking at her feet until they all left, but one pair of shoes remained.

Worried, she looked upwards. It was Myungsoo. He rarely ever spoke to her, made fun of her, or even laugh at her. Heck, she’s never even seen him talk to another girl in class on his own free will.

“Are you here to make fun of me too?” she asked with a quivering voice when she saw Myungsoo staring at her.

His arm extended forward and his hand landed on her head. He patted her head. Her eyes slowly looked upwards to face him.

“Hey, don’t get affected by those idiots. Don’t listen to them. Okay?” he whispered to her with a smile. She smiled in response, glad that someone is willing to talk to her.

Soojung nodded, and Myungsoo smiled once more before turning to catch up with Infinite.

Her hand slowly rose up to touch her chest. She could feel her heart banging against her chest. It felt like it was speeding up and beating faster, and her cheeks felt hot. Her hands touched her cheeks and she smiled slightly.

“Good morning class! Alright, now open up to page 137!” boomed Ms. Song.

After class, Soojung ran out of the classroom hurriedly so she could reach home without meeting Sunggyu and causing any trouble.

“Oh! Sorry!” she called when she ran into a firm and steady figure. The crash knocked all of the books out of her hand and sent her glasses flying towards the feet of the other person.

Soojung immediately knelt down to pick up her fallen belongings. She tried her best to locate the books through the blurry sight that appeared before her eyes. Once all the books were in her hands she looked at the feet of the standing person in front of her. The fuzzy image of shoes gave her an oddly familiar feeling. It can’t be…it’s not Sunggyu…right? She thought, fear filling her heart.

Her eyes looked upwards. It wasn’t Sunggyu, but Myungsoo instead.

“Seems like you’ve dropped your glasses.” He told her, kneeling down to face her. His eyes scanned her face, analyzing her glasses-less appearance.

“It seems so…” she replied, feeling her face burn from his stare.

“Why do you always wear these stupid glasses?”

“Huh?” she asked, taken aback, half expecting him to begin making fun of her.

“I mean, you look pretty without these,” he told her waving around the bulky piece of plastic.

“Me? Pretty? You’re kidding, right?” she chuckled, t