Help || Hwang Hyunjin

THREE

"You never learn, do you?"

His voice lingered in my ears like a lost, muffled sound.

"Hyun- Hyunjin?", I stuttered. The bully rolled his eyes.

"You know, it feels like you two imagine yourselves to be living in some K-drama right now," he voiced out his thoughts.

"Step back, Chanji. You are overdoing it now," Hyunjin said to the boy, with a certain depth of anger in his eyes.

I signalled Yuna and she almost immediately got up as we tried to leave the scene while Chanji was defending himself.

I bowed to Hyunjin, as my heart swelled with gratitude and I gave him the most genuine expression I possibly could.

"Get over yourself," he lastly said to Chanji before joining us which surprised me.

"Has there been some bully like this?" he openly asked my friend, while standing right beside me.

"No. Not that I have been aware of", Yuna replied, still looking shocked, "She has always been an extremely quiet girl, but she never has had a reason big enough to have someone bully her".

It was a little uncomfortable to be between the two who were talking about me like that but nothing hurt me and both were being honest.

Nevertheless, Yuna, living up to her title of being my best friend, noticed how I wasn't acting normal and immediately excused herself, saying that she had to quickly grab something important from her locker before she could head back to the classroom.

"Honestly, I'm not surprised at him acting like that. He doesn't need a specific target. He goes bullying people every time he gets a chance," Hyunjin said.

"So, you guys have some sort of history?", I asked as I could sense by the way he was talking, he had been experienced with Chanji.

"We have been in the same class for perhaps half a decade. If I'm not wrong, he was there with me even when I was in 6th grade," he replied as we were still strolling around the corridor and this time, I felt strange. There were girls all over the place, glaring daggers at me.

"Did I do something?" I whispered to him, expecting him to notice the girls too.

"Ah... well, being so good comes at a cost," he said, getting cocky.

"Oh... So, what exactly is happening right now?" I asked, still not completely sure of what was going on.

Hyunjin looked at me as if I had just said that 10 added to 10, gives you a hundred.

"Fangirls, duh", he said, taking some sort of pride in that as he emphasized with smiling ever so sweetly to one of the girls who started wiping her imaginary sweat while Hyunjin simply continued with his act. I cringed at the sight and gave both, Hyunjin and the girl, a dirty look.

"What the fuck is your problem," the girl spat and I was not expecting that.

"Oh, it's nothing. Don't mind her. She doesn't mean to judge. She is just not very self-aware, you see", he replied to the girl at which she seemed to be extremely satisfied.

After going a few steps further, I shot him a glare.

"What do you mean by 'she is just not very self-aware, you see'", I said trying to mimic him.

"Well, yeah, you should be knowing that someone like me will have girls like her drooling even if I step into shit", he laughed.

I now felt bad for the girl.

"I just learnt something", I said, expecting a 'what?'

"Yeah?"

"Yeah..."

Still no 'what'... He knew very well that he was getting on my nerves as he gave me a familiar smirk.

"Fine. Even if you didn't ask, I'm just going to say it myself," I said, getting tired of his conceited self, "never judge a book by its cover. Boy, you can be snotty and it's not pretty."

He had the nerve to laugh at that and I thanked the bell for ringing right then as I gave him one last look, before heading back to my class.

---

Three periods had passed and now one was remaining- Maths. The thought of our teacher entering our class gave me chills. It was one subject that I sucked at.

It was not long before the stern woman entered the class, with her rimmed glasses sitting low on her nose bridge, her shoulders and chest flexed back as she looked at a particular boy with gritted teeth. Though I felt bad for him, I was just glad that it was not me whom she was looking at. It didn't take too long for her to explode.

---

After surviving that period, we were officially given the freedom to head back to our dens. Yuna and I walked to our respective buses after bidding a dramatic goodbye.

I boarded the bus to bump into someone's back and I could already sense that I was in trouble.

It just had to be him. It had to be Chanji.

"You sickening stick," he spat at me.

This time, I could already feel my eyes stinging while the tears were swimming there, threatening to fall at any time. Chanji didn't have the brains to know why I felt sad. I felt so bad for two reasons: firstly, he had no idea of everything that I was going through for him to so blandly call me a stick, and secondly, I was ashamed of myself for actually finding the tiniest bit of joy at hearing that I was skinny...

"I am sorry... I didn't see you", I let out, frightened at what the volatile animal would do or say.

"Unless you are blind, it is impossible for you to not see my six feet self, standing right in front of your fucking eyes."

Turns out that a lot of things aren't impossible.

I was fine with swearing but when he swore, it was terrifying.

Suddenly, I went through some sort of déjà vu.

I felt a palm being placed on my shoulder most gently.

"Chanji. And people like you are said to be civil." 

It was Hyunjin.