Seven years later.

Seokjin kept his eyes fixed on his desk from the back of room A-3. He had just entered the classroom and realized that someone had red-tagged the following inscription:

"I really am a moron, what the hell am I doing here?!"

It wasn't the only time this year that someone wrote such an inscription on his desk but this time, someone had also carved it with scissor blades. Even if he erased the red ink, there would still be the engraving.

"So beggar, happy with the new decoration of your table?" Yoona, one of his classmates, asked.

Seokjin gave her a faint smile but didn't answer, not knowing what to say. His classmates never bothered to hide their wrongdoing: they didn't need to. They were rich and it was their parents who kept the school going. No doubt the teachers made sure they weren't punished, because they never were, while he always was.

"Hahaha! look at him, he's still smiling, he really doesn't know how to do anything else!" Ha-Neul - Yoona's best friend - giggled.

Two boys entered the classroom at that moment and walked past Seokjin, the tallest of them giving him a heavy shoulder smack that made him wobble.

"Taehyung, Jimin, look at this!" Yoona shouted to them, "the beggar had a new table decoration for free!"

Taehyung didn't give a single look at the table and sat in his place near the last row window and pretended to fall asleep with his head in his arms but Jimin giggled.

"Seokjin, aren't you tired of being called the moron? You should make an effort to study more!"

He took a math textbook out of his bag and threw it without warning at Seokjin who didn't have time to catch it and received it in the face in the general hilarity of the class.

"Here, I'll give it to you since you still haven't bought yours, but you should hurry: the final exams are in a very short time and it seems to me that you want to integrate the high school of your dreams at the start of the next school year!"

Seokjin bent down to pick up the manual and hugged it. He said gratefully:

"Thank you, Jimin, I will take care of it and I will pass my exams thanks to you. I'll find a way to thank you, I promise."

"No but, ha ha, I told you that guy had no pride!" Sung-Ho said for everyone, as he landed a resounding smack on Seokjin's head. "Study well Jinnie the moron!"

Seokjin nodded and let the other boy press both hands on his shoulders to make him sit up while he smiled at his textbook, happy to know that he was going to be able to catch up a little behind his classmates.

However, the instant he made contact with the chair, he let out a cry of surprise mixed with pain and jumped to his feet, causing everyone to turn around and even raise Taehung's head.

"Yaaah! Why are you yelling like that early in the morning? You scared me, idiot!" he exclaimed, annoyed.

"S-sorry," Seokjin stammered, gritting his teeth to keep from whining as he rubbed his pants on the back of his thigh.

"OMO, look at his pants!" Ha-Neul cried, crying with laughter and clutching her sides.

On the back of his upper thigh, Seokjin's uniform—his only uniform—was holey and scorched around the tear. Through the hole, everyone could see the slightly burnt skin.

Everyone burst out laughing at this pathetic sight and Seokjin felt humiliated. He took off his sweater and tied it around his waist to hide the hole that threatened to reveal his underwear at the slightest movement.

"That's enough everyone, go back to your seats!" the voice of their main teacher for this last year of middle school, Mr. Cheon Young-Soo, suddenly ordered.

"Wow, seonseng-nim!" Jimin exclaimed pretending to cough and blow imaginary smoke around his head, "Seokjin smokes in class and he might set it on fire!"

"Sorry?! Seokjin, have you lost your mind?!" the teacher asked harshly startling Seokjin, without thinking for a moment of questioning Jimin's word.

When Seokjin, still in shock of what had just happened, didn't answer, M. Cheon walked over to his chair and saw the cigarette that had gone out when he sat down on it but had had time to make the beginning of a hole in the chair.

"You wanted to hide your misdeeds but you failed pathetically, you thug! And look at this table! So like that, the courses of our school bore you because you are too stupid? Does that give you the right to damage school equipment?!"

"No, it's not me, it was already like that when I arrived this morning," Seokjin explained in a small voice.

"Stop your lies a bit, no one in this class except you could do such a thing, your classmates are much more aware than you of the importance of school materials," the teacher replied unceremoniously. "But I wonder: if you don't even have money to pay for study books, how can you pay to replace your desk? Did you do it because you thought no one would ask you to pay it back?"

"I-I'll have to pay it back?!" Seokjin exclaimed in panic.

"Of course, what do you think ? But in the meantime, you will study on this desk and on this chair which you damaged. By the way, I see that you finally have a manual?" Mr. Choi noticed. "It would be time at the end of the year, copying everything by hand is not a suitable way to work because you waste time on your revisions."

An overly loud exclamation of surprise was heard and made everyone turn around in the direction of the desk in the last row near the window:

"But... seonsaeng-nim, it's Jimin's book, I recognize it!" Taehyung said in mock shock, one hand over his mouth. "Could it be that he stole it from him?"

Seokjin's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in amazement.

"But..." he started.

"Is that true, Jimin?" the teacher cut, frowning.

"It's not true, Jimin gave it to me," Seokjin tried to protest.

He was not protesting because he had just been wrongly accused. that he was used to. No, he was protesting with the force of despair because he finally had a math textbook to work more efficiently and faster. That was really important to him and he didn't want it taken away from him as quickly as it had been given to him, it was too unfair.

"I didn't ask you, Seokjin," Mr. Cheon replied, "Jimin?"

"Hmmm," Jimin said, pretending to frantically search through his bag, "now that Taehyung points it out, it's true that my book is no longer in my bag and I remember mine was dog-eared just like this one! Wow, I didn't think Seokjin was a thief, I'm shocked !"

An exaggeratedly shocked exclamation ran through the class and the students began to chant:

"Thief ! Thief ! Thief ! Thief ! Thief...!"

Outraged, the teacher grabbed Seokjin's arm hard to force him to turn around, causing him a grimace of pain and feel the worry win him over.

"Not only are you degrading the equipment made available to you at school, you smoke, you don't have your own equipment to work with and you are a thief?! What are we going to do with you?! You are truly the disgrace of our school, Kim Seokjin, I pity your sponsor that you dishonor by your conduct. He is really a generous man to finance the studies of a scoundrel like you."

Seokjin felt his ears turn red with shame.

"Sir, you know I have health issues, I can't smoke, you have to believe me, it wasn't me, someone else lit that cigarette here to make you blame me!" he cried despairingly.

"You created your own health problems by smoking, that's all I can understand now, so stop lying and accusing others. Your coach won't be happy to hear that, he had a lot of hope in you. You can be sure that I will inform him. Get out of here now. Jimin, take him to the principal's office and tell the principal what happened. This time, Seokjin must be punished properly for what he has done."

"Yes, seonsaeng-niiiiiiim!" Jimin crooned as he stood up and seeing that Seokjin was petrified, he grabbed Seokjin's arm.

"Why did you do that?" Seokjin asked, letting himself be dragged away by the other when he was in the hallway.

"Oh, I hurt your feelings, didn't I?" Jimin scoffed. "I did it because it's fun that's all."

"No, it's not!" Seokjin replied bitterly.

"Stop complaining! You just had to have money," Jimin retorted, "nobody would bother you and you could have had school stuff instead of looking like you were living off the hook of a rich family and being a thug."

"It's not like I chose to be poor! Please, I just want a math book to study, I'm not asking for anything else, let me end the year in peace and I won't see you again, I promise you!" Seokjin whined, who wanted nothing more than to finally leave this school and its bullies.

"Oh, Seokjinnie, if I don't have to see you again next year, I have to use the time of this year to do whatever I want with you!" replied the other boy.

He suddenly stopped in front of a door that led to an empty room and pushed Seokjin inside before closing the door and turning on the light.

"Ouch!" Seokjin shouted as he fell to the ground.

He got up immediately when he saw Jimin roll up his sleeves. Although the boy was smaller than him, he scared him. Because Jimin was not afraid of anything, his family ensuring his back. Whereas he, Seokjin, couldn't rely on anyone. If he went after one of his attackers, he would be in serious trouble, probably fired from school and home. He could only suffer, never defend himself. He could only be afraid of them.

"Please..." Seokjin pleaded, stepping back as he saw him walk towards him. But he soon reached the wall and could go no further.

"I will miss your whining you know? After all..." Jimin said smiling.

He punched Seokjin in the stomach which made him double over and took his breath away, preventing him from screaming.

" ...Next year... "

New punch.

"...I will have to find..."

New punch.

"...Another punching bag."

He finished with a kick to the jaw that knocked Seokjin to the ground after banging his head hard against the wall. The poor boy was struggling to catch his breath and didn't have the strength to get up immediately after that.

"Oops, don't tell Taehyung I hit your head, he wouldn't be happy, okay?"

"O-okay..." Seokjin said as he rubbed his aching head.

"Ah, I warmed up for Taekwondo practice earlier, thank you Seokjinnie!" Jimin said, smiling and extending his hand to Seokjin to help him up as if it was not him who had just beaten him. "After your interview with the principal, will you go get lunch?"

"B-But...the...the classes," Seokjin stammered, still gasping for breath.

"Oh, I think the principal is going to keep you all morning, you don't deserve to go to class. If you're quick with lunch and I enjoy it, I might consider giving you the lessons I've copied.

"B-But you never copy the lessons, I'm the one copying them for you and Taehyung!" Seokjin protested.

"Really? Oh that's right! Well you just have to go around the classroom to see if someone wants to pass them to you so that you can copy them for Taehyung, me and you!"

"Please Jimin," Seokjin said, in the verge of crying this time, "the football season is ending and the final exams are coming, I don't have time to copy all your lessons and mine too, and you know no one will want to give them for me! Can you ask someone and make photocopies for the three of us, just this time?"

Jimin scratched his head and pretended to think.

"Mmmmmh... I would have love to help you Seokjin, but Taehyung likes your handwriting, he says he learns better than with photocopies from your notebook or someone else, so you have no choice!"

Appalled, Seokjin preferred to be silent. He didn't know why he kept hoping for some empathy from them. At school, he was their victim and no one had any pity for him. He was their enforcer. Was it better at home? He wished he could say that, but he couldn't. Some days like this, he didn't even want to go home at the end of the day.