This is Helen, 14 years old. His dark circles feel as if he has never slept enough. He doesn’t care about his messy black hair, since he doesn’t like to put too much effort on tidying himself up; it’s unnecessary.
His seat is at the back of the classroom, next to the window; he always sits there drawing quietly, as it is like everything to him. He doesn’t like to socialize with people, making him a lonely one.
There was a person being pushed to the floor after school. That’s Tom, who is always the victim of bullying, not because he did anything before, it’s just the dislikes of people around him. These things happen often, and Helen is used to it. Though he does feel bad for Tom, he doesn’t want to interfere, as it is quite bothersome.
During recess, Judy says she’s missing her watch as she searches for it. Helen doesn’t help her, since it’s none of his business. Suddenly, someone sees something flashing in Helen’s bag.
“What’s this?” Ban says, as he puts his hand into the bag, and takes out a watch that is trimmed with fake diamonds. Helen is very surprised to see it, as he does not know how it got there. “Ah! That’s my watch!” Judy receives the watch from Ban after seeing the situation. Both of them stare at Helen with a weird glare. “It’s not me” says Helen, who is still drawing on his notebook without raising his head a bit. “Yeah right” Judy leaves the classroom with Ban as she concludes.
The following day, as usual, Helen sits at his table drawing. He notices that the atmosphere doesn’t feel right around him; people start whispering about him, and even a few starts calling him a “Thief”. He decides not to explain for himself, as he knows that it’s useless to do so.
As time passes, Helen becomes the new target of victim for people to bully; everything he does now is being exaggerated. He doesn’t like it, but he doesn’t resist. He keeps the feelings in his heart, keeping silent.
Until one day, Ban came to him and snatched him notebook, with his unfinished drawings on it. “Always doing these meaningless things” Says Ban as he tears down a few pages of drawings, tearing them into pieces, wanting to see Helen’s reaction. At this rate, the feelings that he has been holding bursts out. He punches Ban in the face, and starts the fight. Helen isn’t that powerful however, so he was beaten up in no time. Other students went to see the fight, without stopping it; some people even stomped him in his face and stomach.
Right after the bell rings, everyone stops what they’re doing and went back to their seats before the teacher came. Helen returns to his seat, as if nothing happened. The teacher enters the room later on, “Oh my, Otis (Helen)! What happened?” Helen has so many visible bruises on him that the teacher notices right after she enters the room. Everybody turns to look at him, waiting for him to give a response while glaring at him with a murderous look. “I fell from the stairs, Miss.” Helen replies as the glares disappear.
After returning home from school, his parents also ask him what happened, and he responds with the same answer. The blue jacket he is wearing covers all of the bruises other than those on his face. His parents believe it without doubts. Usually, when Helen’s parents ask his about how he is at school, he always says he’s fine. He even lied about making a lot of friends, living happily every day. Helen refuses to tell his parents the truth, since he doesn’t want to make his parents worry about him.
A few months later, he has gotten used to the negative comments about him, and getting hit or humiliated has been a normal event for him; he is completely immune to these things now. Who framed him in the first place? Why did the culprit do this? This doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing matters anymore now.
“Hi! You there?” Helen receives a message from an unknown user on Facebook. “Who’re you?” He replies. “I’m Tom, your classmate.” Tom has never interacted with him before. This surprised him a bit. “What is it?” Helen says. “Um… are you alright?” “It’s none of your business.” Helen concludes Tom’s question. Tom types for a while before coming up with, “Listen, I know how u feel right now. You’re in the same situation as I am. I really want to help u, but I can’t… sorry.” Afterwards, Tom and Helen text each other for a long time, and Helen feels much better after telling him all the pain and feelings he has been through. He can even joke around with Tom, often using “ : )” to show his happiness. This is the first time he thinks he has made a friend.
