The World Is Cruel to Us 💎 yungi [▶]

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⚠genderswitch

Yunho as Yuna

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Her name is Jung Yuna (hangul: Jeong Yun-A).

A nine-year-old with round eyes, chubby cheeks, a plump body, shoulder-length hair, and her bangs always falling to cover her entire forehead. She never felt confident about her wide forehead. Not a popular kid, not bullied either. Not an exemplary student, not a mischievous troublemaker. Not a bookworm, not a teacher's pet. Just an ordinary little girl. Average. And she feels relieved that she doesn't stand out. She doesn't like being the center of attention.

Yuna never thought too much about the big differences between boys and girls. When she admired the leader and main dancer of TVXQ, U-Know Yunho, she thought she could be like her idol someday.

But her mother, ironing her school uniform, just laughed, "The entertainment business isn't suitable for sweet girls like you, Yun. Besides, even if you become a successful singer, most women only last 2-3 years. The expiration date for women is faster than male singers."

Yuna just pursed her lips for a moment and grabbed her TVXQ CD, a gift from her father for her birthday last month.

Then she started thinking about the differences between boys and girls. She realized her mother started asking her to do household chores much younger than her brother is now. But because he's a boy, her mother never asked her brother to help sweep or accompany their mom in cooking. His heaviest household chore is washing the dishes, and sometimes, just sometimes, taking out the trash. Yuna often does that too because her mother is lazier to yell at her brother.

But life goes on. Yuna is still too young to grapple with gender roles in society when there's a math homework assignment waiting.

However, everything changed when the fire nation attacked.

The fire nation is Song Mingi, one of the boys in her class.

A boy with narrow eyes and two slightly crooked front teeth. He claims they're not baby teeth, so he'll have those crooked teeth until adulthood, unless he decides to fix them in the future. On the left side of those crooked teeth is a space where every time he laughs, he shows that empty space. The cause is that the side tooth just fell out last week, and maybe it will grow perfectly to cover that space in a few weeks.

But it's not the boy's physical appearance that changed part of Yuna's life at school.

Mingi is usually a good kid, just like Yuna. But for some reason, he's been enjoying lifting Yuna's skirt so everyone can see her white underwear. Today it's white lace. Oh, yes, Mingi started doing this two days ago. And he remembers when Yuna's underwear was white with a little flower motif. Today it's white lace.

And Mingi isn't just labeled as a naughty or mischievous kid because he does it only to Yuna. He doesn't care when the little girl screams and asks him to stop. Even Yuna almost cried because not a single kid in the class helped her. They joined Mingi in laughing at her. Mingi enjoys seeing Yuna's round white face turn red with embarrassment and anger; it's very amusing for him. Like a red tomato. A delightful sight.

Once again, Yuna doesn't like being the center of attention. But Mingi makes her so.

Even though Mingi is shorter than her, Yuna doesn't dare to fight back because she knows if Mingi retaliates, she won't win. She also never reports to the teacher or her parents, even though Mingi never threatens her. She just feels she doesn't need to. That's it.

Until the next day, it happens again. Like something repetitive.

But today is different.

Not because, in the end, Yuna couldn't defend herself and cried. Because Mingi still laughs at Yuna's tears. No.

What makes it different is that today a hero emerges among them.

Her name is Choi San.

She scolds Mingi about how it's inappropriate to do that. That Yuna is not a puppet he can play with as he pleases. If adults were watching, they might question how a nine-year-old could say those words.

And why is San defending Yuna now? Because this is her first day back to school after a full week of resting at home due to a fever. So this is the first time she witnesses Mingi harassing Yuna.

She confronts Mingi, whose body is as tall as his, blocking him from lifting Yuna's skirt again. Her eyes sharpen, trying to intimidate. Mingi doesn't feel it works on him, of course. But he is quite impressed with San, who is so brave when other kids can only join Mingi in laughing at Yuna.

"Why? Do you want me to lift your skirt too?" challenged Mingi with a mocking smile, inviting even more laughter from their classmates.

San smiled sardonically, defiantly, "Courageous with a girl. Coward. If you dare to harass a boy, go ahead!"

"You—" Mingi, annoyed, clenched his fist but didn't throw a punch because he thought he won't do that to a weak person like a girl. So he just pushed San's small, slender body until the girl stumbled backward, her back hitting the teacher's desk. She winced in pain. Mingi walked towards her, carrying the triumph of laughter.

"Wanna be a hero, huh? Be strong first if you want to fight me. Such a weak creature. Skinny and sickly." Mingi smiled disdainfully.

San felt angry at that mocking statement. Mingi didn't need to bring up her physical issues, as if the boy is as strong as Kim Jongkook. San, feeling indignant, quickly grabbed a flower vase from his teacher's desk and smashed it with all his strength onto Mingi's head, causing the hard object to break into several pieces on the floor. Mingi's head isn't as fortunate as the vase, but when he screamed in pain, fresh blood flew from the torn cut on his temple. Some splatters of blood have already stuck to the glass shards. Everyone is shocked, including Yuna. But not San. He felt satisfied.

"What are you doing, Sani?!" panicked Yuna, wiping away tears on her cheeks roughly. She has stopped crying for herself; now, she worried that San will be blamed for her actions.

"Just leave it, Yun. Naughty kids like him need a lesson so he won't dare to harass you again. I heard this is the fourth time he's done this to you. It can't be allowed."

"You're so cruel, Choi San! Look at Mingi's bleeding head!" shouted another boy who can only panic as he supports Mingi, who is swaying but didn't collapse. Mingi only groaned and didn't know what to do. The class hasn't started yet, so one of his friends went to report to their homeroom teacher.