splinters 一 weak hero.

0-8

there was another one of them. seokjin. he passed me in the corridor with sticky, dripping hair, but no one said anything. i heard he had a similar manner to jimin in the way he conducted himself in his classroom: polite and quiet. i hadn't recognised his face as he'd brushed past with his head drooping at first, but afterwards, i spent a good deal of time feeling quite bad for him. because they'd all come at the same time together, they were all equally targeted. moreover, i think i knew who the culprit had been.

a cola-lover, an eccentric kid with blonde hair in a ponytail.

han junseo, class 1-1.

-

moonsik ditched pool again. he ditched my company over a ribs feast, something that i would have a forever grudge against.

'right, we're settling this once and for all,' one of my mates - seungbin - was declaring. i was with the cleaning rota gang (we were often put together to clean the classroom at the end of the day and had ended up forming a small friend group there) on a saturday afternoon. 'it's been a long time since we've been able to have a big match.'

grinning, i swung open the door to the pool bar.

there was a pause for two seconds. in the first second, seungbin's words died and withered away like leaves. in the second, the atmosphere took an abrupt shift.

'um, yejun?' hatsume said anxiously. i had my back to the place, but i'd already sensed something amiss without even turning around, without even taking note of the fear in hatsume's voice.

'where.'

'over there.' dowon tilted his head ever so slightly at the far table.

i cast my gaze in the mentioned direction, and felt my very innards recoil in disgust. a devilish smirk and hyena-keen eyes.

'if it isn't the little lapdog.'

a fire ignited inside of me, rendering me frozen, fingers quivering, heart going thump, thump, thump. i couldn't rope the others into this shit, nor would i be able to take junha on, with everyone here. this indescribable feeling of smouldering fear and loathing blazed inside of me until i could feel nothing but charred ash and grit.

lee yejun. get a fucking grip of yourself.

'don't tell me you planned this, too?' junha drawled out of the corner of his mouth to the individual sitting on the chair a few feet besides him. fucking nam kangho. the lot of them could just go die.

kangho grinned. 'how was i supposed to know a bunch of them would turn up? damn good coincidence, though...'

'yejun. let's go.'

the dimming fire slowly granted motion to my limbs and i spun on my heels, making for the exit. i hadn't made it three steps when a coarse hand knotted its fingers through my hair, almost yanking out the roots from my scalp.

'you think you can just turn your back on me and run away?' i felt junha's hot breath on my ear. 'lee yejun, i'm not giving you any lenience, you little bitch.'

stars exploded before my eyes as his fist came down onto my face and i recoiled, only managing to stay standing from the unrelenting grip he had in my hair. anger pulsed through my entire body once more, along with an agitated sort of realisation that i could do nothing in this situation. behind us, kangho was chuckling like a demented santa.

his knee came up without pause, fast and hard into my ribs and i couldn't stop the oomph from slipping from my lips. my face was already glistening from tears and blood, a prominent tingling on the bridge of my nose where i could feel a new bruise forming.