People Change | Yoonmin

Introduction

     Since Park Jimin was in 3rd grade, he's been bullied endlessly for being too "feminine". He gets picked on, teased, and harassed for his looks, but the adults around them think they're just messing around like kids usually do. Jimin didn't mind it too much until around 5th grade.

     The bullying started getting too much for him. How could he stop it? How could he stop the bullying, the teasing, all of the stuff that the adults thought was just fun and games. He tried to tell the teachers, but they wouldn't listen. Jimin gave up on telling people because it was useless. No one listened to him and no one helped him. It seemed like the entire school was just out to get him. It was all because of his feminine facial features, his cute pastel jackets and colorful shorts, his sparkly blue converse shoes and light pink hair. It was just the way he is.

     Finally, he had too much of the bullying. Jimin was sick and tired of it all. He wasn't happy anymore, he hadn't been in a long time. There was only one option, he thought, to get rid of this all. Jimin figured this would go one forever if he didn't do something.

     By 6th grade, Jimin was found unconscious on the bathroom floor with slit wrists. The blood had poured out and onto the white tiles of the cold ground, staining the shiny plates and the grout between them. He was immediately rushed to the hospital, and thankfully, was able to survive, despite his dismay.

     Once Jimin was released from the hospital, it was time for questions. Jimin told his family everything through broken sobs, he told them the teasing and the torture that he went through every day at school. It felt so good to tell them everything that was going on, to vent his feelings after all the years..

     Jimin's parents signed Jimin up for a therapist just shortly afterwards. She was really kind, and asked Jimin all sorts of questions. After a few sessions, the therapist suggested that they move and sign Jimin up for a different school. Jimin's parents figure this is a good idea and they decide to move from Busan to Daegu, which was only half an hour away. This was far enough away that Jimin wouldn't come across anyone from his old school, which made Jimin feel a lot better. But it wasn't good enough.

     Jimin still felt scared that people would bully him for his femininity, so he decided to wear a mask to cover his face and started to wear clothes that weren't as feminine. His mask was a  white mask with two golden symmetrical markings on either side of the mask next to the eyes and a marking on the forehead, almost in the shape of an upside-down triangle. With this change, he felt more confident. He thought people would finally stop bullying him, and he was right.

     Jimin joined his new school just a few months into the school year feeling super happy. As he walked to the bus stop, he put his mask on. His parents didn't know about the mask, they only knew that he changed his style a bit to help reduce the bullying. They weren't aware that Jimin would try to hide behind a mask for the rest of his time in school. He went the entire day with his mask on, ignoring the weird looks he received from other people. Jimin felt so happy, so relieved. Not one person bullied him on his first day! No one approached him at all.

     This continued for the next week. No one approached Jimin because of his mask. Jimin started to feel a bit disappointed. The point of his mask was to stop the bullying so that he could finally make some friends! And it was stopping the bullying, but now no one wanted to be near him or talk to him unless they had to.

      After a while, Jimin stopped hoping. He realized that with his mask, no one would want to be friends with him. He was happy enough that the bullying had stopped, so he focused on schoolwork instead. Because of the bullying, Jimin was always really stressed and sad, so his grades weren't the best. Now that he isn't being bullied, he can finally work on his schoolwork and maintain his grades well.