Don't Bully Me

I was thrown into a panic. I'd been in Class 3 for less than a day, but I had been relieved because no one had been openly proclaiming, 'I'm a delinquent.' But now I had ended up in trouble with a student from another class whose grade I didn't even know—someone I'd met at lunch, no less. Judging from the words 'Who the hell is that next to you?' they were probably upset that I, a stranger to them, had come with Yuna.

'Should I just ignore them and go somewhere else?'

Whether Yuna was worried about me or simply wanted to spend lunch quietly, she moved to find another seat, and after hesitating, I followed her.

"All right, Choi Yuna. So that's how you're going to play it? I'll see you later."

The kid ground their teeth and quietly fumed, expressing their anger through their eyes. Yuna found seats on the opposite side of the cafeteria and sat across from me, while I began eating without a word. Yuna picked at her food, watching my expression, then slowly opened her mouth.

"I'm sorry, Jia..."

"It wasn't your fault, Yuna, so don't apologize."

Yuna nodded slightly and quietly resumed eating. The food was clearly good at this school, but... after what had just happened, there was no way the atmosphere could be cheerful. Dessert was a small carton of Picnic apple-flavored juice. Like drinks in small cartons always were, there wasn't much of it, but it tasted good.

"Shall we go back to the classroom?"

After seeing that Yuna had finished eating, I suggested going straight back to the classroom with a slightly brighter expression. If I looked gloomy too, it might make things even harder for Yuna.

"Yeah, let's."

We put away our trays and left the cafeteria, then went straight to the classroom, grabbed our toothbrushes and toothpaste, and headed to the bathroom. Yuna and I quietly brushed our teeth and returned to the classroom, but someone called out to Yuna from outside.

"Jia, I'm just going to step out for a moment, so wait here, okay?"

"Uh, where are you going?"

I had a feeling I shouldn't let Yuna go... Could she have been bullied or subjected to something unpleasant by that group earlier? There was no way a student who had openly displayed hostility and anger bordering on murderous toward Yuna in the cafeteria would leave her alone. I took Yuna's hand and shook my head.

'Yuna is definitely being bullied. The students in our class may not know, but...'

It seemed that today they weren't so much upset with Yuna as they were with me, the person who had come with her. From the delinquent's perspective, Yuna usually went around alone and was easy to bully, so they probably disliked seeing her with a student they'd never seen before.

"If you're going, I'll go with you."

"Th-That won't work, Jia."

"I'm going. I won't say it three times."

I met Yuna's eyes and made my resolve clear. Yuna seemed a little flustered, but when she looked at the hand gripping hers tightly, she had no choice but to nod.

"Yuna's the only one who needs to come, so transfer student, you don't have to."

"I think I know roughly why you called her, so I'm coming too."

The student who had come to call Yuna said, 'I can't...', but when Yuna said, 'Jihye has business with me, doesn't she?' they returned to their class with an expression that said they had no choice and told us to go to the girls' changing room.

*

The kid who had picked a fight with Yuna and the student she had brought along in the cafeteria was a delinquent through and through. Just because a school had high academic standards didn't mean it could be completely free of bullying or delinquents. So the kid had used their above-average charisma to take whatever they wanted. There were sheltered kids who had grown up like hothouse flowers, rich kids, and students who had been admitted with partial scholarships because they were simply good at studying or exceptionally talented in some area.

She's exactly the kind of kid I can prey on... But what's with that pig?"

Yuna was the perfect person to exploit because I had leverage over her and could occasionally extort money or take whatever I wanted. But if someone everyone would want to protect stuck close to her, it would make it harder to vent my frustrations on her... I'd told one of my group members to call her to the changing room, so she'd be here soon. That boy was so timid that a little teasing or threatening let me use him however I wanted. He also kept his mouth shut and never went around talking about what I did. It felt good to have someone move at my beck and call.

'Hmm, looks like she's here.'

The kid knocked twice on the changing-room door and opened it, only to find that Yu...na wasn't alone. Why was that pig here? Had Yuna finally lost her mind? Was she trying to stand up to me even though I had leverage over her?

"I'm here, Hwang Jihye."

"Didn't I tell you to come alone?"

"You did, but she said she was coming with me."

Yuna held the pig's hand as she spoke. Since she seemed to trust this girl, Yuna looked less anxious than usual. The vulnerable look she had when I extorted money from her was less visible.

"Hey, Choi Yuna. I told you to come alone."

"I came with her because I said I would. Yuna was going to come alone."

What was with this girl? Did she think she was something special? Her chest was fucking huge, but she looked so frail she'd probably clutch it and collapse if I hit her once. What did she think she was going to do?

"You're bullying Yuna by using something she doesn't want to reveal as leverage, right?"

"What the fuck are you going to do about it?"

This bitch... She looked fragile, but was she a feisty one? What kind of relationship did she have with Yuna?

'I don't like her. Should I teach that pig a lesson?'

I grew annoyed, raised my hand, and swung my fist at the pig.

"Oh, look at you. Yuna, have you lost your mind?"

This bitch blocked my punch? Who the hell did she think she was, when she was supposed to be groveling because I had something on her?

"This is clearly school violence. I'll report you to a teacher."

"What, got proof?"

"Do you have proof you're innocent?"

Tch. If I called in all the students I'd bullied and questioned them one by one, evidence would certainly turn up, but I couldn't manufacture proof that I was innocent. Most of the students in the other classes had a bad opinion of me. That's why I ate alone too, to make it look as though I'd gone clean...

"Do you know about Yuna's past? She's a tota..."

"I don't. I don't want to know. If she wanted to tell me, she would've told me already."

"What?"

This was bewildering. Usually, when I said something like that, kids pretending to be righteous would make some excuse to Yuna and back off...

"You're upset because you bullied Yuna when she was alone, but now I'm with her, aren't you?"

"Yeah, so what are you going to do about it? Yuna actually has quite a bit of money, so she's easy to extort."

"Then bully me. Using someone's past as leverage to push them around is something only criminals do."

Before I knew it, she had moved Yuna behind her and was speaking boldly. I didn't like her. She seemed to be pretending to be righteous too, but wouldn't a few hits make her submit and end up in the same situation as Yuna?

"Yuna's really kind. She was kind enough to help me when we first met."

"Yeah, she's so softhearted that she lets someone like me push her around."

I should beat this pig out of the way and control Yuna however I wanted. But then the boy I'd sent knocked on the changing-room door and called, 'The teacher's coming, Jihye,' signaling me to get away.

"I need to finish this quickly."

I swung my fist to assert dominance, but Yuna blocked the punch I aimed at the pig again.

"I'm going to hit this pig, so move. Do you want to be hit?"

"Jia isn't a pig. Where have you ever seen a pig this pretty?"

Just then, I sensed that the teacher was on the way and tried to run out, but the girl named Jia grabbed me and refused to let go.

"Yuna's kind. She has no reason to be bullied."

"Yuna, are you all right?"

The teacher entered at that moment. Yuna's homeroom teacher.

*

After lunch, I was handling some minor tasks in the teachers' office when I hurried over in response to a student's request for help. Apparently, Yuna was being bullied in the changing room... Bullying usually started in the first year, and it was rare for it to suddenly begin in the second year...

"Is that really true?"

"Yes, teacher. Jihye, who's notorious as our school's only delinquent, had another student call Yuna to the changing room."

If it was Jihye... then she must mean Hwang Jihye from Class 8, a student who had been notorious since last year.

"All right, I'll go right away. Which floor?"

"The fourth floor of the main building, where Class 3 is!"

I nodded and immediately ran to the changing room. I heard Jihye and Yuna's voices from inside, so I opened the door right away...

"Huh? Jia, why are you here...?"

When Jihye saw me, she tried to run away, but Jia was holding on to her with all her strength. Her hands were trembling, but that was probably because she was putting all her strength into it.

"Jihye, didn't you say you wouldn't do it again? Were you bullying Yuna again?"

"No, this time I had business with this pig, not Yuna..."

"Don't call a student in my class that."

"What? Is she the transfer student?"

Jihye seemed a little surprised, but she quickly glared at me.

"If she's this fat, what else would she be if not a pig...?"

"Have you ever seen such a pretty girl? That word doesn't suit her. It's not something a teacher should say, but the word pig suits Jihye, who's full of greed and envy, much better."

Jihye grew furious at my words and complained angrily, but since I, her teacher, had witnessed it firsthand, she wouldn't dare lay a hand on a student in my class. I told Jia and Yuna to return to their classroom, then decided to call Jihye's homeroom teacher and discuss the matter. Seo Seongjin, the homeroom teacher of Class 8, would probably clutch his head in distress, but what else could he do? He was her homeroom teacher.

*

Yuna looked troubled, perhaps because she thought I would have a hard time after she brought me along when she could have endured it alone, or perhaps because she was worried the bullying would become worse.

"Yuna, are you all right? It must have been hard all this time, right?"

I knew that when, as at B High School, only a few students targeted specific classmates, bullying tended to become more covert and difficult for teachers to discover. In my case, the teachers hadn't helped either—they had called in students who didn't get along and said things like, "Now, hold hands and apologize." Looking back, what was even more disgusting was that the classroom was right next to the teachers' office. They had come because the classroom was noisy, not because they had any intention of finding out what was really happening.

"Because of me, Jia..."

"You think Jihye targeted me because of you?"

Yuna must have realized that she'd hit the nail on the head, because she only nodded slightly without saying anything. She seemed to have been planning to endure it and let it pass, thinking that she only needed to suffer alone, but if she held out like that, Yuna would be the one hurt mentally first.

"Jihye showed hostility from the moment she first saw me. It's not your fault; she's the bad one."

I took Yuna's trembling hand and tried to calm her down. Was this how I looked when I was trembling too? We looked like peers on the outside, but since I was slightly older, I should protect Yuna. I had felt that way too... When I was in school, it had felt as though school was everything.

"I-I guess so..."

"Right, Yuna's kind. She helped me even though we'd just met, and no one deserves to be bullied."

Yuna seemed at a loss, whether because the bullying had been difficult for her or because she was worried that Jihye's group would target her too. It was around ten when I entered Class 3, and it hadn't even been long since lunch, yet something like this had already happened... I felt uneasy at the thought that I might become the center of an incident.

'I'm already impossible not to notice, and if this makes things worse...'

Thinking about it made me dizzy. It had been hard to stand up to a group even when I was a man, and now I had to go through that again... Even if Yuna was the one experiencing it instead of me, it was still painful. I didn't know what Yuna's past was or what weakness Jihye had been using to bully her. I had no intention of finding out either...

"Thank you, Jia..."

"Huh? For what?"

"You helped me even though it had nothing to do with you..."

Yuna must have secretly hoped that someone would help her. But perhaps she wanted to maintain her image as a cheerful student in Class 3. If she maintained that image and endured, she might be able to make a close friend in her class, so that could have been another reason.

"Nothing to do with me? We're friends, Yuna."

"F-Friends? Really? We're friends?!"

Yuna had apparently thought of me as an acquaintance rather than a friend. I hadn't even told her my name... We'd simply crossed paths, and since she looked troubled, I'd helped her, so she probably thought we were the kind of people who would never meet again. Then, when she met me as a classmate, she was so surprised that she waved her hands wildly. Some of the other students also seemed a little startled by Yuna's reaction...

'Some of them were extremely surprised that Yuna knew the transfer student.'

Now that Yuna's bully was no longer bothering her, she should be okay... right? She had been incredibly happy to have made a friend, so I should keep spending time with her from now on. Still, something like this had happened on my very first day as a transfer student... School life really wasn't going to be easy.