I know, I know… I'm late… I'm sorry.

-"Humans do not remember these talks. To them, it is always just a dream."-

Shi-Woon sat up in his bed slowly, trying to ease into wakefulness so that he could keep the dream he had been having with him as he woke. The dream had felt important. It felt like it was making a point, or telling him something about his future.

But the farther Shi-Woon's head went from the pillow, the faster the dream disappeared.

Shi-Woon sat in his bed for a few long minutes, trying desperately to bring back the edges of the dream, trying to jog his mind with thoughts that would bring up even a scrap of the memory. It left his mind in a whirling mess, as if it was trying to assemble a puzzle in the dark.

Finally, Shi-Woon stumbled out of his bed, giving up on the hopeless mission.

Shi-Woon got dressed slowly, his eyes landing on a pile of his wet clothes from yesterday. The thought left a bit of happiness behind.

Shi-Woon wandered into the quiet kitchen, watching how the rising sun lit up the white walls. He grabbed a hardboiled egg and a piece of toast, and noticed that there was a new bottle of milk in the refrigerator.

The sun felt warm on his hands and face, and Shi-Woon got ready for school in the peaceful atmosphere.

He left the apartment slowly, walking in the brisk morning, watching the people begin to start their daily rush.

He watched them carefully. Watched the fruit stall set up its tent and lay out its produce. Watched a young mother kiss her child goodbye at a storefront. Watched two people chat in the coolness of a building.

He felt awake. He felt aware. Shi-Woon felt like he was involved with the world around him. It was… weird.

He arrived at his school before the bell, but not so early that he avoided the crowds of children. Shi-Woon stepped into the tide of students, letting them guide him up the steps into the school. He maneuvered through the crowd working his way towards his classroom.

"Shi-Woon!" A high-pitched voice called out, stopping him in his tracks. Shi-Woon glanced over his shoulder to see Sae-Hee working her way through a group of students to get to him. Her brown hair was pulled away from her face in a half ponytail, leaving her bangs to frame her eyes. She wore her uniform correctly, which was a novelty at this school, her jacket correctly buttoned over her blouse and her skirt staying at mid-thigh length. Shi-Woon was struck by how responsible she seemed.

"Where have you been? I've been looking for you since yesterday!"Sae-Hee's face clouded with anxiety. "I heard what happened in you home room. Did you really get into an argument with Mr. Wooseong? Why would you do that? It's so unlike you!"

Shi-Woon shifted uncomfortably at the disapproving look she sent him. But he didn't have an answer for her. How could he possibly describe how his body moved on its own, or how it felt like someone else was using his voice?

Sae-Hee waited for him to respond, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she tried to wait him out.

The first bell rang and Shi-Woon let out a sigh of relief. He gave Sae-Hee a sheepish smile as he scratched at the back of his head. "I have to get to class."

Sae-Hee's mouth took an unimpressed turn and Shi-Woon saw a –pink haired green-eyed beauty with a hell of a temper.-

"This isn't finished, " She warned him.

Shi-Woon scurried away from the girl trying to escape the uncomfortable atmosphere. He ducked into his homeroom and was met with something much worse.

The students were all staring at him. They were no longer peaking out of the corners of their eyes or turning quickly away when his head turned towards them. Now they were staring blatantly, whispering behind hands as he moved towards his desk.

The looks were scorching against his skin, making his ears go red with their heat. But the heat was soothed by the icy trickle of fear when he saw Chang-Ho and his crew watching him just as intently.

But with the mixture of embarrassment and fear was a slab of indifference. –'Let them look!'- It seemed to say. –'And I'll give them something to look at!'-

Shi-Woon sat down at his desk, keeping his eyes low so it wouldn't catch any of his peers'. He stayed like that for the entire twenty minutes before Mr. Wooseong arrived for class.

From there things went back to relative normalcy. Mr. Wooseong continued to make cutting remarks about certain students grades and behaviors.

They were introduced to a new Infirmary doctor. The woman had been a shocking beauty, though she seemed to be a little inappropriately dressed for her current job. The woman had smiled happily into the camera leading to the televisions in all of the classrooms, leaning forward so that most of her bosom was on full display to the high school audience.

Shi-Woon had stared in shock and embarrassment.

'She must be really strong' Shi-Woon thought to himself. 'All strong women have really big boobs.' The idea seemed odd to him, but it had the same rightness that the idea that good teachers were perverts. There was no way Shi-Woon could explain it, it just was.

Chun-Woo had all but ignored Shi-Woon during his moments to teach. He had read woodenly from a book about literature, ignoring any questions or attempts to interrupt. He had ended with a self study as he pulled out his phone to play games on it.

Shi-Woon had tried multiple times to get Chun-Woo's attention, but the teacher seemed to have an amazing ability of not caring. He would meet Shi-Woon's eye, or see Shi-Woon raise his arm, and he would plow through to whatever else he was lecturing about. If you could call it lecturing.

Shi-Woon felt like he was physically suffering through the classes. He knew there had been a change yesterday, knew the promise that Chun-Woo had made to him, but here they were in the same old day, doing everything the exact same way. It was maddening.

But Shi-Woon finally made it to lunch, and without a second spared, Shi-Woon left the classroom, avoiding eye contact with any possible antagonists, skipped past the lunch room, and found himself a corner of the school where no one visited. He sank himself down by a wall next to a corner, hoping to avoid anyone who might want to do him harm during the lunch break.

He had wanted to be by himself for a moment. There just seemed to be so uch attention focused on him today that Shi-Woon didn't feel like he could figure out what he was feeling.

Shi-Woon leaned against the warm brick wall, looking up at the ceiling as his mind started to wander to the past couple of days.

"Shi-Woon, there you are!" A light voice came from behind startling the sophomore, and breaking his train of thought. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

He turned around to face his childhood friend. "You make it sound like I was hiding, Sae-Hee," Shi-Woon mumbled.

The brunette smiled at him. "Are you saying that you weren't?"

'Not from you,' Shi-Woon replied mentally.

"Is something happening at home?" Sae-Hee continued when all Shi-Woon did was look away. "Is everything okay with your mom? I know she works pretty late…"

Shi-Woon sighed at the line of questioning. Why did Sae-Hee always ask about stuff she knew about already? "I'm fine. I was just tired yesterday so I got annoyed when Mr. Wooseong kept yelling at me," Shi-Woon half assed, curling up against the wall.

"It's not nothing, Shi-Woon," Sae-Hee sighed. "You were never this moody when you were a kid. You were always smiling and so happy back then." Shi-Woon grimaced. "Seriously, Shi-Woon is something wrong?"

Shi-Woon thought about telling her something. Perhaps try to describe the constant harassment he got everyday, or how he felt disconnected from his body, or his near death experience yesterday or how he was now going to learn how to fight. But each choice he thought of was connected to the next. If he told her anything he would be telling her everything.

Shi-Woon was chewing over his options, Sae-Hee patiently waiting for his answer, when his time was up.

"Hey, what's this? I didn't know you had a girlfriend, Shi-Woon."

Shi-Woon froze at the mocking voice.

Chang-Ho.

Shi-woon clambered to his feet turning to look at the group of boys who were slowly spreading out around them.

"Uh, who's this?" Sae-Heee asked, her nerves cracking her cheerful voice. "Friends of yours?" She hoped, looking over at Shi-Woon nervously.

"Yeah, that's what we are," one of the seniors answered with a grin. "Friends."

The rest of the group snickered at the joke.

Shi-Woon's gaze flickered to Chang-Ho, trying to gauge just how bad this was going to be. The boy was grinning along, but seemed to be settled with watching what was going to happen next. It was equal parts reassuring and distressing.

"Come on, asshole, who's your sweetheart here?" One of the teens with an underbite sidled up closer to Sae-Hee, who understandably backed away.

Shi-Woon looked towards his feet, hoping that no answer would bring attention away from his best friend and more on to himself. He couldn't fight yet. He hadn't even started learning from Chun-Woo. If he tried anything now he would just get Saw-Hee and himself into more danger.

"Oi, brat," someone shoved his head forward. "Aren't you going to answer your 'friend'?"

Shi-Woon grit his teeth and pulled his mind further away from reality. Maybe if he didn't pay attention, this next part wouldn't hurt as much

"Come on, sweetheart! At least tell us your name."

"Ah! Let go of me!" Sae-Hee yelped, bringing Shi-Woon immediately into reality.

The sophomore looked up to see the boy with the underbite yanking Sae-Hee by her arm towards the others. She looked frightened. Her eyes were large and glassy as she leaned back with all her might, trying to yank her arm out of the other boy's grasp. The boys around her were grinning to each other, and the boy with the underbite continued to talk to her, grinning at her discomfort.

The implication was obvious.

-"Like hell."-

Shi-Woon's body thundered forward. He grabbed the malign arm pulled his arm back, chambering his fist under his shoulder.

"Let go of her, bastard," Shi-Woon yelled before unleashing the punch into the dwarfed jaw of the jackass who just tried to hurt his best friend.

The punch was devastatingly weak in Shi-Woon's eyes. The boy looked like he got slapped.

There seemed to be a roll of silence, a moment where everyone took the same breath.

"The hell!" The boy yelled out, grabbing Shi-Woon's jacket and pulling his arm back for a wild swing.

Shi- Woon kicked out, aiming for the kids unguarded stomach. But it felt like his leg was dragging through molasses. And when the leg finally connected to the soft side of the teenager, it hit felt shockingly weak. Sure, the boy still bent double, clutching at his stomach as all the air was shoved out of his lungs, but he didn't go anywhere. He wasn't forced away from Shi-Woon's space like Shi-Woon had been naively expecting.

"You little creep!" A shout sounded behind him. Arms entered his periphery vision and again, Shi-Woon's body moved on a long forgotten instinct.

His knees buckled and his feet swiveled. His back curled and he was under the arms trying to grab him. He was weaving out of the sandwiched position between the two high-schoolers. Even as he moved to escape the grab, part of his mind remembered exactly where Sae-Hee was moving to keep himself between the girl and the group of thugs.

Shi-woon straightened back up, looking around carefully at the four other boys. As he stood up though he found himself gasping for breath. Each drag of hot air into his lungs burned his throat and made his sides ache. It felt like he had been running for hours!

The confusion started to rise up in his mind again, clouding reality with this film, making things fuzzy at the side. Or maybe that was the lack of oxygen since he found himself panting harder trying to get enough air into his body to stop the aching in his chest.

The panicked voice of Sae-Hee broke through Shi-Woon's glazed mind. "Shi-Woon!"

Shi-Woon twisted left to look at her, make sure she was okay, but she was looking to his right, eyes wide in fear and shock.

A hand grabbed his collar, blunt finger nails pushing through cotton to pinch and scrape at his skin. His body was yanked forward, pulling him down and off of his feet.

Shi-Woon turned his head to look at his attacker. The world spun before one of Shi-Woon's eyes locked on the face of Chang-Ho. The bald high-schooler's face was a mask of concentration and rage. The image would be stuck in Shi-Woon's mind forever, even as the raised fist knocked into the outer bone of his eye-socket knocking him to the ground with a flaring pain causing his vision to flash reds and purples.

"Little bitch!" Chang-Ho grabbed Shi-Woon's collar. "I'm gonna beat the fucking shit out of you!" He snarled yanking Shi-Woon around on his knees so that he was facing him again. He pulled back his arm, in what would have been a powerful punch, but Shi-Woon moved first.

When he had been hit, it had been disorienting and he had been knocked off his feet. But he had been able to pull a foot under him while Chang-Ho had been threatening him.

He shoved off of his foot, tucking his chin, gritting his teeth as he powered forward, aiming as best as he could.

His forehead met Chang-Ho's chin, knocking the boy's head back. It made teeth click together, grunts of pain to be snarled out.

Shi-Woon staggered at the blow, clutching at his head as a headache raged behind his eyes.

That had not been the best idea. He must have hit with the wrong part of his forehead, because surely a head butt shouldn't hurt this much.

There was a battle cry before Shi-Woon was tackled to the ground again. A heavy but lean body straddled his stomach, trapping him to the ground. A hand grabbed his collar once more, yanking him forward to strike him down.

Shi- Woon couldn't stop the onslaught. His body kept being yanked around, up with a pull down with a punch. He tried to swing out with his arms, but he was so overpowered he only met air.

Unable to retreat or attack, Shi-Woon was let with trying to defend his face. His hands and arms came up trying to cover the area, trying to soften the blows.

Shi-Woon had just received an awful hit to his mouth and lower nose when the blows weakened before disappearing completely. The heavy weight was lifted off his chest, allowing the young boy to curl onto his side like he had wanted to do the entire beating.

Cool hands touched at his hair and face. A sobbing voice called out his name.

Shi-Woon peered out of his protection to see Sae-Hee kneeling next to him, tears dripping down her cheeks as she tried to check him over with her hands.

She kept babbling apologies as she simultaneously tried to bring Shi-Woon closer to her as well as keep him away so she could look at this bruises.

Shi-Woon glanced past her, seeing Mr. Wooseong holding a screaming and thrashing Chang-Ho back. Blood was sluggishly making its way down the teenager's face, streaking over his lips and teeth that were showing in a snarl.

Relief relaxed Shi-Woon's body into the ground, crashing his head needlessly onto the ground and bringing the headache back full force.

"Ow." Shi-Woon groaned out.

One step forward… two steps back… But at least I had some forward momentum there! Eh? Eh?

I'll try harder for next week, Rayakashi.

Thank you for reading.