.  The plastic bucket was shallow, but it was enough to sustain my body on it. Being unsteady on my feet for a second, I barely kept my balance and looked down over the window, then at the moment, I exclaimed almost like a shriek.

  “Ahhhh!”


  Having Hwang Siwoo at the head of his clique, a group of boys in our class was surrounding Ban Hwee Hyul.

  Hwang Siwoo, who seemed to lead the situation, was just smoking a cigarette while leaning against the wall; the boys, who looked like Hwang’s underlings slapped Ban Hwee Hyul on his head, which was able to call as an example of bullying.

  My face turned pale. The reason why Ban Hwee Hyul came early to school would be probably because those boys had called him out around this time.

  It was likely to get caught by other people or by seniors when doing those actions after school. However, I never even imagined that they would do such a thing so early in the morning before the usual time when students came to school.

  ‘Argh…… what should I do? What can I do in this situation?’ I wondered while tearing my hair out in agony. Meanwhile, the level of violence against Ban Hwee Hyul kept increasing. One kid didn’t just poke Ban Hwee Hyul’s head with his finger but grabbed Ban Hwee Hyul by the collar. Taking a deep breath, I switched my gaze to Ban Hwee Hyul.

  So to speak of Ban Hwee Hyul, he just shoved his head onto this chest just as he usually did in class. Without any signs of resistance, he just swayed his head by their force. However, Ban Hwee Hyul was way taller and bigger in physique than the other boys; thus, the one who actually grabbed Ban Hwee Hyul by the collar began to look exhausted.

  The boy then threw Ban Hwee Hyul to the ground and suddenly lifted his foot.

  “Uhhhh!” I let out a short shriek in the end.

  Ban Hwee Hyul’s school uniform was quickly getting dirty by a cloud of dust. Besides, Hwang Siwoo, who was leaning against the wall, seemed to join bullying Ban Hwee Hyul soon after.

  My chest was pounding; my knees were like jelly, but then I directed my eyes to the bucket under my feet. Thinking about Eun Hyung, who continued worrying about me more than my mom, I tried to let things go and not care about these kinds of situations. However, I couldn’t this time.

  Picking up the bucket immediately, I turned on the faucet that was often used to wash the mop. Once the water gushed out of the tap with a loud noise, it even splattered to my face too.

  As half of the bucket was filled with water, I turned off the tap then moved to the window while holding the heavy bucket in my arms.

  As if I was offering a sacrifice, I tiptoed and raised both arms with the bucket inside high up in the air.

  SPLASH! The water poured out from the bucket and fell down to the dump right away. There was a loud noise from the bottom.

  “URGH! What the F*CK! What’s going on?!”


  “Who spilled water? Who the heck is it?!”


  “Are they cleaning the rooftop?”


  “Hell, no! Which floor did it spill from?”


  Listening to their mad shoutings, I was about to retrieve the bucket as soon as possible.

  Each floor had the women’s bathroom at the same location; our school was a five-story building. In other words, those boys had to search, at least, five bathrooms to find me. It was enough time for me to escape from this place and move to a safer place from them.

  However, there was trouble from something unexpected.

  “Ah……”


  The bucket I tried to retrieve back into the bathroom got stuck on the windowsill. While I was at a loss for words, it fell down over the window. A big noise came after.

  “Siwoo sunbae!”


  “Oh my GOD!”


  Listening to them screaming, I quickly noticed that someone had become a tragic main character who had a bucket over his head.

  At that moment, someone else shouted again, “I saw everything! It was from the women’s bathroom on the third floor!”


  “Third floor? Isn’t the person in our grade then?”


  “You’re dead meat for real if I catch you!”


  I had a vain hope that, just in case, the boys would step back since it was from the women’s bathroom. However, I erased that hope from my mind as I heard a girl’s voice among them.

  ‘Shoot! That’s why we must always be careful before acting boldly……’ Disheveling my hair, I began to look for a place to hide.

  Should I hide in the toilet? They would, of course, catch me one hundred percent then. Even though I lock the door tightly, they would just wait for me until I come out. Thus, it would be a big problem whether I go out or not.

  If I just left the bathroom, they would definitely catch me; if I didn’t, they would grasp that I wasn’t showing up in class. Hwang Siwoo would then notice my identity.

  Argh! That’s why we should always think twice before getting involved in a big situation! But, did I even had a chance to hesitate?! Rambling such thoughts in mind, I wasted more time. As I became more nervous, I bit my lips. If they dashed toward this place at full speed, they would have arrived on the first or second floor.

  First, I flung open the bathroom door. There was indeed a loud noise coming from downstairs. Before they came up to this place, I headed toward the staircase. As soon as I turned around the corner of the stairways and went upstairs by a hair’s breadth, I found a group of human figures dashing into the third-floor bathroom.

  “Phew, that was close. Good job, girl!” I murmured in a low voice while staring at the sight in the dark.

  If the person they were looking for was using the sophomore bathroom, the person would be definitely a sophomore. Thus, they would start searching the sophomore classrooms after looking at the bathrooms. Actually, I headed toward a random place; however, it was a splendid choice!

  Nodding my head, I kept watching the situation. Just as I had expected, the boys came out from the women’s bathroom while finding nothing. Turning around, they shouted, “Sh*t! Go search for all the classrooms!”


  ‘Phew, things are going on just as I’ve expected……’ I exclaimed at my brilliant decision again then soon turned stiff as something flashed through my mind.

  ‘Ah, hold on,’ I murmured. I left my backpack in the classroom…… Besides, my workbooks were on my desk as if I was full of will to study alone early in the morning. Those things would, therefore, definitely come into their view.

  ‘Jesus, Christ!’ With my head in my hands, I said to myself, ‘No, I can’t get caught like this! No!!’ That was when I shrieked in silence.

  A seizure-like screaming came out from the classroom.

  “What the heck?!! It’s a ghost!!!”


  “No, take a careful look!”


  And very unanticipated words continued.

  “That’s Ban Hwee Hyul!!”


  “What?! Hell, no! How can he arrive here faster than us when he was collapsed on the ground until just now?!!”


  “Holy sh*t! That’s a buzz kill! Dude, let’s go! Go search somewhere else!”


  Speaking those ways, Hwang Siwoo’s clique then scattered away.

  Watching that sight, I let a small sigh out of my mouth. Holding the stairway handrail, I slowly collapsed to the floor.

  “I made it……!” Murmuring that way, I touched my chest. My heart was still pounding crazily. Feeling worn out, I kept saying to myself, ‘So never act like the main character with a heart of a supporting role.’


  Without moving an inch for a while, I just stared at Hwang Siwoo and his boys searching for their target. Actually, it would be precise to say I had no energy to move rather than not moving an inch. My legs were so like jelly, I couldn’t even conceive the idea of running away.

  Thankfully, the boys seemed to find no one except Ban Hwee Hyul while looking inside all the classrooms from here to the end of the hallway. In the end, they began to consider that Ban Hwee Hyul’s doppelganger might have attempted to pour the water from the bucket to them.

  “Doesn’t he have a hidden twin brother? So one was with us at the dump, and the other was pouring the water to us from the bathroom then returned to the classroom.”


  “You freak, do you think that makes sense? Besides, the one we saw in the classroom was also wet. How can he be someone else then?”


  ‘He was also wet?’ Wondering that part for a second, I soon realized that the water could have splashed Ban Hwee Hyul since he was standing close to those boys.

  ‘I feel sorry for that……’ I apologized to him in my thoughts. The weather was still very cold outside, so it would be big trouble if he caught a cold. He would have brought his gym clothes, right? Having those thoughts in my head, I stared at the classroom anxiously.

  No one went in or came out of the classroom anymore. Crouching down on the staircase for a while, I just spent time that way. When it eventually became eight-ten in the morning, which wasn’t a strange time to go to school, I headed toward the classroom.

  I didn’t go inside straight but attached myself close to the wall and looked inside the classroom reflected on the mirror near the backdoor. Only Ban Hwee Hyul’s big and muscular view from the back came into my sight.

  Heaving a sigh of relief, I walked into the classroom waveringly.

  Ban Hwee Hyul seemed to sense my presence. He turned his head toward this direction. I raised my hand embarrassedly and said, “Uh, hi.”


  Though I greeted him that way, I was honestly a little nervous since he could point out that I didn’t bring my backpack to school, which was too obvious.