17. Fighting Back

"Should we go up to the roof?"

The fourteen year old boy looked up, squinting through the lock of hair framing his forehead as he looked at his friend. He frowned as he seemed to think it through, letting moments pass before he finally looked blankly.

"What?"

Jang Giseok groaned, flopping his huge body around. Even for a fourteen year old, he was quite big but as much as he looked like he liked to bite, he was mostly all bark in the group. His hair was combed slick in a ¾ part, the cow-licked sheen of his gel shining as the light reflected on it. His eating habits were quite evident on his face but he seemed to hold it out pretty well. He wasn't wearing his school blazer, he felt hot too often to handle the extra layer of heat even if it is well into October now. He sported simply his white school shirt and his baggy school pants hitched too well up his waist that it made him look like a character on the Chaplin show. The class was still very much going on and the English teacher always liked to lecture well past the bell. The class dreaded Fridays for this reason, the darned English teacher having his class right before recess. Now they would have to lose a few minutes to his unending and winding blabbering.

"We should eat on the roof. Yejeong wouldn't like it." Giseok repeated quietly, crouching low on his desk so that the teacher wouldn't catch him.

Taeho blinked and turned back, looking at the last seat of the classroom, right beside the window. She sat there, on the corner, straight black hair in a short bob cut and her fringes pinned to the side by a cartoon hair clip, a western one too at that. Peppa Pig. Taeho gulped. The light seemed to hit her pretty well from the window because she was looking strangely good, even with the nap marks on the side of her face and the school blazer that was a bit too big for her. Okay, a bit was an understatement. It was huge. It looked about Giseok's size and made her look like she was trying to imitate the Italian mafia. Her mother had said that she would grow into it, and Taeho figured that it ought to last her a lifetime now.

Because he sure knew that Yejeong was not going to grow into that humongous blazer.

Suddenly the incessant lecture that previously rang in the background suddenly seemed to cease and Taeho quickly turned back to the board, clearing his throat as he pretended that the textbook lying in front of him was the solution to all his problems and as a teenager, he had only one problem— Girl. More particularly, Bo Yejeong. Bo Yejeong who wears blazers ten sizes too big and wears Peppa Pig hair clips to school. All the other girls in their class had begun straightening their hair and wearing coloured lip balm to school and yet he wanted the one girl who can't even get her eye boogers out properly. He sure is fucked. And is it okay for him to say that now? Fucked. That's a big boy word. And 14 was a big number.

The teacher was staring– no, glaring a hole into Taeho as he willed himself to keep his head down and throw the performance of his life to appear as though he was engrossed in the textbook.

"It seems as though my lecture is boring you people." Mr. Po passively began, his eye twitching as he passed a knowing stare to a couple of students who thought he couldn't see them dozing off. A few students snickered, passing on jokes to each other and it only added to Mr. Po's thin patience. With an exasperated sigh, he slammed the textbook on his desk, making the students jump in alarm.

"All right! If this is the way you want to go, you can handle the chapter on your own. No more guidance or explanations! You students will teach yourself and I expect your worksheets by the end of this week since you all seem capable enough! Ten points deducted if you were to fail to hand your worksheet to me!"

With a huff, Mr. Po took a look around the classroom. It was a rural area, he didn't know what exactly he expected when he transferred here. But it was more a dire case than he thought it would beas there were only fifteen students in class and right now, half of them were asleep. The students couldn't care any more about their studies than they do about Mr. Po and he was livid as this was not why he became a teacher. He wanted to teach and grade papers, not helplessly stare at students who were too busy thinking about the harvest rather than their English homework.

"I expect fifteen worksheets on my desk on saturday! Class dismissed!"

The last two words rang through the class like magic words and it worked like a magic spell that would wake them from whatever delusion they were floating on. Recess was here! Their backs straightened and they rushed to retrieve their lunch boxes from their bag. Taeho quietly watched Mr. Po storm out of the class and turned back to Giseok, who sat behind him. His best friend was too busy lugging out his five course meal lunch box out of his bag. That's right. They need to eat on the roof.

Like always.

Whatever it is they look like, they looked like prey to the class bullies. There was always someone in class who liked to pull someone's hair and then relish the sadistic feeling of power over everyone as they bask in the following attention. It was twisted but it always happened. And they just so happened to be on the other side, the one getting their hair pulled. It was always either one of the three of them. If Taeho wasn't bullied for the fact that he didn't have any parents, Giseok was bullied for his size. If Giseok wasn't bullied for his size, Yejeong was bullied for whatever she wore. That was just the way things worked for them and the boys came to accept it better. They put the bullying behind them but Yejeong couldn't. She cared for the two of them and she wanted to fight back. And when she couldn't do anything, she cried.

But she fought back. She never accepted such treatment and the boys admired hdr for that. They respected her too.

"Jeong-ah!"

Yejeong briefly turned before waving to them as she cleaned her desk up, preparing to go over to their side. They were always together. Nothing separated them except, well, the seating arrangement set by Mr. Po.

"Bo Yejeong."

A set of shiny shoes appeared in her line of vision and Yejeong sneered in distaste. She looked up defiantly and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yes, Class monitor."

"Don't forget to complete the worksheet."

"You don't need to remind me, I know."

"Oh yeah? I just thought that you would need some guidance, seeing that the class is too advanced for you."

"What does that even mean?"

"What would you know! You are a stupid kid who still watches Peppa Pig! That's disgusting!"

"Hey! Watch your mouth!"

Taeho dropped his lunch box back into his bag and looked up, noticing the rising commotion and Yejeong's voice. He lost no time in hurriedly getting up, immediately making his way towards her desk.

"What are you doing?" Taeho demanded the boy standing in front of him.

The class monitor was built well for a 14 year old and Taeho was just a scrawny, barely fed kid. If it wasn't for Giseok's five course meal lunch, he would be even more of a lost cause as his grandmother could barely scrape by with their income and Taeho couldn't cook to save his life. Taeho knew that the class monitor could take him on any time and any how and he would be left battered.

But whatever dumb decision he made, he was going to end up beaten any way so why not strike the first punch?

"None of your business."

"Yejeong's my friend. We share all our businesses."

The class monitor scoffed, pushing Taeho by his chest, "What do you know about businesses? Orphan."

"Hey!"

"Taeho, stop!" Yejeong intervened, "Doyun, you're a jerk and you are not even making any sense."

"You wouldn't understand because you're a dumb cartoon kid." Doyun snickered, suddenly reaching forward to grab the clip on her hair.

"Ah!" Yejeong exclaimed in pain as he snatched the clip out of her hair, pulling her hair in the process.

"Stop wearing stupid things!" He snarled, throwing the clip down on the floor.

"Lay your hands off her!" Taeho growled, launching himself on to the class monitor.

The two of them fell in front of the locker at the end of the classroom as they struggled in a tussle, grabbing each of their blazers and desperately pulling each other. Taeho didn't know what he was doing, but he was sure that whatever it was, it was called 'fighting back'.