Chapter 1: The Heroic Nerd?

"Stop! Stop making fun of me!"

Since young, due to my family's expectations, I was expected to do exceptionally well in everything. Be it academics or sports, I have to be the best in order to fit into the family.

Being smart comes with a cost, unfortunately... Due to observations by my classmates, I was being perceived as a nerd who does not know how to have fun. It was frustrating, but there was nothing I could do to stop them from making fun of me.

Constantly being mocked, constantly being physically bullied, it soon became a routine in my school, and something unavoidable for me.

One day, I tried to fight back by telling my classmates to stop to no avail, but the answer was still the same...

"You should have gone back to your wormhole and stay in there forever, you bookworm. Your existence disgusts us so much."

I was hurt by those words, my eyes began to form tears. Everyone began to call me a worm and I ran away from school afterwards, not wanting to hear another word from my classmates who have been treating me as though I am trash.

"I'm not a worm... I'm... not..." I mumbled to myself as I walked down the deserted alleyway.

I was having enough... I really wanted to put an end to this... Maybe I am better off dead... Maybe that would make everyone happy.

Determined, I began to fasten my pace as I looked for a way to end my life. However, as I was walking, I heard someone groaning in pain so I took a peek.

"What's wrong? I thought you said you are strong, Kang Chanhee? What? Suddenly lost all your nerves?"

One of the gang members scoffed as he gave the victim another kick on the stomach. My eyes widened and I was panicking. Should I save him or not? Should I just run away?

Without giving a second thought, I threw my bag aside and ran towards the gang, pushing them away with all my might and said, "Hey! What do you think you are doing? This is wrong!"

The gang looked at me, slowly bursting into laughter as though I was a joke to them. One of them, probably the leader, scoffed, "Hah! What is this four-eyed girl gonna do? Cry for help?"

The gang continued to laugh till their stomach hurt. I clenched my fist and slapped the leader in the face, shivering uncontrollably as my fight-or-flight instincts kicked in. He glared at me and groaned, "You bitch... what do you think you are doing?"

I stuttered, "W... What do you think? Doing what's right! Y... You think you are a gang, so y... you can just beat this guy up? W... Well! I already called the police! Y... You better r... run before they come and arrest you!"

"S... Shit... Let's go, guys!"

Who would have thought they believed what I said?

I fell onto my knees afterwards, taking lots of deep breaths as I tried to calm myself down. The shivering was so bad that even my vision was shaking. I mumbled, "Ah... thank god they are gone..."

Realization hit me when I remembered that I was doing all this to protect a stranger who was getting beaten up by a group of older-looking guys. I turned to him and stuttered, "H... Hey! Are you okay?"

The victim grumbled, "Y... Yeah... I'm good. Thanks... though you really didn't need to do that..." He got up and just left without a word. I wanted to stop him, but words would not come out of my mouth as I tried to call out for him.

I sighed and got up slowly, "...What the heck am I even doing...?"