Sticks and Stones • Park Jimin

ii.

The boy - Kyung-soo - stood at the front of the class. The teacher had stepped out on an errand, and now it was time for the class to decide where to go for their upcoming class trip.

"I want to go to a museum!" someone in the back said. Jimin didn't know her name because she'd never bothered talking to him.

"No, we should go to a water park!" a boy said, but Kyung-soo just grinned and shook his head.

"Let's go to an amusement park!" He laughed, looking directly at Jimin as he held up a hand. "Oh, but you have to be this tall to ride the rides. Whoops."

The class laughed, and Jimin sat down further in his seat, making himself seem even shorter. He tilted his head forward so his hair fell in his face and partially obscured his eyes. Not that he was about to cry. He'd heard worse. But it wasn't just once a week now, it was every damn day, and he was sick of the laughter, of the jokes, of the taunts and the pranks and the punchlines all coming back to him.

Why him? He wasn't the shortest boy in class. And he wasn't the ugliest. At least, he didn't think so.

But when he looked in the mirror, he thought that he was okay with what he saw. Sure, maybe he would change a few things, but he liked himself okay. So why didn't they? What did they see that he didn't?

He didn't understand. And the less he understood why they teased him, the more they teased him. He wanted to stand up for himself, but that was a lot easier to say than do. None of his friends were in his class. There wasn't anyone he could rely on. Everyone was against him.

So Jimin just sank down in his desk, hid his eyes, and waited for the final bell to ring.