I dreaded coming back to school on Monday after what happened at the family gathering over the weekend but running away and hiding is something that I told myself I would not do as Jenn. No, not in this life.
When I entered the classroom though, an all too familiar scene was unfolding but with just a different actor.
"So let's see what we got here", Hechan was standing at the back of the classroom again with his usual posse, holding a smartphone in his hand which was clearly not his.
"Stop-"
"Who gave you permission to speak?"
:Whack:
Hechan's dogs were so well trained they carried out the violence on his behalf as if it was the most normal thing to do.
"Why are you doing this to me?!"
"Hold the idiot", Hechan spoke in a bored voice, while still checking out the boy's phone.
Hang on-, this is Seyun? Chin's buddy from the Manga Club?
Doojun and Dobin, Hechan's two henchmen, were getting to work on this poor sod, pushing him against the wall and slapping him around, not hard enough to actually hurt much, but it is humiliating for a man to be slapped around without being able to do anything to retaliate.
"Yup, just as I thought. What a sad piece of shit you are. Maybe if we beat you to a pulp you'd be flattened enough to join your beloved 2D girls"
Hechan threw Seyun's phone to the ground and stomped on it.
I never understood why this was even a thing. Why does having a particular hobby and interest draw so much contempt and violence for no reason?
I looked around and while there were quite a few students checking out what was going on, for most of them it didn't take long to get back to what they were doing. It's difficult to tell whether they genuinely didn't care or they were actually making a conscious effort to explicitly stay out of the way.
Then I saw Chin and man..., this fucking coward. Chin was sitting quite close to where all this was happening, but he was pretending to be doing some self-study or some bullshit like that, which obviously was just an act.
I'd gotten to let go of my past grudge against Chin slowly ever since I came back as Jenn, and even enjoyed going to his Manga Club every now and then. But this whole scene just reminded me again what kind of a guy he actually was. He was friendly and cheerful when things were good, but if he felt like hanging out with you would get him in trouble with guys like Hechan he'd just dump you in the blink of an eye, or even worse, start looking down on you and put himself above you with some warped logic - I'm also an otaku, but I'm not a loser like you who gets bullied around, kinda thing.
Then I saw Ajin, sitting in the front row of the classroom. She actually had her body turned to face the back of the classroom and was observing what was happening.
Ah… that's right… Ajin was like that too. She's been nice to me and helped me out in many ways since I met her again as Jenn, but despite always playing the role of a responsible class rep she did not butt into this sort of bullying, even lecturing me saying this is just the way things are and it's something inevitable in this world where the strong preys on the weak.
I then sought out my other friends in the class. This is the kind of moment where everyone shows or hides their true color.
Miran was slouched forward at her desk fiddling with her phone, Jihee and Jiho were chatting by the window just like any other morning as if nothing special was happening now.
How disappointing… all my 'friends' that I got along well with now, everyone that I liked and were nice to me now… it was a bitter reminder that these same kids are the ones that didn't do anything when I was getting bullied before. I couldn't have forgotten that, it's just that I too had turned a blind eye to what happened and what was happening to others.
The only person who was visibly unsettled was Danbi. She didn't dare to speak up or intervene either, but she had her eyes fixed on the scene and was biting her nails in anguish. Well, at least she still had the capacity to sympathize I guess.
But to be honest, I didn't know what to do either.
Do I just walk up to Hechan and tell him to stop? Will he listen to me? What if he doesn't? How am I going to forcefully stop this? Do I even need to? Is this really just as Ajin says, that there will always be someone at the bottom to be trampled on?
I wanted to put a stop to it. I really did. But I didn't know how to intervene and the more I hesitated and wondered the more I was just becoming a spectator.
"STOP!"
Everyone got startled and looked in the direction the scream came from, by the sliding door on the rear side of the classroom.
Gina? From the Manga Club? Or more accurately, the one who's supposedly in the literature club together with Miran? She's not even in our class though?
"Who the hell are you?!", Soojin, who was standing next to Hechan enjoying the show confronted Gina.
"What the fuck are you guys doing? What has he done wrong to you?!"
Wow. This Gina girl was fiery and didn't hold back.
Hechan gestured to Doojun and Dobin to make Seyun kneel on the ground.
"Hi, there. Whoever you are, do you want to swap places with him then?"
"What?!"
"I've found myself a new entertainment. I could trade it for something else but I'm not just gonna give it up like that for no reason, you know?"
Gina then spotted Chin sitting nearby, still trying to make himself look like he was busy doing something else.
"CHIN! What the FUCK are you doing?! Your friend is getting beaten up here!"
"I-, I wasn't… oh… really?"
"Fucking coward", Gina snarled at Chin and actually walked into our classroom, which is something you just don't do in school - you never walk into another class that you don't belong to, but Gina didn't seem inhibited by that. Just as I expected, Ajin now got up and walked towards Gina. Well, Ajin was letting the bullying go on but she will make a fuss about someone entering our classroom now?
"Hey, Gina, ca-… calm down", Miran stood up and walked towards Gina too. Ah, Miran must have messaged Gina to report what was happening but she probably didn't expect that Gina would come running like this.
"Soojin, you can have her if we trade this idiot for her", Hechan told Soojin as if he was gifting a pet or something. Just what kind of mentality do these crazy fucks have?
"Yay, thanks, Hechan. Looks like we will have some fun here"
Soojin was now approaching Gina too, and Yuji and Sunmi were on her flanks.
Did Gina have any plans? Is she going to take them on all by herself?
Then it happened.
It looked like Ajin was going to make it just in time to get between Soojin and Gina who were heading toward each other, but Gina sped up along the way and landed a surprise bitch slap on Soojin's face.
"What the FUCK?! How dare you!"
Soojin stumbled for a second but immediately paid back by slapping Gina on her cheek too.
"Girls, please, stop-"
Ajin was forcing her way to separate them but Gina pushed Ajin away, maybe a little too hard because that actually sent Ajin flying and landing on her ass.
Yuji and Sunmi were now grabbing, pulling, and hitting Gina but Gina held a tight grip on Soojin's collar and was landing punches on her face. Three-on-one was never gonna work in her favor, but this girl really was something else. While she kept getting hit from all directions, she never let go of her grip on Soojin and landed a punch after punch whenever she could.
Now both Miran and Chin came running in full panic mode and they were trying to body block the punches from the others to protect Gina and to pull her away, but no, Gina held on to Soojin as if her life depended on it and kept on swinging her fist at her, many of which connected on her face.
I don't know if it was a shock or genuinely not knowing what to do, but I was just rooted to the spot and watched the whole thing unfold as if it was some kind of surreal movie.