Seokjin was frozen. It was not possible, there must have been a mistake. Seung couldn't be gone forever. He couldn't have left him without telling him anything.

"W-what?" he managed to articulate, hoping he heard wrong.

"Poor Seokjin, he lost his best friend and he didn't even know about it," Yoona said, shaking his head dramatically with a hand on his shoulder before withdrawing it with a disgust that she wanted as explicit as possible even if Seokjin did not understand her gesture.

"But that's impossible!" Seokjin cried, "we were supposed to see each other today, he told me that, his family could not decide to leave in two days and especially not when there was only one week left of class!"

"Seokjin, don't shout in class," his teacher gently admonished him without looking up from the files she was pulling out for the day's class.

"I-I'm sorry."

Seokjin couldn't believe that on Friday, he had seen Seung for the last time, that the goodbye he had given him was actually farewell. No, it was not possible, Seung had promised him. He had promised him that he would free him from Taehyung and the Kims. He wouldn't give up on him, Seokjin was sure of it.

"Oh yes, it's possible," Yoona said to him, "if it was Taehyung who decided he was coming to leave. Everyone knew how much he hated him, you must have been the only one who didn't realize it, poor thing."

Seokjin discovered Yoona's true face that day.

"You...you knew that Taehyung asked other people to hurt him?" Seokjin asked, looking up briefly at his teacher.

Catching his gaze, Yoona gave him a beaming smile.

"There is no need to expect support from the teachers, they were perfectly aware too. And not only did I know too, but I also made your precious Seung suffer without your knowledge, while you were making sweet eyes at me."

While it was true that Seokjin had developed preteen feelings that he did not control for Yoona who charmed him, they all flew away that day upon finding out what a plague Yoona was. The same way he had misjudged Taehyung, he had misjudged Yoona. How could he be so blind to the true nature of people?

"You... you're really mean, Yoona," Seokjin murmured, without finding anything else to say as he was hurt.

"Mean ?" Yoona burst out laughing at Seokjin's childish language and quipped: "Oh, poor baby! I'm hurt that you think that, I will miss your love for me. And what do you think of the others, then?"

Seokjin stood up and looked at the rest of the class watching them. Some like Ha-Neul wore the smirk of those who are happy to have been seen through, and others worriedly wondered how not to become the enemy of Taehyung and not disappear like Seung.

Yoona said to them:

"Seung must have been so scared of Taehyung on Friday that he fled with his parents during the weekend, you imagine ? And yet he had resisted all year, he was not a weak guy, I wonder how ruthless Taehyung was to successfully scare his entire family away. So fear Taehyung or you will meet the same fate! If you don't want to inflame Taehyung's anger towards you and become the next Seung, I advise you not to be friends with Seokjin in the future. He is the property of the Kims and Taehyung will not be happy if he feels that you are too close to him, believe me."

As some nodded around him, Seokjin looked at her in outrage.

"It's not true, don't say that!"

"Of course it is, Taehyung is the one who says so, are you calling him a liar?" the girl scoffed.

"The Kim's property?" asked someone in a surprised tone, because they had always thought that Seokjin was a distant cousin of the two brothers. "What does it mean ?"

"It means that Seokjin is just a cockroach compared to us : he is only the son of the Kim's maid. He was granted the immense privilege of coming to study with us as Mr. Kim's ward and wear the same uniform as us, that's why we didn't notice a thing."

Stunned, everyone turned to Seokjin who seemed to have suddenly frozen in shock.

"Wow, really?!" someone exclaimed.

"I can't believe it !"

"It's disgusting, he dared to mingle with us!"

"When I think of everything I gave him ! He better give it all back!"

"Nothing should be given to him or shared with him, people like him are thieves and profiteers, everyone knows that."

"I'm disgusted, maybe he was hoping to find a good fit among the girls at school so he could secure his life and enjoy her money as he pleased."

"Maybe that's what he does with the Kims? Take advantage of them?"

"Probably."

"No!" Seokjin exclaimed eagerly, "None of that is true!"

"What, isn't it true that you're the Kim's maid's son?" Yoona asked.

"Yes, that's true," Seokjin said, not thinking for a second to lie, "but for the rest, it's-"

"For the rest, it's not up to you to prevent us from imagining everything that could have passed through your filthy profiteering head. You're just a beggar and you hid it from us, that's all that matters."

"B-but how do you know that?" he stuttered to Yoona.

"Because Taehyung told me," she said proudly.

"No, I don't believe you, he would never have done that!"

Even though Taehyung was angry with him, he didn't think he was capable of betraying him like this. But then, how would Yoona have known his secret?

He barely held back tears, hearing the frantic whispers of the other students who realized that they had been wrong to admire or appreciate him knowing that he was in fact inferior to them all. Some were already starting to jeer about him. Others thinking of making him pay for his audacity to have spoken to them as equals. Yet, he had always been kind to them and never meant to hurt them. So why were they suddenly so mean to him just to find out that his mother was a maid? It was unfair...

"This filthy cockroach pretended to be one of ours and let us befriend and respect him, do you realize?" Yoona said to the others before approaching Seokjin and brutally ripping off his tie, extracting from him a cry of surprise. "You have nothing in common with us so don't believe for a second that a uniform will allow you to hide among us any longer."

"Please stop Yoona!" Seokjin begged, "I didn't do anything to you, why are you doing this to me?"

The girl gave him a condescending look and assumed the bearing of a queen. Twelve years old, she seemed to be fifteen, so much her feminine attributes had developed precociously and she skilfully played with her beauty to subjugate her male entourage. She then said in an imperious tone:

"You falsely thought you were more important than you really are because the Kim brothers were protecting you. And that also made you think you could upset Taehyung without consequence when no one else could. How pretentious you are! Well you were wrong! And as soon as he gives the green light, which he will do very soon, I'll be the first to make you pay. I'll destroy you, Seokjin, until you realize what kind of beggar you are and that you have no place among us. It's a promise that I make to you in front of everyone today! Here's a taste of what awaits you!"

On this warning, Yoona slapped him brutally. Shocked, he put a hand to his hot cheek and looked at her without knowing how to react. He couldn't decently hit back a girl. But that girl didn't seem weak in front of him at all. Indeed, her aura had suddenly become so menacing that Seokjin got scared and felt very small in front of her. He knew she was sincere in herwords but he hoped someone would stop her from hurting him. Not someone from his class since even the teacher pretended not to see anything a few steps away from him. Someone who had always been with him.

"N-no, Taehyung will never let you do that!" he affirmed, all the while realizing that Taehyung had indeed let everyone hurt Seung and that from now nothing could stop him throwing everyone else against him. After all, Seokjin had told him that he didn't want to be his friend anymore so why would he stop others from hurting him? Yet he still clung to the hope that all his years together would inspire Taehyung to leave him alone.

He screamed when Yoona suddenly grabbed him by the hair.

"Aah ! Let go of me!" he cried grabbing her hand when he felt like she was trying to pull the hair out of his head.

"I warned you, stop thinking you're untouchable, you're not anymore! Look at yourself, still hiding behind Taehyung's name and believing that you are someone exceptional," Yoona retorted with contempt, freeing his hair and pushing him. "You are nothing for him, while I am everything now, haven't you noticed yet? Taehyung is now my boyfriend, that information must have slipped your mind while you only had eyes for Seung and your stupid football."

"What? Is that... true?" Seokjin murmured, stunned. She didn't look like she was lying 'cause she was overflowing with confidence

Taehyung had always been with him and he had always believed that they shared everything especially when he met at night because it was the best time to share secrets like that. So why didn't he tell him anything about Yoona? Could it be true that he spent so much time with Seung that Taehyung felt abandoned? Could it be that all of Taehyung's anger and revenge was really his fault? Could he make him change his mind, bring Seung back, while promising him that he wouldn't leave him anymore? But Seokjin quickly gave up his ideas of reconciliation : Taehyung had gone too far.

"It's true," Yoona replied, visibly happy to be the one who told him the news. "we are now the most powerful couple in school and we are going to make you miserable together. And if I suggest Taehyung make you the new target now that Seung is gone, he will."

"No..."

"Yes he will, who do you think he prefers between me and you? Nothing will protect you from us. Do you doubt it? Wanna bet with me, beggar?"

No, Seokjin didn't want to. He knew very well that Taehyung would do it. And that information about girlfriend, if suddenly making Yoona the most powerful girl in middle school and the closest person to Taehyung, caused Seokjin to bolt out of the classroom to much laughter from the class.

"What a pathetic boy," Yoona chuckled, having time to see the bright eyes of Seokjin who was barely stopping himself from crying in front of the others.

The teacher didn't flinch. Even if it particularly touched her because she liked Seokjin, she couldn't do anything except let him escape the gaze of those who had been his friends all year long. Just like she hadn't done anything to stop the nice Seung from being harassed all year.

Seokjin ran to the roof of the school, an isolated place forbidden to students and which was usually locked but which was open because the fireworks celebrating the end of the school year of this prestigious middle school had been installed there to set ablaze the sky soon. So early in the morning, the technicians weren't there yet, and Seokjin was able to enjoy the solitude.

He he advanced to the bottom of the roof and slumped against the red brick wall overlooking the gigantic walls that had once given him the impression that he would be happy in this school. There, bringing his knees up to his face, he let his tears flow, sobbing loudly and counting what Taehyung had taken from him.

His best friend, the one who gave him a smile every day.

The friendship and the respect from other students.

The kindness of his teachers towards him.

His hope for a better future.

He had nothing good here anymore. Still, he felt like he hadn't done anything to deserve this, so there was nothing to fix for everything to go back to normal.

He raised his watery and reddened eyes to the sky, as if to seek a sign there at the bend of a cloud. But there was nothing. Nothing at all. The sky was the same as always when his life had just changed radically. This world would not miss him if he disappeared suddenly, that was what the cold grey sky seemed to want to tell him. After all, Mr and Mrs Kim, Yoona too, they were all right: he was a nobody and his disappearance would make no difference except that it would prevent him from suffering from those who now hated and despised him.

So Seokjin listened to this silent and cruel voice without thinking.

He got up slowly and leaned on the brick dumbbell to look at the ground, several tens of meters below. He swallowed seeing the ground so far. Would he have the courage to jump so he would never have to suffer like this in his heart again? He didn't want to go on living if he had to find himself alone, he wouldn't make it.

So he leaned against the low wall to stand on it.