Park Jimin was never hurting for friendship. Being the most popular boy in school, he was surrounded by friends every day. This emboldened him to treat anyone else however he'd like. Jimin was elitist. And those who weren't were simply beneath him, and deserved to be treated as such.

Min Yoongi was, in contrast, the least popular kid in school. He was a sweet boy, but no one knew. Because Yoongi was quiet and shy and never really put himself out there to meet anyone. And so, he didn't have any friends to support him or stand up for him.

This made him a very easy target for Jimin.

Every day, a group of boys led by Jimin tormented Yoongi. They called him names, hit him, knocked his lunch to the floor. They threw food at him, tore up his homework, and even spit on him. And there was absolutely nothing Yoongi could do about it.

There was a time he would tell them to stop, but that was long since gone. Standing up for himself just brought on physical harm, so he'd eventually just given up, opting to let the abuse take more of a mental toll. It hurt less.

"Hey, faggot."

Yoongi sighed as Junho, one of Jimin's minions, approached him at his locker. Being gay certainly didn't help Yoongi's situation. He'd tried to keep it a secret, and indeed, no one knew for sure that he was gay. But there were assumptions and anyway, it didn't matter to them whether they were correct or not.

"Go away," Yoongi said quietly.

"What was that? Is your voice as small as you are?"

Yoongi rolled his eyes. The short jokes were old and tired.

"Go away," Yoongi said more forcefully.

"No."

Yoongi simply closed his locker and began to walk away. But Junho persisted. He quickly caught up to Yoongi and, grabbing his arm, pushed him up against the lockers, trapping him there.

"Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you."

"What do we have here?"

Yoongi sighed again. Jimin had showed up just in time to join in the torture. Luckily for Yoongi, the physical assault would not get worse; at least, it wouldn't be two on one. Jimin never touched Yoongi.

No, Jimin relied on destroying Yoongi's psyche.

"I was just trying to talk to him, but he walked away. Disrespectful," Junho spat, twisting Yoongi's arm behind his back.

"You called me a faggot," Yoongi said.

Jimin laughed. "Damn, Junho. Going all out today, huh?"

"I hadn't yet, but that sounds like a good idea." Junho then grabbed Yoongi by the hair and slammed his head against the lockers. Yoongi let out a gasp of pain.

"That'll teach you," Junho said, hand still in Yoongi's hair as he pulled Yoongi's head back, forcing him to look up at Junho. "Now, what did we learn?"

Yoongi defiantly kept his mouth shut. Junho twisted his arm harder.

After a few moments, the pain in his arm combined with his scalp became too much, and Yoongi caved.

"Not to disrespect you."

"What?"

"Not to disrespect you," Yoongi almost shouted.

Both Junho and Jimin burst into laughter as Junho let go of Yoongi and shoved him to the floor.

"That's what I thought."

The two bullies walked away, and Yoongi quickly gathered his books that had fallen out of his hands when he was initially pushed. He rubbed the side of his head where it had hit the lockers and groaned. A bump was already forming. This was going to hurt for more than a couple of days.

The bell rang overhead, and Yoongi groaned. He was now late for class and would likely get detention. Jimin had a slew of delinquent friends who were always getting detention. Yoongi would now have to face them, too.

He hurried off to his next class, hoping beyond hope that his teacher would take pity on him.