“Hey piggy, whatcha doing there?”

Si Woo kept his head down, gazing at his textbook.

“You ignoring us?” A hand came down, smacking his textbook onto the hard concrete below.

Si Woo looked up and glared at the boy. He knew him well. His own personal bully since the beginning of middle school, a little over a year ago. 

Si Woo looked around at the other kids who had gathered. Five in total, three boys and two girls. He knew those faces too, some since elementary school, which was expected considering that there were only so many rich kids and they all gathered at this one academy.

“Why aren’t you talking, piggy? Or maybe I need to speak to you in a language you’d understand? Oink, oink, oinky oink.”

The kid snickered and his friends followed.

“Leave me alone,” said Si Woo, picking up his book from the ground and trying to re-establish his pretense of reading it.

“Hey, how much do you weigh?” the boy asked, smacking Si Woo’s book once again and throwing it to the ground.

“Gotta be two hundred pounds by now,” another boy responded when Si Woo remained quiet.

Suddenly, Si Woo felt a hand grab his arm and lift it into the air and moved it up and down until the flesh of his arm shook. “This arm alone has got to be fifty pounds. Look at how the fat jiggles.”

Si Woo yanked his arm back and stared up at the kids as they giggled around him. 

He felt his face burn.

Not out of embarrassment, but of anger.

All that work and still… He was down seventeen pounds since the beginning of the year, two months ago and yet they were still going. No one had mentioned his weight loss, not a single person. How many more days? How many more times would he have to deal with the agony? And these losers bothering him day in and day out.

“Hey, hey, shut up, Si Hwan is coming,” one of the girls said. Si Woo watched in disappointment as they all quieted down, opening their constricting circle to outside eyes.

“Hey, Si Hwan.”

Si Hwan, his younger brother, paused in his step as he made his way across the playground. In his arms were his music notes. He turned to them and gave a single nod.

Si Woo knew that his eyes were simply glazing over the faces but then it paused when it met his.

“Hyung,” said Si Hwan and Si Woo felt himself tense up. He hated that word. 

Si Hwan made his way over to where he sat but one of his tormentors intercepted him, placing an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “Hey, Si Hwan, congrats on winning the Bach competition. You were really cool up there.”

Si Hwan stared blankly at the boy who kept talking to him then blinked and turned to look back at Si Woo.

Si Woo turned away.

“Hey, do you want to hang out with us? The physics teacher’s friend is coming to conduct interviews for a summer program at an ivy league school in the US. A few of us got invitations. You got one too, right? You’re a year younger but I’m sure the guy would want to meet the kid whose teacher is already pushing to send an application to Julliard. You’re going, right?”

Si Hwan blinked then turned to Si Woo. “Was Si Woo invited?”

“That lose– ah,” the boy cleared his throat. “Only a select few of the students were invited.”

“Then I’m not going.”

“Don’t be like that—” The boy turned and looked at Si Woo. “Hey, don’t you think your brother should go?”

Si Woo simply looked at them and did not respond. The boy made fist at Si Woo from behind Si Hwan but Si Woo did not budge.

Si Hwan moved away from the boy to stand in front of his brother. “Hyung, mom said to come home early today.”

Si Woo didn’t have to ask to know the details. “She meant you.”

Si Hwan was quiet for a moment before he opened his book and held out a sheet of music paper. “Hyung, I wrote something new for you,” he said as he handed the paper to him.

Si Woo sighed then took it. “Thanks, don’t you have to meet the music teacher?”

Si Hwan nodded and without even a glance at the other students, he left.

Then before the eyes of the other kids, Si Woo crumpled up the paper his brother had given him and tossed it onto the grass several yards away.

One of the girls looked at him with disgust. “What kind of rotten personality is that?”

The other girl rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t have the looks, he doesn’t have the brains. He’s obviously jealous of his brother.” She turned to her friend and grabbed her shoulder. “Come on, let’s go. We might be able to catch Si Hwan practicing.”

Once the girls had left, the boy who had instigated the taunting closed his fist around the front of Si Woo’s shirt. “You’re a fucking loser,” he hissed, pulling him up and toward his face. “Next time I tell you to do something, you do it. Or I’ll fucking destroy your face, you worthless piece of shit.”

Then he released him, sending Si Woo to sway violently before he righted himself.

Si Woo stared at the boy for a moment as he retreated. He felt a tremble in his limbs and looked down. For a moment he was confused as to why his hands were shaking.

How…

How dare he? How dare they?

He looked up as he heard one of the boys mention his brother’s name again.

Si Hwan. Always Si Hwan.

But too bad his younger brother didn’t give a crap about them. He didn’t give a crap about anyone but him.

So how dare they threaten him when the boy they so admired didn’t think they were worth a second of his time? When the boy they loved didn’t care if they lived or died or even existed?

Only him, always him, more than their mother, more than their father. Si Hwan only saw him.

And that’s how he knew that he was better than them…

Furious, Si Woo grabbed his textbook and tossed it at the head of the boy who was still only a few yards away.

It hit him on his upper back.

The boy froze and slowly turned back to face Si Woo. 

But all Si Woo could feel was the indignant anger pulsing through him.

“You fat shit,” the boy growled as his knees bent slightly and his hands clenched into fists beside his body. And before anyone else could say anything more, the boy jumped him.