Tae Hyung
March 20, Year 20
I ran down the hallway making a loud noise with my
feet and I stopped at the end. Namjoon was standing in front
to "our class." Our class. That's what I called it.
A storage room converted into a classroom. A single classroom.
for the seven. I approached him silently to
try to take off his hat.
"Director!" I heard an urgent voice through the
slightly open window of our classroom after
He had taken about five steps towards Namjoon. It sounded
like Seokjin. I froze. Is Seokjin talking to...
The principal? In our classroom? About what? I heard my…
name and YoonGi's name, and I warned that NamJoon
She was breathing deeply. Sensing our presence,
Seokjin opened the door. He appeared startled and nervous.
with a phone in hand.
I hid in a corner and watched them. Seokjin
He was opening his mouth, apparently making an excuse.
to himself, and Namjoon interrupted him. "Okay."
"There must be a good reason." I couldn't believe it. He
He told the director what YoonGi and I had been doing.
doing in recent days. About how we
We skipped classes, we climbed the school wall
And we fought. And Namjoon was saying that everything
It was fine.
"What are you doing here?" I turned around in surprise.
I ran into HoSeok and JiMin. HoSeok gave me a look that said he was even more surprised than I was.
He grabbed my shoulders with his arm and dragged me to the
living room. Namjoon and Seokjin looked at us. Namjoon me
She smiled as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
At that moment, I cleared my thoughts. Namjoon
He must have his reasons. He's much more cultured.
Intelligent and mature than me. And this is our class.
I walked towards Namjoon and Seokjin, smiling at them.
a silly grin that everyone called a "square smile".
I decided not to tell anyone about the conversation that
I had just heard.
NamJoon
May 15, Year 20
I went to the storage room that had been converted into
the classroom, which served as a hiding place for all of us.
Straightening some chairs along the way, I picked up a
I knocked over my desk and dusted it off with my hands. Today
It was my last day at this school. My family had
decided to move two weeks ago. Dad had
developed some "complications", which did not
We could afford it. We delayed paying the rent.
for months. And even with the good intentions of our
neighbors and my part-time pay at the
We couldn't cover everything at the gas station. We had to
move out before our deposit runs out.
I folded a piece of paper in half, put it in the
I went to my desk and picked up a pencil. I had no idea what to write.
The minutes passed. As she wrote on the paper, the
The pencil tip broke. I must survive. That was it.
that I said without realizing it before fragments of
black lead will be scattered everywhere.
I crumpled the piece of paper, put it in my pocket, and
I got up. The dust motes rose when
I pushed the desk. Before leaving the classroom, I blew on the
window and I wrote three words. No message from
That farewell would be enough for the others to know.
how I felt. At the same time, it wasn't necessary
No goodbye to make me understand. "We
"We'll see each other again." It was a wish, more than a promise.
Jungkook
June 25, Year 20
I caressed the piano keys, dust covered them.
fingertips. I pressed the keys harder,
But I couldn't make them sound like YoonGi did.
Two weeks had passed since he stopped coming to the
school. It was rumored that he had been expelled. HoSeok
He didn't say anything, and I didn't want to ask.
On that day, two weeks ago, YoonGi and I
We were the only ones in the classroom when the teacher came in. It was
It was an open house. We went there without any plans.
In particular, we simply didn't want to stay in
classes. When I entered the classroom, YoonGi didn't look towards
I went back and continued playing the piano. I lay down on two
Desks together with eyes closed. Something about
YoonGi and the piano didn't seem to be a good match, but the two were
Actually, very complicated. I had no idea how much
Time had passed. Suddenly, the door opened.
a bang with a thunderous sound, as if someone had hit it
knocked down. The piano stopped.
I kept backing away while the teacher...
He slapped me until I fell. I sat hunched over.
Enduring the relentless flow of abusive words.
Suddenly, the teacher stopped shouting. I looked up to
I saw YoonGi pushing the teacher's shoulder. I could
Seeing his astonished gaze over YoonGi's shoulder.
I pressed the keys and tried to emulate the melody that
He had played that day. Would he really be expelled?
Would he ever return? He said he was used to
To be beaten and trampled by the teachers. If I don't
If I had been there, would he have fought with the teacher? If I
If he weren't there, would he still be playing the piano?
YoonGi
June 25, Year 20
As soon as I entered my room, I grabbed a
I took a [item] from the bottom drawer of the desk.
I found a half-burned piano key, threw it in the trash, and...
I lay down on the bed. I was still breathing with difficulty and couldn't
I could stop my mind from racing.
I returned to the burned-down house once after the
Funeral. A skeleton of what used to be a piano still remains.
I was standing where Mom's room used to be.
I threw it to the floor. The afternoon sunlight streamed up through the window.
And then he walked away. I looked up and saw several keys of
piano in the distance. What notes were played? How many times?
Had his fingers touched those keys? I stood up,
I picked up a key and put it in my pocket.
Four years had passed. The house was filled with
Silence. The silence that drove me mad. It was ten o'clock and
Ten, so Dad had gone to bed. Everything and everyone
Inside the house they had to remain still after
that he go to bed. That was the rule. He wasn't
familiar with such profound silence. Or with being
Punctual and followed the rules. Despite all that, he was still
Living in this house is unbearable. I was receiving a subsidy.
I would have dinner with him and he would scold me. Sometimes he
I challenged and caused problems, but I didn't have the courage to
to abandon it, flee and find true freedom.
I took the piano key out of the wastebasket under my...
desk. When I opened the window, the night air came in. My mind replayed the day's events.
with rapid succession. I threw the key out the window with
all my strength. Two weeks had passed since
I went to school. They said I'd been expelled. Maybe
Let them kick me out of the house, even though I want to stay. No.
I could hear the piano key hit the floor. Now
I would never know what note he got. I would never do that again.
sound. I would never play the piano again.
Seok Jin
July 17, Year 20
The sharp sound of the cicadas stung my ears.
As soon as I left the school building, the courtyard...
It was full of students laughing, playing, and running around.
It was the start of summer vacation, and everyone
They were excited. I quickly made my way through the crowd.
A crowd with their heads bowed. All they wanted was to get out.
thence.
"Seokjin!" Someone's shadow leaped into my path, and
I quickly lifted my head. It was HoSeok and JiMin.
They had big, friendly smiles like
They always looked at me with mischievous eyes. "You won't go straight there."
"Home on the first day of vacation, right?" he said.
Hoseok, pulling on my arm. I murmured something that sounded
I nodded "yes" and turned my head.
What happened that day was an accident. No
I wanted it to happen. I didn't think Jungkook and Yoongi would...
were there in the classroom at that time. The principal
I suspected he was covering for the others.
He threatened to tell my father how badly I was feeling.
carrying it at school. And I had to say something. I told him
about our hiding place because I thought it would be empty.
But it all ended with YoonGi's expulsion. Nobody
I knew he was involved in it.
Have a great vacation! Let's stay safe!
"In contact." Hoseok must have read my face.
She slowly let go of my hand and said goodbye with even more joy.I couldn't answer. There was nothing I could say.
I remembered my first day at this school as I walked by.
in front of the entrance. We had all arrived late and we
They punished us. But we were together, so we could laugh about it.
together. He had ruined all the memories that
We shared. After I decided to live as my
My father wanted, after I decided not to pursue my
Happiness, she had bitten off more than she could chew.
Hoseok
September 15, Year 20
Jimin's mother crossed the emergency room towards
the bed. He checked the name tag at the foot of the bed.
This, and the intravenous lines hanging above it, removed
A dry leaf fell from Jimin's shoulder. I walked hesitantly.
I turned to her and leaned down. I felt I had to tell her...
Jimin had ended up in the emergency room and
how she had a seizure at the bus stop. The mother
Jimin seemed to notice me for the first time. But
She immediately looked away after giving me
He quickly thanked her, without waiting for her to give him one.
explanation.
It wasn't until the doctors and nurses
They started moving their bed. I was about to follow.
With them. When Jimin's mom looked at me again.
She thanked me once again and pushed me.
shoulder. Thinking about it, he didn't really pressure me.
She had just put her hand on my shoulder and
She quickly removed it. In that fleeting moment, a...
The line between us. That line was firm and solid. Cold and
indelible. I could never cross that line. I lived in a
orphanage for several years. I could recognize lines like that.
with all my senses, to see it in people's eyes
or feel it in the atmosphere.
I stepped back in bewilderment and fell backward. The mother
Jimin stared at me intently. She was small and beautiful.
But his shadow was large and distant. That long shadow
It covered me as I sat curled up on the floor of the emergency room. When I looked up, the bed of
Jimin had left.
Jungkook
September 30, Year 20
"Jungkook, you're still there, right?" I just looked at the
the tip of my shoes. I refused to answer, so the
The teacher hit me on the head with an attendance book.
I haven't given up yet. That's where we met. Since
that I entered that classroom, not a day had gone by without me
Outside. The others didn't know. They had other plans and a
I worked part-time and they didn't always come by.
Yoongi and Seokjin sometimes wouldn't show up for days.
But I was different. I went there without exception. There were days
no one else came. That was fine for me. I was
Well, because that space was there and because the others
They would appear later, or tomorrow, or the next day.
"I knew you were dating those people..."
"Wrong." The attendance book hit me on the head.
Again. When I looked up and saw the professor, he
The attendance book went down again. The scene with YoonGi
Being hit flooded my mind. I clenched my teeth and
I held back. I didn't want to lie and say I wasn't there.
And then I was standing in front of the classroom. I felt like
If the others were on the other side of the door. When
If it opens, they'll look back and complain because there was
It's taken too long. Seokjin and Namjoon must be...
Reading, Taehyung must be playing a game, Yoongi
He must be in front of the piano, and HoSeok and JiMin must be
dancing.
But when I opened the door, only HoSeok was there.
She had come to clean up what was left of our things.
I froze, my hand on the doorknob.
HoSeok approached me and put his arm around my...
shoulders and accompanied me to the exit. "Let's go." The door of the
The classroom door closed behind us. I realized it then.
That those days were gone and would never return.