"Is he a doll or something?"
One of the three students waiting in the alley sneered, planting his palm against the weathered wall beside Seonghyeon as he casually blocked the only path out.
Another stepped closer and jabbed a finger against Seonghyeon's shoulder, watching for even the slightest reaction before scoffing when none came.
"I've never seen him fight back. You could punch him all day, and he'd still keep that stupid expression."
Seonghyeon remained silent, his school bag hanging loosely from one shoulder as his gaze stayed fixed upon the cracked pavement beneath his shoes, where the fading afternoon light stretched between the uneven seams of concrete.
The bruises across his knuckles had already begun to darken at the edges, old evidence of encounters he had learned to endure without protest, while the swelling along his cheek remained fresh enough to reveal what had happened before the final bell.
The tallest student studied him for another moment before a crooked grin gradually pulled at the corner of his mouth, apparently satisfied that Seonghyeon had once again chosen silence over resistance.
"See? I told you. He's just won't do a thing."
The tallest student seized Seonghyeon by the collar and yanked him upright before driving another punch into his face, followed by a sharp headbutt that finally sent him sprawling against the pavement.
His school bag slipped from his shoulder and struck the ground beside him, scattering nothing but leaving the strap twisted beneath his arm as he slowly pushed himself against the cold concrete.
Even then, Seonghyeon's expression remained unchanged, with neither anger nor fear surfacing across his face despite the fresh ache spreading through his cheek and the ringing that briefly filled his ears.
The tallest student watched him for several seconds before his grin widened, apparently entertained by the absence of any reaction.
"Well, this is fun."
He rolled his shoulder before flexing his fingers one by one, cracking the joints deliberately as though he were preparing himself for another round rather than simply standing inside a narrow school alley.
A short distance away, a girl walked between two friends while carrying a precariously balanced stack of books against her chest, occasionally shifting the weight between her arms whenever their conversation made her laugh.
She continued talking without paying much attention to the surrounding streets until her eyes wandered toward the mouth of the alley, where something amid the shadows caught her attention.
Her steps slowed when she noticed Seonghyeon on the ground, and the words she had been speaking gradually died before she could finish them.
For one suspended moment, Seonghyeon lifted his eyes and met hers directly across the distance separating them, his expression remaining strangely vacant beneath the swelling along his cheek.
The girl's grip tightened around the books as she stared at him, seemingly trying to understand what she had just witnessed before glancing toward the three students surrounding him.
Then the books slipped from her arms and struck the pavement in a scattered cascade, forcing both of her friends to turn toward her in surprise.
"Hey!"
She broke into a run before either friend could stop her, her footsteps rapidly closing the distance as she shouted toward the alley.
"Seonghyeon!"
The tallest student turned toward the approaching voice, his amused expression fading slightly when he realized someone had finally witnessed what they were doing.
The girl reached the alley entrance and stopped only long enough to catch her breath before stepping forward, her hands trembling slightly at her sides as she confronted the three students.
"What are you doing to him?"
The tallest student glanced between her and Seonghyeon before his mouth curled upward again, although the confidence behind his expression had become noticeably less careless.
"This doesn't concern you, so just go."
She ignored him and moved closer instead, keeping her eyes fixed upon Seonghyeon as though checking whether he could still stand.
"Are you hurt?"
Seonghyeon lowered his gaze again, apparently more concerned with retrieving his fallen school bag than answering her.
The girl followed his eyes toward the pavement, then looked back at the three students with disbelief hardening into something more resolute.
"Leave him alone!"
For several seconds, nobody moved, while the ordinary noise of students leaving school continued beyond the alley and made the confrontation feel strangely isolated from everything around it.
Then the tallest student's gaze shifted toward the books scattered behind her, and a quiet laugh escaped him as he realized she had come here without anyone else.
"You came running over here by yourself? How bold."
The girl's jaw tightened, but she did not retreat, even when the other two students exchanged amused glances behind him.
Seonghyeon finally reached for his school bag, his fingers closing around its strap as he watched the girl standing between him and the three students.
For the first time that afternoon, someone had stepped into the alley without being invited.
The girl held her ground despite the tallest student's dismissive tone, keeping herself between Seonghyeon and the three boys as her eyes moved from one face to another.
"I don't care whether it concerns me," she replied, her voice steadier now that her initial surprise had settled. "You were hitting him, weren't you?"
The tallest student gave a quiet scoff and glanced toward the other two, as though the accusation itself were too ridiculous to deserve a serious answer.
"He's from our school, so mind your own business."
"Then you should know better than this," she shot back, refusing to lower her voice. "You're supposed to be classmates, not animals cornering someone because he won't fight back."
One of the other students clicked his tongue and folded his arms, clearly irritated by how stubbornly she refused to leave.
"Why are you making such a big deal out of it?"
"Because three people were beating one person. Isn't it obvious?"
Her answer came immediately, leaving no room for the excuse they were trying to construct.
The tallest student studied her for a moment before stepping closer, although he stopped when she refused to give ground.
"You really want to get involved?"
She lifted her chin slightly, though her fingers tightened against the hem of her uniform where he could not easily see them.
"I... already am."
Behind her, Seonghyeon had managed to sit upright, one hand resting against the pavement while the other gathered the strap of his school bag.
He watched the exchange without speaking, his eyes occasionally shifting toward the alley entrance as the distant sound of hurried footsteps gradually became clearer.
The tallest student noticed his attention and followed his gaze, but the footsteps had already grown loud enough that the other two boys turned toward the street as well.
"Hey! Wait up!"
Two girls appeared at the entrance a moment later, both slightly out of breath after running toward the alley, with one of them carrying the books that had been abandoned on the pavement.
"What happened?" one of them demanded, looking between her friend and the three boys before noticing Seonghyeon's bruised face.
The second girl immediately stepped beside her friend, her expression changing when she realized the situation was far more serious than she had expected.
"You three were with him?"
The tallest student glanced at the growing number of witnesses and clicked his tongue beneath his breath, while the confidence in his posture gradually disappeared beneath the practical realization that staying would only create trouble.
"Let's go."
The other two hesitated briefly, but neither argued as they followed him toward the alley entrance.
As they passed, the tallest student gave Seonghyeon one final glance, then shifted his attention toward the girl who had confronted them.
"This isn't finished."
The girl watched them disappear into the school crowd before turning back toward Seonghyeon, whose hand was still wrapped around the strap of his bag.
Her friends exchanged a concerned glance behind her, while the books they had carried remained scattered across the pavement between them.
"You're bleeding," she murmured, finally noticing the faint mark near his mouth.
Seonghyeon wiped it away with the back of his hand and glanced at the books lying near the alley entrance.
"I'll pick those up."
The girl stared at him for a moment, apparently unable to understand why that was the first thing he had chosen to say.
"You were just beaten up, and that's what you're worried about?"
Seonghyeon paused before looking down at the scattered books again, as though the question genuinely required consideration.
"They're yours."
For a moment, she had nothing to say, while one of her friends quietly bent down and began gathering the books from the pavement.
The other girl followed her example, leaving the first girl standing in front of Seonghyeon with an expression that had shifted from anger into something more difficult to name.
Seonghyeon watched the girl gather the last book from the pavement before his eyes returned to her, his expression remaining strangely distant despite everything that had happened.
"Why?"
The girl paused with the book against her chest and glanced back at him, apparently unsure whether he was asking about the books or something else entirely.
"Why what?"
"Why did you come?"
His voice carried no accusation, only a quiet curiosity that made the question feel heavier than it should have been.
The girl opened her mouth, hesitated, and then looked toward her friends as though they might somehow provide an answer for her.
"I don't know."
One of her friends immediately raised an eyebrow, while the other covered the lower half of her face to hide an increasingly obvious smile.
"You don't know?" Seonghyeon repeated, studying her without any visible judgment.
"I just saw you there."
Her fingers tightened around the book she was holding as she searched for an explanation that would sound reasonable.
"You were sitting on the ground, and those three were standing around you, so I just... went over."
"That doesn't explain why."
Her lips parted again, but nothing came immediately.
From behind her, one of her friends quietly murmured, "She's been doing that for months."
Her head snapped around.
"Be quiet."
Her friend only smiled.
The other girl leaned closer and whispered something into her ear, causing the tips of her ears to redden almost immediately.
"I said be quiet."
Seonghyeon watched the exchange with the same unreadable expression, his attention moving between the three girls as though he were observing something he could not quite understand.
"Do you know her?"
Her friend looked directly at him and grinned.
"Of course she knows you."
She immediately turned toward her friend.
"That's not what he meant."
"Oh, really?"
"Really."
"Then why do you keep watching him whenever he walks past?"
She froze.
The silence that followed lasted just long enough for Seonghyeon's eyes to settle on her again.
Her friend noticed and smiled even wider.
"See?"
"Stop."
"You like him."
"I said stop."
Seonghyeon tilted his head slightly, not because he understood what was happening, but because he seemed genuinely uncertain why everyone had suddenly become so interested in him.
She looked away, pretending to straighten the books in her arms while trying desperately to ignore the warmth creeping across her face.
Seonghyeon waited until her friends had moved a little farther ahead before speaking again.
"Anya?"
She looked back at him.
"You know my name?"
"Technically, we're the same class."
"I see."
...
His gaze lingered on her for another moment before drifting toward the road beyond the alley.
Anya watched him quietly, and something in her expression softened when she noticed how carefully he carried himself despite the bruising along his face.
She had seen him from a distance before, usually walking alone with that same detached expression, as though the noise surrounding him belonged to another world.
But seeing him sitting on the pavement like this had unsettled her more than she wanted to admit.
"I saw you from far away."
Seonghyeon turned toward her again.
Anya swallowed quietly, forcing herself to continue before her courage disappeared.
"You were there, and I just... saw you."
Inside, however, the thought she refused to voice pressed painfully against her chest.
My heart nearly stopped when I saw you like that.
Seonghyeon lowered his eyes for a moment before asking the question that had apparently been sitting somewhere inside him for longer than she expected.
"Why?"
Anya blinked.
"Why what?"
Seonghyeon remembered her in the small moments he had never thought much of at the time, particularly whenever his food disappeared from his desk or ended up ruined before he could touch it, because she was usually the one who quietly left something in its place.
Sometimes it was a piece of bread, other times a bottle of water, and she never made a point of explaining why she had done it, as though the gesture itself required no acknowledgment.
He also remembered the day his physical education shirt had been ruined, with the spare one he had brought somehow disappearing before class, only for her to appear beside his desk and place an extra shirt in front of him without making a fuss about it.
Looking back, Seonghyeon began to realize that she had been helping him far more often than he had noticed, always in ways small enough to escape everyone else's attention.
"Why do you always help me?"
The words came quietly, stripped of accusation or gratitude, and somehow that made them more difficult to answer.
Anya stared at him for several seconds before giving him a small, almost helpless smile.
"Why can't I?"
So you noticed.
Her fingers curled slightly around the edge of the book.
Then why won't you hurry up and open that door inside yourself?
Seonghyeon's expression remained unchanged as he looked away.
"I don't need your help."
"I know."
"Then stop."
"That... I can't."
His eyes returned to her.
"Why?"
Anya's smile became smaller, but she did not retreat from his gaze.
"Because I can't help it."
Seonghyeon studied her in silence, seemingly trying to find an answer hidden somewhere in her face that she had no intention of giving him.
After a moment, he finally looked away.
"You're annoying."
Anya stared at him before a quiet laugh escaped her.
"Then what version of me would you like?"
Seonghyeon did not answer immediately.
The question seemed to catch somewhere beyond the simple logic he usually relied upon, leaving him standing there with his school bag hanging from one hand and no obvious response.
Anya waited, expecting him to dismiss her again.
Instead, Seonghyeon glanced at her and quietly replied, "I don't know."
Her expression softened.
"Then I guess I'll stay annoying until you figure it out."
Seonghyeon said nothing, but for the first time since she had entered the alley, his gaze remained on her for longer than necessary.
Anya noticed it immediately, and although she tried to hide the small smile forming at the corner of her mouth, her friend watching from several steps away caught it without difficulty.
"Ah," her friend murmured knowingly. "She's definitely gone."
Anya's face flushed.
"I'm going to leave you here."
Her friend laughed as she hurried ahead, leaving Anya to follow while Seonghyeon remained behind for another moment, watching them disappear into the late afternoon crowd before finally picking up his bag and walking after them.