Season One: The Invisible Girl & The Bully
Chapter Three
"Hey."
Hae-won turned her head slowly.
Ji-hoon was lounging by the vending machine after school, one hand shoved into his pocket, the other tossing a coin up and down.
"I want a Coke," he said.
She blinked. "...What?"
"You deaf too?" He flipped the coin at her. It hit her shoulder and dropped to the floor.
"Get me a Coke," he repeated, "before I change my mind and make you do something worse."
A group of boys near him snorted. "She's his little errand dog now."
"Watch," one whispered. "She'll do it. Pathetic."
And she did.
She picked up the coin without a word and went to the machine. Her fingers trembled as she pressed the buttons. She returned, holding the cold can with both hands.
Ji-hoon didn't take it.
Instead, he tilted his chin. "Open it."
She obeyed.
The hiss of carbonation filled the silence as she cracked it open and held it out to him.
He snatched it from her with a smirk, then poured a little onto the floor right next to her shoe.
"Oops," he said. "Better clean that up."
Laughter erupted.
She lowered her gaze, knelt, and used her sleeve to wipe the floor. Her blazer was already dirty—what did it matter?
Someone took a photo.
The next day, a group of girls cornered her in the restroom.
"Hey, you're that girl," said Park Da-bin, a tall girl with cherry-gloss lips and too much perfume. "Ji-hoon's new plaything."
"I'm not—"
Da-bin grabbed her chin roughly. "Don't speak unless we say so."
Another girl laughed. "Did he pay you to crawl around yesterday? Or was that just your kink?"
"She probably begged him to notice her," someone sneered.
"Losers like her don't have pride. They just have stains."
They shoved her. Not hard enough to bruise but enough to humiliate.
Hae-won kept her head down.
No one came in to help.
No one ever did.
After they left, she stood by the sink, looking at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks burned with shame. Her eyes were empty.
She washed her face silently.
There was no point crying.
Tears made people curious—and curious people asked questions.
She couldn't afford questions.
That night, she opened her math book and found a note inside:
Bring me lunch tomorrow.
Kang Ji-hoon.
And don't forget the strawberry milk.
She crushed the paper in her fist, then quietly smoothed it back out.
She would do it.
Because it was safer than what waited for her at home.