Artem

You were a typical eleventh-grade schoolgirl. Your class wasn't exactly a friendly one. Everyone had their own group, and those who stuck to themselves were bullied and ostracized. The teachers always turned a blind eye to this, saying they were grown-ups and could sort things out themselves.

You had a best friend, Dilara. You'd been friends since kindergarten. You usually ignored the bullying of the loners, so as not to risk attention and ridicule.

One day, you were sitting at your desk during recess in class, solving a problem from the Unified State Exam (USE) math book. Dilara hadn't come to school that day because she was sick. And so, as usual, a group of boys started picking on the boy. He was a nerd and an excellent student, with whom no one talked. The leader of the group was Vadim. He was starting to overstep his bounds, and you finally intervened. Picking up a Tetra Pak of milk, you stood up from your chair and threw it at Vadim. He looked at you with wild eyes and quickly approached you. You didn't even move and continued to look into his eyes.

• What's wrong with you, bitch? Are you tired of living?!

After these words, he raised his hand to hit you, but his arm was grabbed by none other than Artyom. No one expected him to intervene, as he didn't care about anyone. He usually sat in the last row and slept. Everyone was afraid of him. Rumors circulated around school that his father was a gangster or a mafioso, or something along those lines. And all this was reinforced by the snake tattoos on his arms.

Artyom pushed Vadim away and said:

— It's too noisy. You're disturbing my sleep.