Lee Minho.¹⁵

Minho’s day started the way almost every school day did — with Han Jisung’s voice.
— Look who finally decided to show up.
Minho stopped beside his desk for half a second before sitting down. He kept his head lowered, ignoring the laughter coming from the other side of the classroom.
Jisung had been bullying him since middle school. He always found something to mock: Minho’s worn-out backpack, his old phone, his cheap clothes, the fact that he rarely bought anything from the cafeteria.
Today, his eyes landed on the same black hoodie Minho wore almost every day.
— Seriously, do you even own anything else? — Jisung scoffed. — Or are you just too broke to buy proper clothes?
Minho simply opened his notebook. He had learned a long time ago that reacting only made things worse. Besides, school wasn’t even the hardest part of his life.
At home, his father had been drinking since Minho was in eighth grade. Alcohol had slowly turned their apartment into a place Minho hated returning to. His father often became aggressive toward both him and his mother, while his mother, exhausted and powerless, buried herself in work from morning until night. And somehow, he had become the one trying to hold everything together.
He studied because he needed a future. He worked because they needed money.
Every afternoon, he went straight to a large restaurant where he worked as a waiter until late night. Whatever he earned went toward food, bills, and helping his mother. Yet she still found ways to remind him that he was a disappointment. Minho stopped arguing a long time ago. He simply endured it.
The oversized hoodie helped hide the marks he never wanted anyone at school to notice. He kept his sleeves pulled down and his expression blank.
— Hey, Lee, — Jisung leaned over his desk, tapping his pen against Minho’s notebook. — I’m talking to you.
Minho finally looked up. — Leave me alone. — His voice was quiet. Tired rather than angry.