RIIIIIIIING.

And that was cue for all the students to rush out of class like animals. Everyone except Elijah, that is. The blonde boy took off his reading glasses and waited patiently in his seat as the rest of the students filed out of the classroom.

"Have a good day, Elijah." Ms. Jung smiled at him almost flirtatiously as he stood up to leave the room, and he politely bowed his head.

"You too, Ms. Jung."

Elijah traversed through the jam-packed hallway towards his locker, trying his best not to bump into any of the hot messes that passed by him. Like clockwork, he walked close to the walls with his head down as he made his way to his locker. Once he got his books out he shut it and started making his way to class. That would have been all fine and dandy had he not bumped into someone along the way.

Well, it was more like a head-on collision than a bump. Because that someone also happened to drop the cold beverage he was holding all over his shirt and the floor.

And that wasn't just any someone. It was none other than Lucas Kim. He was traveling with his usual pack of rowdy boys, being their usual loud selves. They were those people Elijah would subtly send the stink eye when he was trying to read a book in the cafeteria but their loud-ass selves would keep distracting him with their random, loud remarks. Elijah disliked such people. Frankly, he disliked everyone in school. It was basically a sanctuary infested in STD-carrying, alcohol-abusing kids who didn't listen to their parents and thought they were all that. Honestly he was glad it was his last year in that horrid place.

So far he'd done a good job avoiding trouble at school, but on that fateful day, that was about to change. He played it out like he didn't even notice and kept walking forward, until he was suddenly grabbed harshly by the arm and spun around.

"Where the fuck do you think you’re going?"

"Uh, I'm tryna make it to class. Now if you'll excuse me-" Clearly, Lucas wasn't going to let him off easily as he shoved him up against the locker.

"I'm talking to you."

"I have no interest in talking to the likes of you." Elijah said coldly and tried to get away again but the tanned male shoved him against the locker, hands crumpled up at the front of his shirt.

"Oh wow, we have a sassy one over here. You just ruined my fucking shirt! Who do you think you are, man?”

"Literally nobody. Now I’d really appreciate it if you let me go or I'm gonna be late to class." He said calmly, but that only seemed to rile Lucas up further. "Listen, I don't want any trouble." Elijah said impatiently. He was never late to class before and very much intended to keep his perfect record.

"Oh too bad, kid. ‘Cuz trouble just found you."

Elijah let out a bitter chuckle. He hated bullies. "So is this what you do? Bully those who are weaker than you because your life isn't interesting enough? How sad it that?"

If you hadn’t noticed by now, Elijah had a problem - he was a very honest person. And his honesty came out at all the wrong times. This might have been one of those times. Because next thing he knew, a tanned fist came flying right into his right cheek without warning, and his face snapped to the side at the sudden impact.

Well, that fucking hurt.

But it wasn't like Elijah could fight back. By that point they had attracted quite the audience as students gathered around to watch. Of course no one actually came forward to lend a helping hand.

He felt himself being shoved against the lockers as Lucas chuckled.

"Fucking loser."

And then he walked away, leaving him alone in the hallway with only one thought echoing in his mind-

I'm late for history class.

Elijah had plans of quietly entering his house and going up to his room as fast as possible without anyone seeing him. But that didn't happen because as soon as he entered, one of the servants saw him, immediately gasping and running over to him.

"Eli! What happened to your face?!" She scanned the large bruise on his face worriedly.

"Nothing." He shrugged.

"How is that nothing?! I'll call a doctor-"

"Don't."

"B-But-"

"I said don't," Elijah emphasized before making his way upstairs, "And bring a latte up to my room."

"O-Okay..." She muttered obediently.

As he passed by his mother down the hall, she sent him a disapproving look.

"Whatever happened to you?"

"Nothing of your concern."

"Ms. Kim and her son are visiting today. I can't have you meeting them looking like this."

Elijah didn't even know who the Kim's were, but that was no surprise since there were random people visiting their house all

the time. Most probably business partners that his mother was getting all chummy with.

"Just tell them I died or something. I'm not coming out of my room today anyway."

She scoffed and continued on in her merry way, studying her perfectly manicured nails.

"Gotta say though, that kid had balls." Sam said, nodding his head in approval.

"Damn right." Miles agreed.

"Yeah, yeah, shut the fuck up you two. Why don't you go suck his dick while you're at it?" Lucas sneered bitterly.

"Dude, we're just saying the truth. I don't think anyone's ever talked to you like that before."

"Yeah, that's the thing. He's all talk. He couldn't fight back for shit."

"Not everyone has a 24 hour gym membership, Luke." Miles rolled his eyes.

"Why'd you even get mad at him in the first place?" Chris asked, eyebrows scrunched up.

"Dude, he walked straight into me, dropped my drink, and then he just continued walking like nothing happened!" Lucas said like it was the biggest deal in the world.

"Really? You need to get your head out of your ass." Chris rolled his eyes.

"Hey you can't blame me. I was in a bad mood. Fucking Melissa gave me the worst blowjob ever this morning. That bitch had no idea what she was doing."

"Oh God, you talking about big tits Melissa? Don't get me wrong, she has nice tits and all but how does one come to that Botox infested face?" Sam gasped.

"She wanted to suck me, so I let her." Lucas shrugged.

"You're such a pig, you know that?" Sam said with mock disgust.

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

Elijah huffed as he shut his laptop. He was bored out of his mind, but he couldn't really do much since the Kim’s were downstairs. Looking at the mirror, he groaned at the ugly sight in front of him. He really had one hell of a shiner coming on.

His right eye was bruised purple and his cheek was swollen. His face felt sore and it hurt to even smile. Not that there was any reason to anyway.

Sighing, he walked out of the room and down the stairs, wanting to at least get something to eat. He could have easily called one of the servants but sitting in his room was getting a little too suffocating so he thought he could get a little walk while he was at it. He could hear two women chatting it up in the living room, one obviously being his mom, and rolled his eyes. Funny how she could have such pleasant conversations with random strangers yet couldn't have a proper conversation with her own son. Not like his father was any better, anyway. At least he wasn't on the receiving end of all those fake smiles. Thank God.

As he neared the kitchen, he could hear two voices mumbling. An amused brow quirked up at the sight before him.

'Ms. Kim and her son'. What are the chances of it being Lucas fucking Kim?

Lucas was right there in his kitchen, leisurely hitting it off with one of the maids who just giggled shyly at whatever the fuck he was telling her and neither noticed his presence. As if all the girls in school aren't enough? Elijah thought bitterly.

Clearing his throat, he crossed his arms and the maid let out a high pitched yelp before pushing Lucas away.

"M-Mister Eli!" She stammered, quickly bowing, face as red as ripe tomatoes. Lucas on the other hand seemed quite surprised to see the blonde.

"Jenny," Elijah greeted monotonously before making his way towards the refrigerator, completely ignoring the other male.

"Mister Eli?" Lucas whistled, "You're Mrs. Quinn's son? Gotta say this is a sweet house you got here."

Tightly gripping the bottle of chocolate milk in his hand, he made his way out the kitchen.

"Chocolate milk?" Lucas grinned. "Classy."

Pausing, he turned around to shoot the other male a bored look. "What do you want?" Lucas simply stared at him for a few seconds before awkwardly clearing his throat. Jenny, having noticed the tense atmosphere, quickly excused herself and left the kitchen.

"Man I really did a number on your face." Elijah didn't know if that remark was supposed to sound smug but it certainly didn't. It sounded more - dare he say it - sorry.

"I'm not a bully, you know?" He suddenly spoke up again, "I was just having a bad day and you happened to bump into the wrong person at the wrong time."

Elijah rolled his eyes. Apparently he punched people when he had a bad day. That doesn't sound like bullying at all.

"I hope I never have the displeasure of meeting you again, Lucas Kim," Elijah said as he turned around and made his way out the kitchen.

"Too bad our moms seem to be hitting it off pretty well. So don't be too surprised if you see me around here more often. Also, Jessica is pretty hot for a maid." He said, licking his lips. Eli cringed. Disgusting.

"It’s Jenny," He muttered under his breath as he walked up the stairs and back to his room, cursing the moment he decided to go downstairs in the first place.

By the time Elijah woke up the next day, his face was a little better but still far from presentable. Sighing, he put on his school uniform. It wasn't like anyone talked to him at school, anyway.

Classes skimmed by like usual, if you were to ignore all the weird looks everyone, including the teachers, gave him. Great, he thought, now they think I'm some kind of delinquent. After the last bell rang and he waited for everyone to leave the class as usual, he picked up his books and made his way out before Mr. Jones stopped him.

"Oh, Elijah." The middle-aged man smiled, "Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure, Mr. Jones."

"Could you take these papers down to my office? I have a meeting right now and I’m running kind of late."

"Yeah, sure."

"Here are the keys, you can return them to me tomorrow morning." He said hurriedly.

"Of course, Sir." The man smiled once before quickly leaving the room. Sighing, Elijah looked down at the several booklets in his hands. He realized they were the questions and answers to their upcoming unit exam. How could a teacher just hand him something like this? Well, maybe it made sense to give it to him rather than anyone else - he was the top achiever in class, after all. It wasn't like he needed them. Feeling responsible and somewhat proud, he proceeded to leave the class and made his way down to Mr. Jones’ office. After fumbling with the keys for a few seconds, he finally got the door to open and walked in, leaving the booklets on the desk. He then leisurely made his way out and locked the door, until he felt a presence in the hallway behind him. Looking back, he found another student, with his bag slung over his shoulders and his hands in his pockets, looking at him suspiciously. Elijah recognized him as that one kid from Biology class but couldn't quite remember his name.

"How did you get those keys?" He asked suspiciously.

Elijah shrugged, "Mr. Jones asked me to leave some papers at his office."

The guy narrowed his eyes at him, as if trying to tell if he was lying, but judging by the indifferent look on Elijah's face, he eventually relaxed.

"You're Elijah, right?" He asked, now seeming as friendly as ever.

"Last time I checked, yeah." Elijah briefly recalled that this was that one student who always sat alone in the cafeteria, reading a book, much like himself.

"Sorry for interrogating you." The guy rubbed the back of his neck with a friendly smile on his face, "I'm kind of a teacher's pet."

"That's okay." Elijah tried to offer him a smile of his own, only to quickly regret it when his swollen cheek started to ache.

"You alright there?"

"Yeah, mostly. I just happened to have an unfortunate encounter yesterday."

"Well you don't really seem like the type to get into fights," The boy said thoughtfully, "I'm Noah by the way."

"Nice to meet you," The taller replied awkwardly.

"I was just leaving. Let me walk you outside." He offered. Eli quirked a brow but shrugged, not wanting to be rude.

"Yeah, sure."

It felt a little foreign to Elijah. He couldn't remember the last time he had a normal conversation with another student. And

Noah didn't seem like one of the crazy ones either, if anything the two had a few things in common.

Elijah knew he came off as unapproachable. His stern facial expression basically scared people off. People were shallow, judgmental. He was thankful to that for the most part because it saved him the trouble of being approached by random people, but sometimes being alone was really boring. He had no one to lean on or tell a story or a joke, or vent out his frustration to. But it's been like that for so long that he was just used to it - it was his norm.

"I guess I'll see you around then, Elijah." Noah smiled once they reached the outside of the school.

"Y-Yeah... I guess." He offered Noah a tight nod before walking away and getting into the posh black Mercedes that waited outside for him.