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failed fluff ahead ._.

{ chapter thirteen }

‘the savior’

Warm.

Having Baek Hyun by her side, she felt warm. Back then, when she was drowning herself with tears and dread because of her mother’s death, she had no one by her side. She couldn’t talk about it to her father because he wasn’t exactly a person who has free time on his hands, her brothers hate her that time, Soo Yeon and she weren’t close, and her friends were also busy with school and they weren’t exactly her friends.

Jin Hee thought that it’s happening again. All over again. She wasn’t entirely wrong, but the difference, this time, is she has someone to talk to, to lean on. Someone who was willing to listen, willing to give her something that would lessen the heavy feeling on her chest.

Someone = Baek Hyun.

The whole ride to the Byuns’ house was quiet. No one talked; she didn’t utter a word because she was afraid she’d just break down in tears, he didn’t speak because he let him be comforted with silence, he was thinking that if she heard a simple noise, it would just worsen her state.

That’s how he thought of her right now; a fragile girl.

Baek Hyun took her hand and led Jin Hee to their house’s second floor that had a covered balcony that offered a beautiful view; city’s streets, bustling cars, skyscrapers, and some trees here and there. The gentle afternoon breeze hit their faces, and for Jin Hee, it was a breath of life; an escape to suffocation, that moment when the hand loses its grip on your neck.

They sat side by side on the wooden bench, appreciating what’s ahead of them. The active city was just as beautiful as a calm province, in just different aspects.

Baek Hyun looked to his right to find Jin Hee looking down on her fidgeting fingers, lips quivering and eyes shining with tears. His heart sank, “Are… you alright?”

Jin Hee could almost hear the snapping of the last string of strength she had. No one had ever asked her that. No one was curious about what she was feeling. These past few days, all they could think about was her being a mistake.

She choked on a sob, tears racing down her face and dropping on her lap. She weakly shook her head, “No, Baek Hyun.” She sobbed, “No, I’m not alright.”

Disregarding the dramas he had watched in his life, this is the third time Baek Hyun had seen a girl close to him cry. First was her mother who cried on his graduation day, second was her older sister because she was accepted to her dream school, and third, this. The first two were all tears of joy, but this, this isn’t joy at all. It was tears of everything bad; anger, fear, frustration, pain and missing someone dearly.

 He was thinking that this was her exploding point. For months, she’d been bottling all her emotions. Death, new lifestyle, new people, adjustments, yet no one seemed to care about her feelings. She was her own foundation of herself, and if she falls, everything falls.

Right now, Baek Hyun could see, right in front of him, with his own two eyes, she was crumbling, and she was trying so hard to hold on, she was barely holding herself together. And it breaks his heart to see that the person, who made everyone smile every day, including him, can’t even make herself smile. The girl who was doing everything she can so she can’t burden her family was carrying the entire burden herself, and no one seemed to care.

Except for him. He’s starting to care, and right now, he doesn’t care that he’s admitting that he cares, because she needs it, even though she’d done nothing but to annoy him, cling unto him and make him smile at the end of the day. He knew it, because he once found himself smiling with that girl’s face in his mind.

Baek Hyun inched closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder to give it a reassuring squeeze. Despite her breaking down state, she felt the circle patters his thumb was drawing on her shoulder. It was comforting.

“Can you tell me what happened?” he gently said, his voice like the wind.

She gathered herself up; wiped her tears, swallowed the lump in and sniffed. Jin Hee couldn’t meet his eyes, afraid that he’d see how much of a wreck she was, deep inside.

“I was supposed to go to school, look over the booth and watch your game, but as soon as I arrived downstairs, two men were there,” she took a shaky breath, “they were my uncles. They confronted dad about me because our grandmother told them what happened weeks ago. You know, everything would be okay if it was only uncle Joon who came. He was cool and calm and understanding, unlike the other one, uncle Nam Hyun. He was straight-up terrible and judgmental that he even judged his own brother, my dad! He was telling these things!” her hands spread as if to describe them, “that dad was still cheating on aunt Soo Yeon, that he still hasn’t moved on from my mom and!”

She sobbed, and Baek Hyun tightened his arm around, “And Baek Hyun, he called my mother a ! Dad punched him after he said that, but even if he didn’t, I literally would! I’ll be glad to break his jaw.”

“You could