She’s Eccentric XI

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There was a cage, and inside was a child; a little girl about the age of six. She was terrified, scared and lonely, she was crying and begging but no one heard her pleas. There were people around her but no one seemed to care, and it made her even more terrified.

With her tiny hands holding the long, cold and hard silver that locks her in, there in the distance she sees of what she thought could help her, but no… it was the very reason why she was there. Yet she tried calling out, calling out to him, he was her father after all. But no hand held her little ones, she could hate him but she was so young; so innocent that the word hate doesn’t resonate to her mind yet, but there was one thing she realized, he may be his father, but he was never a fatherly figure to her.

So she stayed there, caged and crying still. Crying till everything became clouded, not a sight of her father anymore, or anyone who passed by that simply ignored her. Until a hand, small as hers but maybe a little bigger, entered her own little world, passing through the gaps and holding her; that’s when her crying stops, and she saw – though they were blurry – a figure of another child, a girl, that made her smile for the first time since she was locked in, the girl’s smile was clear, and it was the most beautiful smile that she had ever seen, that Byul had ever seen.

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Byul woke up by the realization that someone was shaking her, she turned and closed her eyes shut before opening them again, adjusting them to the light. She blinked a few times before her sight became clear. Remembering that she wasn’t alone, she turned to see Solar who was on top of her bed in an Indian sit, staring at her with her eyes that she couldn’t read and her hands still placed on her shoulder.

Byul was about to say something but Solar went ahead of her, “Byul, are you ok?”

It was a first, the first time Solar had asked her something like this? Or was it? The tone of her voice that’s without a doubt shows worry. “I-I’m okay…”

“But you’re crying…” it made Byul confused.

“No I’m not…”

“Yes you are…” Solar inched closer and Moonbyul stayed still, Solar’s thumb wiping through the ends of her eyes. “See? Its wet… you’re crying…”

Moonbyul wiped her eye with her hands, and Solar was right, there were tears. Though the memory of the dream was barely remembered by her now, the pain was still there. “I am…” she smiles at Solar, holding her hands and squeezing them lightly, “… thanks Yongsun…”

“Is it a bad dream?”

Moonbyul exhaled, “I guess… its vague now…” she hears Solar murmur but didn’t pay more attention to it.

What surprised her is when it was Solar’s turn to hold her hands, and a sudden flash of memory comes to her. “Don’t cry…”

“Don’t cry… Byul…” it was Solar’s words, yet it felt like she heard them before. She didn’t know who the owner was but it was familiar. Different yet nostalgic at the same time.

“I-I… okay…” she didn’t know where that came from, but the need to say it was there.

Both were silent for a few minutes until Byul found herself tumbled on the sheets and Solar’s laughing fit being heard loud and clear.

“What the hell?! What was that for?!” Moonbyul rubbed her shoulder where Solar just pushed her, glaring at the older girl.

“Cheer up, its morning, mornings are supposed to be happy and refreshing!” a wide and beaming smile on her face, Solar showing her perfect set of white teeth.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Yongsun, whatever you say…” Moonbyul stood up and headed to the bathroom with a squirtle with mochi cheeks following behind, it’s been months, but this routine will never stop.

“Yongsun, you’re nothing taking a bath with me!”

“Oh, come one~” Solar whines but Byul deadpans at this and entered the bathroom.

“There are two bathrooms in this place, use the other one! You insisting to bathe with me is inappropriate in so many levels…” call Moonbyul hysterical, but hey, would you agree of taking a bath together with someone? (Well, maybe if it’s Solar then why not xD)

“Fine! Just go down when you’re ready, food’s on the table…” Solar turned and was about to get out, when Moonbyul peeked from the door.

“You prepared the food?”

“Yeah…”

“You? Yongsun?”

“Uh huh…”

“You can cook?”

“Yes…” at this time Moonbyul’s expression was unexplainable to the certain point that it’s funny, and Solar was preventing herself from laughing.

“You can cook! Yet you ask me to cook for you?! I thought you can’t!”

Solar bursts out laughing, she went towards Moonbyul who’s head still peeking from the bathroom door. “I live alone Byul, how can I survive if I can’t even cook my own food?”

“Maybe you… you…” Moonbyul’s eyes was moving with uncertainty, her words stuttering, and this made Solar imply a giggle, she was too cute.

“Ordered food? I do, but not all the time…” Byul became silent, as if thinking at that very moment. It’s amazing to learn new things, even learning about other people, but when it comes to Solar, it feels like learning something rare for Byul. “Oh, you are too cute Byulie…” with that, Solar placed a peck on Byul’s nose making her blush and swiftly retrieving her head back. Only Solar’s laughter was heard after that.

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“Of course she can cook, even if she didn’t know how she’d learn because she’s smart…” it was Wheein, they were inside their classroom, lucky enough that their teacher wasn’t there.

“Smart? Yongsun?” Moonbyul didn’t mean to sound rude, it was a joke.

It was Hwasa turn to talk this time, “You’re smart too Byul-unnie, but can be pretty densed at times, and stupid too… how do you think she’d become the Student Council’s President if she wasn’t smart?”

Moonbyul shrugs but soon the three of them laughed, garnering attention from other students who immediately giggled with them and went back to their own business.

“Anyway… you’re dad…”

“What about him?”

“What are you going to do with him? Have you seen him already?” Hwasa and Wheein were cautious of their words, even Byul, just by the mention of her dad sends shiver down her spine.

“I’m planning to, later after class…” Mr. Moon was a man that Moonbyul despised, not because he was never with her through the years, actually she was happy that he left, but now that he’s back, Moonbyul can’t explain what she feels.

“And Solar unnie?”

“Yongsun? What’s with Yongsun?”

“Not gonna tell her that you’re going to your dad’s?”

“What’s with it for her, she doesn’t need to know where I’m going…”

Wheein and Hwasa gave each other a knowing look then they all stayed quiet right after, talking about Moonbyul’s father was enough to bring down the mood, and it’s pathetic that there’s nothing they can do about such man.

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Moonbyul walked with hurried footsteps, about to exit the school gate when a certain someone jumped unto her, locking grip to her shoulder and waist. Moonbyul didn’t have to ask to know who it was.

“Yongsun…” she groaned, looking behind her only to see a beaming Solar.

“Where are you going Byul?” Solar removed herself from Byul and walked with her.

“To my grandma’s…” Solar whipped her head towards Byul, smiling as if she heard something great.

“Really! I wanna come with you!

This had Moonbyul alarmed. “What? No!” she hissed, not noticing the irritation on her voice.

Solar on the other hand stood frozen for a moment, relaxing soon after to hold Moonbyul’s hand, intertwining them next. “Byul? You okay…?”

And there it is again, the familiarity from Solar’s words that Moonbyul couldn’t comprehend herself, Moonbyul can only look down, she didn’t want Solar to come with her. A mere reason that she cared for the older girl, she knew what her father is capable of doing, her memories with the man yelling from her mind loud and clear.

“I’m fine… j-just… go home without me okay?” Moonbyul didn’t dare look at Solar in the eye? The reason? She didn’t know why? Maybe because of embarrassment? But she knows that there was something there…

“Okay!” Solar immediately removed her hands from Byul as she clapped, Moonbyul was glad that Solar didn’t pry further, but a discontented feeling runs through her palms, like a sudden warmth losing its presence. “See you later Byul!” Solar ran, waving goodbye to her, she did this after planting a quick peck to Byul’s cheeks which made the latter be crimson red to the ears.

She stares at Solar’s retreating figure, while her hand placed on her moist cheeks, of course Solar wouldn’t be Solar if she didn’t do such things.

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She was only a few steps away from the front door, other people may be excited at the thought of going home but not Byul, not her when she knows who’s expecting her there. She’s not a coward, but seeing her father and talking to him drains every amount of courage from her body, if only he didn’t come back, everything would’ve been perfect the way they were.

With a little push, she knocked and entered and was welcomed by a hug from her grandmother which she returned. Releasing from the hug, she looked around, anxiety evident from her face, which didn’t go unnoticed by Mrs. Moon.

“He’s upstairs, in his office, go see him…”

“Do I really have to…?” it was almost a whisper, Mrs. Moon couldn’t hide her pity for her granddaughter, she may not want Moonbyul to go see him, to have him push her ways to her, still it’s Moonbyul’s father. Moonbyul may hate him, but it doesn’t change the fact that she must have at least an ounce of respect for him.

“Just go see him…” and with a heavy heart, Moonbyul went upstairs, with her mentality strengthened and ready to whatever would happen next.

She knocked on the door and was answered by a deep voice. She opened the door with trembling hands, she was scared; she thought she got over it, but she didn’t.

“Took you long enough.” No, ‘How are you’s?’, not a single look with concern, not even a ‘hello’ from him.

“Sorry…” like a prey she is, being cautious and hiding from its predator, looking at his father now only reminds her of what she didn’t thought he could do to her; she is still her daughter after all.

“So, after I’ve left you for so many years, mom said she stopped taking you there. You must be cured now.” The flow of words coming out from his mind has no emotion at all, as if everything he says is supposed to be true, every demands must be met at all cost, this is what kind of mind he is.

Moonbyul had her fist clenched tight, “I’m not supposed to be there at all, I’m not to be cured of anything, I am not ill!” the anger and frustration all summed up as Moonbyul spat out the words, not caring if it was her father she was talking to, to her dismay, it was no use as she heard the slamming of fist un to the table.

“You dare talk back to me?! You have no right to oppose to what I say! My words are final! What I say is what they’re meant, when I say that you’re sick, that means you are, you understand?!” it felt like poison hearing those words from him, Byul kept still, pushing her tears back, she didn’t want to cry; at least not in front of him. “You know nothing! To say the least, you are a disgrace!”

“Junhyung! How dare you say that to your daughter!” Mrs. Moon entered the room, hugging her granddaughter tight, soothing her as if to muffle the words that she’s not meant to hear.

“Don’t interrupt us mother! Why would you even sign her out of there, first thing in the morning we’re going back and she’ll have that illness of hers out of her system! And she dares talk back to me, I think we should sign that too…”

“Your daughter is not sick, she never was, how could you say that?!” at that moment, Moonbyul hugged her grandmother back, not caring if she was crying anymore, she couldn’t hold back the tears, it hurt too much, it was too painful for her.

“Her homouality is a mental illness…” Mr. Moon spat out with gritted teeth.

“It isn’t, if there’s anyone sick here Junhyung, it is you, you’re out of your mind!”

“Do you want her to be like that of a mother of hers?!”

“Junhyung!”

“That ing lesbian who left me because, what?, she loved a woman more than me? a man? I can give her everything that she could ever want yet she left me to be with a woman?!” Mr. Moon had been slamming his fist to the table, every ear deafening sound, Moonbyul would flinch, like it was too much to ask for her to just leave the place and go somewhere far from her father.

“Moonbyul is your daughter, can’t you just accept what she really is? Stop getting yourself caught from the past my son! You’re not like this! What has happened to you?” Mrs. Moon was already crying herself, still having her precious granddaughter locked in her arms.

“I won’t have a lesbian as a daughter, she is a disgrace. She had that since she was young and you tell me mother, that it’s not a mental illness? Who are you kidding?!”

Hearing her father’s words, memories of her childhood went rushing in, her being dragged to a place she didn’t want to be, her father talking to a woman in an outfit of a doctor, if only she wasn’t so young back then, she would’ve read the word “Psychologist” on the plate placed by the table.

Remembering all this, she realized that it has been so long, it was a good thing that by the moment her father left the country, her grandmother took her out from there, it was one of the happiest moment of her life, being out of the place where she didn’t feel safe at all.

“Nooo~! I don’t want to go back there, she puts me in a cage, I don’t want to be put back there, father please!” she beg but it was no use, her father never listens anyway. It was good enough that her grandmother was there to be her company.

“Junhyung, you don’t have to drag her, give her to me…” even when they were inside, little Byul didn’t cease crying, the Dr. noticed this.

“Mr. Moon, to be honest, Byulie is still a child, she can change as she grows, no need to go hard on her like this…” but even a doctor’s word won’t soften a heart of someone who gave up trying to soften it.

“Just do your job. That’s why I’m paying you.” There was nothing she could do, so in the end, a therapy was done to Moonbyul, at such a young age, it was more than a child could handle.

Moonbyul ran out as soon as the session was done, she didn’t like it one bit, as far as she knows, whatever they’re doing, it’s not helping. She ran out until her little legs gave up, having her sit on where she stood last, she was crying, and no one was there to comfort her.

Well not until after a few minutes of her just sobbing there, a girl around her age, or older stood in front of her, head tilted and looking at her.

“Why are you crying?” she asked. Moonbyul who was fond of making friends felt happy seeing another child like her there. Wiping her tears with her little hands, she swallowed her sobs.

“I…I don’t like this place…”

Soon after the girl sat with her, “Why?”

“I get scared here… it’s not fun at all, father said I’m sick but I’m not… you? Why are you here?”

The girl chuckled, “I don’t know, Mom said I’ve been saying  and doing things that children my age hasn’t been doing yet, so maybe that’s why… anyway, what’s your name?”

“I’m Moonbyul, or Byul… my grandma calls me Byul…”

Moonbyul feels a soft thing on her cheek, Solar just kissed her and the girl was showing a bright smile that Moonbyul found beautiful. “Don’t cry now, Byul…” the girl stood up and dusted her clothes. “My mom might be looking for me, see you around.”

The girl ran back and Byul followed her with her eyes before yelling, “What’s your name?!”

“Yongsun!” and both bid farewell.

“Yongsun… I want to go back to Yongsun, grandma…” Moonbyul sobbed softly, enough for her grandmother to here but not her father.

Mrs. Moon cooed her grandchild, “Okay dear, I’ll take you there… Junhyung, enough of this, you just got home and this is how you present yourself, have some decency…” with that Mr. Moon stayed silent, teeth still clenched as he sat to his swiveling chair, while Mrs. Moon and Byul headed out of the room.

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“Are you okay, dear?”

“I…I will be, don’t worry about me grandma, I’m not a child anymore, I can handle this…” Moonbyul gave a half smile, they were in front of the apartment both her and Solar shared.

“Alright, I’ll leave you now…”

“Thank you, grandma…”

“Anything for you, dearest…”

As soon as her grandmother left, Moonbyul headed inside, going directly to their room and to her bed without changing her clothes, not minding if Solar was there or not.

She succumbed herself to the sheets, curling and tucking, as if she wanted the bed to swallow her then. Tears dared to fall from her eyes, she was too into her sobs that she failed to notice another person climbing to her bed and laying there. She wasn’t supposed to notice, until someone hugged her from behind.

“It’s okay, Byul… I’m here…”

And it was the right decision to go back, Yongsun is what she really needed after all…

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This is a 3k worded chapter... 3k... do you hear me yelling??? it's 3k, finally! I updated a chapter with 3,000 wooords, i feel so happy right now.

anyway, back to the story, i think i just made things serious, is that ok? welp, at least it progressed xD hope you like this chapter, or if even better, loved it. i just feel so happy right now, can you feel my good vibes, it's everywhere! :D <3

_itsalzate_