A/N : So since i'm like x1943O248 excited for this story i couldn't wait to add another chapter for you peeps to read. It's just a little something tho! you'll be getting TWO chapter on wednesday because, again, i'm excited and i've just decided so :D

2^ndChapter : “A ceremony”

“This summer, we all lost a dear friend” She was trying so hard to control her trembling voice.

Her eyes travelled through the crowd of teenagers sitting on the bleachers and stopped at the sight of two boys she knew too well. A dirty blond haired boy, and a flawless dark skinned god. Dylan Jacksonand Adrian Suttel.

“If Chris was with us today” She takes a deep breath eying the two boys who gave her encouraging smiles, “he’d be sitting right there” she speaks, pointing to the two of them, “between his two boys, probably making fun of Mr. Fisher’s new pair of glasses” She cracks a joke, receiving a few snickers from the whole crowd.

Behind her, Mr. Fisher, a teacher, wipes a tear away. Everyone knew how fond he was of the Yoo siblings, and everyone knew he was going to miss Chris’s old playful jokes.

Her gaze left her friends to go look for someone else in the crowd. And when she found them, she was met with the saddest eyes she’s ever seen in a while. Those eyes belonged to non other than Hirai Momo.

The girl with dyed hair folded her arms, feeling uncomfortable under her gaze. After all, the two girls never were in good terms, at least, that’s what Momo thought. She used to always catch her glare in her direction, and she used to think that maybe she was jealous of the relationship she had with her boyfriend. Momo and Chris were obviously pretty close. He was her best friend’s brother, and all three of them grew up together.

As much as she hated to admit it, Momo never liked her neither. She couldn’t like the girl who started dating the boy she loved, just a week after she stepped into this high school.

“He was so excited to start his senior year” She continues, her eyes leaving Momo’s.

Im Nayeonnever thought she would be one to cry in front of her whole high school. At least, not again. She hated criers, she hated them so much because she used to be one of them.

She used to cry a lot during elementary school, whether it was because she fell and scratched her knee or because she was being bullied.

She will never forget the two boys who came up to her in the school playground, she will never forget the scene they had made, when the tears started rolling down her cheek and couldn’t be stopped, how all the kids soon circled her and listened as the eldest boy kept throwing his mean insults. She’ll never forget all the friends who turned their back on her. She’ll never forget how he made her life a living hell at the age of five, in kindergarten. She used to always be surrounded, but it only took a few words from her bully to make everyone run away from her…well…almost everyone. 

Fortunately, that same year, her new father was offered a new position in his job, in another country, and as soon as the school year ended, her family took the first plane to France.

There, she had the opportunity to click on the refresh button and restart her life all over again, and Nayeon chose to completely erase her old self. New country meant new school, new friends, new personality, new clothes and much more.

Everything was going great, until she learnt that she had to go back to her home town. Apparently, her dad’s offer was only available for a few years, and it was time for them to go back to California.

“Christopher Yoo wasn’t just my boyfriend” She pauses to swallow the lump in , “he was my best friend”

From her seat, Momo rolled her glassy eyes and got up from her seat. She wanted to leave, get as far away as possible from this ceremony, from the gym.

Nayeon on the other hand, couldn’t hold back any longer. The girl burst into sobs and fell to the ground, covering her face in the process. Her thoughts were filled with memories of the deceased boy; memories they had shared together.

He was everything that was dearest to her. She knew she should’ve never gotten attached to someone that much but she still did, because he made her feel safe, because, he loved her and made sure she knew that. He was her safety bubble, her home, and now that he was gone, her world was slowly staring to crumble.

A pair of arms wrapped around the girl, lifting her from the ground and when she looked up, Nayeon could’ve sworn she saw Chris’s eyes staring right back at her.

It wasn’t him.

“I’ll walk you to the restroom” Starts Jeongyeon in a comforting tone.

To be honest, Jeongyeon wanted to skip the ceremony as well. She did not want to speak up about her brother’s death, and certainly not give a speech in front of her school.

She grabs Nayeon’s arm but the latter quickly brushes her off.

“No, I’ll go by myself” She speaks up, whipping away tears from her cheeks, “it’s your turn to talk and you probably have so much to say”

Nayeon gets up and walks out of the gym in a quick pace, leaving Jeongyeon alone under the gaze of hundreds of students and the teachers.

The brunette cleared before standing on her feet to face the pupils. Her eyes roamed through the students, looking for a familiar face, but Momo was nowhere to be seen. Jeongyeon didn’t know then but, her best friend was actually far far away from the gym. Even though her Momo wasn’t around to make her less nervous, Jeongyeon stepped closer to the microphone.

She didn’t prepare a speech, and it wasn’t because she didn’t have time, nor because she didn’t want to, she just didn’t know what to say or write.

Everyone was giving her encouraging smiles, including her long time crush, and that’s what gave her enough strength to take in a deep breath and speak up:

“My brother was…”

Silence.

She should’ve probably thought about something to say before opening . Now, she was stuck, and didn’t know how to end her sentence nor the awkwardness crawling inside her.

Mouth wide agape, she watched as the encouraging looks turned into confused ones. Stress was slowly starting to kick in when she suddenly heard them.

Whispers.

Voices. A lot of them. Speaking all at the same time, but surprisingly, clearly enough so she could make out every word said.

Jeongyeon came to a conclusion that these voices were only in her head, since no one else was reacting to them, even thought it felt like they were coming from everywhere.

Instead of worrying, she felt thankful. She didn’t question their appearance any further when she should’ve.

“My brother wasn’t only our basketball team’s captain” She starts, repeating the words that the voices were whispering to her, “he wasn’t just the boy dating the new girl, theIm Nayeon, or Mr. Fisher’s favorite student, or “Mr. popular””

The voices were slowly starting to fade, what Jeongyeon thought was a huge number of them, left, and only a few stayed to help her out.

“He was Chris Yoo, the guy who stayed late night at school to help our librarian or to help the theater club set up their set for the school play. And more importantly, he was a wonderful son to my parents and the best brother anyone could ever ask for…”

As Yoo Jeongyeon kept going on with her speech, Im Nayeon pushed open the door to the girl’s restroom, heading directly to the sink to wash her face.

Surprisingly, she had company and when she saw the familiar blonde hair, the older girl froze for a second, hesitant about taking another step forward.

Momo stopped in mid action when she felt the new presence and thanked whatever high power there was, that this person didn’t come in a few minutes ago when she was bawling her eyes out.

“I’m sorry” She says, not really knowing what she was apologizing for.

She quickly turns on the faucet, cups her hands under the icy water stream to then splash it on her face, hoping that it would erase all marks of the crying she’s been doing. 

Nayeon however, doesn’t miss the puffy red eyes when Momo finally looks up to see her own reflection, catching the intruder in the process.

The blonde girl tries not to look too surprised when she turns around to see the deceased boy’s girlfriend and the girl she disliked the most, in front of her.

Out of everyone who decided to skip the ceremony at the same time, it had to be Im Nayeon and Hirai Momo.

Nayeon quickly looks away from the girl and moves to the sink only to lean against it and take a breath. She was contemplating on either starting a conversation with the girl, or stay silent.  However, she couldn’t come up with the right words, and so, instead, she focused on her mirror reflection, not knowing where else she could lay her eyes.

Seconds passed and lasted longer than minutes until Momo decided it was time to leave the girl’s restroom, and just as she pulled open the restroom’s doors, Nayeon snapped out of her trance, stopping the other girl in mid-action:

“I’m sorry for your loss”

She feels like slapping herself as soon as the words leave . Out of everything she could’ve said, she chose that.

Nayeon watched as Momo’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion and wondered what was going through her head.

Momo was thinking of how odd and bizarre of a first day this was. First, she witnessed a ceremony for her dead childhood friend and lover, and now Im Nayeon, the girl she least appreciated and whom surely felt the same way towards her, was being nice to her, almost friendly.

She would’ve never in a million years imagined a scenario even close to this one, and she didhave an overflowing imagination. No matter that, she would’ve never predicted that the people she cared about would pass away in a car accident. Never.

Soon, the blonde girl realized that she had been standing in front of an opened door and hadn’t said a word. Her hand let go of the handle as she turned around to face the Latina.

“I’m sorry too.” She starts playing with her ring finger. It was an old habit of hers, something she would do whenever she was feeling awkward or nervous. “he was your boyfriend after all”.

“He was” Nayeon’s heart twinges at the use of the past tense.

You would think she would’ve gotten over his death this past month, but she didn’t. It was quite the opposite. Now that he wasn’t around, life felt a lot more difficult than it already did. “but you knew him longer than I did”

Nayeon would’ve gladly told her that she was well aware of the feeling she had for her boyfriend, and how hefelt about it, but decided against it. It would’ve only made things worse.

So she sent Momo one last forced smile then took a deep breath before leaving the restroom first, heading anywhere else but back in the gym.

Her feet led her to the school’s huge front doors. Fortunately for her, the hallways were deserted. It seemed like everyone was at the ceremony she refused to join.

Pushed by a warm feeling running through her body, Nayeon left the school building only to find herself looking down at an aged man sitting on one of the front building’s few steps. She frowned as she recognized her grandfather.

“Enfin” He speaks up, hinting at his relief.

Nayeon feels like he’s been sitting there for a while, waiting for her.

Louis Martin, her mother’s father, walks up the few steps to meet his granddaughter and smiles once they are at the same level. Her, pale skin, her dark hair, her dark brown eyes, cheekbones and her cute little nose…everything about her reminded him of his wife.

“You look so much like your grandmother” He says in a low tone, almost as if he was speaking to himself.

Jiyeon Martin was a beautiful Korean woman, inside and out, Louis would forever remember that. He wished the two look alike women could meet. Jiyeon died during a bank robbery, not long after Nayeon was born, and he couldn’t do anything about it when he had the power to.

“grandpa what are you doing here?” As soon as Nayeon snapped out of her chocker, worry settled and a hoard of questions came out of . “Are you lost? Are you okay? Did something happen?” Her grandfather wasn’t one to pay random visits, especially not at school.

Louis chuckled, which relieved his granddaughter a little. The old man’s hand cupped her face from one side before sighing and letting go.

“How’s your first day going?” He asks, completely ignoring her previous questions.

It took her a few seconds to answer.

“I’ve experienced better” She runs a hand in her hair, feeling frustrated, and avoids any eye contact with her grandfather. She didn’t want to cry anymore.

“You’ll be fine. I know it”

Something about the tone of his voice makes her look up. Louis was giving her the same smile he gave her at the airport, years ago, when she left California for France with her family. It was almost as if they were saying goodbye to each other, once again.

The old man pulls her in a long embrace, and not long after, kisses her forehead.

That is when she started to feel dizzy and her legs slowly yet surely turned to cotton. The last thing she remembers was her grandfather telling her repeatedly to read the letter, before a blinding white light enveloped her.

She was later woken up by Adrian Suttel.

The ceremony had ended and he had decided to leave the school building to head outside and lit a cigarette when he found her laying unconscious on the steps.

Upon seeing her pale and tired face, he immediately reacted, quickly helped her get into his car, went back inside the school building to bring the stuff she had left behind and warn the teachers, then drove her to her place.

The girl looked tired, and he decided he’d ask her about her collapsing episode tomorrow, or whenever she was feeling better.

She muttered a low ‘thank you’ when she left her friend’s vehicle and walked alone to the front door of her two-story house. The 15-minute drive helped her recover and regain enough energy and strength back in her legs.

The first thing she did as soon as she stepped inside the place,  was to head to the kitchen, from where she heard noise.

Her older half sister was leaning on the counter, eating a bowl of cereal. Nayeon walked over to the girl and sat on the stool in front of her, then threw her purse on the counter.

“You’re home early” States the older one.

“And you skipped” Replies Nayeon, holding her head between the palms of her hands as she massaged her temples.

Alix shrugged her shoulders and casually said that she didn’t feel like going, and went on and on about how first days always anyway.

Their family was composed of 4 members: her mother Isabelle Martin /Jones, her half father Frank Jones, his daughter Alix Jones and, finally, herself.

Nayeon was too young to entirely remember her dead father, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t get flashes of moments they had spent together. She regretted not remembering more, and felt awfully guilty about it.  

She was only three years old when she moved with her mother from Florida to California. They found refuge in Louis’s house, and stayed long enough until her mother could get over their loss.

A year later, Isabelle met Frank Jones, a business man that happened to be divorced. Their two daughters got along well, Nayeon loved Frank whereas Alix took some time to warm up to Isabelle. The adults eventually got engaged and all four of them became a happy family who lived under the same roof.

Nayeon waited a few seconds before she finally asked the question that troubled her since Adrian woke her:

“Did grandpa come over by any chance?”

Alix put her spoon down and raised an eyebrow at her younger sister. Nayeon thought she didn’t hear her at first. Her sister was taking an awful amount of time to answer (or maybe Nayeon was being impatient).

“Did grandpa Louis come over today?” She repeats.

Alix looks at her as if she grew a second head: with scared eyes and a worried frown of the forehead. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She turns around the counter to stand in front of her younger sister then places a hand on her forehead. Nothing. She wasn’t burning, quite the opposite, she was cold.  “Why’d you even come home early from school in the first place?”

Nayeon slaps her sister’s arm away from her face. She was getting annoyed of everyone ignoring her questions.

“Just answer the question Al”

Alix focuses on her sister’s face a few more seconds.

Shedidlook tired after all. Nayeon always did look pale, but the Californian sun had inevitably put even the smallest brush of a color on her skin. This time however, Nayeon could be sitting on the bathroom’s and Alix wouldn’t recognize her if it weren’t for the dark bags under her eyes.

“I thought Isabelle said both her parents died during a bank robbery that went wrong years ago?”

That evening, Nayeon spent her time in her room, reading over and over again a letter she had found on her desk. She even skipped dinner, telling Frank that she didn’t feel like eating lasagna when he knocked on her door and God knows that lasagna was her favorite food.

Don’t tell anyone­ […] 

These are the words from Louis Martin’s letter that kept her up until sunrise.