20th Quiz - You're worthy

"It was nice seeing you again."

Yong Haneul could sense the mirth from her statement and yet she gave no reaction at all. She just remain rooted on her spot. Not even when the girl at the farthest end turned to smirk at her. 

"My, my, you've aged ever since I last saw you," she started now finally turning her body fully towards her visitor. "How 'bout me? Did I aged?" 

Still no response. 

She clicked her tongue as she looked down the ground rather arrogantly, "you've never changed though. Still annoying as ." She all of a sudden kicked the empty barrel on her right forcefully, glaring at Haneul who was unfazed by her antics. 

She chuckled. Then nodded. She swiped her tongue out to wet her chapped lips before she raised both her brows manically. 

"So, what is it that you want, Haneulie?" She tilted her head as she smirked at her.

--

Before being abandoned, Yong Haneul owned a doll that she received during her eight birthday from her mother. She loved it because it was the first ever present she received from her.

The Yong's are well off but she never once received a gift from her parents, not that she was complaining though. Her parents would occasionally buy her new clothes and stuffs so she was very contented about it. 

Wherever she goes she brings that doll with her and she never lets anyone touch it, except her friend. 

Her best friend.

Kim Nara.

"Haneulie!!!" Followed by the sound of the doorbell. 

Nara scrunched up her nose when no Haneul opened the door for her, even after she counted to five. 

"Haneulie!!!!" 

Another five seconds and the doors sounded. With an excited beam on her face, Nara held the straps of her back bag as she wait for her friend to open the door for her. 

Its just that, Mr Yong was the one who opened up for her, eyes tired and exhausted. "Mr Yong?" She asked, worriedly. 

"Ah yes," he started sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Haneul..." 

She found herself leaning in closer to hear clearly. Seriously, he was trailing off.

Her eyes widened when she heard his next words. "Haneul's not attending school, today. I'm sorry." 

"Is she alright?!" She asked, not even caring about the fact that they didn't told her about it beforehand. Their house was three blocks away from each other and yet, the only thing she cares about was Haneul's whereabouts. 

"She's fine. Don't worry. She'll go to school tomorrow, I guess so don't worry Nara-yah. Be a good girl and attend classes okay? If you really are worried for our Haneul, you can let her copy your lectures so she could catch up easily. Are you okay with that?"

Her reply was a beaming smile, "Yes!"

Contrary to what was e pected, Haneul didn't attend school the next day, or the days that followed. Soon, Kim Nara found herself coming back and forth to the Yong residence regularly to give Haneul her lectures though nobody dared open up the door for her. She just opted to use the mailbox. 

"I miss you so much, Haneulie. Don't be sick, okay?" 

The next week, Nara arrived to school earlier than expected, refusing to meet her parents in the dining table. They would just ask her to avoid Haneul anyway, one thing she'll never ever do. 

She sat down on her desk, scanning the peace the classroom has to offer. No mother to scold her for coming regularly at the Yong's and no father to force to avoid Haneul. 

She couldn't get their point across actually. Nevertheless, she loves her parents too much. 

"...well, her mother left them for another man." She heard her other classmates talking while they entered the room so she quickly looked at the arriving presence. 

"Really? That !"

Bother stopped when they saw the Taekwondo student looking at them from the side of her eyes. Soon, smirks formed on their lips as if  realization hit them.

"Kim Nara!" They started. She answered with a hum, diverting her vision outside. 

"Is it true Mrs Yong left Haneul?"

At this question, eight year old Nara frowned before her eyes widened to the size if saucers. 

"Don't come back there anymore, Nara."

"A girl with a family like you should avoid that girl completely, it's quite shameful being around her."

She immediately stood up, whipping her head at her classmates. "What did you say?"

"Oh, you didn't know? But you're her best friend!" 

At that moment, another presence in the room caught the three's attention. The subject was here.

Yong Haneul went to school after a week of being absent. 

Her eyes were void of anything. And yet, she still carries that doll her mother bought her. Just one look at her and Nara knew something's wrong. 

"Why don't we ask her, shall we?"

"Haneul!" Myungjun called. "Did your mother abandon you?" 

"Yah–" Nara started but was cut off immediately.

"Did she left for another man?!" Jungwoo immediately added before doing high five, laughing at the arriving girl. Nevertheless, Haneul just walked towards her seat, carefully fixing her stuff on the side of her desk. 

"Are you lonely?"

No reply. 

"You must have been lonely, right?"

Silence.

"Don't worry, you have that do–"

"Stop!!!" All heads turned towards her when she screamed. She was getting sick of this place seriously. 

"Stop acting all high and mighty just be pause you have both your parents by your side. They won't live forever!" Nara hissed before approaching Haneul's seat, pulling her up in the process, leaving the two behind. 

Nara brought them at the rooftop. Students aren't allowed to go to the rooftop and yet she doesn't know a place where there would be no disturbance. After all, Haneul got some explaining to do. 

"I won't ask if you're okay because I know its not, so I'll ask instead," she sighed. "What happened?" 

She looked  behind her to see Haneul looking down the ground, hugging her doll tighter as her brows furrowed. She immediately sat beside her, patting Haneul's back comfortingly. "Don't cry, I'm here."

"Mom doesn't love us anymore." Haneul hugged the doll tighter. "She said she doesn't love us anymore."

At this, Nara's heart broke and she swore that she will protect Yong Haneul no matter what happens. 

For the next months that ensued, Nara found her friend starting to heal. She started opening up to people again and she talks to her more often again but the bullying never stops, it only got worse. 

One time, Yong Haneul was the one assigned to do the gardening and accidentally left her doll inside their classroom in a hurry. Not that her classmates would actually ruin the doll.

But boy, she was wrong. Very very wrong. 

Because right after their taekwondo practice, as she was nearing their classroom, Kim Nara heard a sound of clothes ripping, or was it fabric?

Nevertheless, she slid the door open to reveal a bunch of her girl classmates, ripping and cutting the plushie doll into shreds. 

Her mind went blank.

This was Haneul's doll.

A gift from her mom.

All heads turned towards her and all stopped their motions. Nara, on the other hand just stood there, her hands before she charged towards them one by one punching and knocking her classmates who added lay a finger towards Haneul's toy. 

Never ever use what we teach you for violence. 

Her coach's voice rang in her head but she couldn't stop, not when this lowlife creatures hurt Haneul. 

Soon, she came across with a game of tug of war again one of her classmates who was continuously cutting the doll, quickly breaking his arm onto her back, she gripped the scissors and with her free hand, pushing the girl on the ground before picking up the ripped plushie. 

"Nara..."

She looked at the direction of the voice and saw Haneul staring at her doll with wide eyes, tears b her eyes. 

Right after the incident, the parents and guardians of the students involved were called at the guidance office. 

"I'm sorry Mr Kim, but what your daughter did was against the rules of the sports. She used her ability to hurt her classmates, I'm sorry but she has to be kicked out from the team." The chairman said and both parents hung their head low, as well as Nara. But unlike then, she never regretted one thing. Not when she did it for Haneul. 

The door to the guidance office opened and Haneul invited herself in, her eyes wide with confusion. 

"Nara-yah..." She trailed off. "Haneulie!"

"Yulhee said it was you who did it," she started tears finally dropping down one by one. "Its not true, right? You were holding the scissors because you stop then from doing anything further, right?"

She was supposed to agree but a hand gripping on her arms firmly stopped her, as Mr Kim his her behind him. It was Mrs Kim who spoke for her instead. 

"You're right!" She screamed, fury in her voice. Haneul looked up at her. "Our Nara did it! She was so annoyed at you for clinging to her like a leech!"

Lie.

Its all lies. 

It wasn't me. I was protecting you, Haneulie.

"Right!" It was her father. "Look what you've got her into. She got kicked out the club because of you!"

No. I–

She was pulled back yet again, and she felt tears stinging the side of her eyes. 

Soon, Haneul's eyes mirrored surprise, hatred, hurt, disappointment before completely going blank.

"You're right." She scoffed.

And then she left. The next days that followed, she never came across Yong Haneul again. Not even when she went to their house that afternoon. Or the day after that. 

Or even the weeks that followed. 

It wasn't me. 

--

"So, what made you come here?" Nara raised one of her brows and smirk at her. "Old friend?"

"Well, me and my friend ChaRin decided to leave." She announced looking at Nara straight in the eyes. 

Friend. Her nerves clicked hearing this statement. "Why though?"

"I just don't feel like following you anymore." Haneul shrugged her shoulders which caused Nara to be infuriated and reach for the nearest rod and throw it across the room. Too bad it didn't hit her. 

"Leaving the gang will cost you something, you know that?" Nara was only answered by a nod from the latter and she found her blood boiling again. "You're not allowed to fight or meddle with our business anymore if you got out, you know that?"

"I know." Haneul smirked. "After all, Mari got released without a single scratch at all." Nara gritted her teeth at this.

"That was Mari, not you, you douche." 

Haneul laughed heartily at this. "Are you getting irritated? Why? Are you going to beat me to death? Don't worry, I'm prepared for that. Actually, I was here to take the blows for ChaRin as well. Ah, for Minha too. I believe she didn't formally leave." She looked around to study her surroundings. "So uhm, where are they?"

"Who?" Nara hissed.

"Your minions? The ones who will beat me to death?"

"There's no minions," Nara started. There will be only you and me."

Haneul smirked at this. "Bring it on, then!"

--

After the incident, Yong Haneul stopped going to school. The father and daughter pair also moved houses and all Kim Nara could do was cry at her loss. 

I didn't do it and yet yet why was I the one suffering?

Words spread that the Yong family moved back to Mokpo, where Mr Yong grew up as a child before meeting Haneul's mother. 

The next year, the Yong's moved back to Daegu and this got Nara excited, if not only for the fact that Haneul changed, big time.

If before, she was the one being bullied, right now, she was the one hurting people, getting into trouble, picking fights, and extorting money. Not only that, she repeated her grade so they never came across each other actually.

Soon, when Nara turned middle school, the name Yong Haneul spread like an epidemic. Her classmates feared the name she had always loved. The name represented bullying for their classmates. She wants to get to know the reason for her friend's change so she founded a sorority, one thing delinquents enjoy participating.

True enough, Yong Haneul joined, but not for the sense of belongingness. It's for the sake of humiliating her, going against her will. 

--

Soon, the old friends started violating each other, kicking and throwing punches against each other, earning them bruises and scratches. Not only that, things were thrown across the room, landing on the floor with a loud thud. 

Haneul landed on her back as Nara pounced on her, punching her across her face, blood oozing from her broken nose. 

"I hate you!!!" Nara screamed in anger, landing another punch on Haneul's face as she shook her aggressively, the back of her head hitting the ground repeatedly. 

Haneul grimaced before she hooked her leg on the other's hip, successfully changing positions as she banged Nara's head on the ground. 

"Same here, you-" another punch landed on her face and Haneul was thrown across the place. She landed on her stomach, coughing out blood, panting heavily. 

She was in no par to Nara's strength after all. 

Nara sat up, with a ragged breath as she spit out blood from , glaring at the girl across the room. 

The other girl chuckled, "is that all? For me and Charin both?" Haneul wiped the blood from her nose, "quite weak," she smirked. 

Nara let out a high pitch laughter as she clutched her stomach, for a minute there, Haneul thought that she was going crazy. She frowned. 

"You can go," Nara started. "But I can't assure you that Charin will be left unharmed. After all, she was as weak as a twig, always hiding behind you–"

"That's why I'm receiving blows for her as well, right?" Haneul gritted her teeth. The former just raised one brow. 

"Well," she started. "You're right. After leaving the group, she could be the next target. Are you sure you can protect her all the time?" 

"You! I'm killing you tonight!" Haneul screamed before rushing towards her old friend to finally end the fight. 

--

Haneul looked up the starry night with a serene smile on her face. She was at her usual spot after returning back to Daegu years ago, under the huge bridge. 

This was also the place where Minha and Charin would meet with her. She let out a soft laughter which hurt her, reaching down for the right side of her rib which hurt like hell. 

Minha, she misses Minha so much. 

Soon, the serene smile was replaced with a lip bite to keep her tears from flowing when she remembered the events that took place right before she left the abandoned factory.

Nara took a hold of a steel rod just before Haneul's fist could reach her. Immediately aiming her attack at her, Nara swung the rod towards Haneul, successfully making her land on the ground. 

Her breathing became ragged, her body hurting, and her vision becoming blurry. Just before she could hear the annoying ringing in her ears, Haneul heard a confession that caused tears to pool at the side of her eyes. 

"I didn't do it..."

I know. She thought before completely blacking out in the process. 

She reached up to wipe the tears that unconsciously fell from her lids and she willed herself to heave a deep sigh even if everything hurt like hell. Gathering her courage, Haneul sat up with much difficulty, whizzing in pain as the familiar ache in her rib resurfaced again. 

Conditioning her self, Haneul looked behind her after hearing the sound of footsteps coming closer to her. Her widened in shock when she realized who was there to fetch her. 

"Went well?" 

Before she could even comprehend, her tears finally fell down one by one, reaching against each other. 

"She told me you might be here so I came here..."

--

"So, you'll keep quiet until we get to your house, huh?" Sunhee mocked, shaking her shoulder a little to gain any reaction from the girl on her back. 

"Stop it. It hurts," Haneul tsked, nevertheless tightened her hold on the teacher's shoulders. Han Seonsaeng-nim just laughed at the girl. 

Moments of silence passed before the younger chose to break it.

"I want to be someone, worthy of him..." Haneul mumbled and Sunhee just smiled at this, not interrupting her. 

"I want to be someone, he would be proud of," she sniffed and her hold on the teacher's shoulders tightened once more. "I don't want him to be ashamed of being with me," by this time, Yong Haneul was already crying, wetting Han Sunhee's  shirt, but the latter could've cared less. She was very thankful that finally, some sense had been knocked inside the kid's mind after years of being a student in the middle school. 

"You're worthy, Yong Haneul-ssi..."

Yong Haneul has learned it the hard way, but it was way better than never, right?

-📗-

A/N: okay, I'm not saying anything. But I might give you a little surprise because you guys are so lovely.