“Unnie, would you like to buy a sunflower?” The little girl asked with a kiddy smile.

Cho Hee looked away as she hurriedly wiped off her tears. Turning back to the little girl who had two braids on, she smiled. At her age, Cho Hee thought that she was probably a whole lot happier.

“Unnie, were you crying just now?” she asked with her big innocent eyes staring at Cho Hee.

“Little girl, how much is one stalk of sunflower?” she asked with a forced smile, ignoring her question.

“Hmm…It’s for free, just for unnie.” The girl announced as she shoved the sunflower in her hands.

“I will pay for it, you don’t have t-” Cho Hee was about to refuse when she cut in.

“Yoomi wants to give it to unnie… But unnie, you should not cry because girls don’t look pretty when they cry. Umma always say that tomorrow will be a better day… Hwaiting, unnie!” The girl beamed before running off with small quick steps.

“Girls are ugly when they cry so you shouldn’t cry no matter what… Weren’t you the one who said that?” Cho Hee thought to herself and laughed.

As her eyes became smaller, tears slipped out from the corner of her eyes.This time, it fell on the yellow petals and rolled down to the floor. Ironically, those who treated her better were strangers.

Sunflowers always turn to face the sun no matter how tough their surroundings get. Thus, many people say that sunflowers symbolize faith and hope. People from a long time back had enjoyed basking in the warming glow of the sun-like flower. However, Cho Hee found its optimism an eyesore at the moment. Bending over, she stuck the flower into the wet soil.

“I don’t deserve to have you.” She said to it before leaving.

That night was filled with muffled cries once again. It was nothing new but she was getting tired that it was starting to become a sickening routine. She was hoping for the routine to end soon together with her miserable life.

“Cho Hee-ah, it’s time to go to school!” Her mum said as she unveiled her daughter’s covers.

“I don’t want to!” She yelled as she covered herself with the blanket.

“Yah, Park Cho Hee! What kind of student doesn’t go to school?! You better get out of bed right now, you hear me?!” Her mum yelled at her loudly.

Cho Hee remained beneath the blanket with her eyes closed. She held back those b tears, careful not to make any suspicious noise. She didn’t want her mother to know. She really dreaded to go to school and face everyone. She wanted to hide indoors, away from the others. She wanted to stay in bed and do nothing all day. She found no more meaning in life anyway.

“Yah, you brat! Still not getting out of bed?!” Her mother screamed and decided to take things into her own hands.

Pulling Cho Hee’s covers off by force, her mum pushed her into the toilet, together with her uniform. Staring at herself in the mirror, she smirked. The mirror reflected a girl with puffy eye bags, horrible complexion and oversized appearance.

“Even mirrors don’t lie.” She said as she wiped off a tear that was about to fall.

Dragging her feet to school, Cho Hee held her head low. She could clearly hear those people laughing and joking about her. Some even imitated the sound of her skirt splitting. Looking down, Cho Hee fastened her footsteps to school. She felt so bare walking around the school for the day. She felt more sensitive than ever and her nose was souring from time to time. She had to bit her inner cheek to hold those overwhelming emotions in.

 The day was finally over when the school bell rang. Not thinking much, Cho Hee had unknowingly walked herself to the dance studio. Today was dance practice day. However, she stopped right behind the studio door. She realized. She realized that they had explicitly said that she did not belong here.

“Everyone makes mistakes. Maybe…Maybe they have forgiven me?” she thought to herself hopefully.

With that thought in mind, Cho Hee pushed open the door and stepped in. Everyone stopped warming up and stared at her as if she was an intruder.

“Yah. You are still have the face to attend dance practice?!” One of them shouted.

“Hey, black spot! You are really going to join us?” Another called out.

“Seriously? Are you kidding us now?” The guy questioned and rolled his eyes.

“Hey guys, chill. We will leave everything to Jiyeon, alright? She is coming soon already.” One of the members suggested with a knowing smirk.

With that, everyone ignored her presence. Walking past the crowd, Cho Hee made her way to the only person who caught her eye in the entire studio- Hoya. Soon, Jiyeon entered the studio while tying her hair high up into a ponytail. Myungsoo was following behind her, holding something that resembled a magazine. Jiyeon scanned the crowd furiously and spotted Cho Hee. With big strides, she walked up to her and grabbed the magazine from L. Cho Hee looked up at Jiyeon with a confused expression on.

Without a second word said, she threw the magazine at Cho Hee. Ignoring the pain from the impact, Cho Hee picked up the school magazine and read the cover page. There was a picture of her in her split skirt on stage and a degrading statement about ‘Sparklex’. Cho Hee stood up to face Jiyeon who was fuming with anger.

“I am sorry.” She apologized.

“If you think you still have the right to stay here after seeing this, suit yourself!” Jiyeon shouted before turning her back on her.

Cho Hee looked down and bit her lips.

“Am I supposed to leave, for good?” she questioned.

Those tears dripped onto the school magazine, onto her photograph.  

“Can you stop crying?” Hoya questioned.

Cho Hee looked up and met his eyes. She thought he was showing concern for her.

“It is freaking annoying to see you even uglier than before. And didn’t you hear them? Are you too stupid to understand that you don’t belong here?” he said cruelly.

Cho Hee widened her eyes at his remark and was utterly shocked. No words could describe how she felt at that moment. It was not exactly accurate to say that her heart dropped and shattered into a million pieces. Neither was it true to say that time stopped as those words sank deep in her mind. In reality, she couldn’t really feel anything. All she knew was he said something, something that she thought he would never say to her. Someone once said that the world’s most hurtful pain is when you can’t feel anything. It seemed to be true. 

Cho Hee turned away as she heard the members in the studio cheer at Hoya’s words. She ran out of the studio and into the toilet. She fumbled with the lock a little before successfully locking the cubicle door. It was as if she could lock out those pain and hurtful words that way. With her back against the door, she slid down till she sat on the cold ground. Tears fell without her knowledge.

At the end of the day, he was just like them. He was no prince charming but a downright jerk, something which she was too blind to notice from the start. She felt so stupid out of a sudden. All the while she had been thinking that he was the best guy on earth, her Mr. Right. To him, she was nothing but a burdensome fat girl from the same dance group. She felt that she was so laughable.

After some time, Cho Hee finally stepped out of the cubicle, expressionless. Just as Cho Hee was walking to the basin, she felt someone push her. It reminded her of how Jiyeon shoved her in the waiting room before everyone. She wondered why everyone could treat her so lightly as if she was not a human like them. Being cornered up against the tiled wall, Cho Hee looked at the three girls from Sparklex.

“Hoya oppa is really right. You look so much more ugly and hideous while crying.” The girl said with a victorious smirk.

Talking about Hoya made her cry again. She hated herself for letting those pathetic tears fall before those who were ready to ridicule her again.

“Omo, could it be that the black spot likes Hoya oppa?” The other girl covered and pretended to gasp.

Cho Hee’s eyes widened at the confrontation but shook her head in denial.

“Seems like I am right.” She concluded with a disgusted smile and rolled her eyes.

“Geez. You are so ugly and fat, who are you to like him?!” The leader of the group grabbed Cho Hee’s chin and swung it about like she was a mere toy.

“Stop it.” Cho Hee begged as the tears blurred her vision.

“Even if Hoya oppa is not mine, he will never be yours. Never. I guess you don’t really look at the mirror every morning, huh? Now, I will give you the chance to look at how ugly you actually are so that you will wake up from your idea!” The leader pushed Cho Hee to the basin and forced her to look in the mirror by grabbing onto her hair tightly.

Seeing Cho Hee’s pained expression, she smirked in satisfaction before pushing her head down forcefully.

“Let’s go, girls.” She gave the cue and they marched out of the washroom.

Cho Hee knelt down before the basin as she gripped onto the edge of the sink.

“What did I do to deserve this? What did I do to deserve this? What did I do to deserve this?!” she cried as she hit her head against the ceramic repeatedly.

Author's Note:
Thank you to those who have commented! I will reply to you later...
Trying to do a double update for you guys today(: ...
Keep the comments coming <3!