Count To Ten

Myungsoo/Suzy

Oneshot, Hurt,  PG-13 ~ 1,148w

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One…

She appears in front of me with a rather forced smile on her lips—faking everything to cover up her real emotions, that she’s hurt—and I act as if I was deceived, as if I believed she’s feeling fine when in reality, she’s not.

“Myungsoo-ah..” she calls out my name with her usual cheery tone. If ever we were not that close of a friend, I might have believed the mask she’s wearing.

But I notice it nonetheless.

I give her a smile, an understanding one, and did my best to be the usual.

Two…

She sings a beautiful melody as we walk from school together. And after I listen a few notes from her singing, I realize it was rather a sad lullaby. Her eyes are focused at the thin air before her and her thoughts are somewhere around the corner. I even now have the duty to pull her whenever she’s about to step through an open manhole twice, and yet she will not notice. Her thoughts are still wandering somewhere… somewhere I cannot follow to pull her back to reality.

Three…

She laughs so loud when I crack a joke one time. It’s very unusual because she have never laughed at my lame jokes ever since but would just roll her eyes instead.

Then, she stops from laughing and shakes her head for a few times.

“That’s so funny, Myungsoo-ah.. so funny…” she says with a bit of sadness in her voice I just notice when her voice falters for a split second.

I sigh to myself. How long will she be like this?

Four…

She traces the steps towards the library silently—looking at the stepping stones aimlessly.

“Hey..” I said as I got closer.

She looks up to me with a rather shocked expression with a tint of visible depression engraved on her face as I saw remnants of tears in her eyes.

“Hey.” She lets out a quick laugh as she wipes them off with her sleeve.

“I got sleepy.” She lies. And I pretend I believed what she just said.

Five…

I see her sitting by the wooden bench we used to share together.

Quietly, I sit beside her. I knew she’s crying. And I’m sure she knows that I knew that she’s crying.

“I’m sorry…” she sniffs.

Suzy tries to stop herself from crying out more tears and straightens herself up.

“Don’t…” I whisper and pull her back from standing.

She was surprised, I notice.

“Don’t keep it to yourself anymore, Suzy. I know that it hurts… a lot.” I tell her.

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