Sunny

Funky pop beats reverberate within my head. Lips soaked in alcohol, its odor pungent in the air, mark fresh bites while hands all over roam anywhere, everywhere. Somewhere, a voice screams for me to stop, that I’ll regret this for a long time to come. But I can’t…his touch feels so good…I’m losing control…my arms have gone limp…the last coherent thought has sputtered out in my mind.

Then everything goes dark.

When I come to, a mirror stands before me. I look into it and can’t believe what I see. Bruises are spotted all over my body. My hair is in complete disarray and my clothes are partially torn. Then I see the blood dripping down my leg and a fresh pain blossoms in a place where I’d never imagine I’d feel it.

Before I can even piece together what has happened, I hear someone hiss at me, “.”

I turn around but I see no one. He or she, whoever it is, is joined by a chorus of more voices.

“.”

“Disgusting.”

“Dirty as hell.”

“Stay the away from me.”

My world as I knew it crumbles apart right before my eyes. Some object hits me in the back. What appears to be paint is splashed all over me. It's red, blood red.

Cruel, ugly laughter fills the air. As the darkness begins to consume me, I watch as my family, the cheerleading team, walk away. I cry out to them.

None of them except Taeyeon and Jessica-unnie respond. They turn toward me, worried looks on their faces. I try to call out to them again, but Jea steps in between us, a smug smile on her face and kicks me down further into the darkness with her pointed high heels.

I can’t see anything. It’s so dark. The voices don’t stop taunting me. I don’t know if I should exist anymore.

Suddenly, a light blinds me. I blink a few times and when my eyes finally adjust to it, I see a bright bauble of light, its radiance shining through the darkness. My steps pick up the pace as I begin to sprint towards it, desperate to escape these haunting shadows. As I get closer, I hear a soft voice singing a melodious song. It’s such a pretty voice- so different from the ones that constantly jeer and mock me.

When I finally reach it, the singing voice dies away and instead an incessant beeping sound starts ringing all throughout. I scream as the ball of light explodes and I am enveloped in the brilliance…

I sat straight up in my bed. My alarm clock was still ringing- I slammed my hand on the “off” button and the cacophony in my ears finally stopped. I glanced at the clock and drew in a breath of shock- I managed to sleep through about twenty minutes of my alarm clock ringing and I was late for another dreadful, dreary day of school.

I groaned to myself as I reluctantly got ready to go out. Five minutes later, little flecks of toothpaste dotted the color of my uniform as I rushed into the kitchen to grab a piece of toast to eat. The apartment was quiet; my dad was still away on a business trip and wouldn’t be coming back until the end of the week.

As I gathered my things, I could suddenly hear the singing voice that had been in my dream. Curious, I went to the window where the singing became louder. Being as I was on the second floor, I opened my bedroom window and stuck my head out- and there outside was Sungmin, hanging out right below my room and singing somewhat loudly along with his iPod.

Amused, I hurried out of the apartment and met him outside and we began our walk to school.

The night I was attacked, Sungmin had walked me home and the morning after, he showed up outside the apartment to walk with me to school. I didn’t really object and ever since then, we’ve made it a routine to walk to school together. Absentmindedly, I touched my wrist where bandages were wrapped around the label still etched in my skin.

Sungmin noticed, stopped in the midst of our conversation and gave me a look. “…Are you all right?”

I bit my lip. “...Yeah, I’m fine.” We continued talking. When we were almost at the school gates, I remarked, “Sungmin…you’re a really good singer. You should try out for the glee club.” He stiffened up and almost stopped walking to pause for a second.

“No…it…it wouldn’t work out.”

“Why?”

“Don’t worry about it, Sunny,” he said with finality. The conversation was over.

After we bid each other goodbye, conversations turned to the topic of “the gay and the walking to school together”…but I didn’t really pay much attention to it. I was too engrossed in thinking about Sungmin’s reaction and somewhere in my mind, a dim thought wondered if it had something to do with his uality. Sure, we’re acquaintances on our way to being friends, but that doesn’t mean we’ve told each other a lot about ourselves yet…

“Hey !” I ignored them- I had learned to never respond to whatever negative attention was focused on me.

“Yah- dumb !” Suddenly, I heard someone yelp in surprise. I turned around and saw a tall girl drenched in what appeared to be milk tea. A group of girls stood by the side, wide-eyed with shock and one of them holding an empty cup in her hand.

I realized, with horror, that the attack had intended to be for me and at the wrong moment, the girl had been on the receiving end of it instead. I immediately rushed over to her and asked, “Are you all right? I’m so sorry, that was supposed to be directed at me…!”

Instead of getting angry at me or calling me a , the girl simply assured me, “I’m fine, it’s not your fault- it was a cold drink so I don’t have any burns. I suppose it was just my bad luck…what were they doing trying to splash you with milk tea anyway?” I hesitated, trying to think of a good response- but before I could attempt to explain, I was interrupted by someone calling out,

“Yoona!” The girl was approached by a senior boy whom I recognized as Lee Donghae, the star player of the soccer team.

“I-I’m okay, Donghae-s-sunbaenim…” the girl named Yoona stuttered, casting a nervous glance at the group of girls still watching nearby.

“Aish Yoona, no need to get so formal out of nowhere,” he chided her. “Here, hold still.” I stood by the side, invisible and watched with interest as she turned bright red while he cleaned her face with his handkerchief.

“…We…we’re sorry Donghae, we didn’t mean it, it was an accident…that provoked us…” one of the girls spoke up, her voice all of a sudden babyish and pleading.

“That’s such bull,” Donghae said, his curt tone surprising even me. “You shouldn’t be doing this kind of thing to anyone, regardless of who they are.” The girls bowed and, shamefaced, hurriedly went away. Suddenly, he turned to me and said, “Don’t worry about them- you did nothing to deserve this kind of treatment and none of this is your fault. Why don’t you go help Yoona clean off in the bathrooms?” He gave Yoona a tousle on the head and then walked off.

Yoona suggested, “Let’s go before class starts.” We started off towards the bathrooms. She broke the stifling silence between us by asking, “By the way…what’s your name?”

“…Lee Sunkyu. But most people call me Sunny.”

“Really? That’s quite interesting.”

“You think so?”

“Of course.”

Tiffany

 I soaked the rag in the bucket of water and then strained the water back out of the cloth. The wide stretch of chalky, unclean blackboard that ranged from one side of the wall to the other made me groan out loud.

I really don’t like my homeroom teacher- and I don’t normally hate on people for no reason so this is saying something. Not so much because of the punishment he gave me for being one minute late to class (although forcing me to clean half the classroom was ridiculously unfair), but because he chewed me out in front of everyone. So what if I value my sanity and my sleep a little bit more than his pointless lectures about nothing? That doesn’t make me a “ditzy moron.”

“Stupid old fart,” I grumbled to myself as I jumped to try and reach the top of the board- it didn’t work very well.

“Do you need any help with that?” I nearly jumped at the sound of the voice. I turned around and saw that it was someone I hadn’t seen or talked to in a very long time.

“H-Hi…Unnie,” I stuttered. Looks like speaking to her still made me jittery and nervous.

Taeyeon smiled at me and said, “Let me give you a hand with that- could you find me another rag?” I nodded, swallowing and found one for her.

“Thanks. So…what on earth did you do to get yourself into doing this?” Taeyeon asked me as she started cleaning the other half of the blackboard.

“Um…I was late to class and my homeroom teacher is an so…he…he made me clean half the classroom,” I explained, my voice slowly growing fainter and fainter in embarrassment.

Taeyeon noticed and giggled. “Well…I’m so glad you haven’t changed much since we last talked.” Her smile is still so…brilliant, I thought. Just seeing her so happy and carefree made me relieved but sad at the same time.

We had drifted further apart than I had realized.

Nonetheless, it was still comforting to me as we made small talk while cleaning the classroom. “So how is your Aunt Heeyoung?” Taeyeon inquired.

“Ah, she’s fine. The old lady is still as stubborn as ever.” We both laughed.

“I still remember her very well…but hey, at least she sincerely cares about you.” Her expression suddenly became wistful and I bit back my tongue, recalling the problems she had with her dysfunctional family. We cleaned in silence for a few moments.

“Yeah…I guess I’m thankful for that,” I said slowly. “But still…it was unnecessary of her to just make me learn from a tutor even if it’s…” Suddenly, a realization came to my mind and I glanced at the clock. “Oh my God- I’m going to be late!” I cried out.

“Well, good thing we finished just in time,” Taeyeon remarked but I was already rushing to get my bag.

“Unnie, I’m so sorry but do you mind taking the bucket back to the bathrooms for me?” I requested as I punched my arms through my jacket.

“No problem, and…Fany!” she called out to me and I stopped by the doorframe. “…It was nice talking to you again, especially since we haven’t seen each other in so long. Hopefully we can do this again?”

My heart felt like it was overflowing, but I managed a smile and said, “Sure…why not?”

I was completely out of breath by the time I got off the bus and sprinted into the library. Thank God we started meeting at the library instead of at my place- Aunt Heeyoung probably would have been yelling her head off at me for being late. I searched the place and found him with no trouble at all. I couldn’t help gazing at him for a few moments, taking in how breathtaking he looked just sitting there reading a book with that concentrated, intense expression on his face.

“…Miyoung-ssi? Are…we going to start anytime soon? You’re already late so…” Siwon-sunbaenim called out to me, giving me a strange look. I felt my face turn bright red as I realized that he had caught me staring like an idiot at him.

“Yes! Yes, sorry about that, just had a little off moment, haha…and I’m very sorry about being late, I was forced to stay after school.” I said dismissively, laughing off my carelessness as I went to sit down in the seat next to him.

As appealing as the idea of Siwon-sunbaenim tutoring had seemed at first, the sessions that we've had so far were extremely uncomfortable. He is a very capable tutor and explains things to me really clearly- much more clearly, in fact, than any teacher I’ve ever had in high school. It’s just that he’s so serious and kind of cold- I’ve been trying for the last two sessions to try and get him to crack a smile but so far, my efforts have been in vain.

“…so, in a way, the original function here makes the transformation into its anti-derivative. Does that make sense?”

“So…it’s kind of like when Cinderella’s fairy godmother turns her into a beautiful princess or when the evil sea witch turns Ariel into a human?” I grinned widely and turned to see if he was smiling…nothing. Not one unbidden upturn of the mouth. Gosh, how can anyone stand to look so somber all the time?

“Miyoung-ssi…could you at least try to be a little more serious and concentrated? It’s a huge factor as to why you’re doing poorly in school…mindless daydreaming doesn’t do you much good come exam day,” he chided me.

My smile fell and I whispered, “Oh…right. I’m sorry. Please continue.” He went on to explain integrals and u-substitution to me, but I wasn’t really listening at this point; I was so concentrated on how similar his remark had been to my homeroom teacher’s scathing comment toward me this morning.

“…Miyoung-ssi? Miyoung-ssi!”

I snapped back to attention and stammered, “Oh my gosh I’m so sorry, sunbaenim, I was listening, I really was…!”

He sighed, looked at me and asked, “…Miyoung-ssi, is something bothering you?”

“Eh?”

“You’re not concentrated enough and you don’t look entirely comfortable. Something seems to be bothering you and interfering with your studies- I don’t want to let you or your aunt down. Would you feel better if we talked about it?”

I stared at him, taken completely off-guard by his question. “Oh…no, sunbaenim, it isn’t anything really…I guess I just had a bad day?”

“And why is that?”

“I was just a minute late to class and my homeroom teacher made me stay after to clean half the classroom, which is also why I was late to our session today…”

“Well you should have woken up and gotten prepared earlier- you could have prevented such things from happening if you were more careful.” Such a direct guy.

I chuckled and said, “Yeah I know…but I guess I like to take my time in the morning. Kind of take in the beauty of the world waking from its slumber and appreciate the freshness of the new day, you know?” Siwon-sunbaenim stared at me again, before shuffling together his materials.

“Our session appears to have ended. I’ll meet you this Sunday at the same time, Miyoung-ssi,” he declared, business-like.

I bowed to him and said, “Thank you for your time, sunbaenim.” As he went away, an idea came to mind.

“Sunbaenim!” I called out to him. He turned around, one eyebrow raised.

“Call me Tiffany. Miyoung-ssi is just way too formal- even the teachers don’t call me that!” He gave me the strange look again, but nodded slowly and resumed his walk. Giddiness building up inside, I held a brisk pace as I left the library.

Taeyeon

I hummed a song to myself as I emptied the water from the bucket into the sink. It was a good thing that we had a short practice today- otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to talk to Tiffany today. It really has been a while since I’ve really spent some time with her.

We went our separate ways two years ago, but before we used to be really good friends. High school can be cruel like that. It’s comforting to see that she’s smiling much more often.

I set the bucket down and went out into the hallways. Two teachers passed me by and a thought crossed my mind. I immediately turned around and headed in the other direction.

Relief flooded within me and I smiled when I arrived at the classroom and saw that my teacher was still at his desk, grading what I presumed to be the last test we took. I leaned by the doorframe, hoping that my cool and casual act effectively hid my nervousness and waited for him to notice me.

He finally did, after a few minutes of being completely immersed in the test papers. That y smile I adored so much spread across his face without hesitation.

“Hi Mr. Park…or, should I say…Jungsu…?” I said, grinning back at him.

“Hey, you remembered to call me by my name,” he remarked. “Come in and have a seat, Taeyeon. I’ve looked forward to seeing you.”

“Really?” I asked. Maybe…?

“Yes. For academic purposes.” Oh.

I took one of the lone chairs from the corner of the classroom and dragged it next to him. As I sat down, I asked, “Um…is anything wrong?”

He looked at me and said, “What? Are you worried about your grades?”

“Um…yeah. Seeing as you said ‘academic purposes’ with such a serious face.” Jungsu chuckled.

“I see, I see,” he said and I felt giddy just watching the dimples on his cheeks come out. “I scared you for a second there, didn’t I? No, there’s nothing wrong with you academics-wise. In fact, I would just like to commend you for getting the second highest score in the class on the last test.” He showed me my test paper- a “95” was written in red ink on the top, along with a winking smiley face.

“Oh…thank you,” I said.

“Care to see what you got wrong? I’ll give you your points back if you do the problem for me on the board,” he said, winking at me. I went through the test and found the problem where I had lost points. I immediately remembered this problem as I had tabled part of it for later and had apparently forgotten about it.

“Oh god, how careless of me,” I scolded myself. Immediately I went to the board and wrote out the problem in a succinct manner.

“Just as I thought. You’re brilliant, Kim Taeyeon. 5 points rewarded back to you.” A warmth spread across my face and I mumbled bashfully, “Thank you…Jungsu…” and I sat down in the chair once more.

He smiled at me again and took off his glasses, setting them on his desk. “You know, Taeyeon…I said that I wanted to see you for academic purposes. What I said was partially true…but there’s an ulterior motive behind it.”

My eyes grew wide and my heart thumped erratically. “There is?” I asked, playing innocent.

“Yes. I’ve…I’ve been looking forward to being with you. Just me and you. It’s strange, really, how this has affected me in a way I have never realized it could.” Jungsu leaned in close to me, closer than we had ever been before and lightly brushed my cheek with his fingers

“I’m so going to regret this,” he murmured, his soft voice sending a shiver down my back. “But…” Before I knew it, his mouth was on mine and fireworks sounded in the back of my head.

This kiss, this feeling of our lips together, felt more wonderful and more intimate than anything Wooyoung and I had ever shared together. But at the same time…a feeling of sinful unease and dread crept over me.

Unknowingly, I broke the kiss and the expression on his face made me feel incredibly guilty. “Uh…I…I have to go now. Ex-excuse me,” I stammered, my insides quaking like never before. Quickly, I grabbed my things and ran out of the classroom.

“What…what was that…just now…” I whispered to myself, my fingers still playing over my lips; those lips that had tasted Park Jungsu. 

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A/N: Hiiii everyone- did you like the (relatively) fast update? oh how i love holiday breaks :'D but now, i'll really have to start cracking down on the schoolwork so no guarantees that i'll be able to update this fic as fast as i did.

although one thing that's made this so much easier is the fact that all of the plots are now on a roll. what shall happen from here on out? even i'm not entirely sure myself! xD hwaiting~!

btw 150 SUBSCRIBERS? HOLY CRAP. you know i love you guys right? ;~;