chapter two; #1315

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      Shouts. Thud. Cries. Light. Crash. Black.

      With a sharp breath, Joohyun stood up and put her hand right on her chest. Hot and salty droplets of water streamed down to her face as she closed her eyes for a moment. Her past is haunting her again. She can't erase it like it's permanently stamped into her brain. It's still the same as the last time—frightening and scary.

      They say the past is in the past but as much as she wanted to forget about it and replace it with happy and fresh memories, she can't. She can't say good bye to the past because she doesn't know how to start and create those happy and fresh memories with something blocking her to do so.

      "Good morning sleepyhead!" Her older brother, Ryeowook, interrupted her thoughts as he greeted her with his singing voice. His melodious voice rang through her ears that made her smile a little bit and forgot the nightmare.

      He sat on the side of her bed and frowned as he saw her tear stained face. His long and slender fingers wiped the remaining tears and smiled at her to make her feel better. He knew Joohyun would feel better if she saw someone smiling and happy. 

      "What's bothering you, our baby Seo?" Our baby Seo. Oh how she loved that nickname. It made her heart light and happy because she felt that she's really a part of their family though she's only a daughter from another woman. 

      Joohyun shook her head and showed a smile at Ryeowook. She took her sketch pad under her sky blue colored pillow and  wrote some characters on it. 

      'It's nothing oppa, just another nightmare.' 

      "Just another nightmare huh?" Ryeowook said as he read those characters written on the pad. Joohyun nodded and stood up. She fixed her bed and brushed her long jet black hair. 

      Ryeowook walked towards the door and opened it widely. "Breakfast is already settled and Taeyeon cooked this time. I hope we don't end up lying in a hospital bed." He winked and chuckled. Joohyun grinned and nodded in reply. He slipped out of the bedroom and closed the door. 

      Once Ryeowook was out of her sight, she stared at her wooden framed mirror. She saw some pictures of her mother and her as a child. There is one picture that she's smudging ice cream on her mother's face, one with playing paper dolls with her mother and many more pictures that she considered as her treasures. But the more she stared at the pictures, the more she remembered that tragic incident. 

      She shrugged the thought off and decided to eat breakfast. The smell of bacons and freshly cooked scrambled eggs lingered to her nose that made her stomach grumble. Taeyeon was always afraid of cooking because she's scared that she might burn their house down but her mother always encourages her to try and strive harder in cooking.

      Joohyun sat beside Ryeowook and gave him a warm smile. Mrs. Kim pinched her cheeks and gave her also a smile. Mr. Kim did the same thing while Jongwoon, he would just let out a scoff and ignore her prescence. That's how Joohyun's morning roll but she could careless about Jongwoon's behaviour because she knows he's going to change someday. Someday. 

      "The bacons are done! Whoops—sorry." The bacons were about the fall but Jongwoon caught it on time.

    "Here comes the soon-to-be married woman!" Ryeowook retorted and picked up some bacons and placed it on Joohyun's plate. Joohyun silently said her prayers and gladly ate the bacons that her oppa gave. As she bit on the bacon, the others eagerly stared at her. They're curious about the taste of Taeyeon's cooking. Even Jongwoon was staring at Joohyun. The bacon was crunchy enough but it was over cooked so the bitter taste was dominant—very dominant. 

    "How was it?" Mr. Kim, her father, asked. Joohyun travelled her eyes to the people who were staring at her. Ryeowook was silently chuckling while shaking his head, Mrs. Kim was smiling while scratching her eyebrows, Jongwoon was raising a brow at her and Taeyeon was waiting for her answer with bright eyes, expecting for a good answer. 

      Since Joohyun forgot her sketch pad, she just nodded in reply and she heard everyone sighed in contentment. Taeyeon let out a squeal and pumped her fist in the air. "Jungsoo will surely love my cooking skills." She said dreamily and sat beside Jongwoon.

      "We all know that Joohyun was just being considerate Taeyeon-ah." Jongwoon muttered as he swallowed the burnt bacons. Taeyeon glared at the older one and grinned at Joohyun. Joohyun hid her smile as she heard her eldest brother spoke about her. 

      "So when is your wedding? I heard from hyung that you moved it." Ryeowook asked after he drank his water. 

      "Hmm..On the 14th of February. Isn't amazing and exciting?" 

      "It's not." Ryeowook and Jongwoon retorted at the same time.

- - -

      Joohyun blankly stared at the white board just a few meters away from her while waiting for her teacher to arrive. Her classmates who are seated behind her were throwing paper balls which irritates Joohyun a lot but she just ignored them—as always. She knew that they're testing her patience.

      "Why won't you talk?"

      "Oops, we forgot that you're mute." 

      "You are so harsh Hara, don't call her mute. It hurts her, right?" Hyuna, her classmate, emphasized the word mute and  her friends let out some sugary coated laughs at her remark but there's nothing funny about it. Her other classmates would just stare at them and feel sorry for Joohyun. They can't do something about it because Hyuna and her circle of friends are very popular in the school. 

      Their harsh and hurtful words were like blades that cut Joohyun's heart and it actually made Hyuna and her friends happy. Joohyun was already used to their bullying and dirty stares and she's trying hard not to lose her patience because if she do, Hyuna and her friends will not surely like it.

      This is one of the reasons why Joohyun hate Saturday classes. More bullyings, homeworks and alone times—she hate this routine. She also hate her surroundings. Starting with a noise polluted classroom, to the smell of various perfumes and hair sprays that she can't even name, to the dirty and unorganized classroom and too many more unnecessary things to mention. She sometimes wished that she could escape this horrible place called high school and enter an university instead. 

      I love how I spent my high school life in this kind of school. I enjoyed it, I really enjoyed it. Joohyun sighed at her own sarcastic thought. 

      Soon their teacher arrived and Joohyun spent good two hours for sitting and jotting down notes that will help her. 

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      Joohyun neatly arranged her books inside her locker before shutting it close. Her palms rested on the cold navy blue steel as she pushed it close. Averting her dark chocolate orbs on the locker beside the one she owns, she pressed her lips into a thin line. #1315. That locker was the only locker beside Joohyun's and no one dares to use it. It was left empty for already three years and that was the time when Hyuna started to discriminate Joohyun for being different. 

      Too much school drama, eh? 

      She looked at the side and saw her classmate, Henry Lau, who were ceasing his eyebrows in irritation. Henry is one of her classmates since second year of high school and the both of them never interacted. She saw how he picked up the letters from the floor and she assumed it was from his locker and threw it right in the trash bin. She raised a brow and thought that it was rude.

       As if he heard her thoughts, Henry let out a hearty laugh. "You think it's rude?" 

    When the sound of his laughter rang through her ears, it made her lips twitched at the both sides that shows her pearly white teeth. Joohyun never doubted about his bright and sunny attitude though they never interacted. She just felt it. 

      "You smiled—wow." He said, astonished. 

      Joohyun's brow were ceased and hurriedly wrote on her sketch pad. Henry was amused on how she wrote very fast and on the way she communicate with others. 

      'Is it ugly?' 

      He shook his head and chuckled at her. "It's pretty and keep smiling Joohyun-ssi—it suits you. Oh and nice talking to you." With that, he winked and left running. She stared at his retreating back before averting her attention to the empty locker beside her's and to the letters on the trash bin. 

      Two days after, the once empty locker was not empty anymore. 

A/N: I finally updated this one with 1460 words. Hooray!~ You guys made my day and I love how curious you guys about Seohyun (: Sorry if I didn't replied on your comments because I don't want to spoil hehe. Mochi is here and he freaking winked at Seohyun *^* Oh and sorry if I made Hyuna mean :< Thank you guys for subscribing and for the one upvote oh and for all the comments you left. You don't know how much this means to me <3 God bless and have a nice day ;) 

so sorry for the grammar mistakes ; ;