Chapter 39

Author’s POV

After getting toured by one of the faculty members, Dohan settled himself in his new office. A desk complete with a computer on it, a comfortable-looking sofa-chair and and a long couch greeted him. To the far right corner was a fairly new air-conditioning unit and 2 sets of drawers. In those drawers were the personal files of the senior students of Whimoon which were separated by gender and arranged alphabetically. Dohan goes over the drawers and looks for two specific files.

It only took a couple of seconds before he found the files he wanted. He swiftly grabbed them and headed over to his desk to review these two files. He sets the other file aside and opens the first one.

The files were both kept in folders. The name of the student was printed right at the center of the folder.

“Let’s see what Whimoon knows about our Kwon Yuri.”  

Dohan flips over the files and immediately finds its content amusing enough to break into a short-lived laughter. At the end of the Yuri’s file there was a short list of notes about him that was written by the previous counselor.

• Acts according to the presented situation/Adapts to every situation perfectly.
• Perfectly answered all administered psych tests.

There’s just something quite off about him. On paper and even in actual interactions, he seems to be in top condition however there is just something that bothers me about him. This may or may not be regarded as a professional opinion.

Dohan sets aside Yuri’s files and gets the other file he took from the drawer. The folder reads Jung Jessica. He opens it and quietly reads Jessica’s files which were brought over from her previous school.

“Our Yuri picks his company well.”

--

“Will you help me change?”

The moment that would define the remaining days of Yuri rested on Jessica’s answer. Her answer in a nutshell will change Yuri’s world but it will also change hers. Youth is often regarded as short-lived. People think it’s the easiest part in life but in reality it’s the hardest. A complicated mind of a young boy and a fragile heart of a young girl will be put to the test.

“You don’t need to change.” Jessica says firmly “You’re not a bad person, Yuri.”

Yuri couldn’t help but to smile. He was fascinated on how Jessica could say such things without even wavering a bit. She believed in the good that has yet to be found by Yuri in himself.

“When you say it, I kind of want to believe it too but it’s different when I’m all alone.”

Yuri shifts his gaze from Jessica, to the clear blue sky above them.

“It’s different when I see people and wish that I was them instead of me. It’s different when I see myself in the mirror and instantly feel hate but most of all… it’s different when I see you and I feel okay.”

Jessica’s fragile heart felt all sorts of things and all at once. Once again she was faced with raw words that she would have never heard from anyone else.

“I… I want to help but like I’ve said before… you have to let me help you, Yuri.”

Yuri took Jessica’s hand into his and held it tight.

“If I let you, you’re gonna have to promise me something.”

This promise was something important for Yuri. It was something that he will need to count on Jessica to keep beyond of all extremeties.

“No matter what happens, no matter what anyone says… I need to you believe in me.”

--

Taeyeon’s POV

Lunch time is the most wonderful time in Whimoon. Not only does the cafeteria cook really good food but the overall atmosphere of the school turns into this family-like vibe that I’m very fond of. Of course there are a couple of times where this family vibe goes away because nonsensical rumor mongers who like to gawk at every little thing that happens within the campus but for the most part, school life in Whimoon is great.

I met up with the gang at the cafeteria and at the corner of my eye, I saw Choa by the door. She looked hesitant on approaching us so I took the initiative to go to her and practically drag her back to our table. To be honest, I’ve always wanted to talk to Choa. I don’t know what got into her mind when she decided to try and jump from the bell tower but I know she didn’t deserve to feel that way. No one ever does. The reason why I haven’t done anything since then, it’s because she has never welcomed any company. I was thinking that it was her way to protect herself from people seeing her vulnerable again. I understood that and wished nothing but for her to get better from afar.

Again for the second time, Jessica Jung has made yet another impact. I’m beginning to see her as this angel that would just make everything better. She’s really something else. Most people in this school don’t know it yet but I’m sure things will turn around just like how she did with Yuri and Choa.

When I brought Choa over to the table, everything was set. Just like earlier during swimming class, everyone acted normal and engaged Choa in different kinds of conversation. And just like that, a bond slowly formed in front of my eyes.

“You guys have any plans this weekend?” Sooyoung asked

Practically everyone looked at each other and to sum it all up, everyone was free.

“What’s up?” Taecyeon asked

“It’s Lotte World’s anniversary. There’ll be fireworks and more booths than usual. I was hoping we could all go and check it out.”  Sooyoung talked about this with her eyes practically glimmering. It’s all probably from thinking about the food booths that would be there.

Everyone was all up for it. We then discussed where to meet and what time to be there. After settling everything, random topics started to sprout. Surprisngly, Choa interacted well with everyone. That alone set the mood to be really warm and great.

Lunch ended and we all had to go to our own classes. Jessica never came back from meeting Yuri. I hope everything went well. If it does then maybe Yuri can come with us this weekend. It’d be fun to see him outside of school.

Me, Taecyeon and Kris walked together back to our classroom. I was the one to open the door and when I did, a picture-like seen greeted the three of us.

A grand picture of Yuri smiling and Jessica laughing coyly. They both looked at our direction and amazingly, Yuri still had his smile. This was enough to make my jaw drop. I don’t know how the other two reacted because my eyes were literally stuck to both of them, well more on Yuri, really.

Jessica spoke first

“Hey guys. Sorry, I---“ but then Yuri cut her off, he stood up from where he sat and said

“Sorry, I kept her from you guys. We had a lot to talk about.” Yuri says in his unchanging monotonous way. He goes back to his seat at the back and quietly sat himself down.

Jessica stayed in her seat and looked at us bewilderingly.

“What? Did something happen?” Jessica sincerely asked

It wasn’t really what’s wrong but more of what’s right. I just saw Kwon Yuri smile like it was the best day of his life. Just what did Jessica do to the person I’ve known for 2-3 years.

Taecyeon was about to say something but I beat him to whatever it is he was gonna say.

“We’re gonna go to Lotte World this weekend. Everyone is up for it! You are too right?” I hyped up my voice so she couldn’t refuse.

“Uhm yeah sure.” Jessica looks at Kris as if to confirm he was going too.

I look Yuri and the greatest idea on earth landed on my mind.

“You should come too, Yuri! It’d be so much fun!” Yuri looks at me like he knew exactly what I was planning. It was kinda scary but then again he has always looked cunning like that.

“I’m not too sure if that would be okay.” Yuri replied and I knew, everyone in the room knew that he was talking about Taecyeon.

I looked at Taecyeon who had this pensive look all over his face. I gave him a quick nudge and tried to convey my thoughts through oddly formed facial expressions.

“Taeyeon’s right. The more the merrier.” Taecyeon didn’t sound all too convincing but he put in that pearly white smile of his at the end and it made everything a little more believable.

“It’s set then! We all go to Lotte World this weekend!” I say in my hyped up voice

Game. Set. Plan!

--

 Author’s POV

Classes ended for the day at Whimoon. While most students go straight home, student-athletes like Yuri and Kris still have training for the day.

Over the previous weeks that has passed, Kris has vastly improved from the one on one trainings he had with Yuri. His determination to keep up with his team was strong. This rate of improvement coming from him, greatly impressed the coach. Kris was finally given the chance to train with the rest of the soccer team.

Being the new player he expected to be treated quite poorly but that wasn’t the case. He was warmly welcomed by the rest of the team.

“Everyone huddle up!” The coach shouted sternly

The whole team gathered around in a circle and listened to what their coach had to say.

“The culture festival is coming up and with the way you guys have been recently breaking your own records during trainings, I’m granting you all a break. We resume next month. I’m expecting the same if not better performance next month when we resume, alright?”

The whole team cheered, howled and what not just to express their joy. Even though this was Kris’ first time training with the whole team, he felt happy. He has been training non-stop with Yuri and himself, alone. It was very rewarding to hear a break from all of it.

The coach spilled more minor announcements and then dismissed the whole team. Everyone except Yuri disappeared to the showers. Yuri stayed because he intended to talk to the coach about a very important matter.

Kris left the showers first and immediately noticed the seriousness of the discussion between Yuri and their coach. It seems like Yuri had given the coach bad news as disappointment was written all ovet the coach’s face.

“I wonder what they’re talking about…” Suho, one of the members of the soccer team, snuck behind Kris and also looked at Yuri and their coach.

Kris only shrugged his shoulders

“You’re in the same section as Yuri, right?” Suho asks

“Yeah but outside from practice, we don’t really talk that much.” Kris went ahead and answered what he thought Suho was gonna ask.

“Figures. He’s like that to the whole team. The only exception I’ve really seen is Taeyeon and uhm Jessica, was it? They’re your classmates too right?”

“Actually, Jessica’s my cousin and yeah they’re both my classmates.” Kris replies

“Yuri takes care of the team well even though he doesn’t speak to us outside of trainings and games. He’s a good guy, really.”

All the while Kris heard this, Yuri’s words also rung back to his head. It seems like everyone paints him to be this low key nice guy. No one has ever really said anything bad about Yuri in this school. He continuously wonders what Yuri’s apology really meant. He was bent over the fact that his beloved cousin was involved in this maze-like game that Yuri has going on. Kris doesn’t understand how Yuri can say that he’ll be inevitably hurting his cousin and yet hear nothing but good things about him. Kris would want to think that he is a good judge of character and in honesty, he also felt like Yuri was not capable of hurting anyone.

When Yuri was done talking to the coach he went straight to the showers, sparing no words to anyone. He walked past Kris and Suho like nothing happened between him and the coach. A few more minutes passed and the whole team was done for the day. Yuri was the last one to exit the showers. He gathered his stuff and began his walk back to his home.

On his way out of the field, a certain presence filled his eyes. Dr. Kim Dohan was standing beside the bleachers and it seemed like he has been there since the start of the practice.

“How’s my favorite patient? Or are we going to drop the act already?” Dr. Kim amuses himself with his questions and ends up cracking in a smile.

With confidence, Dohan laid his cards down. Finally, breaking out of his very eloquent shadow. He has been with Yuri for a very long time. Dohan knows every single thing about him. If there’s anything that Dohan has always took notee of when dealing with Yuri, it was his unmatched intelligence that continued to challenge him every step of the way. He believed that with Yuri’s intelligence and his own actions of showing Yuri to the fragmentary truth, Yuri now knows that the persona in the white room that existed only in Yuri’s mind is no one but Kim Dohan. It was his instinct that told him that Yuri has figured out that much. He came up with this theory when he arrived at Yuri's class room this morning. One look was all it took for Dohan to realize this. The reality of Yuri and Dohan has now revealed itself to be a chess match between two kings of intellect.

There was no trace of worry in Dohan’s face because along with this side of his confidence comes the other half of it. Dohan is confident in the reality he has shaped himself for Yuri to be trapped and locked in. Dohan is confident that Yuri will not get out even if the towering walls of the maze that are made out of deceit and lies have finally started to cave in.

“I’m not up for any conversations with any of you.” Yuri attempted to walk past him but then his feet were chained with the next words that came out from Dohan.

“I’ve given you control again. It should serve as a reminder that I can take it away however and whenever I see fit.” Dohan walks behind Yuri and puts a hand on his shoulder

With a cold menacing voice, he whispers to Yuri’s ear “Let’s see how long you last till you beg to be taken back.”

Dohan leaves Yuri frozen and unable to speak any words. 

--

I forgot to leave a message last update lol 

so hello readers! 

new and old ones HELLO

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-ymllama