Chapter 16

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The continuous sound of the pouring rain was all that could be heard through out the hotel suite as Bom laid sideways on top of her pearly white bed sheets, her silky black hair extending out behind her and her moomin plush wrapped tightly in her arms as her chocolate eyes blankly stared at the light beige colored wall in front of her. The only sound that could be heard other than the precipitation beating softly against the glass window facing her back was her own soft breathing as her mind was filled with nothing except the memory of her aunt singing to her at the mere age of 14. 

 

Even though she had heard her aunt sing millions and millions of times, this particular song and memory was so dear to Bom that she felt as if it had just occurred yesterday; she could even hear Linda's light angelic voice flowing through her ears, causing water to fill the very brim of her eyes and sadness to creep into the very depths of her ever breaking heart. 

 

Her eyes immediately blinked a couple of times to push back not only the tears but the sound of her aunt's airy voice from her head as well so that she could focus on the wall in front of her but she found herself closing them completely once she realized that the song, along with the memory, only became more clearer than a sunny day in July.

 

And just like that, Bom was pulled back into a time where she was merely a 14 year old girl that had just accessed a body and face that even girls older than her had been fiercely jealous of. With big and beautiful brown anime like eyes, pouty light pink lips, long silky black hair that contrasted well against her ivory colored skin, and a figure shaped just like a Barbie doll from the neck down, it was clear to see that she would catch the eyes as well as the hearts of many. Yet with an intelligent mind and heart of gold deep within to go along with her looks rather than have them be in vain, it wouldn't have occurred to any stranger that she was soon to be treated horribly by her own peers because of those very qualities.

 

It had only been a month into the school year when her parents suddenly decided that they would pack up everything and move back to their native country of South Korea, immediately settling in the city of Gangwondo once they got there due to it having one of the most successful law firms in the country. Unfortunately, that was all the time it had took for Bom's life to drastically change from the one she had in the Unites States once she was enrolled into Suji High School.  

 

A month for the school's most popular boy to fall in love with her only to transfer to a different school after being rejected by her. 

 

A month for her to turn the whole student body against her.

 

A month for her life to suddenly switch from a happy go lucky one into one filled with pain and loneliness.

 

And the day after that very month was when she received the first of what would be many beatings from the ones who despised her most- CL and the rest of the Trio. She remembered it as vividly as she remembered her aunt's beautiful voice singing her to sleep later on that week.

 

She even remembered the morning before it happened because of the hesitancy she had been feeling about showing up for school that day. Jiyong had just confessed his feelings to her during in front of everyone at lunch the day before but with a heavy heart, she couldn't accept his feelings and instead asked if they could stay friends. And he, of course, being the nice guy that she knew he was despite the 'bad boy' reputation that her new friends, Jennie, Jisoo, Rosé, and Lisa, had filled her in on, he nodded his head softly and said okay before forcing an unaffected smile on his face and walking away. She had come to learn soon after that instead of him coming back and walking her to the rest of her classes like he normally did, he decided to skip school for the rest of the day. With that thought in mind, she made a decision to stay home the next day and feign sick just in case her parents decided to come home from work early.

 

She recollected the hateful looks that everyone shot at her from the moment she stepped foot in the hallway the following morning and, especially, in her first period class, filling her poor heart with confusion as their angry eyes followed her all the way to her seat. Then, glancing over at the empty desk beside hers afterwards, which belonged to Jiyong, she slightly pondered over where he might have been before his crestfallen face appeared in her mind, making her look away in sadness. Truthfully, she was relieved that he decided not to show up for school today because she had no idea on how to face him after having to inevitably hurt his feelings but she had grown to care about him a lot and was hoping that he was okay. 

 

She recalled beginning to miss his presence as the day slowly dragged by, filled with thousands of glares aimed her way as well as a few trips and shoves from the ones who were more spiteful enough to do so instead of gazes of awe that they used to give her when her melodic laugh filled the air or when her beautiful smile was on display during those many times that Jiyong tried to charm his way into her heart. Soon, sadness began to take place in her heart because when she tried to ask her friends what the problem was, rather than giving her the same looks everyone else was giving her, Lisa, Rosé, and Jisoo pretended that she didn't even exist and that caused an even greater pain to surface from within the beating organ but after bumping into Jennie in the girls bathroom, the brown haired freshman was the only one with enough compassion to tell her why everyone's behavior towards her had drastically changed. 

 

"Jiyong transferred to another school yesterday." Jennie finally answered after glancing between the doll faced girl in front her and the door, making sure to stay alert just in case a student suddenly made an appearance inside the girl's restroom because, unbeknownst to Bom, it wasn't brightest idea to be seen talking to her.

 

"Wae?" Bom said with a surprised expression on her face as she stared at Jennie in disbelief. "But how could he have just left like that?" She asked curiously .

 

"Jisoo said that she saw him and his parents leaving the school early yesterday morning with some important looking documents in their hand but she wasn't completely sure until CL volunteered to bring Jiyong the homework assignment that he missed during Geometry class yesterday. That's when Ms. Dong told everyone that Jiyong was no longer a student here."

 

"But I don't understand..." Bom said more to herself than to Jennie as she stared at her before her eyes fell to the ground, trying to come up with a hundred reasons on why he would of left Suji High so suddenly, especially when he once confessed to her that he liked going to school here and wanted to come back and enroll his kids here someday. "He likes Suji a lot...Why would he just up and leave without saying anything?"

 

While Bom's thoughts of Jiyong's sudden absence began to cloud over, it never crossed her mind that her rejection would be the very reason that he decided to receive his education else where. But before her one last friend could answer the question that was burning a hole through her mind, they suddenly heard the bell ring, signaling for the student's daily break time to start. 

 

Jennie immediately grabbed the strap of her book bag and slid her arm through the loop as she glanced over at Bom with a type of sadness that brought Jisoo, Rose, and Lisa's sudden change of behavior towards her back to mind. It made her realize that this would probably be their last conversation because if Jennie wasn't anything, she was loyal to the ones she care about most and Bom wouldn't dare try to change that even if the girl did seem to be only one who hadn't completely gone against her.

 

A sigh left her lips as she walked over to the door, her hand grasping the handle gently as she looked at the space beside her, not having the heart to look the ebony haired girl in eye. "I'm sorry, Bom...but I don't think we can talk to each other anymore...This situation with Jiyong just looks too bad right now. I hope you can understand," she said before finally opening the door and disappearing across the threshold into the hallway, leaving the girl behind her on the brink of tears.

 

How could she understand when she didn't even know the reason why everyone suddenly seemed to hate her? It was clear to see that Jiyong no longer being enrolled in the school had a deeply negative effect on everyone but what did that have to do with her? Had she done or even said something to add to the seemingly like tragedy? If so, why wouldn't anyone at least tell her so that she could fix it? She desperately wanted to know what she did so horribly to make everyone, including the ones she thought were her friends, treat her this way? 

 

And just when she thought the day couldn't get any worse, it did just that. Beginning with the arrival of the trio and the distinct click sound of the bathroom door being locked, Bom turned around as she quickly dried her eyes, the now muddy brown pools meeting the angry blaze inside of CL's cat like ones as she and the other two girls stood before her, their arms crossed and their face bearing angry glares and deep frowns. It seemed as if they had been staring at each other for the longest; the raven haired girl was having a hard time looking away from the intensity of the blonde's glare until she finally opened her blood red lips. "Get her."

 

 "Wait-"

 

And in the blink of an eye, the first of what would be many beatings began. And one thing that she knew personally as she looked back at the horrific memory was that if you were or had ever gotten caught up in a situation such as hers, the first beating was the one you would always remember most, especially if you didn't see it coming. 

 

And poor Bom hadn't seen any of it coming. She didn't even think about fighting back until she was too late and too bruised and battered up to do so. All that she could do was feel the endless amount of pain and hurt that their words and violent actions caused until they became physical scars that slowly morphed into mental ones, soon shaping the kind of person that she was now yet had been trying so hard not to be during the past few recent months of her life. 

 

But she just couldn't stop remembering. She couldn't stop herself from obtaining that familiar feeling of the wind being knocked out of her as she fell back against the wall after receiving a hard punch in the gut by Minzy. The next one immediately made her bend over with tears, clouding up her vision as she desperately tried to gasp for air only to have Dara roughly slap her across her face before taking turns with Minzy as they threw more punches towards her throbbing stomach while their leader stood and watched.

 

She could feel the cool tears streaming down her face as her legs instantly caved in from under her body, resulting in her falling on her hands and knees with the metallic flavor of blood soon surfacing on her tongue and lips, her audibly sharp gasps for air echoed against the bathroom walls. 

 

Almost all of her senses started to feel as if they were blocked, tasting nothing but blood and saliva, her sight blurred by tears, her sense of touch paralyzed by the throbbing pain, and her hearing filled with only her pounding heartbeat until the sound of CL's voice traveled inside her ears,  "I'll finish her."

 

Whatever amount of breath that Bom had regained back inside of her was soon forced back out once CL's foot lunged towards her aching abdomen in a back-breaking kick, the impact instantly making her body go up in the air a millisecond long before falling back down, the back of her head meeting the tiled floor with a hard thump. 

 

An ear screeching cry left Bom's bloody mouth as her hands reached up towards her head in a futile attempt to ease the intense pounding that had emerged all through her brain before she felt a firm grip on her raven black hair pulling her back up, their nails digging into her scalp while doing so and making the pain increase ten times fold. 

 

Even though her eyes were closed tight with tears as she tried to endure the cruel treatment and the torture that had come along with it, she knew she was in the hands of CL. She could feel her feline like eyes staring at her as she let out another cry at the twisting of her long locks around the girl's fist in an even firmer grasp. 

 

In one swift and merciless motion, her light scream died instantly as CL backhanded her across the face, watching her head snap to the side before her grip on her hair loosened, letting gravity pull her back towards the floor. "That should shut her up." 

 

Their distant laughter was the last thing Bom heard as they unlocked the door and left as if nothing had happen while a breath of relief drew from her pink lips, blood dripping from the corner of them into the cracks of the floor as the agony of it all became so unbearable that it left her unconscious for the rest of the morning.

 

The first time she woke up from her death like slumber, the heavy ache of her body and head hit her all at once. Though it was slightly not as painful as before, it's effect was so strong that she didn't have the strength to open her eyes or hear what was going on around her, leaving four individual girls’ presence unnoticed as they stared at her, shock plastered all over their faces. 

 

Jennie's eyes lingered on the drops of crimson that streaked the dark locks flowing from behind Bom's head, raking her fingers back through her own hair as she broke the silence that had enveloped her and the girls at the sight of Bom's seemingly lifeless body. "I knew they would target Bom...but I didn't think they would take it this far..."

 

"Do you think she's..." Jisoo began to ask, her eyes wide with worry as she glanced between the girl's body and her friends in deep concern.

 

Jennie shook her head immediately. "No. CL wouldn't have them do something crazy like that." She stated before they all locked eyes with one another hesitantly, causing her to rethink that statement. "Would she?"

 

Suddenly, Rosé stepped forward. "I'll check," she told them as she circled around Bom's body and knelt down beside her arm. The rest of the girls followed suit and studied anymore possible injuries that the girl may have while the red head gently picked up her hand to check her pulse.

 

Jisoo, taking Jennie's place as she stationed herself by the semi-unconscious girl's head, let her eyes trail Bom's crimson highlights all the way towards the back of her head. She then concluded that she must have hit her head on the floor which could have resulted in knocking her out but, hopefully, not permanently. Still, it scared the freshman to think about the cruel and horrible things that the Trio could do when they were angry at you. Yet as she felt her eyes drown in the blood longer, she knew that this wasn't a just a mere act of anger. This was much worse.

 

It was an act of hate.

 

Jennie placed herself beside the middle of the girl's body after she noticed that the side of Bom's shirt had risen up, revealing part of a huge bluish colored bruise on her stomach. It looked so swollen that as she reached to touch it, she immediately pulled her hand back a second after, scared that even the slightest contact would bring the girl immense pain. 

 

Lisa, on the other hand, couldn't bring herself to come any closer to Bom's body as her watering eyes remained glued on the small vertical gashes located on Bom's cheek, thin dried streaks of bloods having flowed from one cut into the other with another streak coming from the corner of . The blonde knew, as well as everyone else in the school, that CL loved wearing rings, once over hearing her telling the rest of the Trio that her hand felt without one, so it didn't take a rocket scientist to know who was responsible for it.

 

Soon, the image of CL back handing Bom played in her head, making her bring her hands over in shock. Lisa suddenly wondered if anyone had seen her lying on the floor before they did and easily deducted that, if her thought was correct, that they decided to turn away and not get involved rather than making an attempt to help. After all, Jiyong's swift decision of leaving without even the slightest word had left Bom and anyone associated with her as a target, therefore an outcast in the whole school. 

 

It was the only reason the girls hadn't spoken to her all day besides Jennie, who was lucky enough to not have been caught. It wasn't like they wanted to ignore Bom, especially after becoming such close friends with her once they noticed the sweet yet one of a kind personality she possessed during the course of the month. And it wasn't like tremendous guilt hadn't filled their hearts after seeing the sadness fill Bom's doe like eyes once she realized that they weren't going to treat her any different than the rest of the students but now seeing her like this only made them feel even guiltier.

 

"Well, she's still has a pulse which means that she's breathing so she's okay...but we can't just leave her like this..." Rosé said to the other three as she placed the black haired girl's hand back down before scanning the other injuries that the others had found, only slightly less worried than she was before. Still, she knew someone like Bom shouldn't even be like this, let alone, be bullied at all.

 

Then, Lisa thought's, of course, had filled her mind along with the rest, and though she, along with Jisoo, had been the most adamant on steering clear of Bom, she was now wondering if that had really been the right thing to do. Would this have happened had they stuck by her side instead of ditching her like many others would have? Did she really even deserve this cruel type of treatment from the Trio, the students, and them too?

 

All of the girls knew the answers but sadly decided to push it to the backs of their minds as they quickly devised a plan to move her inside the very last bathroom stall that no one ever used because it was always out of order, which meant that she had a great chance of not being seen by anyone else in the horrible state she had resulted in. So the blonde haired maknae held the door open, watching closely as the other girls picked Bom up from the floor as gently as they could, Jennie holding her up by lower her back and Rosé holding her neck and upper back while Jisoo held her feet, and carried her inside the stall. 

 

Fortunately for them, Bom couldn't really feel them moving her due to the movement aggravating her pain again. The ache was more than a feeling; it was like noise itself, blocking her hearing along with her heartbeat. It hurt so much that the only thing she could do was sleep through it all or endure until it went away. It wasn't until the school bell rung, signaling the end of break, that it showed on her face as she winced silently, instantly catching the group's attention. 

 

"Uh oh." Lisa whispered with wide eyes.

 

"Do you think she's gonna wake up?" Jennie asked curiously as they set her in the far corner of the stall with her back against the wall in a sitting position. 

 

"I don't know." Jisoo answered quickly before adding, "but we can't stay here and found out." 

 

Rosé sighed reluctantly as she looked at Bom once more before saying, "Alright. Let's go." She stood up, quickly leading the other two out of the stall and towards the bathroom door, her and Jennie not noticing the youngest of them wasn't behind them.

 

It was Jisoo, the one they nicknamed as the visual of their group even though all of them were pretty, that immediately noticed Lisa still lingering by the door that would close and shield the injured yet sleeping girl from anymore eyes. She knew that it hurt Lisa to not only have to see but to leave Bom this way because it hurt her and other girls just as much. 

 

After what seemed like the longest second, a deep sigh left Jisoo's lips. "Come on, Lisa." 

 

Not because she didn't want any other student to catch them and make any false assumptions but because the girl that was sitting before them in the corner of the last bathroom stall's school life was now in the Trio's hands and they couldn't do anything about it.

 

It was officially out of their control.

 

Bom knew that now just as much as she knew it then when she finally forced herself to open her mocha brown eyes, catching the side profile of the maknae's face as she dejectedly closed the door and turned towards the oldest of the group. Her eyes slowly shifted to the small view of the outside between the hinges of the door, watching the back of their heads as they quickly evacuated the bathroom. 

 

'They can't have anything to do with me.' Bom thought as tears blinded her vision once more, making her dull headache come back to life again. She immediately closed her eyes and held her breath as she heard a group of female students barge in the bathroom, laughing loudly as they teased and talked animatedly with one another as the topic of their conversation changed continuously, eventually leading to her own self. 

 

"I didn't see her at lunch or at break with those other pretty freshman."

 

"Maybe she pretended she was sick and left school early. That's what I would have done." Another girl said.

 

"No way! I would have transferred schools. If she stays here then she'd be asking for a death wish." A third voice added.

 

"Speaking of transferring schools...do you really think she had something to do with it?" A light, familiar voice asked.

 

The fifth girl answered, "I think so. I mean she rejected Kwon Jiyong!"

 

"I think so too." The third girl quickly answered.

 

"He did look a little heartbroken..." The first voice said right afterwards.

 

"I know right? It was so sad. I don't understand how she could have rejected him after all that attention he gave her?" The second one questioned.

 

The light voice spoke up again. "Maybe she just didn't like him." 

 

That's when the fifth girl said, "Soo-hyun, everyone likes Kwon Jiyong. He's the Kingka for goodness sakes!" 

 

'Lee Soo-Hyun...', Bom thought silently. She only took one class with her but she heard a bit about her. Lisa said that, like herself, she skipped a grade so she was really smart. She was also friendly but painfully shy so it took her a while to make friends. And right now, she sounded like the nicest one of the group so her comments on the topic with the other 4 girls lifted her spirits a little bit.

 

"He was the kingka...and she's still new here. She probably didn't realize she liked him until now." The first girl assumed.

 

"Well her lack of realization has damaged our school. We lost the greatest kingka to ever walk these halls and now the Trio's making her pay for it." The last girl with slight frustration, making Bom wish she knew who it was. She seemed familiar.

 

"Come on guys, you know this is crazy. I mean, I only take one class with her but she seems really nice and-"

 

"Tell that to the Trio. They still won't care."

 

"Especially, CL. She's the Queenka and she practically fought for Jiyong's attention only to lose it to Park Bom and her rejection caused her to lose him as well. That alone is enough to make Park Bom a target."

 

"And once a target, always a target..." The girl Bom assumed had a crush on Jiyong said, making that statement clear enough that nothing other than silence could be a reply.

 

"So, who do you think is gonna be the new Kingka?"

 

"Well, Seunghyun of course. He's was the second most popular guy after Jiyong."

 

"Wait, what about Youngbae?"

 

And just like that, the topic became a victim of change once again until it was brought to a halt by the alarming sound of the school bell, signaling their tardiness. The clique quickly raced towards the bathroom door in a light hearted manner, giggles escaping their lips as they playfully pushed one another out of the door so that they wouldn't be any later for their 5th period.

 

Bom sighed in relief as silence engulfed the girl's restroom once more. She knew that she would be the only tardy student in the school not rushing to get to class that day. Not only did she not feel up to the task to even lift an arm up, but she also knew that she would have to save all the strength and energy she could muster up for when the time came to go home. Once the building was free of any students or teachers, she could finally drag herself home without any eyes following her every move or any adult stopping her to see if she was okay. 

 

And for the first time today, her lips curled into ever so soft smile. It's beautifulness would strike anyone's attention but the sadness of it, would immediately bring tears to ones eyes. What made her do it was the continuous echo of Soo-hyun and her friend's laughter that had bounced happily against the plain walls of the bathroom until it traveled into Bom's ears and remained there. It was a sound she couldn't get rid of no matter how much she wanted to, the very reason being that it sounded awfully like the laughs she had shared with a group of the 4 other girls from before. 

 

4 other girls that she wasn't friends with anymore. 

 

It reminded her that she would never be able to experience that kind of friendship or any other kind for that matter for the rest of her days in Suji High. 

 

Then the time began to shift, fast forwarding through the most horrible week of Bom's life by far, until she found herself in her old bedroom, lying on her bed in the same position she was in presently. The only difference was that she had the sheets pulled all the way up to her chin in order to hide the painful flaws underneath. The trio had quickly learned that the cuts they marked upon the girl's face had caught the attention of many, including a few teachers and even though they knew that Bom was smart enough not to tell a living soul that it was they're doing, they still decided to play safe by only beating her in the places where no one could see.

 

This plan, as Bom presently pondered over it for at least a minute, proved to be successful since their beatings had reached parts that no one would ever think of on the inside as well as the outside. To make matters worse, it lasted over a span of 2 years and  some months but the Park Bom of the past had not even thought that far ahead because rather than her being worried about how long the Trio's cruel treatment would last, she was too busy trying to hide that it was actually happening. With full time working attorneys as parents whose time of working on cases at the firm ranged from 8 to 12 hours a day, including Saturdays on some weeks, Bom never saw much of them and when she did, they never got to spend much time together because even while they were at home, they were always busy whether it be phone calls with clients or looking through legal documents. 

 

And even then, they never stopped and took the time to ask how her days at school were. They never asked how she was coping with moving from America, where she had spoke English majority of the time, to South Korea, where sometimes she stumbled upon her words, causing some of her peers to laugh at her. It was hard enough trying to get both of them to slow down and take a break from their jobs, let alone even rarer to see them in a moment were they weren't so busy. So how could she sit and watch her mother and father flipping through thousands files filled with various documents and information on their clients while probably talking to one of them on their individual cellular ear pieces and expect them to listen to her and reveal that she was being bullied? It would seem easy to the average person, right?

 

Well, everything is always easier said than done...

 

At least now, as the freshman laid under her covers with her source of comfort being her beloved moomin plushie, she could relish in the fact that she didn't have to force herself out of bed to complete any homework assignments since she always managed to finish them during and in between classes and that the next day would be the last day she would have to feel anymore pain from the Trio's hands for a few days since it was gonna be Friday. Her parents won't be home till around midnight and this was the week where they had to work on Saturday so they won't notice anything unusual about Bom. 

 

Not that they ever did...

 

This thought caused tears to run down her face just as they did a few minutes ago, making trails and paths down her rosy cheeks until they landed on top of her plushie's head, leaving small wet spots that began to spread as the 14 year old Bom continued crying. She wondered just how long would CL stay mad at her if she didn't know what she could have possibly done to be treated in such a manner. And how long could she, her own self, deal with it all until it she broke down and said something, that is if she decided to say something...

 

Bom couldn't say anything; this she knew not because of her parents or because of her fear of the fiery wrath from the Trio but because of a question that had been running through her brain ever since she heard someone else mention Jiyong's name the day after her first beating. The teen processed it as if it were the equivalent of an mathematical equation or an order of operations. 'Jiyong likes me but I don't like him. I reject him and he suddenly disappears. The Trio then starts bullying me. Why?' This was the first question that she didn't know nor couldn't find the answer to until this very moment.

 

'Maybe it's because I deserve it...'