The sound of a pen clattering onto the floor jolted Hayeon, who was nodding off, awake. She turned to her right and saw Soyun sheepishly bend down to pick it up.

“Good going,” Hayeon snickered.

“No need for your sarcasm, dear,” Soyun scoffed.

They both rolled their eyes at each other mockingly, then proceeded to burst into a fit of giggles. Suddenly feeling a presence in front of their shared desk, they both looked up slowly, only to be met with a maths teacher who looked quite irritated.

“First, you two fall asleep in my class. Then now when you decide to wake up, you choose to laugh loudly and disrupt the rest of my students?”

“Sorry Mrs Han,” the two girls bowed.

“You say you’re sorry, yet you always fall asleep the next lesson. I shou-“

The ringing of the bell cut off their teacher. With a sigh, she turned around and dismissed the class. Hayeon’s classmates eagerly grabbed their things and bolted out of their second last period of the day. 

“I’m too lenient with you two,” Mrs Han complained.

“Only because we’re your best students, ssaem!” Soyun remarked with a cheeky grin on her face. Their teacher simply shook her head playfully and gestured for them to go.

Once out of the classroom, the friends said a quick goodbye before running off to their respective last period classes. Hayeon entered the music room, where her vocal lessons where held, panting. There was no sign of her teacher, so she bounded over to join the rest of her class, who were sitting on the floor. Most of her classmates gave her a little wave or nodded their head in greeting, which she happily returned before plopping down next to another one of her close friends.

“Hey Bacon oppa~”

“Who would’ve thought that an honours student always comes late to class?” Baekhyun teased.

“Oh be quiet oppa,” Hayeon said giving him a slight shove, “Hello Jongdae oppa!”

Hayeon offered him a sweet smile and in return received a very quiet hello and a very tiny shy smile. To most people, it was seen as rude, the minimal response given, nonetheless Hayeon was still contented . You see, Jongdae was quite a reserved person and even though he is friends with some of the most popular guys at their school, he rarely spoke to anyone apart from them. Hayeon saw herself as an “almost exception”. Not entirely amazingly close friends, but close enough and having talked enough times for her to call him “oppa”. She would say hello at school and try to start a conversation, to which he would mostly reply with short answers. The pair would also occasionally talk online, or through text, where Jongdae would give somewhat longer answers. Some of their peers questioned someone like Hayeon, a popular honours student, would bother when “he isn’t worth her time” as they would say. They thought Jongdae was a rude and conceited boy who thought too highly of himself to talk to anyone other than the Kingkas, Exo. Hayeon knew better though, as she had heard that things at home weren’t too great for him.

The bell signalling the end of the day rang, in Hayeon’s opinion, far too soon. She packed up her things slowly, reluctant to leave her favourite class, while saying goodbye to her classmates. Making her way slowly towards the door she motioned for Jongdae to exit before her and his lips once again turned slightly upwards, before he limped out.

Limped?

The smile on Hayeon’s face quickly turned into a frown. Her eyes narrowing, as she watched Jongdae moving with a small, but noticeable, limp. Thoughts lingered in her head of what could’ve possibly happened, and her final decision was to ask Baekhyun later. She found Baekhyun and Soyun waiting for her at the school gates and the trio talked for a few minutes before Soyun waved goodbye. Hayeon and Baekhyun begun their usual walk home together since they lived only a street away from each other. They made jokes and teased each other until Hayeon suddenly doubled over in laughter because Baekhyun had tripped on crack and was currently sprawled on the sidewalk.

“O-op-oppa! Are you okay?” Hayeon choked out through her giggles.

“Yah! Lee Hayeon! You don’t even help me up. You’re just standing their laughing at your poor oppa,” Baekhyun whined.

Baekhyun picked himself up, but not before some more childish whining, of course. They continued walking until they reached the corner of Baekhyun’s street, where they would have to part ways. Hayeon gave him a hug and pulled away abruptly when her previous thoughts resurfaced.

“Oppa…” she began.

“Wae? Is something wrong?” Baekhyun cautiously asked, “Did something happen? Is everything alright? Are you in so-“

Before he could continue blabbering on and fussing over her, she cut him off.

“Ani, it’s about Jongdae oppa”

“Oooooohhh, is a certain little dongsaeng of mine interested in him?” Baekhyun teased. He stopped though, when he saw that Hayeon was not in any way joking.

“I’m worried about him. I saw him limping earlier, and you’re one of the closest to him in Exo. Do you- do you know what happened?”

Baekhyun’s face slightly darkened, “You know that he doesn’t have the best relationship with his parents. Once he told me that when his father got drunk, he would sometimes get beaten by him.”

Hayeon felt her heart clench a tiny bit after she heard that. She quietly mumbled a response of, “Oh, I see…”

“I don’t know about today though. He doesn’t open up to me anymore, he doesn’t open up to any of us anymore,” Baekhyun exhaled while he looked up towards the sky. You could almost see the light bulb that appeared over Baekhyun’s head, “Yeonnie-ah, I think you should talk to him.”

“What? Me? If he doesn’t open up to you, why on Earth would he tell me what happened?” Hayeon retorted.

“Because he actually talks to you? You are the only other student in this whole school, besides Exo, that Jongdae hasn’t just outright ignored,” stated Baekhyun, “Hayeon, he even lik- trusted you enough to reveal that he had familial problems. Please, please, please just try to at least talk to him.”

 That was all Baekhyun needed to say before Hayeon agreed to talk to Jongdae. After receiving another hug and a hair ruffle from Baekhyun, she started walking towards her apartment.

Her eyes were trained on her white iPhone that was lying on top of her pillow. Hayeon let out a small sigh before stretching out to lie on her stomach and grabbing the device. Not too sure of what she was going to say, her fingers hovered over the keyboard while she lightly nibbled on her lower lip. 

H - Hey Jongdae :)

Letting the phone slip out of her hands, Hayeon rolled onto her back and observed the sun sinking below the rooftops of buildings. Hearing the familiar chime, she felt around blindly next to her trying to locate her phone.

J - Hello

H - Umm… well, i’m just going to get straight to the point, okay?

J - Sure?

H - Jongdae, I just wanted to know if you were alright?

After sending that message, Hayeon let out a frustrated groan and lightly knocked herself on the head. *Pabo-yah. of course he’s not alright,* she thought.

J - yeah…

     i’m okay

H - you don’t have to try and hide it if you’re not. i saw you limping earlier…

J - i’m fine, Hayeon. i really am.

H - don’t lie to me, Jongdae, because i know you’re not. you don’t have to go through whatever it is alone. regardless of what you may think there are people who care for you.

J - I have to go. See you at school.

Hayeon sighed at was she saw as a seemingly futile attempt to get Jongdae to open up to her. Refusing to leave things as they were, she swore to keep trying. She was insistent that during the following day at school, she would talk to Jongdae again. 

Flopping onto her bed, and letting out a frustrated groan, Hayeon ran her fingers through her dark hair. Her plan to talk to Jongdae could undoubtedly be considered as a fail. She would barely have  gotten within a ten metre radius of him, before he managed to slip away. There was nothing much Hayeon could do though, since it was already Friday afternoon. With a heavy heart, she ate dinner and decided to go to bed earlier than usual.

With the sun beginning to set, and grey clouds starting to envelop the sky, it was evident that the sunny weather seen earlier that day would not last throughout the rest of the weekend. A few muffled groans were heard as Hayeon rummaged through her messy closet for a warm hoodie to throw over her leggings and white t-shirt. 

The combination of having to buy groceries to make dinner and wanting to do some exercise, concluded in Hayeon deciding to visit a larger supermarket about 15 minutes walking distance away. She walked to her full-length mirror, holding a simple grey hoodie in her hand, with a satisfied grin on her face. After putting on her hoodie and making sure she had her wallet, house keys and phone, she put on a pair of plain black vans and left her apartment.

Walking through the fairly empty streets, Hayeon was quietly humming a melody to herself. The sound of children laughing filled the air, as she neared the park that she had such fond memories of. Hayeon paused for a few minutes to smile at the sight of kids who were so carefree and happy, before remembering her task at hand — to go get groceries. 

As Hayeon walked out of the store with a bag full of food, she felt something land on top of her head. Turning her gaze up to the sky, she coincidentally blinked at the perfect time to keep a raindrop out of her eye. The melody that was hummed on the way to the store found itself replaced with Hayeon grumbling about being stupid and not bringing an umbrella. There was nothing more she could do than to just be grateful she chose to wear something with a hood. She begun to walk at a brisk pace, to make sure she didn’t prolong the amount of time she needed to spend in the open, when it was obviously about to rain.

The park that a few kids were previously scattered over was now seemed empty, to Hayeon’s relief. Not that she could see very far in front of her, through the rain that just kept growing heavier and heavier, to be certain. She didn’t want any kids getting sick, regardless of whether she knew them or not. Approaching the park, with her now jogging pace, her relief turned to dismay as she noticed there was still a figure hunched over on the swing set. Hayeon’s eyebrows furrowed in concern. 

“What is this kid still doing here?” she thought. After a moment of slight hesitation, Hayeon started her jogging pace once again, only to find herself stopped a few metres from where she was previously standing. One could easily see that this young girl was already soaked through to the bone, but the only thought going through her head was, “Already dripping wet. No more harm can exactly be done…”

“Lee Hayeon, you are crazy,” she muttered as she turned around and began making her was to the figure in the park. 

“YAH! Kid! Are you crazy? Go home!” she yelled out louder. The rain had eased up a tiny bit, even so, it was still falling down quite heavily. “HEY! Kid!” she shouted again, while still making her way over. She was now close enough to distinguish that it wasn’t a kid, but rather it was a masculine figure who looked slightly older. Getting no response from the figure, whose head was still down, Hayeon went on with her approach.

“He could be a serial killer for all you know, Hayeon,” she muttered once again. Hayeon found it was too late to turn back though, as she had by then reached the figure already.

“Did you not hear me before? I’m sorry if I sound rude, but you’re sitting in the middle of the park while it’s pouring rain! Go hom-“ her sentence was cut short when the figure lifted his head up, only to reveal a face that was bruised and cut. The state the person was in wasn’t even what startled Hayeon — it was who that person was that did.

Hey guys!

First chapter is up! ＼（＾○＾）人（＾○＾）／

I should be posting the second chapter soon, but I hope you like it so far.

Feel free to leave me a comment (any feedback at all will be greatly appreciated) and if you're enjoying the story, please subscribe~

- Silverhearted ❤