Paper Heart

§ 1 §

“I may seem nice but I have a strong pride,”

Quiet.

It wasn’t unusual for the apartment hidden in the centre of Seoul to be quiet; after all only Ara and her older sister lived in their cramped apartment.

Ara sighed, twisting her dark hair over her shoulder. Blowing out air so that they filled her cheeks, she spun around on her study chair, the one that was placed inside the room she and her sister shared.

Standing up, she surveyed the apartment. The walls were white, making the restricted area seem brighter and larger than it actually was. There was the odd towel or piece of clothing lying around on the sofa and the kitchen was right next to the bedroom, only a wall dividing them. There was also an out-of-tune guitar on top of the bed, along with discarded summer assignments.

Standing up, Ara fell back onto the bed both she and her sister shared. Smiling at the framed picture of her mother, sister and herself before the accident on their bedside table, she closed her eyes in bliss, trying to relish in the silence that encased the apartment.

When no sleep came, Ara exhaled glumly, slipping on her battered converses and sliding out onto the rooftop room, snagging the guitar along her way. Night had descended; in fact Ri-ah should be on her way home by now.

Summer was officially over, something Ara was surprisingly happy about. Summer was always filled being trapped inside the house, with no one other than Ri-ah to share it with. With haunting memories that she would like to keep locked away, Ara was glad to say goodbye to summer.

The wind billowed past Ara’s dark hair as she sat at the balcony swing that her sister had gotten them, shivering as she realised how the coldness of September was approaching. The sky was painted with burning white stars as the sun slowly devoured the night. With the guitar in hand, she slowly strummed an old melody, something she had tried to forget but was forever imprinted into her mind.

“You really should get that guitar fixed,” An easy-going voice interrupted, halting the soft tones of the guitar.

A honeycomb brunette laughed at Ara’s shocked face, and climbed up the stairs to their rooftop room, smiling softly at her younger sister. Her fingers clung two plastic shopping bags as she motioned for Ara to follow her inside.

“Ri-ah, you know I don’t like people sneaking up on me,” Ara said, placing the guitar in the dining room, a hand covering her heart in shock.

Ri-ah snorted, placing her bags in the tight-squeezed kitchen.  She threw her pale grey coat into their shared bedroom, before washing her hands in the kitchen sink. She then placed a small metal pot on top of the hob, whilst Ara emptied the shopping bags, placing everything inside them into cupboards or the refrigerator.

“Do we have any kimchi?” Ri-ah asked, pulling her hair into a messy bun. Ara sighed, before snapping the fridge open, and pulling out a plastic container.

“You’re back earlier than usual,”

Ri-ah splintered raw ramen noodles into a piping metal pot, stirring with her chopsticks. “I was in a rush to get back, you know I don’t like leaving you alone, especially at night,”

“I’m use to it,” Ara replied quickly, opening the packet of seasoning and sprinkling it on top of the ramen.

“That’s what I don’t like,” Ri-ah mumbled under her breath.

Choosing to pretend she didn’t hear Ri-ah, Ara walked out of the kitchen, sitting down on the wooden floor. “Is it almost ready?”

“Patience is virtue,” Ri-ah replied, as she cracked three eggs into the pot.

“Well, virtue can go up my-“

“Finish that sentence and you can go sleep out on the balcony,”

Ara grumbled, pulling her hair into a low ponytail with a rubber band. “Mianhe,”

“Done,” Ri-ah sang, bounding towards a waiting Ara. “Careful, it’s hot,”

Ara rolled her eyes, as she quickly opened the pot, smiling as a bundle of steam lifted up.

“So, school starts tomorrow,” Ri-ah stated, placing noodles into slowly.

Ara nodded slowly, feeling dry up as if she had just swallowed a handful of sand. “Yeah,”

“Have you got everything ready?”

“Mmh,”

Ri-ah twisted the noodles on her chopsticks, her stomach as twisted as the noodles inside her bowl. Small droplets of crystal tears pricked at the edge of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall as she harshly blinked them away. “You know you can always stay with me, we’ll go on a year-long trip, maybe visit America."

“No,” Ara said softly, reaching over to grab her sister’s hand. “I want everything to be exactly the way it is,”

Ri-ah blinked her eyes harshly, brushing away the single tear that dripped down her cheek. “Okay, make sure you take your medicine and listen to your teachers,”

Ara rolled her eyes, and replied sarcastically, “Yes, Mum,”

“You sure you’ll be okay?” Ri-ah asked as she pulled the car in front of a prestigious school.

Seoul Music Academy, (SM for short), was one of the most esteemed private school in the whole of Seoul, mainly because of the success that their students go onto after graduation.

Students could not buy themselves in; they had to take a ruthless entrance exam, where they would then be given a scholarship if they were to pass. The entrance exam would be taken by eleven to twelve year olds, and those students would carry on their entire education career there, if they did not transfer out that is.

SM was split up into three parts, SMB (Beginners), SMS (Seniors) and SMU (University). SMB was from eleven- fourteens, whilst the SMS were fifteens-seventeen (graduate at eighteen), and SMU was the university/college, for eighteen plus, although, students would have to take an entrance exam to see if they would be able to continue their school career at SM Academy.

At first, Ara had only wanted to go to SM because of a friend she did not want to leave, but now, she didn’t even know why she bothered. After all she had only scraped by the entrance exam, and could barely keep up with the kids that attended. Keeping her head down, Ara turned towards Ri-ah in their cramped car.

“I’ll be fine,”

Ri-ah sighed, checking the time on her watch. She couldn’t afford to be late to work, but it was a ritual to send her baby sister off on her first day, of her last year of school.

“Alright,” Ri-ah nudges a pesky strand of hair out of Ara’s face, tucking it behind her ear. “I’m on speed dial, need me and I’m there,”

Ara nodded, rolling her eyes at Ri-ah. “You’re the only phone number on my phone, of course I’ll call you,”

“Have you got your school bag?”

“Check.”

“You’re planner?”

“Check,”

“Your medication?”

“Unnie,” Ara said, stepping outside of the car whilst shaking her bottle of pills that looked like vitamins. “Relax, I’ll be fine,”

“Alright,” Ri-ah said, twisting the key so the car roared to life. “And Ara,”

“Mm?”

“Make some friends,” Ri-ah said with a smile. “It is your last year, make it count,”

Kai rolled his eyes, pulling the ashy cigarette out of his mouth and let out a puff of smoke. His shirt was hanging out of his sides, whilst his blazer was covering his broad shoulders, concealing him from the cold September air.

Dragging his bag along, he could faintly hear Kyungsoo calling him from behind. Pounding down towards SM, Kai nudged Sehun forward, as the latter was too engrossed with a new game on his phone to even notice that he had stopped walking.

“Ya!” Kyungsoo said behind Kai. He pulled the cigarette out of Kai’s mouth, ignoring Kai’s outburst of growls, and threw it on the floor, crushing it beneath his feet. “How many times do I have to tell you that smoking is bad?”

“At least a thousand times more hyung,” Sehun replied. “And besides, it’s a rare occurrence for Kai to smoke,”

“Aish,” Kyungsoo pestered, walking in between the two. Despite his status as a hyung, he certainly did not feel like that walking between those two giants, and they weren’t even the tallest in EXO! “And since when did you learn big words like occurrence?”

Sehun’s pale cheeks pinked, which Kai noted quickly.

“Are we meeting up with the hyungs at school?” Kai asked, still peeved off at Kyungsoo, and instead asked Sehun, quickly changing the subject to save his friend.

“Mm,” Sehun responded in confirmation. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes at the two, before ruffling his dark hair as they made their way towards SM Academy.

“Be good,” Kyungsoo said as they parted ways once reaching the SM gates. “Now that Tao is in SMU with the rest of us, you guys won’t have him to come get us to pull you out of trouble,”

“Yeah, hyung,” Sehun rolled his eyes, shoving Kyungsoo jokingly towards SMU. “Have fun in college,”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes at the evil maknaes, before turning towards the SMU building, leaving Sehun and Kai behind with a wave.

“How’s Taemin?”

“He’s fine,”

“What about you?” Sehun replied, looking at one of his best friends to catch any slip ups in his body language.

Kai didn’t reply, but the downcast in his eyes didn’t miss Sehun’s acute gaze. An undeniable silence surrounded them, as Sehun scuffed the ground beneath him with the toe of his shoe. Kai had seemed to be caught in his own bubble, his eyes zooming out of focus.    

His eyes wandered to where students were being dropped of. A certain he