Rin's storyline

Chapter 1

Rin

December 24; a cold day, it was when the season of winter came, winter flakes were falling from the sky to the ground, to the rooftops of the houses, to the clothes of the people, to the sea, the lake, the river, to the playground where kids were playing happily, to the kids trying to catch it; it was falling everywhere. But at that time, the story of two kids who made a promise to each other started as a snow flake fell to one of the kid’s pinky finger which was attached to the other one’s pinky. “Okay! It’s made then! Our deal to go to that school when we both come back here again!” the boy cheerfully said. “But I don’t know when I will be able to come back here again and how about you?” the little girl replied with a pout. The boy chuckled.”As long as you comeback here then it’s okay. I won’t care even if you’re already an aged woman when you get here or even if you’re already married…. just… come back, okay? And don’t worry about me, we’ll just take a visit to my grandma’s and come back immediately and anyways, I already convinced my mom that I must enter that school”. The girl smiled with what the boy said. “Aish! I understand already! But what if I forget you and your face or might not know if you’re the one I already made a promise with, hmm?! What, I’m just going to guess who you are and hug you all of a sudden?” the girl jokingly said while acting a fake hug with the air. The boy wasn’t able to reply immediately and just crossed his arms staring at the ground, thinking. The girl was waiting and staring at the boy in front of her. “Winter Promise”. The boy suddenly said. The girl slightly jumped because of the boy’s sudden words. “What?” she asked. “Winter Promise… when you come back here and enter the school, even if you might not remember me I’ll surely remember you and tell those words to you and then you’ll again remember me!!!! I might even make you fall in love with me” the boy loudly said while jumping and grinning with the thought of coming up with the ’great’ idea. The girl laughed and they continued their talk.

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It was December 24 when a promise was made between the 2 kids. “Remember this day, okay? This will be our special day starting from now.” The boy said and gave the girl, who he was talking to, a smile. “Also, remember the promise, the promise we made… to attend to that school after we come back here again.” The boy continued and again gave the girl a smile but now a softer and more saddened one.

“Rin!” one shouted. “Ne, omma?!” the girl named Rin replied back. “We have to go now, say your goodbyes!” her mom slightly shouted while getting in the van. Rin said her goodbyes to the people outside their now former house, close friends, relatives and to the boy. She quickly hugged the boy and whispered “I’ll remember” to his ear. “I’ll miss you” the boy replied with a chuckle after the sentence and hugged her tight.

~~~~~~~~~

RRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a dream. It was a bright and sunny morning. The sun’s light together with the alarm’s annoying ringing was enough to wake up Rin from her sleep. She sat up, half- awake, to off the alarm and thought about her dream. “The promise dream again.” she whispered to herself. She stayed silent and thought about the dream for a few minutes. She had this dream for so many times after her car accident has taken place when she and her family were coming back to Seoul. She clearly remembers the promise, that’s why she convinced both her parents and her brother to let her enroll in the involved school. When she was little, her family needed to move because her father wanted to start his own company but not in such a big city like Seoul. After a few years, her family decided to go back to Seoul so her father could manage the main base of the whole business company which was at that time built in the main city of Korea. They were on their way to their new home when all of a sudden a big truck crashed onto their car. Her mom was badly injured for the reason of trying to protect her two kids behind the car. This caused half of her body, specifically the lower half, to be paralyzed and fortunately her upper body to be still okay and still strong but was bruised and scarred. After the accident, they were all sent to the hospital with the help of the truck’s driver. Her older brother only got a few bruises and cuts, her father needed a surgery for the injury on his head and his lower body part and Rin, well, had minor injuries but fell into a coma. While having a coma, she was dreaming about having a promise with a little boy named …she doesn’t remember. The little boy’s face was unknown, in her dream she wasn’t able to see the boy’s face because all she saw was his face being purely black and this didn’t help. After a few days, she woke up and saw her brother sitting beside her bed. She tried to remember the boy’s identity and appearance but all she can remember was the promise.

She tried remembering more of her dream but wasn’t able to for the reason that it was still early, she was half-awake and her brother’s noise and shouting caused her to stop remembering and prepare for school.

“Rin! Wake up! It’s the 1^st day of school; you wouldn’t want to be late!” Leeteuk shouted from downstairs. Rin who was half-awake replied back. “Okay already! Gonna take a bath first!”

After taking a bath, Rin hurriedly went downstairs. She wasn’t really close to being late going to school, she just wanted to go to school as early as possible so she can wander around or explore the school first. She ate her breakfast which Bom made for her and then went to Leeteuk’s car. Leeteuk was responsible for driving Rin to school and fetching her from the school since the way to Rin’s school was also the same with the way to his workplace.

It was the 1^st day of the whole school year. Weeks before this, Rin already filed her enrollment and fully paid the expenses for the whole year. She was a 2^nd year student but this was her first year being in the school since she took her 1^st year in her previous school. The school was still huge like the last time she saw it, only it was bigger and some more buildings were added. There were only few students in the school at that time, almost none actually since it was still too early. The students were nice and were smiling at her while walking to the school. She then took out some papers from her bag; instructions, map, schedules and such. She got into her classroom faster than she expected and put her bag on a chair which didn’t have a name on it and was at the back side of the class. She expected that that was her chair since all the other chairs had name taped over their partnered table. She then lingered around the school with the help of the map she was holding. With the help of the map she was able to find the library, clinic, office, food court and all the other places of the school. The school was divided into three divisions- the left part having the school’s food court, pool, different kinds of playing/game court and such. The middle part of the division was for the students in HS year and the right part for the college students. The college division was the biggest since the building had to be complete for the students’ needs. After exploring the whole school, Rin realized that there were much more students now than she last knew it. She then decided to go back to her classroom and meet some of her classmates. There were now more than 15 students inside the class, some of the students looked and smiled at Rin and introduced themselves. It was actually nice. Rin thought. The students welcomed her nicely and did it with a smile, there were no rude students and because of that she gained new friends just in her 1^st hour and day in the school.

Talking and walking non-stop for almost half an hour was tiring so Rin decided she would go to the canteen to buy water. She was able to memorize the way even without a map and that made her grin stupidly but as soon as she realized what she was doing, she immediately bluffed and puffed her cheeks. While buying water, Rin suddenly heard her name being shouted and turned around trying to find the person who was shouting it. “Rin! Over here! Rin!” Unfortunately though, Rin wasn’t able to find the person until someone jumped behind her and again shouted her name louder and in a more cheerful tone. Rin turned around to see who it was and was surprised and shocked by who she saw.

“Dara!!” Rin shouted and hugged the girl named Dara. “I didn’t know you attended this school! Since when did you study here? I missed you so much!” Rin said.

“I started last year, well actually… we started last year and I missed you too!” Dara replied.

Rin tilted her head not knowing why Dara said the word “we”. “Eh? We? What do you mean?”

Dara giggled at how Rin tilted her head and her voice suddenly changing from her normal voice to a cuter one. That was Rin’s ‘special ability’. Whenever she tilts her head her voice will immediately change from normal to a cuter tone without her noticing. “Yes, we, as in Nichkhun, Hyo, Hyuk and me” “We enrolled last school year and started our 1^st year here. We decided to do that because Leeteuk told us that you were coming back and that you’ll enroll here and we wanted to follow you” Dara said and followed it with a little giggle. They both started to walk. Rin didn’t know that Leeteuk told his friends about coming back to Seoul again and more to that, entering this certain school. Hmpt, such a fishy old brother he is. Rin thought.

“What class are you in by the way?” Dara asked.

“Class 2- A, how about you?”

“Same. Hyoyeon’s also in the same class.”Dara replied.

“Eh? But I was just in the classroom earlier before I got to the canteen and I didn’t see you there.” Rin said.

“Well of course you didn’t see me there. I was in the council having a meeting with some of the school officers. We were listing the names of who we think could be the new members of the council.” Dara said as she put her bag beside Rin’s; both of them coincidently being seatmates. “And since I’m the secretary, I have all the students’ names. I saw your name listed in our class so I voted for you.” Dara said following it with a chuckle. “After the voting ended, they asked me why vote for a new student as the new VP and I simply told them how great you are and that you’re my childhood friend. Then after the meeting, I came looking for you around the school. Luckily, I found you in not less than a minute while heading back.” Dara continued with a smile on her face. Rin was a little surprised by what Dara did- voting her to be the student council VP. But she knew that would happen already and didn’t complain at all. She was the reason why Rin now holds so much confidence in her. Dara was a supportive and active friend. She was always the one who would do such weird things so that Rin could cheer up after losing or winning a contest. The one responsible for Rin having so many awards, medals, certificates and trophies because of forcing Rin to join different types of tournaments, games and competitions, the one responsible for making Rin an intelligent and talented person. Dara was indeed a forceful kind of friend but was pushy in a good way. Dara was her very first best friend. Their personalities were a total opposite when they first met; Rin being shy, quiet, not that smart and talented and had enough friends but not as many as Dara did. Then Dara being the opposite of all that; energetic, loud and active, was popular in such a young age and was talented and smart. Rin still thinks that it was a miracle that they became best friends. And Dara making her all she is now; friendly, popular, active, talented, smart and confident.