8

10

99. 100. Joohyun placed her brush down on her dresser and grabbed her ribbon, moving her hands behind her head and using the ribbon to tie her black locks up in a ponytail. She stared at herself in the mirror, her eyes scanning her hair to make sure every single follicle was in place before making sure her face was fine as well. Once she was sure, the ten year old girl stood up and smoothed out her school uniform before taking her school bag and walking out of her room.

As she entered the kitchen, her mother placed her breakfast on the table then walked over to Joohyun, adjusting her clothes and fixing her hair. It wasn’t that the two of them were vain, it was just that her mother always wanted Joohyun to put her best foot forward constantly and it just happened to be that Joohyun’s best foot was her appearance. She was a beautiful girl and her mother didn’t want her to think that was a bad thing, it was a wonderful thing and she should take full advantage of it. Once her mother was sure she looked perfect, Joohyun sat down and slowly began to eat her breakfast.

“Are you excited to go to the art museum today? It should be a fun trip,” her mother said with a smile, Joohyun simply nodding in response, “I’ll be having lunch with Jungeun again today. She’s such a nice lady.” Joohyun remained silent as she ate, her mother simply smiling and patting her daughter’s head. When the young girl finished her meal, she stood up and grabbed her bag once again before walking to the door and slipping on her shoes.

Her mother opened the door and the two of them left the small house, Joohyun following obediently as her mother led her down the stairs and they began their walk to her school. Thankfully, it was only a few blocks away from where they lived so it allowed the two of them to walk there every morning and walk back every afternoon, the young child only being driven when it was far too cold. Joohyun looked up at her mother and smiled, moving her hand up to hold the woman’s hand. Her mother was very pretty, Joohyun always thought. She never understood why her daddy would leave her for another woman like the neighbor ladies said, her mother was plenty pretty enough for him.

“See you later, mama,” Joohyun said once they approached the school, hugging her mother and smiling when she kissed her cheek.

“See you, Joohyunnie. Remember, you are perfect and wonderful,” her mother whispered before kissing her on the forehead and sending her off. The young girl walked silently into school, a small smile on her face from her mother’s words. They were simple and the same thing she said every day, but they always made Joohyun feel wonderful inside. She was a simple girl who didn’t enjoy speaking much, so having someone tell her such nice things every morning was a perfect way to boost her confidence.

The kids were soon taken to the art museum, young Joohyun excited to see all the beautiful works of art. She was young, but her mother - a fellow art lover - had already instilled a love and appreciation of art into the young girl’s heart. As she stood with her classmates and waited for the teacher to gather her schedule for the day, she suddenly heard another teacher shout.

“Song Minho, you behave this instant!” She turned to see a chubby boy laughing loudly as he ran around with his friends, shoving them into things and almost breaking a priceless 200 year old vase. She huffed and turned her attention back to her teacher who began to lead them towards the children’s exhibit. She listened intensively as the teacher spoke to them about the history of the items they were seeing, some of the students touching the things they were allowed to. The peace and serenity of the moment was interrupted when the teacher from before entered the room, still yelling.

“Minho and Jiho, will the two of you please- Oh, pardon us,” he said sheepishly when he noticed the other class and bowed apologetically. Minho walked up to Joohyun who stared up at a big painting, refusing to acknowledge the chubby kid next to her.

“Wanna see what I got?” he asked with a big grin. No answer.

“Hey, I got something super cool!” No answer.

“What’s the matter? You stupid?”

“No, but you are!” Joohyun said with a huff before she turned her back to him. Minho frowned and reached into his pants pocket, pulling out a pair of scissors and grabbing the girl’s ponytail, snipping it off right where the ribbon held it. Gasping, Joohyun turned around quickly to see her beautiful hair in his fat stubby fingers.

“This is what I got,” Minho said, snipping the scissors. With tears in her eyes, Joohyun slowly balled up her fists and took in a deep breath before screaming at the top of her lungs.

“YOU STUPID FAT MONKEY HEAD!”

A/N: Many apologies, I forgot to update on Saturday! It's just a few hours into Sunday for me so we can just say I posted this on Saturday lmao. Thank you to all the kind comments for winning the bid and all the new subscribers. I hope you all enjoyed this, as I said, many of the chapters will be pretty short but will get longer as they get older. Comments are greatly appreciated!