Chapter 2: The Move to Korea

Making your way towards the principal's office, you ignored the curious looks from the other students. As much as you were curious about the sudden announcement, they were too as they whispered their predictions to each other regardless or not you were able to hear them.
Given permission to enter the room after knocking, you walked in expecting either an excited or depressed principal standing in front of you, but that didn't seem to be the case when you saw your old principal behind the table looking quite conflicted while your brother and sister sat in front.

Their eyes watching you awkwardly walk towards the empty seat in between your sister and brother, you slowly sat down and placed your hands on your lap. "Uhm, you called?" you began where you then looked up to your principal in which he forced himself to smile.

"Ah, you, you're a very lucky girl. As much as it pains me to have such an outstanding student exchange from our school -" 

You interrupted him by raising your hands up in the air. "I'm sorry, but did you just say exchange?" you questioned before looking over to your sister and brother with suspicious eyes. They haven't mentioned anything about this before so this was new news to you.

Looking back to your principal since your siblings weren't telling you anything, you waited for him to continue. "Your siblings have already filled out your forms for the exchange and drop out. You don't have to worry about anything else other than to say your farewells to your teachers and classmates," he said before looking over at your siblings with a smile. "Congratulations again on your acceptance to study within Korea."

With that, you and your siblings got up and thanked your principal in sync before heading out. Your siblings standing close to you outside of the office, you noticed how everyone was looking for you and frowned at the amount of attention that you all were getting.

"We won't rush you but please be home before the evening," your sister said as she softly smiled at you. "We know that you've been through so much here so you can take your time taking in everything before we leave," your brother then added in which you slowly nodded your head to them before nibbling on the bottom of your lips.

As much as you wanted to tell your classmates and teachers about you leaving, you found this unknown force that was nagging the back of your mind. 'If I were to tell them, they would make a huge fuss about it which isn't what I want,' you thought to yourself where you heard jogging footsteps approaching you.

All heads turning to see Sakura jogging to you, she stopped and gave you a concerned look. "It's quite rare to hear you get called to the office," she reasoned before smiling to your older siblings. "Oh hey Andrew, Sabrina," she greeted, giving your brother a high-five and a hug to your sister.

"Can't we take her with us too?" Sabrina whined as she refused to release Sakura from her embrace.

Sakura giving your sister a raised brow, she glanced over at you in question as if she was silently asking you what she had missed out on and why they were here. 
Just thinking about it, just telling Sakura alone about her transfer seemed reasonable in which you decided to do so. Without haste, you pulled Sakura away from Sabrina and hugged her tightly.

"Ano?" she questioned.

"I'm moving schools... I'm going to Korea and I don't think that I'll be returning anytime soon," you whispered into her ears where she widened her eyes and pulled away to look into your eyes to see if you were lying. "Liar," she breathed.

You shook your head, "It's not a lie... They wouldn't be here if it wasn't true." Watching her trying to find the right words to say, you forced yourself to smile. "How about we walk around the school for a bit?" she then said in a hushed tone, knowing all too well that people liked to listen in to your conversation.

Nodding your head, you both ended up parting with your siblings. The both of you holding hands, you both walked side-by-side with each other where you stopped by a window that was next to the old oak tree. The class bells ringing where you both stood by the open window and ignored the passing students that were rushing to go to class, you looked down to the tree and tried to look through its thick branches and leaves.

"Remember when you found me here?" you asked as the noise around you began to settle into a ghostly silence. Smiling, you recalled that warm summer day when you were relaxing under the tree and was falling asleep when suddenly you heard someone cursing in Japanese. 
That was the day you met a lost and confused Sakura who had come here to study when you both were juniors.

Sakura laughing, she shook her head. "I was so terrible at my English then, it took you a few attempts to understand what I was telling you," she laughed before stopping to smile at the memories that you've shared together. "You've offered so much when it came to helping me, to be honest, our lives are like cliche dramas," she softly whispered before you both began to walk towards the gym.

The sun nowhere near setting, you both walked in silence and listened to the teacher explaining things while students typed away on their devices. The sound of your shoes echoing through the empty corridors, you questioned how different studying in Korea would be like compared to here.
Sighing as you both stood in front of the opened gym building, you looked inside to see no one using it. "Should we go in?" Sakura whispered.

You shrugged your shoulders and went in anyways since you knew the teachers wouldn't mind as long as you didn't make a mess. Perhaps this was the place that started your little popularity moments.

"Did you know that I used to play basketball?" you began.

Sakura not replying, you continued as you walked over towards the bench that you once sat on at the start and at the end of a game. "Because of my siblings, I would play sports with them and helped them trained for their clubs," you said before looking out to the large basketball court in front of you. "I was horrible at playing when I first started and sometimes, people would look down on me for being quite small then... When I joined, they were surprised to see that I knew the best techniques to pressure the other team."

You laughed when you remembered how shocked the freshmen looked when they would see you on the field and taking control of the court. "It was fun, but I ended up trying new sports later on when I felt stressed over studying..." You then frowned when you recalled those stressful times when exam periods came into play.

"After that, I quit and began singing to relax," you said where you looked over towards the back middle of the gym. Imagining a small stage set up where annually, the school would host a performance night, you performed on stage for the first time which made your siblings cry to see you singing your heart out.

"You then performed every year where students rushed to get those front row seats," Sakura chimed in. "That day you sang for Andrew's heartbreak was the day you cried in front of the school and made him feel so guilty for a week after."

Recalling that, you sadly smiled. That day was the worse thing that had happened within your family, Andrew closed himself up within his room and refused to come out for a fortnight after being cheated on by his former girlfriend of three years.
He was so happy then, and after that, he grew into a more silent and awkward person around women. She was glad that he had opened up to Sakura and started accepting her best friend as his third younger sister within your family.

"He kept on apologizing after that," you stated before Sakura came over and sat next to you. "Perhaps this was where everything started."

The girl shook her head. "Everything began when you came out of your shell. Many things had happened within your family, and you always force yourself to smile regardless so the people around you wouldn't break and fall... You were so strong, and perhaps that's what made us become close friends," she said where you fought back the tears that were threatening to fall.

"Crying doesn't make anyone weak. It shows the courage of a person that is crying in front of others to see," Sakura wisely said as tears began to roll. "Did you know? I was very happy when you cried in front of me when you were stressed about studying during the time your siblings were arguing over the dumbest thing," she confessed.
Leaning back, she looked up at the large hanging lights that illuminated the silent gym. "I thought, the reason why you were crying in front of me was that you trusted me to show you that crumbling side... I, of course, cried after."

You nodded. You knew the reason why she was crying after you. It was a chain reaction.

After this, she'll be the one crying. "You cried because you missed Takuto, your boyfriend," you replied in which she chuckled. "I was unstable but then again, we both are," she said before she wiped away a stray tear.

"Hey, you have to message me when you're leaving and when you arrive at Korea," she muttered. Getting up, she forced herself not to break down in front of you. "I'm the only close friend that's talking to you, not because of your popularity, so you have to keep in touch with me or I'll be angry and travel over to you myself."

You nodded before getting up and pulling her into a hug once more. "I promise you that I won't ever forget about you," you promised.

"Good, because you have to go and get ready for the big move," she said before waving you off as you headed towards the doors of the gym by yourself. "you! Anata ga o yakusoku?!" she cried out with tears in her eyes.

Smiling over your shoulder, you nodded and held out a pinky. "Hai!" you replied back with a promise before leaving, refusing to turn back as the girl dropped to her knees and silently allowed her tears to fall.

You wanted to continue your path as a strong woman who had once promised their best friend that they won't cry until their breaking point. The fact that you were going to be far apart from your only true friend was crushing your heart which felt like death once again.

Tears falling as you continued to walk, you decided that it was time for you to leave and return home. And as you traveled your way back, each place held a loving memory of you growing up which made your heart sink more.

Standing in front of your home, you felt tired as your heart was worn out from the emotional walk home. Sighing, you opened the door and walked in to see boxes piled on top of each other in the hallway.
The house feeling more cluttered than before even though it should feel the opposite, you walked into the living room to see some of the stuff gone from their usual places. 'This is going to be rough,' you thought where you turned to see Andrew entering the room.

"Home little one? We'll be moving in two days and we've managed to pack up the majority of the things in the living room and storeroom," he said before patting your head. "How was the parting?"

You frowned and swatted his hand away from your head. Dropping onto the couch where you slipped your bag onto the floor, you groaned. "I didn't say bye to anyone other than to Sakura."

"It's alright, I'm sure that we'll be coming back here to visit anyways after a semester or two in Korea," he said, dropping beside you where he rested his head on your shoulder.
You forced yourself to smile once again as you pushed his head away. "If that was the case then we wouldn't be moving our stuff to Korea."

He scoffed. "you... You should be somewhat happy that we're going to Korea to study. That was the reason why we chose a university over there," he stated where Sabrina walked down and nodded her head.

She narrowed her eyes at your oldest brother with her arms crossed. "And you should be packing rather than relaxing you knob. you has less stuff to worry about unlike you. Clean up your game room before I throw it into the bin where you can kiss those FPS games goodbye forever," she threatened where he quickly got up and ran upstairs while screaming how cruel she was to his beloved games.

Sabrina scowling, she sadly smiled over to you. "We're sorry if you didn't want to move..." she apologized.

You shook your head to her apology. There wasn't anything that required an apology from them. "Don't worry about it. I'll get over it sooner or later," you said before getting up where she walked over to you and pulled you into a hug.

"When we get over to Korea, you brother and I have something to give to you... Well, we;re planning, so think about that while you pack up alright?" She smiled at you once more before heading upstairs first.