Note:

Letters in italic+bold are not in POV. 

Each character is equally important to me, and the amount of information given doesn’t mean this one is main and this one is not. As I have put in lots of effort in this fic, I hope you guys love it. 

(Future)

Haehyun’s POV

His eyes tear up. He is suffering in this suffocating silence. He knows that, after all, he was never worth it, never worth standing up for, never worth a try, never.

(Present)

It’s spring, the season that marks new beginnings, where new leaves start growing. But it isn’t only the leaves that are growing in SUA.

Haehyun sighs as the day of her new semester is getting closer. She applied for the exchange programme to study in Korea as she wanted to escape China, where she currently lives with her mom and sister,Hera. Her father left them when she was 5, and when Hera was just a new born baby. She knows she was hurting her mom when she told her she would go Korea as an exchange student, because 1.) Haehyun was leaving her, and 2.)the destination was Korea, where the man who left them currently lives.

Haehyun has always wanted a new environment, a new surrounding where she can start anew. Not China, where everything she sees reminds her of the hardships her family had to go through only because of a man who used to be her father.

As she zips her luggage, she heaves another sigh, she isn’t totally ready. She is scared to face her father, whom she can never forgive, though she knows she can’t always run away from the confrontation. Her father did not only destroy her childhood, but also her dreams, her perfect family and her perception about men. Was her mom not enough? Why did he have to leave us for another woman? She was 5, for goddamn sake, she was 5, the age she needed paternal care. That night, she heard them quarreling back and forth before her father made a stormy exit, leaving the family with a loud slam in the door, never coming back, no letters, no explanations, no strings attached. Maybe, just maybe she hoped her father would come back just to collect his clothes, but that never happened.

Growing up in a broken family is sickening, she is the only pillar for her mom and that led her to working part time job illegally to earn that money for consultation fees her mom needed to recover from depression, and for Hera’s school fees, as well as hers. Luck wasn’t always out of sight though, when her mom recovered, and Hera started working, they saved quite a sum of money- just enough to open a small noodles shop which sold hundred to thousand bowls everyday. And they got better financially.

She wears her sneakers, and has one final glance at the mirror and bids farewell to her mother and sister, before hopping onto the cab. Her heart is racing, despite all the excuses she gave to her mother, she knows she needs one thing to set her free: her father’s first and last explanation. Only then, she can let go of her past and start working her way towards her dream career, a web-toon artist.

Jaehyun yawns as he wakes up to the blinding sun. He looks up the clock, it’s 9 already. But he stretches his spine and wraps his blankets around him for another sleep. The new semester is just 3 days away, and he wants to make the most out of the holidays.

He sits up after a few mins of tossing and turning in the bed. He thinks about the upcoming semester that is as boring (or even more) as the last one. He hates every single moment of school life, simply because he has no real friends, he has no one he can joke around with. He is popular at school but that was only because he was rich and handsome, the kind of combination girls love and boys envy. But, he doesn’t need such fake attention that demands sides of him that aren’t true to his real personality. He craves attention, the real one built upon love. His family has always given him everything he asks for, but what he really wants, is affection. It’s by pure luck he didn’t turn out to be a spoiled kid, even with Genie-like parents. With working parents, he rarely gets to spend time with them and that resulted in family dinners filled with awkward silence, occasionally accompanied by ‘yes’s and ‘no’s.

Frankly, Jaehyun feels really lonely at times, although he’ll never admit it. As loneliness accumulates, his wall of defense just gets higher. He’ll beat himself up for being weak whenever he finds himself needing someone’s accompany.

Things aren’t that different for Taeyong, a classmate of Jaehyun, who lives just a block away from the latter. They would always ride the same bus to home, but neither of them cared enough to notice. They might also have done a few group projects together.

Taeyong sighs, another year, another semester. He looks out at the window, the greens he sees reminds him of the void in his heart, he wonders if he is ever gonna experience spring in his heart again. Taeyong had lost his dad since he was young and that had led him to speak less., interact less and smile less. It’s like he lost the biggest puzzle in his life, and it was irreplaceable. His mother and him rarely talks. The last time he received and felt warmth from his mother was on the funeral of his dad, when his mom gave him the warmest hug possible. Taeyong shares a few greetings with his mom everyday but they choose to give each other space, privacy and time. They are both scared to accept the reality, that the breadwinner will no longer be included in their future anymore. It’s been over 7 years but, maybe it’s for the best, to give each other more time. Maybe one day, they can embrace the reality. He knows his mother loves him and his mother knows he loves her, and that is enough for both of them.

Oh Hayoung, a student studying ceramics art in SUA, is a close friend of Ahyoung. They have known each other for over a year. Things have been incredibly hard for her. She has had a tough year coping with a bad breakup with a senior in her school. They were everyone’s “couple goals” before they hit rock bottom. She isn’t sure if she’ll ever get over it. But the bad news is that she is a hopeless romanticist, and believes in second chances, which makes it hard for her to forget her ex. Coming from a wealthy family didn’t make her less humble, she is always that person willing to help others.