Dear Chapter 3

Jung SoMi~

“For the seniors in this class, the university has prepared a special guest lecture. We’ll be hearing from social workers across the entire spectrum ranging from government, private, and non-profit social sectors. Please applause for your guests!” Our professor announced to everyone in the packed lecture hall. Ever since rumor spread around about the special guest lecture, I was looking forward to it with the hopes that it would help me consolidate which sector of government social work I wanted to go into. I would be entering the work force in a couple months from now. Exchanging eager grins with my friends, I focused on the lecture.  

“Is there anything that can prevent someone from becoming a social worker?” A student asked once the guests were finished talking about their experiences. I pouted my lips, thinking that it was a clever question and how come I never thought about that.

“For all sectors, a background check is done and if you have a criminal record of any kind it is best to reveal that from the start to your employers. A criminal record could influence whether or not you’ll be employed.” My focus shifted from the guest speakers to myself as I recalled the illegal activities I participated in as an Ant. A new predicament unfolded right before me as my mind raced, thinking hard about whether those events were on my record. I left the lecture hall with Yeri and JooHyun unable to hide the fact that I was deep in thought.

“What’s on your mind? Oh how are you feeling? Better? What did the doctor say?” Yeri bombarded me with questions, flustering me.

“It is so strange. I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night for days in a row. My head constantly hurts too. The doctor told me that it could be psychosomatic and that I needed to relieve my stress, but the funny thing is that I am not stressed!” I exclaimed, giggling at the absurdity of it all. Yeri’s face went blank and without a hint of mockery in her voice, she asked,

“Maybe it’s a ghost!” Laughing, I attributed her crazy theory to her obsession with supernatural romance novels, which she consumed every waking hour.

“Imagine a ghost just waking you up in the middle of the night for no reason!” JooHyun laughed, tapping me on the shoulder and walking away to reenact Yeri’s preposterous thought. I doubled over, finding my friends so endearing and funny. JooHyun and I managed to calm down while Yeri just stood still, shaking her head at us. Wrapping my arm around Yeri, we walked toward the cafeteria when I just happened to run into the most annoying girl on campus.

She was WooHyun’s ex girlfriend, who was still bitter about the fact that he dumped her for me. Ever since I began dating WooHyun at the end of our junior year, she made it her mission to harass me. Today was no different. Yeri and JooHyun stopped in their tracks as she approached us with a friend of hers.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if WooHyun dumps you soon. He’ll get tired of you soon enough and he’ll back with me.” Then she crossed personal boundaries by whispering into my ear. “He says that I satisfy him much better than you do.” I simply scoffed at her. She had to be lying.

“That’s unlikely. He dumped you for a reason. It’s not my fault that he was attracted to me. Stop wasting time harassing me but use it to focus on yourself. You seem to really need it.” I fired back, about to dismiss her when she didn’t respond with cutting words, but with a slap to my face. Her perfectly manicured nails scratched my temple area and left my left check stinging at the impact.

“Orphan .” Was the insult she threw towards me.

You have to fight back. Don’t let anyone mistreat you, Jung SoMi. Kick the boys in their if they try to hurt you. If a girl is talking about you, rip her hair out. Those crass words belonged to my mom, who always told me to defend myself. I did my best to avoid arguments with people I cared about, but with strangers I couldn’t care any less. I wasn’t going to allow this girl to belittle me. My hand flew to her head, snatching the ends of her light brown hair and yanking it towards me. She flailed as I dragged her by the hair. She pushed me back, trying to take me off balance. I could handle it. I handled much worse.

Memories flooded my mind of the trio of girls that bullied me