4th Quiz - But Why?

"Minha-yah..." The girl with the said name looked behind her to see that her mother had opened the door to her room. 

"Why?..." She asked, clueless. 

--

The teacher and student walked silently alongside each other, with the girl kicking stones while the guy walked cautiously around her, checking the girl behind him in his peripheral every once in a while. The rain has long stopped and so their umbrellas were folded in a neat way. 

Soon, the two reached a split road, Hakyeon stopped. Haneul too, stopped, sensing that the guy in front has stopped walking. She looked up at his back. 

"Where do you go from here?" He turned around, looking at her. 

"Ah..." She pointed at the descending road on the right. "My house is that way." She answered. 

Hakyeon looked at where she was pointing before nodding his head. "OK." He pointed on his left. "I'll go this way." He concluded before the both of them started going their separate ways. "Be careful on your way home, okay?" He said one last time before waving at her lightly. Haneul answered with a quick nod and a hum.

Several moments after the chemistry teacher and she walked on different path, she opened her bag to get the purchased book out. A smile way its way to her face when she remembered the events that happened earlier. 

--

"Well, that suits her. Who would've thought that she would go that far." 

"Good thing she's a minor..."

Whispers filled the school's hallway that morning. Every corner Haneul go, she could hear murmurs and gossips from each student she passed by but she could've cared less. She was on cloud nine and she guess that she would be walking on it for a few more weeks. 

She entered the class gleefully before stopping when a certain desk caught her attention. It was then that she became aware of her surroundings. She looked around and finally noticed that her classmates were looking at her in judgement, whispering lowly with each other. 

She looked down on the desk once more, and she felt her anger rising real quick. 

"Who did this?" She asked, emotionless but for her classmates, who were very much younger than her, her voice is scarier than anything in the world. 

Nobody answered her, so she asked again, this time a whole lot louder, releasing her anger through her tone. 

"I said who among you did this?!" She  looked up at each and everyone of them, before quickly reaching for the notes and clearing the desk of vandalisms and garbage. 

"Why? Do you guys want a piece of me?" She threatened as she continued wiping the desk marks using her bare hands. 

At that moment, a faculty member slid the door open, making everyone stop, but the oldest member of the class didn't dare raise her head from her work. 

--

'Get lost!'

'You !'

'Just die!'

'Thief!'

Haneul kept on erasing the pen marks on Minha's desk and chair using her bare hands, wiping vigorously. 

"Haneul-ah..." Han seonsaeng-nim sighed as she stopped the girl's hands from scrubbing, trapping it on her own. 

"Don't touch me..." Haneul deadpanned, trying to get out of the teacher's grip. Sunhee didn't budge. 

"Unhand me! I'm going to hit you-"

"Go on! hit me! If that would make your anger less, go on. I'm giving you the permission to hit me!" Han seonsaeng-nim exclaimed, determination written in her eyes as she looked at the younger intently. At this, Haneul stopped struggling before looking on her side, focusing on the vandalized desk once more. 

"See, your hands are all red. Let's get you treated..."

"I don't want to." She answered immediately, lifeless. 

After sliding the door, Han Sunhee told her students to take the day off and instructed them to go home. Late last night, the faculty received a dreadful letter from the police station saying that the team had already discovered who stole the medicine from the drugstore which recently reported robbery. 

And unfortunately, the suspect the police pointed at was, Cho Minha. Of course, Haneul wasn't aware of all this yet. 

"Why would they bully Minha? She will definitely get back up from the sorority..." Haneul mumbled. 

Sunhee pitied the girl in front of her. "Minha, don't you think she's being used?" Haneul looked at her. "Haneul-ah, don't you think you guys are being fooled? Why did you join the gang actually?" 

This made Haneul look at the elder like an innocent child. What is Han seonsaeng-nim trying to imply?

--

"Why did we join the gang?" Haneul thought as she walked home alone after the talk with Han Seongsaeng. She still doesn't get why people bullied Minha. They were supposed to be the delinquents. Why did it felt like the other way around? 

She looked up at the gloomy sky as she stopped walking. 

"Because my name was supposed to mean the 'sky' and yet my life is gloomy, just like the sky above..." She whispered.

--

Haneul decided to visit Minha's house that night. She desperately need an answer as to how and why  everything happened. Minha was also absent from the class. 

From afar, Haneul stopped when she noticed a crowd of people in front of the Cho Laundry shop. She frowned even more when she noticed a police car parked on the side of the road, as well as Han Seonsaeng-nim talking to a police officer. 

She ran towards the place to make things clear to her. She froze when she noticed the glass door of the shop broken, it was obvious that someone threw something from the outside. She was supposed to go nearer to ask her friend but somebody has beaten her to it. 

Someone inside the laundry shop straightened herself up and Haneul's eyes widened when their gazes met. 

"Minha-yah..." She called softly. Minha looked alarmed for a few seconds before she told her to go. 

"Go away!" She said, shaking her head as she shoo her friend away. At this, the elder frowned. "What?" 

"I said go away..." Sensing that Minha is in great distress, Haneul nodded once before turning back to walk away only to stop abruptly when Hakyeon suddenly appeared. 

"What's this?" He asked, to no one in particular, craning his neck in hopes of seeing the scene clearly. 

"Was there an accident?" He looked down to ask the girl who was frozen. "Han seonsaeng-nim is there too..." He uttered. "Ei," He walked past his student when he realized she wasn't going to answer anytime soon. 

Just like the girl, Cha Hakyeon stopped when he saw who was inside the laundry shop. Originally, he was supposed to get his laundered clothes, he didn't know that the Chos actually owned the place.

Quickly turning around, he charged towards Haneul before grabbing her arm, leading her away from the scene. 

"Follow me," he ordered. 

--

Cha Hakyeon stopped at a playground very far from the Cho residence. He let out a sigh, every time he pass by that alleyway, he always gets in trouble. This was already his third time. He recounted the troubles in his mind:

1. The money extortion
2. The convenience store owner incident
3. The salvation of His student's heart.

He shook his head, why was everything related to Yong Haneul? 

Yong Haneul sat on the see saw while Hakyeon chose to play on the swing. Both never once dared say a word, Haneul looked on the ground grimly while Hakyeon studied the girl through his glasses. 

Haneul was the first one to break the silence. "What happened, exactly? You useless teachers know something, don't you?" She looked up to glare at her chemistry teacher. 

Are we actually useless?

The guy avoided her glare before looking up at the starless night sky. "You want to know the truth." He started, "but will you be able to take it in, without rushing into things?" He asked her seriously, looking at her intently. 

There goes the rapid beating of her heart again. Haneul mentally cursed herself for behaving that way in the middle of this situation. Seriously, she can't look at those eyes for more than 3 seconds. 

Hakyeon tilted his head to the side, did I scare her? 

He waved his hands frantically. "Ah, no, no. I'm not mad, I'm just asking you." He defended. 

Haneul rolled her eyes lightly. "I know," she answered, still not looking at him. 

"So, what happened, really?" She tried again, but this time, without looking at him at all. 

The teacher puckered his lips for a little while. "Well, she stole medicine from a drugstore. And they aren't just any drugs, they were expensive ones. The kind of medicine that can't be bought over the counter. The drugstore owner wants her jailed, but since she's a minor, she can't be sued, right? So instead, the owner wanted the family to pay for what Minha stole, or else, her mother needs to be the one to be jailed." He explained carefully, readying himself to the possible outburst of emotion from this girl. She had hit him once, she might do it all over again. 

"Have her mother jailed..." She whispered. She looked at him in alarm. "That can't be, though! She will be left alone!" She exclaimed, surprising the male a little bit, causing him to flinch. "Why?" 

1,2,3, and she looked down again. Really, what's wrong with her?!

"Her parents are divorced, so she lives with her mother. Her mother can't be jailed. Were they sure that she was the one who stole the drugs? Nobody is ill in their family." She argued. Hakyeon nodded. "Was there evidence?" 

The latter sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. And it was indeed Minha who was in the CCTV footage from the store." 

Haneul released the breath she'd been holding. "But, why?"

--

The next day, Hakyeon entered the class quite problematic with the case. He remembered the words Haneul let out last night.

Nobody is ill in her family. 

Is there someone behind this incident? He thought. "Okay," he sat down behind his table before two empty seats caught his attention.

"We'll do a roll call first thing..." 

Yong Haneul and Cho Minha's seats are empty.

~📗~

A/N: Was Minha the delinquent framed up? Oh no.