27 Words.

Snowy Day at the Bakery
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Genre: Angst, School, Psychological

Summary: Some memories are often forgotten- sometimes because it was too irrelevant, and sometimes because the person we had it with left us with a lot of scars. Hitomi had such memory, no matter what she did, she couldn't remember the words that the late Kim Chaewon told her.

Word Count: 3040

Hashtag: #SSBB_Words

 

Words.

 

言葉 ~words~

Tw: Suicide, Bullying.

—color side

“Hitomi!” 

Everything started at that moment. 

The story of a young girl being bullied in a local high school, seems normal, isn’t it? But bullying has never been normal, and should’ve never been seen as normal by students. Honda Hitomi, ever since they moved to Korea, has always been bullied, all she did was to endure everything—and just like everything else, there was no way she could just bottle up all those pains and bruises from bullying. Like everyone else who couldn’t go on any longer, she planned to take her life in the worst way possible, she wanted to get a win-win situation at least. End her suffering and to make the people responsible guilty for the rest of their lives by jumping on a railway crossing. 

Just as when she was about to jump into railway where a train was approaching, someone—the young strawberry blonde-haired Kim Chaewon, the leader of the bullies in the local high school, pulled her arm…

And she was the one who crashed into the approaching train instead. 

Everything went into slow motion; her lips said the words she had always longed to hear but it was something she couldn’t remember. 

All she could remember was tears began to fall the moment she read her lips as her body flew into the railways, there was a smile on her lips as she lies unconscious on the rail, beside the train that went into a full stop upon noticing her.

It was 7 am. She’s currently a student in a walking distance university while living in a cheap apartment nearby. Hitomi is running late for the third time this week, she’s been having the same dream since Chaewon’s fourth death anniversary. The young woman has been living her life quietly after their high school graduation.

It’s been years, why couldn’t I remember what she said? How did her words bring me to tears?

She doesn’t know. She couldn’t remember.

No matter what she did, there was nothing that could remind her of those words.

After eating her breakfast, dressed in an all-black attire—black oversized hoodie, and black ripped jeans, along with a pair of white nike sneakers, she tied her blonde hair in a high ponytail. Hitomi walked towards the mirror to check herself if she looks good, however, upon looking into the mirror, she saw Chaewon standing beside her. 

She was wearing the same school uniform they had back in high school, her hair still strawberry blonde, the cream-coloured vest over her white blouse with the top two button undone, her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, her skirt still short, enough to show a pair of black cycling shorts underneath, the usual leg warmers, and red chucks. She was smiling, the same unnatural kind smile she had back when she hurriedly pulled her back towards the platform, throwing herself towards the approaching train in the process. 

“Chaewon, could you tell me those words again? I couldn’t remember them.”

Hitomi went eye to eye with Chaewon, but there was no response as the latter slowly faded into thin air. The former sighed as she looked at the empty space beside her.

“As if some hallucination would actually answer.” She grabbed the bag hung on one of the nearby chair’s backrests and the netbook sitting on the table beside her uncleaned messy table filled with books and highlighted papers which she had no time to clean due to her hectic schedule. Grabbing the knob on her way out, a painful memory has made its way to her mind.

It was their summer term, she had to go to school for a few officer work since she’s a committee member, and there are meetings she had to attend to. Truth be told, this day maybe the longest day she has ever experienced. Back when she was younger, she once got trapped in a storage box—that was where her fear of enclosed and dark spaces began. She told it once to her class for them just to be aware that she is not comfortable in those situations, never did she know that those people she trusted will also be the ones to betray her.

Hitomi was on her way back to the council office after checking a few storage rooms for the festival in the coming semester. She could recognize their voices, the ones that locked her inside the storage room in the football field, those were her classmates, and one of the voices that was laughing on the background was Chaewon’s. 

She kept on screaming for help, her cries were overpowered by the loud laughter of the classmates turned devils on her mind. In the end, Hitomi had to stay until the night locked in the storage room. 

Sometime that night, Hitomi heard the door’s lock click, but the moment she opened it—

There was no one outside. 

The cold door knob reminded her of that day. 

She fell on the floor, curled up, crying in fear. 

“Let me out. Let me out.” She whispered.

Tears began streaming down her cheeks, she couldn’t calm herself, her chest began to tighten, it was becoming hard for her to catch her breathing. 

Every memory of her high school was painful.

Back then, Hitomi had attempted to jump off from the rooftop multiple times. But whenever she was about to take her shoes off, she kept on being reminded about the people waiting for her to come home every day. The family that loved her so much. 

I have to endure everything until graduation, it’s all she could do. She never wanted to bring pain to her family.

Go back to Japan, witch. We don’t need you here.

That was the last straw. 

She could no longer hide the pain.

She wanted to end everything at that instant. 

She wasn’t welcome in this school.

Hitomi grabbed her bag and ran out of the classroom, her vision began to become blurry as she ran as far as she could away from that place that she once saw as a school, but is now a living hell before her eyes. Not one teacher made a move or helped her. There was no way she could leave that place unscathed. 

She arrived in front of the railway crossing.

It crossed her mind once more.

I know you can’t take it anymore.

One step at a time, her mind begins to speak.

You’d rather end everything now, than to live eternally scarred, right?

That school was the one that brought her fear of interacting with people. No night passes that she wasn’t crying herself to sleep. The pain was too much she couldn’t fit it inside the bottle in her heart. 

She could hear the sound of the train through the rails. 

It’s coming. There’s no way I’ll survive this one. This is the better decision. 

Hitomi slowly forces a smile on her lips, all she could see was the empty space in the rails in front of her. 

I just can’t do this anymore.

She felt a hand grabbing her right arm, it had thin fingers, and the moment she turned to look at who it was—all she saw was Chaewon’s worried face.

Chaewon? Are you going to push me—

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kalingling #1
Chapter 40: Rereading this and still got blown away. Time to time I thought about this fic. Thank you author-nim
Aciel257
#2
Chapter 40: This. Is. Beautiful. It's beyond words on how I can describe this feels, you know? 26k of words and I am amazed on how I am LITERALLY there just like Sakura stayed by Hitomi side, witnessing how out Hito grow out to finally become Hitomi again. Such a fine piece, I felt like crying (which I actually do, really). Constantly being remind about the war makes me anxious, afraid even when Hitomi need to risk her life for the sake of saving her country, which is in the war, due to personal grudge between the Lord's (screw the opposing King, really, screw them!) Thankfully, a breeze of spring came in the form of Chaewon who is firm with her feels, constantly remind about her preference until Hitomi revealed her secret. This story have everything that I wish I have as a writer and motivated me in doing better, so that I can achieve this level of satisfaction one day. Kudos to author-nim, thank you very much for this brilliant story. You really make my day brighter and better!
SapphireChou
#3
Chapter 40: Literally, I have no words for this story. I've finished it in one go even if I still needed to some things to attend to 😂 The way of writing of this story, I already know who wrote it. The way the story is well written and how it gives me certain feelings when I read their story, I already know the writer of this story. This was such an amazing ride. I thought having 25k+ words in a story would tire me out. Surprisingly, this story made me begging for more. I was on the edge of my seat, waiting what will happen next every time. Reading this made me remember Mulan of how similar it is, with the being girl part per se. Sorry for my reference since I don't know a lot of stories like this 😆 It was my first time reading a story under the action tag and it was a ssambbang story. How great is that! I've felt various emotions while reading this. I really thought Taewoon was gonna do something bad. I'm just glad he didn't hold a grudge for Hitomi even after being with Chaewon and not really being Hito. The parts where Chaewon and Hitomi were together really made my heart soft. Also, I was holding my tears the moment Chaewon told Hitomi that she has something to go back to now. Really, a remarkable work from you again author-nim. I'm really happy that you wrote this story, thank you so much. I hope to read more ssambbang stories from you in the future ^^ Oh and author-nim, you owe me a nap. I wasn't able to sleep because of this story >< Good work as always author-nim :))
Satanael
#4
Chapter 40: <span class='smalltext text--lighter'>Comment on <a href='/story/view/1468609/40'>Special OS: oh, we talked...</a></span>
This way of writing—we all know who this is. Man, 25k+ words and still able to hold my attention on every word. I just digested a chapter full of financial ratios, and yet I was able to fully digest this OS with an insane amount of words. From their first meeting, to the repeated—forced (from Hitomi’s side)—exchanges, I was hooked. I am glad that they were able to end up together because this normally doesn’t happen. The battle scenes were thankfully not that graphic, and let’s not forget that familiar yet delicious ache as we read and watched the couple get closer. I do hope the author had enough rest for after writing this wonderful spectacle. Thanks for the wonderful special OS... which is almost twice the amount for the maximum word limit—understandable, have a nice day. And oh, thanks for making me feel alive again. I hope this author is having a feast tonight.
Cheeeeeee
#5
Chapter 39: Congrats to all the winners! Deservedddd! 💙
SapphireChou
#6
Chapter 38: This story made me want to read the Hunger Games. I didn't understand it that much since I didn't know the story but this was a good story. Another dystopian fiction that I liked to read. They weren't really shipped in the story that's why it hurt 🤧 But I knew Hitomi did what she had to do to save her brother :,)
Aciel257
#7
Chapter 38: S-shut up! .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·. why oh why this must happen. Gosh, it is so beautiful. I can vividly sees them, through their struggles and all. Whoa, such idea, this is gold! Thank you very much for this story. Hunger Games really held a spot in my heart. Will we have something like a sequel next author-nim? Please please please flip off that vicious fate ( ≧Д≦)