Yuri’s POV

I hurried off to school. Why must it be in the middle of the week? Why can’t it be the weekends already? Wait what am I saying? Even during the weekends, I’m forced to meet up with Sohyun.

I entered the school building and immediately saw Mir and his friends. Key was already with him. How did he get there so fast?!

He looked up and saw me. I quickly ducked behind a bush as he said something Mir. Damn! No! Mir can’t find out about this! No one can!

Oh crap, he’s heading my way now. Curse you, Key! I tried to look busy as though I was tying my shoelaces when he approached me. I pretended not to know that he was there.

When I stood up straight, I tried to put on an act. “Hi, I didn’t see you,” I said, trying to sound surprised to see him.

He frowned. Without saying a word, he grabbed my wrist and saw the cloth wrapped around both wrists. “What happened here?”

“N – Nothing,” I stammered.

His face was straight, no smiles, dark circles visible under his eyes. “Yuri-yah . . .” His voice was pained as he tried to get me to face him.

“I’m sorry.” I yanked my arms away from him and I walked away, tears falling down my face.

I’m sorry, Mir. But I’m doing this for you.

“Yuri.”

I looked up and found myself standing face-to-face (or rather face-to-neck) with L.Joe. I tried to find a way to go around him but he gripped me by the shoulders. I tried not to let him see the pain he was causing on my already bruised shoulders from slamming against the brick walls.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded to know. “I am sick and tired of your attitude. Why the hell did you break up with Mir? Do you have any idea how much pain you’re causing him?”

I kept quiet.

“How could you be so selfish? What’s bugging you? Can’t you see that everyone’s worried and that we all don’t like seeing you like this?!” L.Joe’s voice got louder and was starting to attract people’s attention. I just kept my head down. “Answer me, Yuri! Why are you being such a ?”

That hurts.

Teen Top, Taemin and Minzy were coming up to the two of us, trying to calm L.Joe down. Ricky and Changjo were giving me worried glances while Niel put a hand on L.Joe’s shoulders but he shrugged it off. CAP stood in between the both of us in case anything happened. And Chunji grabbed his wrist.

“L.Joe,” he said warningly, “that’s enough. Just leave her alone.”

“No!” L.Joe shouted and everyone flinched except for me. “Mir is ing upset! Everyone can tell that she is hiding something from us but she just refuses to tell us! I’m not going to sit here and wait for something bad to happen to her!”

“L.Joe, shut up,” CAP supplied.

L.Joe took a step toward me but CAP blocked him. “I think you need to go somewhere else to cool off,” he said sternly.

“Yuri, what’s going on?” L.Joe went on, ignoring him and turned back to me. “Why can’t you just open that mouth of yours? Do you know how to talk? Did you go mute on us? For ’s sake, Yuri, you’re not a goddamn princess where everyone should wait on you!” he said harshly.

I tried not to let it get to me. I reminded myself that he doesn’t understand what’s going on. But the words still stung. It still hurt. He doesn’t know that I am trying to protect him and everyone else from getting hurt the way I am getting hurt. I have to protect them. I can’t let them see I’m weak.

“That’s it,” CAP snapped, “enough is enough. You go over there and cool off until class starts.”

“,” L.Joe muttered, walking off.

Chunji turned to Minzy. “Do they have any classes together today?” he asked her.

She thought about it for awhile. “Not until after lunch. I’m with her in her first class.”

He nodded. “Take her there. Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere near her. Who knows what he’ll do but I hope he’ll be calmed by then.” He kissed her before he walked to his first class, followed by Niel. CAP nodded and walked away.

Ricky and Changjo hugged me before they too went to their first class.

And now it was left with me, Taemin and Minzy. I still kept my head down. I didn’t dare look up to them to see the disappointed, hurt and confused looks in their eyes. I didn’t want to let them see the tears that were threatening to pour out.

I can’t let them know what’s going on. I can’t let them know Sohyun is bullying me. I can’t tell them that I’m hurt.

They will probably just scold me.

They don’t understand.

As the three of us walked to our first class in silence, I was wondering where L.Joe went when suddenly I was turned around and before any of us could have any time to react, there was a loud SNAP as my head turned ninety degrees and a second later I felt a sharp, stinging pain on my cheek.

“Ah!” I gasped in pain.

“L.Joe!” Minzy shouted, throwing her bag at him.

Taemin wrapped his arms around me, pressing his palm on my cheek to help the pain. “Yuri-yah, are you okay?” he asked.

“How could you slap her?!” Minzy was still shouting at him. “Even though she may not be responsive now, she doesn’t look like she’s happy, is she? Why are you adding more pain to her?”

I looked up to L.Joe in the eyes to see nothing but fury. But then I don’t know what he saw in mine for his eyes turned from fury to regrets. He took a step closer to me, reaching out to me.

I flinched, afraid of his touch.

L.Joe’s POV

I was so infuriated with her that I waited until I was sure CAP and Chunji were gone before I walked up to her. I turned her around and slapped her right across her cheek.

Minzy immediately began throwing her bags as well as foul languages at me as Taemin wrapped his arms around Yuri. I didn’t hear a single thing Minzy said and I just glared at Yuri.

She looked her, her eyes meeting mine, and I saw all the pain and hurt she’d been keeping inside and I immediately regretted what I did.

I took a step closer, pushing Minzy aside. I reached out to her, to apologize, to comfort her, to let her know I’m sorry.

But she flinched and turned away. Then she pulled herself away from Taemin’s grip before running away. I wanted to follow and made a move to follow, but I was held back by Taemin who shook his head.

“You’ll only make matters even worse,” he pointed out. He wasn’t trying to be mean; he was just stating the facts.

I could only helplessly watch her figure disappearing into the distance as I turned to walk away to my first class. Minzy and Taemine followed after her.

Yuri, what are you hiding?

Joon’s POV

When Yuri came home from school, she looked so worn-out, so tired. Lately she’s been coming home like this. Umma and I are getting worried. One afternoon I was in the living room with Umma who had taken another day’s rest of from work.

“Umma, what’s going on?” I asked. “I’m worried. I don’t like feeling helpless. I want to know what’s going on. I want to know why she’s like this.”

‘’I want to know, too, my son,” Umma said tiredly. She yawned. “Goodness, I’m so tired these days. Work really has been stressing me out. I can’t keep up like I can before anymore.”

I immediately jumped to my feet. “Umma, I’ll go make a cup of tea for you. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back. You stay here and rest.”

I went inside the kitchen to make a cup of tea for my mother. I took the carton of tea bags and put it in the cup while waiting for the water to boil. Once it was boiled, I poured the hot, steaming water into the cup. I played with the tea bag for a bit, letting the taste sink in the tea before carrying it out back to the living room where Umma was.

Yuri was massaging her feet. Umma looked up and took the cup from my hands, smiling gratefully at me. “I am so thankful to have two beautiful children,” she said. She took a sip of the tea just as the front door burst opened and Appa stepped in.

He looked furious. He waved a handful of papers in the air and looked at Yuri. “The phone bill just came,” he said and she and I froze, knowing where this will lead. “Why are there about three calls to China?”

Yuri stood up straight slowly. “Appa . . .” she said weakly.

Appa slapped her and she stumbled onto the floor. “You stupid girl!” he yelled. “We specifically told you not to tell anyone about this and yet you did the exact opposite! Not only that, but your behavior for the past few weeks have been intolerable! I didn’t say anything because I thought it was just a phase but this too much already, Lee Yuri!” He slapped her again.

“Don’t,” Umma said weakly, trying to get up.

I rested Umma back on the couch, knowing she was too tired to do anything. I tried to step in between the two of them. “Appa, please, don’t hit her. She’s sad and she needs someone to talk to,” I tried reasoning with my dad.

“She can talk to her many friends here! Why must she call China? China is not her home anymore! I don’t have a daughter named Annie. We left her behind all those months ago!” He threw the papers in her face, giving her a few paper cuts, before walking up the stairs to our parents’ room. We heard the door slammed.

Yuri looked down, blinking back the tears.

Umma sighed. “Yuri, jeongmal,” she said, sighing. “I thought you were at least better than this.”

I bit my lip.

Umma was disappointed. It was okay for Appa to get angry as it was normal. But it was saddening when Umma gets upset because she hardly ever gets upset unless you’d really disappointed her, like how Yuri had done so now.

“Go to your room and stay there until dinner,” my mom went on.

Yuri nodded. She stood up, silently grabbing her bag and the papers, and walked up the stairs.

I sighed, turning back to Umma. “What are we going to do about her?” I asked but Umma was looking at me disapprovingly.

“You knew about the calls, didn’t you?” she asked me.

I panicked for a moment. I didn’t want to make my mom disappointed in me too and contemplated lying, saying that Yuri made me promise not to tell anyone but I figured my sister needed some support right now so I nodded. “I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I didn’t know what to do. I thought it was okay, because she needed to make those calls. But I couldn’t understand a single word they were saying because they were speaking in . . . uh . . .” I didn’t know the language.

“Mandarin,” Umma supplied for me.

“Yeah . . .”

She sighed again, leaning back down in the chair. "Who knows . . ."

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Oh noooo. Everyone's against her now D:

Key, pali!! Faster find out what's going on! D: