BaekHo

“Ow ow ow” I say, opening my eyes.

Where am I? I scan the room with my good eye. The walls of the room are painted in lavender pink. On the walls are posters of celebrities ranching from Bigbang to Rain. I turn to my right and see a white nightstand . Lying on the stand is my cell phone, my pen and her cell phone. All around me I see bright objects such as her green lamb to the pink colored closet door. I try getting up but I’m unable to. I look down at my body to see that I’m on the upper half and my socks are gone.

“Oh you’re awake” I hear a woman say. I turn to the direction of the voice to discover MinKi’s mother standing there. Her hair is scattered around her face, wearing black shorts and a grey shirt.

“Ren, He’s awake. Bring in the Congee” Her mother screams. A moment passes before I see MinKi. She’s still in her school uniform. She’s holding a tray with a white bowl sitting on it. There’s steam coming out of the bowl. She comes over and sets it down on the nightstand.

“If you need me, I’m over at Seong il’s” Her mother says, leaving the room. I hear the front door close.

“How did I get here?” I ask MinKi.

“Oh a friend of mine named Duck-Won brought you here after we found you in the band room unconscious” She answers, stirring the Congee.

“Oh” I say, looking around the room.

“Your wrist is broken and I think that you have some broken ribs also. I called your brother and he’ll be here around 8pm to take you to the hospital because you really need medical attention” She says, looking at me.

“How long was I out?” I ask.

“I don’t really know. When we found you, you were already passed out” She answers.  Now I remember. I got attacked around 7am and I must have out around a quarter past 7am.

“Wait… what time is it?” I ask. She reaches for her phone and opens it.

“It’s right now 7:55pm, and it’s time for you to eat” She says, setting the spoon down. She leans in and probes my head up onto some pillows. While she’s doing that, I can smell the strawberry perfume seeping from her body. I try not to look at her chest. After she’s done, she returns to her chair and holds the bowl of Congee. The first bite is hot but she starts cooling my congee with before feeding me. After she’s done, she wipes my mouth clean and leaves the room with the tray and the empty bowl. She comes back a moment later.

“Who is Seong il?” I ask, curious.

“Seong il is Mr. Yi, our math teacher and he’s one of my mother’s closet friends” She says, sitting back on the chair.

“Can I ask you a question?” I ask.

“Yeah”

“Okay, how did you know that you were born in the wrong body?”

She sits there for a while with her head down.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to” I tell her.

“No it’s fine”

“Ok”

“Well I just knew that I was a girl. When I was growing up, I’ll play girl games and play with just girls. And yeah, I just knew. It’s like how you are born a girl and you just know that you’re a girl, that’s how I feel”

“Oh okay. I never thought of it like that” I say, looking at her.

“So what happened to your father?” I ask, wanting to know. She looks up at me.

“He ran away after I told them that I’m a girl. I first came out as being gay and it was a little uncomfortable for him but when I told him about me being a girl….i guess that was the melting point for him. He packed his bags and left, only leaving a note behind” She says, looking down again. I study her posture crumple. She bites her lips and I can hear soft sobs coming from her.

“MinKi…….” I call out her name. I reach out to touch her hand with my right hand.  I tag at her hand, wanting her to look at me.

“What?” She asks, burying her face in her hand

“I hate my life. Society and people like JR hate me. It would have been better if I was never even born or better yet I should just go die. I’ve fought for so long, trying to be nice to people and let them know that this is who I really am, but they just can’t seem to accept me. The only person who truly seems to understand me is my mother and she’s not going to live forever, trying to protect me. When will this pain and suffering end. I HATE MYSELF” She screams, tears rushing out. I couldn’t help but let the tears out. I have now gotten a glimpse into her painful life.

“MinKi, look at me….please” I ask her. She slowly looks up, with tears streaming down her face.

“Everything’s going to be okay. I’ll fight with you” I tell her. She continues sobbing until there are no more tears left.

“That was a good 40 minutes of wasting time” MinKi says, laughing.

DIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG DDDDDDOOOONNNNGGGGG

“I’ll go get that. I think that’s your brother” MinKi says, getting up. I listen closely as I hear the door open. I hear bit of the conversation, making out only the words ‘brother’ ‘upstairs’. A few minutes pass before I hear their footsteps approaching her bedroom. My brother comes in first, well dressed in a business suit with MinKi behind him.

“I’ll go get my mother” She says, walking out of the bedroom.

“Who did this to you?” SaeRyun asks, taking the empty chair.

“I don’t know” I say, looking away.

“YAH! Quit with the BS and just tell me”

“Where’s Yuki?”

“Yuki’s being taken care of. It’s all about you, Dong Ho. Now tell me who the hell did this to you?” SaeRyun asks his voice low.

“And the answer again is I don’t know. It was dark in the room and I never got to see his face” I answer, making eye contact.

“Okay” He says, running his hands through his hair.

“I’ll get Yuki after I send you to the hospital. She’s currently staying with a co-worker”

We say no more and just sit there

“So who does MinKi live with?” He asks

“She lives with just her mother. Her father ditched a while ago”

“Oh ok”

After 6 minutes passes, we hear the front door open with 2 voices speaking. A moment passes before I see MinKi and her mother in the doorway.

“SaeRyun, this is my mother” MinKi says, pointing behind her. SaeRyun greets the elder woman before saying that we need to go.

“We’ll come with you guys” Mrs.Choi says. Ren and SaeRyun help me get up while Mrs.Choi holds the door opened. They manage to get me to SaeRyun’s car. Mrs. Choi and SaeRyun sit in the front while MinKi and I sit in the back, with my head on her lap. After a long ride in the car, we arrive at the hospital. After seeing the doctor, we receive the details of my injuries. It turns out that my wrist is broken and I have 3 fractured ribs which means that I have to stay home on bed rest for 4 weeks until the ribs heal.

MinKi offers to tutor and take care of me for the next 4 weeks. SaeRyun gladly accepts her offer. The doctor says that I have to stay overnight. MinKi and her mother leave with SaeRyun because SaeRyun has to go pick up Yuki. He promises to come back the next day to get me.

I still can’t believe that JR could hurt me

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Finally finshed with Chapter 17 ^^

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