I sat down next to her. She kept her head forward. I reached for her arm, but she flinched. I retracted my hand. What should I say…? “Sang Ki-ah.”

“Leave.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I can’t just leave you out here.”

“Why? Everyone else does.”

“Maybe I’m different.” She didn’t respond. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“…But that’s the only way you can get past it.” She looked at me. “Tell me about it.”

“You’ll…you’ll just look at me with pity then.”

“I won’t.”

“Yes you will. You all do.”

“I won’t.” I repeated firmly.

“…Really…?” She looked at me.

“I’m serious.”

“It was in middle school.” She hesitated. I know it’s not easy to tell me about it, but I want to help her. “I met this guy. He was older and shouldn’t have even been on campus.” She bit her lip. “Over time, he kept following me. I didn’t want to keep talking to him, but I didn’t say anything. Then he…did something like what Gongchan-ah did. And the next day…he asked me to go somewhere with him. I-I rejected, feeling afraid of him. He did something, I remember passing out and then the next thing I know, we’re in a dark place. I…don’t want to talk about what happened next…” I could see her eyes start to shine in the darkness outside.

I touched her arm, she still flinched, but this time she looked at me.

“Jinyoung-ah…” I could see her tears starting to well up in her eyes. I hugged her tight. “Why was I so stupid? Why didn’t I push him away before it was too late?” She cried, not moving.

“We all make mistakes, but this time you learned from it. You pushed Gongchan-ah away this time.”

“You’re the one who did it…”

“I just helped you; you’re the one who told him to stop.” I could hear her sniffling. “It’s not going to happen again if that’s what you think.”

“What?”

“I can tell from your eyes…you’re scared that the person will come back.”

“Do my eyes say that much?” I pulled away from her.

“Of course.” I wiped her tears. “Don’t think about him. He’s not coming back. And if he does…I won’t let him do anything again.” I know we’re not too close, but I don’t want to see her crying about something like this anymore. It’s obvious that she’s been dealing with this issue for a long time. “Let me take you home now.”

We waked to her house. She didn’t say anything the whole way back and walked in silently when her father opened the door.

“You really brought her back? And at this time? Did she tell you about it?”

“She did. I’ll come tomorrow morning to walk her to school. Don’t let her go until I come.”

“You’re…amazing. You don’t know how hard I tried to get her to speak with me about it, but she never did. For her to tell you…maybe there’s just a huge difference between a friend and a parent. Thank you so much.” He said. “You should come in, it’s quite late now.”

“No thank you, I should get back home now.”

“Hey kid.”

“Yeah?”

“Ah…nothing.” He shut the door. I wonder what he wanted to say. I got back home, telling my mom that I was helping Sang Ki when she questioned me. Apparently saying that I was with her made my mom quiet down. I fell on my bed, so tired. It was already past 3 in the morning…

.

I got dressed. It’s Friday; the best day besides Saturday. Oh yeah, I should leave a little early to get Sang Ki. I don’t want her wandering around and skipping school, so I have to make sure I take her with me.

I left, approaching her house. I rang the doorbell and her dad answered with a smile.

“Sang Ki~ Your friend is here.” She came out. “You two have a good day~” We left. Sang Ki was back to being quiet.

“So how was your day so far?” I asked, trying to make conversation.

“Like every other day.” She replied.

“Is that good or bad?”

“It doesn’t matter if all the days are the same.” I didn’t say anything back for a while.

“Sang Ki-ah, do you remember your promise?” She stared at me, just blinking. “Well, you said we could go out today.”

“Can we do it another time?” she asked.

“No. So you better be ready to have fun after school!” I said as we entered the school. I could tell Sang Ki was getting stares while we walked. We got to class. Everyone obviously got quiet when we entered. We both sat down, but I could see everyone’s eyes go to Sang Ki. Even when the teacher entered, his eyes went to her.

I wish everyone would stop staring. Yesterday I think she just hesitated to talk about her problems with me because she said that I would pity her. I’m guessing that she doesn’t like that everyone stares in sadness to her.

We got through class and as the teacher left, Sang Ki stood up. “Sang Ki-ah, let’s go.” I said quickly, feeling like she would just leave otherwise.

“Can we hang out another day? I don’t really want to today.” She replied. I could tell everyone was still watching. It made me mad the way they were treating her. They don’t even say anything, they only stare. It’s like they’re judging her or just ostracizing her with pity.

“We should hang out today.” I took her hand, pulling her away from the never ending stares. We walked outside; I was still pulling her along. “It’s because of them, right? You don’t like the pitiful stares that everyone gives you, right?” She didn’t say anything. “You don’t like that they pity you. I know I’m right.” She pulled her hand away. I looked back. “I don’t pity you. You made a mistake and you should move on. They won’t pity you if you move on.” I made sure to use the word pity a lot, knowing that it was the only word running through her mind.

“Why do you always know? Yesterday too…” I smirked.

“Because we’re friends.” She looked at me. She gave a caring smile.

“We better become even better friends then. You’re the first one. The first one to understand.” Really? You’d think someone would at least try to understand how she felt. Has no one ever done that? That’s just mean.

“Well, let’s go, my friend.” I smiled. She grabbed my arm, linking ours together.

“Let’s go!” She smiled brightly.

I couldn’t help but smile, knowing that it was because of me that she started smiling again.

We went back to that arcade from last time since we had only played that one game before.

“Let’s play this one.” I suggested. It was the kind where a little mole popped out and you hit it with the hammer. “You take the hammer, I’ll just use my hands.” The game started. We had sixty seconds to beat the record of 30 moles.

“Yah get that one!” She yelled as the timer buzzed. She was good, but it hurt when I hit the moles since they were hard plastic. “Let’s play one more time.” She put in a coin.

I tried harder this time, getting more competitive. In the last seconds, I went for a mole, but so did she, slamming the hammer on my fingers.

“Ah! Sorry!” She shouted as the buzzer rang. She immediately took my hand. I didn’t even realize what had happened until she squeezed it and I yelled out in pain.

“Yah! Don’t squeeze it!” I pulled it back, rubbing my hand.

“Sorry.” She said. “Is it really hurt?” she asked. I examined it.

“It’s fine.” I said.

“But the palm was really red too.”

“That’s just because I was using my palms to hit the moles, it’s not your fault.” Her face saddened a little. No no, she has to be happy! I pulled her over the shooting game from last time. “I’ll definitely beat you today!” I smiled, putting in a token. Although she livened up a little, she was still a bit sad looking.

Maybe I should take her somewhere else… We played one round and I lost as usual. “Let’s go get something to eat.” I suggested. I check my wallet. Only a few dollars… I couldn’t ask her, for one thing, I’m trying to cheer her up and second, she’s a girl! Guys should pay. I thought about that for a second. Haha she would probably argue with me, saying that's ist.

“Do you not have money?” She suddenly asked. How did she know?! “We can just go to my house to eat then.” Oh yeah! I was supposed to be observing Sang Ki today so I could be better friends with her for Gongchan! We went to her house.

“Oh you brought him home today?” Her father smiled as we walked in.

“Yeah, don’t bother us.” We went to her room. “I’ll get some food, you just wait here.” She left.

I feel bad for snooping, but I looked around a little. She had a lot of picture frames, but none of them had photos. Maybe she took them out? I know she does have friends from school, but now that I think about it, they don’t seem like the type you hang out with. I suppose I could say that I’m already a better friend than her school friends.

I looked around more. Oh she left her cell phone. I can get Gongchan’s number! I quickly opened the phone. Ah, the photo we took with our failure cake was her wallpaper… My eyes were drawn to our arms closely linked in the photo and then her cheerful smile. I…kind of want this photo.

I quickly found the file and texted it to myself. She walked back in and I automatically threw her phone on the bed. She was too focused on not dropping the food she had to notice.

“Sorry, but we only have junk food.” She put the plate of food down on the bed. Her phone rang.

“Hello?” she answered it. “Umm……yeah. It’s fine.” She sighed loudly. “Don’t worry about it.” Her face obviously saddened. Who is it? What are they saying to make her sad again? “I said don’t bother.” She had such a wounded tone. I grabbed the phone from her.

“Stop upsetting her.” I said seriously.

“W-Who is this?” The other person asked.

“This is Jung Jinyoung, Sang Ki-ah’s friend. You’re obviously not her friend if you just keep making her sad, so stop talking to her.” I hung up the phone.

“You didn’t have to say that…” She mumbled.

“From the voice it sounded like Gongchan-ah. I don’t want you to keep being sad. The next time he calls, I’ll speak to him.”

“Whatever.” She sat on her bed. Why did he have to call right now?! She was finally smiling again and he just ruined it all! What can I do to keep her happy… Ah! I know!

“Sang Ki-ah, you should look at this cute photo I have!” I pulled one up on my phone; it was a bunny. I originally photographed it to use as a reminder for the next science club lab, but it’s cute too.

“Wah~ So cute!” She smiled. Yes, bunnies can cheer everyone up. I flipped to the next photo. “Aww, a bunny family.” I flipped to the next one. Her eyes widened a little. Hm? I looked at it. AH! It was the photo of us that I sent to myself! I quickly flipped to another photo, but she grabbed the phone out of my hands. “Wasn’t that--”

“No. It wasn’t.” I tried grabbing it back.

“It was totally--”

“It wasn’t!” We fought over the phone. She eventually kicked me in the shin, stealing it away.

“It is the photo I took the other day! How’d you get this?” she asked. Oh boy…

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Ooo, how's Jinyoung going to explain his way out of this? Seems like Sang Ki is sad because people only pity her and ask what's wrong. And I find it funny how Jinyoung says he's only hanging out with her to get to Gongchan still, yet he searched and cheered her up so much and is happy with her! He's even sneaking her photo with him haha. Jinyoung is such a pabo~

If you have anything to say, feel free to do so~