3^rd Instance of Happiness

As Jinri’s the old clock continued to tick, the fragments of her heart still remained there, scattering and circling forever. She began to continue writing, the life that she never wished to be gone.

“What? Why do I need to get along with her, Ma’am?” Taemin with that furious look on his face, debated for quite a long time. But, the teachers didn’t mind him. He still got stuck with Jinri as now; he has to be her only friend, confidant, and defender.

“I…I don’t need to do---“Jinri clasped the bag on her arms. She tried to argue, but couldn’t. The decision was finally. She looked at the boy with an innocent stare, she felt pity. “Sorry…you got dragged into this.” he felt also, that he was mean just a moment ago. He slowly released his tensed-up attitude.

“Guess I have no choice.” He heaved a deep sigh.

“Yay! Finally, we’re out of the problem!” The teachers clapped their hands and rejoiced with a round of applause. “Lee Taemin, you’re really cool.” the math teacher tried to pat his head.

“Yeah, way to go…” the civics teacher tried to look at Jinri. “Well…he’s the most popular guy in here as well as the gentlest.” she winked with her left eye as she hugged the little girl. “You’re really adorable.”

“That was the first time I had felt warmth. It was not from the teachers but to him, who calmly took my hand and ran out of the staff room. Remembering that back that became a wall of support, I had stood up against the odds.”

“Ahh…scratches all over.” she tried to wash the wound from getting hit by a tennis ball. She cleaned her wrist and knees, scratched by tripping from running around errands in school. Her bag got also dirtied; she looked at herself in the washing area. She took out a towel from her knapsack and tried to wet it with water. She washed her face with that.

It was the first time she was suddenly noticed by everyone. She tried to hold it in, to endure it for the sole purpose of being with her first love. She smiled as she looked when Taemin, who was still huffing from a soccer match, tried to come close to her. He also wanted to refresh himself and tried to drink the tap water from having too much burden.

“Hey…what happened to you?” After drinking, he closed the faucet and looked at her. She got alarmed and tried to distance himself. “Don’t you think that I didn’t know? Ever since last year that the teachers planned this out…you were always getting scratches.” Taemin caressed her porcelain-white face. She blushed all of a sudden.

“Do not worry about me…” she forced herself to smile. He tried to look at her one more time, he narrowed his brows.

“What the heck?! Is it because they try to bully you again?” Taemin washed his face with the water again. “This all happened because of me.”

“No, this isn’t. You were just helping me. And, and…” she let the tears to stream down her face. Taemin didn’t know what to do.

“I…I’m sorry. I …” he tried to console her by hugging her and continuously patting her back. The girl didn’t look to comfortable. “I…I know what to do. I’m going to get them back for this.”

“That time that he protected me…” Jinri tried to touch the palm of her right hand. “He also tried to run away with me, he never tried to make me feel alone.” She felt still the sensation from that warm hand. She had never forgotten that ample amount of happiness welling up inside her. “I thought that he hated me for being such a nerd. He taught me to defend myself, he was far from the princely image I had versioned of him back then.

“Hey, what do you want with Jinri, huh?” The Taemin who was a prince to all was now a beast to the people who looked at her with awed eyes.

“We didn’t do anything to her…” The girl who made her hair into light brown with lots of excessive dye came forward. She looked at her prince, also getting captivated but he seemed to be scary. “Oppa… why are you defending that girl?”

“Maybe, because…they were…uhh..ordered to.” The spectacled girl came forward and tried to take over the talking. “I knew it. My father who is the vice principal of this school told me. That there was a problematic nerd—“

“Stop pouting out nonsense or I’ll tear that ty mouth of yours.” His arm swung on the spectacled girl. “I don’t care if you’re the vice principal’s daughter…I’m the director’s son. Know your place.”

“I’m just…” the girl who looked too scared cried at the arms of her best friend.

“Why did you… why are you so worked up, Oppa?” Jung Soojung looked at her pitiful two friends and asked her Oppa, “Do you really like her, Oppa? That girl from that day…”

“From that day?” The blonde girl tried to ask.

Jung Soojung was the adopted daughter of the Lee family. She took after Taemin’s biological mother’s surname. She had lived life as that. But, she never saw his brother to raise her voice which such extent and also he never got to be too infuriated.

“Yes, Oppa saw him only once. At that short amount of time, Oppa always tried to stay away from her. Maybe, because…she is different from us. Is that it, Oppa? Do you perhaps like Choi---“

“Taemin-ah! Taemin-ah!” Jinri came rushing to the scene. He looked bewildered more and more as she approaches.

There was still uncertainty on Taemin’s look at her. “I’d be taking my leave.” His pained expression didn’t escape Jinri’s point of view.

“Does he hate me?”

Jinri looked at the quiet and clear sky—waiting for visitors to come. She aged quite a bit, not just like the silly young girl portrayed in her story, “At, that time, he…never tried to look back at me again. It seemed that he always watches over me, but there was distance.” She closed her eyes and tried to drop the pen and started to sleep.

4^th Instance of Happiness

It was the graduation day. Cheers from every direction reverberated on Lee Taemin’s ears. He hated the noise and even more, the constant nagging of the fangirls circling around him like he was about to leave forever. He never showed unhappiness on his face, but he seemed to not like them.

“Okay, girls…This is not the time for us to cry”, he tried to reassure them as well as himself that it was not really goodbye. He never again spoke to them when he noticed a young girl taking a picture with her mother on the other side of the school. He wanted to wave at her and call her name just as usual, but his heart was not ready yet.

“What should I do—“

“Go on!” Jung Soojung patted his back as she cut off his silly monologue. “Don’t ever think that I’m helping you. It’s just that I’m pretty sorry about what happened before.”

“Wow! Jung Soojung is quite a good girl.” He smiled brightly at her.

“At least, you never forget how to smile like that… I thought that your whole world crumbled apart a few months ago.”

“You…thought that I’m distancing myself from her?”

“Yeah, because…”

Out of nowhere, a brave young girl stood with the two of them. Soojung was bewildered as turned agape when Lee Taemin was dragged out of nowhere.

If one would look at it, he seemed to be kidnapped by a fangirl. The teachers were all looking at Jinri crazily. They didn’t know what’s about to happened but Taemin didn’t care; he had the only chance of his life at that time.

“J..Jinri… why are we…” Jinri stopped all of a sudden. Taemin waited a few more minutes for what she was about to say. But, she was also scared to open up a conversation.

“Are..are you mad at me for ruining your life?” Finally, the words came out. Those words were followed up by a groan and then a cry.

“Why would I---“

“Because…before, you were always able to smile openly. But, after what happened, you…you… never looked at me again. I was really frustrated that your smile would turn dull…”

“I’m sorry…” Taemin tried to hold her hand. “I won’t let you go alone again. You’re so scared, right?”

“Scared as hell…” Taemin wanted to hug her small figure facing against a tree while he looked at her from behind. It was also the tree where he first laid sight of her. She never knew about it, but there was already a spark before everything else transpired.

Unknown to her, those eyes always followed her. A few months ago, his heart wavered and at the same time was pained. Because, he knew the consequences of being his girlfriend. The constant bullying, the increasing antis, she might even want to disappear in this world voluntarily. But, he couldn’t keep in, he was always inconsiderate to others, but now, he tried to open up.

From behind, Lee Taemin hugged her. So tight and so warm. He couldn’t express anything in words, but right now, he already did. The warm hands that also tightly held on his hands, he felt love bursting from his heart.

Choi Jinri heard the knocks from the door. Slowly, she peeked from her door and heard a giggling young child. They wanted to surprise her but she found out about their arrival. “Aigoo… Yejin-ah with her husband? These two people never really visited me through the years.”

She opened the door and there came, the surprise hug of Song Yaera.

“Oh…what happened that your family visited me?” Jinri was puzzled by the guests who never spoken after her questions.

“You must’ve been lonely mother.” Yejin holding tightly the strap of her bag looked so whimsical. She inherited her face from her mother, Jinri but, she always held a grudge against her. It was unknown to her husband, Song Juri who was a physician.

“Yaera-yah, do you want some apple pie?” Jinri held her granddaughter on her arms.

“Mnmmm…” The young girl went with her grandma in the kitchen. Jinri took a stool as Yaera sat on it. She waited anticipating the scrumptious sweet her grandma prepared. “Granny, Mama said that you are really good at baking pies.”

“Yaera-yah, I never said that!” Yejin came in, twenty-nine years of age, looked at her aged mother. She was wearing proper attire and sat with her daughter.

“Stop it already, Yejin. You have something to tell your mother, right?” The husband tried to calm her. She glared at her husband, but she also needed him to calm herself down.

“Right…Yaera…you better go to the living room, huh? Eat there. I just have something to say to granny, kay?”

“Ahhhh…” The young girl battled with her eyes. But, she lost. “Kay, right now?”

“Yeah, take care there, Yaera.”

The young girl’s presence was not already in the room.

“Mom…this is about father. He only has a few months to live… He wanted to see you so badly.”