I woke up with pain hitting the inside of my skull. It felt like the bones in my body had disjointed and I was just a puddle of skin. Taking in a breath, I noticed that my mother was gone from my side and I was in my room. I was still wearing my clothes from last night, so it proved that nothing had happened other than did the beatings. Sitting up, I cringed in pain. I need to patch myself up so I wouldn’t look too bruised for school in the next days. I carefully helped myself stand and slid open my door; walking to the bathroom, I grabbed the first-aid kit sitting on the shelf and walked back to my room. Sitting down on the floor, I take in the peace and quiet of the house. My mother probably already left to go to work and that man probably left to do whatever it is that he liked doing during the day. I can’t wait till I graduate high school and get into college, where I’ll be living on my own. I hate this place so much.

As I apply ointment on my face, arm, and wherever else that was bruised on my body, I remembered that I’m supposed to meet Kyung today. I sighed and told myself that I was just not going to show up because if he saw me in this kind of state, he would throw questions at me. My lip curled as I began to apply alcohol on a scab below my lip. I didn’t think I would have succumbed to such a state. Hopefully these wounds clear up within these two-days, I said to myself as I apply on the ointment. If not, I’ll have to wear a mask to school so no one would see my face.

After I finished treating my wounds, I began to work on assignments and study. The rest of my weekend followed through like this.

-

Monday morning came rolling by and the bruises on my face and body had started to fade, though not totally. The only thing that hadn’t healed was the scab seen below my lip. It would be an obvious thing if I were to head to school looking like this. I stared at myself in the mirror and wondered how I was going to play it off though my only choices were to either wear the white half-mask or go to school like this. In the end, I chose to wear the mask even though I was sure someone would begin question me as soon as they saw.

Entering the classroom, I could feel eyes avert their attention towards me, but I ignored it and walked towards my desk. As soon as I am settled down, Kyung was standing beside me and looking at me with a raised brow.
“Why do you have that on?” He began his questioning. I shook my head, finding it no use to try and talk since he probably wouldn’t listen to me. “Not talking today, huh?” He bended on his knees and stared at me intently, “Did something happen?” I averted my eyes from his and shook my head in response. Kyung softly said my name and sighed, “You’re not going to even try to look for comfort from someone else,” he stated and straightened up. “Well, at least tell me why you weren’t at the library at our planned time,”
“S-Sorry,” I managed to force the words out and said nothing else; instead, I took out my binder from within my bag and set it on my desk. I opened the binder and took out a piece of paper, “We can work on this in here.” I said, pointing at the paper. Kyung sat back in his desk and shook his head.
“What’s the use,” he said, “you’re not going to even tell me why you weren’t at the library.”
“It’s nothing you need to worry yourself about,” I said, “this is my personal issue and it doesn’t involve you, so just keep away.”

The rest of the time and day, Kyung kept to himself and didn’t utter a word to me. On some level, it bugged me that he didn’t try to talk to me, but I let it slip my mind.

Afterschool, however, Kyung didn’t leave early and stayed behind. I could feel his eyes watch me as I packed my things up. What was he planning? I thought to myself as I stood up and flung my bag over my shoulder. Walking out of the classroom, I noticed that there wasn’t abundance of students flooding the hallways so I decided to take off the mask. I can finally breathe like normal again, I thought to myself as I inhale and exhale deeply.

-

5 minutes before I could get off of work. Kyung was nowhere in sight. Maybe he took my warning and decided that he wasn’t going to try and pry into my life. I nodded to myself and though I should have felt happy about, there was guilt that took a small portion of my feelings, but I shrugged it off. Just as I am re-stocking things, I hear the door’s bell ring, indicating the presence of a customer. As I lean over to see who it was, I could feel my heart drop at the sight of him walking in. I clenched down on my jaw and watched as he goes to sit in a booth; he doesn’t notice me looking. I sighed and continued re-stocking.

“You’re still going to wear that mask even though you’re not at school?” Kyung asked as we walked. I nodded to his question. He sighed, “Is it because you don’t want me to see what is behind that mask?” I hesitated to nod because if I was to admit to this, he would right away suspect something. I simply shrugged. Kyung laughed with annoyance, “Don’t you feel somewhat close to me? I mean, we’ve been spending a couple of days together, so don’t you feel some closure when you’re around me?”
I shook my head, “You and I are different, as I have stated the other night.”
“Well, I guess I’m just going to have to try hard to let you to allow me some entrance into your barrier then.” He commented, “I’ll succeed and soon you’ll being pouring your emotions to me.”
I scoffed, “I’m not a weakling who would go and pour my emotions to someone like you.”
He laughed and spoke in a more gentle voice; he coos my name, “I want to be someone you can rely on.” He said, “I don’t you want to have to bottle up emotions and have no one to spill it to.”
I shrugged, “Bottling up my emotions isn’t a bad thing to do,”
“You’re always so sly with your words,” he lightly elbowed me.

I smiled—to which I quickly catch it and bit down on my lower lip to keep the smile from appearing. A sudden rush of wind blew from the side, ripping the mask’s string that hung from my ear and exposed the lower half of my face. I knew the minute that his eyes landed on my face, he would begin to worry.
His brows creased at the scab shown on my lip, “Did you get hurt?”
“No,” I answered though I knew he wouldn’t believe it.
“What happened?”
“Nothing,”
“You can’t tell me it’s nothing when the bottom of your lip has a scab,” he said, extending a hand to touch it but I slapped his hand away.
“It’s nothing,”
“Did you run into them again?”
I shook my head, “No,”
“Who did this to you then?”
“No one,” I answered, quickening my steps. Kyung caught up to me and grabbed my arm—to which I cringe because he had touched a bruise—stopping me from walking any further. I tried to jerk my arm away but it was no use; his hold on my arm tightened, which made the pain in my arm even worse, “Look, it is just family matters so you don’t need to worry about it, ok?”
“You can’t just say this is family matters when your face looks like this.” He pulled me towards him. I clenched on my jaw, feeling the pain from my arm start to escalate.
“P-Please let go of my arm,” my feet moved towards Kyung and soon my face was only inches away from his. I swallowed back a ball of spit, taken aback to how close I really was to him. He stared into my eyes and frowned.
“Why do you look like you’re in pain?”
“My arm,” I breathed out, still trying to pull away from him. Kyung looked at my arm and loosened his hold a bit, but not fully. He pulled up the sleeve of my jacket and noticed the bruised found on my arm.

“Your—” he looked back at me to which I found the opportunity to free myself from him. I took a step back from him and held my arm with other hand.
“This is none of your concern, Kyung.” I said, “Please just leave me be,”
He shook his head, “No,”
“Just stop—”
He took a step forward and shook his head, “How can you tell me to not care about you when you’re getting scabs and bruises like this? This should be something you should alert the authority,”
“Alerting the authority would only bring stress to me,” I answered, “just pretend you didn’t see anything.” I said to him before running away.