Lamentable [la-ˈmen-tə-bəl] adj - Deserving an expression of great grief or regret; pitiable.

Mihyun didn’t even flinch when a hand shot in front of her, preventing her from leaving her classroom. She turned her head to the side without interest, and raised an eyebrow at the bruised and beaten Jongdae that was standing next to her. She eyed the man from head to toe, and a small frown slipped onto her face, “What happ—”

“Jongdae, I’ll wait for you outside, okay?” Junmyeon called out from down the hallway.

Mihyun glanced over Jongdae’s shoulder to see the boy, and was taken aback to see him in an equally beaten state. Realization dawned upon her, and her eyes formed small crescents as she stared proudly at Jongdae, “You’ve done well, Jongdae.”

Jongdae flushed at her praise, and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment until he remembered what he had approached the girl to talk about. “Mihyun, I heard from Yixing Hyung.”

The smile that had been on Mihyun’s face immediately slipped off and she stiffened at the boy’s words. Her eyes glanced from side to side, and after seeing no other students in the hallways she deemed it to be safe enough to respond, “I thought I told Yixing not to tell a soul?”

“Don’t look like that, he only told me, and he won’t tell anybody else. He knew that I talked to you occasionally, and wanted me to persuade you to change your mind,” Jongdae explained. His eyes flashed with worry. “Mihyun, I owe you a lot, and I really do think of you as one of my friends. I know it isn’t my place to say anything, but please don’t do it.”

“If you know it’s not your place, then don’t over step your boundaries,” Mihyun snapped back in a cold tone. Mihyun’s face softened when she registered the hurt expression that flashed onto Jongdae’s face, but kept her stern tone, “Jongdae, I like you right now, and I too consider you as one of my friends, so… don’t make me change that.” Because you haven’t received the title, not yet.

“Now please excuse me, I’m rather in a rush,” Mihyun stated as she pushed passed Jongdae. The phone call she had had earlier with Yixing flew into her mind, and she bit down on her lip as she quickened her pace.

“But Mihyun—”

Mihyun held up a hand to cut him off. She gestured to his injuries before staring him straight in the eyes, “You fought for what you believed was right, Jongdae, so don’t try to stop me from doing the same.”

“Why?” Jongdae called out right as Mihyun was about to turn the corner. “Why are you willing to risk your life for them?”

Mihyun paused for a few seconds as she thought over his words. She glanced over her shoulder and gave him a small smile, “For the same reason you were willing to get beat up for Junmyeon.”

“I don’t understand,” Jongdae responded with furrowed eyebrows. He jogged down the hallway to catch up with her, “Please, explain it to me.”

Mihyun paused, “What is Junmyeon to you?”

“Junmyeon Hyung?” Jongdae asked with raised eyebrows. He tapped his pointer finger against his chin as he thought up an answer. “Hyung is… Hyung is the only person that I can truly act like myself around. He’s the person that allows me to abandon my façade, and doesn’t treat me different because of it. He’s like a home… if a home could take the form of a person, anyways.”

“And why did you finally confess that he was your brother despite the fact that you knew you would suffer the consequences?” Mihyun continued patiently.

“I guess, I guess cause I was tired of putting up with this mask, I was tired of Junmyeon Hyung getting hurt by the stupid actions of the people around me. I wanted it to be better for him, even if it did mean that I’d likely get beat up. I wanted him to be happy, and myself as well, I wanted to be happy too,” Jongdae replied thoughtfully as he scratched the back of his neck.

Mihyun gave him a satisfied smile and patted him gently on the shoulder.

“Wait, you haven’t said anything. Where are you going?” Jongdae called out in protest when Mihyun turned around to leave.

“Don’t you already know the answer? You said it all yourself,” Mihyun responded as she turned the corner, not even giving the other a second glance.

“How is he doing?” Mihyun asked quietly as she stood in front of her closed bedroom door.

“He’s… coping,” Jaesuk responded uneasily as he glanced at the closed door. “He was frighteningly calm the entire ride home, and I haven’t heard even the slightest bit of noise since he entered. Will you be alright to go in by yourself, Agashi?”

Mihyun nodded as she quietly turned the knob of her door, “I’ll call for you if you’re needed, Jaesuk.”

After casting him a final glance, she quietly entered her dark room, closing the door behind her with a soft click. Her eyes scanned the room until she found the figure she had been looking for, sitting on her bed as he gazed out the window with his back turned to her.

“Kris,” she called out his name softly, and he jumped slightly at the sudden sound. She watched as Kris hurriedly wiped his eyes with the back of his arms before he turned to her, flashing her a small, saddened smile. “Did you hear…?”

“Yixing called me,” Mihyun answered as she took slow, cautious steps towards the Noye.

“You would think that after getting the money from selling me, they would have survived, huh?” Kris chuckled bitterly as he stared down at his feet. He felt the bed dip when Mihyun sat down beside him, and tilted his face to the side so she wouldn’t be able to see the tear tracks. “Why did I have to go through all that suffering if my family was just going to die in the end?”

Mihyun hummed in agreement, knowing that what the boy needed right now wasn’t her words of her sympathy, but rather to let out words of his own.

“Did Yixing tell you how they died?” Kris asked as he briefly glanced at the girl from the corner of his eye.

Mihyun shook her head as she pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin on the top of them. “I didn’t ask.”

“Well I did,” Kris responded as he stared straight out the window. “Said they starved. Neighbors found their bodies just a few months after I was taken. What a stupid family I came from – they didn’t even know how to make 200,000 won last?”

“I sacrificed myself for nothing. They didn’t even appreciate me enough to actually try to survive,” Kris muttered. Tears brimmed his eyes, but he swallowed hard, not wanting to shed any tears in front of the girl. “Stupid.”

A long pause filled the room, and Mihyun turned her head away when tears began to slip past Kris’s restraints and drip off of his chin, knowing that the other didn’t want her to witness such a sight.

“Do you think you could hit me?” Kris finally asked. “Could you hit me really, really hard?”

Mihyun glanced at him with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“You know, I read in books that if you get by a car or something really hard that you’ll go through amnesia,” Kris explained as he turned to face the girl, forgetting about the shining tears that were drying on his face.

Mihyun chuckled quietly at the boy’s words, “I don’t think it works like that.”

Kris’s face fell, “Yeah, I know. It’d be nice if it did. It’d be nice to forget.”

“It would, wouldn’t it?” Mihyun agreed as she leaned her back against the frame of her bed. “It’d be nice if we could discard the memories that we don’t want to keep, the memories that hurt us, but we can’t. But it’s not all too bad, you know. Don’t you think those memories make us stronger?”

“What if I don’t want to be strong?” Kris responded in a quiet voice.

Mihyun fell silent for a few seconds, “Life doesn’t take our wants into consideration.”

Kris chuckled bitterly at her words and let out a loud sigh as he leaned back to flop onto the bed, “What should I do now?”

Mihyun glanced at him, “What do you mean?”

“I had planned to return to my family once this was all over. I had planned to forgive them, and to try to get back the past few years of my life,” Kris murmured as he pulled his arms over his eyes. “But now there’s nothing left for me anymore.”

“You’re always welcome to stay with me, you know,” Mihyun offered as she nudged the male with the tip of her foot.

Kris pulled his arms away from his eyes to stare at her for a few seconds, “Why are you so kind?”

Mihyun chuckled under her breath, and a light flashed in her eyes as she glanced away from him, “Don’t be fooled, Kris. I’m not as kind as you might assume me to be.”

Kris shook his head before he stared up at the ceiling above him, “I think you’re too nice for your own good.”

“Then you think wrong,” Mihyun responded simply as she stretched her arms above her head.

Kris tossed her a curious glance before he pushed himself off the bed to sit upright again. “Don’t you have to go see the boys today?”

Mihyun hesitated before she nodded, “I can postpone it till tomorrow if you don’t want to be alone.”

Kris paused fo