Chapter 20
Unexpected Joy
Zico and I walked home, hand in hand.
“I like the name HanEul.” He said, out of nowhere. I stopped and looked at him, confused.
“What?”
“For our daughter.” He said, grinning. I grinned back.
“But why a girl?” I wondered aloud.
“Because,” He said, looking up at the sky. “I like protecting things.”
“Yah, our HanEul is not a thing!” I said, pulling him forward and laughing. He grinned and playfully pushed me.
“Do you really want to?” I said after a while, breaking the silence that had been put upon us.
“In a few years.” He said. I smiled at the thought of him wanting to last that long. I grabbed his arm and clung onto it.
“Yah, Zico, don’t pick me up tomorrow, okay? I have some research to do.” I felt bad lying to him, but, if I told him the truth, he’d want to come with me. I said goodbye and walked into my house.
I had to be dragged out of bed the next morning. I had barely gotten any sleep the previous night. The whole night, I was tossing and turning, contemplating. Was I being reckless, going to confront Eunjung about this?
And how should I approach her? Should I be straightforward and rude? Or should I be understanding? I mentally slapped myself for wanting to be understanding with a girl who tried to ruin my life. The morning passed in a blur as this was on my mind, and distracting me from getting ready. It didn’t help that Taecyeon rushed me the whole time. I was so rushed, I didn’t eat.
My stomach growled the whole walk to school, causing me to be teased by Taec. Stupid monkey. Besides this, I noticed something really off today. Mino hadn’t met us halfway. I thought maybe he was already at school, but when I got there, he wasn’t waiting for me by the gates.
It felt odd. Like, my only protection here was gone. I was alone, even though I didn’t want to be.
I rushed to the classroom, and sure enough, he wasn’t there.
I guess students noticed that Mino was missing too. They also seemed to notice what he was to me. They came up to me and directly mocked me. They threw out every insult possible at me.
And not only me, everyone in my life. I don’t know how they found out about Zico, or James, or Rina, but they were badmouthing them too. Even Taec, Junho, and my parents were getting some of this love fest.
What bothered me the most was someone saying Rina deserved what she got. I fought the urge to punch the girl who said that straight in the mouth. I walked away with clenched fists. I got called a coward, but I didn’t care. I needed to save my energy for later that evening, and my little talk with Eunjung.
I was so tormented, I didn’t even eat lunch because these idiots would follow me everywhere. I hated it. I hated the assumptions they made. I hated the things they spat at me. I hated what they said about my friends and family. I hated their ignorance. I hated them.
The rest of the day passed excruciatingly slow. I instantly missed the blur that was the morning. Their immaturity really had no end. They decided to write all their insults on paper and throw them at me. As best as I tried to ignore them, I couldn’t. I was the first one out the door when the bell rang.
It seemed a bit stalkerish, but I had to find Eunjung. I spotted her head within the crowd. I slyly made my way between people and started walking at a normal pace a few feet away from her. I had to keep quietly walking, and not let her hear me. I stayed quiet until we were a reasonable distance from school, where she couldn’t call anyone on me. Eunjung entered an alley next to a store, and started climbing the stairs to the door. Did she live in an apartment next to her parents store? I ignored my own question and cornered her before she opened the door. It wasn’t until I was practically breathing down her neck that she noticed me.
“YAH.” She yelled at the sight of me. It then turned into a smirk. “What, you want me to stop or something?” She said, still smirking.
“Why.” I said, crossing my arms.
She scoffed. “Why what?”
“Why do you feel the need to torture me.” I said, my voice still icey.
“Because,” she said, stepping closer, practically pushing me off the stairs. “you got something I wanted. And I always get what I want. And you know what I want now? You out of the picture.” I gripped onto the railing so I wouldn’t fall off. I gained my balance again, and pushed Eunjung back.
“You’re gonna have to work harder if you want that. Look around Eunjung, there’s no one here. No one to save you. No one to hurt me.” I said, gaining confidence and speaking from a part of me I didn’t know existed.
She laughed. That was the opposite reaction I wanted.
“You think you’re worth something, don’t you.” She said when she was done with her sick laughing.
“Much more than you. And another thing, Zico doesn’t want you because you’re disgusting. You aren’t human.” I spat at her. Her eyes narrowed and she grinned.
“You’ll see just how easy getting you out of the picture is.” She said, in almost a growl.
The next thing I knew, I was falling. She caught me off guard and shoved me down the stairs. I flew without hitting a step.
The last sound I remember hearing was a crack. It was my own skull. The light quickly left my eyes and everything went numb.
"SUNMI!" I hear a male voice yelling. I sat up, and wondered where I was. It was dark, and I was in an alleyway. I remembered my confrontation with Eunjung. I looked around. This was the same alleyway. She must have dragged me over here. I tried to get up, but fell back down, due to being extremely light headed. I gripped the back of my head, and felt something warm. A few remains of dried blood. I wanted to vomit.
I stood up and gripped the brick building next to where I was. I made my way along the wall until I hit the street. I saw the shadow of James in a street lamp. With all of the strength I had in my, I screamed his name. He turned around and sprinted to me. He grabbed me in his arms.
"Are you okay?" He whispered, examining me. I shook my head no, and got light headed again. "It's gonna be okay, get on my back." I got on his back and he started running. The bouncing only increased my want to vomit, but I amazingly held it in.
"GUYS, ITS JAMES" Rina shouted to Taecyeon, Junho and.. was that Mino? I couldn't tell, my eyesight was still fogged. Taec took me from James and placed me in the backseat.
I don't know how much I had already been bleeding, but the light was leaving me again. Was I dying?
I felt like I wanted to die.
"Zico.." was the thing I muttered with the last breath of air I had in me.
_______________________________________________________________________________
6 Cranes left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Comments