Final
Of ImportanceDia Tree - Please Find Her
A/N : Not exactly edited since I looked through it only briefly, but I think everything's fine. Enjoy!
“Why do you keep complaining?” her mother scolded, “Your father and I work hard to take care of you guys. All you’ve done was laze around and do whatever. You have to fix your attitude and stop acting like this.”
Eunri stayed quiet, refusing to talk in fear of her wavering voice. Though she didn’t talk, her tears gave her away as she sat silently at the kitchen table, hands clenched into fists. “Why are you crying?” her mother asked, frowning, “There’s no reason why you should be crying.” She stayed immobile, still refusing to talk. “Just go to your room,” her mother sighed, a displeased frown on her face.
Almost instantly, Eunri fled to the safety of her room, slamming her door shut as she let out a few muffled sobs. She didn’t understand. Who was her mother? It was that lady downstairs, right? Why could the elder never understand, though? Does her mother think she wants to act this way? That she likes to act this way? By all means, no, she had no choice but to act that way.
Eunri’s life wasn’t always a mess like this. It was fairly nice at first. But after she went into her teenage phase, everything just kind of went downhill from there. She rarely liked getting out of house unless needed to. She became less and less social, and her grades fell little by little. It wasn’t all by choice; it just happened.
She had very few friends, and she was happy to call them her friends because they were the best group of friends she could have. They made her happy when she was sad, they calmed her down when she was angry, and they cherished the moments whenever they were all happy.
If there was something, or someone, who made her unhappy, it would be her family. They weren’t terrible, no. It was just the fact that her parents always complained whenever she did something wrong (‘what hypocrites,’ she would think whenever her parents complained about the times she complained about something) and the fact that her younger sister was never helping the former out whenever their parents started scolding. Her younger sister only sat there and stared while she got in trouble. Her younger sister, rather than being helpful and caring, was rather selfish and ignorant, only caring about herself to the point that she had no shame about having to lie on whether or not she stole from her older sister.
Now that she thought about it, Eunri had never heard the phrase “I love you” come out of her parents’ or sister’s mouth. What more did that prove? How was she supposed to even know that her family even cared if she were to suddenly disappear?
-
School started the next day, and Eunri arrived ten minutes before the bell as always. “Hey Eunri!” a boy named Baekhyun, the bright playful boy of the group, waved her over with a grin, and she sat in her usual seat next to Jongdae.
Among her group of friends, there were twelve boys. Boys were easier to get along with than girls, seeing that girls liked to talk about gossip, cosmetics, jewelry, and boys, and Eunri would rather talk about music and homework if she did feel like talking. The boys liked talking about the typical boy topics, such as video games, but they more often talked about music. They all had a knack for one or a few of the following: singing, dancing, rapping, composing, or playing instruments. There was only one boy in their group, a Chinese exchange student named Yixing, who was talented in all of the categories, and Eunri admired him as a role model. Not only was he extremely talented, but he was also a very kind and smart student, known by almost everyone at school and loved by many of the teachers.
There was a difference between admiration and actually liking someone. What she felt towards Yixing was pure admiration and nothing more. As for actually liking someone…
Slightly jumping in surprise, Eunri glanced at Jongdae, who laughed loudly at a lame joke Chanyeol made. She let out a small smile and looked away, content with just having the best group of friends she could ask for.
-
“So, how’s life at home?” Minseok asked carefully, knowing that he would be touching on a sensitive subject. The others took in a deep breath, shooting the elder a look. They knew Eunri didn’t like talking about her family; they could tell from the way her body stiffened whenever they asked and the way she seemed to be fond and slightly envious of the way the others talked about their families.
“It’s…fine, I guess,” she muttered, taking a small sip of water. It was currently lunch time, and the boys always ate school lunch. Eunri, on the other hand, was never hungry during lunch, so she ended up giving away her lunch to one of the other boys if they were still hungry.
Jongdae, who sat on her right, wrapped his left arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug, “Things will be alright, so don’t worry too much about it, okay?” He gave her comforting grin, and she replied with a weak smile, “I guess.”
“If you want, you can come over today,” Suho suggested, trying to brighten her mood, “My parents keep asking if you’ll come over again, so you’re free to visit whenever.”
“I’ll think about it,” she murmured, fiddling with the sleeve of her blazer, “I have a lot of homework today, so maybe some other day.” Suho complied, but he was still a bit worried by the way her face seemed so emotionless.
The others have never seen her like this before, so they were slightly afraid. Did something major happen at home? Did she and her parents get into a big fight?
“You’ll be okay,” Kyungsoo tried comforting, taking one of her hands in his, “We’ll be by your side even if your family isn’t.”
By those words, Eunri could feel her tears threatening to come out. She didn’t want to seem like an emotional wreck, but there’s been so much on her mind and plate that she just didn’t know what to do anymore. She couldn’t handle all this emotional stress that her family was building up for her, and with the amount of school work on her plate and having to think of college applications and a future already, it was just so frustrating.
“Cry if you need to,” Luhan patted her head patiently, giving her a small smile, “It’s not good to keep in your feelings.”
And with that, she cried, glad that she had her friends by her side no matter what.
-
It was late at night, but Eunri wasn’t asleep yet. She knew her mother hated it whenever she stayed up late, but she couldn’t help it; with all these thoughts swirling around her head, what was she supposed to do? Sleep them off? They would come back the next day anyways.
Picking up her phone, she to her side and stared at her screen softly. Her lock screen was a picture of six out of the twelve boys, and when she unlocked her phone, the other six grinned back at her. She smiled softly, her thumb running against the edge of her phone. Her phone vibrated, signaling that she received a new text message. Curious, she tapped on it, surprised to see a text message from Jongdae.
‘Are you asleep?’
With a small smile, she typed back a reply before sending.
‘No. Why?’
‘I couldn’t sleep either, and the others either didn’t want to talk to me or already fell asleep.’
Chuckling silently, she typed back.
‘And what makes you think I want to talk to you?’
‘You’re not going to leave me hanging too, are you?‘
‘No, of course not. I’m not like the others.’
Eunri could feel her eyelids growing heavy with sleep, but she forced them open. She wasn’t going to fall asleep on him; it would be rude.
‘I’m guessing you’re tired now, right?’
‘How would you know?’
‘Because they say when someone is thinking about you, you can’t sleep.’
‘Oh, really now?’
‘And since I couldn’t sleep either, could this mean that you were thinking of me?’
Eunri felt her cheeks slightly burn from his statement. What was wrong with him? Did he know?
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’ll tell you tomorrow. Good night!”
---
Scolds were being thrown towards Eunri again for the fifth time a few days later, and she didn’t want to listen to any more screaming. She did what she never thought she’d physically do: she ran away.
She ran out of the house, away from the people she called her family. She felt her tears building up in her eyes as she slowed down at a nearby park. Sitting down on a swing, her hands gripped onto the chains as she kept her head down, concealing her tear-filled eyes from any pedestrians that walked by.
“What are you doing out here alone?” a voice asked, but she refused to lift her head. “Eunri?” A hand was placed on her shoulder as the figure crouched down in order to meet her eyes. She looked away slightly, ashamed to be crying. “It’s alright to cry,” the figure comforted, patting her shoulder with a small smile, “If it makes you feel better, then cry. Don’t keep all those frustrating feelings in.”
“Just go home,” she muttered, unintentionally sounding harsher than intended, “I’m fine by myself.” She let out a bitter chuckle, “I’ve been alone most of my life anyways.”
“You still have me,” the figure objected, meeting her eyes, “You still have good ol’ Jongdae and the others.” She sat there silently, her tear still streaming down her face. Lifting a hand, Jongdae wiped away her tears carefully, “Do you want to talk about it?” She shook her head. He twisted his mouth to the side, contemplating, “Do you still want me to leave?” She hesitated before shaking her head, peeking up at him through her bangs. He let out a chuckle as he occupied the other swing, kicking his feet slightly to swing back and forth. “Remember when I used to push you on the swings?” he asked suddenly, looking at her with a small smile. She nodded with curious eyes. He grinned, “Want me to push you?”
The next thing she knew, she was flying up high into the air, her hands tightly gripping onto the metal chains of the swing. He let out a chuckle as he continued to push her, waiting to see the smile on her face. Only then would he stop.
It was about five minutes later when Eunri finally allowed a small smile to be seen on her face, and Jongdae felt content after being able to make her smile.
-
“What did you want to talk about?” Eunri asked Jongdae curiously, “The text you sent me…you never told me what you wanted to tell me.”
“Ah, about that,” Jongdae let out an embarrassed chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck. The two were still at the park, and they didn’t intend on going home anytime soon. “I uh…,” he bit his lip, contemplating on whether he should tell her or not. She waited patiently, her feet kicking off the ground to swing back and forth slightly.
“I like you.”
That one sentence caused her to freeze, eyes wide. Her head whipped over to him, whose cheeks were slightly dusted red with blush. “I’ve liked you for a while now,” he confessed as he faced forward, refusing to look at her, “I understand if you don’t feel the same way-”
“I like you, too!” she blurted out quickly, cheeks pink from both of their confessions. A shy smile crept onto her face as she looked away, “I’ve liked you for a while, too.”
“Then,” he said slowly, glancing at her with a shy smile, “will you be my girlfriend?” Shyly, she nodded, glancing at him as well. He grinned widely, receiving a small smile in return.
She’d deal with her family problems some other time, she thought. For now, she’ll be focusing on just the guy she liked.
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