Chapter Thirty-Two

~Yoon Jaehwa~

    Yoomi walked down the halls of the university. She was all smiles, so were the ten boys around her.

    “Mimi, what do you want to eat for lunch today?” D.O. asked.

    Yoomi stopped walking and turned to look at the boys behind her.

    “What do you want to eat?” she asked all of them.

    “Chicken,” Kai chirped.

    Lay sighed.

    “We had chicken yesterday. Hey, and you ate chicken for breakfast,” Lay said.

    Kai shrugged.

    “I can eat chicken all day every day!”

    Chen scoffed and slapped the boy in the back of his head.

    “Ah! Hyung!” Kai whined.

    Yoomi laughed and looked at Lay.

    “What would you like to have, Yixing shi,” Yoomi smiled.

    Lay slightly pouted.

    “Hey, why do you only use formalities with me?” he asked.

    Yoomi looked at him confused.

    “I...um…”

    “She doesn’t like you,” Kris said.

    Yoomi’s eyes widened, so did Lay’s. Yoomi immediately brought her hands up and shook them back and forth.

    “I-It’s not like that. I just...I-I...w-we...we haven’t really talked to each other a lot. S-so-”

    “Oh yeah! Yixing, Yoomi likes to write songs. Maybe you two can having some bonding time while you two write songs. Yoomi promised me and Kyungsoo that she would write us a song,” Chanyeol said.

    There was an uproar between everybody, except Lay, D.O., and Chanyeol.

    Yoomi’s eyes widened.

    “Hey! What about me?” Chen pouted.

    “I’m cooler, write me a song about my coolness,” Kris said.

    Tao made his way to Yoomi and held her hand.

    “Make one for me first,” he said with big round eyes.

    “Hey, Tao you know one of Luhan’s rule is to never hold her hand right?” Sehun cautiously asked.

    Tao shot Sehun a glare.

    “Well, Luhan SHI isn’t here right now-”

    *CLICK*

    Tao looked at Baekhyun with wide eyes. Baekhyun smirked at Tao and showed him the picture that he had just taken with his phone. Tao was holding onto Yoomi’s hands.

    “Byun Baekhyun!” Tao yelled.

    Baekhyun laughed.

    “Try to attack me with your wushu and I’ll send this to Luhan,” he said.

    Tao glared at Baekhyun.

    “Or worse, I’ll put cockroaches on your bed,” Baekhyun smirked.

    Tao’s eyes widened as he let go of Yoomi’s hand. He looked up at her with hopeful eyes. She let out a laugh and ruffled his hair. She looked at all of EXO.

    “Would it be fine if I wrote all of you one song?” she asked.

    Everyone’s eyes lit up.

    “Of course! Just don’t put anything that Kris asked about,” Suho smiled.

    Tao nodded.

    “That would be awesome,” he said.

    Yoomi turned to Lay.

    “I heard that you’re an expert at writing songs. Mind if I learn a few things from you?” she smiled.

    Lay smiled back and nodded.

    “Sure,” he said.

    At first he felt the most distant from her. He wanted so much to get closer to her since she was going to become part of the family. He didn’t want to be on bad terms with his family. That’s what made separate from his “real” family. He was scared to be abandoned. He was scared to be hated. He didn’t want to be hated by someone so angel-like like Yoomi.

    It was as if Yoomi could see the fear and sadness in Lay’s eyes. She smiled knowing that all of these boys had a painful past that scarred their hearts. She would try her best to mend their scars for them, even though she had a big scar herself that never healed. But, maybe...just maybe the love that Luhan had for her could heal it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    They each had a menu as they looked for what they wanted to eat. A waiter came and took their orders and handed out their drinks to them. Yoomi smiled as she used her straw to stir her drink.

    “You look very happy today,” Chen said to Yoomi.

    “I’m happy everyday because I get to see all of you,” Yoomi said sincerely.

    It warmed all of their hearts. It made them want to protect her even more. It made them really look at her like their real sister. If they were ever asked what the ideal younger sister was for them, all of them would most certainly describe Yoomi.

D.O. patted Yoomi’s head.

“Thank you,” he said.

Thank you.

Those words not only meant, “Thank you, for being happy to see us.”. It meant, “Thank you for actually caring for us, for putting up with us, for not leaving us, for being sincere about us.”

    Yoomi smiled and nodded.

    Baekhyun pouted.

    “But, you won’t be able to see us everyday when you move out,” he said.

    Yoomi looked at him.

    “I’ll come visit you then,” she smiled until her eyes became crescents.

    Baekhyun jumped up in his seat and smiled back.

    “Okay!”

    Yoomi let out a little laugh.

“Yeah, your wedding is in two weeks. Are you ready? We can ask Nai Nai to push it back if you’re not. We all know now that you like Luhan. You don’t have to force yourself to marry him so soon,” Suho said a bit worried.

Yoomi shook her head.

“It’s okay. Time really has passed by fast. It feels just like yesterday that I woke up in the mansion,” she giggled. “To be honest, I wanted to run away,” she admitted.

Everyone looked at her, guilty. It wasn’t any of their fault, but they felt guilty.      

    “But, now? I’m the most happy that I could ever be. And it’s all because of all of you: Nai Nai, Jinah unnie, Jungwoo, Jason, My Luhan, Minseok oppa, Joonie oppa, Yeollie, Baek, Kyungie, Tao, Chen Chen, Yifan, Yixing, Jongin, and Sehun,” she looked at each and every one of them as she said their names.

They all looked at her. Their hearts were slowly mending. They all wanted to cry. Her words were so touching it made them tear up. Even the Cold City Guy: Kris.

“Mimi,” Kai said softly beside her.

Yoomi turned to look at him. His tears were threatening to fall. She giggled as her eyes began to water also. She reached up to his cheek and wiped away his fallen tear. More and more tears were blinding her vision, but she didn’t want them to fall. But, too much tears had builded up in her eyes. They fell continuously. Kai reached up to her cheek and wiped hers too.

“Don’t cry,” he pouted.

Yoomi smiled and wiped her tears away. She inhaled and exhaled. She cleared and looked at everyone who were trying to hide their tears. She giggled again.She was about to say something, but then someone outside the window caught her eye. Her breathing hitched. Her heart stopped. Her eyes widened as she felt the scar deep in her heart grow even more.

“Jaehwa,” she said under her breath.

Everyone looked at her confused.

Fear, hatred, shock, and hurt flooded her eyes as she stared at the man standing outside the window staring right back at her.

Their eyes followed her gaze to the said “Jaehwa”.

Yoomi’s hands began to tremble as she tried to tear her gaze away from the man, but she couldn’t. Her eyes wouldn’t leave him. The longer she looked at him, the more the scar opened, the more that the memories that she tried so hard to lock up flooded back out, haunting her, telling her that love and trust isn’t easily earned, her memories that reminded her the reason as to why she stopped talking.

The man seemed to mouth something.

“Yoomi. Jung Yoomi.”

His eyes were desperate and pleading.

Yoomi finally tore her gaze away from him. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she tried to even out her breathing. She just wanted to break down right then and there, but she didn’t want to worry anybody. Well, it didn’t matter anymore. All of the boys were staring at Jaehwa, etching his face into their mind, putting him in a “special” spot, a spot where they listed “people to hurt”.

    Jaehwa quickly made his way into the restaurant. He stood before EXO and Yoomi.

    “Y-Yoomi ah,” he quietly said, oblivious to the death stares that EXO was shooting at him.

    Yoomi stared down at her hands, not wanting to look up at him.

    “Y-Yoomi, please. C-Can we talk?” he asked.

    Yoomi said nothing.

    “Here’s your food,” the waiter said as he brought trays of food to the table.

    Jaehwa looked away and sighed.

    “I’ll wait for you outside,” he said.

    Kris shot Jaehwa a death glare.

    “No need, we’re leaving,” he said in a deathly tone.

    The waiter looked at Kris confused.

    “W-What about the food?” he asked.

    “I’m sorry, but can you pack it to-go? We’ll pay extra for the inconvenience,” Suho apologized.

    The waiter noticed the tense atmosphere and quickly nodded, running into the kitchen.

    It was quiet as Jaehwa ignore EXO and just stared at Yoomi. Her gaze never left her hands. She felt like she would just break down into a fit of tears if she looked at him again. Moments later the waiter came back with five bags of to-go boxes. Suho thanked him and handed him a few bills. The waiter left to tend to other customers.

    EXO and Yoomi stood up.

    “Let’s go,” Kris said.

    Jaehwa tried to say something to Yoomi as they were leaving the restaurant, but Chanyeol blocked his way.

    Jaehwa was getting frustrated. He wanted to talk to her.

    When they all got outside where there was more room, Jaehwa ran to the front of the group where Yoomi was. Her head was down as she tried to avoid any kind of eye contact. EXO was getting angry. They didn’t know of the past that Jaehwa and Yoomi shared, but they knew that it wasn’t good. They knew that he was probably part of the reason why Yoomi was so scared of people and never talked the first few days at the Lu Mansion.

    Jaehwa stood right in front of Yoomi. D.O. was right beside her. He took a step forward ready to punch Jaehwa, but Yoomi stopped him. EXO looked at her concerned. Yoomi forced herself to look up. Jaehwa was staring at her with sad eyes.

    “Yoomi,” he quietly whispered. “I know that you don’t want to talk to me. You don’t want to ever see me again, I know. I know all too well. But, I wanted to tell you something for so long. I’m so sorry. I never meant for that to happen. When you said those words to me, when you told me that you like me, I regretted everything that I did. You said that I was your first love. I was the only one that you could trust, but I broke that trust. I’m so sorry, Yoomi. Please will you forgive me? Will you give me another chance?” he asked.

    EXO was shocked.

    First love?

    Yoomi scoffed.

    EXO’s eyes widened as they saw the angel-like Yoomi fuel with hatred.

    “Forgive you?” she quietly asked. “Forgive you?!”

    Her voice raised a few octaves and grew louder as her anger consumed her.

    “Don’t mess with me, Yoon Jaehwa.”

    Jaehwa flinched at the harshness of her voice.

    “It was your decision to do it. No one forced you. You’re the one that broke me. You’re the one that made me never believe in anything!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I TRUSTED YOU, YOON JAEHWA?!!!!”

    Tears flooded her vision once more. She clenched her fists. Her arms began to shake. She shook her head and took a few steps back and let out a little laugh, no where close to being a happy one.

    “You deserve no forgiveness. I hate you Jaehwa. I never want to see you ever again. Maybe I’ll reconsidered forgiving you if you never show up in front of me again. Leave. Leave, and never come back.”

    Yoomi began walking. Tears stained her cheeks. She walked passed him, never turning to look back. EXO glared at Jaehwa.

    “Don’t ever show up in front of any of us, or we’ll make you suffer ten folds what Yoomi went through,” Lay growled.

    EXO ran up to Yoomi, leaving Jaehwa all alone on the sidewalk. EXO followed closely to Yoomi. They were all worried about her. They were confused about what had just happened and why. They wanted to talk to her, but they knew that it wasn’t a good time.

    Yoomi suddenly stopped in her tracks, alarming EXO.

    Yoomi sighed. Her blood pressure was high. Her vision was blurry and she felt light headed. Her heart cried out in pain. Stabbing a knife in her chest would be much less painful than what she was feeling now.

    She took in uneasy breaths. White spots clouded her vision. She began to sway back and forth.

    EXO watched her back, feeling worried for her.

    Suddenly she began falling backwards. EXO’s eyes widened as they all ran for her.

    “Yoomi!” they all shouted.

Chen caught her before she could hit the ground.

“Hurry! We need to get to our cars!” Tao yelled.

They all rushed to their cars and back to the mansion, calling their family doctor and Luhan on the way.