Human

자유 True Beauty

Human [hyü-mən] adj. - Subject to or indicative of the weaknesses, imperfections, and fragility associated with humans.

 

A week had passed since Chanyeol’s public beating, and already the 6 Noyes accepted Mihyun as one of their own. They would smile when she smiled, frown when she frowned, laugh when she laughed, and all the rest; it seemed to be that whatever Mihyun was to do, the six were quick to follow. It was nearly frightening how infatuated they could have been with the girl within only two weeks time.

Although the group of them did share smiles and easy thoughts, Mihyun was hard at work whenever she wasn’t with the boys. The lawsuit she had filed against the Noye House a week back was looking very good on the side of Mihyun, and her lawyer announced that they should see a victory within the week, four days, at the very most.

The more time Mihyun had spent with the boys, the more work began to pile on top of each other, and finally it came to such an extent that Mihyun could no longer afford to spend time with the boys for a few days. Before getting started on her work, she sent her driver, Jaesuk, to send the message of her future absences to the other Noyes.

“Agassi? Agassi?” Jaesuk called out softly as he slowly opened the door to her bedroom. He sighed as he watched Mihyun hard at work, determined to finish everything that had piled on so she would be able to visit the others sooner. With one hand typing furiously on a keyboard, and the other holding up a book she scanned,  Jaesuk could practically see the health of his Agassi slip away.

“Agassi?” Jaesuk called out again.

Mihyun’s typing halted, and she spun around to face Jaesuk with lifeless, tired eyes. “Yes?”

“Your Noy— Your friends, they wanted to send you a message. The tall one with the deep voice, he said that he’s sad that you’ll be gone for so long, but will be eagerly awaiting your return. He wanted to send his gratitude for the medicine you had me deliver to him as well. The small one, Baekhyun, he said that when you return, you better have more games to tell them about. The stuttering one said that when you come back, he’s sure that his speech would have improved by ten folds. The tanned one promised that he would help the other in his speech, and that you must come quickly back. The mute one wrote that he wishes to see you soon, and that he will be eagerly awaiting your return, and… and there was one more…”

Mihyun’s ears perked up, “Sehun? What did Sehun say?”

Jaesuk stared shamefully down at his fidgeting thumbs, “I… I… forgive me for saying such vulgarities, Agassi, but these are the words straight from his mouth.”

Mihyun unconsciously leaned forward in her chair, eager to hear what her Noye had said.

“Tell that idiot to take her time coming back,” Jaesuk restated as he tapped his finger against his chin, recalling the words.

Mihyun’s face fell at the words, and she felt her heart fall with disappointment. She heaved a sigh and slowly spun back around to face her work, feeling even more tired than she had prior.

“Because I know that she’s going to push herself to her limits for us and I don’t want her to get sick. I want her to come back quickly, but healthy,” Jaesuk continued with the snap of his fingers as he remembered the entire phrase. He looked up to stare at the back of Mihyun’s leather chair. “A-Agassi?”

“You may leave, Jaesuk,” Mihyun replied in her monotonous voice.

Jaesuk nodded his head once, bowing even though he knew she couldn’t see. “Please take their words to heart, Agassi, and take care of your health.”

Once Mihyun heard the click of the closing door, she leaned back in her leather chair, unable to prevent the smile that stretched across her lips. Her heart was fluttering in happiness, ecstatic to hear such words come from the stoic Noye, even if she hadn’t heard it directly from his lips.

Feeling refreshed by the words, Mihyun found a new source of energy to serve as fuel for the rest of the night.

She awoke the next morning lying on her bed when she knew she had fallen asleep at her table. She stared at her ceiling with blurry eyes, sighing as the ringing of the alarm shot through her ears. The energy she had received yesterday had diminished, and she felt the weariness and tire claim her body and mind once again.

“Agassi, would you like me to bring your uniform, or will you be skipping school again today?” Jaesuk asked as he stepped into her bedroom the second she turned off her alarm. Although Jaesuk was primarily her chauffeur, he also served as her butler as well, even though his job didn’t demand for it.

Mihyun ran her fingers though her messy locks and blinked repetitively in an attempt to get rid of her fatigue. “Yeah, I’ll go,” she responded in a soft voice. “Thanks for moving me to the bed too, Jaesuk.”

Jaesuk frowned at the weariness of her tone, and he could see the exhaustion that decorated her face. “Perhaps you should skip it…?” he suggested lightly.

Mihyun shook her head and slipped out of bed to head to her closet, “I’ve skipped school much too often these past few days. It wouldn’t look good if I continued my bad attendance.”

“You don’t even need to attend school, Agassi, you already know all the material taught in the classes,” Jaesuk persisted, worried about whether or not Mihyun would actually be able to make it through a day of school.

“Please don’t argue with me, Jaesuk,” Mihyun responded in her familiar cold voice.

Jaesuk shut up right away, and quickly left to fetch her uniform for her. The two departed for her school soon after, and Mihyun almost immediately regretted not giving in to Jaesuk’s words when they arrived at the noisy campus. The loud voices did nothing to aid her throbbing headache, and she gave Jaesuk a weak goodbye, forcing a smile onto her face to help reassure the other of his worry.

She caught sight of a bunch of familiar boys, and quickly made her way through the hallways, hoping that she wouldn’t catch their attention.

“Hey Jongdae, look who’s back,” one of the boys whispered as he eyed Mihyun. “Why don’t you go remind her of that favor she owes you, huh?”

Jongdae frowned as he stared at Mihyun’s retreating figure; she looked even smaller now than she had before. “C-Come on guys,” Jongdae laughed as he punched his friend gently on the arm. “She’s been gone for a couple of days and she was probably sick, I don’t want to catch diseases from her, you know?”

“Don’t be such a girl, Jongdae,” his other friend laughed as he shoved Jongdae forward.

“Hey, Han Mihyun!” Jongdae called out with reluctance.

Mihyun sighed and closed her eyes together when she heard the call of her name. As much as she didn’t want to, she stopped mid step with her lips pressed into a firm line.

“Is there are a reason for you to be calling me, Jongdae?” Mihyun asked quietly as she turned around to stare her class mate in the eye. Jongdae’s eyebrows furrowed with concern at the weariness that decorated Mihyun’s facial features, but kept his worry to himself. Despite his unease, she knew that with his group of friends standing behind him, Jongdae would never fail to act like a jerk.

Jongdae arched an eyebrow and his lips curved into the nasty smirk that she only saw when he was with his “friends”, “Is that the way you should be speaking to somebody you owe a favor to, honey?”

Mihyun twitched at the name he called her with, but refused to let any emotion of irritation form on her face.  “Then do you need me to return the favor right now?”

“Why would I do that when I can milk it for all it’s worth?” Jongdae laughed as he threw his arm around Mihyun’s shoulders. He glanced over his shoulder at his friends for affirmation, and his smirk broadened when he was met with thumb ups of approval.

Mihyun clenched down on her jaw, but she wouldn’t act out rashly against the annoying other. It was due to him that she achieved her plea of protection for Chanyeol.  Jongdae was really a good guy, and it hadn’t taken much effort for Mihyun to attempt to convince him to do this favor to her, despite knowing that it would be quite a hassle for him to convince his own father. He said it was his way of apologizing for always acting like a jerk whenever his friends were around, but Mihyun still persisted to the fact that she would return the favor to him in the future.

Unfortunately for the pair, a couple of Jongdae’s friends has eavesdropped on the conversation, and wouldn’t let either one of them forget about the favor Mihyun owed Jongdae.  She and Jongdae were acquainted in a relationship that wouldn’t be classified as friendship, but over the point of being simple school mates. She thought Jongdae was internally a really good person, although it certainly wasn’t shown when he was with his friends, and Jongdae liked her because she didn’t question his friendship with the other douche bags despite knowing Jongdae’s true character.

Mihyun understood why Jongdae remained friends with the other boys, even if they wouldn’t provide him with any benefits in the future. Every teenager was looking to fit in, weren’t they? Jongdae found his spot of being accepted among his peers, even if it required him acting like somebody he wasn’t. The faux persona Jongdae claimed while in the public certainly wasn’t praiseworthy, but Mihyun didn’t hold him with disdain because of it. He was only human, after all, and one of the uttermost desires of a human was to find a place where they belong. She only wished that Jongdae would realize that the place he was in right now wasn’t the right one.

“I believe all I owe you is one favor, Jongdae, that doesn’t mean that I am required to speak, touch, or hang out with you, unless you would like to count that as your favor,” Mihyun replied simply as she tightened her grip on her school bag.

Jongdae’s eyes narrowed and he tightened his grip on Mihyun’s upper arm. “Is that what you should be saying to me, ?” Jongdae hissed in a low tone. “It wasn’t easy getting my father to agree to sign that little piece of paper to free your pet, Mihyun, but it’ll be pretty easy getting him to revoke it.”

Mihyun knew he was spouting an empty threat and that Jongdae would never betray her in such a manner, but pretended to get angry just to please his idiot friends. She spun around on her heels and glared straight into his eyes, “Listen here, Kim Jongdae, I’ll return the favor to you. Just say the word and I’ll do as you wish, but that is no reason for you to continue to pester me over something so trivial.”

Jongdae’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, and his eyebrows furrowed in genuine worry, afraid that she had taken his words to heart.

“I must get to class now, please excuse me,” Mihyun bowed slightly as she pulled away from Jongdae’s loose grip.

Jongdae opened his mouth initially to apologize, but realized that he could do no such thing in the presence of others, and pressed his lips together.

Mihyun rubbed her temples as she walked away from the group of boys and to her classroom, ignoring the cries of triumph from Jongdae’s peers. She slipped into her seat just seconds before the school bells rung to signal the start of class.

Mihyun secretly worked on her business papers during the class sessions. The teachers knew that her attention wasn’t directed at the lesson, but said nothing of it, for Mihyun was one of the most intellectual students of the school.

By the end of the day she had gotten a decent amount of work done, and was pleased that her day spent at school wasn’t too useless after all. As she sat down on the steps of the front of the school waiting for Jaesuk to arrive, she mentally sorted out everything that needed to be done. If she pulled an all nighter, she would be able to meet the Noyes as soon as the day after the next.

A familiar ringtone drifted into her ears, causing Mihyun to dig her hands into her pockets to search for her phone. A glance at the screen told her that the caller was Jaesuk, and she slid her finger against the screen before slipping her phone between her ear and the crook of her shoulder to continue working. “Neh, Jaesuk?”

“I apologize Agassi, but I will be about 10 minutes late,” Jaesuk’s voice sounded through the receiver. “Your father has sent me on a side chore to do, and I was trying to complete it as quick as possible.”

“Take your time, Jaesuk, there isn’t a rush. I still have some files left to do during the time, anyways,” Mihyun responded as her eyes scanned the paper in front of her. She gave Jaesuk her goodbye before slipping her phone back into her pocket. Mihyun let out a quiet yawn as she stretched her arms above her head, ready to dive into ten minutes worth of business.

Before she could even pick up her pencil, a sudden shout sounded from nearby. Her head snapped up at the sound, and her eyes narrowed at the familiar voice. She quickly tucked her papers neatly into her bag before slipping it over her shoulders to investigate where the source of the cry was. A few thumps met her ears, and she slipped silently past a few hedges to eye the ring of boys that were standing in a small clearing that was hidden among the many shrubs.

Mihyun gazed at the all faces of the boys, engraving both them and the names on their ID tags pinned to their school jackets to her memory. She sighed when she saw Jongdae standing amongst the ring with his eyebrows furrowed in with worry. She then eyed the boy kneeling in the middle of the circle, sporting both a black eye and a bloody lip, and she quickly understood why Jongdae looked the way he did.

She recognized the boy as Kim Junmyeon, Jongdae’s elder half brother who was regarded as quite the nerd by the school population. Jongdae never publically acknowledged the relationship between the two of them, so their blood remained a secret to everybody other than the pair and Mihyun.

She pulled out her phone and sent Jaesuk a quick text, requesting for him to hurry his chores and come to her aid. Mihyun wasn’t all too fond of the idea of playing the damsel in distress, but she wasn’t a fool – she knew her limits. She had taken self defense lessons as a child, but even that wouldn’t protect her against the handful of muscled boys that stood before her. She could perhaps survive against one of them with a few nicks here and there, but rushing blindly in to save Junmyeon was like asking for a death sentence – for the both of them.

‘I’ll be there in 5 minutes’ was the reply she received a few seconds later.

Mihyun glanced up at Junmyeon who had earned another hard kick to the chest for simply staying silent, and then another to his head when he had ‘made to much noise’ from coughing. She contemplated on whether 5 minutes was enough for them to actually impose any harm on her. When Junmyeon received another blow to the stomach, however, she decided that 5 minutes couldn’t possibly earn her too many injuries.

“I assume that you are all having a decent amount of fun?” Mihyun called out gently as she stepped into the clearing.

All heads whipped around to face her, and she gauged the different emotions she was met with - some expressed annoyance and irritation while others displayed amusement and interest, the most dangerous among them being looks of lust.

Her light footsteps were inaudible to ears as she practically floated to the center of the ring, kneeling down in front of Junmyeon to help him up. She clucked her tongue against the roof of as she wiped the blood away from his lips with the pad of her thumb.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice hissed, and a hand wrapped around her upper arm to jerk her backwards. She grimaced when her bottom hit the concrete ground, but refused to give the bullies any satisfaction of her pain.

“I’m helping him,” Mihyun replied simply as climbed to her feet before brushing herself off. She shot a reproachful look in Jongdae’s direction. “because nobody else seems to be.”

Jongdae appeared taken aback by her sudden act of coldness, but gazed shamefully down at his feet to escape her judging eyes. 

“Kids should learn not to stick their nose into the business of others. Should we teach this little girl a lesson?” one of the guys hissed, taking Mihyun’s attention away from Jongdae.

Mihyun cocked her head innocently and stared up at him, “But I’m not a child.” She eyed the bronze colored name tag that was pinned to his uniform and pointed to her own, silver colored tag. “Look, I’m even older than you. You should call me Noona, child.”

Another hand wrapped around her wrist, and she couldn’t help but wince at the tight grip.

“Don’t try to get smart with us,” a foreign voice snarled into her ears. Before she knew it, Mihyun was shoved into the ground, both of her wrists glued to the hard ground from the pressure of the other’s hands. He straddled her waist, and Mihyun almost rolled her eyes when she felt a hard bulge press against her lower stomach. How barbaric of a man, to be aroused by simply over powering a girl.

Mihyun blinked at him, not revealing any emotion of distress or fear. “But I wasn’t trying to get smart, I just wanted to point out that I wasn’t so young.”

“Shut up!” the man growled as he shifted his grip from her wrist to her forearm.

“H-Hey, Jingook, we should just let her go,” Jongdae tried to offer. He immediately backed down when a hand smacked him against the back of his head, however.

“Are you crazy? That’s Han Mihyun! Do you know how hard it would be to shack up with her? We’re not passing up on this chance, Jongdae, so if you’re going to be a you better tell us now,” another growled darkly.

Mihyun practically scoffed at the way Jongdae cowered – some friends he had.

She thought about how much time must have passed and was sure that those five minutes were about to be up. When she heard the loud rustling come from a few shrubs on the side, she couldn’t help the small smirk that formed on her lips.

“You deserve everything that is to come to you,” Mihyun stated simply, attracting the attention of the ring of boys once more.

Before any of them could ask her what the hell she was talking about, a figure darted through the greenery, quickly striking down one of the boys with his iron fist before moving on to the next. The student that had been straddling her quickly climbed off to help out the others of his group.

Mihyun smiled proudly as Jaesuk easily beat out all of the bullies to the ground, not even earning a scratch to his own skin. He hadn’t been positioned as practically her guardian for nothing. He reached almost 30 years of age, but the additional years only added to his intense strength. Mihyun often thought about how much of a pity it was to have a fighter as great as Jaesuk protecting her when he could be off watching over the president or someone of great status. Whenever she voiced her concerns, however, Jaesuk simply laughed it off with the claim that she was the source of his strength, and he would be a weakling without his hearth.

“Spare that one,” Mihyun called out when Jaesuk had pulled his fist back to smash it against Jongdae’s face. Jaesuk asked no questions, and pushed him lightly aside before moving on to the rest that were still conscious.

“Kim Junmyeon?” Mihyun called out quietly as she knelt beside the injured student.

Junmyeon’s bottom lip quivered in fear as he slowly gazed up her. A glint of recognition occurred in his eyes as he stared at the girl in front of him. “H-Han Mi-Mihyu—” He cut off his words when he met eyes with another familiar face in the clearing. Jongdae immediately averted his eyes when he met gazes with his half brother, ashamed of his actions.

Junmyeon misunderstood the action as annoyance and flushed a light red before training his gaze firmly on his beat up hands.

“Come with me, Junmyeon,” Mihyun called out as she carefully took one of Junymeon’s hands into her own.

Junmyeon immediately pulled back with large eyes. “My hands are covered with blood, you’ll get dirty.”

Mihyun chuckled softly and reached forward to take his hand into hers once again. Junmyeon was so stunned at the girl’s display of emotion that he forgot to withdraw his hands for a second time. She pulled him up to his feet, making sure to have a strong grip on his figure so he wouldn’t go toppling down.

“Let’s go fix up your injuries,” Mihyun offered gently as she helped him exit the greenery. She stopped momentarily to call out over her shoulder, “Follow us when you are finished, Jaesuk.”

Mihyun stared hard at Jongdae as she passed him, Junmyeon’s arm wrapped around her shoulders in an attempt to steady himself.

“I’ve returned the favor,” she stated simply, watching with slight amusement as grief and guilt consumed Jongdae’s facial features. She wondered if the guilt he would have to live with would be enough to change Jongdae’s character. She doubted it.

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Pxnellyxq #1
Chapter 39: NOT ME CRYING LIKE A BABY
ackerwoman
#2
Chapter 30: Jongin with his famous smirk at the end, my god
ackerwoman
#3
Chapter 28: Aww cute, he's playing with the flower haha
ackerwoman
#4
Chapter 27: Yes fight for her!
ackerwoman
#5
Chapter 26: No, I'm not crying. You are.
ackerwoman
#6
Chapter 23: dont tell me. oh my god. He never got treated right, at least give me something not to cry over. Whyyyyyyy
ackerwoman
#7
Chapter 21: wuu the story is thickening its plot!
ackerwoman
#8
Chapter 17: That's sweet talk but I wonder about the kiss. I mean I would be embarrassed? I can't run around kissing guys' forehead all the time haha
ackerwoman
#9
Chapter 15: I can't help myself but ship Mihyun and every guy she encounters. And how kyungsoo be able to refrain himself from falling in love with her? She literally gave him everything, supports and also secure attachment.