Ch. 2
Haven
Your eyes glanced over to your new seat mate, Lee Jaehwan. His cheek rested against the palm of his hand as he stared at the board unamused. You didn't notice you were staring when his eyes shifted over and met yours. You jumped and quickly turned away.
"Am I that beautiful to look at?" You could hear the smile in his voice. "I know I'm not as good looking as Hongbin-ssi but-"
"I-I wasn't staring!" you said as you finally turned to look at him. Again, your cheeks flushed at how he smirked at you.
"Now that I look at you, you're actually pretty cute," he cocked his head to the side and you turned away again. "What's your name?"
"Eun Jae," you muttered. "Cha Eun Jae..."
He smiled. "I hope we make many good memories together, Cha Eun Jae-ssi~"
***
"Hyukkie~" Hakyeon cooed as he held a first year in a headlock.
"Hyung... Hyung I can't breathe!"
Your eyes lit up and you scurried over, Wonsik, Hongbin and Jaehwan behind you.
"Sanghyuk?" you questioned as you peered up at the taller boy.
"Oh, noona!" Sanghyuk flung Hakyeon's arms off and scooped you up in a hug. "Noona I made it here!"
You squirmed in his embrace and smiled. "I can see that, Sanghyuk."
"Eun Jae-ah," Hakyeon whined, "how come Hyukkie gets a hug and I don't?"
The boys behind you finally arrived at your usual lunch table. Jaehwan rushed over to Taekwoon's side and slung his arm around his shoulder. The older male frowned and tried to push his younger friend away. Hakyeon noticed the new face.
"Oh, that's right. Our Taekwoonnie has a friend."
The quiet male sighed and motioned at Jaehwan. "Lee Jaehwan," he said simply.
The bubblier boy frowned. "That's all I get?"
"Chingu," Taekwoon added.
The rest blinked. Wonsik clapped his hands and Hongbin joined in soon after. "Wonderful," they said. "Truly inspiring words from our most respected hyung."
It was Hakyeon's turn to raise his eyebrows. "And what does that make me?"
"Just another hyung," Sanghyuk snickered before taking off as an irritated Hakyeon chased him out of the lunch room.
***
There was this place in the courtyard where you always met with the boys after school. You were packing your bags when a paper ball came flying at you. It bounced off your desk and fell to the ground. You were about to reach for it, but someone's long fingers beat you to it.
"Y-Yah," you protested as Jaehwan began to unravel the sheet of notebook paper.
"Meet behind the school," he read. You tried to snatch it away but he held it above his head. "Oooh~ Does Cha Eun Jae have a boyfriend?"
Hongbin came up from behind Jaehwan and snatched the paper before lightly dropping a fist to his head. The handsome boy frowned after reading the paper and looked at you sternly. "You're not going."
Wonsik glanced over at the paper before muttering a curse under his breath. The confused Jaehwan looked around the three of you. "What's so bad about it?"
The two boys looked at each other and nodded. Wonsik clasped Jaehwan's shoulder. "Get her to the courtyard, alright? And make sure you stay with her at all times."
"What? What's going on?"
"Let's go, Hongbin-ah."
"Wait!" you finally shouted. "I-If you guys go then-"
"Then what, Eun Jae?" Wonsik said, irritation in his voice.
You shied away again while shaking your head and letting the two boys storm out of the classroom to leave you alone with Jaehwan. He turned to you and grabbed your wrist, making you look up at him with a jolt.
"Let's go," he simply said.
You were led out by the boy whom you just met. You didn't mind that he dragged you away. You didn't mind that he pulled you past the girls who glared and shouted nasty things at you. You didn't mind anything at all.
Jaehwan stopped in front of the group of girls. "What'd you call her?"
One of them, you recognized to be Kim Chae Young, stepped up to answer. "She's a . You know, she's slept with all the boys of VIXX."
The boy raised an eyebrow at her. "VIXX?"
"Yeah, the Kingkas of the school."
Jaehwan scoffed and rolled his eyes. "My ing god... Look. You don't know her. I don't know her. So let's be civil people and not start saying that isn't true."
"We know she slept with them." Chae Young shot you a look and you tried to make yourself smaller. "She's just a lying ."
Jaehwan let go of your wrist and turned to look at her fully. "Really now?" You could hear the anger in his voice. "Tell me, did all of you see her ing all five of them? Did you all take pics? Let me see your proof."
They were speechless. Jaehwan gave them five minutes, but no one said a thing. He shook his head at them and set his hand against the spot between your shoulders. "Let's go," he said.
***
You were ecstatic when Hakyeon suggested that you all go out to eat. He reserved a room at the local karaoke place and decided that you all would have welcome party for Sanghyuk and Jaehwan. The only thing you were worried about was how your father would react when you got home. You wanted to stay with the boys, you didn't want to go home. But a small part inside you thought that maybe tonight, maybe if you went home then you would be able to get away without a beating.
"I'm gonna head home," you said softly.
Sanghyuk whined and Wonsik shouted out a "boo". Hakyeon frowned slightly.
"C'mon, Eun Jae," Wonsik insisted. "You're gonna miss out on everything."
Taekwoon looked at you, eyes filled with a slight concern. Hakyeon's hand settled on your shoulder.
"Is it because of your dad?" he asked you quietly. You bit your lip and nodded once. He sighed. "I understand."
Your gaze met Taekwoon's and you froze, knowing that he heard the two of you. The look in his eyes told you one thing: "I want to know. And I want to know now."
You clenched your school bag tightly. You bowed down to them as you prepared to leave when an arm slung around your shoulders. Looking up, you saw Jaehwan smiling down at you.
"Stay just for a little bit. Please?"
You almost gave in. You almost said yes. But your mind shouted at you to refuse him. No matter how badly you wanted to go, your mind just screamed at you to go home before you get hurt more than you should. You shook your head and moved away.
"You guys go have fun, okay?" You smiled since it was all you could do.
A few groans came from the maknae line before Hakyeon shut them up and sent you off. You caught the glint in his eye. He wanted you to call him later. You nodded. The boys began to walk away. Jaehwan lingered for a while, watching as you waved with a small smile. He watched and he knew. He knew something was wrong. But he knew he wasn't allowed to know. Not yet.
***
You arrived home only to find it empty. Your father was still out, probably grabbing a drink with his friends. In that moment you were convinced that you were the only human being who stayed home on a Friday night. You cooked yourself a meal and cleaned up the empty beer bottles and cans scattered around the floor. You decided to prepare the ingredients for your father's meal. He never liked it when you left him leftovers. He said it was too much of a hassle for him to warm it up and that you should appreciate what he does for you by cooking him a fresh meal.
You had started to fry pork belly when your phone rang. Just as you were about to go answer your phone, the door flung open and your father stumbled in. One glance at how his eyes were hooded gave you the hint that we has in a particularly bad mood today. You sighed a sigh of relief, happy that you chose to come home. But unfortunately for you, your father heard and snapped his head over at you, the anger in his eyes increasing.
"What the hell was that?"
You shook your head. "N-Nothing, appa... I was just sighing because I forgot to slice up the garlic." Fear coursed through your nerves. You held in your breath as your father's stare continued to drill into your entire being. With a few grumbles and mumbles, he turned away and you finally began to breathe again. You cleared your mind and put all your energy and focus into making him a meal that will, you hoped, satisfy him.
The sounds of the water boiling and knife against the cutting board seemed to further upset him, however. You, being too absorbed in your work, didn't notice when your angry father stormed over behind you. His hand grabbed a fistful of your brown locks and you yelped loudly.
"I came home wanting a cooked meal and some peace and quiet. But all I see is this," he hissed.
You bit your lip and shut your eyes, preparing yourself for the blow. He dragged you by the hair to the living room and threw you down. Your head hit the wall and your vision went blurry. Still trying to recover from the blow, you didn't notice when his shoe came smashing down against your arm and you cried out. Your body curled up as you tried to shield yourself from his foot and shoe. But no matter what, you found yourself screaming in pain as your body was being attacked.
***
You woke up the next morning sore and left with new bruises and scars. You forced yourself to sit up and grabbed your phone. Opening the new messages, you fought back tears as pictures of you and Jaehwan filled the screen. Hate mail saying, "You're with the new guy now?", "When will you stop" and "Be prepared on Monday" filled your inbox. Absentmindedly, your hands came up to your forearms and you began to dig your nails into the skin, sliding them along your arms and back up continuously. The tears slowly fell from your eyes. Another buzz from your phone stopped your fingers, red scratch marks evident. You slowly picked up your phone to see Hakyeon's face. You answered him.
"H-Hakyeon-oppa...?"
"Eun Jae-ah." His voice calmed you down a little bit and you closed your eyes. "Eun Jae-ah, what's wrong? Did he hurt you again?"
"Oppa," you said softly to stop his bombardment of questions. "Just talk to me, oppa... I just need to hear someone else's voice..."
Hakyeon sighed on the other line. "You want to meet up? I'll pick you up if you want."
You nodded once and hummed in approval. "Appa left already..."
"Okay," his voice was low. "Get ready and I'll come over in thirty minutes."
You nodded again. "Arraso, oppa..."
You hung up and sighed before finally getting out of bed, wincing from the pain. A shower would be nice, you thought as you made your way to the bathroom. The water burned against your skin, steam building up immediately, but it felt good. It hurt, but it felt good. Like the constant scratching of the arms. You took your time, scrubbing your skin four or five times and just letting the water run down your body. After getting out, you slowly got yourself ready. The clock read 10:50, and you knew Hakyeon would be coming soon. You were about to slip on your socks when the doorbell rang. You were confused. It was still a good ten minutes before Hakyeon was supposed to come. But nonetheless, you quickly ran downstairs and opened the door.
“Hakyeon-oppa why are you-”
You stopped.
It wasn’t Hakyeon.
It was Lee Jaehwan.
A/N: Another update by yours truly~ Thank you to my ten subscribers for subscribing to this story! I hope you all are enjoying it. Author-nim is sad because she couldn't go to KCON 2014 TT_TT
BUT I do hope to go visit KCON another year when VIXX is there! And I hope they hold a concert here... BUT ANYWAYS~ Hope you enjoy and remember to subscribe and upvote! \(^0^)/
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