After staring out at her window for hours, Hyun Ae noticed it was five. She decided to leave early for school in hopes of avoiding an awkward confrontation with her father. She grabbed her “Miss You” composition before she left her room, a smile on her face.

Arriving at the school with no one there was strangely relaxing to her. Her mind at this point was very unstable, having lacked sleep and meals for days. Quickly going to a vending machine, she bought a few food items that would tide her over for the moment. She lazily walked around the school as she ate, not knowing what to do for the first time.

She ended her tour at the library to pass the time by reading a good book. However, she soon realized she wasn’t the only one.

“Bobby?”

Bobby looked up from his book and was astonished to see Hyun Ae here so early.

“Oh hey! Didn’t think anyone else was here but me and a few teachers.”

“Oh haha, I just decided to come early today.”

“That’s cool, take a seat!”

Hyun Ae walked over and chose the seat directly across from him, noticing he was working on some ideas for the project.

“So, about yesterday...,” Hyun Ae started off.

Bobby looked up almost immediately as he raised his brow.

“I just really want to say that I appreciate what you did for me. I have so much respect for you, to the point where I regret not ever getting to know you sooner…I mean, we’ve been classmates for ten years now…,” Hyun Ae said with a frown.

“Haha, it’s okay – we’re friends now though!”

Hyun Ae smiled as she took out the crumpled page of music.

“Did you get any sleep last night?”

“No…I could have, but there was just too much for me to think about, haha. I’m amazed that I’m still alive and functioning right now; though I must say, my eyelids feel like a tower of bricks has been placed on them.”

Bobby laughed as Hyun Ae bit her lip.

“But, since you’re working on the song – I actually have an idea that we’ll both love.”

“Oh really, what is it?”

Hyun Ae opened up the crumpled page and slid it over to Bobby, astonishing him.

“But…this song…”

“Yeah, I know. But after you talked to me yesterday, I realized I wasn’t doing anything for myself by just letting this piece rot in my book forever. I want my personal piece to be shared to the world so that my mom can hear it from wherever she is. So…I give you permission to rearrange it.”

“Wow, holy crap…Hyun Ae, this is awesome! Our song is going to be amazing now, I just know it. And I promise, I’ll make this song worth your time so that you don’t regret handing this over to me.”

“I trust you,” Hyun Ae said with a smile.

With those three words, Bobby felt his heart swell. She trusted him. Bobby shyly smiled as he took the composition in appreciation.

After what seemed to be a light conversation between the two for an hour or two more, they headed off to class together. They took their seats as students came rushing in, noticing the interactions between the two top students. Hyun Ae’s absence for the majority of math class yesterday had become a hot topic among the student body, and she noticed all of their whispers and glances toward the pair. Though Hyun Ae desperately wanted to know what they were thinking, she decided it was for the better not to. Their words would only make matters worse.

As the teacher walked in and began the lesson, Hyun Ae started to notice a blurriness in her vision and a slight pain yet numb feeling in her head. She lightly shook herself, hoping to wake up any sleeping body parts, but that only made it worse. She dropped her pencil and tried her best not to attract any attention to herself as she tried to concentrate on the lesson. She gripped the side of her desk harshly as she quickly glanced at the clock – there was still a while before class ended.

Her stomach started to rumble as the pain in her head started to increase. Her hand stumbled around her backpack looking for her water bottle. Once it was in her grasp, Hyun Ae drank until some of her pain disappeared. However, it was then that her body started to react strongly to the lack of sleep. She yawned several times over the course of the class as she pinched her arm to stay awake. Her eyelids kept dropping as her eyes rolled back to her head. Her body was screaming for sleep, but she couldn’t. She faced her notebook as she lightly closed her eyes in hopes of restoring a small portion of her energy.

Behind her, Bobby noticed Hyun Ae’s strange behavior. Her body looked like it was going to fall out of her chair at points, and he could tell that her lack of sleep was getting to her. He lightly tapped her shoulder, but there was no sign of response. He began to worry that she had fallen asleep in class. None of the teachers appreciated sleeping students, especially not the top student. He started poking her with a pencil as he nervously glanced at the clock – class would be over soon and he could wake her up to take her to the nurse’s office.

Luckily, Hyun Ae responded to the incessant poking and managed to survive through the last part of the class. During the ten minute break, Hyun Ae struggled to move out of her seat without tripping. Bobby quickly moved from his own seat in order to support her, not noticing the eyes of all the other classmates. Feeling Bobby’s support, Hyun Ae lightly tried to remove his hands as she stood up firmly. However, the strength required for her to stand up straight depleted her remaining energy as she felt her legs give way. Her vision turned darker as she felt herself falling forward. Bobby instantly picked her up bridal style and ran towards the nurse’s office.

“Poor Hyun Ae...”

As he reached the nurse, he laid her down on the bed and instantly felt her forehead.

The nurse began hooking up Hyun Ae to various pieces of equipment to run tests. Seeing Hyun Ae’s almost lifeless form in front of him, he began to carefully observe all of her features. She had tremendous eye bags that gave her eyes a hollowed out look; her skin was ghostly white from the lack of nutrition. Her body was so cold and he instinctively rubbed his hands over hers in order to restore some of her body temperature. Without realizing it, one of his hands carefully reached to caress her cheek before sliding over her pale pink lips. The nurse curiously looked at him, assuming that they were dating. Bobby noticed how similar she was to her mother – the same wavy hair, short eyelashes, small face, perfectly arched eyebrows, and chubby cheekbones. He pulled out some paper that had been stored in his pocket earlier this morning – it was the things he had written down during her interview as well as his observations of yesterday.

His other hand pulled out the “Miss You” composition as inspiration hit him. He started penning down lyrics, the words flowing out of him like a waterfall. He glanced at Hyun Ae every so often in hopes that she would wake up to see him writing out the perfect song.

“Uhm, Mr….?”

He turned to make eye contact with the nurse.

“Kim Ji Won.”

“Kim Ji Won. I have finished running the tests. It seems that your friend is lacking a lot of sleep and nutrients in her body – I’m going to run to the cafeteria to prepare a meal for when she wakes up. However, she should be fine. Once she comes to, she should be relatively stable. She’ll just need lots of sleep and hearty meals for the next few days to restore her body to the normal levels.”

“Okay, that’s great to hear – thank you.”
“Also, I have called her father’s phone number to let him know of her accident, and he is on his way.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you for the information.”

With that, the nurse left as Bobby let out a sigh.

He quickly ran to the music room to grab a keyboard and back to the homeroom to grab his laptop. He started working on rearranging the song in hopes of letting Hyun Ae’s dad walk in on the making of an amazing song.

He added some nice soft beats to the beginning as he started trying out his rap to see how well they blended together. He nodded his head in approval as his grin got wider. He made sure that Hyun Ae’s beautiful piano melody still stood out as he started adding some more instruments in for harmony. He quickly rewrote lyrics as he went along, keeping both of their mothers in mind. He looked at Hyun Ae and smiled; she was going to love this piece. Just as he started to tinker with more sounds, a knock came from the door.

Bobby slowly walked over and opened the door to find Hyun Ae’s father right in front of him. He immediately bowed at a ninety-degree angle as he said his formal hellos. Hyun Ae’s father simply nodded as he walked past Bobby, refusing to make any eye contact.

“How is she?”
“She’s fine. The nurse is getting her some food and she should be better once she wakes up…,” Bobby said, eyeing the father’s reaction.

Her father simply nodded again, happy to hear that his daughter was alright.

The atmosphere was awkward as Bobby didn’t know what to say; he knew what the father figure thought of him.

“So…how’s school going for you?”

“It’s good…just living life each and every day,” Bobby muttered.

“That’s nice…what’s all this stuff here?”

Hyun Ae’s father motioned toward the keyboard and various papers scattered around the table.

“Oh, I was working on the song project. I wanted to surprise her when she woke up…,” Bobby bit his lip nervously.

“I see.”

“Your daughter is very talented…the piece she gave me is very emotional and beautifully created.”

Her father stiffened at the talk of his daughter in relation to music.

Bobby refused to stop there as he started to speak more confidently.

“I think she shines the brightest whenever she’s talking about music. Her smile is very genuine…,” Bobby continued as her father continued staring at Hyun Ae.

“She’s learned from her mother well,” Bobby finally stated as Hyun Ae’s father turned around to look at him.

Not missing a beat, Bobby quickly mentioned leaving the two of them alone for now as he bowed once more. Quickly leaving, Bobby stared at them from the outside, hoping that his words had affected her father in some way.

A few hours later, Hyun Ae stirred in the stiff bed. She let out groans and yawns for a few minutes before stretching her body out completely. She fluttered her eyes open, finding herself in an unfamiliar place as the smell of food ran through her nostrils, signaling a response from her empty stomach. However, as she turned to find out where the delectable smell was coming from, she was surprised to see her dad hovering next to her.

“….Dad?”

“Oh, you’re awake.”

She slowly sat up as her dad looked at her. She couldn’t tell what he was feeling as he had a completely blank expression on.

He sighed.

“We need to talk.”

“O-okay…, what exactly are we talking about?”

 “I’m sorry.”

Hyun Ae’s eyes widened as her mind ran through thousands of questions. She leaned in closer to him as he looked at her closely. She had gotten so thin these last few days, and he knew he was responsible. He carefully gave her a glass of water as he took a deep breath, ready to open up and explain his actions.

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Whew, another chapter done~ I planned to add a lot more, but decided that it would be better to divide it up into two chapters instead of making it an insanely long chapter.

Thanks to those who have subscribed and commented, love you all~

~thucthuc