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— Hyeori, tell me the truth… — her father spoke while looking at the girl on the stretcher. Her parents had returned from their trip when the police contacted them because of what had happened, although Hyeori asked them not to, the girl was still a minor, so she couldn’t do much.
The girl had some cuts on her face that had been covered by white bandages and her head was bandaged due to the large opening that, although she didn’t need stitches, she had to be careful with it, and she was grateful that she would only have to wear it that night.
— It’s the truth, dad, I fell from the second floor, the floor was old, I was jumping and, well, it broke, I fell…
—Then explain to me what the hell you were doing in that place… Surely it was that thug who took you, right? I told you last time, I’m going to put that idiot in a correctional facility if you don’t get away from him. — The mention of Sooho made Hyeori tense, looking at her mother, who really liked Sooho more than the man, and she knew very well that the boy would never induce the younger to do something stupid like that.
But as always, she wasn’t going to open her mouth.
— It’s not enough for you to make us return from an important business trip, you also dare to disobey us. Do you know what this stupidity of yours is going to cost us? —The girl didn’t answer, she knew that she wouldn’t even gain anything by doing it, she preferred to avoid the inconvenience—Where is that stupid guy anyway? He sent you to the hospital and he doesn’t even have the courage to be h–
— Sooho has nothing to do with this, stop mentioning him. I told you before, I’ll say it again now, the floor broke, I fell and my head hit the broken cement, that’s all. — Hyeori clarified, with a strong and confident voice, looking the man in the eyes, who made eye contact with her for a moment before nodding.
—Well, defend that stupid good-for-nothing… But I want you to listen to me carefully because I’m not going to repeat this to you again… When you get discharged, you’re going to finish the school year and we’re going to Canada Immediately, you will never see that criminal again in your life, do you understand?
Hyeori looked up upon hearing her father’s plans, noticing the man with his arms crossed over his chest, looking down at her superiorly. — No.
—It wasn’t a question.
— My no, wasn’t a suggestion, I’m telling you. I will not do it. Forget that.
—Brat, talk to me with respect. I am your father and as long as you are not of age you are not the one to choose… I am fighting to raise you and have a life worthy of a Kang and this is how you repay me…
— Raise me? — Hyeori said with a sarcastic laugh, looking at her parents in front of her. — Since I can remember, the only thing you consider as parenting is yelling at me that I have to do things better and decide who I should hang out with, you locked me in the room so I can study because according to you… I’m a mediocre person who doesn’t have more obligation than studying… You would go away for months and when you returned it was only to avoid having to spend time at home because of your “busy schedule”. You were never at my awards ceremonies, events, meetings. Now you want to raise me? — The girl laughed sarcastically before looking at her mother, who simply looked away from her. —Living a life worthy of a Kang, having a rich husband who cheats on me with his secretary like he does with you, is that a life worthy of a Kang, mom?
The woman looked at her daughter, her eyes, which they shared, looked with annoyance at the youngest, she smiled, knowing that she had hit the nail on the head. The man looked at the younger, who, despite speaking with a trembling tone, her eyes were serious, without a hint of light or sadness, it was a topic that, no matter how much it affected her, she was not going to let her father notice it.
The man felt his hand sting at the younger’s words, however, he stopped those impulses of anger that were in his body and just nodded before leaving the room, leaving Hyeori and her mother alone.
—Stop contradicting him like that, it will end badly, you know…
—Will he hit me again like he did when I was five years old? Or like when I was seven? No, I know, he will beat me up like he did on my twelfth birthday. — Hyeori said in a serious voice, looking at her mother with some annoyance. — Go and congratulate your husband for avoiding hitting his daughter who has her damn head split open, just because they are in a hospital.
The girl said, looking away, knowing that her mother wouldn’t say anything, and she didn’t, she left the place, leaving the girl alone. Closing her eyes, Hyeori sighed, thinking about what she would say to Sooho about that event, why she had left him alone on her birthday. Knowing well that the boy was possibly with Nala and Jax in her room at that moment, he was waiting for her arrival or trying to look for her cell phone, which he wasn’t going to find because Wooyoung had taken it.
Her head only flew to what she felt in her chest, the girl did not believe in coincidences, she knew that, if she was feeling that pain in her chest at that moment, it was for something, and although she did not want to accept it, she knew that that something included Sooho.
She was terrified and didn’t even know what to think about the whole situation.
…
—Even with organs about to explode, you won’t stop studying? — Hyeori asked, sitting on Sieun’s bed.
The girl had gotten bored of being in her room, so she had run away and moved to Sieun’s room, who let her lie on his bed while he did some equations in his book. Hyeori was looking at her cell phone, which her mother had bought her, and with which she was lucky enough to be able to recover her old number, so as not to interrupt him and to be able to distract herself from the headache she felt.
— You should do the same… Your grades are going down. — Hyeori looked at the boy, wondering how he knew about her grades.
—I’m in second place, of course they’re not going down.
—You were always the first.
The girl was going to complain when her cell phone started ringing, looking at the screen, Sooho’s nickname appeared on her screen, making the girl get a little scared and drop the phone on her lap. Sieun looked at the girl’s action, frowning at her when he saw her scared.
— Just explain the absence, tell him that a problem arose and you won’t go…
— Sooho is not going to believe me… — The girl said, trying to find some excuse that could be convincing. — If I tell him that, he will go to my house to look for me and my parents… Either my father hits him and sends him to a correctional facility or my mother tells him where I am and what happened.
—Stay at my house. — The boy said, making Hyeori look at him with confusion. — Tell him that some family problem arose and let’s go to my house, spend the night there and then, if you want, you can leave… You said your parents would leave tomorrow, right? Then you won’t have to explain.
Hyeori took the phone with trembling hands, praying that her excuse would work.
“My grandma had a small heart attack last night. I had to go right away, I’m sorry for not telling you and making you worry on your birthday, I’m sorry, I’ll call you later… I love you.”
Lies.
Hyeori hated lying to Sooho, she couldn’t, she simply felt like her stomach wouldn’t leave her alone, and how her head wouldn’t stop thinking about the situation every time she blurted out some false fact, so much so that not even an hour had passed and she was already releasing the truth.
And at that moment she didn’t know if lying to him would keep him from getting into trouble and that feeling that something bad would happen to him would go away, or if it would just make things worse.
…
— Damn Sieun, I’m going to cook for you for a whole week, you can’t just have this in your fridge. — Hyeori complained as she showed him a container with Ramyeon and bottles of water that she had taken from the boy’s refrigerator.
The girl had agreed to stay at least a few days at the boy’s house, her father was also away, so he didn’t even see a problem and neither did she, although in reality, they both wanted to escape from Sooho and having to tell him. what had happened.
— I do not cook.
— No, if you don’t tell me I won’t believe you. —The girl she said sarcastically, leaving the room in search of a frying pan so she could start making dinner, she wasn’t going to die of hunger.
The sound of the doorbell was heard, making both look towards the door. The duo looked at each other with frowns. — Are you waiting for someone? — The doorbell was heard for the second time, and Hyeori began to worry when she saw how Sieun shook his head.
Walking towards the door, Hyeori shushed Sieun when a familiar boy’s voice was heard. — Sieun… Are you at home? — Hyeori looked at Sieun, who she denied so that he would not approach the door. — Dude, I know you’re there, you have social anxiety, you don’t like leaving the house. — The boy remained silent for a few minutes, minutes that seemed eternal for both inside the apartment. — Okay, listen… If you can contact Hyeori, call me, please… And tell her to answer my calls… I don’t know what I did wrong, but tell her that we can talk about whatever happened… Good? See you in class, baby.
Sieun looked at the door and felt Hyeori moving, he looked at her, noticing the hand she had on her mouth, hee eyes were on the door, he was going to say something before the girl’s cell phone started vibrating on the table from the dining room taking her phone, she hung up on Sooho’s incoming call, feeling her throat itch. — We won’t be able to avoid it forever… — Hyeori said, looking at Sieun.
—But we can’t get him into trouble either.
—He’s already in trouble, Sieun…
…
—…Why didn’t Hyeori and Sieun come? They are never missing… Shit… Are they dead? — One of the boys who was on the roof asked, stopping suddenly with some fear. — Yeonbing went a little overboard that day and Hyeori… Hyeori looked like she was going to die any second, god, she looked like Carrie…
— I heard that Wooyoung and Bumseok broke her head… Literally…
Jeongchang, making them shut up, was upset because Bumseok wasn’t answering the calls, because Sooho had learned that he had been the one who took off the brakes on his motorcycle and now he had to pay him money that he didn’t have because of that bastard. Besides, if he found out what had happened to Sieun and Hyeori, they were literally dead. —Shut up, damn it, if they were both dead the teacher would have asked us to go to their funeral and Sooho would be a killing machine right now, and neither you nor I would be standing here right now.
—Maybe he doesn’t know that his girlfriend is dead, Jeongchang, I think-
— They’re not dead, idiot, stop getting on my nerves. — he said, before putting the phone back to his ear, turning around in frustration, he almost fell to the ground when he saw the person in front of them.
Sooho stood near the door to the roof, looking at them with a clenched jaw, hands in his pockets, and a heart pounding with fury, worry, fear, and more as he repeated those words… Are they dead? Why would they be dead? What was happening?
…
The blow reached the first three boys, Sooho had put them in a single line to wait to be hit, since none of them seemed to want to tell him what that whole conversation they had had a few minutes before had meant, well, everyone except Jeochang.
— Wait! —This one said, making the boy look at him seriously, still with his fist ready to hit him. Jeochang swallowed as he avoided meeting his eyes. — Oh Bumseok, he called you, but no…. you didn’t answer, so his idea was to take that girl, the one who lives with you and Hyeori… To attract you…
Sooho was confused at his words, attract him? Lure him to what? — What?
— He caught them both, but… We never thought Hyeori would end up like this, it wasn’t… We didn’t touch her. When Sieun appeared in your place, she started running and Bumseok went after her…— He said quickly trying to avoid the beating that he knew he would expect.
—You said he broke his head…. What did you mean by that?
The boy swallowed, really thinking if it was worth making the problem bigger, looking at his friend for an answer.
Bumseok wasn’t answering and he had been the cause of this.
— She… Hyeori… Hyeori helped Sieun… But she was… Her head, it looked like it had been hit with something heavy or if it had been hit against the wall a couple of times… But you… I swear we didn’t touch her, we even told Bumseok that it wasn’t a good idea, that the girl was enough, but he didn’t listen to us… He… He didn’t listen…
Sooho looked at the ground, trying to control the tears that his eyes wanted to release when imagining that scene, of his girl being hurt in that way, however, he also swallowed the tears of frustration, none of them told him, the three of them ignored him and even lied to him to hide that problem, which was theirs in the first place, they had nothing to do with it. —Who did that to Hyeori?
—Bumseok-
— Hyeori could perfectly have left him in the hospital… If it wasn’t you who did that to her… Who was it?
Jeongchang swallowed, looking into Sooho’s eyes for a second, being able to see the anger forming in them as he looked at him. — Bumseok paid Yeongbin’s friend… He paid him in exchange for hitting you… We didn’t know he would do that with Hyeori… He… He even seemed to pay attention to her, he didn’t let Bumseok do anything to her while she was unconscious… He seemed to care, but, we didn’t believe that he… Could leave her like this… — The boy walked away a little, looking up, meeting Sooho’s almost empty gaze. — Oh Bumseok did it all, we just went with him. I swear, we would never hurt Hyeori, not like that.
Sooho nodded. “He seemed to care” “Yeonbing’s friend” of course he knew who they were referring to, that bastard, although he swore that he wouldn’t be able to lay a hand on his girlfriend, not when he had a weird crush on her, however, he knew he was also an idiot who loved money.
Looking to his side before seeing the boy, who, without warning, he threw the punch in his stomach, he needed to hit someone right now, and they deserved it.
…
— Sieun, seriously, your brain is going to burn. — Hyeori said, looking at the boy severely focused on his notebook.
— Don’t worry, I’m not the one with a hole in my head. — Hyeori opened her mouth at his joke, which was quite funny, but she liked to be dramatic in some cases, and was going to complain, but before she could say anything in response, the doorbell rang.
The duo had ordered food so Hyeori was the one who got up from the boy’s bed so she could head to the door without bothering to put on the slippers that were in the hallway. She opened the door, cursing inwardly when she saw the figure in front of her.
Hyeori closed her eyes for a second when she saw Sooho’s face in front of her, he was looking at her seriously, his tense posture made her see how upset he was and that look with dark eyes only confirmed it, trying to hide her face so that he would avoid seeing her scratches, the girl cursed internally for not thinking twice when opening the door.
— Oh… Is your grandma okay? — He asked, alluding to what the girl had given him as an excuse for her disappearance that day, the girl just nodded while she looked at the ground, feeling horribly bad for lying to the boy like that.
— What are you doing here? — Sieun arrived suddenly, leaving his equations when he heard the taller one’s voice.
— I should ask you the same thing. Did you meet without me? Ah, that’s how those bad episodes in relationships start… — Sooho said jokingly, the duo couldn’t laugh, feeling bad that the boy had discovered them, they simply avoided looking him in the eyes, ignoring the hard and angry look that he gave when he could see better the wounds on the girl’s face and Sieun’s arm. — You’re fine?
— What do you mean?
Sooho looked at Sieun, noticing how the girl wasn’t really going to look at his face right now. — You will come to school tomorrow to take the final exams, right? — Sieun nodded, diverting his gaze from the taller one, making him delicately take his girlfriend’s chin. — Don’t miss the exams, Sieun.
When Sooho made Hyeori look at him, she knew what she had to do, so she nodded and he let go of her, looking to the side before looking back at her. —Let’s go home, Hyeori. — The girl looked at Sieun, who simply looked at her with doubtful eyes, she nodded and entered the house again, she was going to take her things so she could leave.
Once at the door again, she gave Sieun a hug goodbye before leaving the house, walking with Sooho towards the stairs so she could leave the place. — I’m not upset with you.
— Of course you are.
— I’m upset because you hid it from me and lied to me, I went to your house three times if not more, I even had to endure your father’s words because I was worried and decided to enter through the front door, when he told me all those insults, I didn’t understand what they were about, besides my person, because it seems like he hates me a lot. — The boy said, denying once they were both in front of the motorcycle. — But not even your mother had the courage to look me in the eyes and tell me where you were, they didn’t tell me that you were in the hospital, or what happened to you, I don’t know the reason, and I don’t want to know, but I do want to know yours. I want to know why you kept this from me.
— I…
— We’ll talk at home, come here. — Hyeori grimaced when the boy began to put the helmet on her head, even though he was being delicate, her wound had not yet healed, so it caused her great pain.
— Ah, no… Wait, Sooho… — The girl pushed him away a little, removing the helmet when she felt how it was pressing too hard on her wound.
Sooho frowned, bringing his hand to the back of the girl’s head, delicately placing her palm on it, he could feel an small wound on it, Sooho looked at Hyeori in disbelief, his anger simply growing more.
He laughed in disbelief, running his tongue along the inside of his cheek, closing his eyes feeling that lump in his throat begin to rise. — Jeongchang…he told me he broke your head, but I didn’t think he meant it…Wooyoung, that fucking asshole.
— Sooho…
—Why didn’t you tell me? Hyeori, you were in the hospital for two days, you bled enough to have a transfusion and now… I realize your head was broken… Was it really worth keeping all this from me?
—Listen to me… Bumseok-
— Bumseok is the one who did this to you, Bumseok is the cause of this, Kang Hyeori… — The boy interrupted, raising his voice a little, stopping when he realized that he was getting upset and did not want the girl to pay for his fury, sighing , the boy looked her in the eyes. — Let’s end this.
Hyeori frowned, however, she understood when the boy took out his cell phone, she grabbed his wrist, stopping him in the process. — Sooho… Please, he will leave and won’t cause us problems again, please, leaves this like this and-
— For the love of God, Kang Hyeori, are you even listening to yourself? Bumseok could have gotten you killed that day if it wasn’t for that fucking idiot Wooyoung having a fucking crush on you… — Sooho broke free of his girlfriend’s grip. — I’m not going to allow that asshole to touch my girlfriend and leave here unpunished…
— Sooho, please think about the consequences that-
— Consequences…. What damn consequences, Hyeori? — The boy said, looking at her seriously. — Your father? He hates me, there is no remedy, my study? I’m shit at that, I have nothing to worry about… There are no consequences for me, the only one who will be him, because Hyeori… He touched you… And not only you, Sieun and Youngyi were there .
— Sooho… Please.
— I told you once, I’m going to say it again… I wouldn’t mind going to the fucking reformatory if it’s for you.
— That my father would like to put you in reform school is very different from the law doing so, Sooho, Bumseok paid Wooyoung, I don’t want you to get in trouble with him again, you’re hurt, you can’t… — Hyeori could feel her tears of desperation coming out, she wanted to tell the boy that she felt something would happen, but she don’t know the reason why she couldn’t, despair could only beg him not to continue with that problem.
— Stop crying. — The boy said, looking into the girl’s eyes, feeling his own sting. —Stop crying because, even if you think I’m a fool who follows you everywhere, you’re not going to make me let that coward get out of here without a guilty conscience.
Sooho approached her, wiping away the tears coming from Hyeori’s beautiful eyes. — Let’s just go home, I’ll prepare you something to eat… Please.
— We’ll go home. — Sooho smiled at her, caressing her cheek before placing a soft kiss on her lips, not caring about the salty taste of the tears that had fallen on Hyeori’s. He sighed when he felt the girl’s cold hands in his.
For a moment, he wanted to listen to her, leave it at that, go home and lock themselves in her room with Nala and Jax while they watched a movie, but he couldn’t, he allowed the girl he loved to be hurt, he allowed her to be sent to the hospital, But he wasn’t going to let the person who did it just walk away like a coward without even paying half of what he did to his beloved.
Because it was what he swore when he was just a child, the moment he saw those sun-colored eyes, he swore to himself that he would not allow anyone else to hurt the girl with beautiful eyes.
Sooho, he separated, opening his eyes to leave a small affectionate kiss on the girl’s cheek, where she had a small bandage. He looked at her eyes again, noticing how her eyelashes had become even longer due to the tears that had been shed from her eyes a few seconds ago. — Let’s go home Sooho, please.
— We will… after you receive your apology. — The girl blinked with some difficulty before trying to take his hand and take his cell phone from him, however, he simply ignored her and put his cell phone to his ear, taking the younger’s hand to melt her into a hug and avoid that she would try to stop him.
— Where are you?… Answer me, you damn coward… Oh Bumseok, stop hiding… You didn’t do it to do that to Hyeori and Sieun… Why are you doing it now? Tell me where you are…
Once Sooho finished the call, the girl was released, he looked at her, noticing panic crossing her features. — Do not go.
— I’m going.
—What do you want me to do to make you stay? Sooho, please, you don’t understand… I… — Sooho could see how the younger’s breathing became stronger and faster, as if it would be difficult for her to breathe. — I know something bad is going to happen and I don’t want… that to happen to you Sooho… Please, let’s just go.
— Nothing bad is going to happen… Okay? I’ll talk to him, if he wants us to fight, we will, but I’m not leaving that place without that idiot apologizing to you…
— Sooho, understand that he’s a fucking coward and that he’s only going to pay for Wooyoung to beat you up… Please.
—Trust me, my love, we won’t go together, we will pick up Sieun and go to eat at Mrs. Shin’s restaurant… I promise.
— Please listen to me this time Sooho, just don’t go…
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