Colder Than Winter [BTS | Drama | Romance]

12. Unexpected Guests

YURIM

At least the constant headaches are gone now.

I added another folded t-shirt in the neat pile. The living room was a city of folded towers of clothes. On the couch were six separate stacks for my parents, all categorized by material. The piles scattered on the tiled floor around where I sat were mine and Minju's.

It had been two days since I fell. Thankfully, my family believed my story about my missing a step. I was in so much pain when I told them that they couldn't tell I was lying.

Mom was the toughest to satisfy with details. She must've remembered what I said about Namjoon and his group. Luckily she rested her interrogative skills when I brought up my pain.

Speaking of pain, yesterday was a day full of awkward walks due to the bruises on my body. Minju said I walked like a pregnant lady. I made sure to give her a good flick on the forehead for that. Hoseok who dropped off my school work for the second day in a row insisted I stay in bed. But I wasn't going to accept being invalid. I didn't want to miss more days of school than were necessary, so I needed to practice walking with the discomfort. Besides, I'm sure my three days off would be enough to heal.

Not that I actually wanted to go back to school.

Flashbacks of that devious smile kept replaying in my head. Including the complete absence of hesitation when he shoved me. Like he was eager. It was as though he knew that it was only the beginning. Was it really? Would my daily life consist of cruel torment until they're satisfied?

Something in my gut shifted. I swallowed the bitter saliva that pooled in my mouth as I thought about returning to school. More specifically returning to those four demons I could no longer call bullies. They were seriously insane! What else would they do to me if I returned?

I darted for the bathroom, my hand gripping my stomach.

Just as I lifted the seat of the toilet, my upper body tensed up. A stream of hot, acidic bile forced itself out of my mouth and plopped into the toilet bowl. A wave of pain pulsated through my back with every forced arch but there was nothing I could do about that. I'm glad Minju hadn't came back from school yet. It was definitely around that time.

After I was done, I flushed everything down and proceeded to brush my teeth. As I brushed, my eyes fell on my own pale reflection. Beads of sweat congregated on my forehead. My hair laced loosely in two French braids, the two tails twisted up into buns behind my ears. And a good thing too, otherwise they'd have traces of sick in them.

My arms in its sleeves looked like a popsicle stick protruding from a much larger cup-shaped slab of ice cream. It was no wonder everyone worried so much. I look as though the wind could pick me up and blow me away to another planet.

Even though my body looked frail, my eyes had an unfortunate but natural look of contempt when I wasn't smiling. They were so empty and black. It's no wonder people avoided me all these years. All of my honest thoughts with such a soulless look probably came across as cold superficiality. What I find to be the actual mystery was why Hoseok and Seokjin weren't repelled by this like everyone else.