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― five.
"jung wooyoung, are you listening?" the boy jumped in his seat, realising that he was staring out the window, lost in a daze. mr jeon sighed, tapping his ruler against the boy's desk. "focus, will you." he ordered before turning back around, continuing to read the poem to the class.
"what's up with you?" song mingi questioned, elbowing his seatmate to grab his attention. wooyoung just waved him off, turning back to the book of poems that they were reading for their literature class. mingi rolled his eyes, also turning his focus back to the class.
"can someone tell me what this means?"
"the poet is trying to show the character's helplessness, the flower in the poem has no choice but to follow nature's path, whether there's a hurricane or an earthquake, she has to bear it all." mr jeon nodded, agreeing with inha, but it his expression showed that he was looking for something more.
"yes, but what about after?" he questioned. inha froze, seeming deep in thought. wooyoung watched curiously, wondering why she was hesitating to answer.
raising his hand, he cut into the conversation. "the flower's reminded that after every storm, there's sunshine."
-
"again." inha was panting for breath, lifting herself up off the gymnastics mat, her new teacher instructing her to go through the routine again. "you're not pointing your toes, and stretch your arms all the way through, you look sloppy." inha nodded, trudging back to the beginning as she repeated the routine.
she was able to pick up the sport quickly thanks to her other sports classes, but her body wasn't physically healthy to be jumping around. she couldn't even remember the last time she had a full meal, and with all the spinning and jumping around, it was playing a number on her head.
"ah!" inha screamed out in pain, the cartwheel that she had attempted had gone wrong, landing on her hand funny which caused her to lose her balance and fall to the floor. the girl was breathing heavily, trying to calm the churning in her stomach down, but it was no avail. it definitely didn't help as he teacher prodded at her to get back up.
"yeong inha!" her voice was stern, waiting for the girl to pick herself back up. "i'm sure your father wouldn't want to hear about your behaviour." like clockwork, inha lifted herself up slowly, trying to stop the room from spinning, but it was no use. her body wasn't catching up with how fast paced the world was going, resulting in her throwing up whatever it was in her stomachs onto the floor below her before falling into it and losing consciousness.
"inha!"
-
"i've never seen anything like this," inha's eyes slowly fluttered open as her consciousness returned. processing her surroundings, it didn't take long for her to realise that she was in a hospital bed. "if she stays like this for much longer, she could die."
inha couldn't help but smile at the word, for some reason, it brought her comfort. death. maybe that was the only way out of this hell. the idea of it didn't seem as bad, not when her reality was hell anyway.
"ah, she's awake." dr kang walked over to her bed side, smiling sadly down at the girl. "yeong inha, can you hear me?" he questioned.
"loud and clear." inha answered. she sighed, slowly pulling herself up so she was sitting up right. "what happened to me?" she questioned, checking her body for any injuries. the only thing that could cause her to be in hospital was her father.
"you blacked out and threw up." the doctor explained. "your body is going through extreme malnourishment. if this continues, it could stunt your growth and body development." he explained. "we've tried contacting your parents, but it goes straight to voicemail, is there anyone else we can contact?"
inha stared at the doctor blankly. it was in that moment did inha truly realise how alone she was. there wasn't a single person who came to mind who could protect her. "i don't have anyone else." she admitted. she didn't have any other family that she knew of, and anyone who worked under her father was just as bad as him. she didn't want to think of the problems that would arise from calling them. "can't i just leave?" she questioned.
dr kang shook his head. "since you're still under age, we need a guardian to proceed with your discharge and pay for the medical expenses." dr kang explained.
"i can pay for it myself," inha argued, trying to get out of it. she'd be safer if her parents weren't involved. "my parents are busy people, you know it yourself doctor, please just let me leave." she begged, but if anything, it just made dr kang even more adamant.
"we'll try contacting your parents again, you can wait here." it wasn't an unusual situation for dr kang, he had plenty of youths ending up in the er due to stupid decisions they had made and wanted to hide from their parents, he assumed that this was one of them.
little did he know the consequences that would follow inha from such an incident.
