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tw ; SA, read with caution.
― thirteen.
"i don't know." inha held her cheek, knowing that her answer wouldn't suffice. her father scoffed, throwing the beer bottle that he had finished towards her head, missing by an inch as it smashed against the wall behind her. her mother sat on the sofa, watching the scene unfold with a sigh.
"you told him, didn't you?" inha's clenched her fists, sick and tired of the constant accusations. no matter what she said, her father wouldn't be satisfied with her answer, so what was the point in asking questions. "aren't you going to answer?!"
"no," she finally answered, the tears streaming down her face. "i'm not even friends with him." she added, glaring at the man. mr yeong, annoyed by her answer, walked over to the girl whilst picking up a large shard of glass before wrapping his hand around her neck tightly, threateningly holding the sharp weapon against her face.
inha gasped in surprise before her breath was taken away. she had never experienced her father's anger getting this extreme before. of course he was always angry with her, but this was something different ― this was murderous.
"should i just let everything he said come true?" he questioned teasingly, but it wasn't the friendly teasing. he was too cynical. "first you lose your competition, then get your silly teacher involved and now this boy? are you embarrassing me on purpose? am i not satisfying you enough? is that what it is?" he questioned, his grip getting tighter and tighter as inha struggled to breath. in a panic, she pulled at his hand, trying to free herself from his hold. "do you want to try something new? is that it?" he cooed, pushing back her hair.
inha didn't know how much longer she could hold out, feeling herself losing consciousness as her lungs begged for oxygen. "should i do it while your unconscious? would you prefer it that way?" the girl tried shaking her head, clawing at his hands. she would rather kill herself than let her father touch her body anymore. he never did anything more than groping and getting her to satisfy him, but who knows what he'd do to her body if she was unconscious.
"pl...ease..." she managed to breath out through her gasping. her father finally loosened his grip, his begging satisfying him. she was suddenly dropped to the ground when a phone began ringing, catching his attention. inha coughed, gasping deeply for air as she held her neck that she knew would have obvious bruising.
"you got lucky." he groaned, knowing that he had work to do before he could do anything to his daughter. inha wiped away the drool that had accidentally dripped down her chin, glaring at the man that proudly walked out of the room, as if he didn't just threaten to sexually assault his own daughter.
"lucky?" she chuckled, although there was nothing funny about the situation. even her own mother continued to sit on the sofa, quietly sipping on her cup of tea. her eyes were empty as she stared at inha, almost lifeless with her actions. "why won't you do anything?" she cried, her voice hoarse as tears streamed down her face. she had never felt this scared in her life before. she had always been used to taking her father's abuse, but now it was different.
something had changed between them that would forever haunt inha.
-
"inha?" silence followed her name, the class glancing over at the empty seat. "still not back." mr jeon sighed, scribbling an 'x' next to her name to mark her absence. yeosang stared at the seat as mr jeon continued.
ever since that day, he hadn't heard anything from inha. he didn't have her number to call her and he had no idea where she lived. he had visited the hospital plenty of times after school, but she was no where to be seen. it was like she had just up and disappeared out of existence, as if it wasn't hard enough before he transferred, it seemed even harder being by her side. not only that, he couldn't stop dwelling on what wooyoung had told him the other day too.
"just protect her."
what did that mean? he had thought he was talking about dohyun, but now he wondered if it was about what he had mentioned the other day when her father came in. whatever it was, inha's lack of attendance was only making him worry more. he had to get to the bottom of it.
"can i go to the bathroom?" yeosang cut off mr jeon's sentence, raising his hand to catch his attention. the teacher sighed, agreeing and waving him off before continuing with the lesson. the boy smiled, making his way out of the classroom, before heading downstairs towards the teacher's staff room. the first thing he had to do was find out where she lived.
he slowly slid the door open, peering inside to see if there was anyone. he was surprised to find the room empty, guessing that all the teachers were busy teaching. he had thought that they would've at least locked the door, but brushed it off as he hurriedly snuck in, heading over to mr jeon's desk which held his student files. he did a quick scan around before opening up the cabinet drawers, searching through the files before landing on inha.
"found it." he quietly cheered, pulling it out and opening it up. he hurriedly took a picture, knowing that he didn't have time to read through it, however, something did catch his attention. he read over the teacher's notes once more, wondering if he had read it properly, but he couldn't deny it.
