Her mother raises an unimpressed brow as if to say, 'Try me'.
Sujin's face falls, "But it says 'Only a two hour drive from Seoul'... Like - South Korea Seoul. Like - on the other side of the world Seoul!"
"You read correctly."
Oh, god. It's even worse than the death penalty.
"What the f-"
"Language!"
"Mom! This is insane!"
"You're overreacting."
"Dad-" She whips her head around, pleading eyes directed toward the man currently looking nervously toward the ground, "Are you seriously letting her do this right now?!"
"I told you, this decision was made by both of us. It's just as much your father's decision as it is mine." Her mother chastises.
The girl lets out a loud groan, dropping her head back against the wall with a thud, "I can't go to South fu-" She rethinks her vocabulary before she risks digging an even deeper grave for herself, "Freaking Korea!"
Juliette pinches the bridge of her nose in exasperation, "You were born in Seoul, Sujin. You are South Korean."
"We moved before I even turned 1! My whole life is here, Mom! Everyone I know- Everything I know is here!" Sujin frowns, arms flying at her sides to make a point.
"Well, not everyone." Her father counters unhelpfully.
Sujin blinks back at him blankly.
"Do you remember the Parks, Sujin? From down the road?" Her mother taps her fingernails - which are currently varnished in a shiny, deep red - against the oak desk, "Mr. and Mrs. Park and their son, Jongseong - lovely boy, by the way. Very handsome."
Sujin instinctively scrunches her nose, "Jay?"
The Parks lived in the neighborhood all the way back when Sujin was in elementary school, in the big old-money mansion a few doors down. Their families grew decently close during that time, and Sujin had met their son a handful of times, but 'lovely' certainly wouldn't be the word she'd use to describe the boy who used to help her singe ants with a magnifying glass every 4th of July. A little weird, sure, and maybe even funny on a good day. But lovely? Not so much.
It's been a long time since Sujin last saw them. Hell, she hasn't even thought about their mere existence in years, seeing as the family of three had packed up and moved out of the country just before her tenth birthday.
"Yes." Juliette simpers, "Mrs. Park was actually the one who recommended the school to me. She said it's worked wonders on her son ever since they sent him in the start of high school. He's a changed young man now, you'll see. So charming and diligent."
Sujin fights the urge to throw up in her own mouth, "Great. Why don't you pay him a visit then?"
Juliette sighs, "He was just like you, Sujin. Troubled and lost, and now he's-"
"Troubled and lost?" Sujin repeats incredulously. In this moment, she lets go of any previous inhibitions that have been keeping her from unleashing the fullest extent of her protests - given the current circumstances, how the hell could things possibly get worse? "Oh, give me a break -this is bullshit! I can't believe you're doing this to me!"
"You did this to yourself!"
She doesn't know whether it's because of the sheer volume of her mother's exclamation - that she could have sworn rattled the walls - or the fury burning deep in her near-obsidian irises, but Sujin is frozen in place. Stunned.
"You're going to Darisan and you're completing high school there whether you like it or not." Juliette finishes decisively, glaring down at her daughter with not even a hint of remorse, "You can either spend the rest of your time here moping, or start packing your things and saying your goodbyes. It makes no difference to me - you're leaving in two weeks regardless."
The woman makes her way out of the study, door slamming behind her with a Bang!
Sujin stares helplessly at her father, praying for some kind of miracle.
Donghyun shakes his head with a deep sigh.
"You heard your mother."
And with that, he's gone too.
SAGE'S SPACE! 🗯️
i have a love-hate relationship with this chapter 🧍♀️ i really wanted to bring out sujin's stubbornness, and am praying to god i did it well T-T ; you've all probably noticed by now that she's by no means a perfect character - in fact, she's probably going to come off quite bitchy at the start - but i swear it's all for a good ol' character arc !!! i just want to make her emotional transformation throughout this book very apparent, and that means we have to see all her good and bad sides, ykwim? complex characters 🔛🔝🙏
ALSOOO yall see that sneaky little jay introduction i threw in there ?!?!!! i'm writing him and sujin's reunion as we speak and am dying for y'all to read it tbh. their dynamic is gonna be 👨🍳💋 !
til next time, sage ♡
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