Talking to the moon

Chapter 24

Kyujin had not expected Eunchae to be in such a bad mood when she saw her in school the day after the trial. Eunchae had been upset afterward, but Kyujin had given her hugs and gummies so the younger assumed everything would be alright. Her moms had even brought Kyujin out for ice cream on their way home, praising her for doing such a good job taking care of Eunchae and telling the truth, assuring her she wasn't in trouble for sneaking Eunchae in so many times but made it a point to tell her she needs to tell them when things like that happen. They told her that she helped put Eunchae's mommy in jail and that she was bad and made Eunchae sad. Kyujin didn't know why anyone would make Eunchae sad, she was the nicest, prettiest, and smartest girl in the world. They told her Eunchae would be happier and safer now.

Kyujin was starting to think they were wrong.

"Eunchae, you need to do you work like everyone else." Hanni came over to remind her for what had to be the fifth time in the past half hour, and just like every other time Eunchae shot her a glare, crossed her arms, and shook her head. Kyujin liked their teacher, she was really nice and always asked how they were feeling and cared about the answer. Hanni sighed, "Eunchae-"

"I don't want to." Eunchae all but growled, pushing the sheet of paper away from her. Hanni squatted down to her level, letting her arms rest on the desk.

"Do you want to take some quiet time?" Hanni asked, it wasn't a threat or ultimatum, just a suggestion, leaving Eunchae the choice. "I know what happened was really stressful and if you don't want to do your work because your sad that's okay, you can take some quiet time and relax if you feel the need to."

"Quiet time is stupid," Eunchae grumbled Kyujin had never seen her act like that towards Miss. Pham. Eunchae had once told her she really liked the teacher so this behavior really seemed strange.

"Well if you don't want to go have some quiet time, then you have to do your work." Hanni reiterated, softly pulling the paper back in front of Eunchae. "You get to choose what you want to do."

"Go away." There was so much bite in Eunchae's voice, Kyujin could see Hanni was visibly taken aback.

"Eunchae, where's this coming from? Do you want to talk about it?"

"Why? So you can go back and tell them everything I tell you and put other people in jail?" Woah. Hanni blinked a few times trying to take in what Eunchae just said. "I don't want to talk to you anymore."

Kyujin had expected Hanni to say something, but she just sighed, stood up, and walked away. She knew when to leave Eunchae alone, unfortunately Kyujin didn't have the same capacity. She learned that quickly when recess came and Kyujin found herself trailing Eunchae as she walked away from the small group of friends. "Are you not feeling good today?"

Eunchae didn't answer, just continued walking. Kyujin tried again, "I have some gummies if you want some."

"I don't want your disgusting gummies."

"You said you liked them." The hurt was obvious in Kyujin's voice, she could tell Eunchae heard it as well. She saw the girl's shoulder sag as she sped up, trying her best to leave Kyujin behind.

"Eunchae, wait-" In her attempt to follow her friend, Kyujin had failed to miscalculate how far her foot actually was from a rock laying on the pavement in her panic. Her ankle rolled painfully as she tumbled down to the ground, throwing out her hands to try and cushion her fall, letting out a loud gasp of pain. When she gained her bearing, the pain in her ankle, knees, and palms, causing tears to well up in her eyes as she started to inspect them and saw they were bloody and scraped up.

The whole commotion was enough to gain Eunchae's attention, turning around to see the teary Kyujin sniffling as she held her scraped up knee, a small amount of blood oozing from the cuts. Concern started to pool her stomach as she rushed over to her, taking the sweatshirt off herself and pressed it to her knee. "Are you okay?"