pulling on cosmic strings ꩜ pi hanwool, study group

3. an earful from minhwan

"Boring as always." Minhwan pops a lolly from his lips and points it between both of them, "Because you guys decided to play hooky without me!"

"It was your choice not to follow us," Hanwool shrugged.

"Hey! I had the decency of being a good student," Minhwan boasted.

"Your grades tell me otherwise."

Minhwan gasps in shock, "Minju! Did you hear what he just said to me?!"

Minju smacked him playfully, "Stop being overdramatic."

Huffing at what she just said, Minhwan pouted, "Fine. I'll just be silent from now on."

"Good," Hanwool smirked.

Recalling something in his memory, Minhwan's face lit up, "Wait did you guys hear about Hyunwoo?"

Both Minju and Hanwool groaned.

"Who?" Minju inquired.

"Lee Hyunwoo, the guy in your grade that has a twin sister. What was her name again?" Minhwan tapped his finger against his chin, "Right! Lee Jiwoo. She's the one being blackmailed by Gyujin into dating him, pretty sick, isn't it?"

Minju took a moment to remember. Lee Hyunwoo, who sacrificed his own studies to earn money for his sister, only to be led down the wrong path. Just like all the others she failed to save, he-

No. Minju shook off the thought.

She had another chance, right?

This time, she would save them all.

"What's up with him?" Minju asked.

Minhwan chomped down on the lollipop, crushing it. "Remember when he got pretty beat up by a nerd in his class? It was such a show too, they started a fire. Apparently he hasn't been coming to school for a while"

Hanwool hummed in thought, "How roughed up was he that he'd be too ashamed to attend school? Who did it, again?"

"Yoon Gamin."

The memories came flashing back.

Yoon Gamin. The boy in glasses who just wanted to study, when studying in Yusung was basically impossible. It was him who approached her back then.

"You're Kim Minju, right? Number 1 in our grade. Nice to meet you, I'm Yoon Gamin. Would you join my study group?"

Minju had rejected his offer back then, but she remembered him. His bright smile, his courage and determination. Gamin was so innocent and kind, clueless of the depth of the horrors instilled and buried under the grounds of Yusung.

She never saw that same boy ever again, after what went down. All she knew was he had become hopeless, with nothing but emptiness behind those eyes.

"-you daydreaming again?"

All of a sudden, hands were frantically waved right in front of Minju's face. She shoved them away, pushing them back into Minhwan's chest.

"Wasn't daydreaming, just tired."

"That's what daydreaming is, princess," Minhwan retorted.

Minjj cringed at the nickname, "Don't call me that."

"So what are you planning to do about him?" Minhwan turned his attention towards Hanwool.

As they continued to talk, Minju started dozing off, no energy spared in her body.

Clocking out of the conversation, Minju got up and lifted her bag off the floor in the corner of the room. "I'm going to head home first," she announced.

"Not staying for longer?" Hanwool proposed.

"Too tired," Minju imitated a yawn.

Just like that, she hauled the backpack over her shoulder and walked out the door. She closed the door to the apartment unit, and headed for the escalator.

The three of them had a studio apartment they shared as a lounge, courtesy of Hanwool. It was a place they usually hung out, where they stayed when they had nowhere to go. When school wasn't fun, or when their own homes were too suffocating.

As they grew older, they started to use it less. Although they all worked for the same company, if that's what one could call it, the animosity between them grew.

The three were still the same people they were before, yet different. They grew apart, but Minju knew she would still take a bullet for either of them, just like they would, for her.

Minju wished she could pinpoint when everything went wrong, but then she'd have to draw a big, red circle around YB.

As she walked out of the apartment building, Minju called for a cab and went on her way home.

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She walked into the empty house, her parents nowhere to be found. It wasn't an unfamiliar sight. They usually stayed out late, both noses deep in work.

Feeling full after her meal at the convenience store, she quickly washed up and plopped onto her bed. Minju laid sprawled on her bed,eyes facing the empty ceiling above her.

She was physically tired after today's occurrences, but that didn't stop her mind from running. Perhaps this was all a dream. But which was the dream? The life she lived where she tragically died, or this?

Maybe tomorrow, she would wake up and return to her past life. Perhaps when she woke up the next morning, she would be-

Dead?

There was no way she could go back.

So what now? Was this the universe playing a sick joke on her? Making her repeat the same life, experiencing the same torture?

As Minju closed her eyes that night, she secretly hoped, wished, that she would wake up in the same, comfy bed in which she currently rested.

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Author's Note

Thank you so much for 100 reads! I'm actually leaving a lot to the imagination (Hyunwoo & Gamin's backstory in her past life), but I'll try to reveal it in the next few chapters. Honestly, this chapter felt a bit empty/pointless, let me know if its any good!