Broken

16

The ride home was filled with Nayeon's soft sniffles, so was the one to the airport, but the giddiness was present in the entire family, and Jihyo was elated about the turn her life took in the last few months. She did decide to have a family fancy dinner, but their days had been so hectic they didn't really do it, so, she figured she would do that before they returned to korea, and it would be a good way to send her family off. Her family, she couldn't put into words how grateful she will always be, for being given a chance to call them that.

The weekend went by too fast, the Im family toured Jihyo's school, signed her up for her classes, that should start in two weeks, toured the city, as much as they could, and Jihyo made sure to take them to dinner. When it was time to go home, Nayeon was bawling her eyes out, clutching the letters Jihyo wrote for her and the one for their friends (not to be shown to Sana and Jeongyeon), mama and papa Im had to physically drag their eldest into the boarding area, as Jihyo had insisted to take them to the airport (luckily her dorm-head, a very nice college student named Francis, agreed to go with her so he could take her home).

Jihyo felt the pang of loneliness as soon as her family passed through security, Francis bought her some ice cream on their way back, and she felt a little better. She knew she would be alone for the ride all along, but now she had people she could call her parents, an older sister, friends that really wanted her around, missing them would be a lot of work.

"You hanging in there, kiddo?!" Francis tries to make some small talk, the subway ride would take a while.

"I-I'm alri-ght." Jihyo manages with a small smile, she is still not secure enough with her english.

"That's better. You wanna talk? Like, about yourself a little?" He seems fairly interested.

"No-no, thank you. Can I-I just e-eat my i-i-ice cream, please?"

"Sure you can. Just come to me if you need anything, alright? I'll always listen, no matter what." Francis is chirpy, and pats Jihyo's head lightly, sitting up again and pulling his phone out.

They make small talk here and there, Jihyo manages to make her ice cream last the entire ride, Francis, at some point, gave her one of his earphones and showed her some of his favorite songs, she liked them and asked him to send her the playlist later. By the time they get back to the dorm, reality hits a bit harder than expected, and Jihyo knows she can barely wait until her family comes to visit.

The girl decides it would be better to just go to sleep, she had to go to orientation the next morning, classes had already started and she had two weeks to catch up to the program, not much of a problem, as her work for the basic course the took back in Korea were accepted, so she just had to catch up with the music program. Francis had been a sweetheart from the moment they all stepped into the building, so she knew he was, at the very least, approachable.

The rest of the Im family, on the other hand, wasn't faring so well, Nayeon was very vocal and very much clear about how this parting was upsetting her. Mama and papa Im were trying to calm their eldest daughter down, and soothe each other while at it. They, as much as the other parents, had taken a very strong affection towards the girl, they saw, day by day, how Jihyo withered and faded, they also had heard how the Parks talked about their daughter, the Myouis and the Chous (who were in the same neighbourhood group) also acquired a thirst for revenge about it.

So, with a mission, they were all set to have the Parks pay for what they did to Jihyo. Not like anyone would do anything drastic, losing their credibility would be more than enough, it was only needed for them to move away, very far away. That and mamas Myoui and Hirai, and papa Chou were itching to do something about the Parks, having them move out was the lightest the Ims could come up with to quench their thirst. And so they did.

It all began with the very first neighborhood meeting after Jihyo went abroad. Some neighbours were talking, not so coincidentally, mama Myoui was in the same group as the Park couple. Mrs Park was talking big about how they had more money to spare lately, and how she could, finally, have the crafts room she always wanted. Mama Myoui asked about her kids, to which mrs Park said they were all fine, so, Myoui proceeded to ask about each kid especifically, and, when only hearing about two, asked about the eldest.

Everyone knew the Parks had three girls, so that sparked everyone else's curiosity, and mrs Park said she only had two, but papa Chou had joined the conversation and made sure to not let the couple off the hook. By the end of the meeting, rumors had already spread with speculations about the eldest Park kid. Some were guessing the girl ran away, others were saying that wasn't the case, two other couples that lived on the same street, the Chens and the Lees said they saw a lot of people moving the girl's things to the Ims, and that the Chous and the Myouis were there as well.

Papa Im just let slip he had a new daughter and they all left it at that, allowing the rumors to spread like wildfire through their community. They were all in a fairly good neighborhood, where everyone was well off, enough to have influence over the background from whoever would move out of there. The whole point of staining the Parks reputation was having them not be able to move into another influential area ever again. Mama Myoui, Hirai and papa Chou were that protective of their cubs, and that meant all of their girls as a whole.

It would eventually take little over a year for the Parks to move out, but the Ims threw a party for their neighborhood to celebrate, not that they would reveal the real reason of the celebration to anyone, but nobody was really interested anyways. It was simply said they were celebrating their youngest daughter and everybody was more than glad to cheer them on.