She

Chapter 2

Past

Yeji didn't show up that day. 

Nor the day after, nor the week after. 

Yeji just never showed up. 

Rumors had begun to go around the students and even the teachers were in on it. 

Yeji had a large presence within the high school population. Someone who was beloved by all students as everyone had a memory or two of Yeji's kindness towards them. Someone all teachers loved despite Yeji not being the smartest of students (although still comfortably above the average), Yeji had a way with the teachers. No she didn't kiss their asses nor did she throw out empty meaningless compliments in an attempt to win their favour. It was nothing like that. Teachers had loved having Yeji as a student because of her passionate and hardworking nature. Yeji truly believed that if someone were to do something, they should put in their all and never half-ass it. It was this spirit that made Yeji such a sweetheart among teachers and almost an inspiration for her fellow classmates. Not to mention, Yeji was captain, THE captain, of the girls basketball team. She was the one that led her team to an all-time high 32 - 3 record last season and although they failed to bring home the championship trophy, captain Hwang was still named Finals MVP for putting her heart on the line. 

And to Jisu, Yeji was all that and more.

Though the school felt significantly emptier without Yeji, it could not compare to the emptiness inside Jisu's small heart. 

The following days of the promised 7th day that Yeji would return were the most pain Jisu had ever experienced. 

Her along with Ryujin, Chaeryeong and Yuna did all they could to try and contact Yeji, starting from asking Hwang Hyunjin, their classmate and also Yeji's cousin to even accepting the absurd charges of an international call as they tried to reach the Hwang Entertainment Company. Calls, messages, emails, faxes, even sending physical letters through mail. Nothing. No response. It started to feel as if Yeji's existence was being questioned. In a world where it's proclaimed that everyone and everything was connected one way or another, Yeji was the exception.

Jisu completely shut out the entire world, only hiding her existence in two places: her own apartment and Yeji's. 

Every day without fail, Jisu would make her way whether it be already dawn or dusk to Yeji's apartment, often sleeping over in Yeji's bed instead of her own, just to get the small whiff of Yeji left from the taller girls blankets and pillows, constantly praying that Yeji would one day just randomly show up in her apartment. 

She began to miss multiple days to even weeks-worth of classes, and despite the school warning her and presenting her with the possibility of her not graduating this year, Jisu didn't care. The school would try to reach out to Jisu's parents but that didn't bother her. Around the same time that Yeji had left for America, Jisu's parents had called to let her know that they along with her brother, Junsu, were moving to Canada after working in the U.S. for decades. Thus, Jisu knew she could care less if the school were to contact her parents, they were too busy moving their lives to Canada.

It was only through Ryujin, Chaeryeong, and Yuna literally begging on their knees in front of Jisu's apartment did she begin to fix her life around, forcing herself to go to school, and to bear the pain long enough before Jisu could drift off into sleep where for a moment she could forget about the pain. 

But it could barely be considered fixed ,as to Jisu nothing was fixable without Yeji, and the best Jisu could do was survive walking among the glass that was her shattered life. Every step of the way she was getting glass cuts and pieces stuck onto her feet, making each step further more painful than the last. But at the very least, Jisu was walking forward, slowly and painfully but surely, no longer sitting in one spot desperately collecting the glass shards in an attempt to piece them back together.