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━━━ " 📂 " ..⃗. ༉
𝙍 𝙊 𝙈 𝘼 𝙉 𝘾 𝙄 𝙉 𝙂
! chapter one ─── ʚĭɞ
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The airport seemed like the most cliche place to begin the story, but here Miyeon was, stood outside of the airport, far too late at night. She was waiting for the car that her father promised to send, but it seemed like he had forgotten.
She was cold and tired - and she had called her mom when she had landed. But it seemed, considering that she had been waiting for well over an hour, something else was more important.
Miyeon couldn't even call herself a cab or get some other car - she only had a little bit of money and the fare she would need to pay was a good few times what she had.
So in short, she was stuck.
It was half an hour before the car arrived, calling out her name multiple times and annoying various other passengers waiting outside. Embarrassed, Miyeon made her way to the car, climbing into the back seat and the driver set off.
Seoul was the very last place she wanted to be. She would rather go absolutely anywhere else in the world than be there. But that didn't matter to her parents - and whilst her grandparents would happily have kept her in New York - they dragged her back to Seoul.
She had managed to not think too much about her situation on the days leading up to her leaving New York, on the plane or even whilst she was waiting outside of the airport. But now she was on her way back home - it seemed to all come rushing back to her.
All those suppressed thoughts pushed their way through, and Miyeon felt herself getting somewhat emotional. What if it was just as bad as they had left it? Her home life wasn't good, but having no friends to return to and with no chance of them actually becoming her friends again just seemed so awful.
That whole situation was awful. What had caused it, how they had ended up - everything was terrible and surreal in the worst way possible. For Miyeon, and she was sure that the others involved felt the same, it was a nightmare that you just didn't wake up from.
Finally, the car pulled up outside of the house, the familiar exterior causing butterflies to appear in her stomach. Home was an inappropriate words for the building - she considered Seoul her home, however the place where she resided was not a place of happy memories. But, it was the only place she could stay.
And so after thanking the driver, taking her cases out of the trunk of the car, Miyeon made her way to the front door, hesitating before knocking.
Neither of her parents answered, instead their housekeeper - a lady named Choi Eunjoo. She greeted her warmly, promising there to be food on the table within the hour.
It was a far warmer welcome than what she would've got with her parents, and Miyeon actually found herself smiling as they brought her bags inside. "Now, your father is currently at work, and your mother is away on a visit to an old family friend - however, they have left a message for you." Eunjoo said, picking up two of Miyeon's bags and beginning to take them up to her room.
"They're not here?" Miyeon asked, a prominent from appearing on her face. "They forced me back here and can't even be bothered to greet me."
"Don't worry yourself about it - the letter your father left is on your desk, and I made sure to iron your uniform ready for Monday." Eunjoo continued, pushing the door to her room open. "Now, I did get you some new bedsheets and a few other things - you might only be a year older but you've grown up." She placed the bags on the ground. "Dinner should be ready in half an hour, if you want to freshen up."
"Did you say uniform?" Miyeon asked, her attention having been on the room around her. "And Monday? I'm going back to school on Monday?"
"Did your parents not tell you?" Eunjoo looked shocked. "They informed me a month ago that when you returned you were to go to school the very next Monday instead of waiting a week."
"I see, thank you so much." Miyeon smiled, Eunjoo beaming back at her before leaving the room, gently closing the door behind her. Setting the bags down in her hand, the girl sat down on the edge of her bed, hugging one of her cushions.
"They didn't even tell me they wanted to bring me back until two weeks ago.. and now they're putting me in a new school." Miyeon sighed. "Why did they even bring me back if they're not going to be around."
After taking a moment to herself, Miyeon rose from her bed, doing as Eunjoo suggested and freshening up, changing her clothes and washing her face, managing to unpack a few things before heading downstairs for her meal.
She ate quickly, suddenly feeling extremely tired. The time difference was slowly speeding up to get her, and so, without another thought, Miyeon had fallen asleep a soon as she had gotten back upstairs.
And when Eunjoo came to check on her, it was clear she was exhausted. After tucking her into the sheets, she left her alone for the night - from what she had seen Miyeon seemed like her old self, but there had been moments when it peaked through, how she had been before she left for New York.
It seemed to be only Eunjoo that feared that returning to Seoul had been too soon for Miyeon. Returning to the place where everything had gone so wrong was never good - but it had only been just under a year. And if Eunjoo were ever to disagree with her employers on how they handled things, it was how they treated their daughter.
But all she could do was watch on and hope that Miyeon would be okay.