When you woke up this morning to tackle another day in School, there were two things in your mind your dad's advice and Sunghoon's letter that you hadn't had the time to open for trying to get some sleep after that party. You didn't find Jay, only to realized how Jake must've used him as an alibi for you to attend.
But what you didn't expect is for Daniel to talk your ears off in the way to School. You only ride the bus with him for today, and your brother could not just stop talking about Hazel and a part of you wanted to turn around from the window and tell the unobservant idiot to open his eyes.
For him to realise just how much his constant chatter might as well be his own downfall if you ever decided to take a revenge after what all he had done to you.
Even now, as you walked up the steps towards the front building, he couldn't seem to stop himself from talking about how great of a tutor Hazel is. As if you gave a crap when that bestfriend of yours sometimes copy to you in your shared classes.
When Daniel finally came to an end of his story, he looked towards you and waited expectantly for what you were going to say in response. Only you hadn't listened to anything he had said in the last five minutes.
At the time Jungwon joins the two of you, you cast a glance towards him, hoping he was going to help you from what was going on, but all you got was a scoff that just said you're on your own.
"So", you said slowly, rolling your eyes and turning away from Jungwon who was absolutely no help. "Does this mean that you're giving me some ideas to get back at you?"
Daniel widens his eyes at you. "I don't think so", he said with a slow shake of his head. "What I want for you to do is to tellbhow I can get her attention, Noona"
"Send her a letter too", Jungwon was suddenly suggesting as the two of you shares a look and find it so ironic, you both ended up laughing. Because really what else are you going to say?
"And it's certainly awkward to see you with my bestfriend when she was so noisy like you", you joked to change the topic away from your brother asking you for help.
That didn't happen, of course. Things never happen like you imagined them and Daniel has always a good comeback.
His eyes then focused at Jungwon, who seemed to be exchanging a silent debate with him. "Oh please, it's not like its awkward for me to see the two of you secretly glancing at each other all the time in the house", Daniel says, looking between the two of you as his lips quirked up in the slightest. "Go follow her, my main pick!"
But you didn't hear him, answering to the urge of your stomach to head for the Cafeteria. Jungwon nodded to your brother, and happily leaves him, following behind you. He found it ridiculous how could you barely walk straight, but you weren't even noticing your lack of ability to do anything as your mind wavered from the lack of sleep.
A side effect of getting home late from Jake's party and Jungwon ended up walking up to your side. He had thought the worse when you nearly wobble on your feet, but quickly realized why you were suddenly tensing inside the Cafeteria from which there were whispers, a desire to jump back in the hallway covers you inside your head.
"I heard she got into the party to get with both Sunghoon and Jake"
"She's the girl who was caught laying with the ice skater in the same bed"
"A soccer player told me that the two boys were both smitten by her for real"
"I thought she was just a plain girl, but inside, she's a real slut"
"She's even cheating to Heeseung"
Everyone turned around as Yana Lin stood up from her seat, and like they were all her servants, a space was made for her in order to get at you easily. "Well, if it isn't the Great Pretender!", she says, the smile that had been on her face since she saw you grew like a cancer. "Come to show your face to prove how fake you are?"
As if she'd said something hysterically funny, the rest of her entourage laughed.
"Yana Lin, please stop", Jungwon says politely, his hand barely holding to steady you up in your feet. "What you want to think is clearly all a misunderstanding"
This, apparently, was even funnier than what Yana had said. Elody gave him a pitying look. "You know, lying's not going to help her", she said as though she wanted to be helpful. "Everybody already knows that you were one of her boylets"
She shook her head, baffled, as many of the people are, by human behaviour. "Nobody who isn't an idiot will ever believe her in the first place"
"That's right!", Faye chimed in, gesturing down at your figure, as if to say she couldn't believe it. "I mean, you? How can those boys like you in the first place? The only way you’d get their attention if you already had given them what they want"
You just stood there, taking their abuse, staring at all of them in shocked disbelief. Yana had no intention of letting you flounce around the campus with Heeseung freely; it wasn't on her menu. She was going to reform the real truth and make it her job to break your clean image from everyone's eyes.
It was like what happened to Briella Sinclair. She was this pretty girl from America, your typical white blonde hot girl and she was more prettier than Yana Lin, then she started making a move for Heeseung in her first day. It didn't end well for her.
Not only did Yana make rumors about her, but she told everyone that Briella is not a virgin anymore and that her dad is the who popped the cherry, when really he's working his ass off all day in Yana's dad's company. The final straw was when Briella's picture of changing in the cheerleader's locker out of her underwear and the result was so bad, the poor girl transferred in an all-girl's academy.
And now, Yana gestured to the photographs spread that her friends began to passed around. "There's the proof", she purred. In case you were too thick to get what she meant she explained. "Those are the pictures from the party. She left her bestfriends to catch Jake first"
Her smile was so cold, it left a shiver down your spine. "Now how could you have deny the rumors when there's a picture of you sleeping with Sunghoon in the party all night?", She made a helpless gesture to her audience. "Why isn't Heeseung in any of the pictures?", Her expression became sweetly sly. "It's not like he was being cheated at all, right?"
And all of those sentences jumbled together made you turn back on your heel and run without looking back, not even when Jungwon tried to defend you. He was outnumbered by Yana's friends and her audience itself.
The previous night - what they were all saying about it - they all distorted it into something else. You didn't even stay an hour in the party - you were not a slut and their comments broke all of your intelligence and ability to think clearly. Your mind was clouded with hate for them and your heart clogged with pain.
It seems like your happy days is now ending in exhange for this verbal bullying. Could it get more worse?
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It had been a long since you have stopped running and was simply walking while ignoring the eyes of the people from the way. You only then realized how coward you must've looked by running away from all the comments - those could not hear you unless you listen to them.
Still, it was not in your character to defend yourself and surely at least some of the people wouldn't believe Yana's words, or else they were all just her dumb tools she is free to use all the time.
Looking around, you realized that you have run all the way to the area of the rooms for the clubs and it was still deserted for being here so early in the morning. Your interest was starting to pick up as you noticed the particular colorful and artistic poster of the music club by their door.
As you got closer to see how the drawings is so detailed, like the artist put so much effort in it, a faint sound of a piano melody being played and it picked your interest. It is familiar, somehow. The door to the music club made an awful creaking when you opened it slowly, but whoever the pianist was didn't seemed to notice and you entered inside slowly, carefully studying your surroundings.
Your eyes drifted to the boy sitting by the old piano. You could make out a bubblegum pink hair with slender fingers, effortlessly pressing each key with carefulness as if he was trying to remember. The song was something surely you had heard before, most likely from a movie and the more you hear it, something clicks in your mind. It was the piano version of Spirited Away's theme song - Always With Me.
You marvelled at the nostalgic feeling it brought from your childhood, a smile slowly forming in your features as the memory of Yana was quickly removed. As you got closer to the pianist, wanting to express your appreciation for the music, the identity became evident - lips set into a firm line, his thin brows narrowed in concentration, pale skin and he have grown more taller.
It was Niki. He actually hadn't notice your presence for he was so engulfed in playing. You sat down in one of the plastic chairs, watching intently as his fingers slid across the keys. Even then you can tell that he's hesitant at first, but the more he plays, the more he was letting himself flow with the music.
Each and every note was a silent message that echoed through your mind.
The final key were hit and a voice spoke. It was low and soft but even then you jumped in surprise. "Did you enjoy it, Noona?"
"You knew I was watching all along?", you asked, standing up from the chair and he stepped out of the bench to close the piano before stopping you to leave, creating a painful silence between the two of you.
He spoke only after forcing you back into a chair and sit beside you. "It's the only song I know how to play", he then proceeded to look at his watch and to your face. "How did you find this room?"
"I was running away from everyone as usual", you admitted, not finding it hard to spill it on him.
"You ran away from that bitch, didn't you?", Niki said, his voice was polite and careful, unlike how he had been to you in the beginning of the year.
"Yes it is", you confirmed with a hesitant nod; was it really going to be easy to tell it to a boy who had once spilles drink on Yana?
His lips screwed slightly in a poor contain grimace. "How do you feel now?", he set down a hand in your arm. "Want me to do something about it?"
"No, I don't like to make it big -"
"It was not your job to suffer alone from her -", Niki began, but you cut him off too, knowing once he decided onto something, he would certainly do it.
"If you are going to confront her like before, they will only got worse, I swear", you warned, gesturing for him to listen properly. "Please, just let me face it alone, Niki"
He shook his head, unfazed by your outburst. "As if you could even try to protect yourself when you're already fleeing from the sight of us", he says to remind you of the weekend's disaster.
You scanned his face for any trace of teasing, but he was serious now and was sounding like older as he listed off your shortcomings. "What else then, do you want me to do about her? Fight back?", you finally asked.
"You don't have to. I can do that for you, noona", Niki replied too quickly and you weren't too pleased with the answer - especially at what he added in the last second. "If only you weren't so dumb to just accept it, I'll be your boyfriend now to protect you"
"What about Heeseung being that?"
A hint of smile grew in his lips. "Oh, he shouldn't stay from your side too much", Niki said as he started walking towards the door but stopped to look back at you. His tone was obviously taunting. "But one thing you should do is to go back to him, because sooner or later, I will steal you away from him"
"Why me?"
Your question was left hanging in the air unanswered for the rest of the walk back to find your friends.
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The next few days went downhill from there as per Yana Lin and her friends's participating in fuelling up the unsavory rumors about you.
Math subject with Jake weren't total hell because, though everyone darted knowing glances between him and Heeseung, and muttered among themselves, the two boys were glaring at them if ever any of them tried to disturb you who was hiding behind her books.
But in history with Jay and Sunghoon, they were both sent to the guidance's office for threatening to deck the boyfriends of Elody and Faye because they heard them asking what it feels like to touch a virgin. And you heard Niki joined eventually joined them in the afternoon from the reason, his bag was flying to the head of the girl who he overheard commenting on your way of dressing.
And in English, where you shared it with Violet herself, Yana passed her photographs around so everyone could see the first-hand proof that you slept with Sunghoon. Hearing the hissed wisecracks and sniggers, your friend was soon leaving you alone as she was sent to join Niki from totally ending Yana by pulling her long hair in front of everyone to stop.
After school, you went home alone by riding the train instead to avoid your schoolmates from the school bus. By the time you get home, no words came from your mouth when Daniel and Jungwon demanded answers, and all they got was your door slamming into their faces.
And you were slowly starting to hate your life for discovering how much different a love story with multiple choices from the image it represented from your imagination.
Only then did you thought of the letter from Sunghoon, maybe you just needed to read what he's on about to distract yourself from the agony of your school in Yana's existence. But he had not hurt you, maybe you could stop pushing him away from your mind just yet.
That's when you began to read it.
Dear Kim Y/N,
I never thought I'd be writing this as I always hated love stories. I never thought I'd even feel like this after the countless heartbreaks I have caused for my fangirls. I know that it's pretty much one-sided and probably it'll never be reciprocated especially when my bestfriend is crazy about you.
Let's be plain real, shall we?
To me, you are perfect.
I know perfection doesn't exist. Not even in the wildest standards our country have when it comes to visuals. I only happen to have a standard for perfection. It's my own meaning. I keep it to myself, but, honestly, perfection for me, is you.
The first time I realized this, I was out with my friends at Taereung. We were just being teenager-stupid, talking about cute girls and I just stayed quiet, laughing at things I didn't find funny. Lying at things I don't like lying about. But had I been real, I would have shared them about you. "The most unique girl I met back then", I would have said.
But this girls in our school didn't seem to agree when I asked them about you and they called you ugly. They said you were one of the worst looking girls. It was strange, you see. I have always found you really attractive as a barely teen when we first met each other and maybe because you leave a mark, I've always been comparing you to every girls that I meet.
Still, I'm fighting with them who didn't know what they were saying and was blinded by their insecurities. You are not even that bad looking. I still melt like an ice every time I see you coming out of any classrooms but looks are not the things I care about, and it may sound cheesy or fake, but it's true. I like you because you are you.
And you are perfect.
You are real so unlike of any girls now all following the pressure of the society and the trends. You treat everyone right from the way I see it from afar. You open the doors for the teachers, you say compliments to your friends even to your annoying brother, you help around the classroom. You wave and raise junk. You are polite and charming and wonderful.
You are intelligent. You care about the lessons. You ask question. And yet, you are quiet. You don't mount big scenarios, you don't interrupt the class. When all the other girls are fooling around the make ups and complaining about the amount of projects, I see you sitting alone, reading your book in this one subject.
And I want to approach you, to see what was interesting in your own world. But I never do. It drives me mad to see you alone. Why would you? Why can't they see you are great? Or it is that you don't enjoy their own pleasure?
As one of my dad's favorite Backstreet Boys song goes like "She's one in a million!" That’s what you are for me. I don't know how but I still remember almost every possible details of the first time we met, this never happened with me before.
There were times I caught myself smiling for no reason, thinking about you and wondered how long you've been on my mind, but then it occurred to me that you've never left. I am just sad to know that the girl my bestfriend was talking about was you as well.
And I wanted to fight too in the competition of chasing for your heart, but if you already choose the lucky one and it's not me, I won't continue to torture myself about how you will never love me and how I will never be good enough for you and how lonely I feel. It can just end and I can move on.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry for how awkward you feel now and how disgusted you are of me. I am sorry for everything that you experience since our arrival in your life.
If I could just choose to erase your sadness from the stress, I would. I like you and I'm sorry.
Love, Park Sunghoon
After reading it, you settled into a contemplative silence, not knowing whether to feel sorry for Sunghoon or to be happy because he had been watching you all along from the distance. Not that it was kind of offending, but that was kind of sweet for you. He was like those school boys simply content in seeing their crush and all was good.
But still, the thought of finally considering him stood.
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I thought I could never update for this one because of the new belgian puppy in the house and he was now sleeping under my bed. But wow, now that we're already at thirty six, the part 3 is coming, so the letters of the other boys will be coming fast after this.
Letters from the boys:
Jungwon✔
Niki✔
Jay✔
Sunghoon✔
Who do you think will send his letter next among Sunoo, Jake and Heeseung?
Don't forget to Comment & Vote!