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You showed me I have reasons I should love myself
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An entire week had passed since Ji-eun saw Sunghoon and she was getting more than worried. He had missed all his classes and he wasn't at the rink whenever she visited. She had asked his two best friends about him but they wouldn't tell her much, for they also didn't exactly know what had happened to him. Sunghoon wasn't the only person the girl was thinking about. A few days ago her and her friends watched Heeseung as he waved them their last goodbye before leaving for Japan. Not only did Heeseung depart but her two best friends from Icheon also went back to their hometown after the inter school activity was over. She had missed all of them so much but there really was nothing she could do about it.
The days left for the competition were creeping up on her and she was straining herself with practicing. Every day, she'd visit the rink and practice and practice her moves until the sudden pain in her ankle would come. As each day went by the pain would grow more intense but she never had the time to worry over it. Her main goal was to keep practicing until she had perfected her moves, making a mistake or falling wasn't an option for the girl because that meant elimination.
It was currently Friday afternoon and she was quietly waiting for her class to end so that she'd go home to clean up before heading off to practice.
Tapping her pen lightly on the smooth texture of the blank page as she looked out of the window, her light brown eyes dully scanned the empty field, the feeling of sadness enveloped her as her mind trailed off elsewhere, not paying attention to her final class of the day.
"Miss Yang." The girl's attention was hauled back to reality due to hearing her named being called. Giving the teacher a polite look of confusion, she stood up, awaiting for her teacher to elaborate on why she called her.
"Mr. Park has been absent for an entire week. I'd like for you to take these notes to him, please." The girl was rendered speechless. Would she finally see the boy after all this time?
Of course she accepted the teachers request without fuss, walking to the front of the class to collect the work from the teacher.
"Class dismissed. Have a good weekend students." And with that, the teacher left the classroom and so did the students one by one. Ji-eun quickly grabbed her backpack, placing the stack of books she had to deliver to Sunghoon in it so it would be safe.
Earning a shocked look from Sana, the girl looked at her with a smile atop her lips. "What?" Ji mouthed, observing Sana's dazed expression. Sunoo's girlfriend hastily made her way across the classroom, fidgeting with her backpack as she excitedly looked at the girl ahead of her.
"Now you'll have a plausible excuse to meet him. You've been worrying over him for so long! Now's your time to meet him! I'm sure there's a good reason why he's absent." Sana voiced, squinting her eyes as she hooked her arms around the girl, pulling her close to her.
"Where does he live though?" Ji asked dryly, feeling a little dumbfounded due to taking up the task without even knowing where the boy lived.
"We can take you there. Jay and I were planning on visiting him." Jake appeared from behind the two girls, giving Ji-eun a reassuring nod.
"Oh, well great! I need to ask my dad first." The girl fumbled, rummaging through her pocket for her phone to call her father. After getting approval from him, the girl scurried along with Jake and Jay as they went to meet Sunghoon.
They were in a black SUV and Heeseol was with them as Taehyun drove them home. There was certainly tension between all of them, especially between Heeseol and Ji-eun.
"So, why is she here?" Heeseol pointed at Ji who was sitting in her corner, minding her own business. A mix of animosity and jealousy was intertwined in her tone as she looked at the innocent girl with a scowl.
"I told you, we're all visiting Sunghoon. Do you have a problem?" Jake snapped, shaking his head at the girl who was staring at him, speechless. None of them expected him to get so passive aggressive but didn't say a word as the tension continued to rise.
"Couldn't the teacher just give one of you guys to collect it? Why is she needed here?" Heeseol rolled her eyes, folding her arms over her flat chest. (Lmao Heeseol was definitely targeted in this paragraph but hey, I'm just like her so👩🦯)
"Why am I here?" Ji-eun sat up in the backseat of the car, glaring at the girl. All the things Sunghoon had told her made the girl's blood boil. Heeseol used him.
"Why are you here? You're the one who used Sunghoon after you found out his mom died! You're the one who took advantage of him! You're the one putting up a facade of lies to make you look like a good person! You're disgusting." Just then the car came to a complete sudden halt, making Heeseol who was flooded with anger jolt forward, hitting her head.
"Yah-!" Heeseol yelled out in frustration but Taehyun interjected. "You have quite the amount of explaining to do." Taehyun deadpanned before driving off after Jake, Jay and Ji-eun exited the vehicle.
"I never really liked her anyway." Jay mumbled, kicking the tiny bricks on the road. "She deserved that, after all that she did to Sunghoon..." Jay added under his breath. Ji-eun was still a bit shocked after she realized she had yelled at the girl in front of them but she was a bit relieved to have put the girl in her place after using Sunghoon like that.
"Y-you guys knew? About Sunghoon and Heeseol?" Ji-eun asked hesitantly, glancing up at them in a confused state seeing how they weren't at all in that much shock.
"I guess you could say so. Well we pieced it together over time.." Jake muttered, bending his head down as he fixed his eyes to the floor.
"We just didn't want to bring it up after they broke up because we thought it would make him to remember his mother. Sunghoon was in a tight spot when his mom died and both of us tried to help but it never worked. He wouldn't open up to us and that's when Heeseol came..we didn't know what exactly happened between those two but we knew it wasn't good. Like I said, we didn't want to bring it up again because we were afraid Sunghoon would be lost mourning over his mother...trying to find another way to end the pain."
Jake spoke up, eyes still locked on the floor.
"Wow...well- I can't blame you guys. You were trying to do what you thought was best." Ji lightly patted both of their backs to cheer them up before walking forward, approaching a big house.
"He lives here??"
"Yep."
Jay stepped forward onto the front porch, pressing the doorbell twice before moving back behind Ji. She quietly awaited in front, holding onto her backpack tightly which contained the contents of what she had to give Sunghoon.
"Sorry about this Skater girl." Was all Ji heard as she stood still, awaiting for the door to open. Turning around, she was met with an empty porch with no Jake or Jay standing on it. Where did they go so fast?!
"Guys...?" She called out, peeking at both sides of the porch but unfortunately was met with no sign of them.
"What the-" -Jieun
"Hell-" -Sunghoon
"OH?" -Jieun
"SUNGHOON?" -Jieun
The two had exchanged a few words of shock as they both stood there looking at each other as if they were finally being reunited after years of being apart.
"Ji-" the boy couldn't even finish his one word sentence due to the fact that the girl suddenly hugged him tightly, wrapping her arms around the boy as if it was her last time she'd see him.
Her face was buried in his chest as she held onto the boy so very tightly. His arms slowly found it's away around her, hugging her back as well.
"Ji-eun." He slightly pulled away from the hug, cupping the girl's cheek as he tilted her head up for her to look at him directly in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry.." he breathed out lowly. "I'm sorry for basically disappearing like this. I didn't mean to-"
"Son, who's at the door??" Sunghoon's expression changed when he heard his father's voice coming from behind him. Obviously thinking Sunghoon would pull away to create space between him and her so that his father wouldn't misinterpret the situation, the girl awaited but he didn't move. His arm was latched onto her, pulling her close to him. She looked up at him with wide eyes, flooded with disbelief, the girl looked at him intently, unaware of his actions.
Why didn't he break the close proximity between them? Does he want his father to kill him?
"Sunghoon..what are you doing? Your father will definitely not like this." The girl muttered as she looked at him with concern.
"I don't wanna lose you.." she mumbled under her breath, unsure if he heard that or not.
"Who's at the door young ma-"
His father was left frozen as his eyes trailed down to the girl in Sunghoon's arms.
"You." He said through gritted teeth, clenching his fists as she glared at the young girl.
"Hi Mr. Park, I'm Ji-eun, your son's friend from school." She forced herself to say it politely to the man standing in front of her.
"That's it. I'm banning you from leaving this house. I don't want you to meet anyone!" Mr Park, Sunghoon's father ordered in a demanding tone.
"Don't you want your son to win first place though? I heard you're losing popularity Mr. Park. Don't you think in order to regain your fame you'd need your son to win the competition? And if you're gonna ban him from leaving the house how is he going to practice? Not a very wise decision huh Mr Park. I guess you didn't think that through." The girl said with a daunting smile etched on her lips.
Locking hands with Sunghoon, the girl stepped back, pulling the man's son out of his house.
"I'll bring him back to you before 6, Mr. Park." Ji-eun waved as she dragged the boy along with her out of the yard.
Sunghoon's father was rendered speechless as he watched the girl take Sunghoon away from him. Even Sunghoon himself was speechless as he complied with the girl's actions.
Sunghoon's heart was pounding in his chest as he followed suit beside the girl who had her hands hooked around his.
Sunghoon didn't know where she was leading him, but no matter where she went, he wanted to follow.
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