Just how fast the night changes?
The sound of the door opening was heard as the blonde stepped inside, putting off his shoes and kept them on the shoe rack. He noticed his little girl sitting on the sofa alone and was watching a new Barbie movie. He never understood why girls liked Barbie so much because he found them creepy. Jaerin was too much into the T.V. that she didn't even notice his father's presence. Jaemin quietly went upstairs to his room and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a grey hoodie. As he was coming down the round stairs, he noticed the T.V. was off now and silence took over the whole room. But the most strange thing was that Jaerin who never sat in one place unless a toy was given to her or the T.V. was on and who was always busy making troubles, was sitting on the white sofa quietly, head down and it seemed like she was looking at something very keenly.
Jaemin squinted his eyes and walked closer to her. "What are you doing?"
The brown-haired girl was startled by the familiar voice as she quickly hid the 'thing' under the cushion. She turned her head back and shook her head. "Nothing."
"Oh really?" His one eyebrow raised high.
She immediately nodded her. "When you came?"
"You should ask 'when did you come?' ", he corrected her.
"Sorry. When did you come?", she repeated.
"When my little angel was too busy to watch cartoon on T.V. to even notice her Daddy came back home", he said with a frown, acting as if he was sad.
She gasped as her little palms covered her mouth. " No, no, Daddy! I'm so so so sorry."
He giggled and pulled her into his embrace. "Aww it's okay, baby. By the way, I heard from Jeno that the teacher told him you had a fight with a boy in the kindergarten today. Is it true?" His voice became stricter as his narrowed eyes looked down at her.
Her lips pursed into a thin line and she slowly nodded her head, couldn't look into his eyes.
Jaemin bent down to match her eye level as he raised her chin up. He hissed when he touched the spot near the cut at the corner of her lips and then touched the band-aid on her forehead with worry and sadness filled in his eyes. "What happened that you had to fight with a boy?", his soft voice questioned her.
"Actually Daddy... there is this boy who I wanted to be friends with. A bad boy came and took his yoyo and he even pushed Rowoon! I became really angry and decided to finish him."
"Finish? You mean punish?"
"Yeah yeah. Then we started to fight."
He sighed and his shoulders dropped down. "Jaerin, violence is not the best solution of any problem. If someone did something wrong, tell any elder person. Don't go and beat him or her, okay?"
The toodler once again nodded.
"By the way, who won?"
"Ofcourse me, Daddy!!!" She stood up in joy and gave a high-five to her father.
"Well what should I say? Atleast I'm proud of you that you didn't lose. But don't do this again. Alright?"
"Yes, Daddy!" She again took her place infront of him. "And Rowoon also became my friend." Sh smiled.
"Wow nice~"
Few seconds later with a pout, she took out the 'thing' out of the hiding place and showed it to him as she blinked at him. It was a photo frame.
"You were seeing this before?", he asked after taking it from her. But the moment he saw the picture, his heart cracked and a lump was formed in his throat. "Where did you find this?" His voice became low.
"Sorry, I didn't ask you before taking it. But I found it in a box in your room. It's Mama right?"
Jaemin sighed restlessly as his thumb traced over the glass which was displaying the picture. It was a photo of four years old. A boy and a girl making one heart with their hands together and they were wearing academic dresses and graduation square caps. This indicated it was clicked on a school graduation day as the two students were still wearing their uniforms holding the diploma. The most beautiful part of that photo was their smiles- those big smiles which truly showed their happiness.
"It is Mama, right? This girl looks the same like Mama in that picture." Jaerin pointed at the photo frame which showed a picture of Jaemin, baby Jaerin and her mother, kept on the table under the television.
He nodded his head slowly. "Yes. This is your mother."
"She is so beautiful. Isn't it?"
Jaemin looked at the younger's face, her eyes were sparkling as her voice reflected the excitement and happiness she was feeling.
"Yes, she is very beautiful. Just like you." Ever since Jaerin started growing up, he noticed the similarities between her and her mother. Those same dimples, brown hair, oval face shape, their personalities and even their voices were almost same. He caressed her head and rested his big hand on her cheek.
"Daddy, you two look so cute here", she beamed, observing the picture again. That's what everyone told about them back in high school days. She looked up at him and said, "I miss her. I really miss Mama. I want to meet her. Why did she leave?" Her eyes were desperate to know the answer.
But Jaemin kept quiet. He did open his mouth for a second but clammed it shut. He brought the toddler's small body into his arms as her tiny hands also went around his manly body. 'I'm sorry...', he said in his mind as if he was telling to the little girl and to 'her.' He closed his eyes, going back to the memory lane. Those memories he made with 'her' didn't last forever and it hurt him so much that he felt as if his chest was ripping apart. He tightened the hug, he was glad to have Jaerin by his side. He was too engrossed by his broken emotions that he didn't even notice a single tear rolling down his cheek.
♡°♡°♡°♡°♡°♡°♡
Now the father-daughter duo was lying on the bed and the room glowed in the moonlight coming through the glass walls of the bedroom. Stars sparkling brightly like diamonds in the dark sky. The city was getting quiet as the night deepened. Jaemin was flopping this way and that way as he didn't have any sleep in his eyes. With a sigh, he sat up and looked beside him. The little one was deep in sleep, facing the night view. He brushed away the strands of hair falling on her face. He noticed the same photo frame in her arms. Flashing a small sad smile, he covered her properly with the blanket and gave a soft kiss on her forehead and then put the frame on the bedside table in case she got hurt by chance.
His legs fell on the floor as he stretched his arms and saw the wall clock. It was 2 a.m. now. He scratched his head and was on his way to the door when his leg hit something. Ofcourse it would happen because his room was quiet messy and many boxes were kept here and there, still packed. He switched on the lamp and saw the box fell and things came out from it. 'Strange. It is supposed to be taped but no it is open?' He crouched down and began to put the things inside when he saw what was inside it- a photo album, a graduation dress, a stuffed rabbit and a red diary. He assumed that Jaerin definitely took out the photo frame from this box. The red diary with cute stickers caught his attention. He grabbed it again and wiped the thin layer of dust on it. He kept the box aside and sat back on his bed, his back leaning on the headboard.
For a whole minute, he just kept staring at the familiar diary. He was debating whether he should open it or not because afterall it was 'her' personal diary. All those years, he never read a single page of it. His curiosity grew bigger and with a sigh he turned on the first page and started reading the contents written on it.
Dear Diary,
Being a sixteen-year-old girl is hard when you have no one behind you to give you support, doing school and work simultaneously, zero friends, these fucking teenage hormones and when you are... an orphan.
I'm Nam Sooyoung, unfortunately a sixteen-year-old who thinks her life is fucked up. Not think but it actually is. I don't even know why I'm writing this stupid diary but what else can I do in a detention room? I've always being a good girl and coming to this cursed room is a shame. You are probably wondering how I ended up here. Well it's all because of a dipstick sitting just beside my desk.
Na Jaemin- a mysterious dude who managed to grab a spot for himself in the school as 'Captain Heartthrob'. Well I feel like 'Human Cotton Candy' will suit him more because who dyes their hair pink and comes to school? How the teachers even allowed? That's a big mystery for sure. We all know very little about the guy except his name, his good looks and his love for photography. Mr. Cotton Candy is an amazing photographer I must say because I saw his works in the exhibition that was held in our school. But it's not the time to write compliments about him atleast after what he did today.
Basically what happened is that I was on my way to the library to return three thick books that I borrowed. My so-called classmates stopped me and put their own books on mine and it formed a tall stack of books. They said, "Oh Sooyoung. Are you going to the library? Please keep these books for us. Aww you are so sweet. Thank you hehe" in their squeaky voice. Before I could say no, they were already gone. I rolled my eyes, my face became red in anger and also because of the load of the heavy books my hands were bearing. I hated this so much. Why would they treat me like their slave? Only because I'm an orphan and I am poor? How unfair is this world! Why did I have to come to this school full of rich kids?
My mother married another man after my father died. Everything was going well and then my life turned upside-down when I became a sophomore in high school. My mom died due to cancer and my step-dad showed his real face. He tortured me too much and so, I ran away from home. There's this big clothing brand called Graffitti which gives scholarship to a few smart students and luckily I was one of them. I had to come to Neo High School, a prestigious private school for elite kids. I just work in a local flowershop in order to have food and shelter. Sometimes, I lay on the bed just sighing. Why is my life like this? I have to fight everyday in order to survive. What should I do? I'm only 16. Fuck sweet sixteen. Ever since the students got to know about my lifestyle, they never spared me a second to breathe properly. I want to quit this life but I can't because... I have a dream.
Okay!!! Back to where I was! I was in the corridors, struggling to walk straight because A) I couldn't see anything because of the books towering me. B)THEY WERE FUCKING HEAVY!!! My hands could give in any moment. I tried my best to walk carefully but not let any book fall. But. BUT. The next thing happened was so ughhhh. I felt a punch on my hand as I let out a yelp and grabbed the nearest thing I could hold which turned out to be someone's shirt and just fell down. When I opened my eyes, I felt something on my back and around my body. I looked over my shoulder and saw that dipstick's face and his chest was touching my back with his arm around my waist. His Popeye friend (you need to see his biceps!!) aka Jeno helped us to get up. Thankfully I didn't hurt my head. No, no the story doesn't stop here. I saw him rushing to help someone else and it just had to be Mrs. Sim who was now lying on the floor along with the books. And when I saw her broken glasses, I knew that there's no way to escape from this mess. She shouted, "YOU TWO!!! DETENTION ROOM NOW!!!"
Later, I found out from Jeno that Mr. Cotton Candy was showing him some Kung-fu tricks that he learned from YouTube in the MIDDLE OF THE HALLWAY!!!! Like seriously?!?! What does he think of himself? Bruce Lee??? And yeah he punched me (accidentally) and unfortunately Mrs. Sim came around the corner of the hallway. And then, I fell, he fell and she fell- we all fell down...
Oops the teacher's here!
I am back home now. You won't believe what happened after that. Everyone already left the school. It was just me, Jaemin and some other teacher in the classroom. Both of us had to write 'I'm sorry for my mistake' 1000 times. But mistake? It was an accident!!! The teacher scolded the hell out of us. All because of that dipstick.
I looked over at Jaemin, he was quiet as always. I heard quiet people are dangerous. And now I know it's true. Suddenly, another teacher rushed into the room and said, "Oh Jaemin, you don't have to do all these. You can go home now." Really there are advantages for being rich. She looked over at me and said in an stern tone, "What are you looking at? Complete fast and leave." I mentally scoffed. I was just waiting for the sound of the chair scraping against the floor indicating he was about to leave. But it never happened, rather a deep voice was heard. "Sorry ma'am. I am also a student here not a VIP person. I will complete my punishment. And you should treat students equally." It's the longest had heard from him. I was still in shock when I saw him averting his attention to the notebook. After the teacher left, we got engaged in our own work (writing 'I'm sorry for my mistake') then, I heard a few more words. "I'm sorry", he said and all my anger just vanished when I looked into his eyes. Mr. Cotton Candy was not a dipstick I guess... atleast he apologized.
He smiled and put the bookmark on the page he just finished at. "So everything started like that. Doing kungfu in the corridors? I was really a dipstick." He let out an airy laugh and closed the diary and kept it inside the drawer of the bedside table. He switched off the lamp and got inside the blanket. Maybe now he will get some good sleep.
Sooyoung 🥺💖
I started writing a diary recently 😌 Writing a diary is good. You should try it too.
Just so sad that even Haechan and Jaemin got covid. Dreamies said Beatbox is their favourite title track. And seeing them not being able to promote it hurts 😭😭
Thank you~