'I'll be home later. Tell mom I have to study.'
She whispers quietly as she taps lightly on the screen of her phone, sending the little message to her only sister.
This was her usual excuse everyday so she wouldn't come home early or atleast when her parents were still awake or not out working. Her parents only knew how to fight, drink and be violent, so you could imagine how much she does to avoid getting inbetween fights because it results to her being a human punching bag for them to vent out their anger. Knowing well that they'd just shower her with insults and a beating, she just avoids going home.
It was just the end of classes. Everyone was either going out together with their friends to hang out or to study, while others went home to their families.
She didn't have friends only because she didn't see a need for one. She also doesn't have place she truly wants to call home, so she comes to this place where she hides out, hides out from the eyes of the public, her parents and even her own frustrations.
I hope they didn't lock up the rooftop again. She sighed, fixing up her things to her back pack and placing her phone in her pocket. She made her way to the staircases at the back of the building with a lazy gait, just slowly walking.
She finally arrived before the door to the rooftop, with a click she opened it satisfyingly. The breeze wafted her hair around as she entered, not alot of people come up here, since it's off limits but she comes here almost everyday to just look up to the sky. Rarely do anyone come and check this place out, but before the school closes, she leaves anyway.
"I wish I could just fly and leave this place." She says as she sat down on the granite floor, opening a can of soda and feeling tired.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Taehyung! let's go out today, my treat." A girl squeals as she flips her hair eager for his response along with her friends. They did everything to look cute for him but Taehyung didn't really want to go with them.
"Ah, it's okay. I'm kinda busy, so I can't go." Taehyung smiled and just walked away leaving the disappointed girls. He's a new student in this school, and pretty new to the neighborhood. As much as he'd like to go out with people, he wanted to explore the school first.
He wanted to go to the rooftop where everyone warned him not to go to, because it was haunted or something. He liked scary stuff, so he planned to explore the place.
He excitedly walked up the staircase in to the rooftop being very wary of suspicious sounds and noise. He slowly lifted his hand to the doorknob and pushed it. The breeze greeted him, he stepped in. He was really giddy and anxious to what he might find.
Suddenly a sound of a can rolling caught his attention, his head turned to the direction immediately and sees the can. He takes it. He steps further into the unknown.
But then as he walks further, he stopped only to see a girl lying before him, asleep. Wait, I know this girl. He says to himself, she shouldn't be here after school, well both of them aren't supposed to be here.
He slowly crouched down, planning to wake her up but as he stretched out a hand to grab her shoulder.
"You got balls to touch a defenseless girl." The words suddenly resounded from her mouth, she says as she slowly opened her eyes. She looked at him uninterestedly. Taehyung was a bit taken aback, both because she was actually awake and for what she said.
"Ya, you're the one who's sleeping and laying around the rooftop. I'm not here trying to get something out from this." He defended himself, raising his hands innocently. She slowly sits up and dusts her uniform. She didn't care and just looked at the distance.
He noticed her ignoring him, he was both annoyed but also somehow pleasantly surprised, for the pass week, people have been always bombarding him with questions and trying to get his attention.
He decided to disregard what she said to him and sit beside her. She sees this and turns to glare at him for a few seconds. "Aren't you the same class as me?" He asked, that's why he thought she looked familiar. They were classmates but they never talked at all.
"Ya, new kid, what makes you think you can just join me here." She says, glaring at him some more. He gave her a big smile.
"My name is Kim Taehyung, I'll be your classmate for the next few months." He introduced. She just rolled her eyes and continued to do whatever else. Taehyung pouted and cocked his head. Why won't she talk to me is what he asks.
She actually didn't mind him being there at all, because really she just doesn't care. She's a bit annoyed that she's not alone like how she wants it to be. To her, there's no meaning in making any conversation, so she has no intention of making any new friends at all.
"I don't really know why you won't talk to me, but I don't mind." He said, she stared at the sky again didn't even give a slight reaction or response. Taehyung stared at her for a few seconds.
"I think your interesting and I haven't really met someone like you before. I wish we could be friends?" He asked, hoping he would get an answer. Then again, silence.
He checked his watch and it was just 4:30 pm, still early. "Everyone warned me about the ghost in the rooftop but this place doesn't seem so haunted." He says. He heard a slight scoff. "Oh, did you say something?" He says, happily but then she pulls back her hair and revealed an earbud connected to a phone. She's been listening to music the whole time. Taehyung deadpanned.
He felt defeated but was thinking of an easy way to get her attention. Then an idea popped into his head, he smirked.
He moved closer to her, then raised his hand to her ear to remove the earbud, and moved his lips close to her ear, "Ya, play with me please." He whispered to her clearly, very low and slow. Pronouncing each word, dare I say, seductively.
She was startled, that she almost slapped him with her hand. Good thing he avoided her violent reaction just in time. She immediately covered her ear and face while quickly moved away from the boy. "What the hell?!" She cursed, sending daggers his way, concealing the fact that she was red in the face.
Taehyung just smiled so wide, revealing his boxy smile. He was chuckling to himself, pleased that he got her attention, unaware that he almost gave her a hormonal explosion. She glared at him continously but as realization strucked her face twisted to just a pure wtf face. This boy is weird. She thought.
"What the hell are you so happy about?" She questioned, raising a brow, calming herself. She decided to stand up and fix herself, she's had enough for the day. He also stood up.
"You talked to me." He chuckled whilst bobbing his head like a child. She just gave one of her eye rolls and walked away towards the exit. He saw this but he wouldn't just let her leave like that.
He moved faster with his long strides and blocked her path just before the door. She looked straight at his chest, a tad annoyed, she could feel him smiling his ass off. "Please move before I smack your ass back to Mars." She warned him, this however had no effect on him. So she forced herself to look up, since he towered over her small frame. He was smiling down at her. Seriously, what is up with him?
"I still don't know your name." He said with a pout. She just sighed and placed a hand on her waist.
"If I tell you my name, you'll let me through, yes?" She said. His smile got wider but more like a grin. "Maybe." He responded, cheekily.
She gave another sigh and shaked her head in dismay. "Lee Hana, okay? It doesn't mean we're friends or anything." She replied, waiting for him to move.
He moved just as he should but only after he gave her a tight hug for a few seconds. She stood frozen in her feet, she didn't know how to respond but the embrace felt warm and unexpectedly needed. Then he said in his low voice to her ear. "Hope we could play tomorrow too, Lee Hana." He smiled, this sent some shivers down her spine.
He let go, she looked at him with a confused face for a whole 10 seconds. "What was that for?" She said bewildered. He flashed a gentle smile.
"You seemed like you needed it." He said, before opening the door and going down the stairwell without a word. Hana just stared at his back, really questioning his sanity or intelligence.
Hana went home that day, after going to a convenience store to buy some food.
She arrived at her small home's lot, tired and unhappy. She knew that her home is not great and her parent's are either out for work or drinking and when they're home they just fight but Hana didn't really care anymore.
She entered the home through the rusty door, creaking. Strings of curses immediately resounded all over the house and faint thumps and cracks. They're at it again, she thought. Hana couldn't remember when was the last time their house had a peaceful night.
She silently passed the kitchen where her parents were arguing, down to the hallway to her room, where she left her school bag. She then left the room to go to her sister's room.
She peaks in, her sister was studying. Hana smiled, the first smile she had in a day. "Jihye, I bought some food." She said, her sister turned to look at her and smiled wildly.
"Unnie, you came home early today!" She said, then gestured her to come in. Hana entered and sat on her bed, she gave some the rice cakes and kimchi she bought at the store to her sister.
"I'll go heat up some water for the ramyun." Hana said, leaving the room and entering the kitchen. Her parents weren't there anymore but she could see the disaster caused by the two adults, broken glass on the floor, a dent on a metal bowl on the table and multiple pieces of silverware and China scattered on every surface.
Hana held in a breath then sighed deeply, she proceeded to heat up the water in an electric kettle first. After, she cleaned up the mess her parents made. She expected that her dad stormed off again to the bars and her mom went to her friend's house, judging by the silent and empty room of her parent's.
It has always been that way, they fight about everything, but mostly about money and the state of their marriage.
Hana had cried a ton of tears before but now, she has long since ran out of tears because she decided to be strong for her younger sister. People would see her as a cold and emotionless person, also dull, very dull but she was also once a happy little girl, who was carefree and not aware of the conflict in her family.
Hana has tried so many ways to pacify her parents, to help them but as you can see, nothing ever worked. So she has long decided to give up and numb the pain, to be blind to their abuse and be deaf when they fight.
She had to be, for her sister. The only person she considers family. If it weren't for Jihye, Hana wouldn't be alive any longer, she wouldn't go to school on a scholarship and she wouldn't feel any happiness.
But Jihye knew that her sister is in pain. She knew that her parents were particularly much harsher to Hana than her. Jihye doesn't recieve the physical and verbal abuse her sister gets, but hearing her parent's argue and hurting her sister breaks her heart, for her older sister, she had to look okay so that her sister would feel okay but what Hana doesn't see is that Jihye would only be happy if she is.
One day, Hana promised to earn as much as she could to get her and her sister away from her parents. Anything, to give Jihye a better life.
Hana thought alot of things that night. Like the boy he met on the rooftop, Kim Taehyung. She thought he was okay looking and tall, also weird. She felt that this year would be much more interesting and different for her. It was bad to hope for something, but she still hoped that feeling of incoming happiness and change in her life would happen. She hoped.