I woke up feeling sick. It later dawned upon me that it could be a fever. Panic and worry filled my lungs. I can't be sick...who's to take care of Lana? I can't keep on relying on the granny next door. I always send her to her house while I'm at school so she won't be home alone.
Speaking of Lana, I felt the tiny hand palm over my forehead.
"Aera! You're sick!" I gently took her hand and smiled.
"I'm ok Lana. Let's take you to Miss Bae's house."
I ring the door bell and the door unlocked, revealing a jolly woman around her 60s. She gave me the usual greeting hug as she let Lana in.
"Oh dear, you look so pale. Perhaps you should stay in for today."
"Money's not gonna make itself. I'll be careful, I promise." I give her a reassuring nod, and she frowns.
She patted my head. "A pretty young girl shouldn't have to be like this. Don't go too hard on yourself."
"I'll try. I'll come pick Lana up after my shift."
She gave me a nod as usual and closed the door.
/
I walked through the halls, but I didn't see Eunae anywhere. We aren't close, by all means, but she's the closest thing I have to a friend here. It was only for a split second that my attention was taken away from where I was walking, when I felt my body slammed in the locker. I looked up and send a cold glare at the devil's daughter herself.
I won't even pretend I'm surprised. No need for dramatic affect. The character before me is dramatic enough herself.
"You bitch. I told you to stay away from Kookie, didn't I?"
Kookie?
She can't get any more unbearable. I really felt myself holding back a laugh. Eunji yanked at my hair and I cried out in pain.
"This is what you get for testing my man like that!"
"The fuck did I do?!" I glared at her, angered and confused.
I looked around for help. People backed away but looked at me in sympathy. Is this what the school's like? Does nobody have the guts to stand for what's right? She's just a girl with expensive designer products, that doesn't make it ok. Take off all those materialistic things off of her and she'll look no different from the rest.
She wouldn't be all that scary if people actually tried to stop her. Eunji picked me up by my collar and pushes me back into the locker.
"I don't want to dirty my hands any further. Girls, you know what to do." The same girls from yesterday started kicking my stomach and tearing my uniform.
I cried.
Not because it hurt.
But because of the memories. It reminded me of why I moved to this school in the first place.
"You think Mark really loves you? Who would love a slut like you?"
My back was slammed into the locker. The same spot, held the same pain, but I was used to being thrown around.
Rumours spread about me that weren't true. That's where I earned that name. It was odd how they'd dare to call me that to my face, given that they were the ones who spread such rumours. They knew that they weren't true just as much as I did. I'd never cheated on Mark, never flirted with people while we were together. But who was to believe me?
Nobody was there to help.
I didn't expect anybody to.
But out of all people, I still naively thought he would at least spare me a glance. At least him, right? I saw Mark walking past us, just watching me, get beat up by his group of girls.
Had all those memories, meant nothing to him? I loved him with all I had, but he took it as nothing but a game.
I looked up at Eunji, I saw the same fire in her eyes as the girl in my old school had. I fell in love with Mark, the kingka in the old school.
I was a fool.
'Not all kingkas are like that.' I said to myself when I first laid my eyes on him.
He may be different. He could actually be really nice, and loving. There's still a chance he's not a playboy, like all the kingkas in the world, right?
I was so naive.
I fell in love with him, thinking he had loved me too. I found out he had been cheating on me the whole time with other girls.
He never loved me.
I was just another toy. I was no different than all the others.
After five months of dating, I decided to take him home, to let him see who I really am. The girl that doesn't have parents. The girl that lives in a broken apartment.
I wanted him to know that he saved me.
Even though my house was still a wreck, my income was too low, I still felt at peace, because he was there with me. He kissed me that night, in my house and told me he loved me.
The next day, the whole school knew about it.
The feeling of betrayal hurt more than anything; more than all those times that I was slammed in the lockers. More than all those times when my head got dunked in the toilet. But what hurt the most was seeing Lana get involved.
Mark's girls, that were no more than toys, sneaked into my house and messed up everything, and hurt Lana. They slapped her, and degraded her saying that she was just another disgusting being that existed on this earth. Just because she was related to me. I'd gone home that day, to see my dear sister with hair a mess, and tears dripping down her chin. They were out of line, I could've sued them, but I couldn't. I had no legal guardians, and no money. I couldn't lay a finger on them, and they were smart enough to take advantage of that.
What had she done in her past life to have deserved this?
Who said to drag her into it?
You'd say: why would people be so pointlessly cruel? I had wondered the same thing in my younger years. But after my parents' death, our relatives' true colours were put to light. After my confession to Mark, everybody turned their backs on me.
So, why would people be so pointlessly cruel? That's just how the world is, I would say. Nobody needs a reason to.
The girls wouldn't stop kicking me. It hurt with a pain so bad, that I felt like choking out blood.
"Eunji, what's your problem!?"
JungKook, I guessed. It was his voice for sure.
I lifted my head up and saw him storming towards Eunji. He grabbed her by the wrist, clearly upset by the look in his eyes.
"Leave her alone. Don't you have anything better to do?"
Her eyes were filled with fear. Her friends had already run off, leaving her alone to face him. He gave her a cold stare, ignoring my gaze as I stared at him in shock.
"K-kookie.."
She reached for his shoulder. He shook it off roughly, "Don't touch me."
Her tears were begging to stream down her face. They shook dangerously above her eyelids.
"J-JungKook.. i-it was her! She pushed me-"
A sudden loud noise rang through the hallway, making me snap my head up to look at them. Eunji had her hand to her cheek as her eyes shut tight from the pain.
Did he just slap her?
"JungKook..." I gasped quietly. Is he going too far? Surely, this isn't solely about me anymore. This man must have been holding this in for a long time.
"K-Kookie..."
"No Eunji. keep those nicknames out of your mouth. Just back off, you're doing too much."
"I love you! Why can't you see all that I do is for you?"
She looked vulnerable and fragile in front of him, so different from her usual self. I almost felt bad for her even. Almost. For people like her, this would be the most brutal form of humiliation.
"No, not for me. Everything you've done was for yourself. From talking to me, helping me out, keeping other girls away from me, bullying them—it was all for yourself. You're selfish, just face it."
He suddenly picked me up and carried me on his back, leaving Eunji behind.
"Where are we going?" I mumbled, with the pain still itching at the back of my throat.
"I don't know, the sewer? Of course the nurse's room, you idiot."
He set me down on the bed and looked at my wounds after heading inside the office. He took a seat beside me and sighed.
"You're lucky, I wouldn't have come over if it hadn't been you."
That's ridiculous.
"Wouldn't a thank you be nice?" He said, his eyes wandering around the ceiling.
"No, why should I be thankful? What if it wasn't me? You'd just let them get beat up?"
My eyes darted at him in disapproval.
"Is that how you always do it? See if you like that person and then decide to help them or not? So you're telling me, you would only be nice to those you like, protect those you like, and be shit to everyone else? Why should I be thankful for being a part of something like that?"
By the way I'm choking up, and the way my eyes are reddening, I know I'm being too sensitive. But I know what it feels like—When nobody cares to cherish or protect you because you don't have much of a social status, or anything to show off.
I glared back at him, and our eyes met.
His lips parted, not knowing how to respond.
At least he's not trying to justify his own words. It's nice to know he's better than that.
"I'd rather get beat up by them than to know that you had that in mind when saving me."
He looked down as his bangs concealed his face.
"S-sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Not to me. But to those you could've helped but probably decided not to." I got up, and walked away from him.
"Wait, I haven't applied medicine on your wo-"
I struggled to keep myself up, and then I fell to the ground. The wind go knocked out of my lungs as my head made contact to the cold floor before all went black.
The last thing I heard was that bastard shouting my name.