They did do their homework and even managed some studying before Mrs Hirai called them for dinner. Jihyo decided it was about time she broke the news to everyone, they should know and she was glad to be able to tell Mr and Mrs Hirai herself, they had her over more than she would like to admit, and had always been the sweetest. She would want to do that with the Chous, Myouis, Ims and Sons as well, but that is a worry for later.
"So, I have something to say." Jihyo starts with a sigh, sometime after they started eating.
"What is it, sweetheart?" Mrs Hirai asks, a little worried.
"Oh, it's nothing bad, I promise." Jihyo is quick to assure. "I applied to a exchange program with my singing professor, and I got accepted. I should be leaving in two or three months."
They all pause for a while, Hana, who was coming back with more juice, almost dropped the pitcher. Mina chokes on the food in her mouth, Nayeon had stopped with a wet tissue pressed against Momo's face, Momo stopped trying to get away from Nayeon. Tzuyu is frozen midway at taking a bite of her dinner, Chaeyoung was cutting some carrots and Mr and Mrs Hirai are looking at Jihyo with wide eyes.
"I have been taking singing lessons for years, now, and my tutors have always been very supportive. So, at the beginning of last year Seungwan unnie talked me into auditioning for this music program overseas, it's an arts school that has an escalator system with their affiliated university, and I got offered a scholarship there.
They are willing to support my schooling expenses and I'm offered a room at their dorms. The call came in yesterday, and I said I wanted to go. I know I never said anything about it, but I didn't want to have hope and get you all rooting for me to not get it in the end. So-"
"That's great, Jicchan!" Mrs Hirai cuts the girl's rambling and shoots up, walking around the table and snatching her on a bone-crushing hug.
That was enough for everyone to erupt in cheers, taking turns to congratulate Jihyo, Hana and Momo may or may not have ended dinner sobbing into their plates. Nayeon had some snot flowing down her nose as well, which had Tzuyu kick her shin and demand the girl went to the bathroom and clean herself up. Chae, the level headed and reasonable one, managed to calm Mina down, who slightly snapped when she heard Jihyo call her teacher 'unnie'.
They managed to finish dinner, somehow, and Tzuyu and Jihyo got rock-paper-scissored into doing the dishes. The other girls went up to Momo's room to put their things away, intending to not leave too late after the other two were done with the dishes. They ended up sitting on the living room and making Jihyo tell them everything about her exchange program, it got a bit late, and Mr Chou had called to ask if Tzuyu was going home that day, so Mr Hirai drove them all home.
For the next few days, Jihyo went to Mina's, Chaeyoung's, Tzuyu's and Nayeon's (in that order) to tell their families about being accepted in the program, going about the same questions, but she would tell them the same thing over and over without complaining. Then it came time for her to talk to her own parents, it should be easy, they would be satisfied to know they didn't have to have her in the house anymore. With that in mind, she took a smaller shift one afternoon, so she could get to the house in time to talk to them.
"Mother, could I speak with you and father for a moment?" Jihyo asked as soon as she got to the house.
"Is this important? We are planning to go out tonight." The woman answers, not really stopping what she was doing.
"It is, ma'am. I need to talk to you both." Jihyo starts to get a bitter taste in her mouth, it always happened when she was at that house.
"Fine, I'll call you after i speak to your father. He is not home yet."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you." Jihyo says and leaves for her room.
She immediately goes in to shower, Mr Park had scolded her too many times about not being presentable in front of him for her to not worry about it. Sure enough, just as she was finishing her makeup, she hears him arriving, some conversation with her mother, and then she hears the man greeting her sisters, before going into his own room. Not much later, her mother screams for her, and she goes on to her father's office to try and bargain with them to let her leave.
"Come in." A voice full of disdain orders her in.
"Sir, ma'am. I would like to talk to you both." Jihyo says, sliding into the room, and bowing to the two figures on the other side of the table.
"This better be important. We have other things to attend to tonight." Her father spits.
"It is, sir."
"Are you, finally telling us you are ready to go live on your own or something?" Mrs Park asks, she had been bugging Jihyo to leave for years already.
"I am, ma'am." Jihyo says, still not looking at them.
"Oh, you are? What are you waiting for, then?" Mrs Park continues.
"I would need my parent's consent for it, ma'am."
"That's easy, then. We are just going to disown you and then you can stop bothering us." Mr Park responds curtly.
"You are disowning me, sir?" Jihyo never really expected anything from those people, but that was a new low.
"I am, it's about time too. We don't have time to deal with you, and we don't need more problems to solve anymore. I'm sending in the papers tomorrow, you can move out over the weekend." The man declares, not allowing for any more questioning and waves the girl out.
Jihyo bows to them again, leaving the office, she overhears Mrs Park telling the man that she couldn't be happier about, finally, letting that bothersome girl go. She has known they wanted her gone, always have, but couldn't really save face within their friend group (that had Nayeon's and Mina's parents in it) had they just thrown the girl out. Jihyo decided to just get her things and spend the night at the Ims, she calls Nayeon, who answers immediately, and asks if she could come over, which she never really needed to ask.
Getting there, she is ushered in by a worried looking Mr Im, who hugs her tight and gets her sat down on the living room, where Mrs Im is already waiting for her, and Nayeon comes in with a water bottle, sitting herself down beside Jihyo and getting the girl under a blanket with her.
"What happened, Jihyo-ah? Yeonnie told us you called asking to sleep over and you sounded like you were about to cry." Mr Im starts the conversation.
"Well, I tried to tell my parents about the exchange program today." She tries but a sob gets caught in her throat.
"What happened?" Mrs Im holds one of her hands comforting her and Nayeon is hugging her on the other side.
"I tried to tell them I needed their consent for me to travel, but fa- Mr Park just told me he would simply disown me because they didn't need the trouble. And they said I should move out completely by the weekend." Jihyo explains in a strained voice.
Mr Im looks like marching down to the Parks and just murdering them, Mrs Im stops him and Nayeon starts crying as soon as she heard the news.
"When did he say he was going to do it?" Mrs Im asks after convincing her husband to not get himself arrested.
"He said he would file the papers tomorrow. He showed me a file when he said that, so I think he has everything ready." Jihyo's voice is becoming more hollow by the minute.
"You are staying here. And we are moving you out tomorrow, as soon as you come back from school." Mr Im declares.
"But I don't want to bothe-"
"Don't even think about it! You are going abroad soon, and there is no point in staying at that house anymore. We are coming with you tomorrow and getting you moved out. When is the house empty?" Mrs Im interrupts.
"I think it's empty in the morning, Mr Park goes to work, the girls are off to school and Mrs Park goes grocery shopping, and out with her friends after." Jihyo ponders, never having felt any real connection to those who were so quick to throw her out.
"Good, you are not going to school tomorrow, then. Nayeon, I'm sending your school a note and telling them Jihyo will be absent, so take it with you to the student office." Mr Im decides, and Nayeon nods in agreement.
"But, shouldn't I go to school?" Jihyo questions.
"Not tomorrow. Call your work as well, if needed, I'm calling the others to come and help as well. Moving you here has to be quick, I don't want to give that woman the satisfaction of seeing you leave that damned house." Mrs Im says and gets to her feet to fulfill her mission.
Since the girls were such great friends, and spent so much time at each other's houses, their parents, sans the Parks, got to be really good friends with one another as well, they all had a secret pact that they would always care for Jihyo as their own, after seeing how she was treated by the Parks, and hearing from their daughters how the girl always tried to be a good kid, and still got mistreated and abused.
Nayeon, still ugly crying, took Jihyo to her room and made the girl get to sleep, before going back to the living room and contacting the girls about what happened, it took her asking her mother to tell the Hirais to not let Momo leave the house, else the girl would probably commit a crime that night. Mr Im said he would join her if she did. They were all worried, but Nayeon assured them Jihyo was safe and sleeping on her bed, then told them to try and get some rest, as they would talk about it the next day.
When the morning came, Nayeon left, unwillingly, to school, Mr Im left for work, as he had an important meeting in the morning, but promised to come back at lunch. Mrs Im managed to get the day off, and made sure Jihyo ate her absurdly big breakfast. Not much later, the bell rang, and in came Mrs Chou, Mr and Mrs Myoui, Mr Son and Mr Hirai, all who had managed to get some time off work to move the girl out of that house and in with the Ims. Jihyo cried a little, feeling her heart swell with gratitude and love for those families that took her in as one of their own.
Mrs Im had set camp by her window, watching the Parks for when the house would be empty, while Jihyo was retelling last night's event to the other parents. They were all livid, and Mr Hirai, finally, understood why he was asked to hold Momo down when the girl was trying to leave the house. At some point, amidst their ranting, Mrs Im announced that Mr Park had left the house, and Jihyo said Mrs Park should be leaving soon after. True to the girl's words, not even half an hour later, the woman did leave, looking expensive and with a bounce on her step, as if the weight of the world had been lifted from her. More like the weight of a daughter they didn't want to 'bother' with.
They all headed out as soon as the woman's cab left the street, Jihyo let them in and guided them to her storage room, they were, once again, enraged about what they were doing with the girl, but made quick work with packing everything to move the girl out. It wasn't really difficult, as Jihyo never really owned much, but they made sure to leave the room barren, as if no one had ever set foot there. Mr Myoui wanted to write a note with a few chosen words to the Parks, but Jihyo managed to convince him otherwise. The girl just left a note asking them to let her know when the papers would be approved, with her phone number at the bottom.
After moving the girl to the extra bedroom at the Ims, Jihyo tahnked them all with a very deep and formal bow, followed by very tight hugs on each of them. It was barely past two when Mr Im got back home, surprised to find them all already done, Jihyo made sure to thank him properly as well, and said she should go to work after all. She needed to talk to her manager about leaving soon, and they had already moved her out anyways. The parents agreed, she actually did need to formalize her resignation and train whoever would replace her.
Mrs Im suggested they just do a barbecue party that night, as they were almost all there already, and it was hard for them to meet up like that, everyone agreed and Mrs Myoui shot a message to the absent parents, telling them of the evening's plans. Mr Son remembered to tell the girls, and messaged Chaeyoung to tell the others and have everyone over.
Back in school, Nayeon arrived almost an hour early,and the girls were already waiting for her, all with very worried expressions. She ushered them all inside, they had already dropped their things on the respective classrooms, so all just accompanied the eldest to do the same and headed to the garden beside the student council building, the one nobody really used or passed by in the morning, as it was off everyone's route.
"What happened? Where is she?" Momo spits as soon as they arrive.
"Let's sit first? Come here, love." Nayeon tries to calm her girlfriend down.
"So, what is this 'Jihyo got kicked out' about?" Mina asks in a hostile, yet calm manner.
"She called me last night asking to sleep over, not like she had to ask, but anyways, I tell her to just come, and get downstairs to tell my parents she was coming and she sounded like she was in trouble." Nayeon explains. "So, she comes over, and tells us she was trying to tell her parents about the exchange program, she needed their permission to go and all. But, then, she said they would just disown her because she was a bother and they didn't want to be troubled."
"And where is she right now?" Tzuyu, for the first time, sounds hostile.
"She is at my house. My mom said she should stay there and mom would have all our parents help move Jihyo out when the Parks were away. Something about not giving them the satisfaction of seeing her leave."
"Oh, dad said he was going to your place this morning, that must be it." Chaeyoung chimes in, trying to break the tense mood.
"Mom and Dad said the same thing." Mina adds.
"They must be there right now, waiting for the Parks to leave so they can go in and get Jihyo's things out." Nayeon tries a chuckle that came out too dry.
"Then she is in great hands. We should head to Yeonnie's after anyways." Momo says, effectively breaking the tension.
They talked a bit more, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu had to go back to middle school and Nayeon had to hand in the note for Jihyo's absence, so the three went back first, leaving the rest talking a bit more. Everything was fine until lunch, when a certain couple showed up and none of the girls really wanted to have to deal with them.
"Hey girls, has anyone seen Jihyo today?" Sana greets as she sits down, followed by Jeongyeon.
"Oh, hey. She didn't come today." Mina answers curtly between chews.
Both look puzzled and a bit worried about the news, and Jeongyeon is the one to ask first.
"Do you guys know why she didn't come?"
"She had some personal business to attend to, and couldn't come in today. She is fine, and should be here tomorrow, though." Chaeyoung answers calmly, dismissing the subject.
Neither Jeongyeon nor Sana were completely satisfied with the answer, but understood that was all they were getting. They ate and made small talk, until the whole group dismissed themselves about fifteen minutes before the bell. The couple remained at the cafeteria, and decided they were going to stop by Jeongyeon and Jihyo's workplace later.
Their plan would have worked, had their target not been sent back early to handle her personal issues, that nobody seemed willing to tell them about. Jihyo's decision to head to work early paid off, without her even knowing.
She went to work and asked to talk to her manager, telling the woman everything that happened and about her leaving soon. Her manager had always had a soft spot for the girl, and was very excited about the news. Although she was infuriated with the Parks, she was very excited about Jihyo being given the opportunity to better her talents, and happy the girl was freed from those people.
Jihyo, though, asked her manager to keep everything a secret, she didn't want the Parks to catch word of anything she was doing, to which, the woman agreed easily, and decided to send her back for the day (with full intention on clocking the girl in and out so she would still get paid).
And that's where Jeongyeon and Sana's plan failed. Once they arrived, Jeong spotted the manager behind the counter, and dragged Sana along, they enquired about Jihyo, only to get the same vague answer and no further explanation on the matter. Both just resigned by then, and decided they would just ask the girl herself tomorrow.