"Why haven't you been going to school?" Naeun asked me as she sat with me on the couch.
Her personality hasn't changed one bit from the person I knew 2 years ago. But of course, she has matured like me. We're 16 now.
She raised her eyebrows at me for not answering. "Aren't you gonna answer?"
"I didn't feel like going." I was closest with her, but I wasn't going to drop the act. For everyone I just wanted to be the normal Haeun. "Why? Do you remember me properly following the rules?"
"My god. From what I heard you have turned into a softie." Naeun snickered, but that expression soon changed. "But you can't hide it from me."
"Hide what?" I almost stuttered. Did she know about the messages? But how?
"Who is this girl Seulbi to you? I ran into her today." She looked down before looking back up at me. "How did you not beat her up already? That brat is as annoying as a fly."
I almost laughed. "Right? But nothing bad happened between us. She just tries to bully me."
"Is that the reason you haven't been going to school?" Naeun asked again and I decided to turn the tables.
"You have nothing to say. I heard from Taeyong how much you skip school! And also, you're here now instead of coming during the break." I sassily delivered the remark and Naeun looked away while clearing her throat.
"Hey, most of those skips were for company reasons. And aren't you happy to see your sister?" She pointed out, almost offended. I smirked.
"No, not at all."
"Yah! You wanna die?" She raised her fist at me and for the first time in ages I genuinely laughed.
"Of course not. I missed you like crazy. How long will you be staying?" I was curious for how much I had to act for. She shrugged.
"As long as I want. Dad made a good excuse to the school so I can sit here for months!" She smiled.
"What about the 'business' you skipped school for?"
"Shut up."
We both laughed.
"Anyway, do you want me to go teach that Seulbi bitch another lesson?" Naeun gave me a devilish smirk. I quicky shook my head.
"No, no, no, do you want me to get kicked out?" My eyes widened at her and she looked me up and down in disbelief.
"Wow, what a good girl. Anyway, where will I sleep?" She looked around the living room.
"With me obviously. Unless you want to sleep with mom?" I asked playfully and she gave me the most offended look. "I'm just kidding!"
"But..." the look of worry came back. "Is mom still the same as what you used to tell me about her?" She asked and I thought about it for a while.
"Hm... Ever since the kidnapping she seems... different to say the least." I sighed and looked out the window.
"What do you mean?"
"As if she's trying to be affectionate, like she used to be when we were younger." I leaned back in the couch and then looked at Naeun. Her face just showed disbelief. "I also found it weird."
"Damn... Maybe she thinks that if you leave her she won't get any money from dad? Child support and stuff."
"Maybe." I shrugged. "No, probably. The stuff she can do for money literally scares me."
Naeun laughed. "Anyway, you better go back to school from tomorrow on, okay? You may have gotten good grades on your exams, but that doesn't mean you can just skip."
"What? God. You're pretending to be older than me." I pushed her with my foot.
"Because I am wayyy more mature than you." She kicked back. And that escalated to a full on pillow fight. And that's how my sister showing up just made me feel way more safe and lifted my mood 100000000%.
*******time skip********
It was already late and Narun and I were getting ready to go to bed. I went and sat down on the bed when my phone buzzed. I already knew who it was, but still checked.
Unknown
You should go to school
Haeunnie... You're going
to miss out on a lot
Sent 22:04
Unknown
No, you need to.
Sent 22:04
Unknown
Because I miss you.
Sent 22:05
Unknown
And everyday, I begin to
hate your dumb friends
even more.
Sent 22:06
Unknown
Let's see what happens to
them ;)
Sent 22:06
Unknown
Goodnight, love! See you
tomorrow!
Sent 22:07
Again... threatening me. I was about to write back anything when Naeun's voice interrupted my train of thought. "Yah, you okay?"
I looked up at her and gave her the fakest smile. "Yeah, what are you talking about?"
"Who texted you?"
"It wasn't a text, just a notification."
"Liar. Give me the phone."
"No, it's okay." I said, turning off the phone and putting it down behind me. Without another word, Naeun jumped at me from the bed and in no time, the electronic device was in her hands. The password was easy to guess for her and she soon began going through the messages. Her face of confusion kept getting bigger and bigger until she finally seemed to explode.
"Naeun... who is this?" She asked in a low voice. It was serious and terrifying.
"I-I don't know-"
"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?!" She screamed at me. "Don't you realize how dangerous this person is? They broke into our most secured mansion god dammit and even Taeyong never noticed anything!" She continued her rant. Her eyes went back to the screen. "And our brother never said anything either, so you've been hiding this?! Are you nuts?! I'm going to call dad." She finished off and began scrolling through my phone.
"No!" I cried out and managed to grab the phone from her. I put it behind me.
"This is serious Haeun!"
Then the tears I've been holding back all this time flooded my eyes. I could barely see anything except blurry shapes as my cheeks also became moist from all the water. I began sobbing uncontrollably.
"But if I do anything about it and he gets away, he'll hurt everyone! He knows Yuri, all my friends at school, my mom. He's not scared to kill them! So please, please just keep it a secret, huh? I'll find a way to deal with him."
I do not know how Naeun even understood all of that, but she soon hugged me and I could cry out all the tears onto her shoulder. She didn't let me go until I was just sniffling.
"Fine, I won't. But don't worry, I'm going to do something about it." She gripped my shoulders and sounded very sure, which gave me hope as well.
"Thank you Naeunnie..." I sniffled with a genuine smile this time.
"Next time just tell me when someone is bothering you, I'll kick their ass for you." She cupped my cheeks and I laughed.
"Understood."
"Now go to sleep, you have school tomorrow!" She demanded and I smiled before jumping on the bed, under the covers.
Somehow I slept way better that night.
**************************************
"You better ignore the messages from now on. Don't even open them if you're too afraid to block him." Naeun pointed her finger at me.
"I know, no need to remind me. I'm going to be late if you keep talking about it." I rolled my eyes but then giggled playfully.
"Okay. Are you sure we shouldn't drop you off at the entrance?" My sister seemed genuinely worried and I just smiled and shook my head, trying to make her feel more at ease.
"I'm fine. It's close enough to school." I assured before I got off the SUV. Checking my watch, I realized that I might be late, so I just gave Naeun and the driver a small wave before I ran off towards the school gate.
Soon after, I entered the classroom just 2 minutes before class started.
"Haeun, you're here!" Lisa exclaimed and she ran over to me. "What is going on? You have a twin sister?" She began attacking me with questions.
"Ahahaha." I awkwardly laughed. "Yeah. What kind of ruckus did she cause for you to know her?" I asked.
"I didn't see her, but some other students did. Seulbi did not show up to school today at all since she was so humiliated yesterday!" Lisa gave me a huge grin. My eyes widened.
"What happened?"
Before the girl could answer me, our home room teacher came in and we had to quickly get back to our seats.
************************************
"Oh my god." I face palmed after hearing what my friends had to say. Although the story between Naeun and Seulbi, coming from them, seemed way over dramatized, I could recognize behaviour that was typical for my sister.
"But why did we never know about her? No, why did we never know you're a daughter of a rich company?" Lisa was again the one to ask those questions. I sighed.
"Because my parents are divorced and I live with my mom while the rest of my family lives with my dad." I counter attacked and the table fell silent.
"Oh... I'm so-"
"It's okay, no need. It's been like that for a while now." I smiled, trying to reassure my friends that it was all okay.
"You're incredible. Theres always something new about you." Minhyuk shook his head and I started laughing.
"Right! How are we supposed to keep up Haeun ah!!" Dahyun fake cried which made me laugh even harder. Soon enough the rest of them joined in.
"Ah, right. Jongho moved schools." Lisa updated me and I nodded.
"I know."
"How?" She seemed surprised and I realized I had busted myself.
"Oh! Um... well-"
"I always knew there was something going on." Daehwi pointed out, giving me a suspicious look. "You seemed to know him from before."
"Here we go again." Minnie leaned back in her chair.
"Oh god... I wanted to keep this a secret." I bit my lip and then rubbed my temple as a headache was kicking in. "But fine."
"Oh! So something did happen!" Lisa called out a bit loudly.
"Daehwi you're so observant, really!" Minhyuk ruffled the other boys hair, who in turn got away in disgust. "Anyway, Haeun, tell us what's up."
"So the thing is... he was my ex."
...
"What."
"WHAT?!"
The first one way Daehyun and then Lisa. That attracted the attention of some tables around us and I looked around flustered.
"Lisa don't be so-"
"YOU HAD AN EX BOYFRIEND AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME? AND IT WAS HIM?!" Lisa almost stood up from the shock. She was sitting next to me, so I quickly covered her mouth with a hand and then used my other one to make a "shh" finger over my lips. Although still shocked, she managed to keep quiet.
I began looking around and noticed a few students were still staring, although they looked away shortly after we locked eyes. All except one.
He was by where we get our food and was just standing there with his tray, staring. I couldn't look away from those eyes, even though I really tried. They brought back so many memories that I wish I could expand on. But I couldn't just ignore what he had done.
So I lowered my eyes slowly before turning back towards my friends, Park Jisung only being able to stare at my back from now on.
Dahyun nudged me. "I thought you were innocent, guess not huh?"
That comment made me blush and begin stuttering, attempting to defend myself which only made the group laugh more.
But against my will, I turned backwards towards where he stood minutes ago. And as expected, no trace.