Sensitive topic warning
The only source of light is the single light bulb hanging over his head as he steps in, he feel like he's commiting a crime. Painfully awkward until he reach right in middle of girl's washroom
" So petty...could have afford more bulbs, But no! Creepy vibes are must." His face scrunched into fear and shame, his curious peripheral unintentionally noting how different is the interior actually
I'm going to hell for this, oh lord.
He gulps, the whimpers and sobs have gotten noticeably louder and he can exactly pinpoint from which stall it's coming from. The last one
Radiance of single bulb is not enough to see properly without getting scared of his own shadow so
he bring his phone out and turn the flashlight on. He can't help but feel a wave of Deja Vu wash over his nervous frame
His throat tighten and eyebrow crease when sobs stop, his eyes momentarily shift behind him to the large set of mirrors gawking behind, over the marble of basin before immediately shifting them forward.
He made the mistake to watch 'mirror' film and is still a bit hesitant to look at them
He jumps when sobs initiate again, knocking him off his feet until his back collided with the door, loud Thud resonating like echo whilst the sobs immediately turns into muffled whimpers making his skin crawl and palm flush, hold on his phone tightens
He absolutely loathes whatever is happening right now. His heart throb painfully having various scenarios flashing in front of his eyes....all ending to the dreadful bloody nightmare, demon.
But he can't bring himself to run away, even when the door is pressed on his flushed back,
Something in pit of his stomach reassures him that he must move forward and check. He can't really disagree because if he don't then his consciousness won't let him sleep, the sobs are painful to hear, desperate ever since he made his presence known by foolishly jumping in his skin.
So he decides to act on the decision that he's 90 percent sure he is gonna regret later
Wiping his clammy palms on his jeans, he draw his legs gingerly toward the stall until he's standing right in front of it.
The cries from inside seem suffocated and does it break his heart and at the same time makes hair on his skin stand up
He gulps, licking his dry lips and with a deep breath he knocks, whoever is inside is doing a poor job in inviting him to open the door.
There's shuffle, thrashing, even to the point of kicking the door, scaring the living daylight off him, dropping his phone midway
Oh lord! He's going to cry anytime now
The exhaust beside the top of stall is creating stripes of shadow, as he collects himself before squeaking a guarded "Hello"
He doesn't like one bit, how high pitched he sounds to his own ear
He knocks again " Hello! I-um.. Should I open the door? You need some help? "
His hands stretched to their limits to knock, he doesn't risk being near that stall after the unexpected kick that shook him like the door. Plus the fact that there's this usual gap of three inches from ground wants him to keep his legs as far away as possible
Shuffle and disorder echoes with the muffled screech that sound as yelling to his ears, he can tell being this close that it's a female voice....well of course it's girl washroom reminding him of his inappropriate presence
His phone is still laying down and he needs it to message someone about his whereabouts in case something terrible happens and he needs help
He mummers numerous apologies to his phone when he pulls on it with his shoe toes, he won't risk having himself anywhere near the gap of death, his nightmare that's not even 24 hour old makes him feel sick, remembering the arm...whole body emerge from under his desk
His face twists, wanting to keep his lunch meal in his stomach only, he eventually bends down to pick up his phone and being a curious brat that he is, he glanced at the gap under the door that's separating him from whatever inside
He whimpers
He's greeted with a pair of brownish bloodshot eyes, eyelashes damp and fresh tears flowing sideways from nose to cheeks, face bright red and sweaty. Black long hair sticking all over the face and behind, eyes wide and open staring at him with such intensity that knocks him back on his ass and scream
The said figure of a girl flinched , eagerly trying to get closer to him from the gap that's barely holding her head inside when he tries to scoot back
He gets a momentarily glance of her neck, at least it's body still attached to head .
His heart, he feels like he can see it pump over his shirt.
He didn't run just stays there in shock seeing the girl close her eyes and sob again, this time lightly kicking the door as if cautious to not scare him away
It's a person not ghost
He hurriedly crawls his way toward the stall, fumbling with the door and his heart aches seeing what's inside or more like how
As he opens the door he is met by a grievous sight of an dead exhausted girl with her hands and legs bounded uncomfortably by duct tape, so is her mouth; preventing her from moving or speaking as she lays uncomfortably in the small cubicle all worn out, panting in both distress and glistening hope of finally getting rescued
" Fuck! Hey? don't close your eye" He scrambles panicked, instantly holding her to himself and carrying over to the marble platform beside sink, propping her against the mirror, hurriedly ripping his bag open
His hands tremble and he can't help when his eyes water seeing the condition of the girl who's laboriously gasping for air through her nose, hastily grabbing the compass he frees her hands and legs.
Next the duct tape over her mouth, he first wets it under running water and his hands before slowly peeling them off, careful of every wince or discomfort of her
He releases his breathe in deep gust of anxiety that left his body when she starts coughing and breathing properly, propping her body upward herself whilst he fishes his water bottle and hands it over to her after opening the cap
Her hands are trembling, so is her whole body and Jungkook delicately props the mouth of bottle over her lips and help her drink, she takes greedy sips and his heart ache again
" I'm gonna remove the hair from your face, is that fine? " he whispers, not wanting to startle her whose eyes didn't open once but she nods
He brings his hands , slowly and delicately removing the hair that's sticking over her teary sweaty face, using his other hand to wipe her face clean with his soaked up handkerchief under running tap
She leans on him, tired to even keep her head up, her lips tremble violently before she starts crying, startling Jungkook who let's her lean her head on his shoulder and cry her heart out and he sympathise with her, he don't know how she ends up like this but it's awful
She's tiny compared to him, her knee length dress, orange and pretty flowers now decorated with creases and damp with sweat and tear that makes contact with his hand whilst patting her back and head, reassuring her, telling her she's safe, soothing her with his voice and she indeed calms down after good minute of crying
Eventually she detach herself from him as her sad and grateful brown eyes opened and stared into his own concerned one
She wipes her nose with back of her hand pouting and Jungkook cracks a small smile before passing his now damped handkerchief to her who mutters a tiny ' thank you '
Her voice is shaky and hoarse as she speaks again " Thank you for saving me mister"
" you're welcome and I'm Jungkook " he stretches his hand out and see her look at it, then at him and finally again at his hands before wrapping her fingers around his own. Cute
"I'm piri " she mumbles out in whisper, still not over the shock and he can't blame her
" That's a very beautiful name " at this she smiles and so does Jungkook, before she hides her face down embarrassed
" How did you end up like this? " he tries to keep his tone soft and approachable, not wanting to make her more uncomfortable than she is right now, but he needs to know
" I uh.." she wipes her nose with back of her hand making Jungkook smile again at her adorable habit " some bullies..th-they " she looks like she'll cry again and jungkook's smile drop instantly
She takes a deep breathe and looks at him, he smiles softly, reassuring her that she can continue but no need to force herself to talk if she can't. she continues
" Some girls..uh...they have been bullying me since start of this year and " she bites her lips to stop a sob and Jungkook holds her hand, gently stroking her knuckles " they drove away my friends and talk bad about me behind my back or in front of my face. They made me lonely "
She squeezes his hand, her mind somewhere else, somewhere painful " when I had enough, I confronted them, told them to not hurt me anymore but seems like they didn't like a weakling stand up against them " she bitterly chuckles
" They dragged me here after classes, taped me and left me here to 'reflect on my actions' laughing until they come find me tomorrow "
By now Jungkook is fuming, it's stupid he's disgusted by these type of people. His tongue poking inside his cheek, eyes blazing, arms and neck popping a vein thinking about how he'll make them regret everything
He exhales seething, they are so petty and oh so in trouble now. He'll make sure to get them reported and expelled
"Are you disgusted by me now?" her tiny voice cuts him out of his thought, his face softens seeing her duck her head down, not meeting his eyes. He gently lift her head up by placing his two finger right under her chin before pouting exaggeratingly, showing his doe eyes to her who gasp, not expecting such a cute face to greet her instead of judgemental
" There's no way anyone can be disgusted by you, I'll say you are brave for confronting them and you didn't deserve it, we'll make sure they get their punishment " tears start filling in her eyes, it's been so long someone talked so nicely to her, about her
" How about I kick their ass to principal office, you know that grumpy man with a permanent frown and funny eyebrows " she snorted
The girl giggles with hand over her mouth. He smiles, at least he made her laugh.
" Let's go, it's pretty late now "
Piri nods and jumps down from the platform but as soon as her feet made contact with ground, her knees buckles and she almost crashed down if jungkook's reflexes didn't save her
His arm wrapped around her waist to keep her form falling, instantly unlocking when she takes support by the sink
" I'm so sorry " she squeaks in small flustered voice whilst Jungkook feels like he's surrounded by lava, both of their faces red in embarrassment
She tries to balance herself on her own but her legs are numbed and locked being in uncomfortable position for hours and she feels her throat tighten, she can't walk and sure she's going to cry with big fat tears
She yelps when Jungkook carefully bends and picks her bridal style, cautions to not touch more than necessary, his palm pointing outward, avoiding to rest over her back or under her knees. She looks at him wide eyes and scarlet face who refuses to make eye contact, his whole neck and ear red, sharing the same embarrassment
" it's alright, I'll carry you" she didn't reply for few seconds feeling so grateful and shy, eventually nodding and cautiously wrapping her hands around his neck. She helps him carry their bags
As they make their way out
It's battery is 3 percent at the moment 💀
{edit : 87 right now ]
By the way I gave warning about sensitive topic (bullying) in this chapter but won't in next, it'll ruin the anticipation of what's gonna happen
This book will have some sensitive matter and quite uncomfortable scenarios too, I'm not trying to promote or romanticize them
It's work of fiction with no ill intentions, don't take it personally or learn something bad from characters, learn about their flaws and how willing they are to grow out of it and if not then the consequences they'll have to deal with ,not only in my book but from anyone's you read from
I'm big fan of anti bullying, LGBTQ rights, black lives matter, feminist, consent and whatever good causes for a better world.
So if I write about a character who bullies, assault then it doesn't mean I'm approving of it.
But can't turn a blind eye now, can we. So learn about it, maybe you are one of them without knowing so maybe you'll find some character resonate with you and then when they develop you feel that development with you when you finish reading
I'm ranting because it's almost 4am and I kind of get drunk on sleep around this time.
Good night, love you lovely people