edited 25aug21
• chapter 44: jeonghoon's a bitch
"Here's your quiz result from yesterday."
Hyemi leaned her back on the chair after peeking at the score. When the teacher left the class, she crossed her arms on the table and buried her face.
"What's wrong?" Jeongin asked.
"Just fine."
The younger guy giggled, "You're not answering the question."
The girl didn't budge. Jeongin glanced towards Seungmin who was blankly flipping through pages without energy. A low sigh escaped his lips.
These two–
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That night when she heard the front door opened, both Hyunjae and Hongjoong run to their parents, cheering as usual. Hyemi just sent a small glance before going upstairs to her room. She took the quiz paper and stared at the score.
After approximately half an hour, she brought the paper with her, along with a jacket and her phone. With emotionless expression she handed the paper to his father.
Both adults looked up to her and before they could say anything, she spoke up.
"It's not my fault I got this result," she started. "Both of you know I studied and even stayed up starting this year just because I want to get the best results, to impress both of you. As a figure for my brothers, you used to say. But you cannot really expect me to get higher than this when you're always out for work, leaving me to take care of Hyunjae and Hongjoong until midnight, making me clean the house and scold me when I skipped the work for a day and pressuring me to study harder. You cannot make me get higher marks when you play with my emotions, comparing me with Chenle of our academics. Even when I got eighty for my previous English test, appa says it's not enough. Do you know how happy I am when I got the score?"
Tears gathered in her eyes and her vision became blurry.
"You don't even care about my health, my safety, my opinion and my feelings. All I have to do is following your orders. Honestly I'm so tired of this. Seungmin was the only one who understands my feelings. He was the one who's fast to catch up what's going on with me, what's my problems at home."
Her parents were silent for the whole minutes. Hyemi harshly wiped off the escaped tears. "But now even Seungmin is gone."
The living room fell silent. There were only her parents sitting on the couch, and Hyemi standing in front of them with her hand clutching on her jacket.
"Honey–"
"I'm gonna take a walk. Don't find me I'll be back soon." she quickly said and exited the house without even glancing at his parents. When the gate closed, she broke down and scrolled through her contacts.
She clicked on a name, holding her phone against her ear as she walked out from the neighborhood. After two rings the other person picked up.
"Hello?"
"I'm going to Seungmin's." she informed him and a hiccup escaped her lips.
"Wait, are you crying? What happened?"
"Hyunjin, I'm going to Seungmin's house alone can you stay on the phone until I reach there?" she ignored the question as she felt fear slowly crept into her.
"Sure but," he put his phone away for awhile and the girl could hear something clinking onto each other and the sound of him rummaging his wardrobe.
"Hyunjin?"
There was no reply. Hyemi stopped walking and looked around. The road was empty which scared her so she quickly continued to walk until she reached the shop lots.
"I'm coming with you." she heard Hyunjin said and gate closing.
She shook her head, "N–no it's too far."
"I'm not letting you walk alone at night, Hyemi. Stay where you are."
"If I stay where I am then you'll have to take different routes. I'll just walk a little more."
"Be careful. If there's something weird tell me." she could hear him panting. Hyemi felt bad for troubling him so she started to speed walking. She ignored the chilly air and after a few minutes of walking, she heard footsteps behind her.
"Hyunjin,"
The guy on the other line of the phone panicked when hearing her voice.
"Hyemi where are you now?" he fastened his pace, worried about the girl.
"I'm nearing his neighborhood but–" she glanced to the back before running. "I think someone is following me."
"Fuck," he cursed. "Just run."
With that she clutched her phone tight and ran. The footsteps behind her grew faster too, scaring her. At that moment she only could pray that her fast running ability could save her from this misery. She put the phone back against her ear.
"Hyunjin if something happens call the police— AAAHH!!"
"Hyemi!"
Her phone dropped on the ground when the unknown person covered her mouth and harshly brought her down to the alley. Hyemi struggled to get out of his grip but he yanked her hand, causing her back to slam on the brick wall. She groaned and fell on the road.
The person got closer to her and picked her up by the collar. By feeling the strength she assumed it was a guy but she couldn't see his face. He was wearing a brown long coat with a cap covering the upper half of his face. The girl grasped his hand, twisting them and kicked his leg. That caught him off guard and she kicked his stomach. Thanks to her fighting skills, the guy stumbled back giving her a way to run.
She didn't waste any time to look at him and ran, spotting her phone on the ground. But as soon as she was about to reach the lamppost at the beginning of the alley, the same person harshly wrapped his arm over her stomach and brought her back to the dark road. Hyemi's mind started to think the other way instead of finding different ways to escape. She breathed heavily when the unknown guy threw her on the ground, scratching her palms and knees.
The low light illuminated from a broken lamp shone on his face, allowing her to recognize him immediately. She gasped and quickly scooted away from him.
"W–what do you w–want?" she trembled as Jeonghoon walked closer and crouched in front of her. The guy scoffed, grabbing her hair to force her looking at him.
"Why are you still alive?" his hoarse voice asked.
"W-what?" she stammered, heart pounding so fast.
"If that kid didn't pull you away I would have killed you easily."
That clicked her mind. The day before where she was about to get hit by a car suddenly make sense to her. Her eyes widened as she push him away but no attempt.
"Let me go! What do you want from me?!"
"You, are Seungmin's happiness." he clenched his teeth. "Sorry girl, I want to see him suffer."
Hyemi couldn't feel her body when again, he picked her up and slams her against the wall. The girl cried in agony as the pain crawled through her whole body. He smirked, pushing her head making it collided with the metal lamppost beside her.
The pain in her head was unbearable as he did it again. Weakly, she held onto his wrist to push him off her but failed. The only thing she could see was her blurry vision. The guy pushed her to the ground, scoffing.
"You're so weak."
Her boyd slowly turned numb. Her eyes were closing due to the pain in her head but she managed to move slightly, still trying to escape. The rough road scratched more of her skin and blood dripped down from the right side of her head.
Before she fully closed her eyes, she could see Jeonghoon falling beside her immediately went unconscious. The sound of a heavy metal rod dropping on the ground echoed through the alley before someone picked her up on their lap.
"Hyemi, I– I'm– oh my god please.. please hold on. Police and ambulance are on their way."
The girl's eyes opened a bit, the pain striking her head.
"Can you h-hold it? O-open your eyes until they c-come." the guy cried, swiping her hair to the side. Blood smeared on his hand but he cared less. "I'll talk to y-you. Just please, hold a little bit longer.
Hyunjin felt like a terrible friend when seeing her condition. He held tight onto her hands. He wanted to bring her out of the dark place, but he also needed to watch over the unconscious Jeonghoon beside her. He didn't want to let him pass this time.
"Hyunjin.." she breathed out.
As if it's on cue, the sirens coming from the two vehicles was heard. Hyunjin turned on the flashlight in his phone and flashed it to the front, signalling the police and the paramedics they were in the dark alley. Fast footsteps could be heard and a few seconds later, they spotted the three teenagers on the ground.
Hyunjin got up from the ground, carrying the half conscious girl in his arm. The police let him bring her to the ambulance while they took care of Jeonghoon. He carefully put Hyemi on the stretchable bed and at that moment, the residents have gathered around them but he ignored them and got into the ambulance.
"Can you still hear me?" he asked the girl.
Hyemi nodded weakly, holding his hand.
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