Strawberries and Cigarettes || Haechan

🍓 3 🍓

Shani was currently sitting in one of the empty classroom set up for one on one conference. She had a book in her hands, intently reading every line. But the more pages she turns, the more the anxiety build up until she couldn't take it anymore.

She stood up, glancing at the clock by the door. 2 minutes past four o'clock. The person she's supposed to counsel is two minutes late and it's making her skin itch. They were supposed to meet up right after school but where in the world is he?

As the clock hits 4:03, she shove the book in her bag, walking towards the door. Three minutes late was too much. It's making her feel anxious and hot. Might as well wait for him by the hallway.

But just as she reached for the door knob, the door flung open with force, hitting her harshly in the face. She fell on the ground with a thud, head spinning and eyes blurring in tears at the pain.

"Ugh..." She groan, seeing a pair of shoes right in front of her.

"You're the one who's supposed to counsel me?" The voice was sarcastic. As if the idea was stupid and absurd.

Shani tried to look up but her neck probably snapped at the impact. She couldn't even move it. So she pushed herself up instead, eyes coming in contact with the boy's chest.

"I would look at you in the eye but my neck...." She mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose to stop the bleeding.

He scoff, already turning around to leave but she grabbed the strap of his bag, stopping him.

"Where...are you going?" She said through clench teeth due to the pain "T-Take a seat."

"If you haven't noticed, you're fcking bleeding."

"I-I'm okay. Let's start? We already wasted ten minutes of our session." She held tightly on his bag, dragging him towards the table. He shrug her off, kicking the chair and carelessly throwing his bag on the floor.

"I should have slammed the door harder." He said, taking a sit.

Shani sat in front of him, trying to smile even though her eyes was involuntarily tearing up "Hi. Just to start us off, I'm Jeon Shani. I'm a senior like you. As you know, we'll be having sessions like this three times a week after school. We basically just....uhm...hey?"

"Interesting. Keep talking." The boy sink comfortably in his chair, yawning "I only yawn when I'm fascinated." His voice laced with sarcasm.

Just then was Shani able to see his face and jerked back in shock, hurting her neck even more "Ah! Damn it! It's you!" She exclaimed, cupping her neck with her right hand while the other hand tries to stop her nose from bleeding.

Haechan gave her an uninterested stare "Who the fck are you?"

"You literally asked the same thing this morning." She rolled her eyes "Cigarette in the rooftop. Does that ring a bell?"

He looks her up and down, eyebrow raised, and she looked away under his icy stare.

"Nevermind." Her voice came out muffled and blocked as she was still pinching her nose "I'm here to be your friend. You can talk to me about anything. Homework, friends, emotions-"

Haechan let out a sarcastic chuckle "What a joke. Why don't you tell me instead? What were you doing, crying in the rooftop?"

Shani met his eyes, taken aback. She shuffle uncomfortably in her chair "This is about you uh..." she flipped a folder open, looking at his student information "...Lee Donghyuck."

"About me? Fcking ridiculous. So I'm just supposed to spill my feelings out to a total stranger? Hell, I don't even talk to my parents."

She closed the folder, looking at him more closely and thinking...how could someone look so rebellious?

"Ok..." She breathes. First, she gets his trust so he would open up "I was at the rooftop....calling out to the other world. You know, ghosts and stuff."

"In the middle of fcking day?" He looks at her in distaste "And you're the person who's supposed to 'fix' me?"

She sigh, clasping her blood stained hands in front of her "Lee Donghyuck, do you think you need fixing? Do you think people think you're broken?"

Haechan was quite. Quite because as soon as his eyes landed on her bloodied hands, his mind went into chaos. He might be physically in that room, but mentally, he was somewhere else. He was running in the dark hallway until he found himself crawling on the floor in tears.

He stopped in front of a girl, lying in the pool of her own blood. And no matter how much he call out to her, he knew she will never open her eyes ever again.

He looked down at his own set of bloodied hands.

"It won't wash off. The blood....it won't wash off."