The Real You || Jung Sungchan

Chapter 12

Miyoung:

[WARNING! In this chapter, Miyoung will be explaining her bullying scandal to Sungchan. She will be explaining in detail and that's basically most of the chapter. Skip to the end if you want to see his reaction.]

— time skip

I was at the river waiting for Sungchan. I didn't tell him in person to meet me here, but he's probably going to show up anyways. I pulled out my mirror and checked my appearance to make sure that I looked presentable. Today was the first time I dressed up in a long time. Many girls in my school — if not all of them — wear different colored and patterned sweaters and headbands with their school uniform but I just wear it plain. They wear makeup but I don't own a lot so I couldn't do anything about it. I thought I looked fine either way. However, I wore a navy sweater with blue and white argyle. I also wore a white headband and wore white knee high socks with my heeled school shoes. Everyone was asking me where I got specific pieces of clothing, but I just told them my mom got them for me and I don't know where she got it. It was 4:35pm and we got out out of school like five minutes ago so I didn't expect him to be here right away.

"Miyoung." I hear Sungchan's voice behind me. I turn around and wave at him, he waves back at me and sits next to me.

Today, I wanted to open up to Sungchan about my bullying scandal. Yesterday, we talked for hours and hours about our interests. From our talk, we both realized how much we have in common. The only things that are different about us is that I'm from Jinju and he's from Seoul and I have a younger sibling and he has an older sibling. But, we both played soccer and we both like sushi. He's also extremely clumsy but so am I. We both almost fell into the river yesterday but we saved each other thankfully. He kept telling me that he was worried about me the whole day and that if his friends ever bother me then I should call him. The thing that made me feel most comforted was when he said he'll protect me. My heart pounded and I felt my cheeks getting hot.

"What's up?" He asks.

"Nothing. I'm just here as always." I smile and he does too.

"Actually... I want to tell you something." I say and he nods.

"What's up?" He asks, giving me peach jellies again. I smile and thank him, sighing to get ready for what I'm going to say.

"You know... I'm originally from Jinju. But in 1st grade, I moved to Daegu, where I lived from 1st grade to 9th. The reason why I moved from Jinju to Daegu is because of the money. But that's not what I'm telling you today." I say, he nods.

"In middle school, I had a very close friend. I don't like saying her name because I feel like she'll pop out of nowhere even if she doesn't. But she was my first friend in my life. I never had friends in Kindergarten because I was new and everyone already had their own friends. One day, I was getting picked on by these boys, then she saved me. That's how we became friends. Anyways, we were friends until nearing the end of the first trimester of 9th grade. She stopped being friends with me all of a sudden and I didn't know why. Then it was my birthday and she invited me to a surprise party. She sent me the address and it was at the back of the school. She basically ... beat me up and the next day I woke up in the hospital. That same day, I went home and checked the school gossip site. She posted a statement accusing me of bullying another student into taking their own life. It was all false... she even used a name of a student we never had. For the rest of the trimester, I was verbally bullied by my classmates and physically and socially bullied by my ex-best friend... I wanted to tell you that because that's the reason why I don't have a lot of friends. It's because I can't trust people after that happened." I explain my whole story to Sungchan. The whole time, he looked scared. Did I scare him away? Why did I tell him that? It was probably too much for him. My thoughts were cut off by Sungchan pulling me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry that happened to you, Miyoung." He starts off. I felt like I was going to cry. This was the first time I opened up to someone in a long time. Sungchan is the first person at this school to know about that, I feel like this is a bad idea since we just started to get to know each other, but something in my heart told me that it was the right thing to do.

"I promise that I won't ever do that to you... Please just give me a chance to be your friend..." Sungchan says, he sounds like he's going to cry so I hugged him back. I didn't want him to hurt because of me, so I wanted to be there for him just as much as he's here for me right now.

"I'm so sorry, Miyoung. You didn't deserve any of that. If that happens to you again, I'll protect you. I promise I won't hurt you, okay? Just give me a chance to be your friend." He says, I look up and he's actually crying, this made me cry too.

"I'm sorry for making you cry, Sungchan. I'm sorry for making you feel overwhelmed. I'm sorry... I shouldn't have said all of that.. I should've just told you that I was bulli-" I start but Sungchan interrupts me by holding me tighter.

"Don't apologize. I'm glad you told me that so now I understand your side of the story more. Don't worry, I don't think less of you and I never ever did. I promise that I'll keep you safe. I don't want to see you hurting anymore and not being able to do anything about it." Sungchan says while we're still holding each other, I smile and nod.

"Okay, Sungchan. We can be friends." I tell him and he hugs me tighter.

We spend a couple of hours at the river just talking to get to know each other more and eating. Turns out, during lunch, he bought a bunch of snacks for us to share after school. I didn't talk to him at all today because I was preparing myself to tell him about my middle school scandal. But I was worried for nothing. I guess I was right about someone for once. Sungchan really is empathic and different from everyone.

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