ᴍɪꜱꜱᴇᴅ ᴄᴀʟʟ | ᴇɴʜʏᴘᴇɴ ᴊᴀʏ ꜰꜰ

6

September 10, 2020
12:11 pm, Seoul High School

Kimberly finished eating some of her lunch when she decided to go to the roof again. She was partially scared this time since what she saw yesterday eased her mind a little. She headed there faster than the previous time to just be greeted by the face she somehow expected to see.

"What are you doing here? Again?" Kimberly asks Jay who was sitting at a desk, smoking, with an airpod in one of his ears.

"I usually hang here during lunch." He answers. "What about you?" He asks.

"I'm just looking for something."

"Which is?"

'A little help wouldn't hurt.' Kimberly thinks.

"It's a phone and there might be a backpack somewhere here. Will you help me?" he nods and jerks up his sitting position. 'Well, that was easier than I thought.' She thought as her expectation of being told to fuck off vanished.

"Are the things yours?" Kimberly shakes her head in response.

"I think Jiwon's things are still here. The hospital said there was nothing on her except for her clothes." Jay nods, understandingly while remaining quiet.

After some minutes the silence was broken, "Come here." Jay says signaling Kimberly with his hand to a narrow corner. Kimberly heads there with no hesitation. "Look," Jay says once she reached, pointing into a corner. "Is this it?" Kimberly nods to his question.

"Yes they are, thank you," Kimberly says in a sad voice.

"You think she didn't actually jump off, right?" Jay asks, noticing her face shift.

"Yes, that's exactly what I think. Why would she so urgently call me just so she could jump off? It just doesn't add up. If she came to the roof just to do that, she wouldn't have taken the time to leave her things here." Kimberly explains.

"Wait she called you?" Kimberly nods at his question.

"She had called me 27 times before I answered. When I answered she screamed for me to come here."

"Did she leave any recorded messages?"

"Um, I didn't check." She responds while taking her phone out.

"Idiot," Jay says quietly.

"I heard you," Kimberly says glaring at him.

"I'm glad."

"Whatever. Here it seems she only left one." She says in a shocked, sad voice.

'Kim please answer or when you see this come to the school rooftop as soon as possible and help me with them. They're being annoying again, please come quickly. I love you.' Jiwon's message said in a desperate whisper.

As expected, a stream of tears was leaving welling Kimberly's eyes once again and Jay once again wanted to comfort her but had no idea how to. "Don't cry, I'm sure that's not what your friend would want." He said coldly in an attempt to comfort her. Kimberly slowly nods her head attempting to stop the tears.

"It's hard to not cry hearing this. If only my dad hadn't done that that day... if only I had answered the first time the phone rang..." Kimberly says quietly as she begins to cry harder. Jay gets closer to her and unconsciously embraces her in his arms. Her head on his chest while he caressed her brunette, straight hair with his right hand while the left was across her shoulder.

"It's okay." He said with a warm voice while keeping his body still.

Without thinking Kimberly puts her arms around the taller boy's waist, returning the hug. "Thank you." Kimberly says softly.

Without them realizing, they stayed like that for a couple of minutes until they were interrupted by the school bell. Now conscious of the position they were in, they pushed each other away flustered. They both had a slight red tint on their cheeks. "Um, I'll get going now," Kimberly says and turns to the door. When she got out the door 'what was that?!' she thought to herself, touching her cheeks as she felt that they were really hot and her heart seemed to be speeding up. 'I was just shocked that's all.' she thought, shaking her head then she started to walk towards her classroom.

Still at the roof, Jay stood in place touching the left part of his chest with his right hand. 'It was nothing, it was nothing, just flustered.' He snapped out of his thoughts, grabbed his backpack, and finally left the open space to head to his next class. Now in class, both of the young adults continued to think about the other. They had weird feelings they wanted to ignore but for some reason, they couldn't. Maybe it was because they felt safer when they were together.

3:48 pm, School gate

3:48 pm ~Park Jongseong: Are you busy?

3:48 pm: I'm barely walking out of school. I'm not busy till 5 why?

3:49 pm: At what time are you unoccupied?

3:49 pm: I get out of work at 9. JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT!!

3:49 pm: I just wanna talk to you. I'll be at the building at 9:20.
will you come?

3:50 pm: Sure.

Kimberly and Jay then went their own ways heading to their houses. They surely knew that where they were heading wasn't really home.

Home is a warm, safe, and comfortable place where the people around love and take care of you and genuinely care for you. A place where love and support are shown.

A place where one can truly be themselves. For these two individuals that wasn't the case. They felt the exact opposite when they went inside those houses. They felt nobody cared about them. Jay's moms try to show they care but they do it the wrong way; by pressuring the young boy into being the best by getting good grades. He had to pretend he liked everything they did "for him" even though he knew it was only for themselves. Even when they gave him presents he knew that it was only so people saw how great his family was and to his disgrace, he always went with it. He had always wanted to talk back to them but every time he did he would literally get locked into his room and only study there.

The situation was obviously not better where Kimberly lived; she had lived with that drunk man all her life but was still not used to it. Even though he is usually not at home whenever he is, she just gets beaten or complained at or maybe gets her money taken away. Although she feels glad when he isn't at home she also felt hurt to know that nobody blood related to her was next to her always supporting her. That's why Jiwon was such a precious person to her. She was the only person she could trust that would always be next to her, supporting her every decision. She was her home...

For some reason, after Jay met Kimberly he didn't feel as alone anymore. He felt he could trust her, he also cared for her. There was a feeling that told him he could be himself around her and that he should protect her. As for Kimberly, she had just lost Jiwon when Jay helped her. She felt grateful but didn't want to show it. She didn't want to get close to anybody in fear of losing someone again. Which would make her feel even more guilty and broken than how she felt when she lost the only person in her life. Even though Hyunwoo told her she had him. She didn't feel safe with him like she felt with Jay, the guy she had only known for less than a week.