ɢɪᴠᴇɴ ᴛᴀᴋᴇɴ🌙 𝐍𝐚 𝐉𝐚𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐. 𝐖𝐢𝐬𝐡

Saturday, a cloudy and hazy day, just like my thoughts.

"A cold wind like the end of your heart"
-11:11, Taeyeon

JinRin

JinRin slumped on her fluffy bed, the sheets slowly swallowing her up.
Her face was sunk into the white fluffy cotton sheets, hopefully by stuffing her nose into some fragrant detergent, her mind will clear up like a cloudless day.

It has been a day since Chaewon's words has disturbed her, immensely. To the degree she could only think of nothing else but her exact words.

JinRin felt her stomach crumbling up, body feeling numb like she just received a punch to her stomach.

Her hair was a mess, eyes droopy due to the lack of sleep thanks to her overthinking capabilities.

JinRin wasn't one who overthinks every situation.
In actuality, she's a strong-minded individual, you can say she's Wednesday Addam's secret twin sister.

However, she believed and trusted every single word Chaewon said. She was her one and only friend who stuck by her throughout everything— her ups and downs.

Why would she lie to JinRin and joke about something that's getting out of hand?
So much so, it was becoming 'fire news' in the school's informal forum, according to the one and only Lee Chaewon.

That's why what she said hit JinRin hard.
More like a facepalm.

The reason why she was hated so much was because of some playboy?

That doesn't make any sense at all.

Actually, nothing makes sense.

Is it really because of something so silly?

"Wait JinRin, you still don't know why you are so notorious in school?"
"Uh am I supposed to know?

"You're kidding me right?"
"Chaewon, this is not like you, is it really that serious?"

"Bestie! The hottest boy in school has his eyes on you and you're slouching here not doing anything about it?"

"What- what do you mean?"
"well if your that oblivious and ignorant of this situation, go find out yourself"

"Chaewon-ah I really don't understand what you're talking about.."
"JinRin sweetie, all you need to know is you're now the luckiest girl in school and you will have to thank me for the clue in future"

Chaewon winked as she skipped happily off out of school, leaving her dumbfounded best friend all alone. JinRin clutched her books tightly, a single sweat dripped down her forehead.
'What is going on..'

——————————

"Mum, Dad, I'm home!" JinRin exclaimed with a relieved smile as she spotted her parents both at home.

It was a rare scene. Her parents were occasionally home due to their tight and busy working schedules.

Mrs Lee worked as a librarian at a local school near their place while her father was the owner of the coffee shop just four blocks away from their tiny rented apartment.

It might seem like JinRin's family weren't as poor as what people thought they were but living in the 21st century where the cost of living has increased drastically, her parents found it rather difficult to cope.

Especially during this pandemic, her father's business is slowly starting to die out of customers. Often sitting at the coffee shop alone with his workers, staring the daylight out of the empty chairs.

Whereas her mother can barely earn a sum of money to afford the whole family food for the entire month.

This is why JinRin work extra hard to earn and support her family.
She couldn't risk seeing her parents argue over financial issues, and couldn't bare seeing her parents suffering from the loss of their jobs.

You can say she was the sole breadwinner of her family.

As she proceeded on to high school, her life was way busier and stressful when compared to her middle school years.

The girl may not show it but she was finding it hard to mentally cope with all the workload, a burden often overweighting her shoulder.

JinRin unconsciously suffers from extreme burnouts and sometimes even skips meals to save some time for revision and to complete her unfinished homework for the next day.

JinRin wasn't dumb, she clearly knew the consequences of what she's doing to her body.

But what can the girl do?
She can't stop just yet, not till she graduates and get a stable job to fully support her family.

More often than not, drowsiness and weariness overwhelms her, swallowing her down into a well of distress and anxiety.

She couldn't let her parents see this miserable side of her.

Her parents already suffered so much just to raise her up. She was grateful for that and want to give her parents the entire world to thank them for being such sacrificial people, giving up their happiness and life to nurture her up healthily.

Although she may not have spent much time with her mother when she was young, she still loved her to the moon and back.

This was her messy life but JinRin managed to cope with it.

The added drama in school and bullying was making her go crazy.

She just wants a peaceful life, a peaceful education, a tranquil environment.

Whatever she wished for didn't seem to come true every single time. It was as if the genie doesn't know she existed.

JinRin looked out at the stars, eyes staring into the vast succulent sky, hoping, something, anything could save her from this mess.

Sighing, she picked up her tote bag and casually slipped on a puffed out winter jacket.

JinRin combed her hair through her fingers, trying her best to look as tidy as possible, she made her way to her destination.