His Cinderella | Choi Soobin

Eighteen ♚

|| HYEWON ||

Never mind, it's not final.

The first thing that happened was mom shouting at my face when I walked through the front doors. She roars on and on about how Hanjin calls her, sobbing and barely being able to say a clear sentence.

Apparently, I had 'called her a worthless bitch and slapped her'. Although mom was absolutely livid, I didn't have the time nor energy to respond to her. I walk past her, ignoring her shouts as I walk upstairs to my room.

The first thing that I did was open the window of my attic. As expected, Gus was already outside my window, waiting for me to return back from school. "Hi Gus, did you miss me?" I ask, picking the bird up and feeding it some bread crumbs from my lunchbox.

I let Gus continue eating as I sit down on my bed, staring at the mirror in front of me. My hair was frizzy, and my glasses were slowly falling in front of my nose. I felt disgusted looking into my reflection.

Everything about me is so... I don't even know how to describe it. I feel angry just looking at myself. And yeah, Hanjin and I are almost identical. But the only difference is that she's prettier and I'm not. Maybe it's because she probably deserves to be perfect, so I can't really be mad at her for that. She must've ended a war in her past life or something.

A pair of small steps climb up the stairs, revealing a messy-haired Cameron in my room. "Hyewon, are you okay? I heard mom yelling at you." Cameron shyly scratches the back of his neck.

I force a smile on. "I'm fine, Cameron. You don't need to worry about me." I reassure him, patting down the seat next to me. He gladly sits down. "Is everything alright?" I ask, noticing the solemn look on his face.

"Not really..."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I say, placing a hand on his back. He considers. "Only if we get ice cream first." He chirps.

"Hm, deal."

~

"Here you go!" I say happily, placing down the two cups of ice cream. Cameron grabs the strawberry-flavoured one, eating it cleanly with his spoon. I mimick his action with my mint chocolate one.

"So, now want to tell me what's bugging you?" I ask, looking around the ice cream shop. The place was retro, with turquoise walls and neon lights varying in different colours. we sat in a booth near the windows, watching the cars drive past the street the shop was located on.

Cameron sighs, looking down at his ice cream. I knew he was nervous, meaning that whatever he needed to tell me was serious. "There's this group of older students and I think they're bullying me." He says simply. I stop eating, looking up to face him. "You think they are?" I ask confusingly.

"I don't know. They're some middle schoolers and they sometimes stop by the elementary school and pick on kids outside. They take my homework and burn it, and sometimes push me over on the playground." He says.

I drop my spoon on the table, my face becoming serious. "Is that everything that they do?" I ask, starting to become worried. I know firsthand how bad some bullying can be. I don't want Cameron to go through the same thing. I don't want ANYONE to go through the same thing.

"Well, I'm not the only person they bully. They sometimes bully the other students in my class. They go into our class during lunchtime and throw out our food and spit on us. Once I saw a girl being dragged around the hallway by her hair." He says, licking his spoon.

"One time my friend, Wonbin, came to school and decided to stand up to the bullies. They got mad and beat him up right there. A teacher saw them but he only walked away. Wonbin had to go to the hospital and he was there for a week." He continues.

"And in another classroom, I heard that they forced students to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. They even choke them until they pass out. One of my friends said that she wants to kill herself because of them. I'm scared, Hyewon. What if someone ends up dying?"

Cameron finally looks up to meet my eyes. He was really scared for his life, and I was too. But I was also pissed. Pissed that these kids can think they can get away with this. And the teacher that didn't even do anything. I have to get matters into my own hands before it turns even worse.

I take out my phone, texting the only person I could think of. "They also hang out around this time at the middle school. They tried drowning a student in the middle school once, I heard. They really scare me." Cameron adds on. Gosh, I'm getting more and more pissed by the second. I'm about to show those kids a lesson they'll have to remember.

Me
Yeji? I need your help with something.

Yeji
What's up?

Me
There are some middle schoolers bullying my brother. Have you ever beat someone up before?

Yeji
Holy shit, WTF.

Me
Please help? I'm not strong by myself.

Yeji
Count me in, I'll be at the middle school in ten. I'll bring Soobin too, he's with me right now.

Me
Good idea. We'll need a guy. He's tall, he can step on them.

Yeji
I'm leaving the nursing home RN. Fuck them hags!

Yeji
God, I fucking hate bullies with a burning passion, they seriously make my blood boil. I want to kill them all.

Me
Then let's do it together.

A smile forms on my lips as I look down at her texts. "Cameron? You're going to have to throw away your ice cream. You can't finish it in time..."

"...Because we're going to the middle school."