Identity Crisis (LOONA X Weeekly Fanfic) / 개릭터 붕괴가 (이달의 소녀 X 위클리 팬픽)

Chapter 24: I Wouldn't Know (Hyunjin POV)

Chapter 24: I Wouldn't Know (Hyunjin POV)

First Posted On: 1st November 2021

Last Updated On: 1st November 2021

T/N: This takes place on 13th October 2020.

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It's not that I chose to run away from the dorm. And it is also not the first time it happened. Usually, I will return and the members understand because I tend to have a lot on my mind. Add on my shyness and they rather wait for the right opportunity to ask if anything is troubling me.

Yesterday and today would be one of those days.

For starters, I felt so stupid. Why did I let my fear overcome me until the point my best-kept secret has been revealed to the one person I hoped did not have to hear it. It will start a domino effect that will lead to the members wanting to know about my past. The truth about it.

I will have to tell them I actually have no parents. And that the people I talked to on the phone while filming NADOL were part of a group that helped me get fake identities.

I will have to tell them that I was abducted with no memory of my childhood. And that I was tortured severely by my kidnapper, who was also a serial criminal.

More frighteningly, I will have to tell them how I escaped captivity. And that still haunts me to this day.

With my thoughts in a mess, I found myself in one of those sauna centers where people can spend the night for a cheap fee. I figured I needed that break to clear my mind about a few things; not least the interrogation with Officers Kang and Jo. We agreed to keep our conversation for another time while they looked into new leads.

For now, I just wanted to be left alone. However, my time slot in the sauna center was coming to an end thanks to the COVID-19 restrictions segregating groups of visitors. Don't worry, I planned ahead and packed some stuff before rushing out of the dorm.

"Thanks for coming!" the staff bid me farewell as I returned to life in the city. It was already the afternoon and I will be expected to return to the dorm and explain to the members about my outburst. As much as I did not want to tell them about the abduction, I already dug a hole by getting Yves unnie's help to meet Monday.

I decided to walk into a Daiso outlet. That was when I fondly remembered how Heejin and I had a little sing-off about a baby shark and a baby alligator.

Sigh Jeon Heejin... The more I thought about last night, the more I regret shouting at her in anger. It's just I could no longer handle the trauma of those seven years as a kidnapping victim. Then I remembered something else I also told her...

I hate that I'm living in guilt for causing a fire even though it killed the man who took me away from my family!

Heejin ah... Whatever I did then was necessary. If I didn't try...LOONA would not have Kim Hyunjin as a member. Still, I felt guilty from that day, and if it wasn't for meeting Monday in the park back then, I probably would have kept that guilt hidden even longer.

I thought about Monday as well. I wondered if she was preparing for her comeback well. Oh, isn't it Weeekly's showcase today?

"아이구, are you looking to buy a stuffed animal, agassi?"

The lady's voice made me realise I had navigated to the soft toys section of the store. Coming back to my senses, I turned to the person who spoke to me. She seemed to be in her 50s as I could see some wrinkles in her eyes. Or maybe that's just an eye smile of hers.