Yesterday's Kisses

Chapter 1

I live in a world where the voices inside my head constantly torment and remind me that I won't reach anything in life nor be of good use to someone or the world.

And as each day passes, those voices just get louder which makes it so unbearable and painful to hear to the point that I can't even bear it anymore until I start to cry, silently begging them to leave and stop torturing me.

I reached out for the cold doorknob and slowly opened the door. I went inside my moonlit room, quietly closed it behind me, and leaned my back on it.

I let out a breath of relief and gave myself a small smile when the smell of my room greeted me comfortably. It was welcoming and soothing.

Today was quite a tiresome day for me. I was out the whole day making my research papers, PowerPoint presentations, and essays with the help of my best friend of four years— Kim Seok-woo.

We've been classmates since our junior year but got close in our sophomore year. We became partners in our History project and that's when we started hanging out.

He is funny, outgoing, sweet, selfless, kind, and anything that you can ask for in a best friend. But sometimes he can be a bit of a fool, arrogant, and annoying. Nonetheless, you would still love his personality despite those.

Seok-woo is the main reason why I look forward to coming to school. His simple unplanned trips and ideas every day never cease to make me delighted and joyful. For example, he would ask me to go with him to the beach during our vacant time, or he'd ask me to go somewhere to just simply buy food off the street and go walking wherein we would enjoy the busy street of our city in the daylight. Or he would just come up to me after class and ask how am I holding up or what I'm doing.

He helps me even with the smallest things like carrying my bag, buying me a morning coffee on his way to school, passing my homework or exam paper to my teacher, handing me an umbrella when it's raining, keeping me sane throughout the whole day, and the list just goes on.

I just really love the simple things that he does for me that may not seem big and important to others. And since I am a woman who grew up in a not-so-rich-but-not-so-poor kind of family, I learned how to appreciate and give thanks even for the smallest gestures at a very young age. And for that, I am very thankful.

I tell him almost everything that is happening in my life, like what happened after I got home, why am I not in school, and how I spend the whole weekend. He is actually like my human diary to be exact.

But there are still things that I wouldn't dare to tell him, like how I sometimes come to school with bruises that are covered with a concealer, how I'm silently crying at night, begging the voices in my head to stop, and how I'm living as a punching bag instead of a girlfriend to my current boyfriend right now. If Seok-woo happens to find out about that, all hell will break loose and I wouldn't want to know how things would end up. So it is a big no-no to tell him that.

"I'm dead if I'll be caught." I thought as I carefully and silently laid my backpack on the floor along with my file case that contains all of my written school work that I've done today and yesterday.

I labored and struggled difficultly for these past few days just to finish every assignment and project that every teacher gave us that is due tomorrow because the entire world will be undergoing a strict lockdown starting the next day because of the ongoing surge of a certain virus.

Well, I wouldn't mind going into lockdown if it means there would be no human contact outside the household or give me a whole lot of rest from all the crap of the world.

Does quarantine also mean a lot of sleeping and relaxation for me, one with peacefulness away from the world perhaps?

I giggled at my silly thought as I started to find the light switch and flicked it on. I couldn't stop but slightly scream as I inwardly flinched when I saw a familiar figure sitting on the bed- my boyfriend.

I bit the inside of my bottom lip as my heart picked up its pace faster than before. All the thoughts of a while ago immediately faded and got replaced with horrifying imaginations.

Crap, I'm dead.

My feet started to feel weak and my hand started to tremble. My blood went cold and shivers ran through my spine as I started to feel my whole body shaking in fear.

He turned his head in my direction and our eyes met.

Oh goodness, his eyes.

His natural dark brown eyes were a shade of black, an obvious indication that he doesn't have full control of his emotions and he is pissed off.

"I will not ask twice, where have you been?" his voice was deep and serious as he continued to stare at me.

I was scared and words couldn't form in my mouth. My whole body is trembling, my hands are silently shaking, I am feeling cold, my heart is thumping, and my breathing is a little bit erratic.

"Are you not going to answer me, Yeona?" he stood up and took slow menacing steps toward me.

My fear and trembling became worse as I see and hear his footsteps coming toward me. My heart was thumping so loud as his familiar woody perfume scent was driving me much more insane because I can already smell and see him getting closer and closer.

I wanted to step back but I couldn't because I was already at the door. So my last resort is to run away as far as my tiny feet will take me.

I tried to look and reach for the doorknob but I saw his hand already locking it.

I felt a warm presence right in front of me, I knew he was already there. I looked down at my feet, not wanting to meet his dangerous gaze.

"Look at me." he sternly said, but I didn't budge. I was scared of him, I didn't want to face him. "I c-can't, Young D-Dae." I stuttered and whispered loud enough for him to hear.

"I said look at me, Yeona!" he screamed at me and I couldn't help but flinch.

He held my chin and strongly lifted it to face him. I met his eyes once more and they were still shades of black.

Tears were already brimming up my eyes, getting ready to freely cascade down my cheeks.

"Please, Young Dae. Not again, please." I begged him, hoping that he would let this slide even just once.

His grip on my chin tightened as he neared his face closer to mine.

His hot, alcoholic breath fanned my face and that's when it hit me. He was intoxicated again.

"I told you to stay away from that jerk and come home immediately! What did you do?!" he screamed at my face, his voice still stern and serious.

I tried looking away but his grip wouldn't let me. "I'm sorry, I just had to do school works." I tried to explain.

"Oh? Weren't you just out doing who knows what with that jerky boyfriend of yours, huh Yeona?" he rebuts, clearly making things upon his mind.

"Stop being a jerk ab—" I wasn't even halfway through when there was a loud echo inside the room. I felt excruciating pain exploding in my left cheek as my head already turned to the right.

He slapped me again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that is it for the first chapter of this book! I hope it piqued your interest, lovies 😉

Ps. Please don't mind my poor writing skills, I am still learning and enhancing them. But rest assured that I will still do my best to let you have an amazing time reading this piece :> It is not as good as the others, but I hope you'll like it 😁

Until the next chapter then, lovies! ♥️