'God will forgive you.'- that's what they told them. 'God doesn't exist.'- that's what Seulgi believed. But nobody cared what Seulgi believed in. She was the sinner- so she had to obey. That were the principles her school followed.
The Lakeland Girl...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
8 days before
Irene's POV:
There was this empty seat in front of her, abandoned, silent and almost inconspicuous. But not for Irene who knew to who it belonged. She was sitting straightly, eyeing the board in front of her. Usually, dark brown hair in front of her caught her attention.
Not today.
Seulgi's seat was empty. It had never been like this. She rarely became ill. And for missionary activities, none of the students would get the permission to skip class. Irene's gaze dropped to the scratchy wooden chair as she examined it. It looked shabby.
"It is called Ablativus Absolutus. Or as an abbreviation: Abl. Abs.", the instructor said and wrote something at the board. Immediately, Irene blinked at forced herself to get back to reality.
Why should she care about Seulgi now? Seulgi was over. She would continue with her life, waiting another two years until she gets set free. It actually didn't sound as bad as Seulgi had always told her. Two years. She would survive it. With the help of Mina and Dami she surely would.
But now she needed to survive Latin.
"There are three possible ways to translate an Ablativus Absolutus. Can somebody name me all three?" The instructor looked at them, his intimidating and empty eyes fixing every student once before picking a random person.
"Chou Tzuyu."
The girl stood up straightly and pressed her arms at her hips. Irene could feel how nervous she was; her trembling knees, her constant blinking and her gulping told Irene. Tzuyu waited for three seconds until she answered: "conjunctional subclause sentence, substantiation and coordination."
"Exactly. We never translate an Ablativus Absolutus with a relative subclause sentence or verbatim. This is the essential rule for the translation." He started to write something at the board which everybody copied.
Irene glanced at Tzuyu who immediately sat down, taking a deep breath before copying the notes. Her seat neighbor glanced at her too.
Seulgi would have never shown such a nervousness in front of class. In fact, she had been a master in participating in class. Somehow... Seulgi always knew what the instructor wanted to hear. Her way of presenting the results was unique. She could literally manipulate the audience with her talking. Irene had been fascinated and concerned about that all the time.
Again, she inspected the empty seat. What had been the reason why she wasn't here now? Illness? Activities? Measureme-
She shook her head and bit her lip. It was over. Hopefully forever. Seulgi had manipulated her. Had taken control over her. She wouldn't just leave everything behind her. This here was her home.
At least some kind of.
"You need to relax your knuckles. If not, you can't move them fast enough."
