A COLD DAY IN JULY SERIES

lacuna (11)

 

"Did you see my sister?"

Jihoon lifts his chin to look at Jungwon,

"No. Why did you ask?"

"She hasn't eaten for three days. My family has been pressuring her a lot. They force her to study all the time, and she has no choice other than doing what they want to."

Jihoon sighs heavily,
"Why did this happen?"

"She got caught having fun with her friend when our parents aren't home. My mother got so mad at her because she didn't use her free time to study. That's why they treat her strictly."

"How about the bruise and wound on her face? Did she get hit because of that?"

Jungwon refuses to answer making Jihoon rolls his eyes.

"Am I right?"

"Did your mom hurt her?"

"I can't tell you. It's our family privacy."

Jungwon continues eating as a way to avoid answering Jihoon.

"It's abuse, idiot. It's not because of strict anymore. It's child abuse. We can't let this happen."

Jungwon sighs.

"What should we do? We are just young kids."

"Report them to the police."

"Elderly will never listen to young kids, Jihoon. They will think that we are childish and immature. They will never care about us."

Jihoon takes out his phone, sends a few texts to Ruhan, and sighs when the girl still doesn't reply to him.

Without wasting any time, he gives his food to Jihoon and leaves the table before running to the school bar to buy some food and drinks for Ruhan.

After he has done it, he goes to her classroom.

He looks for her but she is nowhere to be found.

He goes to the rooftop and quickly leaves when he spots Minjin and Daewon.

He calls Ruhan again and gets more anxious when she doesn't reply to him. As he is busy looking for her, he suddenly bumps into a girl who has just come out of the library.

The girl falls to the ground and groans in pain.
She then carefully stands up and takes her books one by one.

"I'm sorry."

He mumbles while helping her with the book.

He takes a glance at the book title and raises his eyebrows in confusion when all of the books she read about are related to sickness.

He looks at the girl who is standing in front of him and lost his words when the girl takes the book from him before running away.

Jihoon ignores the girl and continues looking for Ruhan. He walks past the detention room and abruptly stops on his way when he hears her voice.

He looks around him, makes sure there's no one around them, and quickly gets into the room.

"Ruhan..."

He mumbles, locks the door, and closes the curtain before approaching the girl.

Ruhan looks at him surprisingly. As they did eye contact, she breaks it off and packs her things.

Jihoon watches her blankly, then stops her from leaving by holding her hand tightly.

"Why are you avoiding me?"