True Acceptance- A True Beauty Fanfic

Chapter 3: Time

TW: Physical abuse, yelling, arguing.

(SUJIN POV)

"Where have you been?" Her father greets her that night with a bottle in hand and anger in his voice, his hands slightly trembling with the urge to do something to her. "SPEAK!"

"I was volunteering at the hospital." She'd learned to twist the truth perfectly, without any tells of lying. She knew just how to make sure he was less angry with her and more confused than anything.

"You were supposed to be studying." His voice shakes with barely held back rage, his face red and his shoulders stiff.

"My homeroom teacher suggested that colleges not only look at grades, but extracurriculars and volunteering. He mentioned volunteering at a hospital would raise my chances of getting into a good university by forty percent."

"And how long has this little charade been going on? How many days of studying have you missed?"

"I've gone three days a week for the last two and a half weeks but- I'm still studying- I study on the way there and back and on my break and in my room and-"

His hand flies across her face faster than she could gasp, the familiar tingling and burning radiates up her cheek and even to her eye, she's sure she's instantly bruised but she bites back the whimper of pain.

He leans in so close that she can smell what he's eaten for dinner, mixed with the alcohol on his breath. "If your grades drop because of this, you can kiss that college goodbye and kiss our support goodbye."

If this was his support what would his- never mind.

Sujin doesn't even reply and rushes straight to her room, locking the door and shoving her dresser over in front of it.

She reaches under her bed for something, fishing around for the tiny little shoebox that was hidden behind clothes and books. Once she grabs the small gray thing, she opens it and pulls out all the money she had stacked up in there, tomorrow she'd get paid at work again, she would have officially three thousand dollars saved up. That was enough for a down payment on an apartment and maybe two months rent if she was careful.

Sujin takes out the small pieces of notebook paper under the money and reads her calculations. It was mainly addresses of apartments available for rent, how far they were from school and work, how much the cost of living would be, and how far away it was from her parents' home.

She may never have riches or fancy clothing again, but it was worth it to be mentally stable.

She shoves everything back in the box and takes numerous photos on her phone of the bruising on her cheek, printing it out with the printer on her desk, she shoves it in the box after dating it. In case anyone tried to ever force her back home, she had hundreds of photos of proof over what her father was doing.

Knowing that box was still there alongside her money and photos, she feels just safe enough to sleep.

It was a Saturday morning when she woke up, applied makeup to cover her bruise, and left the house via her bedroom window at just a half past four. She would work at a coffee shop until ten, run to the hospital and give Seojun a phone, then run back to her tutor and study until five pm.

It was exhausting, all the running around. Working, tutors, school, the hospital, it was enough to make Sujin so tired that she forgot how to speak properly and sometimes even stumbled into walls. The only thing that kept her going was knowing that she would be out from under her parents' grasp soon enough.

"Good morning Sujinah!" Her coworker Sungjee smiled over at her from his spot at the register, his hair tied back in a bun with a hat just barely fitting over it.