HEART OF GOLD ↳ huh yunjin

01

[ MENTIONS OF SUICIDE ]

YOON YEONA'S POV

as i grew up to be where i am now, i've learned to believe everybody at one point in their life wished they could be dead, or just simply never have existed.

whether they ever tried acting on those thoughts or not, it wouldn't erase the fact they wanted to die.

and if i was wrong and they never wished for their own death, they surely have wished for anothers.

-

"yeona, what's highschool like?" my younger sister, ha-rin, asks, walking quickly behind me.

"boring" i respond, glancing at her.

"oh," she pauses for a second "is it better than middle school?"

"i guess so, highschool isn't as strict when it comes to some things"

"why do you ask?" i ask

"just curious"

"ha-rin, i haven't seen you in so long!" my friend, seon-woo, exclaims, coming around the corner as he begins walking beside me.

"my god, you came out of nowhere!" ha-rin says, her tone very suprised. i laugh in response.

"what can i say, i'm the best at scaring people" he says, flipping his nonexistent long hair dramatically.

"your ego is bigger than your own dick" i whisper to him, laughing silently knowing what his response would be.

"leave my dick alone" he responds, putting his hand to his chest offended like he was about to say the pledge of allegiance those americans do.

"i'm still here" says ha-rin, annoyed.

"my bad"

"did you hear about what gwi-nam and his friends did to jin-su?" my other friend, on-jo, said, coming up from around the corner.

"jin-su? no why?" seon-woo asks, concerned. i always felt bad for jin-su, mr. lee's son. gwi-nam treated the poor kid like shit, i tried sticking up for him once and ended up with a busted lip.

i was to young and weak to defend myself then, i don't know why i believed i could defend another person too.

"gwi-nam and his friends beat the kid up" she stated, sighing.

"one day, i swear i'll beat gwi-nam up" i state, staring ahead of me.

"that day will be the day i gain my trust in humanity back" says seon-woo.

"who's gwi-nam?" ha-rin asks, suddenly walking faster to catch up with the three of us.

"an asshole" i tell her, that's an understatement.

"he's worse than an asshole, you're lucky you don't know him" on-jo says.

"to make it worse, he has a mullet!" seon-woo adds with a disgusted expression.

"i thought we left mullets behind in the 80s?" ha-rin questions.

"i thought so too" seon-woo cries out dramatically, looking down at the ground.

-

"she was absolutely correct" su-hyeok says in response to ms. parks question, asking him what nam-ra said. the class laughed and looked to their friends.

"he really has no clue what's going on" seon-woo said in laugher, whispering to me.

"so what was her absolutely correct interpretation?" ms. park questioned once again.

as i went to look back to su-hyeok something caught my eye from the outside of the classroom. seconds later it became clear the others noticed aswell.

"what the hell? isn't that hyeon-ju?" i heard someone ask, some of the others stood up and walked towards her before she fell to the floor, the entire class standing up in unison after.

we all gathered around her

her face was bloody and she looked like an absolute mess, blood coming from her nose and the side of her forehead.

"ms. park" she muttered out, her eyes were red.

"yes, it's me. do you recognize me?" ms. park asked panicked.

"he grabbed me..." she started, now staring up to the ceiling.

"the science teacher grabbed me and locked me up" said the girl

suddenly nothing felt right. something deep inside me knew something bad was about to happen. perhaps it was how quickly everything happened, a minute ago the class was laughing but now we're surrounding a girl who looks like she's about to have her last breath.

"he locked you up? the science teacher?" said jimin, confused.

"mr. lee byeong chan? huh?" ms. park questioned, even more panicked and confused than she was 10 seconds ago. a couple girls behind us gasped and covered their mouth.

"he tied me up" she continued, now having her head resting to her right.

"let's go to the infirmary" ms. park stated, she looked as pale as the girl who was laying in her lap.

"nam-ra, have them study" the teacher said.

"shouldn't we call the police?"

"stay quiet while i go and check" ms. park added.

"she said he tied her up" another student argued though ms. park ignored them and brung her to the nurse's office.

my stomach hurt, it felt like the feeling i'd get when i'm next in ride for a roller coaster, anxious.

"uhh, yeona, something isn't right with her" seon-woo stuttered out to me quietly after they left, his eyes wide with fear.

"oh course something isn't right, did you see her?!" i whisper back.

"i saw, of course i did! but who's gets like that from simply being tied up? maybe if ms. park wouldn't have shut her up we could've learned more. mr. lee must've done something more for her to end up like that" he states, he had confidence dripping in his voice, it's hard to not believe him.

"maybe. but what are you trying to say, he assaulted her?"

"he clearly did something, but i think there's more to it. maybe ms. park knows something? she was a bit to calm when it all happened" he said. i've always known he tends to overthink a lot, but what if he's actually right?

"i doubt it. we'll probably get more information later, i doubt ms. park had something to do with it" i tell him, i'm sure he picked up on the fact i wasn't entirely certain.

published; october 23rd 2022

- velmei