Don't Let Me Let You Go

Chapter 9

TW: bullying.

..............

Ten years ago.

"Look guys! There goes the teacher's pet!"

Wheein flinched when she heard those familiar voices, but she didn't run, there wasn't a point in doing it. They always caught up to her.

"Whoa, the straight-A student is walking home? Right, I forget that you're too poor to afford taking a bus."

The three boys laughed scornfully as they jogged to catch up to her, surrounding her. Wheein kept walking, but slowed down her pace to avoid bumping into them.

At her lack of reaction, one of them snatched her backpack away from her, causing her to lose balance and fall on her knees.

She grimaced in pain, feeling the little pebbles on the ground embed themselves into her knees. This is why she didn't wear her uniform with stockings anymore, not even in winter. It was easier to don on a pair of pants quickly when she got home to hide her red, bruised, and sometimes bleeding knees, than to come up with more lies to explain to her parents why her stockings were always ripped.

Suddenly, she felt one of them grab her hair by its roots, messing up her ponytail. He forcefully lifted her face so that she would now look at them. Her scalp throbbed and her head started pounding, telling her that a migraine was on its way.

"Would you share your notes with us, little genius?" One of them said as he took out a couple of her notebooks from the backpack.

Wheein closed her eyes to avoid looking at him. She didn't want them to have the satisfaction of seeing how much her notes mattered to her. Studying and getting better grades than anyone else was the only way in which she could convince herself that she wasn't a complete waste. On days when her self-esteem was particularly low, she reread old school report cards. Seeing all the As and A+s comforted her. They told her what no one else ever did. That she was somebody.

Her resolve of not looking at them crunbled as she felt a stinging sensation in her left cheek. He had slapped her.

"Answer me!"

"It's okay, you can borrow them." she sniffled, feeling tears burning in the back of her eyes. Ugh, she hated being weak in front of them.

"Borrow?" He scoffed and kicked her.

Wheein doubled over as his shoe smashed into her stomach, feeling the pain travel to her brain, fueling the migraine that had already started. That would surely leave a bruise. But what was one more to the growing collection she had? It didn't matter. That's what she told herself as she tried to ignore the ache in her stomach, which was slowly numbing down.

"You dumbass, you're giving them to me. It's a gift, understood?"

"Yes." she breathed out, squinting her eyes hard to fight away her tears. She couldn't let them see her cry.

"Louder! I didn't hear your pathetic voice!"

Wheein flinched at the volume of his voice. If there was one thing she hated more than the pain, it was all the yelling. Bruises faded, but the things they yelled at her replayed in her head every night, covering her with layers upon layers of more and more insecurities.

"Wheein?"

Wait, that voice was.... familiar?

Wheein looked up and saw... Byul? What? What is she doing here? Doesn't her father drive her home?