My Escape | Haerin x Minji

1

Kang Haerin has a secret. A lot of people probably have this secret too. 

The corners of her mouth are always scabbing repeatedly, the left half of her face is abnormally red, and the corner of her eyes, is moist, which stops abruptly below the eyelids. She tasted her own tears recently, a little salty, nothing but sorrow.

Her secret is... getting her head dunked in water over and over and over again. Everyone's youth might have this memory. Getting bullied. She's a victim. Everyday. at the same venue, around the same time, she has to "act" like a drowning fish in water.

The seasons will change, the flowers will bloom and wither, the leaves would turn yellow, the land would dry, and everything would wither eventually but the bullying that happened to her is endless. Haerin could not remember their faces, besides, a goldfish's memory only lasts 7 seconds. 

She compares herself with some popular science content she reads up on forums. 

Occasionally, when she chokes hard on water, her soul would suddenly breaks out of her body as she hangs from the ceiling down at her body. She has a deadpan expression, eyes still bright and is probably destined to be unable to pretend to be pitiful.

Her hair was tightly held in their hands, but surprisingly she didn't feel any pain. What she thought was that she must cut it short. When she gets home today, she's going to cut her hair short. Like those girls in the school, tall, strong, and not to be messed with. 

Before she could finish her previous thought, her emotions, as though as it was twisted into a rope, surged up and her soul had to return to her body, only to find that her face was cold, her calves numb to the point of unconsciousness.

After being at a stalemate for a few moments, the leader of the bullies, a girl with curly hair, the type that would show off her luxury goods to others just to seem cool, said. "Aigoo, Haerin-ah, what is with that expression of yours?"

Water trickled across Haerin's face, countercurrently, starting from her chin and eventually along with her forehead, down her scalp and into her hair. Haerin slowly opened her eyes, the water droplets on her eyelashes fluttered twice, and then she saw the row of iron faucets on the sink, some of them not tightened shut. 

Her pupils look towards the mirror, at this moment the mirror is filled with water droplets, but along with that are the several pair of eyes of the bullies and her own eyes.

"I don't know," Haerin started, licking her upper lip, she tastes blood, her voice hoarse, but you could still hear what she was saying vaguely. 

After her answer, laughter rang out as the bullies laughed. 

She could hear someone come close, right next to her ear. The distance made Haerin's breath hitch as she held her breath. She closed her eyes and clench every muscle in her body. the person's strong waft of perfume attacked her nose and she felt the person grab her neck. 

"It can't be like this, uri Haerin, everyone isn't satisfied with your expression right now, how about you cry for us? How about that huh?"

Haerin hated crying. When she was holed up at home, she watches a lot of drama, there were many moments where the main female lead would cry. A face stained with tears was always reflecting o the screen. Rosy cheeks, beautiful pink eye shadows, no snot and no scars. The well-designed crying, it's beautiful, so the next second, the main male lead would always kiss without hesitation or jump out of the crowd to save the beauty.

Haerin sat in front of the mirror to see how she cried, face swollen, the whites in her eyes, filled with red streaks, all five features of hers scrunched up together. She felt that the scene of her crying could be said to be a little hilarious, wiping away the tears, she silently swore that she would never cry that easily again. 

Because the main male lead would only save the main female lead who is always beautiful, and yet when Haerin cried, she looked ugly, with snot and tears everywhere. 

Haerin said that she would not cry, her voice is gentle like a feather. She always speaks softly, like a feather. No one would hear a feather's voice as it is too soft, isn't it?

The bully, not wanting to drag it on, let go of Haerin's hair. *SLAP* a loud slap sounded with a crisp sound., different from water droplets splashing on the tiles. With that slap, Haerin became a little more awake.

"Tch, boring girl, we'll stop today. See you next time uri Haerin-ah," The bullies walked off laughing. 

By the time Haerin came back to her senses, the voice-activated light on the ceiling had gone out, and the sound of water gushing came out of one of the cubicles. There were no windows in the washroom, but the completely closed environment made Haerin feel at ease. The drama in her heart was halfway through, and the female main lead was so desperate that she took out a knife in the corner of the classroom. The fated male lead still didn't break in, and her sitcom ended just like that. 

Mathematics was in half an hour. She thought of the assignments, the formulas, ideas and final answers from last time. She sorted them out from beginning to end to get the answer. Haerin was relieved and finally relaxed. For her high school career, numbers are her only relief. Things that are related to theory and logic are better than other things, and they are enough for Haerin to rely on.

Her world doesn't need anyone else, no need for a main lead, well in the first place there was no such person, and secondly, Haerin believes that with her own ability, she could get out of this sooner or later. 

Suddenly, the door opened, and the light flickered on. 

"Ah! What are you doing there alone? You scared me."

"Solving Mathematics," Haerin replied. 

Haerin's hair was still wet, and this caused the light-coloured school uniform to stick to her chest. She paused as if she shouldn't have said that.  She remembered Choi Sooji, her seatmate, she gave Haerin a note saying that the reason Haerin was bullied was that she was too withdrawn and too quiet. She acted like she was in her own world, too different from ordinary people.  

 Haerin lifted her head, a little timid due to her introverted self, and took two steps back, leaning on the cold heart wall and with the hard wall, she straightened her back.  

"Oh.." Kim Minji shrugged, walked over to Haerin and took out a white towel from her backpack. 

"If your hair is wet, you should wipe it." 

Haerin took the towel, her doubts greater than the fear of facing strangers, or you can say it was entirely out of curiosity She leaned forward with a smile on her face as she said thank you to Minji. She slowly buried her face in the fluffy towel and took a whiff. It smelled of gardenia, and the smell was very familiar. She used this brand at home too.

"Thank you," Haerin repeated. Haerin repeated the action again, the water absorption capacity of normal towels is better than being wet. Haerin peeked out from the towel and quietly observed the person in front of her: Tall, with a high ponytail, very beautiful, with a tougher facial contour than other girls.

Haerin rarely used the word beautiful to express others, in normal situations she couldn't see the person's face, and there weren't any special features for her to take a second look at. The majority of the people just had the same features, a smile, lips smeared with lipstick, and drawn eyebrows. The ones who either bullies her or tried saving her, there was not much difference.

But reality and movies have a big difference. When the main lead appears, it was as though there were lights shining on her, Haerin didn't understand it at first and thought it is an exaggeration but when she saw Minji, the hazy yellow light from the ceiling, covers the soft-looking, yet cold Minji. She has a high and pointy nose, the shadow from it falling on her lips and then blank space. 

"Why?" 

It was as though the main lead of the drama opened her mouth to talk. 

"Hey, is there something on my face?"

Haerin shook her head, hair still a bit wet, tangling together. 

"My name is Kang Haerin, what's yours?"