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"And then her voice cracked!" Saebyeol and Hana giggled loudly at what the former had said. She was telling Hana about something embarrassing that had happened to you, and you just sat there, your ears burning bright red as you kept your head down.
It's been like this for two weeks now. They would talk about you right in front of you and laugh about it. At first, you thought nothing of it. But now, it's a different story. Now, they're constantly bringing up embarrassing stories of you, or talking about tests you failed that they passed, or just straight up poking fun at you. It's recently been making you feel bad about yourself. You want to tell them to stop, but if you do that, what if they decide to stop being your best friends? They're the only friends you have in school, you can't lose that.
So you put up with it.
ᯓ
You, Saebyeol, and Hana just exited the café you had been hanging out in as you studied for an upcoming test.
As you and the girls were walking down the sidewalk, they decided to tease you.
Hana turned to you. "Yoonah-ssi. Try to actually pass this test, eh?" She joked.
You lowered your head, but nodded nonetheless, mustering up as good of a smile as you could in your moment of self-consciousness. You heard Hana and Saebyeol giggle and continue walking. You trailed behind them.
Unfortunately, a few moments later, you were mindlessly scuffling along the sidewalk, and this resulted in you stumbling over your feet. You ended up tripping and flying forward, accidentally taking Hana down with you. Hana was able to break her fall with her hands, but you ended up scraping your knees and bruising your arms.
Pain bloomed in the affected areas as blood trickled down, and you looked up, thinking that maybe Saebyeol would help you up, but instead, she helped Hana up and wrapped her arm around the other's shoulder, murmuring something along the lines of "let's get you home, you must be shaken up a little, huh?"
You watched them walk off without even so much as a single glance. You practically heard your heart shattering in your chest as you stood up on your own, cradling your left arm, which took most of the impact when it came to your upper body.
You whimpered as you pulled out your cell phone. A few salty tears fell and splashed across the screen as you called your older sister.
When she picked up, her sweet voice instantly brought more tears to your eyes. You wanted nothing more than to be in her arms after such a long day.
"Yoogomi~ You were supposed to call me thirty minutes ago. Did you and the girls have fun today?" She asked. You could hear the smile in her voice.
You tried your best to smile through your tears, simply happy that you could hear her voice. Without realizing, you hadn't responded for a bit longer than you meant to drag on, and Sakura grew confused.
"Hello? Yoonah?"
You sniffled. "Kkura-unnie," you whispered. Your voice cracked and came out with a noticeable tremble.
Sakura immediately became serious. "Yoonah, are you alright? What happened? Are you safe? Tell Unnie where you are, I'll come get you." There was panic in her voice.
You lowered your head, your grip on your phone tightening as you leaned against a brick wall.
Hesitantly, you gave her your location. "I'm- I-I'm at the Hanib café. Unnie... please hurry," you muttered. You just wanted to go home. Badly.
She agreed to stay on the line while she came to get you. You could tell by the background noise that she was driving as fast as the speed limit would allow her too-maybe even a little bit over. She would do anything to make sure that you were safe, and she knew that you were the safest with her.
Your grip became looser on your phone, and you had begun to doze off, when a car pulled up on the curb and someone jumped out of it. They rounded the car and ran up to you. You were sitting on the pavement, back and head leaned against the wall and your thin jacket draped around your shoulders in an attempt to protect yourself from the night's cold air nipping at your skin.
You looked up to see Sakura looking into your eyes with concern swimming in her own. "Oh, peach, are you alright? Are you hurt?" She questioned.
Tears brimmed your eyes. You threw yourself at her and wrapped your arms around her neck, holding onto her as if your life depended on it. She held you back just the same, stroking your hair in order to calm you down when she heard your hiccups.
"Unnie," You called out, voice shaking. "My- My knees, and my arms, too," you said, briefly pulling away to show her your aforementioned body parts, which were scraped up and bruised.
"Oh, no. What happened?" She gently blew on your knees, and kissed the bruises on your arms, hoping that, somehow, it would make you feel better. It did.
You sniffled. "I... I was walking with Hana and Saebyeol and I, uhm, I t-tripped. Hana went down with me, but Saebyeol helped her up." You glanced down at your knees, feeling your heart ache as you recalled what happened. "They just walked off. They didn't even stop to look back at me, Unnie!" You cried.
Sakura pulled you back into her embrace, closing her eyes as she felt anger course through her veins. How could those two do that to my little sister? Who do they think they are? A million thoughts ran through her mind at the moment, but the biggest one was that she wanted those girls to experience karma for how they acted. Well, that and that her number one priority in life is always going to be you.
"Don't worry, peach," Sakura started quietly. You looked up at her. "Those two just don't know what an amazingly talented and kind-hearted girl they're mistreating. You need to cut them off-it'll do you a whole lot of good," she explained.
You pouted. "But, Unnie, who will be my friend at school?"
Sakura smiled at you. "Aish... You're Jin Yoonah, no? I'm sure that there are tons of actually nice people at your school who would love to be your friend!" She assured you.
You couldn't help but smile. She grinned back and wiped your tears with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
"Perhaps," you mumbled. You rested your head on her chest and sighed contently.
She nudged you playfully. "Yah, don't get too comfortable, dongsaeng, we're still on the sidewalk outside of a fast food place!"
You whined, but got up anyway, allowing her to lead you to the car, help you in, and buckle your seatbelt for you.
You look up at her as she got you situated in the car. "Thank you, Unnie. You're my true best friend."
"Mine too. I love you lots, peach. Now get some sleep, we'll be home soon."
