The 1 Rule - haobin

the bruises

As I walk back home, I feel a sense of relief. Standing there with Cho and talking about her brother felt so... wrong? 

The funny thing is that no one is at fault, so I can't even feel bad for only one person, I simply feel bad for both Cho and Hao. It's funny and almost ironic, how such a situation can have no one in the wrong, but at the same time, they are both in the wrong.

Most of all, I just feel so heartbroken at thinking about what Cho has been through. Not that I can relate, but I guess that it is pretty difficult to live with someone so perfect. I guess it's difficult seeing everyone leave you for one person that you are so close with, but the frustration of not being able to be mad at him must be pretty strenuous as well.

I open the door quietly and take my shoes off, still feeling a bit down. I don't bother to call out to Jude, knowing that she probably won't care that I got here anyway. Shit, she might not even be here. 

I walk up the stairs, dragging my legs onto the wood. As I get to the door of my room, I can hear sounds coming from the inside, indicating that Jude is in there. 

"Jude? Imma go in" I say, pushing the door and walking in. As I look up, I see Jude sitting on my study table, makeup before her. Her face looks scared at seeing me

"...Jude?" I say cautiously

"Hm?" she says, turning back away

"What happened to your face?" I ask, walking up to her. I take my chair and wheel her around and see a bruise on her right cheek.

"Nothing. I just fell" Jude says, slapping my hand away as I touch the bruise.

"Fell? How did you fall?"

"I just did. Gosh, do you have to know everything about my life?"

"Not really, I was just curious," I say, rolling my eyes. I take a second glance at her bruise secretly, but Jude sees me

"What the fuck? What's so interesting about a bruise?"

"It's a pretty big bruise, that's all," I say, and walk out of the room. I hear Jude scoff behind me as I close the door once again. 

Bruises hurt. I know that from a harsh lesson I had when I was young. There was a hill on which I always rode a bike with my mom. One day, I had lost my favorite bike, but I still wanted to ride down the hill that day. Matthew had lent me a handover bike, one that was dusty and old. I was glad, and with my full power, I rode the bike. That is until the front wheel of the bike sort of went funny and I quite literally flew away. I hit the ground and cried for hours, the pain almost unbearable. Mom had picked me up and took me home, gave me bread, and forced me to go to sleep. I stayed there for a whole week without going to school. My knee had gotten infected and caused me to have a fever. But what hurt me the most was the bruise. If anyone would simply touch it, I would scream and kick and cry from the pain.

Jude's bruise is nothing like that, nothing too big, but nothing too small as well. But it's a bruise anyways. It's something that will stay there for days and something that will turn ugly and yellow when time passes. At least with my bruise, I was able to hide it, but since hers is on the face, there is no solution. The only thing I can possibly help her with is to make it recover faster.

I take a cream that helps especially with bruises and climb up the stairs once again. As I walk into the room, I see Jude on her phone, looking annoyed. She looks up as I enter and catches the cream that I throw at her

"Put it on. It'll calm the pain and make it leave faster"

"I could've gotten it myself" she mutters out, but still applies some of the cream on her cheek. I sit down on my bed and look at her bruise which is still visible since she hasn't yet put any makeup on top of it.

"Did you really fall?" I ask

"Yeah?"

"Bruises normally don't show up just from a random fall. How did you fall?"

"I tripped."

"You tripped? That's impossible. You don't get bruises just from tripping. And anyway, if you did trip, everyone always puts their arms to the ground before the head to make sure that the head doesn't get hit."

"Oh my god, Hanbin. I'm not stupid, I know how I fell. I have a memory as well if you didn't notice. Just leave me alone" she says, throwing the cream back at me.

"Whatever," I say, throwing the cream back at her and hitting the back of her head. She doesn't even flinch when I do so, but from the mirror, I can see how she closes her eyes in pain

"Anyways, do you know when they're going to clean your room?" I ask

"No, Hanbin. You've asked me that question at least fifty times in the past two days," Jude turns to me, scowling "Don't worry though, I'll be out of your hair soon"

"What does that even mean?"

"Nothing. Leave me alone now" I hear Jude say, as she turns away once again.

"Ok..."

♡♡♡

Jude seems fine tho... right? Idk, but no spoilers for now

Ok, I don't know if yall have noticed but I pay no attention at all to punctuation. I'm sorry if everything is unclear but I just get too lazy to re-read and edit the chapters that are already finished.

I rll hope you enjoyed this chapter tho! 

Also, I might update a second time today, but I'm not so sure. I might be unexpectedly busy by the end of the day so idk

(stream 'mr simple' by super junior)