𝐈𝐃𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄 • Lookism

I.

CHAPTER ONE
Lines intersect | 선이 교차한다

⚘( ၴႅၴ

The sting of the rose echoed a familiar lesson: impermanence.

Like a forgotten nursery, my past was a hazy blur. Friendship felt like a foreign language.

Yet, across the room, a girl with impossibly long hair and twinkling eyes, Carried an old soul within her young body. Her glasses, a marvel in itself considering my own hair remained stubbornly short, "too difficult to comb" my mother claimed. But truths, like secrets, were things she excelled at hiding.

All I had were fractured memories: a day of pain, another of drunken laughter, both lost in the white noise of rain and screeching tires. And then, fire.

A constant shadow, a day etched in darkness, mirroring the flickering streetlights that seemed to blink in time with my terrified eyes. The crash. The blood. Everything leading to this very moment.

Stuck in my seat, the world felt a bit too big. The only company I had were the teacups and their drawn-on smiles, a collection of imaginary friends. While the other children grew comfortable with each other, my social life remained stuck. We were all the same age, but after arriving just days ago, something kept me silent, making me retreat into myself.

There was another girl, seemingly my age. Maybe the way she carried herself, hindered by her weight, made her withdraw too. But there was a grace in the way she cuddled her stuffed animal, a childlike elegance that mesmerized me. Perhaps that's why, despite the silence that had become my companion these past few days, I found myself reaching for a connection.

My voice, rough from disuse, rasped out a weak, "I-I'm Y/n..."

She turned towards me, a small smile blooming on her face, crinkling the corners of her eyes. "Nice to meet you," she replied, her voice warm. "My name's Crystal." Though she didn't take my outstretched hand, the spark in her eyes was all the greeting I needed.

"Don't you have a last name?" I asked, glancing at her stuffed bunny.

"I don't remember it." She replied fixing its ears.

"Oh—well..." I shrugged sheepishly. "Can't you just make your own?"

"My..." she tilted her head. "Own...?"

I tilted your my head again. "Then I'll have a different name for you!"

Crystal didn't say anything as you put your hands on her hips and the other on her chin while thinking. "Silly that's not how name works."

"I'll name you Cushy!" I exclaimed, a proud look on my face.

Crystal was beyond confused. "Cushy? Is that a real word?"

"I don't know," I said, shrugging my shoulders and sitting beside you in front of the corner. "Sometimes I just hear things from grown up, and I'm the one who makes my own defishon."