True Beauty: An Alternate Universe

Chapter Twenty One

Soojin:

"Oh my god..." Sooah said after a long stretch of silence. "No way," Taehoon followed, his eyes wide. "Everyone, just sit down," I said, pointing at the ground in front of them. I turned back to Suho, grabbing his hand and dragging him over to the circle. "As you may have guessed, Suho and I are dating," I looked around at my friends. Sooah screamed in excitement, "I'm so happy! How long? When were you planning to tell us?" "It's been a month, but we were just hoping you guys would find out yourselves. Which you did?" Suho answered, scratching the back of his head. Taehoon and Hyunkyu were frantically tapping on their phones, Seojun and Sihyun looking over their shoulders. "What are you guys doing?" Sooah asked, turning to them. "Posting this news on social media," Taehoon responded, "You guys don't mind right?" Suho and I shook our heads. I looked over to Jookyung, who was the only one not smiling. She had a faraway, distant look in her eyes, but I assumed she was processing the news a little slower.

We spent the rest of lunch eating the snacks that were brought to the roof, chatting and laughing. Suho had his arm around my shoulder the whole time, content that we could finally share the news with our friends. "I can't believe you guys got together at the camp," Sooah said, helping me gather up the trash while everyone else rolled up to blankets. "I couldn't believe it either, but I've never been happier." We all made it back down to the school. When we reached the hall to our classroom, it went silent. All the students had their eyes on us, well, on me. They had their phones in their hands, pointing at the screen and then at me. Suho stepped to the front, taking my hand in his and kissing it. Everyone around us screamed. Sooah pretended to swoon but Suho only looked at me. We walked through the hall, the students offering their congratulations. I noticed a few groups of girls with bitter expressions, but I ignored them. I no longer cared about the expectations of others, I was now with the guy that I loved most.

"Ugh I can't wait to go home!" Sooah groaned as we walked out of the school. "Exam revision sucks. It might be worse than doing the actual exam," Seojun replied, rubbing his temples. We all bid each other goodbye and Suho held my hand tightly, walking towards the gate. "Soojin," came a voice from beside us. My heart stopped, then started thumping in my ears. We were too focused on each other to notice that my father had been standing there waiting for me. "Soojin where have you been?" I turned around, my father had a soft expression on his face, one that was so obviously fake. From years of 'experience' I was able to pick out certain details on father's face. His forehead and mouth area creased when he was mad, his eyes slightly squinting, struggling to stay open. "Mr Kang?" Suho said, squeezing my had even tighter. "Soojin when will you come back home? Your mother has been worried sick," father said, ignoring Suho. I swallowed the lump in my throat, "I don't plan on coming back father, I'm happy where I am. So don't come find me again." "And where exactly are you staying?"

"Mr Kang," Suho said again, this time father looked at him, his anger rising, "Respectfully I don't think Soojin's comfortable to talk right now, I was about to take her back." "But-" "Sorry Sir, we have to get going." Suho turned on his heel, taking me with him and started walking away quickly. "Suho Lee!" father shouted. We paused, Suho ever so slightly turning his head. "Suho your father is back in Korea, he requested that we all have dinner together. Maybe then we could talk. You can find the information on your phone a text should have been sent to you, seeing that I can no longer contact Soojin for some unknown reason." Even if I didn't look at him, I could feel his piercing eyes on the back of my neck, warning me to turn around and come back home. Suho nodded briskly, walking towards the bus that had just pulled up to the station. I was silent the whole bus ride, tears threatened to fall as I stared out the window. I felt Suho staring at me, as his thumb gently brushed my knee.

When we got back home I threw my bag on the couch and locked myself in the bathroom. I sank to the floor, my back against the door. The tears I had been holding in streamed down my cheeks. I covered my mouth with my hand to muffle the sounds but soon my crying had turned into sobs. I stood up, gripping the sink until my knuckles were white. I was a mess. I looked at my messy hair, my bloodshot eyes and my wet shirt. I turned on the tap and pumped out the soap, running my hands under the water. I scrubbed and scrubbed, applying more and more soap, until the bottle had been emptied halfway and my hands were red and raw. I turned the tap off, drying my shaky hands with a towel and unlocked the door. It immediately flung open, Suho stood on the other side, his expression filled with worry. "Soojin!" he said with a breathy tone. I broke. I fell to the ground again, my hands covered my eyes as Suho wrapped his arms around me gently. He picked me up, taking me to the bedroom, setting me down gently leaning against the headboard.

"I'm sorry Soojin..." he whispered, kissing my head softly as he sat next to me, holding me tight against his chest. When my sobs died down I looked up at him. It brings me back to that day. The day that I had decided to escape that house, escape the clutches of my father. Suho had been there too, holding me just as close. It was different now, maybe we had grown closer over the time we've been together, but there is more passion in the way he looked back at me. He brushed a hair that stuck to my face away, tucking it behind my ears. He kissed away the tears and kissed my lips tenderly. "I'm here, you're safe," he said, clasping my hands. He looked down at them, they were still red from the scrubbing. "Soojin..." he said, stroking the raw skin. I had done this often, it was my way of taking away the pain and stress, but it left my hands ugly and dry. Suho got up, coming back a tube of hand cream and sat back down on the bed. He took my hands, applying the cream. "I hadn't seen you do this in a long time, I thought things were finally improving for you," he said as the massaged the cream into my skin.

"Seeing my father again, and talking to him, triggered something inside me. I couldn't handle it." "You know, we don't have to go to that dinner." I looked at him, smiling a little, "You have too, your father is back from the States you have to go see him," I replied. "Well like you, I'm not too fond of my father either," he pouted. I giggled, "I'll go with you, I'll be fine. Maybe I'll have time to exchange a few words with my mother." "Are you sure?" Suho asked, closing the hand cream and placing it on the bedside table. "Yes,"  I replied, giving him a small peck, but he wouldn't pull away. "Hey!" I said, slapping his arm playfully. He smiled, hugging me. Suho made Korean clam broth for dinner and we got ready for bed. While Suho was in the bathroom I scrolled through my phone. News of my relationship had spread like wildfire, and many students had posted photos of us on their social medias with congratulatory messages. A few comments read that Suho was too good for me but I ignored those.

"What are you smiling at?" Suho asked, climbing into the covers next to me. I flipped my phone around, "Just a handsome guy..." I said teasingly, avoiding eye contact. He tried to take my phone but I snatched it away. "Soojin," he said sternly, "Who are you looking at darling?" I smiled, turning my screen around to reveal a photo of him taken when we were walking through the halls. He sighed, chuckling as he pinned me to the bed, covering me in kisses. "Don't scare me like that again alright? You're mine," he said, turning the lamp off next to us. "Understood!" I giggled as he snuggled into my neck, his body strong and muscular on top of mine. I stroked his hair gently, "It feels so good now that everyone knows about us. I didn't seem to care about the nasty comments as much as I thought I would have." Suho's head shot up immediately, "Have people been saying bad things about you? Show me," he grabbed my phone and gave it to me to type in the passcode.

I sighed, showing him one of the comments, "She's so ugly I don't get what Suho sees in her?" Suho read, "They must be crazy, you're beautiful!" I giggled at his face, he was cute when he was mad. "This one says, 'Soojin's not even that smart and I'm sure there are prettier girls in the school, including me'. This is stupid!" "Okay that's enough now," I said, turning my phone off. "I swear when I find out who said that..." he grumbled, laying his head back down on my chest. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine. I don't take the comments too seriously anyways." "Well I do," he replied, "No one insults my girl," he kissed my neck gently. I kissed his head, playing with his hair until he fell asleep in my arms. Before I could close my eyes my phone pinged with a notification. It was a text from Jookyung, "Congratulations on your relationship! I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier, I was having a moody day. I'm so happy for you! I wish you two the very best." I smiled at the text, liking it and turning my phone off. I fell asleep, my heart content.