"Love Barrier" | Kim Mingyu

49

Third Person's POV

"Jia, please come out or eat anything at least. I told them to make your favourite food."  Mr Baek persuading his daughter to open her door after days of locking up herself. "Jeonghan and Hoshi come over to hangout with you. Can you let us see you?"

No response.

"We will work it out together okay? Appa promise will do everything you say if you come out." Standing impatiently outside her door, he thinks hard. "You said you hate taking piano class, so let's quit. I won't force you anymore, just please, don't lock yourself in there."

Inside the room, Jia watches as the girl in the mirror stares back at her, sobbing pathetically. The weakness in the girl's tears infuriates her, she no longer know who she is anymore.

Hoshi helps, "Uri Jia, we miss you."  He added, "If you don't go to school Joshua will be the next top student. Do you allow him to steal your place?"  He pulls the academic card because it was always her weakness.

Silence.

When everyone starts to feel hopeless, Jeonghan who is quiet this whole time step in in front of them with a big Kettlebell in his hands. He sighed, "Get your shit together Baek Jia, stop worrying your dad. The problem won't solve itself nor the world won't stop spinning even if you starve yourself to death." Raising his voice higher, he continues. "I'm counting to 10 if you don't open that freaking door I'll break in." Seriously, he's ready to break in any minute.

"1"

"2"

"3"

"4"

"5"

"6"  He sighed again.

"7"

Clicked

A sounds of the door unlocked get Mr Baek's eyes widened. He thought this kid is weird for bringing a kettlebell from home but now he knows, the boys came prepared for a situation like this. And their strangeness is somehow worked.

(Jeonghan's favourite phrases. "If you're not going to win, CHEAT." | "Intelligence is a plan A but cheating is my plan B." )

Tired, puffy eyes. Pale skin, even paler lips. "You're loud it's annoying." She said weakly while holding her  knob, letting them in. Stuff are all over the floor. Photos, paintings, books, clothes, everything that is a reminder of Mingyu was destroyed by a scissor until all unrepairable. The room is in a mess but the owner's mental state is messier when she goes back to sleep like nothing more than a soulless person.

They're standing dumbfounded, watching her hopelessly. "What are you doing? Wake up, I'm not here to watch you sleep and depressed all day!" Jeonghan dragging her arms and torso up from the mattress with her eyes still close. "If you're sad, cry. If you're angry, shout. And if you're hurting then tell us, so we know. Please don't do nothing it's killing us too, Jia."

She slowly open her eyes again but the uninvited tears also streaming down along.

"Is it hard?" One simple question from Hoshi that could poke everyone's deepest wounds.

Nodding quietly, she cry, she break down, sobbing, bawling, weeping. Every words possible for 'a crumble heart'. Turning to her father she says with a cracked voice, "dad, I— I'm—" she wants to explain, to say sorry, to say help me but she's unable to find the starting point.

Seeing her state, Mr Baek couldn't help but reflect to when YoungHyun explained him what happened the other night when he brought Jia home. As a father he was furious, he wanted to pull his gun and kill people if YoungHyun wasn't promised to leave it on him to deal with. He holds grudges against that family until he sees his daughter condition, because for some reasons his angers lessened but disappointment rises. Not at her but himself that failed to protect his own daughter. He never tried to listen, never tried to understand, never tried to ask because he only do what he thought is the best for her not knowing that the word "best" was just his assumptions. His lack of parenting leads her to fall for the wrong person and he's ashamed to blame any one for his own mistakes. He knows he need to fix it himself.