Secretly, But Unable to Hide It

Bike Ride

The sky turns dark slowly. The lights start to turn on, Minji watches Hanni and straightens her lips.

Hanni says, heavy-heartedly, "Papa and Mama never hit me."

Minji says, "I hit you?"

Hanni looks at Minji's eyes and stays calm and collected. "No?"

"Do I say no?" Minji starts to examine Hanni and suddenly notices that Hanni's clean uniform has a mark. It is located near Hanni's collar. It's clear that there is a cigarette mark. She thinks that she sees wrongly. She gets closer.

Hanni thinks Minji is going to scold her. She straightens her lips, resigns herself, and extends out her hand, placing it in front of Minji.

Minji points at Hanni's collar. "What happened?"

Hanni is startled and looks at Minji. She notices that there is a cigarette mark on her collar. She wipes it, but it cannot be wiped out.

"Little kid," Minji asks lowly. "Someone is bullying you?"

Hanni hesitates and nods.

Minji's expression changes. She examines Hanni again to see if Hanni has any injuries. She frowns. "Why aren't you telling unnie?"

"I don't want to make trouble for you. My unnie asked me to behave well. Don't make trouble for you," Hanni says. "I also don't plan to hide it, I'll tell my parents about it."

Minji asks patiently, "Did you get hit?"

Hanni thinks about it and shakes her head. "She just patted my face, took my twenty thousand, and asked me to give them more money tomorrow."

"Why did you go there?"

"My friend called me," Hanni thinks of Wonhee, and her expression changes too. She says lowly, "She was afraid, so she called me to go together with her."

Minji finds this absurd. "How could she not tell her parents?"

"Because those people said that if we tell our parents, they will go find us every day at our school." Hanni just answers everything Minji asks honestly. "So she doesn't tell her parents."

Minji kneels down after she listens to Hanni. She suddenly says, "Give me your hand."

Hanni is confused and doesn't move. After a while, she gives her hand.

Minji raises her hand and slaps Hanni's palm. It's just a soft slap, and it sounds like clapping.

Hanni immediately takes her hand again. "What are you doing?"

Minji says lazily, "Hit you. Little kid, listen to me. In the future, if you are deceived into going to that kind of place, no matter how good a friend she is to you, you cannot go." She stands up and strokes Hanni's head. "Do you understand?"

Hanni says dejectedly, "But you also cannot hit me."

"En? Why?" Minji laughs lowly. "If you don't listen to me..."

Hanni is on alert.

"If unnie sees you once, I'll hit you once."

It's getting late. They don't stay there for a long time.

"This time you are quite bold?" Minji holds Hanni's arm and walks. "This time you didn't cry even though you were bullied?"

"Anyway, they didn't hurt me."

"Where did your friend go?"

"I don't know,"

"At your age, you should have a good understanding, right? If this friend isn't treating you well, then it means she is a bad friend. Don't be friends with her again."