lim sarim is abused by her father, and when sunghoon, her coldhearted and bold classmate, witnesses it, he starts bullying her. but as he gets to know her pain, he realizes he has feelings for her that he can't ignore.
"𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞...
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Sarim pushed open her bedroom door, the hinges creaking in protest. Inside, the room felt cold and uninviting. The walls were bare and peeling, the furniture old and mismatched. Her bed was unmade, the sheets rumpled and gray. A thin layer of dust coated everything, and the faint smell of something musty hung in the air. It was the kind of space that reflected her mood—stale and neglected.
She stepped inside and shut the door behind her, creating a barrier between her and the outside world. The silence was overwhelming, amplifying the thoughts racing through her mind. She sank onto her bed, the springs creaking under her weight. Sarim buried her face in her hands, trying to process everything that had happened.
But no matter how hard she tried to push the thoughts away, they came flooding back—Sunghoon. The way he had stepped in during the fight, his eyes blazing with determination. He had come to her rescue, and for the first time, she felt like someone truly cared.
The memory of him treating her wounds surfaced, vivid and powerful. His fingers had brushed against her skin as he cleaned her bruises, and she had felt a warmth radiate from him, making her heart race. There was something so genuine in the way he looked at her, something that made her feel seen. When he apologized for everything, his voice had been filled with a sincerity that caught her off guard.
"Why did it have to be him?" she thought, frustration bubbling within her. She didn't want to think about how close they had been, how much it had affected her. It was confusing; she didn't want to be in love, yet here she was, feeling a strange pull toward him. She wasn't supposed to care. After all, he had been one of the boys who made her life harder. But now, he was different, and that only made it harder to sort through her emotions.
Every little thing he did replayed in her mind. The way he had wrapped his arm around her shoulders, the gentle concern in his voice. It felt like a warmth she craved, yet it terrified her. What if she let herself fall for him, only to be hurt again? The thought made her heart ache.
Sarim lay back on her bed, staring at the ceiling, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings. It was maddening how quickly things could change, how someone who once seemed so distant could suddenly feel so close. She wrapped her arms around herself, as if trying to hold together the pieces of her heart that felt so fragile.
She wanted to convince herself that she didn't care about him, that she could forget about the way he made her feel. But deep down, she knew that wasn't true. The truth was, Sunghoon had started to break down the walls she had carefully constructed around her heart, and that terrified her more than anything.
As the night dragged on, Sarim found it impossible to quiet her mind. She lay there, caught between wanting to forget and wanting to remember, wrestling with her feelings for someone who had once only brought her pain. In the cold emptiness of her room, she knew she had to confront these feelings eventually. But for now, all she could do was lie there, overwhelmed by the uncertainty of it all.
