Bluff (BBANGSAZ)

XVIII

Third Person POV

Minji didn’t fully understand what compelled her to dig deeper into something that held no real benefit for her. Maybe it was guilt, or curiosity, or something she couldn’t quite name but she found herself searching for the truth behind the cheating issue involving Hanni, Jinni, and Sullyoon.

What she uncovered surprised her.

Hanni never liked Jinni. In fact, she was the one who had encouraged Sullyoon to pursue her in the first place. Hanni had been the bridge between them.

The campus had been buzzing for weeks, whispers in the hallway, stares in the cafeteria, quiet gasps behind locker doors. The rumors branded Hanni a slut, a homewrecker. People spat out cruel names like it was nothing. Minji didn’t know why, but it affected her more than it should have.

She began to believe that Hanni wasn’t the villain maybe she was a victim too. Maybe Jinni had used them both.

Minji kept her distance. She told herself she was being cautious, but the truth was more complicated. She was scared. She watched Hanni from afar sometimes a glance, sometimes a lingering stare but her legs never found the courage to bring her any closer.

She felt creepy. Obsessive, even. But she couldn’t help it.

Weeks turned into months, and the rumors slowly faded. Not because people moved on naturally but because Minji paid someone to rewrite the narrative. A new version of the story began to spread, Jinni had manipulated Hanni the whole time. And with the help of a few well-placed whispers, the student body believed it.

And it worked.

Hanni smiled again.

Not the polite, hollow kind she forced through clenched teeth, but real ones, bright, alive, warm. Minji hadn’t seen that smile since they were kids.

And it gave her enough courage to try.

Tomorrow, she would talk to her.

She rehearsed everything in her head,
She would ask if Hanni remembered her.
If she was seeing anyone.
If she ever missed the playground.
If she ever wondered what happened to the girl with the quiet eyes who used to chase butterflies with her.

Minji even wrote a little script, reading it over and over in bed, her heart fluttering with a nervous excitement. Sleep never came.

The next morning, her driver noticed something odd a gnawing feeling in his chest, like a warning he couldn’t explain. But he brushed it off. Minji was rushing to get to school, her face glowing with anticipation.

Halfway down the road, she remembered the keychain, the rainbow one Hanni had dropped that day. She had meant to bring it.

'Next time' she thought. 'We’ll have so many tomorrows'

The driver meant to take the car to the shop that afternoon. The brakes had felt strange yesterday, but he didn’t think much of it. He'd just drop Minji off and then have it checked.

He would regret that moment for the rest of his life.

The brakes failed completely. Traffic thickened ahead, and Minji looked up just as a massive truck barreled across the intersection. Her heart dropped. The driver jerked the wheel, but nothing responded.

It happened fast. Too fast.

The world blurred, glass, screeching metal, spinning lights. Minji couldn’t move. Her head throbbed with pain, and she couldn't tell if she was screaming or if everything had already gone silent.