swxtched. | jhs

NULLA, switched.

(NOTE: SOME CHAPTERS MAY BE IN DRAFT MODE FOR REVIEW.)

❝ where flesh met plastic at the elbow. ❞

HER BROTHER ONCE SAID THAT if she doesn't have anything nice to say, then shut up.

Maybe she should've at this moment— which, of course, didn't make her weak. Everyone knows that she's so glad to finally be back in school. She had an extra long break. Perhaps if she appeared "normal" to them, not everyone would stare so outright.

It's just an introduction, she reminds herself, staring down past her frozen hands holding a piece of paper. Her nervous handwriting stared back at her. "Um," she starts, then clamps up.

She breathes in. Slow.

"It's okay," Miss Son consoles. The student closes her eyes to discreetly roll them to the back of her head, breath held.

Miss Son really gave it to her. Behind Miss Son's sweet smile, she probably saw her new student walk through the door and thought, Nice, another one to grade, because if the student's sleep-deprived eyes had anything to say, she could already tell that this one is probably not going to contribute a thing to the class.

The student finally releases her breath. "Hi everyone. My name is Min Geurin," she says. 

Her eyes instantly lose focus.

She can only imagine the looks on everyone's faces— the judgment, the curiosity, the talking. The questions.

The only student who wasn't paying attention finally looks up. He blinks and rubs one of his eyes with the back of his thumb, glancing once at her. With a yawn, he casts his eyes down to his lap. But then he looks up again. 

He squints at the new girl for a second, eyeing a particular part of her. What is that? He blinks a few more times. Then his eyebrows shoot up.

"I heard she lost her arm in an accident."

"I heard it was a disease."

"She was probably born that way."

"Is that why she transferred here? Maybe she was bullied in her old school or something."

"Maybe it's because there are better doctors here."

"Guys," he said to shut everyone up, although he knew he probably sounded like an ignorant idiot, "how do you even know if any of that shit is true?"

The new student promptly shoves her paper under her arm. No one would ever know what else Min Geurin wrote as she starts spewing out something unscripted, "You've probably already noticed, and I mean— it's hard not to notice. But in case you didn't pay attention at all, my arm was amputated last summer."

Jung Hoseok sucks in a breath.

"And people call me Green." With a small flick of her upper arm, Geurin's— Green's— prosthetic hand clenches the paper held in it, crumpling it. It catches everyone's attention. She turns to the teacher and hangs her head for a moment. "That's all, seonsaengnim."

Whatever, she thinks with finality. I'm out of here in less than a year.

Green looks up, and— click.

She's trapped in a moment of locked eyes. Apathy meets guilt.

And then they tear away.

Green was absent for the first two months of school, and everyone thought she would be the next big talk. In a school where nothing much happens, many found themselves wanting someone or something interesting to come their way.

But with her monotonous eyes, wispy short hair and— well, she seems a bit sickly and pale, and those lips are a bit over-chewed— students were graced by the presence of a sleep-deprived, vampire-looking, apathetic amputee. 

Green passed. Definitely the next big talk. 

"Thank you, Geurin," Miss Son says, clearing her throat, realising with reluctance that Green has finished speaking. Miss Son is so nice. "Is there anything else you'd like for us to know?"

"I'd like to sit down now."

Miss Son smiles and closes her eyes like she's about to quit. "Okay. Welcome, Min Geurin, to Class 3A. I hope we'll all have a wonderful senior year together."

Who knows? 

Green sits behind Hoseok and stares past his back, trying her hardest to ignore the lingering stares. Senior year, surprise me, she thinks.

Which she will regret later.

//

an amputee switches bodies with a dancer.
『 written on 2017.08.03. | revamping. 』

//

STATUS—COMPLETE ; EDITING PROCESS

FEATURED PROTAGONIST:
「 SON HWAMIN as MIN GEURIN 」