A Song for You

Blackbird (Yusoo)

(Bold is spoken in Japanese)

Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
take these broken wings
and learn to fly

- Beatles (Blackbird)

♤

Struggle after struggle; punch after punch. Life just wouldn't give Jisoo a break. Growing up, it seemed like she'd walk a perfect road for the rest of her life; she was an intellect, was smart, kind and very beautiful. Behind the scenes, though, her entire life was being controlled by her Mom. To her mom, she had to be the epitome of perfect and reaching this ideal was worth more than money. So much so, that she spent dollar after dollar, dime after dime to reach the perfection she craved for her suffering daughter (it was so bad that if it wasn't for her natural beauty, she'd have to go under the knife). Jisoo was basically trained to hide any insecurity and any dirt anyone could possibly find on her. Even around her close friends, she can't act completely herself. She wants to, but she just can't, "Jisoo, back straight!" she winced at her mother's words, glancing towards her younger siblings. A part of the reason that she's dealing with this now was so that they wouldn't have to.

"Sorry, Mother," these were the moments where Jisoo wished her father fought harder for custody over her and her siblings. He had promised to do something about her situation, but it's been two years and nothing has changed.

"I suppose you fixed you're mishap?" she wished she could roll her eyes and talk back. She wished so badly.

"Yes, I did."

"Good. If I see another A- on a test, young lady, you're going back to tutoring and you'll be stuck in you're room studying." Her mom ranted on and on. Jisoo wanted to snap; wanted to say that tutoring was just a waste of money and that a single A- wouldn't affect her perfect grades.

After putting up with her mother's constant yapping for what seemed like 10 years, she placed her eating utensils down gently, "I'm done eating. May I please be excused?" having the manners of royalty sure was exhausting.

Her mother merely nodded and shew her away as if she was some peasant; a slave. How ironic for someone trained to act like a princess.

Reaching her room, she stepped in and, for the third time that week, curled up into a ball and cried. She hated her life. Hated everything about it. She just wanted to be free, decide for herself. Her weeps were silent and she tried to keep them short, trying to make sure her eyes don't swell up for her 'perfect' image. But she couldn't help that by herself she felt so broken. So broken, that she was convinced that she was far beyond repair... but she was willing to find a way to. Even just a little bit, she wanted to experience pure happiness at least once in her life.

♤

"Jisoo! Jisoo, I'm talking to you." she snapped out of her daze to focus back on her teacher.

"Sorry, Mrs. Wang. What'd you need?"

"I just wanted to know if you could help out the transfer student. You have the highest grade in my class and he still has trouble speaking Korean so I wanted you to help him communicate." Jisoo raised an eyebrow.

"They're Japanese?"

"Yup," she replied, sipping out of her coffee mug, "I would do it, but I have to work. So, be their buddy for a while? At least a month." Jisoo eyed her teacher carefully. She knew a good amount of Japanese to communicate with people, but she really wasn't enthusiastic about meeting new people since she had to be as fake as the 'Michael Kors' bag said teacher carried around, "Please, Jisoo! The director had asked me to find someone and you're my only hope! I'll give you extra credit in my class if its worth anything." hmm... extra credit. Sounds good.