Stigma #3 » k.th ✓

sixteen

Things were going well between the two of us, Clara and me. This time, she went straight to my side to sit with me. And told me about her day.

“I kind of, uhm, bumped into Jimin’s girlfriend, I think.”

“Lisa? You bumped into Lisa?”

The shock on her face when she looked at me was distracting, but then she snaps out of it and laughed. “Oh, right, I forgot. You know the girl because you hang out with both of them. Duh. Don’t tell her I said that, though.”

“No problem.” I shouldn’t have to tell her right away, right? The secret? Maybe then I’d get the answers I’ve been looking for from her. “What do you think about her, then?”

Clara answered with a nonchalant shrug at me as she lurked through her bag for her cellphone. To be distracted with, perhaps. “I don’t know. I’ve never formally met her yet, so why should I have to—” She cut her sentence off when she was reading something off the screen, causing her to drop her bag beside me and exiting the bus, telling me she needed to take the phone call privately. And I let her.

Something tells me otherwise about this situation. But she was already out of the bus. Watching her from my seat, she seemed distressed and yet tried to act neutral despite the yelling over the phone. I can tell by the way she subtly pushes the device away from time to time during the conversation. Around the time when she finally came back, she was being fidgety around her bag. She couldn’t simply stop hugging it, caressing it.

“Hey, what’s the matter? Who was that?”

“. . .it’s him.”

My hands turned into fists and clenched itself at how broken and scared her voice sounded. “What does he want from you now?”

“H–He was t–telling me I–I should c–come over today . . .” Clara swallowed, not being able to say anything more than that out of fear. She even had to cover her mouth to muffle her screams. I pulled her into my arms to try and calm her down, not caring what anyone has to say about this. She needs me right now, most likely to come with her and stop that psychotic boyfriend of hers.

“Don’t worry, I’ll come with you.”

“Taehyung, no, I can’t. T–This is not someone you can typically beat up in an instant. Y–You actually know him. . .”

I got a bad feeling about this. “Who is he?” ‘I prefer calling him Min’. Don’t tell me.

“It’s Park Mingyo.”

♠

The closer the bus was to the destination of the gasoline station her boyfriend — Park Mingyo — worked at, the more worried and scared I became for her, not knowing what could be the outcome if I go with her now. Her hand was clutched around mine and is still shaking vigorously.

“Tae, I’m scared. . .”

“I'll be right there beside you.”

The plan was to let Clara come out of the bus first, while I go around behind the bushes without being noticed. Before she gets locked into his room, I should charge over after calling the police.

“Anyone comin’ over here?”

“That’s my stop.” Clara stood up, holding tightly onto her bag and reluctantly made her way out of the vehicle. Out of the window, I did see the familiar figure hug her again. He wrapped his arm around her, smelling her hair and was already dragging her to that room. Discreetly, told the driver to get me down just by the bushes near it and pulled out my phone to call the cops.