talk to me ; joyri

8//

yerim couldn't help herself but to mindlessly follow the girls' latest gossip at school. "someone got sexually harassed? what a loser," she thought to herself. she found her friend, saeron at the end of the hall, in which she skipped over to speak to the girl.

"hey, do you know about the girl with the sexual harassment thing?" yeri innocently asked her friend.

"oh, that? apparently it was with the scholarship student, um, park sooyoung," saeron said, almost forgetting the girl's name.

"park sooyoung?" yerim kept repeating in her head. the name had never concerned her so much before.

yeri froze as if her world was falling apart. she never would have wanted sooyoung to get hurt, more so sexually harassed. her mind kept getting more anxious as she listened to her friend utter the words, "she wasn't even here today... people think that she's at the airport right now..."

in an instant, saeron watched as her friend zoomed past her and into a bathroom. yeri's hands typed away at such a speed that she never would have imagined she could do. people walked past her, eyeing her and wondering what was possibly going on with the girl's life that made her result in texting inside of the university's bathroom. without caring, she quickly searched for sooyoung's instagram and began to look for clues that could help her find the older girl. she saw the same girl appear in sooyoung's photos- wendy.

she didn't bother to look at the girl's account information as she began to text the girl through instagram.

k_yr17
hi is this wendy unnie? sorry...
i was wondering if you knew
where sooyoung unnie is?

sonwannie
sorry, who is this?

k_yr17
oh, i'm yerim. i'm pretty sure
that sooyoung told you about
me?

sonwannie
ah, i know who you are. why
are you asking about where
sooyoung is?

k_yr17
i really need to know if she's
okay... i feel like a jerk after
being so rude to her

sonwannie
really? sooyoung's currently
at the airport

k_yr17
wait she really is at the airport??
what's she doing there??

sonwannie
she said that she wanted to take
a small vacation. i tried to stop
her, but she wouldn't listen to me

k_yr17
do you know what gate she's near?

sonwannie
she's just going there now. if you leave
now, you could make it to her as she's
registering. she's going to austria so
look for the registration there

k_yr17
okay! thank you unnie!! i really
appreciate it!!

sonwannie
of course! if you can, please convince
her to stay

k_yr17
i'll try my best. thanks again!!

luckily for yerim, her classes had already ended for the day. yerim ran out of the university building without a single care about anyone else's thoughts. she worriedly looked for a taxi she could get into to get to the airport. many denied her as the airport was a fairly long drive, but one driver was kind enough as he himself was also going there.

the car ride was unsettling to yerim. she had constantly told the driver to "please drive faster," in which he did, but immediately sped back down. she kept looking at her phone, at the time, as she knew that sooyoung must have been getting ready to register her flight.

the very thought of sooyoung leaving left shivers all over the girl's body. she could fear her hands trembling as the time passed by. she never would have imagined that she was being selfish and rude for thinking that ignoring sooyoung was the right thing to do.

her leg began to move back-and-forth as she looked out of the window. her eyes constantly glanced between the road and her phone, desperately waiting for their arrival at the airport. it was all she could do.

—•—

sooyoung normally loved the idea of moving. she normally loved having new opportunities, meeting new people, and seeing new views-  but this type of change could only cause her pain.

she knew that her ex-boyfriend and his brother would constantly look for her. she knew that her once confident self was definitely gone. she knew that her friends would eventually need to debut, meaning that she would have no friends to be with. she knew that her school friends would never help her outside of their college class. she knew that yerim would never care about her.

she sat down in the black chairs in front of the waiting area for austria flights. she could feel people staring at her as she had only worn a black hoodie, black jeans, and black sneakers. when she noticed these people, she covered her head with the hood on her hoodie and slowly fell back into the comfortable seat. her backpack comforted her as it cushioned her back. she didn't hold anything else as she figured that her family members in austria could help her with her necessities.

waiting felt like forever. she was too scared to look at her phone, just to see her friends wanting her to stay. she wanted to stay too, but she she could only see the negatives in her current life.

the girl finally felt bored as all she had been doing was sitting down in the same spot for hours. she started to walk around, knowing that the flight was not scheduled until later in the day.

she held the grips of her backpack with such strength as she tried not to get upset of the thought of leaving. the more she walked, the more she realized that many people would miss her- that she would miss yerim. even after all of the things that had happened, she still couldn't get herself to hate the younger girl.

she hated the idea of wanting yerim. she hated the idea of thinking that yerim could be her only cure. she knew what result could only come out of talking to the girl. she had enough power to kill her sister, so who says the same couldn't happen with yerim?

constant flashbacks started to occur as sooyoung tried to walk forward. she had to wipe her eyes in such a recurring motion that her eyes started to itch. she hated that she found herself like this, with tears eventually forming in her eyes.

the girl's eyes started to blur, in which sooyoung blinked to clear her eyesight. she instantly saw a girl that looked like yerim. "i'm delusional," she thought to herself. the younger girl began to run closer and closer, until she finally approached sooyoung. without saying anything, the younger girl patted sooyoung's hood. "unnie, you're going to mess up your hair like this," she said. sooyoung mindlessly watched the younger girl as her eyes were tired and restless. she couldn't believe her eyes.

yerim continued to pet sooyoung's hood, until she finally pulled sooyoung into a hug by the older's hood. sooyoung couldn't help herself as she remained in the same sad state. she felt tears running down her face. "why am i still sad? yerim's here..." she thought to herself.

"here, it's my heart," yerim said as she took out a finger-heart she had created from the inside of her jacket. sooyoung found herself smiling at the cheesy girl in front of her. "i'm normally not like this, so don't get used to it."

yerim suddenly held onto the older's hand and dashed out of the airport, finally letting go of the hand when they reached the outside. sooyoung did not hesitate as the only thing she was focused on were yerim's eyes.

"unnie, please don't go," the younger started to say, "so many people are going to miss you. i'm going to miss you."

sooyoung felt her cheeks getting warmer as a smile formed on her face. instead of seeing the simple girl in front of her, she saw the person that would become her happiness.

—•—

sorry for taking so long to write this chapter. school's been really busy lately, but hopefully i can write over winter break :)