Odd-eyed Beauty // hwang minhyun (#27)

Thirteen

MinHyun

I frowned as I looked over at the seat next to me, it is empty and it is supposed to be occupied with someone, Bae Yeongwon is supposed to be sitting next to me but she is not here today. She had been absent for the past 3 days and I am really worried about her, she basically vanished into thin air and she told no one about it, no one knew where she is or how she didn't attend school without anyone realizing it.

No one might have noticed that she is gone but I do, I am her classmate and seatmate and she has the only one that I have been talking in class, I don't have friends in this class and I am so glad that I didn't take the initiative to make some friends during my first week. They might be one of the most studious people in the cohort but they can be the most toxic people if you offend them, it may be something that you might not notice about yourself, but it can be something that they can joke about for the rest of their lives.

They can make you feel inferior all the time underneath their perfect grades and make you feel worthless while they are happy all the time, you are there suffering instead. That is what all the insecure people do when they are bored with their lives, they would feel better if they have someone that they can make fun of just for their enjoyment.

They are pathetic just like that and some people, unfortunately, fell under their spell, not because they were easily influenced by their opinions but it is because that they have been hearing all of this for a long time and they have no choice but to think of themselves like that after hearing bad things about themselves on a daily basis. They would lose all of their confidence and would think that they were right and they were indeed inferior compared to the rest and they deserved to die just like what the others want them to, it is just a constant running gag for them but they have no idea how it had affected all of the people that heard this.

There is a reason why South Korea is the number one in teenage suicide, it is because of all the people who are like this and only thought of themselves and not thinking about the other people around them. I may not experience this kind of bullying before but I have seen people being affected by those 'little play between friends' that doesn't mean anything much, it is utter bullshit. Only idiots would believe that they are just joking about, only the one with a heart would understand how it feels to be bullied.

I have always been ignoring those people because I was afraid that I might become the next target by being friends like them, I was always the one who silently observed the ones who get bullied and watched them get ridiculed by the bullies and I did nothing to stop them. I was a very bad person who chose to ignore everything in my life until I lost my first friend to suicide, he died with the fact that I know about it and then I ignored him at the point of time. I knew that he was getting bullied but yet I chose to ignore his pleas for help, I knew that he needed my help but I chose to go to his bullies and turned a blind eye to him.

I just wished that I had helped him, he would've survived and he wouldn't have died the day after the exams, but I didn't, he died because of me and I would have saved him if I hadn't left his side that day. And now there is Bae Yeongwon that I have to take care of, even though I have only known her for one week, it was enough for me to risk my reputation for her. I don't care if the other students are going to mock me for helping her and being her friend, I don't care if I got outcasted by any of the students in my class nor being avoided by my other friends.

All I know that is to prevent another person from committing suicide and then losing a life that shouldn't be lost, if I have a chance to stop it, I will be willing to stop that from happening so that I wouldn't feel as guilty as that time.

I walked past the house that I was looking for and I knocked on the front door, a young man opening the door and he looked at me with a stoic look on his face. "You are looking for?" He looks really young, he could be her younger brother, the one who is 5 years younger than her. I asked the homeroom teacher for her address and I begged hard for it, she didn't really want to give it to me because of confidentiality issues but she still gave it to me when I promised her that I will convince Bae Yeongwon to go back to school tomorrow no matter what.

"Is Bae Yeongwon in? I am her friend Hwang Minhyun and I want to know if she is doing fine at home." I introduced myself in the past sincere way possible.

"She doesn't have a friend in school." Her younger brother replied coldly. "Who are you exactly?"

"I'm sure I am, if not I will be her best friend from today onwards. Promise me that you would do one thing for me."

"I'm done here." He attempted to slam the door in my face but I was faster than him with my extra quick reflexes, all thanks to my basketball background. I had my foot jammed against the door, "You wouldn't want your foot to be amputated, I'm serious."

"I'm serious as well, I am really her friend and I really need to see her, she could be in there in a suicide attempt as we are speaking now. You wouldn't want your older sister to do that right?" I looked at him and he quietly opened the door wider for me to enter. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet, we still have to stop her physically." He pointed upstairs to her room.

And that is how I ended up on the shoulders of Bae JinYoung outside the window of Bae Yeongwon's room.

"Wait right here! I will get down to rescue the two of you, how the hell did you even think of such a dumb idea in the first place?" Bae Yeongwon rushed out of her room and she got out of the house, successfully helping me get off the shoulders of her younger brother and we all fell to the floor with a large thud. Yeongwon stood up dusting her backside with her hands. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Nothing much, my mission is accomplished now and the next step is to convince you to return back to school," I said with a bright smile on my face.