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

Nineteen

Minhyun

I stood in front of her house with my hands in my pocket, waiting for that one person who is going to come out of these doors at any moment, and she is going to take public transport with me and it will be the first time that she will be taking public transport on her own. When she first told me about it, I thought that she was joking until I saw the look on her face, she wasn't joking at all and she was being truthful about it.

But never taken any public transport anywhere is ridiculous, there is no way that anyone would never have taken a public bus or the subway on their own and they would have travelled at least once with their parents when they are younger, it is not like it is a very expensive form of transport, in fact, it is one of the cheapest ways to travel from one place to the other along with the subway that guarantees you to travel from one place to the other in less than 30 minutes.

The personal car is then one of the most expensive ways of travelling out of all the different ways of transport in this country and it is adding to the traffic problem that happens almost every day during the morning and early evening peak hours, because of those personal cars that wealthy people drive around, it is slowing down the traffic and is causing traffic congestion instead, they think that they are kind and considerate by not taking public transport and driving their own cars but they are really the ones who are adding up to the problem, they just haven't realized it now and they still complain about the traffic problem that they had created it themselves.

Bae Yeongwon's family is not that wealthy to have a personal chauffeur that is assigned to every single car that is owned by the family, they are just a regular family with a father who is one of the higher-ups in the company that he worked in and the mother is an interior designer who works at home most of the time and she would be a full-time housewife when she is not busy with her work.

It is just that her father is aware of the problem that his daughter goes through, that his daughter has been bullied by her classmates since her kindergarten days and thus he has been picking up her back and forth from school and home for the past few years, not allowing her to have any outside contact with anyone after she is done with school.

That was a little attempt to protect her from getting bullied outside of school but it has its cons as well, because he has been so overly-protective about Bae Yeongwon, she hasn't been able to do other things on her own and hasn't gained any bit of self-independence till now and she is already a high school student and she is going to graduate by the end of this year.

I guess that Bae Yeongwon is tired of that restricted and isolated life that she has been living even though it had helped her throughout her entire life the thing is that she will never learn to be independent if she continues to be like this, if she ever wants to be loved by the people who will care about her, she would have to take this step. And that was the request that she told me about it the day where I brought her to the nearby park, she was ready to take that step without her telling her to do that.

There was the turn of the doorknob and the doors open to reveal someone behind it, it was Bae Yeongwon getting out of the house and a taller male that followed her from behind, it wasn't her younger brother who is only a middle schooler but yet his height makes me doubt his age every single time, it must be her father because he looked a bit of a mix of Bae Yeongwon and her younger brother.

She gives her father a hug and she walks to me, giving a nod telling me that we are ready to leave for school. Her father nods at me as well and I did the same back to him, giving him the same amount of respect that I give to every sensible adult that I would meet, he went back inside the house right after and Bae Yeongwon nudges me by the shoulder.

"What are you stoning there for? Let's go or we are definitely going to be late for school." She walks ahead of me and I caught up to her in no time. "Sorry for making you wait, my father was holding me back a little. He was afraid that I might not be able to get used to taking public transport but I told him that I can do it with you helping me as well."

I smiled a little. "I am glad about that, all parents are like that, they pretend that they don't care about your well-being and all but in fact they are the ones that make sure that you get to eat your favourites and make sure that you drink enough water so that you wouldn't fall sick all the time. They are the ones who created you, to begin with, it is okay for them to protective of their creation."

"Wow, you really have a way with your words. I am just hoping that he wouldn't try to tail us from behind as we are speaking, I don't want him to think that I am weak and hopeless and also to tell them that I am weak and hopeless." My voice drifts off upon the mention of the people in school, especially the ones who bullied me.

"I will make sure that they wouldn't think that you are weak and hopeless when you have a friend like me, I will be there by your side all the time, well except when you have to go to the washroom but other than that, I am always here for you." He really reassured me of my decision of going back to school with that.

"Well, I know that I wouldn't be lonely having lunch alone and talking to myself if you were to be here with me," I told him.

"And there will be someone who will be listening to you when you are talking about your favourite things." He smiled at me, which made me smile back at him as well. That was the first time that I have smiled to anyone in such a long time, ever since the first day of kindergarten.