flipped. | kaiyuna

chapter five

a day after jina's death

'oh. we had homework?' beomgyu asks, leaning onto hueningkai's desk. 'we have economics essay due today. ms kang told us a week ago.' he said, not taking my eyes off his own paper. he had totally forgotten to write it out too.

he couldn't blame him too. i also forgot to complete it, and this essay is worth 45% of the entire subject so there's a possibility he would flunk. and if he does, he's bringing beomgyu down with him, since he was always distracting himself, and sometimes hueningkai too during self-study hours.

oh, how much he regretted not asking for taehyun's help.

ms. kang, their economics and homeroom teacher slides the door open, with her usual business-like face on. beomgyu shuffles back to his seat and jisung hides his essay under his desk. hueningkai copy his actions. he wasn't the only one.

the roll call starts. during this time, not only that they try to not zone out after sleeping for less than 5 hours, but the students who haven't completed any assignments, like hueningkai, would hide it under their desk, and if we were lucky she wouldn't find out, since she walks around during the roll call. she found out chenle's uncompleted algebra homework. poor him.

'shin yuna?'

hueningkai braced himself to hear her irritating 'present!', but for once, she didn't answer it, and there was an uneasy silence as everyone looked at each other with confusion. they all had the same thoughts. 'shin yuna, absent?'. the 2 words in 1 sentence just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

'oh, silly me.'

she continues roll call like.. nothing happened?

hueningkai assumed she was absent for a valid reason. if it was an unauthorized absentee, she would definitely ask us why was she absent, but she didn't, so he guessed she does know why she was absent.

after roll call finished, he wanted to ask her why wss she absent, but park jisung was a step ahead of his.

'ms kang, why is yuna absent?'

'yuna's little sister recently had her passing yesterday. she stayed in to pay her respects with her family. i have a favor for you all, send your respects to yuna. have a good day everyone.'

huenungkai had seen the little petite girl a couple times riding a bike. but she just suddenly disappeared during 5th grade. it was a huge talk in the neighborhood that time, and now that he was thinking of it, he actually did remember yuna mentioning that her sister was just hospitalized. she got hivs but fortunately after quick treatment, she was fine. however, it's been years since he last saw her.

they were both awfully similar. the way they eyes would shrink in the edges when they smile, they way they laugh, almost everything. the 3 sisters would visit the house oftenly to hang out with lea, and it was the noisiest the house has ever been. he remembered locking himself in his room so yuna couldn't drag him everywhere.

everyone else felt it right now. someone important was missing. he hated to admit it, but it was true. as much as he disliked (he wouldn't say hate anymore; that's a rather strong word) that girl, she was pretty much  the life of the party.

word spread like a wildfire. school wasn't an exception. even the girls who called her a whore felt guilty. and those kind of girls never look nor feel sorry.

the ones that were most effected were ryujin and jisung. ryujin has always stuck with yuna ever since elementary. it hurt to see her cry, honestly speaking for hueningkai. during lunch, chaeryeong was trying her best to feed her, but she wouldn't budge.

he really hoped school could end soon. he couldn't bare this. he even felt like crying. over shin yuna.

the next day

they had to attend jina's funeral anyway. funerals always scared at him, but this one scared him to the core. he was about to see yuna, completely defenseless and devastated. and that was the first thing he examined when they arrived at the graveyard.

she stood, head down low, which you don't see at all, coming from her. her mother and bona wrapped their arms around each other. her eyes were awfully red and puffy. sniffing a few times, she glances up and looks at me.

ouch. he never felt so bad. if it was in different circumstances, he would wave at her and smile, but this was such a bad time to do so. he broke off eye contact, confused on what to do. hands clutched together, almost in defense; he could only watch their sorrow.

as soon as the coffin arrives, everything that was inside her just flooded out. she was crying, awfully hard, tears streaming down her fragile and doll-like face. no one was to stop her. he wasn't. her mother wasn't. bona wasn't. before he realized it, a tear slipped out from my eyes.

after they were done burying the coffin, everyone was praying and giving respects. hueningkai was doing the same, and for once, he allowed myself to stare at her. her hair was let down like usual, but it just didn't have the same feel from her usual cheery self. she wore a black dress and heels.

'kai. talk to her.' lea nudged my shoulder, snapping myself out from staring at her. "i.." hueningkai started, but he couldn't continue. his words were stuck to is throat.

he wanted to. he had to.

but he just couldn't. why? maybe he had my reasons. maybe it was his normalized and usual hatred that brewed ever since the first day they crossed paths.

even after all of this, he just couldn't bring himself to talk to her. he never realized how much of a jerk he was to think of that.