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chapter 34: ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
time sure did pass by fast and before they knew it, jihyun and her same-aged friends are already in their last year of high school. jongho is in his second last year while seonghwa and hongjoong has already graduated.
jihyun feels empty entering the school without her brother by her side. she feels empty that seonghwa's car only stops at the front gate before driving off after jihyun alights.
she takes in a deep breath. last year of high school, lesgeddit. she walks in and stops by her locker to put in a few stuff before someone stops by only to push her whole body against her locker. she groaned in pain, looking up at the culprit.
"you think you're the shit, park jihyun? you think just because you have money, you're better than us?" han mina spoke through gritted teeth. she had her two other friends behind her, glaring at jihyun.
people watched the scene in silence, wanting to stand up for jihyun but too afraid of what han mina was capable of. people knew not to mess with her.
"you think all i want is your money? sweetheart, you're not wrong. because that's all that you have. you have no worth if your money is gone." she spits, pushing her arms against jihyun's shoulder, pinning her against the lockers. jihyun winced in pain, sure that mina's elbow would leave a pretty huge bruise on her left shoulder.
"you think yeosang wants you for who you are? honey, dream on. he's only there for your money. everyone is only there for your money." she spoke, venom in her tone.
jihyun's mind stops processing for a while. she knew what mina was saying was only to get her worked up but she couldn't help but think about it.
"that's enough, han mina." before she knew it, mina's arm was ripped off of her and a figure stands infront of her protectively, an arm held out to add more protection. she gasped in disbelief. "wow, park jihyun. yeosang and san at the same time? a hoe, aren't you?"
san blocks jihyun from mina's sight, keeping his arms by both her sides even though his back is facing her. he glares down at the girl infront of him. mina blinks repeatedly, her dominant demeanor from a minute ago disappearing.
"s– san i– i was only–" her speech was cut off by a pissed off san. "save it, i saw what you were doing," he glared at the girl. "you stay away from her or i'll make sure you won't see the light of day. i don't care that you're a girl. you mess with my best friend, you mess with me." he spits at her and grabs jihyun's hand, dragging her away from the scene.
"are you okay?" he asks her softly. it was still about a half hour before classes start so they had some time. the other boys probably haven't reached school yet since it was still fairly early. when he gets no response from the girl, he stays silent as he brings her to the music room, a place he was sure had nobody.
when they reached, he made her sit on a chair as he grabs another one and sits next to her. "ji, do you want to talk about it? what did she say to you?" he questions worriedly.
his heart almost broke when jihyun looks up at him, her eyes glossy as a tear manages to escape. "hey, hey what's wrong?" he panics. he was always the one to comfort her when she's breaking down but it's always during their late night calls. jihyun had never broken down infront of him before and he felt pained when he sees how broken she looked. this was how she looked every time she did and his heart broke seeing it.
before he knew it, she was already breaking down, tears unable to stop flowing and he hugs her, rubbing circles on her back. he waits for her to finish and calm down, like he always does, before asking her what's wrong.
"m– mina," she pauses. "s– she said some things. it triggered my insecurities. i– i don't think i'm good enough for him, san. i– i'm worthless. i only have money and money is all that people want. t– they're not staying for me. they're only staying for my money that i have." she hiccups, wiping the fresh tears that just escaped once again.
"jaehyun left me because i wasn't good enough. soon, yeosang is going to leave me for the same reason. is that the reason why mother and father never comes home?" she cries. "no, ji, your parents love you! and jaehyun– he ended things because you had to move away. even though i never met him, i'm sure he loved you for who you truly are. it's not hard to like you, you're a very likeable person, you know?" he knew that because he himself, had fallen hard for her.
he heard stories about jaehyun, her first love that she had a hard time getting over, a few times from jihyun herself during their frequent late night calls. he was burning inside. he was mad at mina for triggering jihyun's insecurities. it made jihyun think of all the hurt she's experienced throughout her whole life, thoughts that she was already almost getting over, that is, before mina triggered it all to come back.
san embraces her once again. he was used to hearing her cries at the end of the line and that was already too heartbreaking for him and now he has to witness it with his own two eyes.
"ji, that's not true. we all stayed because you're an amazing person and you have a great personality. you're so much more than your wealth. you're good enough, please don't ever think you're not. you're good enough for yeosang, you're good enough for us and most importantly, you're good enough for me. you're perfect just the way you are." he wipes her tears away and it only makes her cry harder when san pulls her in for another hug.
"shh, it's okay," he says softly. "you're okay." and they stay in that position until the bell rings, indicating the start of classes.
little did they know yeosang had witnessed them hugging in the music room, anger building up in him as he sees his own best friend, what it looks like in his eyes, hitting on his girlfriend and his girlfriend not pushing him away at all.
