Sinful Passion

thirty-one

Changmin drained multiple bank accounts in his quest to cover up what had happened at home.  His wife had eloped with his daughter, and they'd run away to Mina's home country. The news was spreading like wildfire among Chaeyoung's schoolmates, some of whom had prominent figures as parents and acquaintances.  Changmin couldn't risk any of his subordinates finding out. Or worse, the general public. He bribed the relevant parties heavily: the high school authorities, the media and press, and his company's stakeholders. Everything was under control so far, but he lived in a state of constant paranoia, because everything was at risk of falling apart the very next day.  Of course, Changmin felt the effects of basically losing his entire family too, but those thoughts didn't occupy his mind nearly as much as his career being in jeopardy.

Nayeon was a wreck.  As if she'd only just snapped out of some kind of trance, and started to realise the gravity of her actions, she pinned the weight of her behaviour upon herself, and that weight was too much to bear.  Yes, she was in love with Chaeyoung. So in love that it hurt, it made her jealous to the point of blindness, it made her slightly twisted. But nothing in the world could justify her actions. Nayeon couldn't fathom why she'd jump on the very first opportunity to hurt Chaeyoung, her love and friend.  What was she hoping to gain? Nayeon didn't have a problem with Mina. She wasn't disgusted like many of their other schoolmates were. She just had someone to direct her jealousy towards, and that's what she did. She couldn't accept the fact that Chaeyoung didn't have feelings for her, and now things truly couldn't be reversed.  Nayeon felt so stupid. She felt more than just stupid; she felt like the scum of the earth. Nothing could justify throwing away her friendship with Chaeyoung like that.

Even if Nayeon eventually worked up the courage to reach out to Chaeyoung, she couldn't, because the younger had already disabled her Korean phone service and switched to a Japanese number, which Nayeon obviously didn't have.  She wasn't on speaking terms with Jeongyeon and Jihyo either, so she couldn't ask them. She felt shameless thinking about asking for forgiveness. Would Chaeyoung even want to talk to her?

One day after school, Nayeon's legs reflexively took her to the school gym, where the girls' basketball team held their practices.  Maybe her subconscious wanted to visit, for old time's sake. There was no one inside since it was an off-day for the club, so Nayeon sat at the bleachers, alone, and just stared off into space.  She thought about the times when she used to watch Chaeyoung play.

Suddenly, Nayeon heard some footsteps, getting louder as they approached and eventually entered the gym.  Whoever it was must've thought no one was inside too. Nayeon eventually saw that it was Momo, one of the permanent members who was in the same grade as her.  Nayeon had watched her play in the inter-high; she was good. She heard that Momo was the new basketball captain now.

Momo, still failing to notice Nayeon's presence, was humming to herself as she went into the supply closet and retrieved a stack of papers.  She only saw Nayeon when she came back out, jumping a little as she did so.

"N- Nayeon-ssi... hi," Momo greeted awkwardly, bowing to her even though they were technically the same age.

Nayeon hopped off the bench and approached the shy girl.  She'd never paid much attention to Momo before, but she seemed quite close to Chaeyoung.  Momo seemed pretty cool herself, and Nayeon never noticed how nervous she acted around her until right at this moment.

"Hey, Momo.  I hope you don't mind my intrusion here," Nayeon said casually.  Momo's eyeballs almost popped out of her head when she realised Nayeon knew her name.