Perfect Strangers | jjk ff

Liberté

A whole week had passed since that trivial squabble in the hallway, but Yerim's relentless harassments did not stop and seemed to be increasing its severity more and more in actuality.

And today was another conventional day of being her target to make miserable and to laugh at.

I was honestly getting tired of dragging my feet home everyday while feeling like there was a prisoner ball chain locked onto my ankles, then having to deceive my mother with a fraudulent mask and act like everything was alright.

But it's just a few more months until graduation, and all I had to do was wait a little more and I would be liberated from this indestructible jail cell.

Currently practicing my smiles in front of the door of my residence, I finally gripped the metal handle after a while and twisted it open.

Setting foot into the place that's supposed to bring me ease, my shoulders winced in trepidation at the sound of my mother's slippers making its way from the kitchen.

"Welcome home sweetie. How was school?" she said as she spun her spatula in her hand rhythmically, appearing to be in an extraordinarily good mood today.

"Good. As always." I lied casually, walking away restless and hurried before my mother's internal detector that somehow knows when something's up went off.

"Oh, Hana, your bag is open." she unfortunately stopped me, then took a carefree step towards my back and offered, "Here, let me close it for you."

"Don't touch my bag!!!" I shouted on instinct in a frenzied tone, but I was too late.

My mother's fingers, which had already been hooked on the opening of my bag, widely opened it even more due to my sudden movement, causing all my torn-up notebooks and papers to unavoidably fall out and disperse onto the floor.

With her jaw dropping at the sight of my assignments and belongings that were damaged by Yerim and her crew, my mom asked in the calmest way she could, "Yerim, what's going on?"

All I could do was timorously stare at the scattered mess on the ground while my pulsation beat out of control, but then the question I feared most left her tremoring lips.

"Are you... getting bullied?"

My mother's words were like a sledgehammer that instantly demolished this incorruptible wall I've built overtime that was already on the verge of collapsing.

My weeks worth of tears came rolling down like a waterfall, something I haven't shown even in front of Yerim.

I nodded slowly as the answer to her question, biting my bottom lip bitterly and opening up about my heartfelt feelings for the first time in a while.

"It hurts so much Mom... I can't take it anymore..."

"Oh honey, come here." she said with a broken expression and tugged me towards her, bestowing me with one of her magical hugs that always made my agonies vanish.

Gently running her hands up and down the back of my head, she whispered, "Tell me, what happened?"

It was really hard for me to bring the truth to light for some reason, and I just silently clutched onto the back of my mother's shirt and assembled any grit remaining within me until I was ready to say it all.

And then, I told her everything.

From how I discovered the upsetting reality that my "friends" were exploiting me this entire time, how I was left all alone, and most especially, how much physical and mental torment Yerim has inflicted upon me.

"B-But what happened to Jungkook? He was your best friend!" my mother queried, knowing he couldn't have abandoned me for Taehyung like how all my other peers did.

Being aware of her great favoritism towards Jungkook, I didn't dare to inform her about his expulsion from school in order to preserve that image of a sweet, courteous boy in my mother's mind.

Because he still is one.

But sadly, the time to tell her had ultimately come.

"He moved back mom. He left school. He left Seoul. He left me." I confessed and gritted my teeth in sore pain, hating myself for being so attached to Jungkook and being emotionally incapable of forgetting him like he forgot me.

I'm a stranger to him now, but he's still the love of my life to me.

I'm just another name in his list of exes, but every letter of his name was carved onto the surface of my heart and was embedded on it perpetually.

Placing my cheek on my mother's shoulder so she didn't have to see my crying face, revealed another one of my genuine feelings to her despite my quavering voice cracking in grief.

"I miss Jungkook so, so much..."

As if she was unable to handle this any longer, my mother let go of me and instructed while slightly shaking me by my shoulders, "Hana, look at me and listen closely."

I stared into her pained eyes regardless of my blurry view from the tears, my chest stinging sharply from seeing such an afflicted emotion on her face I've never seen her wear.

"I wish for nothing but your happiness, and I'm willing to do anything for it. You're my sunshine and I'd do whatever it takes to keep you shining." she stated as she showed a subtle smile, giving me a pinch on my cheeks like she used to when I was little.

Breathing in nervously but resolutely, my mother declared a final resolution that I would've never expected her to make.

"You're going to move in with your grandmother. You're going to go to a new school, make new friends, and start a new life."

At a complete loss of words from her both elating and saddening announcement, I gaped at her speechlessly in an iced-up stance.

"Mom..."

"As much as it hurts for me to have to separate from my very own daughter, you'll be happier there. You won't have to worry about anymore bullies, anymore danger, and anymore pain." she assured me with positivity, having the best knowledge of the serene and harmonious town she grew up in.

"Thank you... Thank you so much..." I muttered multiple times as my eyes began to water once again, but from a sense of ease, glee, and optimism this time, not from any heartaches.

With this amazing opportunity, my life could start anew with no exclusions, no name-calling, no torn notebooks, and most importantly, no Yerim.

"I don't want anyone taking that beautiful smile of yours away anymore okay?" my mother said, giving me a soft and endearing stroke on the cheek with the back of her fingers.

Mirroring the big grin on her face, I attacked her with an affectionate embrace. 

"I love you so much mom, really."

Squeezing me back with all her power, she planted an assuaging peck on my forehead.

"Me too baby, me too."