Remember me

prologue [2/2.]

Han Ki-Joo

"I know you didn't do it. I'm the proof. I'll go there right now and tell them, so don't give up." Hearing that... I don't respond and turn around. I'm glad. I'm leaving this shitty school.

***

These past few months have taught me a lot. I was a pushover. I let them do that to me. I sit on the steps of my house, and lay my back on the pillar. I should have fought. No matter what, I should have. Auntie and Uncle had to go to a funeral so they won't be back for a few days. I really disappointed them. They took me in despite being on bad terms with my parents and I made them worry about me.

As I sit there thinking, somehow I manage to fall asleep.

"Wake up..." I hear Moon-Bin's voice? I open my eyes to see Moon-Bin holding a takeaway bag from the restaurant we used to go to. "Are you crazy? Have you been sleeping here the whole day?" I raise an eyebrow and look at the time. It's been a long time. The stars are even out. I stand up and insert my key into the hole and let the both of us in. 

The house isn't clean and I get embarrassed cleaning the clutter.

I'm sorry. Haven't had time to clean. 

He shrugs it off, assuring it's okay. I fill up two glasses of water and place it on the table. "Are you going... to apply for another school?" I shake my head, not having thought about it.

They won't accept me anyways.

We sit there in silence - the silence that is awkward and usually Moon-Bin breaks it happily but something's changed. Even more than before.

"We all changed, didn't we? We used to be so close. Me you and Sol-Ah. You used to stick to Sol-Ah and give me the side-eye ... What happened between us all?"

He knew. He had the answer to that question. I don't want to tell him his best friend did this to me. I never told him, and I should have but I don't want to hurt him. I decide to turn on the T.V to change the atmosphere. "The victim of the "pumpkin night" re-inaction has finally gone back to school, but what netizens are worried about, if the victim will seek revenge? One of our sources has told us that the girl tried to attack one of her old friends. " Moon-Bin grabs the remote and switches it off. 

Out of desperateness, I grab the notebook.

I didn't attack her, Bin. 

I always called him Bin, it was our little nickname for each other. I was Joo and he was Bin. At first he has a look of remorse on her face. "It's okay. Sol-Ah told me everything. You were confused." My eyebrows raise as I realise that he doesn't believe me. My closest friend. I thought everything would be okay. 

I wasn't confused. She put acid in my mask and then attacked me. 

He tries to correct me and I get annoyed, deciding that I should at least tell him everything.

As he speaks, I throw something at him to tell him to shut up.

Let me speak. I can't even speak, Moon-Bin. This is my only voice. Don't take advantage of it. Let me speak first, then carry on. 

It goes dead silent.

Me and Sol-Ah stopped being friends a year ago. Didn't you know? She bullied me relentlessly and even hurt me a lot. 

I even show him the old bruises on my leg. "You said that you fell."

No, I didn't fall. I held it in for so long. I shouldn't have done that because now you don't believe me.