Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

Do

Light giggles sounded throughout the yard as two little girls chased one another 'round the swings. They were careless in speed and focused on the happy tingles caused by playing as their matching navy pleated skirts ruffled in the breeze. Joohyun was ahead and peeked behind her to see Jieun on her tail, making the first girl run faster as she approached the small ladder leading up the playset. She climbed the rungs and planned a route through the other kids to gain access across the wobbly plastic bridge to where she could escape down the rainbow slide. Stepping off the top rung, she took a half step forward and looked down to see her friend halfway up the ladder, causing her to let out another string of laughter. Joohyun took her time passing through the other students, giving Jieun time to catch up just enough to keep their game of tag interesting. Before either of them could make it halfway 'cross the bridge, a whistle was heard from the teacher, signaling recess was over.

That was their first meeting, taking place on a warm spring day doubling at the start of both of their second year of elementary school. The two drifted off from a group of six-year-olds who gathered to play tag and had been inseparable ever since. They became such fast friends that they didn't even feel the need to exchange names until a few days later. It was a bond so innocently formed through playtime and shared lunches, picking crayons for one another when they colored in class. Even as years passed and schools changed, other friends entering and leaving their lives each year, Joohyun and Jieun would never go more than twenty-four hours (maybe forty-eight if one of them got grounded) without communicating. So during the autumn of their second year of high school, when Joohyun didn't respond to Jieun's texts all weekend nor show up to school on Monday, it was clear something bad had happened.

The girl with bright pink hair was hard to miss, but it was even harder to not find her friend with the matching shade at her side. Jieun and Joohyun were known in their grade to be another pair of girls who focused more on Instagram than homework. The kind who didn't care much about school dress code and gave the principal puppy dog eyes if they were ever in trouble for it. Most students wouldn't dare to go farther than a subtle tint of red or purple, maybe even light brown. But Joohyun and Jieun seemed to enjoy testing the limits of what they could get away with. The two appeared to be twins upon first glance, and many who only saw them around campus honestly thought they were sisters. So when a lone Jieun stood in the open doorway of class 2B, way down the hall from where she belonged in 2F, it made a few heads turn.

The girl glazed over the students until she found the one she came to see. The boy had his head resting on his desk, taking a much-needed nap between lesson breaks. The students whispered to one another, wondering why she was risking getting scolded since the next teacher would arrive any minute. Jieun crossed the room and tilted her head as she leaned down to check that the smooshed face covered in drool was her best friend's cousin.

"Hey," Jieun said as she shook his shoulder. The boy groaned and turned to the other side, attempting to block out the unwanted alarm. The girl huffed and shook him even harder, the pit of worry heavy in her gut. After a few slaps on the back, the boy finally sat up.

"What" he mumbled, annoyance clear in his tone.

"Where is Joohyun? She didn't show up today." Jieun asked, hoping he could keep his eyes open long enough to answer her. Yoongi lifted himself off his desk, bleached hair flat in some places and too puffy in others, and squinted at the girl standing next to him.

"How would I know?" he said simply, rolling his neck to work out the stiffness earned from staying up too late playing video games at a pc cafe with a few of his friends. Jieun racked her brain yet again for reasons of her best friend's disappearance. Maybe she was home with the flu and was knocked out right now. But even then at least her mother would call Jieun's mother and let her know not to drive past their house to pick her daughter up for school. Jieun felt uneasy this morning as she sat in the backseat of her mother's dark blue Subaru in front of the Bae residence, hoping and waiting that Joohyun would come out of the house and give her a reason for blowing off their weekend plans. The girl convinced her mother to wait until the very last minute, giving false promises that her friend was just running late and that she would sprint out of the front door any second, which she didn't end up doing.

"You're her cousin, why would you not know?" Jieun said, cringing a bit at how bratty she sounded. She never realized how big a role Joohyun played in her everyday life, and now that she was gone without explanation, it put her on edge. Yoongi held his head in his palm as he rested his elbow on his desk and looked at her, noting how upset she was.

"I thought you two were connected at the hip. How did she manage to escape?" He said, trying to be light-hearted. But the look on Jieun's face let him know that she was far from laughing. The door slid open from across the room, causing the whispers to settle down as the history teacher walked in. Jieun gave Yoongi one last look of disappointment as she shook her head before turning to leave.

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