look at me ✧ chuuves

the principal's office

~/~/~ : flashback

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<chuu>

"mr. and mrs. ha? you may enter, now," principle choong-min called. "you as well, sooyoung."

with tightened hands on mine, sooyoung gulped and looked down nervously. even i was worried for her. i patted the top of her hand, then held her shoulder.

"hey," i said, but she did not budge.

i want to console her. that way, she could face this head on and be strong and happy after.

"hey, yves," i warmly called to her. i placed my hand on her cheek and said, "look at me. look at me, please?"

and with that, sooyoung finally got to look at me for real. not in a literal way, but in a sense that she finally looks at me with her true yves self that was starting to unfold piece by piece. and i'm here, witnessing all of that.

i smiled at her and lightly tapped her long sleeves, up-and-down, "you don't have to tell them everything, okay? just—"

"come on, sooyoung," her dad ordered.

"—just don't tell them if you're uncomfortable," i quickly finished my sentence before sooyoung could let go.

she gave me a small smile before entering the office. though she did not say a word, i could feel all the anxiousness exuding from her. i'm just hoping she could get through this without punishment.

❖

after minutes of waiting, the door opened.

"chuu..." sooyoung softly said with her mouth still trembling a bit. i'm a bit relieved that she still had her blazer on. "you're being called, now."

i stood up and immediately entered. luckily, i have to deal with this on my own.

sooyoung's family was there on one space, and minhyuk and his parents are on the other side.

oh, just a quick fact. this is going to be a tough debate. minhyuk's family is one of the powerful people who invests and donates to this school. they are the brand; the reason why seoul orbit high is still being regarded as "high class".

mr. park looked at me sternly and started, "let me get straight to the point, jiwoo. how does a week suspension sound? that's already the least adverse of a punishment i could give."

"w-what?!"

"it's pretty clear you did some serious damage on minhyuk here. violence is not tolerated in this school. don't worry i have given him the same punishment as yours."

"i call bullshit!" i furiously got up from my seat. "how is this school being fair? it's so obvious i was just defending myself and...—" i paused, but i didn't want to make the situation more complicated, so i just skipped it. "anyway, you guys couldn't give this asshole a more grave punishment because, what? because they're your shareholders? is this school just all about money now?"

"calm down, miss kim," minhyuk's father tried to stop me.

"no! i won't calm down!" i looked at his family. "and i will never calm down, not when i go home thinking that i'm receiving the same consequences as his."

i huffed and spoke with every angry fiber of my being.

"i will never calm down until this school serves justice just for fucking once!"

but then i looked at sooyoung who had sorrowful eyes. all this time, she have had been in pain. that day. that day when she cried. it must have begun then.