home, jaemin

chapter four

the sound of her alarm blaring at three in the morning was not a very pleasant noise. especially on a school night.

her father had wanted to wait a week longer in yi than originally planned and hadn't thought to inform jiyoung. so after finding out only hours before bed, she had to inform him she already told her teachers and that there was going to be a test she needed to get studying material for by friday.

so on in the early hours of friday morning, she found herself cramped inside a small car with her father alongside a big truck carrying all of their furniture following closely behind them.

━ early morning before the trip

"father, the semi is all packed up and we're ready to go. are you?" jiyoung asked in a quiet voice, her eyes droopy from tiredness.

she rubbed them carefully under the large black rectangular glasses perched on her face and leaned against the doorway of the front door.

her father backed away from the outlet, taking his phone and charger with him.

"yes, let me just get the last few things from my lab and we can be on our way," he told her hurriedly.

his lab. the one place in the house jiyoung was never allowed inside of.

for all of her life, jiyoung could not remember stepping foot into his lab once. it was forbidden and her father made sure it was ingrained in her head no matter what it took.

with the tiredness still present on her face, she made her way to the car and got into the front seat. a few minutes passed before her father finally walked out of the house for the last time.

he put a suitcase securely in the back seat before opening the passenger door and getting inside, making sure to buckle himself in before they started driving away.

the entire car ride there was silent. no music, no words, just the sound of cars passing by one another on the busy night roads.

by the time they finally made it to the new house, it was already almost time for school, leaving jiyoung with only an hour to get ready.

after taking a shower and getting her clothes on, she sat on the new bed placed in her new room and scrolled through her phone with boredom encasing her.

after parking the languid black car in the school parking lot, jiyoung made her way inside the large building- already intimidated.

just standing outside she could already see other students using elemental bending.

some of the skilled earth benders sat in their cars, using different movements to shape their small balls of metal to pass time before class was to start.

the chilling winds of the month made a great excuse for a group of fire bending friends in the left corner of the parking lot to create some fire and warm themselves up.

the water benders spread around the entire parking lot played with their own water they brought in canisters, probably for when they were bored.

a small smile rose to jiyoung lips as she looked around at a few of the air bender kids going around on their air scooters at a fast pace.

maybe it won't be too bad here she thought to herself.

somehow the smile dropped faster than it appeared on her face as soon as she walked inside the incredibly large school with students filling up the halls in every direction.

in practically every place she looked, each person was wearing a different name brand.

"christ, how much money do you people have just sitting around?" she whispered to herself.

although jiyoung only lived with her father, it was still a bit hard for them when it came to financial terms. sometimes having to cut back on food for a bit or sometimes jiyoung would have to walk to school since she didn't have any gas money.

but this also helped jiyoung when she got a job. she knew when to spend money and when to keep it. how much to spend, how much to keep for the future.

ever since she was young, she remembered going to thrifting stores instead of name brand stores just because that's all the money they could actually afford to spend.

she honestly didn't mind it, finding really nice articles of clothing and figuring out how to style it all together.

an example being the outfit she had on today. on top she had on an oversized gray jumper she found in the men's section paired with black pants that had multiple brownish and nude-colored stripes running down. on top of her pin-straight hair sat a matching nude-colored bucket hat. on her ears, some gold hoops she had "borrowed."

finally making it past a herd of students, she found herself in front of the office. and with a relieved sigh, her fingertips gripped the metal and pulled the door open.

only for her body to immediately crash into another person walking out.

im honestly really not that good at writing so i really hope this was somewhat understandable.

also, i changed her name like a few chapters later so pls comment if you see the name "minju" cause that was her original name but i've decided to change it to jiyoung now :)