world outsiders, nct dream

chapter seven

CHAPTER FIVE
ABNORMAL FRIENDS

❝STOP SPENDING TIME AROUND THOSE WEIRD ANIMALS, ALREADY! YOU BARELY HAVE ANY FRIENDS NOW, HOW ARE YOU GONNA GET ANY MORE LIKE THIS.❞

━ HYEJI FOCUS ━

A yawn escaped the dark-haired teenager as she exited her high school. "I'll see you next week!" She waved, speaking in her mother language to one of her only Korean friends in her home of Canada.

Her feet traveled by themselves as she reached into her backpack, pulling out her headphones and connecting them to her phone.

Her fingertips pressed lightly against the phone screen as she found the Spotify app, going straight to her liked songs.

She paid no attention to her surroundings as she continued walked, pressing the green shuffle button to start the music. She smiled hearing the familiar song by KARD playing in her ears.

"One shot and all I see is you. All-day, all night, baby 365. I'm all yours and I will never leave your side." She sang along, entranced.

She continued her journey home, passing by the nearby park she always visited to get out of the house and away from everyone.

She turned to walk through the greenery, taking in the sweet smells of nature and the sound of animals in their natural habitats mixing in with her music.

She felt at ease here, finding the beautiful creatures that took shelter in the wildlife park to be interesting and majestic.

Being here in between the large trees and bushes made her feel most at home as if she was born to run around the dirty earth floor and take in everything.

It had always been like that. Ever since she was a baby who could barely crawl. She loved to be outside, rolling around with the family pets and getting dirt beneath her.

This of course worried some friends of her parents since she hated being restricted in tight clothing and indoors where it felt like she was suffocating.

They'd always tell her parents how it was bad and dangerous to be like that and how she needed rules enforced to stay inside.

At the time it didn't seem like her parents cared for their two senses but as time moved forward and they moved to Canada from South Korea when she was only a few years old, something inside her parents changed.

It was as if they were somehow forced to move to Canada, both her mother and father complaining about moving away from their home but doing so nonetheless.

They'd gotten meaner since they moved. When they still lived in South Korea, she'd been free to go to the park with both parents whenever she asked but once they moved, neither parent ever wanted to take her out.

Instead, they let her wander on her own- but still telling her it was dangerous and she needed to stay inside and if she wanted to put herself in harm's way, so be it, they weren't stopping her.

And they never did. Not once.

This surprised many families around them after Hyeji's first real encounter with one of the park animals.

Usually, the park was flowing with dogs or cats, birds, you know, typical animals you'd see in any everyday park. But sometimes, there would be wild animals that wandered inside the premises. Like bears, cougars, etcetera.

Hyeji's first encounter with one of the irregular visitors was when she was only twelve years old and was visiting the park by herself as usual.

But at this point, it was midday on a weekend and the park was practically vacant. She had used this time to wander around, taking in all that presented itself when she was there.

At the time she had been so distracted by the orange hues in the sunset that she hadn't noticed the abnormal animal that watched her closely, its black fur partially blending in with the background.

She had heard a whistle and looked to see a man with a gun approaching her with slow steps. She was confused at first until she heard a noise come from the animal. She turned slightly, staring into the animal's electrifying green eyes.

She was stood still. But not in shock or fear like most of the world assumes. She couldn't quite put her finger on what that feeling was but she knew it wasn't either of those. Something about the majestic animal had her in a trance, staring at it. And for some reason, the big cat noticed.

It stopped in its track while making eye contact with the short girl before letting out another sound and turning towards the forest once again, dodging the trees as it made its way back to wherever it came from.

She had looked back at the older man with the gun and watched as he swiped at his forehead, presumably getting rid of sweat.

"That was a close one," she remembered him saying. She nodded without speaking, backing away partially as the man approached her.

"Got your parent's number, kid? I'm not sure they'd be too happy knowing you were being watched by one of those nasty beasts."

She had taken offense to his usage of wording while recalling the black cougar but didn't say anything on it, only reluctantly giving him her mother's number.

Ten minutes had passed before her parent's car stopped outside of the park's gates and the two adults came storming inside.

She flinched at the sight but the older man hadn't taken notice, only saying a few words to her parents before leaving them alone.

"What were thinking not paying attention out here?" Her mother had spat at her, smacking the back of her head harshly.

She winced at the stinging sensation in the back of her head but didn't say anything else, knowing it'd probably only dig a deeper hole.

"Do you know how embarrassing it is having a stranger call to tell you that your child was almost attacked in a park? What do you think will happen if he tells the newspaper about this and suddenly people start bothering us, huh? Stop spending time around those weird animals, already! You barely have any friends now, how are you gonna get any more like this?" Her father ushered out, sending another hit to her shoulder.

She didn't move from her spot until they were done speaking, following after them to the car with her head hung low and hair draped over.