ᴀʙᴅɪᴛᴏʀʏ || baek kyung

If Kyung Had a Theme Song, It Would Be "Hello Darkness, My Old Friend"

If Kyung Had a Theme Song, It Would Be "Hello Darkness, My Old Friend"

Kyung had always assumed that Jia knew who she truly was, that she had grown to accept and move on from her past, unlike him. However, a few weeks into staying with her, he had realized that it was something she would take a long, long time to come to terms with.

Most of her insecurities stemmed from her role as a 'vicious bully and a psychotic stalker'—her words, not his—because a part of her felt that nobody would actually let her forget about the things she had been forced to do. And she was right. She pretended not to notice the gossip about her and Kyung and Eun Danoh and Haru—about how she had stolen poor Eun Danoh's fiance after years of half-baked attempts or how she had tricked Kyung into sleeping with her out of spite because Eun Danoh and Haru had suddenly become good friends.

Of course, none of it was true and Jia got back at anyone who played a part in spreading the rumours. That didn't, however, stop her from having multiple breakdowns, like that one in the bathtub the day she revealed how she felt that she'd never be good enough for him, especially when he had liked someone like Eun Danoh before.

So when Kyung accidentally stumbled upon Jia and Eun Danoh secretly meeting all over the school and plotting with each other, he didn't think twice before jumping to conclusions. The girls were definitely up to something. A huge part of him wondered if it had something to do with him, considering how the only reason Jia would willingly talk to Eun Danoh was him. There was that conversation he had had with Eun Danoh at the dinner party her father had hosted. She had been pretty adamant about wanting to help him.

As if that wasn't enough, Kyung had seen Jia talking to Joonhyun a couple of times as well. When he asked his brother, the boy had broken into sweats and stammered, "Oh, she was, um, she was just, y'know, asking about how you are and...everything."

You'd think he'd be a good liar. He had, after all, spent weeks hiding the fact that he had been aware all along, back when they were still in the comic.

Then the surprise group study thing happened, with Jia being referred to as Shin Saemi on more than one occasion in front of the housekeeping staff (to be honest, it had deeply disturbed Kyung) when she had told him about what Park Yunhee had demanded from her. 'Nice try,' he had wanted to say, 'but I know that's not the only thing that's bothering you'.

When he had come back from his...highly uncomfortable dinner-date-not-date with Kim Soyi, Kyung had searched around his father's office out of sheer curiosity. The man was known to be a little paranoid about his office and his things so finding the folder containing information about Kyung's inheritance money plus the legalities behind obtaining it plus the relinquishment papers on the center of the oak table had unnerved Kyung.

Had they been there before for him to purposely see? Was it his father who had left it here? It couldn't have. Had someone broken in? There had been no signs of it. Jia wouldn't dare to—

"She would," Kyung mumbled to himself, "If she's pissed off, she'd go to any lengths."

But he couldn't just leave the folder there. In a hurry, he picked it up and shoved it in one of the drawers of the work table.

All of this, including the terrifying bruise on Jia's wrist, added to Kyung's anxiousness. She had absolutely refused to tell him who had hurt her and what frightened him more was that, in the back of his mind, all the arrows pointed at his father.

Kyung was going to ask her the next time he saw her, at school or at work or wherever.

And when he did see her, Jia had looked like the personification of death—pale, sunken eyes, haggard. She had dozed off during the mock test, rushing out when woken up. Kyung had followed her soon after only to be told about Chairman Kang being in the hospital.