Between Truths ║Dahkook║K.DH J.JK

rumours and stones

CHAPTER XXII

THE whispers were grating. They echoed louder in the enclosed space of the theatre. Unfriendly and cold. Like a seeping venom on her skin. Her eyes twitched with the smile she held and would not let slip. Not in front of such attention. Critical and unrelenting.

'That's her.'

The words were for her. Different days; different sets of faces. They had stopped trying to pretend they were not here for her.

'...she's not even that pretty.'

'She's not pretty at all.'

'...still, he falls for her...' a third voice chimed in.

'You believe that?'

'He waited after class for her...carried her bag...he never did that for Moon Gayoung...what else could it mean?"

They were wrong. She was nothing to him.

"They're still here? It's been days," Kang Mina, her club junior who had just arrived, said. Uncomfortable. Miffed. But she was mild in her expressed words.

'I heard she dumped her boyfriend because she thought she had a chance with him...'

'...she's not wrong. He's giving her attention.'

'Because he's kind...she's the one always making him do things together.'

"...desperate slut...how embarrassing...

"...expected someone better...I'm disappointed."

"Eunwoo..." Sohye's voice turned hushed, "How far will he see this go before he says anything? Is he not at least a friend?"

Dahyun had been wrong about him too. She had thought more of him, but he was only a stone in her palm.

"He isn't."

"Should I call Myoui Mina to come?" Sohye looked on worriedly at the new crowd. The busy club president had dropped in twice that week to do some quick, quiet control herself. She was someone who had never spoken unless spoken too; someone who had only come by twice in the span of four months. The pity and worry made her feel things those mean words and stares could not.

"Don't bother her." Then she turned to ask, "Is Yein coming?"

"She didn't say," Kang Mina, the junior in charge of rehearsals, replied.

This—Yein not turning up as she should—was what had her on edge, restless and irritable.

"I heard that she's going through something personal." Sohye shared.

"It's been more than a week, she should not leave the rest of us hanging," Mina's gaze fleeted to her. Not quite blaming, but it was accusing nonetheless. Yein didn't turn up because of her. She was smart not to—unlike the rest of them here. She stayed clear when the heated rumours had sparked, and they burned, wild, running them down.

"I'm leaving. There's nothing for them to see if I'm not here." There was no reason to be here anyways. Yein was not coming.

The door burst open right as she was about to pack up.

"Get them out. Now!" Sinbi snarled in the middle of it.

Dahyun was on her seat, unmoving, her breaths weighted while her juniors scrambled to do just that, glad for the instruction. They worked like they were many, but she could count them with a hand, and in no time, they were already ushering out the last of the audience.