THIN WHITE LIES | Jake Sim

025 | telling the truth

↪J A K E
Me and Seojun were thrown inside the principal's office by the teachers. I looked at the principal who was sitting behind his desk, looking very disappointed at us. I kept my head down, not wanting have eye contact with the principal in this situation.

"So.. I heard you two were having a fight in the corridor, is that true?" The principal asked us.

"Yes.." Me and Seojun answered.

"How come?" The principal asked.

It was silence in the room for a few but very longs seconds until I decided to answered the question.

"Seojun said mean things about my friend and I got mad at him" I said.

"And that means you can start a fight with him? Fighting is not a solution to any problem!" The principal response, raising a voice in the end.

"And you Seojun? Why did you say mean things about Jake's friend?" The principal asked Seojun.

"Because.. It wasn't supposed to be mean, I just wanted to tease Jake about something but I guess my comments went overboard.." Seojun answered.

I peeked at Seojun who was standing in the same way as me. With his hands in front of me while he stared down at the floor. Seojun then looked over at me as the two of us made eye contact. Based on his facial expression, it does seem like he's sorry for what he said about Jihye.

But I'm not ready to forgive him this easily.

"I'm going to contact your parents and inform them about this. And I hope I won't see the two of you here together again for the same reason" The principal said.

Me and Seojun nodded and bowed before we left the principal's office. I began speeding up my walk as soon as I could, not wanting to talk with Seojun anymore right now. I just want to be alone right now.

🌥️

My eyes started to scan the canteen, searching for a table to sit on. They naturally lead me to the table I'm usually sitting around, seeing Seojun laughing out loud with his girlfriend. I'm still not ready to forgive him for what he said about Jihye and I'm not feeling the need to talk with him in general either.

My focus then went to another table that was placed two tables away from Seojun. It was Sena sitting there, all alone by herself. I started to walk towards her and since I needed to pass by Seojun's table, he thought I would sit with them like I always do.

I could see a smile forming on Seojun's face as I walked closer to them. He was ready to greet me, but then I passed by him. I looked back seeing his smile fade out and was not having a sad facial expression instead.

"Can I sit here?" I asked Sena when I reached her table.

"Yeah, sure" Sena answered.

She looked very surprised while she answered. It does make sense why though. I mean, I would be surprised as well if Sena suddenly came up to me and asked if she could sit with me.

And the reason why is because we have never been introduced to each other. Even though I have introduced Jihye to my friends, she have never introduced me to Sena which is kinda weird know when I'm thinking about it..

"Are you okay?" Sena suddenly asked.

"What?" I replied confused, not really understanding her question.

"I saw you and another student fight before the first lesson.." Sena said, chuckling while scratching her neck.

"Oh that.. I'm okay. It was fortunate that the teachers stopped us before our bones were broken" I said and chuckled as well.

"But is it true? I mean, the rumors about Jihye, is it true?" Sena suddenly asked.

I slowly dropped the fork in my hand after hearing Sena's question. A conversation between me and Jihye popped up in my head, a conversation we had at her house. It was when Jihye showed me her stealing collection and I asked her if Sena knew about her addiction and the answer was no.

Even though I want Jihye to tell Sena about this herself since it is about her and not about me.. It feels like Jihye will still keep it a secret. Her addiction might be exposed but it feels like Jihye will still twist the story instead of confessing the whole truth.

Jihye might hate me even more for telling Sena about this but Sena deserves to know the full story.

"In my opinion, I would like Jihye to be the one who's telling you this right now but since she's always finding ways to avoid it, I will be telling you.." I said.

I took a deep breath while I collected the story in my head, and then I started to tell her. I told Sena the whole truth, why Jihye started to steal, how the stealing affected her, how and when we met at the support group and the reason why she have been skipping school two days in a row.

Sena was listening carefully to my words, taking in every word I said. When I finished the story, Sena continued to stare at me, probably processing all of the things I just said. She ran her fingers through her hair as she inhaled.

"I feel so dumb now.. I wish I could have been there for her" Sena said.

I nodded, relating to her but in another way. I'm also feeling dumb, regretting what I have done to Jihye. But at least I got a glimpse of what we could have been.

"Thank you Jake. Thank you for being there for Jihye when I couldn't" Sena said and smiled in the end.

"I'm not sure if thank you is the right word to use right now when I am the reason why Jihye has been skipping two school days in a row" I replied.

"But that doesn't mean you have done anything wrong. All you did was tell Jihye the truth which you did for her, not for yourself or anybody else. I know you weren't the one who created the rumors either, or else you wouldn't have started that fight earlier today" Sena responded.

"Do you think Jihye is going to forgive me?" I asked.

"She will, trust me. It might take time but she will eventually. If Jihye won't then it's going to be her mistake and fault to be honest" Sena answered.

I smiled at Sena who smiled back at me. Sena is Jihye's best friend after all, someone she has known for a long time which means Sena knows Jihye on another level than I do. Maybe me and Jihye were meant to be, but not meant to last.

Even though I can see Jihye in my future, our destiny might lead us to something completely different. But no matter what the future is going to look like, with or without Jihye, I'm going to catch that jerk who created the rumors about her. What's important right now is gaining trust from Jihye again.

She is my favorite person even if I might not be her favorite person.