Mean to Me | Im Youngmin

Mean - 2

"Thank you for your generosity, everyone! The amount we collected is more than enough to support the rehabilitation of the local dog shelter," Mrs. Kim happily announces.

Ji-hye doesn't know what's happening exactly because she just arrived for homeroom fifteen minutes late, to be exact.

Everyone in class turns to her direction as she slowly walks to her seat. She stayed up late last night that's why she has a serious headache right now. Although she knows that everyone's attention is on her right now, she doesn't bother and plops to her seat.

"Ms. Lee, it's nice of you to join us," Mrs. Kim, their homeroom adviser gives her a small smile. She's one of the very few people Ji-hye likes but she can't bring herself to excuse herself for being late or even just acknowledge the teacher because she seriously feels like her head is about to explode. Instead, she places her arms atop her desk and buries her face on them.

The older woman seems to understand Ji-hye's situation because she suddenly calls for Youngmin, their class president (of course), to say a few words instead.

Although she can't see, she feels Youngmin leave his seat, which is in front of hers, to go in front for his announcement.

"First of all, I'm really proud of almost all of you. You've all worked hard!" He purposely dragged the "almost" as if to imply someting. He pauses for a while before he continues. "And for some others, you can try to be human too, you know," he finishes sharply.

Everyone falls silent. All people in the class, even Mrs. Kim, knows that by others, he meant Ji-hye.

Even Ji-hye herself knows Youngmin was referring to her.

And she swears that at that moment, not only her head feels heavy but somehow, her heart, does too.

The day passed by quickly. Before Ji-hye knows it, it's time to go home. "At least I can catch on some sleep now," she thinks to herself as she's about to exit the school premises.

Suddenly, her phone buzzes and she immediately gets it from her pocket to check the new message.

"Ji-hye, you're coming over today too, right?" it read.

She face-palms herself thinking that she almost forgot. "Okay, Ji-hye. It's okay! You'll stay only for a few hours there and you'll go home early and sleep all you want afterwards," she tells herself.

With this in mind, she takes off to a route that is opposite her way home.

A few minutes and a lot of shortcuts later, she reaches her destination. She props open the gate, only to be welcomed by Paca, her favorite Jindo dog.

"Hi, there!" She greets the dog as if it were a person and Paca wags his tail happily at her. She kneels to the ground to pat Paca's head, when a woman calls her name.

"Ji-hye!"

"Auntie Nam, good afternoon!" She stands and greets the older woman.

"I thought you weren't coming because you didn't reply to my message, so I asked for extra hands to help us today."

She apologizes, explaining that she forgot to reply in a rush to arrive at the shelter.

"What do you mean by extra hands, auntie? Is someone else joining us today?" She asks as they walk towards the Nams' house, which also serves as a home to twenty or so dogs. Their backyard is basically an animal shelter. Paca is following them closely behind.

"Actually, he just dropped by today, but since I thought you weren't coming and we could really use the help, I asked if he could stay and the boy didn't even hesitate," Auntie Nam cheerfully explains.

Since she's busy admiring all the progress they've made from last night -- from the newly-built wooden dog houses, which all bear their names, to the repainted walls, which give off a more dog-environment feel -- Ji-hye doesn't hear the remainder of what the aunt says.

Auntie Nam continues to tell stories, but she does not pay attention. Still in awe of how much the shelter has improved, she does not even notice another person approaching them.

"Ah, there you are!" Auntie Nam exclaims. "She is the volunteer I've been telling you about. Her donations and her volunteer work here every week have been a big blessing to us," Auntie Nam refers to Ji-hye.

Ji-hye was on her way to play with the dogs when Auntie Nam spoke again. "I see you're from the same high school. Do you perhaps know our Ji-hye, Youngmin?"

Hearing this name, Ji-hye stops dead on her tracks.

Youngmin? As in the Im Youngmin?

No way, no. That's just impossible.

Until she remembers what happened this morning. Mrs. Kim thanking the class for their generosity. Donations to the local dog shelter. Youngmin speaking in front of class.

But then she hears that voice and even without turning her back, she just knows it's him.

"No, I'm afraid. We don't know each other."

Besides, no other Youngmin could ever be this cold to her as he is.

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I feIt the need to update twice today. :)

Fun Fact: The quote Youngmin said to the class in this chapter was based on his high school yearbook quote which kind of says the same thing. Hahaha! I wanted to show you the photo but I couldn't find the source, sorry. :c Also, I think he was vice president of the student union or something? Haha. Our alpaca is definitely leader-material!

Please tell me what you think! Comments are really highly appreciated. :) Thank you so much for reading this!

I need to sleep now because it's almost sunrise. Hahaha, byeeee