The Painful Truth

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*****

You and the two handsome men make your way down the busy street, not even attempting to talk for you knew your voices wouldn't be heard over the hustle and bustle of the crowded sidewalks of Seoul. You follow behind them as they lead you down a wide side street.

Soon enough, you catch sight of some tables and chairs set out on the pavement up ahead. A few couples are seated here and there, and a few people sipping coffee alone after finishing up their shifts. As you get closer, your nose is filled with the pungent aroma of freshly ground coffee beans. The three of you step into the little café and sit down at a small table by the window. Jin orders an Americano, and Jimin decides on a caramel macchiato. You opt for your usual café latte. You chat amiably for a while, and it's a peaceful atmosphere, the three of you talking and laughing about anything and everything.

A comfortable silence has settled among you as you sip quietly at your coffee. Rush hour has passed by, and the number of customers is gradually dwindling. You stare at the muggy sky outside the window, the sun escaping slowly under the horizon. You watch as the last little glimmer of light floods through the clouds, staining the sky with reds and golds. You zone out a little as you stare down the street, the tranquillity of the atmosphere lulling you into a daydream.

Suddenly, the sound of Jimin abruptly clearing his throat rips you away from your thoughts.

"So, Y/N, not to ruin the mood or anything, but are you still going to tell us how you know the new employee? What was her name again, Lee something,"

Despite Jimin's previous statement, your mood instantly dampens as the image of the girl standing in Mr. Jeon's office just hours ago flashes into your mind. You grit your teeth.

"Lee Hyuna" you frown. Both men looked at you expectantly, and Jin motions with his hand for you to continue. You take a deep breath as you begin the story.

"Hyuna and I first met on the very first day of year six. We were complete opposites; she was loud and bossy and I was quiet and subdued. But somehow, we became very firm friends. For years we were inseparable, and it seemed to us and everyone around us that we would stay friends right up until after graduation. But high school friendships rarely ever stay the same. In year nine, something started to change," You look up at the boys. They nod, listening intently.

"She began to cancel on our plans. She started to sit with other people at lunch break, people we had always disliked. I guess you could call them the "popular girls" or the "queenkas" of the school. She started to drift further and further away from me. And I don't know when or why exactly, but as time went by, she and the other girls began to torment me," You swallow, your throat dry as you remember the torture they put you through.

"At first it started off as light teasing, maybe they would pull my hair or stand in the way of my locker and make me late to class. But as the weeks went by, the bullying started to get worse," you feel tears forming in your eyes at the last sentence. Jimin places his hand over yours, squeezing it tightly.

"Y/N, you don't have to continue if you aren't comfortable with talking about it,"

You shake your head. You have to be strong, this is in the past now. Besides, now you've started you need to finish.

"They started to get more confident, and I had no one to protect me. I had other friends, but all of them were too scared of Hyuna and her gang to stick up for me. They left me to fight my own battles. I told myself I could withstand it, told myself I wasn't weak. But Hyuna and her friends... they did bad things, unspeakable things. And it only grew worse. All the while I hid my struggles with bullying from my older brother because I didn't want him to worry. But one day I came home from the grocery store, and my brother told me he had a new girlfriend and that he wanted me to meet her. Of course, I thought nothing of it, but I should have known that bad luck would always be on my side. Like some kind of sick cosmic joke, the girl he was dating turned out to be the one and only Lee Hyuna. I was scared. I wanted to tell him. But seeing my brother so totally in love with her, seeing him so happy... I didn't say a word. I just couldn't do it to him. He'd been through so much already, how could I take away the one source of joy in his life, even if I knew his happiness would be short lived? So I pretended like I'd never met her, and shook her hand and pretended everything was okay," by this time you can't control the tears anymore, and let them run freely down your cheeks. Jin has his arm around your shoulder and Jimin is still clasping onto your hand.

"I thought maybe there was a chance it would stop, but she still continued to bully me. In fact, if anything it was worse than before. She knew I'd never tell Taehyung, she knew I would do anything to see my brother smile, and she liked having that kind of power over me. By this time I had marks all over my body from her and her posse; bruises, cuts, scars. I would always wear long sleeved tops and long pants to cover them up so my brother wouldn't see. But as they got worse and more frequent, the wounds and injuries became very hard to disguise. One day Taehyung walked into my room with the innocent intention of asking me what I wanted for dinner," Your voice starts to break down at the memory "but he happened to walk in while I was dressing a particularly bad wound. I tried to cover it up quickly with my shirt but it was too late. He simply tore it away, uncovering more gashes, more bruises and scars. As you can imagine, he was confused and angry. He demanded answers to who had done it to me. I should have told him then, but I wasn't in my right state of mind, too driven on the fantasy that everything would be okay if he didn't know. Seeing as I refused to tell him, he went around the school asking everyone if they knew anything about it. On the day that someone eventually told him; that the person who had been physically and mentally abusing his little sister was none other than his own girlfriend..." You fail to choke back a sob and lean into Jin's shoulder, crying loudly for a moment while he rubs your back soothingly. At this point, you don't even care if people are staring at you. Wiping your eyes quickly you continue, determined to finish the story.

"Let's just say a lot of really bad shit went down. At first he didn't believe it, but the moment he came to accept that it was true he locked himself in his room for days. He didn't come out, he didn't eat, and he didn't talk to anyone. I don't know what thoughts that were going through his head during those days, but I do know that it truly destroyed him. He fell into a depressed state and for a while things were pretty bad, but he's better now. Even so, things have never been the same since. He doesn't trust anyone anymore. He doesn't trust me, though in a way it brought us closer together. He has been fiercely overprotective ever since, but the way he treats girls has changed dramatically. He doesn't care about their feelings anymore. He hasn't kept a girlfriend for more than a week ever since, he treats them like they're special and then ditches them soon after. It's almost like he's trying to make up for all the pain he felt, all the trust he lost, with other people's pain. And I would give anything to see him smile like that again, happy and in love, see him settle down and stop using and discarding girls like tissues. But all thanks to me, it will never happen. I've ruined everything," You finally let all your emotions out, hot tears streaming down your face and neck as you let out heart-wrenching sobs and hug both of them tightly.

Jimin has moved around to the chair on your immediate right and you are now sandwiched between the two men, clinging to them both like a helpless Koala. They soothe you and hold you tightly until you calm down, rocking you like a baby, telling you that it wasn't your fault. You want to believe them so badly. But deep down you still feel responsible, like you're the reason your brother can never be in love again. But even though you feel this way, you know you're only partly responsible. Lee Hyuna, one day you're going to pay for what you did.

*****

A/N

So the truth is revealed...

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