12 REASONS WHY | LOONA

𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙞 𝙮𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙢

"Those rumors you started were the beggining," the redhead said "And then, everything else came and wrecked me. Destroyed me."

Running for the school's body president was a huge thing and Yerim, a part of the popular group, was very serious about it. She had to get those votes so her rich and pretty friends wouldn't leave her, push her back to her old friend group - which she had left behind because they weren't popular enough - of childhood friends.

"Did you hear?" the obnoxious squeal of Sakura rung in Yerim's ears "The boys are saying they'll vote for Jiwoo! Kim Jiwoo! Can you believe it?"

The brunette frowned, biting her lip as she watched the girls around her erupt in laughter. One of them even accidentally dropped her food from the table from laughing so hard, clutching her stomach and gasping for air.

"She's, like, totally pathetic!" Jeein rolled her eyes, nudging the girl's side "You're going to take her down, right Yerim-ah?"

Was she? Yerim had to. Especially when the girls looked at her this intensely, eyes following her every move and ears perking waiting for her to answer.

"Y-Yeah," she stuttered "Yes I will. She doesn't stand a chance!"

The group cheered and the girls smiled, approving of Yerim's response and suggesting ways she would steal the students' votes Jiwoo's sincerity and good will had earned.

"So what do you think you'll do? To win?" Mihna asked as she bit down on her straw, wiggling her eyebrows when the captain of the basketball team glanced at Yerim's way.

"If I were you, I would just sleep with Kangnim," Jiyoung spoke and the rest gasped, shaking their heads and squealing "What? We're not nine years old, you guys. Sex ain't that bad."

Jiwoo laughed in the microphone. It sounded loudly and it echoed inside Yerim's head and she held it, pulling at her hair in attempts of getting it out. She knew what was coming.

"But that wasn't it. Sleeping with Kangnim wouldn't be enough," the redhead said "In order to win, you had to hurt your opponent's image."

Yerim looked at Jiyoung and smirked. Kangmin was a ladies man, could never keep it in his pants for longer than a week. He preferred quantity over quality - in this case, stupidity - and didn't mind hurting the girls he slept with. Their feelings didn't matter to him.

"No, he's full of bullshit," the brunette replied "But don't worry! I have a way better idea."

Yerim hated thinking back to that year. She wished she could stop her past self from acting like a complete douche, hurting one of her best of friends and scarring her for life just for her name being heard, just for the fame.

"I wonder where you found those videos of 'me'," Jiwoo sighed "They looked and they sounded so much like me, there was no doubt from the students at school that I was a whore. Besides, those videos only added fuel to the fire. Everyone suddenly remembered the day Chaewon kissed me, the day Sooyoung showered me with fruit punch."

Her hands were trembling. One week until the elections and more people seemed to be liking Jiwoo and saying that they'll vote her. Yerim couldn't afford to lose and she wouldn't. Those videos on her computer were the bomb that if not defused, Jiwoo's whole life would blow up.

The brunette closed her eyes when she pressed 'share' on the school's community forum. The pornographic videos of 'Jiwoo' were shared for not only all students to see, but the teachers too, who frequently checked the student forum in case of any malicious content being shared.

"I don't even know how you created a fake student account. Did you buy a fake ID for this? Damn, the effort is real," Jiwoo's voice sounded lifeless, monotonous "Well played!"

Yerim buried her head in her pillow, she opened her mouth to scream. Scream the loudest she ever had, the loudest her vocal cords would let her to without ripping, tangling with each other. Yet nothing came out. Only a single tear that ran down her flushed cheek and onto her pillow case.

"You could totally get involved in politics. I'm sure you'd make a great leader, your parents have raised you to be one," Jiwoo said "You never give up. You never feel bad for destroying your opponent's life as long as your win is guaranteed."

That next day at school was what Jiwoo imagined hell to feel like. From the night those fake videos were shared until the day of her graduation - where all the students threw things at her when she got up and take her certification - Jiwoo was constantly harassed, both physically and mentally. And Yerim did nothing to help. She wouldn't even talk to the redhead during school hours.

"Jiyoung told me about what you did the night she confessed her feelings for me," Yerim could tell Jiwoo was smiling behind her microphone as she recorded the file "She was never on board with it and that's why she left your group. At least she could tell her friends were turning her into a whole different person, a very mean one."

Yerim's heart hurt. Knowing that she was wrong wouldn't make anything up nor help her guilt. Jiwoo was dead and Yerim one of the reason she was driven to insanity. Saying sorry and asking for forgiveness from God wouldn't guarantee her a better life or a place to heaven. Yerim didn't care where she'd end up anyway. From the moment she had fallen so low and did something like this, she didn't deserve to live either.

And sadly, she was one of the few girls that had realized she was at fault. That Jiwoo didn't deserve the way people and her friends treated her.

"I guess it doesn't matter now. I hope your parents will stop forcing you to be someone you're not, nothing hurts more," she sighed "That's it. We're done. Thankfully for you I'm signing off. Farewell, Yerim-ah."

-kimwig