Her Voice / han sanghyuk (#14)

Episode 8

JooEun

I sat down on the swings in the backyard with HakYeon sunbaenim staring back at me like he is going to beat me up any moment, Han SangHyuk is not allowed to be here, he is in the living room with my mother, I didn't allow him to.

Why is he here? "Why did you not go to school?" He asked, sitting down next to me. I moved my body a little away from him. "Give me your hand." I faced another direction, I seriously don't want to speak to anyone right now.

"Choi JooEun... Give me your hand, I need to converse with you." I sighed and placed my hand on his which he scribbled something.

'Is it because of Han SangHyuk? That's why you didn't want to go to school?' I took his hand, my finger tracing the words on his palm. 'Yes...'

"Don't worry, he has already received punishment from the school and he isn't allowed to do such a thing anymore."

'Are you that sure?'

"Of course, we are here to persuade you to go back to school."

'I don't want to go back to school with that Han SangHyuk still lingering around. Can he be expelled?' I feel that I will die one day because of him. And especially with that friend of his.

"Only if he had done something unforgiving. So far, he hasn't. He is just someone who is mischievous and doesn't have the motivation to study." I looked through the window where Han SangHyuk is at, sitting very uncomfortably on the couch with my mother offering him drinks and fruits every few seconds. We rarely have guests around so she is just excited to have people over.

"I surely don't advise you to actually make up with him but you have to go back to school. No matter what since you have already applied for a whole day, it would be such a waste not going to school when you have paid for the school fees." Right, since I have begged so hard to just study at a normal high school for one whole year, I would have to make this a fun year for me. It would be a great experience just like what I wanted for so long.

"So what do you say?"

'Just like what you have said, I will go to school.' A smile formed on my face.

"Really?" I nodded. As long as I don't see Han SangHyuk around in school, I will go to school.

"Since you have agreed, my mission is accomplished. I will have to go back home for dinner."

'Do you want to have dinner with us? I'm sure that my mother has cooked a lot knowing that you guys have come over.'

"Emm..."

'You will regret if you don't, my mother and I would be so sad.' I made a crying face and that made him chuckle.

"Really? Then I'll stay, I'm not that sure about Han SangHyuk though." I looked at my mother dragging Han SangHyuk into the kitchen and handing him an apron.

He's confirmed staying for dinner... Anyone who is being dragged to the kitchen never gets to leave unless she tells them to leave, I sighed.

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SangHyuk

I stared at the middle-aged woman cutting some vegetables up and placing them in a plastic bowl, those bowls used for cooking shows. "Pass me that bowl of a mushroom, young man."

"Eo..." I grabbed that bowl of mushrooms in front of me and gave it to her.

"Thanks... That is not mushrooms though, that is seaweed." She said and I blushed in embarrassment. "It is the one next to it, Jooeun will never eat that."

"Oh, sorry." I gave her the right bowl, I think so. My knowledge of vegetables is really something, I embarrassed myself in front of someone's mother entirely.

"It's okay, you are very close to getting the right one." She laughed a little. I watched her add all the vegetables and meat that she had chopped up into the pot where the broth has been prepared quite some time ago. "How is JooEun at school? Is she a good girl?"

"What?" Why did she suddenly ask me about her? Shouldn't it be Cha HakYeon sunbaenim be the one to answer that?

"Aren't you and JooEun friends?" I don't know about Choi JooEun but I certainly know that we aren't at that stage yet.

"Right." I tried to think of all the good words to compliment her daughter. "JooEun is a good student and a good friend to everyone." It seems kind of weird to call her by her name but it is a good feeling. JooEun is a good name. Why am I even saying this?

"Really? Then why did she come home crying? Did you know what happened that day?" She cried? Of course, she did. What Im HaJoon did was too harsh.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, I was in school when that happened. HakYeon sunbaenim told me later on."

"Right, that student was carrying her on and left soon after. He kept looking back at our house for a while, he seems to be very worried about JooEun. Are they dating?" They are dating? That can't be possible, Cha HakYeon sunbaenim just broke up with the all-time favourite dancer Seo Joohyun so I think that he is still heartbroken about it.

"They are just very good friends."

"Really? Then it's good, I don't want my JooEun to date someone so quick when it is the first time that she went to school." She gave a sad smile and went back to cooking. "JooEun is such a great girl and I'm afraid that she might get bullied because of her hearing disability. Kids these days are really scary, they bully whoever that is different from them regardless of their gender. It's horrible right?"

I nodded while I'm hurting deep inside, that ahjumma is talking about me. I am the one that bullied Choi JooEun, I was the one that made her not want to come to school. It is her first time not getting homeschooled and I ruined it in two days. How horrible am I even?

I was like this too in my first year in middle school, I was sick for a long time and finally returned back to school to find out that everything changed, I was in clutches when I returned back to school after a big car accident that I have gone through.

Everyone was teasing me about my clutches and were saying that I faked being injured so that I can skip out on physical education lessons, I wished that I wasn't but I was really injured. Everyone changes when they were going through puberty, in elementary school, bullying is less and it is often easy to resolve with the help of teachers and parents. But in middle school, they became monsters, always bullying people that are a bit different from them.

So I was bullied for it least 4 months, the kids always misplacing my clutches and playing with it, even breaking it apart so that I can't go about anywhere without clutches. My self-esteem went down so much that I often walked with my head low, I have to get strong or they will keep bullying me.

That immediately ended after I went against them, the first time that I did to rebel was to beat a student up until he's in the hospital. I wished that I didn't, I really regretted it but without that, I will still get bullied up till today. Thanks to that student, my self-confidence went up a lot and thus many people feared me.

But as a result, I didn't have many friends. "JooEun's friend, are you crying?" Choi JooEun's mother asked and I wiped the tear from my cheek.

"I didn't." I cleared my throat. "I have to go," I said to her and ran out of the kitchen. I spotted Choi JooEun just outside looking rather confused, I ignored her and got out of the house. Why do I have to cry at this moment?