Her Voice / han sanghyuk (#14)

Episode 38

Sanghyuk

Coming back to school after a week of mourning was a great decision that I have made and the people around me respected my decision for it, they didn't even question me about it. Even my older sister who usually has a lot to say to me just simply nodded and continued to work hard to bring home money to support the two of us, she looked so fatigued but she insisted in working all 7 days of the week, trying to secure modelling jobs at every opportunity she gets but I sometimes wished that she would take a day off or something.

She is now the breadwinner of the family and there will not be enough money for the two of us to survive if she doesn't work a lot but she is still a human, after all, she isn't some robot who is tasked to work all day and night just to bring back some money.

I know that she is trying to forget her sorrows by working all day and night so that she doesn't have the time to relax and think about herself, but I really want her to take a day off and spend some time with herself, not constantly thinking about money to feed her younger brother who is still schooling. Maybe I will talk to her when she gets home later at night... She will pass out due to overworking if she continues to do that, it is bad for her health in the long run.

Jooeun tapped me on the shoulder, signalling to me and pointing to the window that it is going to rain soon and we might get drenched in the rain if we don't leave soon. None of us forgot to bring an umbrella even though there is a lot of umbrellas in my house, I don't see the need of bringing an umbrella all the time because it doesn't rain all the time and I can't predict the weather.

Jooeun would always remember to bring an umbrella with her but she forgot today because she was in a rush, and she took a bus today instead of having her chauffeur to take her to school. Her chauffeur is not feeling well today and thus she decided to take public transport, she begged her mother for the permission and she reluctantly agreed, if not she would be late.

"I have to go to the teacher's office though, he wants to brief me about the upcoming examinations next month," I told her. "The rain is not going to stop anytime soon. Are you in a rush to get home?" I asked her and she nodded. 

She told me earlier that she is going to have dinner with her mother at a nearby restaurant and she needs to be there on time, her extended family is going to be there as well and it is going to make her look bad if she is not there on time. She didn't want to be there but with her extended family, she had no choice but to be there so that her mother wouldn't be disappointed in her.

I looked around the class and noticed that there is still a lot of people who haven't left the class because of the rain, and then I spotted Yang DongMi getting ready to leave and she looks into my direction. "DongMi can bring you there if she is free, that will do right?"

And with that, they left the school grounds and I made my way to the teacher's office when I got approached by a familiar face who dragged me out to the rooftop where his people grabbed me by the arms and I had no way of getting out of it. "Look who is here after a whole week? You really look so different now, after being friends with the deaf girl."

"Im Hajoon, what are you trying to do again?" I asked him. "I honestly don't have the desire to beat you up and I would appreciate if you let me go so that I can go to the teacher's office."

He scoffed. "You, being the good kid? Since when are you even a good student? You beat people up all the time and you skip class as well, you don't even care about meeting the teacher in the teacher's office."

"I am a good kid since birth, I just chose not to. And let me go, I have to go home." I told them and he punched me in the stomach.

"You aren't going anywhere until I am done playing with you, and you have to endure all of my punches. You can get out of it by punching me back but you are seriously outnumbered here, you will lose no matter what." And he punched me again. "Why aren't you punching me back? So scared to do anything? Your grandmother died, it is not a big issue to worry about. She is old and everyone dies when they are old and she deserves it."

I wanted to punch him but the thought of Jooeun being disappointed in me prevents me from doing it, I promised her not to land a punch on anyone again and I would stop being the bad student that I was. She won't be pleased if I go back to beating people up to protect myself, she would rather want me to get me out of trouble no matter what happens. And so I did nothing while the bunch land their punches on me, and I never once tried to punch them back.

I just endured their punches until they are completely satisfied with it, that is what they wanted to do. They wanted to see me fall and I allowed them to do that, Jooeun will be even angrier at me if I beat them up. I returned home all soaked to the skin and blood all over my body, I opened the front door and she was there sitting on the couch watching some television until she saw me in that horrible state.

She stood up and ran towards me, and she hugged me tightly before any hesitation that the blood might get on her clothes. She just sobbed as she continued to hug me, I cried as well because it hurts me to see her cry at me for looking horrible in front of her. But this is the only way that I can be the good student that she wants me to be until we graduate from high school, to not fight anyone and focus on my studies.