Her Voice / han sanghyuk (#14)

Episode 44

Jooeun

"Miss JooEun, we have reached your school." The chauffeur informed me and I looked out of the window, I kind of wished that I didn't live so near the school and didn't have a personal chauffeur to drive me here and there. I always had a chauffeur that my father had gotten for me ever since I was a child and even though I was homeschooled, my mode of travelling whenever I move from one place to the other is the car and I kind of liked it but hated it at the same time.

I never had the idea of where I was going to, nobody around me would tell me and I had to rely on my guessing and looking at the window all the time but I never once knew the destination that I am going to and they would refuse to tell me. I guess that it is their way of keeping me innocent and preventing me to know everything about the world that I am living in and they want me to stay in the world that they have created for me for the rest of my life.

And I have no way of escaping because they refused me to and they will never allow me to have a choice to do anything that I want. Except for the one time that I pleaded that I want to study in a high school and not to be homeschooled anymore, I was surprised that they went along with it and allowed me to go to school with the normal ones and they never said a word about it.

And even after they found out that I was bullied in school, they did nothing and still continued to allow me to attend school with Sanghyuk and HakYeon and Yang DongMi who later appeared in my life as my next best friend. Things were going smoothly and I thought that they finally allowed me to be independent and they wouldn't interfere with my choices and my friends, my mother even allowed Sanghyuk to go to school with me and bring me back after school and for me to visit his place.

But it didn't seem that she trusted me enough that I could be an independent adult and do things on my own without anyone controlling me, I hated her for grounding me for coming home in bloodstained clothes and then sending me off to my father's mansion to live with him and his family. She found out about everything and she was furious, she didn't even allow me to explain and she called my father to inform him that I will be staying with him and his family until I graduate.

I stepped into school grounds and HakYeon Sunbaenim was already there, waiting for me as he is being instructed to do so. My mother told him to keep an eye on me at all times and to never allow me to be alone, DongMi is also involved in this whole thing and they had no choice because of my father's influence and I bet that they have been bribed with huge amounts of money to hire them to keep an eye on me.

"Good morning, Jooeun." I thought that HakYeon sunbaenim would be unwilling to do this because he is a righteous man and he will not allow himself to stoop so low to this level and take orders from someone like my father but he did, he made me so disappointed in him and Yang DongMi. I can't believe that it was so easy to buy them over and get them to do things for my father, I really wonder what did he exactly do to make them obey him so well?

I didn't say anything to him and I made my way into class and Yang DongMi was there, smiling brightly at me but I could tell that it was a fake smile. I sat down and kept my eyes to the front, I literally have no motivation to study in school if Han Sanghyuk is not around anymore, he is the one reason why I look forward to going to school every single day so that I get to see him and I would be so happy inside.

But he is not here, his injuries are so bad that he still needed to stay in the hospital and it would be a while before he recovers and is able to go back to school again. I really want to visit him after school every single day but the people around me disallows me to do that, I am supposed to go back home straight after school and I will not be allowed to go anywhere else.

It is a very miserable life that I am leading right now but I have no choice, it is not like I can just escape from everyone just like that, it is not that easy and it is proven by those countless attempts that the main leads in dramas and movies make to escape but they can't because reality is harsh and you can't escape reality. And with HakYeon sunbaenim and Yang DongMi being around me all the time, I can't escape anywhere because they will get me as soon as I get out of their sight, I can't even go to the toilet because Yang DongMi would be in there with me and HakYeon sunbaenim would be waiting outside to make sure that I have no chance of escaping anywhere.

I felt a tap on the shoulder and Yang DongMi was clearing her throat, her hands were doing something that I have never expected under the table. I raised my hand up to ask the teacher to allow me to go to the toilet and she allowed me to, and I made my way there without looking back for a moment. I entered the toilets and looked around for anyone, there were no one around and I pretended to wash my hands when Yang DongMi appeared behind the doors and she made her way inside.

'Why do you ask me to meet you in the toilets for?' I conversed with her using hand signals.

'I know that it would sound so crazy right now but I want you to run away and go to the hospital to go visit Sanghyuk.' She also used hand signs because she isn't able to speak, my father had installed recording devices on both HakYeon sunbaenim and Yang DongMi in case they betray my father. The only way that we can communicate with each other without my father finding out about it is sign language and Yang DongMi is the only one who knows it and HakYeon sunbaenim doesn't, she learned sign language as a hobby and she is able to use it professionally for once.

'Are you serious? Aren't you afraid that my father would do anything to you?' I asked her for confirmation.

'Of course, I am afraid but what is more important is that you have to let Sanghyuk that you are fine and you don't let him worry too much about you. As your friend, I want you to be happy and I don't care if I will get punished by your father to allow you to escape. Go and tell Sanghyuk that you are doing fine and you will be there for him, and tell him your true feelings as well.' She smiled with tears in her eyes. 'I will think of one reason later but make sure to thank me if you and Sanghyuk got together.'

I hugged her tightly and we pinky promised with each other. 'Thank you, you are really a good friend to me and I can never thank you enough.' I ran out of the toilets right away to the one destination that I have been wanting to go for the longest time, the hospital where Han Sanghyuk is waiting for me.