Mysterious
The car stopped when they reached the house. She didn't even wait for Mister Park to get off the driver's seat and open the door for her. She did it by herself, then hurried her way upstairs, into her room, and out the window, not forgetting to lock her bedroom door in the process.
And now, she's at the place where she wanted to be, or rather, where she needed to be. A place where her feet would drag her every time she'd feel down, just like any other day since she moved. She took small steps, taking her time in making way towards her favorite spot. It's almost the perfect place to calm her down.
The silence.
The cold wind.
The darkness.
The serene environment.
The night sky.
She checked the spot for sharp rocks before she allowed her butt to touch it. If only she had those bottles of beer from earlier, it would have made it perfect.
Taeyeon scoffed.
"Stupid clumsy girl."
I needed those bottles right now." She looked up and massaged the back of her neck, trying to lessen her frustration. "I swear if I see her again..."
"Not even an apology. Ugh." She suddenly remembered those bullies she encountered at school earlier, which made her eyebrows furrow in disappointment.
"Does every person living in this neighborhood not have proper manners?" The urge to facepalm was strong but just shook her head in the end. Then a groan followed.
"Dammit. I hate this place!"
During her bad times, Taeyeon would always have her friends. Her friends who never fails to make her smile, her friends who can make her feel better, even if she doesn't tell them what's wrong.
Too bad her parents deleted all the contacts in her phone, except theirs, and she was sure that they blocked her friends' numbers too. It was her fault for not memorizing their contact numbers. Her mom probably knew all that she wasn't the type to do so and took advantage of it. Even her social media accounts were sabotaged.
Now all she could do is to live in regrets. Regret in not memorizing their phone numbers, regret in not spending time with them more, regret in not being able to say goodbye properly, regret in not telling them how important they are to her...
The list goes on and on.
Now she has nothing.
No freedom.
No friends.
No happiness.
Taeyeon hugged her knees closer when the wind blew hard. I just want to know how it feels like. One more time. I want to-
"Aw!" The immediate and inevitable reaction of her body was to shut her eyes tight as soon as a small, foreign object entered her eye. She groaned as she gently rubbed her eyes, hoping it will help lessen the pain she was experiencing. Taeyeon slowly opened her right eye and rapidly blinked before using the back of her hand to rub and wipe the wetness surrounding her eyes. When she recovered and retreated her hand though, a crumpled paper making its way towards the right in front of her caught her attention. It slowed down near her left foot, thanks to the sudden lenient wind.
When she felt an incoming strong wind, the sense of familiarity kicked in and she immediately reached out to grab it, before it could roll away a few centimeters more.
Opening it, she tilted the paper a bit to let the proper amount of moonlight allow her to read. It was rather lengthy at first sight, like twice as long as the last one, so she wasted no time and began reading.
Hello.
Having a bad day, huh?
That's okay. We all have 'em.
I understand it's hard to adjust to the new environment you're in.
It's understandable how you don't have friends in your new school...
yet.
But you can change that.
People won't come automatically and ask you to be their friend.
They would only do that once they see something in you which is worthy enough for them to want to want you in their lives.
Just show them who you really are, and you'd attract the right people. Especially if they like what they see.
But it's not all one-sided. You also have to try and let them in once they knock in your doors.
You just have to remember that sometimes, starting from scratch results to a more consistent and beautiful outcome. :)
Hang on. You can do it!
By the way, did I scare you off the last time I sent you a message?
Now that I think about it, it does seem creepy. And for that, I apologize.
If this freaks you out... shall I stop then? If you tell me to, I'll stop.
I'm not a flawless person, but I'm not a bad person.
I just wanted to let you know through this that you're not alone.
So if I stop, at least you'd know that someone's listening, even if I won't send you these messages anymore.
P.S. One thing is sure though... I'm not Bogeyman.
Taeyeon took her time to digest every word written on that paper. It was long but it seemed like every line she read stuck in her mind and heart. Whoever is writing her these messages surely had experienced many things in life to be able to say such things. But everything in that paper made sense. How the heck could it make her feel like the one who sent it knew her so well? Suddenly, the heavy feeling she's been carrying since she climbed up here has been lifted off. Gone. Washed away by the magical words sent by the mysterious writer.
She almost smiled, but luckily caught herself just as her lips were about to move. She took one good look around her once more, making sure to linger at the possible places which could be used as a hideout. She knew that the mysterious person was just around, listening, and probably watching her from afar. Clearing her throat, with the intent to make her voice loud enough for whoever it was lurking around to hear.
"I know you're listening right now."
She paused, and realized that she was waiting for an answer which would probably never come. So she continued...
"so umm... thanks. F-for this." Taeyeon lifted the paper up, then looked around with the thought that the mysterious person might step out of their hiding place to take a peek, and perhaps she could catch a glimpse of them, but saw not even a shadow. "I really appreciate this, you know. Also the other message you sent me the other night."
"And yeah, I... did get a bit creeped out when I read your first message, but it did help me divert my mind from my problems, just like it did mine today. And let me tell you that I didn't think it was possible." She took a deep breath.
"To be honest, I was planning to drink my heart out tonight. I bought several bottles of beer but a girl ran into me and knocked them to the ground and well... tada! I don't have 'em anymore."
"I thought it was the only way to forget my problems, no matter how cliche that sounds." Taeyeon chuckled. "But on second thought, I don't think I would've seen or caught this crumpled paper if I was too drunk to notice it being blown by the wind. So aside from you, I guess I should thank her too, after all." She stopped with what she's doing and held it an arms-length away from her face to study it.
"I'd appreciate it more if you'd stop crumpling the paper." She giggled. "It would also help me read it better." Her eyes trailed down to the bottom of the paper and made her remember the question she's been so curious about.
"Who are you, though? You never place any name on your messages." She sandwiched the paper with her hands and tried to straighten it out. "Could you tell me, perhaps?" She thought carefully before adding. "... on your next letter?" She internally smiled.
"I mean, yeah. Please don't stop. I love reading what you have to say. It does more than you think and it would be nicer to have someone answer back since I know that moon and the stars won't even answer back."
"I'll look forward to it, okay?"
---
Feeling a lot better than the day before, Taeyeon didn't even mind the stares and murmurs the other students were giving her when she arrived in school today. She wasn't even conscious of the fact that their were extra skips in between her steps, albeit barely noticeable.
"Well, well, well... if it isn't miss defender of the oppressed?" She stopped in her steps to see the same tall guy from yesterday, along with his two other friends behind him, her mood suddenly turning one hundred eighty degrees.
Taeyeon raised her eyebrows. "Siwon, right?"
He scoffed.
"Wow... you really are keeping this game up. This 'pretending not to know me' thing." Siwon made quotation marks in the air.
"I ain't playing any game. I just don't really know you." She shrugged, nonchalance strong in her eyes. He stuck his tongue in the side of his mouth, and Taeyeon almost took it as a sign of his pride being hurt, but he suddenly laughed again, and she knew he was determined to salvage his image in front of his 'fangirls'.
"Okay then. Actually it's 'Choi Siwon the great' but yeah, just Siwon for you." He added an extra wink at the end, which caused some of the girls watching nearby to squeal, and some starting to whisper how lucky she was. The effect wasn't the same for Taeyeon, though. She wanted to barf. What an egoistic person. A person who lives off of other people's compliments and praises, doing everything he could just to please others and raise himself up, even if he has to lie and put others down. Just like yesterday.
What happened yesterday at the cafeteria was too much. What she did to that small girl was too much. Just the thought of it made her grimace.
"You're disgusting."
Then there was silence. And that's when Taeyeon realized that she had said what she was thinking out loud. Did she regret saying it out loud? No. But the look on Siwon's face told her that he wasn't in the mood for any more games. 'Playing along' time was officially over and she has already pushed too much buttons.
Turning around for a brief moment, Siwon talked to his two friends.
"Could you get these other students to go inside the building?"
The two guys nodded and proceeded to get the students inside the building, until there were only four of them left outside.
"Great! Now where were we?" He pretended to think. "Oh, right. Let's continue your mini game of not knowing me." He laughed.
"You could've chosen to play a different game, you know. But you just had to go on and play the 'I don't know Siwon game'. Fine then, let me show you who I am." He took a step forward. "And let me show you what I can do." He smirked and started to slowly make her way towards Taeyeon. "No one messes with Siwon the great." His expression then turned to a serious one, as Taeyeon began to walk backwards, not wanting to get any closer to him.
His steps are bigger than hers, so it was no surprise that he'd reach her faster than she could move back from him. He was about to reach out for her when all of a sudden, the tall guy was drenched in green, from a huge amount of liquid which came from above.
Taeyeon's eyes widened for a couple of seconds, with the two other guys mirroring the same expression as hers.
"Who the fuck did this?!" Siwon rubbed the liquid off his eyes. "Yah, you two! Help me!" The two other guys reluctantly did as told, and Taeyeon took this as the perfect opportunity to escape. She successfully did so without any of the three even batting an eye at her, but she decided to run straight towards the second floor instead, her curiosity getting the best of her.
With barely enough time to catch her breath when she reached the second floor, she hurriedly tried to find the direction towards the place where one could do that. Being new to the school and not being familiar with the directions were surely hindrances for her, but she didn't need to search that much anymore when she suddenly spotted the short girl from yesterday, looking down from the second floor.
She jogged her way towards her, with her mind full of questions.
"H-hey." Taeyeon squeaked.
It took a second for the short girl to look back and greet her with wide eyes.
"Oh hey."
"U-umm did you-" She was interrupted when another voice spoke up, belonging to a person who approached.
"Sunny-ah, let's go! We might-"
The tall girl also stopped.
The two of them looked at each other, and Taeyeon didn't need to think that hard to recognize her, and she could tell that the other girl knew her either. Her eyes trailed down to look at what she was holding. A bucket. With the sudden realization, Taeyeon stood in between the tall and short girl, spreading her arms in a defensive mode.
"I'm not allowing you to hurt her nor to make her do immoral things." The tall girl blinked, and Taeyeon responded with another blink. It looked like it would've went on, if not for the hand that was gently placed on her shoulder, which made her look back. The short girl smiled. With that, Taeyeon placed her arms back at her side, suddenly confused.
From her peripheral vision, she saw the tall girl make her way towards them, and she was about to stand in front of the short girl again, when the latter spoke up.
"It's okay." Taeyeon looked at the short girl. "She won't hurt me... or you." She smiled. "She was the one who saved you from earlier." Taeyeon blinked twice, then focused her attention back to the tall girl. That's when she noticed the bucket she was carrying. Snapping her head back to the short girl, Taeyeon stuttered to let a statement out.
"Y-you mean s-she.." The short girl saved her from her agony and slowly nodded, fully understanding what she wanted to ask.
"My name's Lee Sunkyu. Sunny for short " A hand was extended in front of her, and she looked at it as if it was a foreign object. Thankfully, she came back to her senses and shook it.
"T-Taeyeon." It made the shorter girl's smile to widen.
"And I'm Choi Sooyoung." A hand was also extended towards her, but the owner of the hand felt the confusion and hesitance so Sunny chimed in.
"Don't worry, she's not really the mean witch you saw yesterday at the cafeteria. In fact, she came just in time to protect me and you from her brother."
"B-brother?"
"Yes. Choi Siwon 'the great' " The girl named Sooyoung rolled her eyes as she made quotation marks in the air "...is my brother." She reluctantly added.
"But! like I said, don't worry. She's a good Choi." Sunny chimed in. Taeyeon looked at the hand extended to her once more, then shook it. Genuinely.
"I'm Kim Taeyeon." It made the tall girl smile.
"Thank you so much for yesterday. You earned my respect by standing up for my short friend here. No one really does that, especially against Siwon, which reminds me..." Sooyoung looked at Sunny, asking her to continue.
"Oh yeah, are you new student here?"
"Umm... yes. Yes I am."
"See, I told you!" Sooyoung pointed her finger at Sunny, while the latter raised her two hands up, symbolizing surrender.
"Alright, alright."
"So that's why you just talked back to him like that." Sunny slowly nodded, finally understanding.
"Why? What's with him? Who is this Choi Siwon anyway?" Taeyeon raised her eyebrow, then immediately turned to Sooyoung. "besides being your brother."
"No need to panic when talking about your despise for him, by the way. Even though he's my brother, it doesn't mean I'll defend his bad actions."
"Then why did you allow her to be-" Taeyeon immediately stopped, worried she might offend her.
"Oh, you mean why she was so mean to us yesterday?" Sunny spoke up when she saw the hesitation. "It was because Siwon was there. For your information, The Choi's are really powerful and rich, one of the richest in this school. Choi Siwon is the most popular and powerful guy here too, his good looks and talent in sports added to his popularity. He's the bad Choi, always doing what he wants, making people do this and that, doesn't care about his actions, just as long as it will make him appear popular and powerful, he'll do it. he has fangirls all over the school, even fanboys."
"Like those two guy friends who always follow him?" Taeyeon asked.
"Ye-. No. I mean, yes, like those two guys who always follow him, but I don't think he considers them as friends really. " Sunny shrugged.
"What about Sooyoung, then?"
"Well, our Sooyoung here, like I said, is the good Choi who is the president of the student council. She may appear like she's on Siwon's side most of the time, but trust me, it's not the case. She knows how to push Siwon's buttons so she knows how to control situations to make it stop. Like yesterday. She did arrive and say she'll take care of me for him, and even threatened that I'll barely be able to walk if I didn't do what she said, making it look like she's a bad Choi too, but really, she just wanted to save me from him. You see? He walked away, thinking he got me because he thought his good old sister finished his job for him. And by the way! When you pulled me out to run yesterday? That was amazing."
"Oh yeah, about that... where did you go?" Taeyeon blinked.
"Ah yes, I went back to meet up with Sooyoung in private. I told her to take care of photos and videos of the students in the cafeteria yesterday. That's why you need to be careful around Siwon. I admit, I'm honestly a fan of how you roast him but for your safety, I suggest you tone it down a bit, pretend to play along that you're just playing a game of not knowing him 'cause it will be better than telling him you're a new student, or better yet, just stay out of his way. Siwon has this impact which goes like.... 'hurt me and all my fangirls will hurt you for me' power. So you see, no news about it will leak, and you won't be endangered being hunted down by her crazy fangirls." Sunny pretended to have chills. "Sooyoung is also a Choi, so she also has her own number of students admiring and following her, although less crazy. That's because she prefers to keep it down, and not letting it get into her mind. So she thought she had to run as president, to counter her brother's evil ways in the school, to at least help keep the school neutral.
"Also, in my defense, I'm not ashamed of Sunny. I can proudly say she's my friend. It's just that I have to keep it lowkey for her safety." Taeyeon nodded in understanding.
"Thank you Sooyoung. For what you did earlier."
She smiled. "No problem. Anything to keep my brother from going all loco."
"What was that green thing, by the way?"
"Oh, it was just water with green food color." Sooyoung shrugged."I thought orange food coloring was too much of a give-away and might endanger Sunny so I just used green."
"Fits him though. Choi Siwon the great monster" The three of them laughed.
"Taeyeon, you can hang out with us if you'd like. You know, like, during lunch? It will help keep Siwon off your back. Of course Sooyoung won't be there, but at least you won't be alone anymore. We don't usually think about adding someone to our space but I think it would be nice to have someone like you in our 'team'." Taeyeon widened her eyes. Is this real?
"Sure. I'd love to." Nothing could stop her grin to come out.
"Anyway, if he approaches us, there's no need to worry. Sooyoung will step in and stop him before he could even come up with whatever plan he could come up in his little mind." Sunny laughed.
"Yeah, you can count on it. Also, being new and alone in this school is really dangerous especially if you don't know the basic stuff you need to know." Sooyoung widened her eyes. "Now I realize why you also attempted to sit with her the very first day." Sunny's eyes also widened, immediately nodding her head.
"Sit with whom?" She squinted her eyes.
"With the girl you sat with during lunch the first day? Do you not remember her?"
Taeyeon furrowed her brows, then suddenly remembered. Oh. Her.
"Oh, I remember. Why, what about her?"
Sooyoung was just about to open her mouth to speak when the bell indicating the start of the first classes echoed through the corridors.
"Oops! There goes the bell. Hurry along guys! I still have rounds to do before I attend my first class. Nice to meet you Taeyeon!" Sooyoung shouted as she ran.
"Sometimes it's not really hard to tell that she's Siwon's brother. Her craziness still shows." Sunny laughed. "Anyway, let's get out of here. It won't be good for us if Siwon's gang finds us here. See you later, Taeyeon!"
---
Taeyeon was all-smiles as she went home that day. Before she knew it, she found herself already in her haven, squinting her eyes trying to look for any crumpled piece of paper lying around that area. She almost panicked when she didn't find anything after a while, and was about to take a rest or a short break when she noticed a paper taped against the inner edge of the rooftop. She made her way towards it and pulled it off, bringing it close to her face to read.
Hello.
I heard your wish. I didn't crumple it anymore :)
I'm glad I was able to help make you feel much better.
You should thank the girl who knocked those bottles of beer you bought. She's a life saver. xD
It won't be safe to be drunk while climbing up and down the rooftop.
By the way, I noticed that you've been coming up earlier.
You haven't been skipping dinner over the past days, have you?
J.
Taeyeon smiled all throughout while reading the letter, but the smile upgraded and turned into a grin at that one letter at the very end.
"Hey J! Thanks for not crumpling the paper this time. Although I did have a hard time looking if you really did leave a message tonight. It was worth it."
"Guess what? I have friends now!" Taeyeon smiled. "Not just one, but two!"
"You were right." She smiled at the lunch spent with Sunny and the dismissal time bonding, Sooyoung included this time.
"Okay, I think I'll thank the girl who knocked my beers to the ground. If i ever see her again, that is." Taeyeon laughed. She read the last two lines and felt guilty.
"Actually now that you mentioned it, I really have been skipping dinner. I don't think I've ever really eaten dinner since I came here. Not that I plan not to... it just..." Taeyeon doesn't continue, unwilling to say that she might have started getting fond of the mysterious writer that every time she comes home, she would immediately head straight towards the rooftop. Taeyeon thinks she even spends more awake time on the rooftop than in her room. "... I dunno. I guess I'm just really not hungry. Don't worry, though."
She found it weird that the series of mysterious letters she's been getting from a mysterious person were giving her comfort, relief and happiness.
---
From her spot, she peeked, careful than ever.
"Thank you, J!" She watches as her neighbor replies to her message with a huge smile on her face. The smile was so infectious that it was too late for her to realize that the sides of her lips had already twitched up as well. She looked so much better smiling, compared to the first time she saw her. Alone. Lonely. Broken.
You're very welcome.
She wished her neighbor would always wear that smile. And she'd do everything, just to make sure she'll continue to see her smile.