Family

When In-ho and Gi-hun got a call from school saying their daughter had punched a classmate, they didn’t believe it.

When they went to pick her up, earlier than usual, they finally understood what had happened.

—

“Hey, new kid!”

Sae-byeok turned around and saw one of her classmates talking to her. She had only been in her new school for two weeks, but it was long enough for her to realize which kind of person this guy was.

He was popular, loud and annoying. He reminded her of Deok-su, one of the guys in the orphanage, in some way.

“Wow, you’re taller than me. Girls aren’t supposed to be this tall,” her classmate said.

She sighed. She really wasn’t in the mood for this.

Ji-yeong hadn’t come to school that day, and she had spent it completely alone. She had no interest in talking to other people, especially not people like this boy.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“I just want to talk,” he said. “I’ve seen you talking to Ji-yeong, so I assume you can also have a chat with me.”

Sae-byeok frowned. So, was this about her friend?

“You do not want to be friends with Ji-yeong, believe me,” he continued. “She has a lot of secrets. She's weird. There are plenty of other girls who will be happy to welcome you to this school.”

Sae-byeok stared at him, very confused. Ji-yeong had told her she didn’t really have new friends, but she had never thought about the idea of her classmates disliking her. Why would anyone?

“What are you talking about?” Sae-byeok said. “I’ll be friends with whoever I want.”

Her classmate laughed. “No one can stop you. But just know, she’s a liar.”

As soon as he saw how Sae-byeok stared at him confused, he smiled, and continued:

“She lied about her parents hurting her,” he said. “She talked to a teacher about it, our favourite teacher. She told her sick lies about what her parents did to her. The worst part is that the teacher, Ms. No-eul, believed her, and did everything she could to get justice. Ms. Noeul got fired after Ji-yeong’s parents made sure everyone knew Ji-yeong was lying.”

As he explained, Sae-byeok felt like the world was about to end. There was no way it wasn’t. What was this guy even saying? Ji-yeong would never. She knew Ji-yeong, her sweet, loving Ji-yeong. She would never do that, she would never lie.

No.

This guy was the one lying.

“Now, will you stay away from that freak?” he said.

That’s it. Sae-byeok wasn’t going to allow anyone to insult her best friend like that. Not when Ji-yeong had defended her every time someone had been bothering her in the orphanage. She punched him, as strong as she could.

—

When In-ho and Gi-hun arrived, Sae-byeok could only look at the ground, too embarrassed to look at them.

The three of them were with the headmaster, in his office.

Gi-hun seemed mad, and In-ho was very calm. Sae-byeok still hadn’t said a word.

“We are very sorry. She’s usually a very calm kid. I don’t understand why she acted that way,” Gi-hun said.

He looked disappointed, and Sae-byeok felt terrible. That was the last thing she wanted to happen. She could deal with disappointment from other people, she was used to it when she lived in the orphanage; she remembered the social worker’s expressions whenever she disappeared during one of the visitors came to adopt someone. But she couldn’t deal with Gi-hun’s disappointment. Not after everything he had done for her.

“We don’t tolerate aggressive behavior from any student,” the headmaster said. “We’d suggest having a serious talk with her.”

“I’d like to know what caused Sae-byeok to act like that,” In-ho said, surprising all of them, but his eyes were fixed on Sae-byeok. “As my husband said, she’s a very calm kid. She’s patient and doesn’t lose control over simple stuff. Something must have bothered her.”

Sae-byeok finally looked up. Was In-ho defending her?

“Sae-byeok’s new to this school, so we’ll let it slide,” the headmaster continued, ignoring In-ho’s comment. “But next time we see her bullying another student, she’ll be suspended.”

“Bullying?” Sae-byeok said, not being able to control herself. “My classmate was asking me to stop being friends with Ji-yeong. My friend is the one getting bullied, ever since she was accused of doing something she obviously didn’t do,” she got up. “I don’t know what’s going on with Ji-yeong’s parents, but if you want to stop bullying, you could start with making my classmates respect her.”

She opened the door, and left. In-ho, without doubting, followed her, while Gi-hun continued apologizing to the headmaster.

“Sae-byeok!” In-ho yelled, trying to catch her up.

Sae-byeok turned around and stopped walking.

“Oh, Sae-byeok… you really do love her, don’t you?” he said, with a soft grin.

She didn’t reply, just looked at the ground again, so he continued.

“I need you to tell me everything you know about Ji-yeong’s family, and I’ll tell you the rest,” In-ho said. Sae-byeok looked at him with a doubtful expression. “I promise.”

She sighed, and sat down on the closest bench she found. She hadn’t realized how exhausted she was until now. It had been a long day.

In-ho sat down, too, and Sae-byeok started explaining everything she knew. In-ho just nodded.

“I’m so worried. I don’t understand what’s going on with her,” Sae-byeok said.

“She wasn’t lying,” In-ho said. “Ji-yeong told your classmates’ old teacher she was being mistreated, and it was true.”

Sae-byeok didn’t blink, as she felt how tears were threatening to fall.

“Her dad assaulted her. My brother and I suspect she’s still being abused, maybe even more, after she didn’t stay quiet.”

“Why didn’t Jun-ho arrest him?” Sae-byeok said, desperate. “How are they allowing this to continue?”

“There isn’t any proof, Sae-byeok. And Ji-yeong’s family’s rich, they paid a lot of money for any evidence to be proved false.”

Sae-byeok started crying as In-ho continued telling her the entire story.

In-ho approached her, and hugged her tightly. “It’s ok, Sae-byeok. I promise we’ll find a way for her to get justice.”