her fingers touched gently again at her puffy under-eyes as she walked down the hall, keeping her head down to avoid any unwanted glances. she was sure no one was going to worry too much about her ― for the most part, people were leaving her alone. no one really knew her situation, after all she wasn’t screaming from the rooftops that her mother was dying in the hospital, and that she felt completely powerless ― but that didn’t mean she wanted people to start to ask questions. it was inevitable, after all. and, as much as haseul wanted to tell someone about what was going on, she decided it was much easier keeping it to herself. why burden anyone else with her problems ?
just wanting to be by herself for today, haseul had to resist the urge to completely turn away at the sight of yujin. “ ah, yujinnie … ” haseul murmured, giving the other a weary smile that was little more than an uplift of one corner of her lips. “ good morning, yujinnie. did you sleep well last night ? ” she asked ― maybe bland, but she didn’t have much brain power to attempt much conversation without letting something slip. “ oh, and how far did you get on that essay for mr. kwon ? i tried to get it all done last night, but my ideas are a mess. would you be willing to revise with me during lunch or something ? ”
it didn’t take her more than a couple of seconds to realize something was off about haseul that morning. they were close.. almost too close for her father’s liking. (apparently, their family wasn’t well off enough for her father to accept but this was a friendship yujin was willing to fight her father for.) spending so time stuck at haseul’s side, yujin had picked up on small habits and quirks of haseul’s and one of them was when haseul was tired / stressed.
despite of picking up on the fact, yujin decided to not comment on it. space was something anyone needed during times like this and, she would give it to haseul. all yujin hoped was that everything was okay. yujin merely nodded firmly and kept her voice lower than usual, a soft smile crossing her face. “i slept okay! you can never get enough on weekdays, no matter how hard you tried.”
it wasn’t the full truth, of course. it wasn’t until midnight had rolled around did yujin finally get home from her prep classes and, not a single word was written on her homework or on her prep classes homework. a good night of sleep was a rare occurrence for her, these days. not even on the weekend did her sleep not get disturbed by her father dragging out of bed in the early morning hours to attend whatever conference or party that he felt fitting to shove her face into.
mr. kwon’s essay, the essay that took her over four hours to write the previous night and was a headache to write. “i finished it actually. it took a long time for me to get it done too.” another reassuring smile spread across her face.”i will definitely help you during the lunch!” yujin paused, the smile slipping from her face. she ungripped her hand from its hold on her backpack strap and lightly patted the other girl’s head as if to say ‘it will all get better’. although, yujin herself was doubtful of the phrase as well.
