When Ha Eun woke the next day, she turned on her phone and noticed it was 14:30pm. She had slept all morning. She then noticed she had 40 missed calls, half where from Mr. Oh, 2 were from the school and the rest were from Woo Yeon.
Ha Eun threw her phone on the bed, took the pillow and started to hit it. She wanted to hit something but nothing in the room and she didn't want to ruin the phone. She went downstairs to the bar and saw all the guys where there in their school uniforms. They were all sitting in a table talking. When they noticed her, they all got up.
"Would you like to go somewhere with us?" the bartender asked, with a saddened expression. Ha Eun had nothing better to do so she nodded.
They walked for a while down alleyways, up stairs and down cliffs. The homes they passed, started to look more and more deteriorated and the roads became more and more desolate.
"Are you guys going to murder me?" Ha Eun asked. They all laughed.
"Come on. We're close" one of them said. They walked down an alley, and once through, they arrived at a big pond. There were chairs, beer cans, a radio and board games.
"This is our secret hang out. When we're tired of the restaurant bar, we come here" one of the guys said. Ha Eun thought this place was beautiful. For an abandoned place. It was extremely well kept.
"Also, the water is really clean. We sometimes swim in it" another one said. Ha Eun smiled. She hasn't gone swimming in a long time.
"Bong Soon found it" the bartender said. Ha Eun's smile faded. She hasn't heard that name in a long time "This is the best place to let out some steam" he added. Ha Eun didn't understand. He got closer to the water and suddenly let out a loud scream, which made Ha Eun jump.
He turned to look at Ha Eun and smiled "Go ahead" the bartender told her. The others urged her forward. She shyly let out a scream, but the guys booed her "Louder and put more feeling into it" he said.
She screamed louder but it still wasn't good enough for them. They wanted it to be louder. Suddenly memories of how her new life has been, being bullied by her new family, being bullied at school, and the guy she liked turned everyone against her. She still couldn't wrap her head around that. Why would he do that? Why would he make people hate her?
Her eyes started to water. The guys knew she had so much pent up sadness and anger within her. That morning, they heard her from downstairs, hitting something. Her expression when she got downstairs was pretty obvious as well.
"Scream!" all of the guys yelled.
Tears started to roll down Ha Eun's eyes and she quickly let out a loud scream. Louder than she's ever screamed before. The guys all cheered her on as she yelled even louder. Once she was out of air she fell to the ground. The guys sat beside her.
"I needed that" Ha Eun said with a smile.
"You're free to come here whenever you like" the bartender said. Ha Eun thanked all of them. One of the guys had a sister Ha Eun's age so he stole some of her clothes to give to Ha Eun and she was taken to the bartender's home where she took a quick shower.
The next morning, Ha Eun had even more missed calls and messages. She thought that if Mr. Oh really cared about her, he might have called the police by now and they might even be on their way right now. Once downstairs at the restaurant. She saw the guys huddled up.
"What's going on?" Ha Eun asked. They looked at her, then slowly dispersed to show what they were all looking at. It was none other than Woo Yeon.
"Ha Eun!" he said excitedly. He rushed towards her and was about to grab her hand, but she quickly backed away. Woo Yeon was noticeably bothered by this, but he continued to speak as if it didn't bother him "Mr. Oh and I have been worried sick. He sent me to get you because he didn't want you to feel overwhelmed by the police"
Ha Eun walked right past him and excused herself from the guys. Woo Yeon tried to go after her, but the guys stopped him.
"It's obvious she doesn't want to talk to you. Let her be" one of them said.
Ha Eun decided to walk around. She needed to clear her head. With what little money she had left, she bought food from street vendors and was even given a flower which she put in her hair.
It was getting late, but she decided to go to the pond once again. She didn't feel like seeing Woo Yeon yet. Once by the pond, she walked towards the edge of the pond and looked at her reflection "What will you do now?" she asked. Suddenly she heard a can fall. She turned around but no one was there. She looked around for a while longer but seeing there was no one there, she looked back towards the water. She crouched down and placed her hand in the water. It was cold.
She suddenly heard shuffling. She quickly turned around. Still, there was no one. She got scared but laughed it off "Very funny guys. Come out" she said loudly. It must be the guys that were trying to scare her, but no one answered.
"Guys, you can come out now" she yelled, still no answer. It was getting dark so she couldn't tell if there was anyone there, which was even more frightening. Then she heard a loud thud and a cat suddenly ran past her. She screamed but quickly calmed down.
"A cat. For a second I thought I was in a horror movie" she sighed. She thought it was time to go back. She turned to look at the water one more time. She looked at her reflection. Her face was a bit red, like she had cried, which she did. Just a little, but on her way back, her color would turn back to normal.
Something looked stranger. As she stared closer at the water, next to her reflection, it looked like there was someone next to her. Suddenly she felt a pull on her hair and her face was in the cold water. She couldn't breathe.
She couldn't wrap her head around what was happening. She tried to pull her head out of the water but the person that was pushing her head in, wouldn't let her get out.
"This is a joke" she kept replaying that phrase over and over. It was definitely one of the guys, trying to scare her, they would soon let her out, but she started to require air. She hit the ground with her hands and wiggled her body as if to let them know she need to come up, but that only made whoever was pushing her under, hold her head even steadier in the water.
This wasn't feeling like a joke anymore. She grabbed for the hand, but her head was only pushed in deeper. Is she going to die? She thought the only way to get out of this person's grasp was to get into the water, swim far away from them, and once on the other side of the pond run for help.
She was able to get into the water but that only made the person holding her down, follow in with her. She started to struggle to get the person off of her and get to breathe. She was desperate for air but no matter what she did, the person would not let her go.
Her thoughts quickly ran towards Mr. Oh, she never got to thank him for adopting her and giving her a good life. She thought about Bong Soo, she wanted to scream at her for leaving her behind but now, she just wanted to hug her and know if she was alright. She thought about Ji Seok. He was a good kid, she wanted to have at least spent more time with him, see him grow up. He was still just a kid. Then her thoughts went towards Woo Yeon. She wanted to at least ask him why her turned people against her. He must have had a good reason. He was so worried about her; she should have gone with him when he came to pick her up. If she had, she wouldn't be in this situation right now.
Suddenly, she remembered all the times she was hit by that couple that adopted her, she remembered the fear that ran through her body when she heard the front door open and close loudly. She could count the steps it took for him to reach her and Bong Soo's bedroom. That fear of wondering whether he was going to hit her close to death or not, that fear was what she started to feel at this very moment. The realization that she was going to die, hit her like a ton of bricks. She didn't want to die, she couldn't die. She was still young. There are a lot of things she still hadn't experienced yet, like falling in love or going to College. She never got to be a normal student. She scratched the person's arms, even used her feet and noticed she had kicked their face, but that still wasn't enough to get that person to let go.
She couldn't hold her breath anymore. She wanted someone to save her. Woo Yeon or anyone…as long as someone saved her…someone save her…someone…