"You're the reason that this happened, you know."
I look up at the two people who I'd thought would never betray me. My best friend, Kim Ae Ri, and my fiancé, Gu Minju. I'm currently laying on the ground, covered in bruises from the people they hired to kidnap me.
A few months ago, they locked me up in a dark room, an old CD player and a flickering light being the only thing with me. I saw a CD with some K-POP band whom I'd had never heard of, but when I tried to play it, the CD player broke down. Should have known those d*uche baggies didn't have enough decency to give me something enjoying spending the longs days there.
I thought I had the best life after I moved to South Korea. I had a great best friend, a loving fiancé, and a good future ahead of me. I was ecstatic when Minju proposed to me, since he was my first love. I thought I had finally found a place to call home.
"If you would have acted how we needed you to, you would have been enjoying your life" Ae Ri snarls as she brings me back to the present. What the hell is she talking about?
"I needed you to just do everything that Minju told you to. But you were too stubborn and ruined everything for me."
"What are you talking about?! I didn't ruin anything for you" Ae Ri slaps me hard and the side of my lip splits open. When I look up into her eyes, I almost flinch from the look in her eyes. She looked like she was about one second from snapping my neck. Which wouldn't have been a big issue if I wasn't tied to the floor. She's lucky she's tied my hands and legs, otherwise my defense training would have knocked her to the ground.
"You do know you b*tch! Do you really think that Minju chose to be with you out of love? Who would want to be with someone like you? He was only with you for the money. You're so plain that no one would choose to be with you."
As she talks, I look at Minju who honestly looks like he could care less. He has a sneer on his face as Ae Ri basically tells me the past 3 years of my life were a ploy.
"Didn't you ever wonder why Minju wanted to visit your parents so badly? Why he always asked about them? There's a rumor that your parents are actually bigshot owners of a company. Nobody knew the exact details, only that it was a pretty big business."
What? It can't be true. I've been with them for most of my life. If they had that big of a secret, they would have told me. I'm so lost in thought, that I don't even notice that Ae Ri has stopped talking because she realized I wasn't listening.
Smack!
"Are you even listening to me right now? Who made you so arrogant? I'll make sure your last days feel like hell."
Ae Ri makes a gesture towards Minju, signaling for him to speak. He looks behind him and only then do I notice the group of guys behind him. It looks like about four guys, and they all have sleazy looks on their faces. He slowly walks towards me and crouches down.
"I hope you enjoy yourself because this will be your last moments. We're going to use these men to let you enjoy yourself before your death. We decided you should at least get to experience that before your untimely death. Then we're going to take pictures and post them online. Everyone will see your shamelessness even after you're gone. "
He slowly caresses my cheek and I shudder out of disgust, which he mistakes as something else.
Trigger Warning: Do not read if uncomfortable with. There is suicide and attempted rape in this paragraph.
"Such a shame that I never had the chance to taste you. What a waste." He stands up and nods his head. The four guys' expressions change, and they start to move in my direction. I look around frantically, trying to find anything to help me. I see a shard of glass a couple of inches from me, and I quickly go to grab it. I'm going to die anyway, so why should I let these perverts have the satisfaction? Once the squad of guys reach me, I pierce the glass into my neck.
Trigger Warning Over
I look at Ae Ri's shocked, but smirking face and wished I could have gotten the strength to smack it off of her plastic surgery covered face. I feel nothing but hatred as my consciousness fades away.
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"Jae-Hwa? Are you listening to me? You need to get ready for the test today." My roommate tells me as she rushed to get dressed. She was always nice to me, but I usually brushed her off, ignoring her concern and help. Wow...I don't even remember her name. Wait. Is this heaven? If it is, why is she here?
I look at her in pity, wondering what killed her. As I'm pitying both myself and my roommate (who I should really ask about her name), I fall off the bed, hitting my elbow hard on the floor. My eyes immediately started watering.
Don't cry. Don't cry. Deep breaths. Wait...I'm alive?
I look at the familiar surroundings. I was in my dorm room. My eyes go straight to my phone, looking for the date. August 5, 2018, two years before my death. This was the first day of my senior year in college.
I remembered that on this day I overslept, so the professor was already *ed, and I was embarrassed by being asked to answer a question which the teacher clearly had never taught before. Then one day, in the middle of the school year, my parents died. I stopped focusing on school and when I was basically on the verge of flunking college, Minju showed up and offered to help me study.
He kept saying empty promises of how things would get better, and how he would help me move on. I didn't think about how convenient it was for him to turn up at that moment, as he never talked to me before. I was just lonely and hoping for a way out, and he helped me find it.
I was born into a foster family, as my biological parents apparently died. My foster family mistreated me physically and emotionally. I was at the house for a year, not even leaving for school. When I turned six, a couple showed up at my house and claimed to be my biological parents.
I honestly didn't care whether they were telling the truth or not, I just wanted to be far from my foster parents. They pampered me and gave me things that I was never able to get before. One day they told me that we'd be moving to Busan, Korea for Dad's new job.
I was homeschooled for 2 years to practice learning the language and other studies at my age. After I fully adapted, I enrolled in a local school called Baekyang Elementary. It was hard being the new girl in a new country, who was a whole year older than most of the kids, but I didn't let it get to me.
(I'll stop for now with the back story. I don't want the first chapter to be mostly a filler. There will be flashbacks to make up for the lack of info though. On with the story!)
I could already fluently speak Korean since I grew up here, but I also know English, Chinese, Japanese. I had decided to learn everything that I would have learned, had I still been in school. I'm grateful to myself for learning the knowledge I wouldn't have bothered to get otherwise.
Before I get dressed, I go to the mirror, looking at myself. Wow I miss the good days before I got kicked out of school. I completely let myself go, not even bothering to continue with my healthy habits. I have waist length black hair with blue streaks and brown eyes.
(Another A/N: The only thing I will be describing about how the character looks is what she wears and how her hair, eyes, etc. look. You can make up the rest to best fit how you want her to look.)
I get up and hurriedly throw clothes on, only caring about getting to the classroom on time.
I hope I'm not late...
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I was late.
I rushed into the classroom and quickly get into my assigned seat, ignoring the glares of the professor or my peers.
"How nice of you to join us today, Ms....?" The professor pauses, waiting for me to tell him my name.
"Choi Jae-Hwa, sir." I say, giving him what my foster parents named me. I spot Ae Ri in the back, trying to hide her smirk. Scheming b*tch. I must have been an * to not see the truth. I mean, she's not even trying to hide it. The professor looks like he wants to say more, but he just starts with the lesson.
"Attention please!"
Everybody in the classroom stops what they're doing and focuses on the professor.
"My name is Mr. Bak and I'll be your professor for your Business and Management course for this full year."
"Full year?!! I thought that this was only a semester class." A guy in the back of the room yells as the class turns to him.
"Yes this is a full year class. If you don't think you can handle it, the doors over there Mr.-" The professor looks down at his clipboard and back at the student.
"Kang Seung. I can assure you that this class will not be easy and if you wanted to fly through this class, you signed up for the wrong degree."
After the professor's retort, the guy sat back in his seat and immediately stopped talking. After seeing that the guy had nothing else to say, the professor continued on with the lesson. Since I had already learned the lesson that we were doing, I tuned out the lesson.
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The school day passed by in a blur and by the time the day was over, I was exhausted and ready to go home. I dragged myself back to my dorm room and was about to go to sleep when I got a notification.
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Hi guys! How do you like the cliffhanger? Is this even what you call a cliffhanger? Anyway, it took me so long to finally decide to publish this chapter. I was sort of scared and chicken out, but now I did it. I really hope you enjoyed it and like the first chapter.
Chapter Quote (In honor of a certain military guy):
"HEY STOB IT!"
Thank you so much for reading this and see you next chapter!