Regret
Touch of Fear
A cold wind, that hit her face, made Ara stop staring at where Sehun disappeared to, and she turned around to her sister. With two steps, she stood in front of Hyejin.
All of a sudden, a slap could be heard. A loud one. Echoing in the night, stopping howling of the wind for a second.
Hyejin looked up, facing her sister, and touched her right cheek. The slap had hurt really much. Not necessarily because of the used force, but because of the look in Ara's eyes. There was so much disappointment that Hyejin's heart clenched hard.
“Hyejin, I am so unbelievably disappointed that you lied to me,” Ara whispered sharply, her voice not giving away her emotions. She wanted to scream, yell at her little sister; hit her, but she knew she shouldn’t do that. “You misused my trust.”
Tears continuously spilled from Hyejin's eyes, rolling down her cheeks, leaving a light crust on her skin, only to get moistened again. Sobs escaped her lips, but apart from that she said nothing. After a few minutes of Hyejin crying, Ara's patience snapped and she roughly grabbed the girl and shook her violently.
“Get your act together!” She screamed at the younger girl.
“Do you think crying is going to help you?” She hissed, glaring at Hyejin furiously. The latter weakly shook her head, still sobs escaping her lips.
“Why didn’t you struggle or tell him to stop?”
“What if I hadn't come in time?”
Hyejin weakly mouthed a 'I don't know' and continued to cry silently.
“Don't be so ing naive, Hyejin!” Ara yelled again and pushed the younger girl. “You're always so gullible and naive. Think of the risks. Think of your safety!”
“I told you not to go. I told you …” Ara's voice broke once she noticed that Hyejin wasn’t standing up, only crouching as she continued to cry. Regret swept her body. Hyejin probably had enough to take in for the evening … She forced all the anger to the back of her mind. Reaching out her hand, she grabbed Hyejin's arm, this time a bit gentler. “Stand up,” she whispered, her voice still angrier than she wanted it to sound. She wanted to comfort Hyejin, she really wanted, but all the worry inside her was turning into pure anger – seemingly impossible to be held back.
Hyejin stood up, still quiet, and avoided Ara's gaze. It took the older girl so much willpower not to explode again and just to walk beside her little sister. Hyejin took small steps, pulling at the coat to have it tighter around her. After a few steps though, she took the coat off and reached out her hand to Ara. “This is your coat,” she weakly said.
Ara pushed her hand away. “You need it more than I do.”
Actually, Ara was feeling extremely cold in her blouse. Her fingers felt like they were going to fall off, and the strong wind seemed to blow through her blouse, hitting her skin directly; seemed to make her headache even worse. But she knew that Hyejin would be freezing even more than her, if she didn’t have the coat. At least Ara was wearing pants and a blouse, and not a skimpy black dress.
The whole way home, the two of them stayed quiet. They rode the train without to say a word, walked to the flat silently, and even as they entered their flat, no one talked. Mrs. Park didn’t say anything as well, she only made a mug of cacao for both of her daughters and put it on their desks. She knew that no one wanted to talk right now, and didn’t ask even though she didn’t have a clue about what happened.
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