Wednesday, June 3, 2009 @ 5:47 PM
Chapter 19: Startling RevelationSuggested song/music: Don’t Know - JJ Lin
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLvExna4-ws)
Shifting his weight from one feet to another, Yunho could not help fidgeting in front of the stern principal. “Six injured and in ICU. Out of which three came from China, one from the U.S and two of our own students. What do you guys have to say to this?” the principal narrowed her eyes on Yunho however, even though she referred to them as a whole. Li Yin bit her lower lip nervously, wondering if it’s time to leave again, as usual. Junsu merely remained expressionless and looked at xiaoxi, knowing fully well she would bill them out of this. “They started it. We’re just defending ourselves. I don’t see anything wrong with that.” xiaoxi’s voice trembled slightly as she spoke. Yunho tilted his head slightly in her direction. “I say we’re not guilty at all. Unless you wish to punish us for self-defense.”
“Of course not! I just… well, it won’t look good when the news reaches the media. We’re a school of respectable status, where many from all over the world flock to for the sake of music. We can stop our students from speaking about it, from revealing information about the incident, but we cannot stop Ryan and his friends…”
“We can.”
“If we speak to Ryan, perhaps there is a chance.” Li Yin’s voice sounded strained and tired. “He’s only so cocky because he knows a secret of mine… a secret I’ve been hiding for very long…”
“Li Yin!” Yunho seemed startled when he saw how Li Yin seem to want to reveal what they have been hiding for so long. Didn’t Li Yin always mind that the most? Why is she offering an explanation then? They could do even without Li Yin revealing her secret! “Li Yin, are you sure?”
Li Yin took a deep breath before nodding her head firmly. All eyes locked on her as she gulped nervously, getting herself mentally prepared for the revelation.
Slowly, her hands inched upwards and pushed away her long hair on the right. Clasping her hand around something which seem to be on her ear, Li Yin took another deep breath before taking something out of her ear. Brandished in her hand, to everyone’s - except Yunho, of course - surprise, in her outstretched hand was a hearing aid. “This is why I never tie my hair up. It covers my ear, covers my nightmare…”
Junsu let out a small gasp unknowingly. He had never imagined Li Yin to be in the need of a hearing aid. So this is why he had never seen Li Yin with her hair tied up before. He had always thought it was normal for a girl to just let her hair down, but for Li Yin it’s probably another reason… Li Yin quietly returned the hearing aid to her ear. Yunho cleared his throat, knowing that he should continue from here, as what he has always done.
“放手! 走开, 不要用你肮脏的手碰我! (Let go! Go away, don’t touch me with your filthy hands!)” Li Yin shouted hysterically. The man did not even bother to answer to her as he ripped the strap of Li Yin’s dress. In their tussle, Li Yin knocked her head against the table before falling onto the floor. The world before her grew blurry and a buzzing sound rung in her ears before she blacked out completely. The last thing she saw was the image of her stepbrother running away, leaving her alone in the room.
“When she woke up, she was already hearing impaired. Her nerve system seemed to have been affected when her head was knocked against the table. It was lucky she didn’t go blind, only losing slight hearing in her right ear.” Yunho sighed. The shocking news was a bit too much for anyone of them to bear. Xiaoxi had her hand clasped over her mouth, Junsu’s eyes were opened to their limits, and the principal’s mouth hung open. Li Yin sighed before making her way slowly towards the door. “I will talk to Ryan myself and stop him from tarnishing the school’s reputation if this is what the principal is worried about…”
“No! I’m sure the school would be able to do a good job of clearing up this mess. After all, Ryan was the one who started it. Why should Li Yin, Yunho or Junsu take up the rap for him? I assume the school would punish him duly?” xiaoxi pressured the principal. By her words, what she meant was that the school is not to hold neither of them accountable at all for the day’s events, and the entire episode was Ryan’s fault. The principal nodded. What could a mere principal do when facing the only daughter of the Director?
“Li Yin,” Yunho called softly and passed her a chocolate which Li Yin accepted gratefully. She needed to calm herself down, and the chocolate would do just fine. “Just when I thought I had left behind the past in China… it returned to haunt me even when I’ve gone through all the trouble to escape to Korea.” Li Yin smiled bitterly. Yunho remained silent, just pulling Li Yin over to lean against his shoulder. He hummed a soothing melody, a melody he hummed whenever Li Yin is feeling upset. Slowly, he felt Li Yin’s tensed muscles relaxing as she drifted into slumber land. Smoothing out the tangles in her hair, Yunho looked upwards at the sky, wondering if there is actually a place on earth which is willing to hold Li Yin’s torn and tattered self. And also, a place that would ensure his secret remains hidden forever.
Walking slowly towards the apartment she now shared with Yunho and Li Yin, xiaoxi immersed herself in her own thoughts. ‘I’m a jinx, I really am. All I did was to will for the lights to fall on them, and they went to ICU. I don’t want to accept it, but it’s a fact I’m jinxed…’ So deep in her thought, xiaoxi didn’t notice the bicycle which was coming towards her at full speed. The bicycle skidded to a halt just inches from her. Unable to find her voice, xiaoxi could only bow in apology to the angry cyclist before quickly walking away. “Even someone who does not know me, he almost fell off his bike because I didn’t notice him. I’m a jinx.”
A sudden event which cropped up in school, a fight, a revelation. Bodies carrying their own elephant memory roamed the streets aimlessly that evening…
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