◇《 - ¤ F o r g o t t e n  T r u s t ¤ - 》◇

" Belonged and abandoned "

"Hana!" a cheerful voice called.

She turned around at the sound of her name and was met with the figure of her friend in the distance. She smiled brightly and waited for her.

"Soowa!" she called back, joy in her voice.

The latter went up to her and linked arms with her. "How did you sleep?" Soowa asked, smiling brightly at her best friend. Hana grinned back in return.

"Great! Apart from me having a nightmare on zombies," Hana grumbled and faked a shudder making Soowa laugh uncontrollably. Hana sent a death stare in her direction, but her lips were pursed, trying to hold back a laugh. As they entered the school building they were immediately met with loud chatter and laughter from other students.

"I told you, you should be the one who chooses the movie we watch, but you insisted I should choose, so..." Soowa shrugged and giggled at her pouting friend.

Hana sighed sadly. Soowa’s eyes widened and she immediately felt guilty because Hana had never pulled a prank on her before. It felt unfair that she was always the victim of Soowa’s pranks. Soowa pouted as well and started acting cute, Hana's weakness.

"Hey, Hana! I am sorry. I was just playing, I didn't know you would be this upset. Forgive me, okay?" she said, looking up at her with her shining puppy eyes. Of course, Hana couldn't reject those cute eyes and that cute pout. After all, she was her closest and best friend. Hana sighed in defeat.

"Okay, fine! Curse your cuteness." She gave in and rolled her eyes.

"Yippee!"

"Okay, I know you are happy but please stop shouting–"

"Yeah!"

"Oh my gosh! I swear you could win a worldwide screaming competition!"

"At least I have something to show off."

"Not a good thing."

The two girls continued to bicker until they reached class. Then they took their respective seats and started chatting about other things. They were in their own beautiful world that they didn't notice the group of girls that were sneering at them.

A girl with chestnut brown hair and make-up layered onto her face as thick as frosting gave a nod to the other girls, and they all nodded in return. Then they stood up and started walking to the two girls who had not yet noticed them. The girl with the frosting face rapped on the table to get their attention. When they turned to look at her, she immediately plastered a fake smile onto her face.

"Hey, girls!" she greeted them. Soowa’s eyes widened in fear, but Hana smiled brightly, face shining in innocence. Soowa looked down, playing with her fingers.

"Hey, Gina!" Hana greeted back and waved at the girls behind her.

"You are looking pretty as always," Gina complimented Hana.

"I know," Hana replied confidently. Gina had expected a 'thank you, you too' in return and not getting it fazed her, but she kept up her smile. However, her smiles soon dropped when she noticed Soowa.

What was a normal stare at Soowa for others was a glare for Soowa and Gina. Hana noticed Gina staring at Soowa, so she turned to look at her. Soowa was still looking down and fidgeting. She looked uncomfortable and nervous. Hana frowned at that. Immediately, she held onto her friend's shoulder gently.

"Soowa?" she asked, causing the girl to jump a little at her voice. Soowa looked up at Hana with wide eyes.

"Huh?"

"You look uncomfortable. Are you okay?"

"Oh... I am fine, Hana. You worry too much." She laughed awkwardly. But mentally, she was cursing herself for lying to her dear friend. She knew there mustn't be lies in their friendship but Hana couldn't know the truth. It would hurt her...or so she thought. She didn't consider the consequences for lying.

Hana smiled when she heard that, but she was still worried. "If you need to go to the infirmary or home, just tell me okay? I will help you talk it out with the teacher," Hana said to comfort Soowa more and release her from the sudden stress that she did not know the reason behind.

"Yeah, Soowa! If you are not okay, just tell Hana. I am sure she can help you. After all, she is your best friend and our class monitor. Right?" Gina added, smiling. But Soowa knew that behind that smile was a glare, a smirk, because Gina knew that Soowa would never have the guts to tell Hana what was happening.

Upon hearing her voice, fear swarmed into her body, slowly devouring her from the inside. Immediately she looked up and waved her hands in the air. "No!" she said abruptly. Hana flinched at that. Gina scoffed internally while the girls behind her tried not to laugh. Hana blinked repeatedly, confused by her friend's sudden behavior. Soowa noticed her confused expression and laughed awkwardly, rubbing her nape.

"Ah...what I meant is I am okay. You worry too much Hana! You are making me blush!" she slapped Hana's back, continuing to laugh awkwardly.
"Blush?" Hana questioned, getting suspicious. Usually Soowa would just tease her in return for worrying her too much, but blushing? It was like she just got introduced to a whole new Soowa.

"Uh..." She trailed off, unable to back herself up. She cursed at herself for being this careless. All eyes were on her now and anxiety kicked in. Fortunately, someone unintentionally saved her from the awkwardness.

"Yah! Park Hana!" His voice rang out above the class students' loud gossip.

Hana tore her gaze from Soowa to look at the person who was calling her. It was her brother.

"Oh! Hey, Jimin,” she greeted him nonchalantly.

Jimin was furious. He stomped over, passing by the group of girls, all of which were now giggling and blushing. He slammed his hand onto the table, not too hard but hard enough to make a satisfying whacking sound. Hana scanned him judgingly. He glared at her, plump lips forming into a pout.

"Hey Jimin? Is that all you have to say?"

"Then what should I say?"

Jimin scoffed and crossed his arms. "You are supposed to apologize for not waking me up and going off on your own, making me miss the bus! I was lucky to have some pocket money left so I could take an uber," he whined.

"I tried to wake you, but you fat ass didn’t wake up even after I kicked you!"

"Hey! My ass is not fat! It's thick and sexy!" he protested, and the girls behind nodded in agreement, staring at Jimin self-proclaimed ‘thick ass’ in a flirtatious way.

"Oh my, what did you eat to get that sexy ass, Jimin? Give me some tips," Hana said sarcastically. The girls behind nodded again, wanting to hear those ‘tips’. Jimin really lived up to his nickname, Jiminie pabo, so he took Hana's question seriously.

"Oh, well, you see, I follow a very strict diet. This is going to be a long list,” he said proudly. Unlike Hana and Soowa who were done with him, all the girls quickly took out notepads and pens, getting ready to jot down the information that their god, Jimin, was about to tell them. He started listing off his entire diet plan, eyes closed, so he did not notice Hana and Soowa sneaking out the room. When they reached outside, out of Jimin's sight, the girls linked arms once again and started giggling.

"So, where are we going?" Soowa asked, resting her head on Hana's shoulder as they walked down the hallway.

"Library," Hana simply answered.

"Omg...Hana...are you going to study for exams–"

"I was just going to borrow some comic books."

"Ah..." Soowa trailed off in disappointment and unlink her arm with Hana's dramatically, earning a giggle from Hana.

"Oops! Sorry to disappoint you, Soowa," she said as she giggled to herself. Soowa shook her head in disapproval. Then Hana stopped giggling as realization hit. She grabbed Soowa's arm abruptly, making her flinch. Soowa knew what stupid question Hana was about to ask.

"We have exams coming soon?!" she screamed and Soowa facepalmed, groaning in defeat.

• • • • • • •

She sat in the cold snow as she licked her blood-stained fur after having a delicious reindeer meal. Their hunt was successful, after 15 minutes of trying to improve on Jeongin’s sneaking skills. When she was done cleaning herself, she noticed the sun was starting to set. It was time for the sun to go home to sleep and for the moon to start working. That was their cue to go home.

"Noona, the sun is setting," Jeongin said, done with cleaning himself up.

"I know. Let's go home, kid, before I take the form that brings unwanted danger," she said as she started walking away.

Jeongin looked at her. He was curious about her history. What happened to her that she became half bear, half human? As far as he knew, he had never met anyone like her before. But maybe he was just too young and had not learned everything about the world yet.

Jeongin was too deep in his own thoughts to realise she was quite far away now. Become suspicious at the lack of noise behind her, she turned around to find Jeongin was not behind her. She looked up to see the baby bear, still standing in the same place, in his own world.

"Hey, kid! Aren't you coming?" she called. Jeongin snapped out of his trance.

"Ah! Coming!" he yelled in reply and ran up to her. She nodded as they continued walking, back to the cozy cave that they called home.

When they had disappeared, the wolves came out and started eating what was left of the dead reindeer. Growling and barks were heard as they aggressively ripped the flesh from its bones. The sun had set, and the moon rose up to meet the world. The wolves greeted the arrival of the moon with loud howls just as birds greeted the sun with songs.

In a safer place, Taehyung decided to move his desk to the window so he could stare at the scenery outside to get inspiration for his book. Then he smiled in satisfaction and picked up his pen, beginning to write.

" F o r e s t  M y s t e r y "

¤ C h a p t e r  3 ¤

Setting out into the magical forest, he was determined to find her. She who he recognized as the...

“sapphire beauty”.

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