Chapter 10: Silent Goodbye
1217 Words
Chapter 10: Silent Goodbye
Two weeks later.
The room was too quiet.
Hana stood in the center of her bedroom, surrounded by a chaos she didn’t intend to clean up. Clothes still hung crooked on her chair, books lay sprawled open on the desk, and the bedsheets were half-pulled, crumpled from her earlier tantrum.
She wasn’t taking much. Just the essentials—two hoodies, a black duffle bag, three pairs of jeans, and her late-night emergency snacks. Her phone charger dangled from the plug like a dead vine.
Sun-Woo leaned against the doorway, arms crossed.
“You’re doing this.”
Hana zipped her bag. “I already did it.”
“This place isn’t a cage, you know.”
“Yeah?” she shot back, “Then why does it smell like one?”
Sun-Woo’s jaw tightened. “Because you refuse to open your window.”
“Because I can’t breathe, Sun-Woo!”
He flinched. Not visibly. But she saw it. In the shift of his shoulders. In the way he suddenly stopped leaning and stood straight.
“I talked to Wacko.”
“Of course you did.”
“He agreed.”
“He shouldn’t have.”
She slung the bag over her shoulder. “Too late.”
---
The hallway was empty. Echoing.
Yeonwha stood by the front door, nervously twisting her fingers. Hana offered her a crooked grin.
“No tears, okay?”
Yeonwha bit her lip. “But I packed your vitamins…”
“Sweet,” Hana said, taking the small bottle. “Just what I need to survive the apocalypse.”
“I mean it. Be careful. Don’t pick fights. Don’t talk back to teachers. Don’t—”
“Don’t be me?”
Yeonwha hesitated. Then hugged her tightly.
“You’re brave,” she whispered. “Just don’t forget to be kind too.”
Hana laughed, throat-catching. “You sound like a K-drama mom.”
---
Outside, the van waited.
A black one. Of course.
Hana climbed in without looking back. Sun Woo wasn’t inside. Just a silent driver in shades.
She stared out the window as the mansion disappeared behind trees and fog.
Good riddance.
---
The first thing she noticed about Haneul Elite Academy was that it smelled like secrets.
The second thing? There were two different gates.
“Students from Scholarship Track, over here!” a gruff woman with a clipboard barked, waving them toward a narrow gravel path at the side.
Hana followed a small crowd of students—some with tattered bags, others with no luggage at all—through the side gate.
The main building loomed ahead, glass and marble, glinting like a villain’s lair.
But they turned away from it.
Toward the back.
Past the gym. Past the clean courtyards.
And finally, into a low concrete building that looked more like a prison than a dorm.
"This is it," the woman said, tossing her clipboard aside. "Room assignments are on the wall. Don’t touch anything that doesn’t belong to you. And yes, the showers are cold."
A girl with glasses raised a hand. “Um, excuse me—”
“No talking.”
Hana smirked. This was more her pace.
---
Room 302. Top floor. No elevator.
Hana lugged her bag up the stairs with dramatic gasps, knocking her elbow into a railing.
The hall smelled of mildew and air fresheners.
She opened the door.
Three bunk beds. One cracked window. A single lightbulb hanging from a cord.
Two girls were already inside, both mid-unpacking.
The tall one looked up first. “You must be the new brat.”
Hana dropped her bag with a thud. “Brat?”
The second girl, with short, wide eyes, laughed. “She talks back. That’s new.”
“Name’s Hana,” she said, already climbing to the top bunk. “Let’s skip the roommate drama and agree to hate each other silently.”
Tall girl blinked. “I like her.”
“Same.”
Hana grinned.
---
Before class, a woman returned for her. “The Chairpersons wants to see you.”
Chairmen?
She was led into a glass-walled office that smelled of polished ambition.
Two men stood by the windows. They looked… familiar.
The younger one had a sharper jaw and stricter air—clearly Chairman Kang.
The older one—grinning in a lemon-yellow blazer—threw open his arms.
“Hanaaa! My hurricane in a hoodie!”
Chairman Lee.
“You,” she muttered.
“Oh, come on, don’t look so betrayed. I pulled some strings. Adjusted your file. Rearranged a few boarding policies.”
She crossed her arms. “What? Did. You. Do.”
Chairman Kang’s voice cut in. “Your guardian suggested an alternative. You’ll be living in Chairman Lee’s residence. It’s ten minutes from school.”
Her jaw dropped. “What?!”
Chairman Lee beamed. “Private room. No rules. Just you, me, and my emotional support butler.”
“I signed up for boarding school!” she yelled.
“I know,” he winked. “That’s why I changed it.”
“You ruined my plan!”
He leaned in. “You think I didn’t know your plan?”
She lunged. He ducked.
“Touch me, and you're expelled!” he cried.
Chairman Kang remained stoic. “Miss Hana. You’ll be under observation. You’re in. But only if you behave.”
Her fists clenched.
Two Chairmen. One ruined plan.
And a new prison wearing the face of a home.
---
The classroom was very white.
Hana stepped in, hands in her hoodie pockets, yawning as if she owned the place.
Whispers broke out instantly.
“That’s the new scholarship girl.”
“She looks like she slept in a dumpster.”
“She probably did.”
“Quiet!”
The teacher, Ms. Jung clapped her hands once.
“Class, we have a transfer student today. Hana Kim. She’s from the outreach program.”
Hana raised an eyebrow. “Scholarship track. Let’s not sugarcoat it.”
Ms. Jung blinked. “Right. Hana, why don’t you tell the class about yourself?”
“No, thanks.”
A pause. An awkward beat of silence.
Ms. Jung blinked again. “Excuse me?”
“I said no thanks. They’ll figure me out soon enough.”
Laughter bubbled from the back. The elites in the front row scowled.
A tall boy with perfect hair leaned forward. “She talks like a delinquent.”
“I walk like one, too,” Hana replied, plopping into the nearest seat.
Ms. Jung sighed. “Let’s… continue.”
---
Lunchtime was chaos.
Elites sat under umbrellas, eating catered bento boxes.
The scholarship kids clustered near the cafeteria’s cracked steps.
Hana grabbed her tray, eyed the rice blob and mystery meat, then sat on the grass.
Alone.
Not for long.
A shadow fell across her.
“You’re Hana?”
She looked up. A girl in a pristine uniform, arms folded.
“Depends. Who’s asking?”
“I’m Soojin. Class monitor.”
“Do I get a sticker?”
Soojin’s eyes narrowed. “I heard you mouthed off in class.”
“Is that a crime here?”
“No. But you’re on thin ice already.”
Hana took a big bite of rice. “Good. I like the cold.”
---
- Writer
