103│Bbangsaz

15. Loved? and Love.

Hanni's POV:

Minji weakly pulled out of her grip and rushed out of the front door, not glancing at me once. To say I was confused would be a big understatement. My stepsister, the one person I despise the most, knows Minji? The Minji I've helplessly fallen for? I have so many questions and the person who has the answer for them is currently sitting on the floor, hugging her knees and crying softly. Without another thought, I walked over to where she was sitting and forced her to look up at me.

"What did you do to her? Why did she look like she was about to cry?" I asked, impatiently, but I got no reply. 

"Answer me! How does she know you?" I asked as I turned to see my mother looking at me with an unimpressed expression as my dad laughed with Hyunwoo. They really did think of my life as some joke.

 "The people I know are none of your business, Hanni," Wonyoung said as she got up from the floor, her expression now entirely different, different from the vulnerable state she was in earlier.

"Anything that goes on with Minji is my business," I said to her, in an attempt to sound stern, but I sounded rather scared, which I definitely was. 

"What do you know about Minji?" she asked as she let out a sarcastic laugh. 

"Everything you don't. Now tell me what you did to make her run out of the door like that?" I asked, as I inched forward and pointed my finger at her chest. The entire room had gone silent, only the faint noise of my mother slurping tea from her cup.

 "God damn it, Hanni, you don't know anything," she said as she ran a hand through her hair and walked away from me.

"Well, that's exactly why I'm asking you!" I yelled. 

"What was she even doing in your house? How do you know Minji? Why do you care so much?" Wonyoung asked me, her eyes flaring with an emotion that felt like hate. I was used to it; we've never had a good relationship.

 "I care because I love her!" I said out of frustration; the room actually went silent this time. Wonyoung was looking at me like she didn't believe a single word that came out of my mouth. 

"What?" Wonyoung barely managed to say. 

"You heard me right the first time," I said, as I turned to look at my parents. "I love her. I finally know what it feels like to be loved and to be cared about, something none of you ever tried to do."

"So Hyunwoo wasn't joking around?" my mother asked, with a humorless laugh, as she put down the teacup. "Good to know that you enjoyed yourself while we weren't keeping an eye on you, but you know how much I hate all of this, girls kissing girls nonsense," my mother continued.

 I turned around to see Wonyoung standing there with an unreadable expression. Did Mother even know that Wonyoung also liked women? I'm pretty sure she did, but I have never once seen my mother confront her about it. Why am I the one who gets stopped, why not Wonyoung?

"This is absolutely ridiculous. Wonyoung gets to do whatever the fuck she wants but I don't?" I asked as I grabbed my phone and car keys. Minji is more important than all of this. I need to go check up on her. 

"She was my girlfriend," Wonyoung said out loud from behind me, which made me freeze in my tracks. I turned back around to see Wonyoung standing with her arms folded at her chest. 

"What?" I asked, not wanting to believe anything. "Minji and I dated for only a week, but I knew she loved me. She liked me ever since we were kids; I was the only kid she ever talked to, only I understood her," Wonyoung said.