Chapter Text
Once Sophia stopped doomscrolling, she would invent phone screens that provide Vitamin D through its blue light. But for now, Sophia has to drag herself out of the house with her sister to touch grass so her parents would stop bugging her about rotting away.
Her younger sister, Yoonchae, the absolute perfect daughter her parents adored, had already strapped on her rollerblades, helmet, and knee pads in the time Sophia took to peel herself off her bed.
Eventually, Sophia and Yoonchae found themselves at the local skatepark, the sun piercing through the naked sky and catching Sophia’s eye at every angle, no matter how much she tried turning to avoid the glint. As Yoonchae rolled away to the actual skating area of the park, Sophia headed in the opposite direction towards a bench.
Sophia watched Yoonchae for exactly five seconds before deciding she had fulfilled her sisterly duties. She forced herself to sit on the searing-hot bench, pulled her noise-canceling headphones over her ears, and let her overplayed, soon to become skippable, current favourite song blast at full volume, muting out the world. The familiar comfort of mindlessly staring into a strip of metal welcomed her back. She was home.
Since Sophia didn’t have any grasp of the passage of time, she couldn’t say how long she’d sat there on the bench for. It was during a brief, idle glance up from her screen that a jolt of pure, ice-cold adrenaline shot through her.
Yoonchae, on top.
Ramp, tall.
Balance, off.
She’s gonna fall.
The park went silent. Sophia was on her feet, a raw, protective instinct she didn't know she possessed propelling her forward. "Yoonchae!"
She didn’t even make it three steps.
A solid thud from Sophia’s left sent her flying. It wasn’t a push, but a crash, a blur of denim and a whip of braids. There was a crunch right next to Sophia’s ear, as if her own ear had been smashed, and then she registered the sting of gravel on her palms and an ache in her hip.
When she blinked her eyes open, the world came back into focus, directly in a face. A girl’s face, mere inches from her own. Skin amaretto, a soft, yet defined jawline, and eyes deep as wine in a crystal glass. Her dark hair, millions of dainty plaits embedded with gold metal flecks, fanned out on the dusty pavement around her head like a halo. She was, without any exaggeration, the most gorgeous girl Sophia had ever seen in her entire life.
And with that thought came the ugly, familiar panic. A treacherous flutter started in her stomach, a warm, terrifying pounding in her heart that made her feel… not exposed per se, but instead the daunting feeling right before one is exposed.
Sophia shoved upward. Hard. “Get off of me.”
The other girl, who had been mesh with Sophia’s body a second ago, was easily flipped off, pushed off, flat onto her back now, her expression shifting from surprise to a stunned wow.
Sophia got up, straightened up, putting distance between herself and the source of that… feeling, brushing furiously at the dirt on her jeans. That’s when she felt them. Her headphones, compressed. Her ear had been cushioned by the foam, but the device still paid the ultimate price. Self sacrifice. Sophia was afraid to touch her headphones and find out exactly how bad they had been damaged.
A fresh wave of teary rage, so much easier to handle than the other feeling, surged through her, burning the back of her eyes. A perfect scapegoat.
“Watch where you’re fucking going, bitch.” Sophia glared down at the girl, who was now slowly sitting up, shielding her eyes from the sun. The gorgeous girl had no chance to say anything. She squinted up at Sophia in the blinding sunlight, her expression tightening into something that looked like anger. Before any words could form, Sophia had already spun on her heel, briskly walking away, refusing to look back.
Yoonchae was at the bottom of the steep ramp, perfectly fine, gliding to a graceful stop. She turned and saw Sophia approaching with a twisted, red face.
“Sophia! What happened? Your elbow!”
Sophia quickly bent her arm, and although she couldn’t really see it, she sure could feel it, regretting the bending movement. She slowly let her elbow go, grumbling, “It’s nothing.”
Yoonchae looked over to where Sophia came from. “Who’s that? Did she push you?”
“Nobody. It was nothing,” Sophia repeated, gazing stone-faced into the distance, opposite of where the other girl was picking up the skateboard she fell off from when she had the fortunate chance to meet Sophia. Sophia grabbed Yoonchae’s arm, her grip a little too tight. “We’re going home.”
As she dragged her protesting sister, she could feel a pair of eyes burning into the back of her head. She didn’t dare turn around, but the image of her—the radiant, startled angel—was already seared onto the back of her eyelids.