⁺☆ Counselor's Office

@ˢ jennie kim jihyun's grip subconsciously loosened, everso slightly when jennie seemed to flinch away from it. she gave an apologetic look for startling the girl. she listened to jennie's concerns, searching the girl's eyes to get an idea of what may have being going on in her mind. there was movement in her peripheral. the shadows were retreating. so, it was working. even if just a little. "even if he tries to come here, he's not going to get very far," she responded, voice even but only loud enough for the two of them. she moved to settle on the now visible other seat, not letting go of the other's hands. "one man that fancies himself a villain has nothing on a school full of trained, professional heroes. some of us have decades of experience. he won't make it two steps on campus without finding himself in the fight of his life. so, you have nothing to worry about."

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun for a moment, jennie was out of the room. physically, she was there, but mentally, she was in a whole other world. she was almost lost in her thoughts, in the memories of her past. at first, when the woman took her hands, she flinched. she didn't feel jihyun's touch, but instead it was that of her ex. but when she finally lifted her gaze to see the woman in front of her, she refocused her attention. it's not your ex, she reminded herself.

it was then that she realized just how dark the room was. she apologized, and though her fingers trembled in jihyun's hold, she didn't take her hands away. it was a sort of comfort. looking up at jihyun, jennie finally parted her lips to speak. "but what if he comes here? what if he tries to hurt me, or - or my boyfriend? what then?" the shadows trembled, briefly inching closer to the two of them, but they slowly began to slide back, retreating once more.

@ˢ jennie kim jennie's anxiety only seemed to mount and jihyun felt a bit bad for getting the girl to speak so in depth. at the same time though, she needed her to. mind reading wasn't her power and she couldn't counsel without the proper details. the shadows continued closing in, darkening and trembling as the seconds ticked and anxiety mounted. she would have offered the girl some water, but she couldn't tell where the mini fridge was. she did the next best thing, letting jennie know that they could stop at any time and, otherwise, she could take all the time she needed.

as the other spoke, her words came out in chunks - some with pauses in between as she tried to speak past her anxiety. wordlessly, jihyun got up from her seat to crouch in front of jennie. she would have sat next to her, but she couldn't even tell if the couch was still tangible with how black the shadow shrouding the empty half of it was.

"you don't have to be afraid of him, jennie. he can't hurt you," she assured while reaching out to take the young woman's hands, holding them loose enough that she could pull away should she want to. "you came to nha for a safe place. well, guess what? it is a safe place and it's always going to be a safe place. you're surrounded by seasoned heroes and heroes in training. do the math, sweetheart, he won't be able to touch you, let alone kill you."

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun jennie couldn't take her gaze from her fingers. she was afraid, that much was evident. the little light that was left in the room clearly trembled just as bad as jennie did. her eyes fell shut, screwing as tight as she dared while the sudden memory jumped at her. it was dark in her mind, darker than any shadow that dared creep up on her, though the room was left in a single circle that left the two of them in light, though it was dim.

when jennie opened her eyes at the question, it was with a sharp gasp. the part of the room that was engulfed in shadows was pitch black. darker than any imaginable black, darker than what most would call dark in the first place. it frightened jennie, enough that she was choked up in the moment, floundering to say something. when she finally tore her gaze from the shadows, ones that she created out of her fear, she nodded, swallowing thickly. it took her a long moment before she could speak.

"i'm afraid of him. he wanted to kill me. he still does. when i ran away, he... he said it, that he... he would find me." was dry, her voice scratching at the back of . the shadows began inching closer. "i came here hoping he'd never find me. i'm afraid he will."

@ˢ jennie kim jihyun hummed, denoting her acknowledgement of the answer and wordlessly motivating the girl to continue. the question was definitely a heavy one, so she waited patiently for whatever answer she would get. if jennie decided to stay tight-lipped and keep the dream to herself, that was fine. they would just find some other way to progress the session. the counselor had already started to mentally go over different routes for the conversation, a failsafe so they weren't just stewing in the uncomfortable silence that had a tendency to settle in the counseling suite like a thick fog. luckily, jennie had started to describe the dream and they could stick with plan a.

most trauma dreams took place as perfect snapshots of the traumatic event, so that detail was no surprise. still, jihyun listened with her full attention, staying quiet even during the moments where the other paused. whether it was to collect her thoughts or emotions, jihyun had no idea. the shadows from before continued moving, closing in much quicker than before as jennie basically described the reason they were. the room wasn't very large, so the only uncovered spot was the immediate perimeter around the two of them.

"you don't have to say anymore," jihyun informed softly. she took one more look around the blackening room before settling her gaze back on the student across from her. "you're still afraid of him, right? that's why you keep having the dreams about that day?"

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun "yeah... yeah, he was abusive." jennie thought back to the man she thought was 'the one'. her gaze focused on the cup that set back down on the desktop, the simple sound something like a grounding tool in the moment. it helped her calm down, focus even, before she lifted her gaze to rest back on the counselor before her. it was a weighty question, asking what happened in her dreams, especially when they were as haunting as hers were.

"usually, in my dream, it happens just like what happened the same day in real life." she began quietly, her gaze dropping to her hands as she fiddled with her fingers in her lap. it was always hard talking about it, just as hard as it was reliving it almost every single night. "in my dream, he's drinking by the time i come home. sometimes, what we first argue over changes, but usually it's because he thinks i'm off seeing some other guy - which i never did! or do. but then he starts getting violent, and then he - he outs himself as a villain. and he says stuff like he's going to keep me captive and all that. but then, i get scared, and i start using my powers, powers i didn't know i had. and then it gets all dark, like a pitch... p-pitch black." as jennie spoke, her gaze on her fingers, the shadows began to inch from the corners of the room. they grew in size, in the depth of darkness, and trembled as they grew closer to the two of them. "and i wake up every time with the darkness... surrounding me in real life, too. i-it's always dark, so dark-"

@⭑ ˢ lee sunmi jihyun hummed lightly, trying to recall what it was like learning to control her power the first time. it was so long ago that it honestly seemed like she had control all along. learning to control a power like hers was similar to learning to speak a language. it was easiest as a kid, but even then you struggled a bit. learning it again was daunting, it like hell waking up in a bed covered in ink and basically ruining everything she touched and every outfit she wore. she stayed in a lot of sweats and giant t-shirts during those few months, cheap stuff that barely mattered.

"it was totally hard," she confirmed with a nod. practicing control was especially difficult when you were constantly in pain. "especially the second time."

"anyway, it's done. i managed," she said, finishing up the model sketch. she nodded, humming in acknowledgement while starting to sketch in a random neckline. "i never do skirts - or anything flowy for that matter. too easy to grab. dangerous," she said softly, eyes trained on the paper. she paused to actually look at sunmi, flashing her a smile. "don't worry, i'm definitely giving your lovely wings the space they deserve. no specifics for anything else?"

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun sunmi had long since accepted how most of her peers, and even the students, called her 'siri' instead of her proper name, or at least 'miss principal.' she hadn't even heard her students call her that. how rude! or perhaps it was her own fault as well, since she hadn't exactly presented herself the way a principal would — not that she knew how, but going by her observations from the previous principal... no, she wouldn't be able to do that.

yoongi was better off being considered the principal. he did most of the work, anyway.

"see? no one ever reads the code of conduct," she said, raising both hands while shrugging her shoulders. "such a waste of paper, really," she added lightheartedly, which was something that shouldn't come out of a woman of her status' lips, actually, but it wasn't as though she cared. "people only ever read it when they're in trouble." she briefly entertained the thought of forcing the students to read it, just so her other teachers wouldn't have had to stress themselves with the students breaking even the smallest of all rules without knowing they did.

sunmi's eyes flickered to the pen's direction, a slight nod on her part. "was trying to get the control down hard?" she asked, much like how she'd ask other heroes or ability users. it was... a concept she was unfamiliar with. unlike most she'd met so far, she hadn't undergone a struggle in mastering her ability. it was the very reason why her life had changed drastically. it was also the very reason why she failed to sympathize with their struggles, because all her life, that kind of thing had been too easy.

"hmm..." sunmi hummed, quickly thinking up of a design — and coming up with a blank. "well, an open back, perhaps? for my wings." sunmi's true form was one with large, majestic wings that expanded twice as long as her body. it was quite fortunate that she could make them appear or vanish from sight at will, or she would have to live her daily life with her wings out every single day. "no skirts, though. they're hard to move in."

@⭑ ˢ lee sunmi they were definitely not the same thing, but jihyun didn't press the matter further, merely shaking her head with a small smile on her face. she also wasn't going to go into the matter of snakes versus mice when it came to paintings. she didn't even know where to begin with unpacking that.

a chuckle left the woman's lips and she shook her head. "i'm messing with you. don't be silly, siri," she said, setting things up as if she were just going to easily pawn it off as a joke. she sat up a little straighter, rolling the inking pen between her fingers. "i haven't read the code of conduct," she quipped before laughing good-naturedly.

she nodded along with all of sunmi's comments, lightly tapping her fingers on the overturned book. "why thank you~" she quipped, making a show of batting her eyelashes. she nodded again before looking up and realizing that the other woman's eyes were closed. "yeah, or someone that needs a single place to channel to. similar to how i channel to nibbus," she stated, gesturing to the seven-foot steel-nib pen once the other's eyes were open again. if not for her well practiced control, there'd be ink coming out of basically everywhere as they spoke.

it wasn't uncommon for her to receive requests. in fact, it happened so often that she recognized the body language of someone about to ask. as soon as the smile found its way onto sunmi's face, jihyun had already replaced the ink pen with a sketching one. "of course," she said, lightly drawing in a body for the costume to go over. "do you have anything in particular you want on it?"

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun "same thing, same thing," sunmi said in a singsong tone — or something similar to that, anyway — with a wave of her hand in dismissal. "don't snakes look better in paintings rather than mice?" she continued on, speaking without really thinking much about the words that came out of her lips.

"hmm," sunmi hummed at jihyun's words, acting as though she was trying to remember what words were typed in the code of conduct. "did we ever have a rule like that, junji?" she asked. well, in sunmi's defense, she hadn't actually read the code of conduct, even if the previous principal told her to do so. what could she say? she wasn't much of a stickler to the rules — and sometimes, she wondered what came to the previous principal's mind to suggest her to take his position, but... oh well, what's done was done, and sunmi couldn't say she disliked the power and authority that came with it.

"it looks like a good design," sunmi said, nodding as she leaned back into her chair. "simple, but efficient," she concluded. when the other woman flipped the sketchbook, sunmi closed her eyes in order to refresh the picture in her mind. "it'd be more suitable to someone who has to use their hands a lot in channeling their power, wouldn't it?" she said, before her eyes fluttered open. it wouldn't be a costume suitable for someone like sunmi, whose power lied in her wings and most especially her voice. "i'm sure it'll look good! it's you, after all." she then leaned toward jihyun with a smile. "can you draw a costume for me, junji?" she asked.

@ˢ jennie kim recurring dreams were normal, of course, but the fact that they were at the point that jennie felt the need to come to someone about them was what stirred the concern in jihyun's chest like a sea at the beginnings of a storm. the way the younger worded things so vaguely just didn't sit well with her either, like whatever happened was unspeakable. she set her cup down, gently so the ceramic clicked lightly against the glass desktop. the sound it produced otherwise was loud and grating for her, so she could only imagine how bad it was for people with full hearing. the shadows were moving again but she elected to just focus on the source, quietly urging the student to go on.

past trauma usually led itself to night terrors, so jihyun imagined that "not exactly a nice one." was a major understatement. nobody had nightmares about marginally mean people. "an ex," she repeated, lacing her fingers back together on top of the desk. "it's safe to assume they were some sort of abusive, right?" she asked, pausing briefly to allow and answer if jennie chose to give one. "if you can find it in yourself to share, could you tell me what happens in these dreams?"

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun there was something soothing about the little movements jihyun made. from reaching for her cup, to sipping from the contents, jennie felt validated. not that she wasn't validated usually, but it felt nice in a moment when she was a little out of place. she just wasn't used to opening up about the littlest things anymore, not to anyone except her boyfriend. so this - especially coming to a teacher, or at least someone in authority in this school - was new for her. that's why she stumbled over her words, hesitated so often, and generally had no idea how to continue her sentences. how did someone even open up about something like this?

"recurring dream. sometimes, things change. little things, you know? like what i'm doing. but it's always the same room, and always the same thing happens." there's a brief flash of it behind jennie's eyes when she closed them. snapping her eyes back open, the shadows inched slowly from their corners, all four corners of the room. sometimes, she hated her powers. trying to ignore the darkness creeping up on her, jennie took in a deep breath and continued. "i... yeah, i know why i'm having them. why i've always had them. well, not always. it's just - an ex. not exactly a nice one..."

@ˢ jennie kim despite the shifting shadows in the corner behind jennie titillating her peripheral vision, jihyun maintained the eye contact she had and patiently waited for the girl to gather her thoughts. she spoke slowly, as if still trying to work things out or build the courage to say them. she had virtually all of the time in the world, so jihyun didn't care to rush her. instead, she looked away and reached for the long forgotten cup of tea at the corner of her desk to offer a break from the eye contact. when jennie still hadn't continued, she offered a barely audible hum to show she was listening and to encourage the other to continue. the shadow had retreated back into it's corner and jihyun returned her gaze to the student before her as she finally continued.

"okay," she started once she was sure jennie had actually stopped. her tone was level and she paused to take a sip of the lukewarm tea while mulling over her next open-ender. she wanted to get some background before blatantly asking the girl to regale the dream, knowing that that would probably be the hardest part. it certainly was for her. re-telling her nightmares always got her palms sweaty, her heart racing, and the contact wound on her back always hurt at the mere thought of it. "so, is it a reoccurring dream or different ones?" she asked, reaching over her shoulder to rub the very spot in a futile attempt to alleviate the ache. "do you know why you might be having them?"

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun "oh, okay. good! good." jennie let out something like a nervous laugh. she had no real idea why she was so nervous. there were lights on in the room, and it wasn't like she was sleeping. things were going to be fine. jennie told herself that as she settled back in the chair, finally letting herself relax. she didn't quite feel out of place, but she was certainly out of her element. "i didn't mean to, even if i did..."

she trailed off as the counselor scooted forward, trying to hold back the smile that was about to creep up on her face. perhaps it was because of all the nervous energy, but she couldn't help the little giggle that left her lips. murmuring a quiet apology, she sighed and sunk back in her chair, forcing herself to relax. it couldn't be all that hard to do something like this. at the question, jennie raised her gaze, eyes wide. the corners of the room seemed a little bit darker as she had to think about just what to say.

"well, i.. i've been having nightmares." jennie started out slowly, dipping her head a little as she lifted a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. she was hesitant to continue, looking off to one particular corner of the room that had grown a little dark. focusing on that, she pushed the shadows back before she raised her gaze to look at jihyun, pursing her lips. "they've been getting worse, and i always wake up in complete darkness like in the dream. so... y-yeah..."

@⭑ ˢ lee sunmi "a rat is completely different from a mouse!" jihyun countered, taking full offense at the generalization. she didn't bother a proper response past that since comparing the other to a snake seemed just as wrong. snakes were, well, snakes.

she watched, idly twirling the inking pen in her hand, as sunmi pulled up a chair for herself. she pressed her lips together, pretending to put legitimate thought into the question, before shaking her head. "nope, sorry, that's against the rules," she quipped, a cheeky grin on her face. as she finally settled from the prior surprise, she was actually able to be her witty self. "no favorites and no surprise drop ins. don't tell me you haven't read the code of conduct," she said in mock horror, referencing the most widely ignored stack of paper in school history. it was given to students each year and most of them either ended up in the trash the next day or just sat collecting dust somewhere. the bound rules were common sense, really.

jihyun glanced at her sketchbook before turning right back to her friend. "nope," she replied, brushing away a few pills of eraser residue. "just thought of it this morning." the costume itself was rather simple, the usual one piece bodysuit, in favor of overall protection. what made it unique without colors and the little details that cane with that was the series of wires coming from a point in the back to connect to the gloves. ideally, the outfit would go to someone that prefered conducting their power to their hands. "i'm glad to finally get the sketch down though because i might have forgotten it. anyway, i'm hardly done," she said sheepishly, flipping the book facedown. "it's not ready for outside eyes just yet."

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun jihyun was adorable, sunmi commented happily in her mind as she watched the other's surprise. she quickly stepped to the side in order to avoid jihyun and her chair, hands still by her back. this was another one of the common occurrences in sunmi's life, one that she had found herself appreciating overtime. she only laughed at the other woman's reaction, pressing her palms together by her chest, "don't compare me to a rat, of all things!" she said. "you could have compared me to a snake — but no, you choose a rat!" she placed a hand on her chest, acting with fake offense, before laughing softly.

she pulled a chair near her and sat down, dragging herself near jihyun as she glanced at the drawing on top of jihyun's desk. "can't i just visit my favorite counselor on random days?" she replied. it wasn't as if they rarely saw each other — heck, they worked together, even if sunmi wasn't even supposed to be a teacher, but oh well. she hummed softly to herself, which sounded rather weird with her artificial voice, but she focused her eyes on the sketch, moving even closer to it. she could see that jihyun had only started on it earlier, an hour or so before sunmi arrived, perhaps? but even with that, sunmi could get a quick gist of how the costume was going to look like.

"hoooh, did someone request for a costume design?" she asked. as far as sunmi was concerned, jihyun's designs were the best, even if some people would claim otherwise. the older woman's designs were efficient, while not sacrificing too much fashion. of course, there were still heroes such as sunmi herself, who wanted to look fashionable while she was out fighting villains. "or is this simply something you came up for yourself?"

@⭑ ˢ lee sunmi naturally, jihyun had been completely unaware of the other's presense -- which would probably be bad in any situation other than the present one. but, she was retired and not much could get past the main office, let alone all the way back to the counselor's suite that lined the back wall. so, her guard was down. at the sound of sunmi's artificial voice, jihyun jumped, sending her and her chair careening about a foot and a half back from the desk. as the chair rolled, she caught view of the familiar face and a her own expression soured, brows furrowing and a pout settling on her pink lips.

"don't do that," she whined, as the chair met her filing cabinet, effectively stopping in its tracks. she scooted back to her desk, stopping halfway to pick up the pencil that managed to fall and roll away. "i swear to god, siri, you're like a mouse but way scarier," she added, tossing the pencil up onto the desk and turning to face the younger woman. it rolled right back off, only stopping when it hit the bookcase that nibbus maximums was propped up against. she elected to ignore it.

"anyway, you can have a seat, make yourself at home," she said, clearing and tucking hair behind both of her ears in a poor effort to regain her composure. her heart was still running a mile a minute, making her hands slightly too shaky to continue drawing. she was glad there hadn't been anyone else present to see that mini fiasco, honestly. "to what do i owe the utmost pleasure of your visit?"

@ˢ jennie kim "of course not, never," jihyun responded in an attempt to sooth jennie's present worries. as the girl sat down, she made quick work of clearing her desk while saying that it was completely okay for her to sit there. as far as jihyun was concerned, that was jennie kim's chair for the next...however long she decided to be there. once her desk was clean, which really just meant pushing things to either side to make room for her, the counselor took a seat of her own.

after a few brief, probably goofy-looking scoots forward, she was close enough to rest her chin atop bridged fingers and she took a moment to just watch jennie and her mannerisms. her big doe eyes were the main indicator: she was clearly nervous as hell. that made jihyun's heart ache for t girl, honestly. imagine being nervous to sit in the place that was supposed to help with your concerns. the safe space. it had to be awful.

"alright," she said after a few beats, voice low but audible. "what's going on, sweetie?" she didn't like asking, how people were. clearly they weren't doing great if they were sitting across from her, so she skipped out of that altogether. "what do you want to talk about?"

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun sunmi let out a soft yawn as she wandered through the halls, having just finished a class with another batch of rookies. it wasn't as though it was hard to teach — she'd developed the easiest way to teach them, after all, which was through experience. lessons were best learnt through experience, that one she'd learned from her rather... eventful life. but that didn't mean that sunmi had the patience for it. the students were quite lucky that her patience was relatively long compared to the other teachers, even if some of them... didn't believe her capabilities at first. had they not heard of the great battle against the villains a few years ago? she would sulk, but she was too old for that.

she was a mature 29 year old lady.

she hummed to herself as she nodded.

she stopped by a familiar door, pointedly ignoring the sign that had basically told everyone else that the woman in that room wasn't entertaining anyone at the moment. well, anyone else except sunmi, of course. she supposed being the principal had its perks sometimes (one, she could annoy yoongi for all she wanted, and many other things that she often liked to flaunt with no shame), but her relation with the counselor ran deeper than that. she smiled to herself, the same smile she'd held for so many years, and was almost never seen without it.

she lifted a hand toward the door, and paused. if the sign was 'UNAVAILABLE,' that meant her little junji was busy with a variety of things, but sunmi was quite willing to bet that jihyun was drawing once again. and with jihyun focused like that, she tended not to notice her surroundings, unless it was an explosion — something that sunmi had personally learned after the vice principal had gotten rather violent at one point. sunmi let her lifted hand fall to the doorknob, twisting it open as quietly as she could without having to manipulate the sound waves.

when she entered the room, she learned that she wasn't wrong with her initial thoughts. there was jihyun, completely lost in her own little zone. sunmi often found the sight beautiful, especially with how much passion the older lady was willing to give for her talent. it was something that sunmi often found interesting in the others, for it was something she couldn't relate to. such a sad thing that was, but she shook the thoughts out of her head as she approached the busy woman with a cheeky grin, footsteps silent until she stopped right by the lady's side. she held her hands together behind her, before she leaned forward, looking at the sketch below jihyun's hands. "oho! that looks good, jihyun!" she said, her mechanical voice not giving justice to the tone of her words.

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun jennie was standing there for too long a moment, and one of the instant thoughts was that she was interfering. well, that or that she was going there when no one was there in the first place. perhaps if she wasn't panicking the entire time, she would have heard the music playing in the room. she would have realized there was light under the door, light that trembled as she was hit with a spike of anxiety as she waited.

when the door opened, even just a crack, jennie jumped back a little. her eyes were wide, and she dragged her gaze from the bottom of the door all the way up to where the woman was standing. for some reason, jennie was nervous even then. she lifted her hand, the one she used to knock, to give a short little wave.

"i hope i didn't... interrupt anything." her voice was soft, still a little squeaky as she looked up. her gaze then slid into the office. did she even want to do this anymore? she figured she didn't really have a choice at this point. gently tucking her hands into her sweater, jennie stepped into the room, glancing around as she came to the loveseat, reaching out to brush her fingers over the seat before coming to sit down. she shifted slightly, watching the counselor with wide, nervous eyes. "is this okay? me sitting here? i guess i'm supposed to sit here..."

@⭑ ˢ lee sunmi jihyun let out a long, drawn out yawn as she stretched her arms high above her head, slightly revealing her stomach littered with branch-like scars. her phone alarm went off, both startling her and signaling the end of her shift for the day. quickly turning off the thing that sounded like some red-alter siren, she rose from her spinning chair and crossed the room to flip her flower-covered "AVAILABLE" sign to "UNAVAILABLE" which was covered in wilted ones. she closes the door a little, leaving just enough of a crack that people can still enter if not for counseling, or at least for emergencies only.

returning to her seat, she pulled out her sketchbook from beside her desk and opened it up to a fresh page. the counselor made quick work of setting up her mise en place, various pens and pencils placed within reach while being enough out of the way that they wouldn't get knocked to the floor. it was key to do all of that first as the way she sat while drawing wasn't exactly the best to keep moving in and out of. one leg tucked underneath her for height, the other bent to prop up and support her drawing arm (and sometimes head when she had to get close without toppling over). it looked uncomfortable, but jihyun found a lot of peace in it.

once she was satisfied, she tied her hair up into a messy ponytail and sat in her chair just like that. grabbing the nearest pencil, she started a rough sketch of the costume design that she'd been stuck thinking of all day. before long, she was completely engrossed in the drawing. the sketch had been rather quick so she was heavily focused on cleaning up and defining major lines. sometimes erasing and re-drawing the same things until they were perfect. she chewed her lower lip in focus, completely caught up in her own world.

@ˢ jennie kim with the year kind of just kicking off and the counseling job spread out over multiple people, jihyun had absurd amount of time to just sit with her thoughts. she usually avoided that though, keeping a random playlist going at a low volume on to occupy her ears while her hands worked on whatever her latest design was at the moment.

as of now, she'd been hunched over in a chiropractor's nightmare, one leg underneath her and the other supporting her elbow as her large sketchbook sat in the dip created on her lap. brown eyes skimmed over the current sketch, scrutinizing every detail little detail as the pen tip skimmed across the page to make minuscule changes. a bit of pain manifested at the junction of her shoulders and her spine. rubbing at it, she wasn't sure if it was the way she'd been sitting for the past 30 minutes or more phantom pains. there wasn't much time to dwell on it either as her ears picked up on the lightest of knocks.

pausing her music, jihyun strained her ears to hear for any other knocks. for a moment sat there just staring at the door, unsure if there had been one or not. the first rap had been so quiet and her hearing still wasn't at 100%. she didn't want to run some poor kid off just because she was unsure though, so she sat everything on her desk and rose from her seat to open the door just a crack.

there was, in fact, someone on the other side and a confused frown was replaced with a warm smile. "ah, so there was someone. come on in," she greeted, opened the door further and stepping aside to make room. she gestured to the loveseat across from her desk while shutting the door. "make yourself comfortable."

@⭒ ˢ jun jihyun jennie was getting sick of the nightmares. they came every once in a while, creeping into her subconscious and permeating ever inch of her brain. she was sick of waking up in cold sweats, panting and gasping for breath, tangled in her sheets. at first, she told herself it was normal. everyone has dreams of the people that haunted them in their pasts. everyone fights the ghosts of their past in some sort of way. jennie just had to face him in her dreams.

every time, it was the same. she came home to the apartment they had shared. he had been drinking, of course, which made it all the more worse. he was ready to nit and pick at everything, and that's when it got hazy. the darkness enveloped her, taking over the entire room in her dream, much like it had the day she ran off. most of the time, when she woke up, it was pitch black in her room. she was sure her roommates either weren't bothered or asleep, but she was petrified. and she was done. she wanted to get over this.

she was hesitant at first. it took at least a week to get the motivation up to go to the counselor's office. the first time, she didn't even go in. she stood outside the door, hand poised to knock, and then her heel. jennie got about halfway down the hallway before turning around and taking a deep breath, knocking on the door with the lightest little taps. nervousness struck her as she took a step back, wondering if she was potentially interrupting a session. god, she would really hate herself if she was.

☆⇢ ᴏᴘᴇɴ