When I was five, I lost my entire family. My mom, dad, grandfather, grandmother, my two elder brothers and my one younger sister. How did I lose them? It was a weird mix of events; there was rain, and lightning, and a heavy wind that blew through the town. There were things floating and freezing and I had heard people shouting outside about a blinding light that flew through the neighborhood. The neighborhood ended up destroyed after that. Almost every house, however, remained up and the people in them remained alive.

All but my house. It had set on fire, and why only one house set on fire made no sense to me, but as my entire family panicked and worked to save each other, only one made it out alive.

That was me when I was five. How did I end up being the only one alive? I’m not so sure. There are fading bits of memories that left me confused as to whether or not I was actually saved. I was the only one left completely unharmed, and many people called me lucky. 

Lucky? My entire family died before my eyes. I was five. I was five and left with nothing. I was thrown into an orphanage, as my entire family had been lost. Rather than being the last in my family with memories only of death, I would have much rather died alongside them.

I spend years with such bitterness. It was what kept me alive in the real world, where I was made fun of for being an orphan. As I aged, I became invisible to everyone, a fact that made me proud of who I was. No one spoke to me, or teased me, or even looked my way.

I was happy for the treatment. I was always scared that the people I grew close to would only end up like my family, and I didn’t need any more of that. My days were spent isolated, no matter where I was. At work at a local café, I merely bussed tables. At school, I kept myself in the shadows and didn’t attempt to speak to anyone. At the orphanage, I was the eldest and thus kept myself away from the younger children.

At the moment, I’m seventeen years old. Currently, I’m a High School Senior. Once I turn eighteen, I’m to be kicked out of the orphanage so I can focus on getting myself a career and settling down somewhere. I spent twelve years on my own, full of bitterness and the ache to be loved again. Twelve years went by, and I was convinced my life would continue off in the same direction.

That was, until EXO came along.

EXO is the typical group of popular guys that everyone fawns over. They’re all bad boys who don’t care about anything other than each other and the many girls they could have with. There were only a couple that were still in high school with me, but the elders had chosen to work nearby or go to a nearby university so they wouldn’t be separated.

Why did I know so much about them? I’m like that, a wallflower, I suppose. Due to my invisible presence, it was a lot easier for me to get to know what others thought about various things. A popular topic was EXO, the twelve handsome boys that could easily make or break a person because of their looks alone.

I had my fair share of seeing them, of course. They had all gone to my High School at one point in time and made it a tradition to wait outside by the gate for each other when the day was done. I didn’t understand why they had to do that, since they were sure to have their own lives, but they were there every day. They ignored everyone except each other and the occasional good looking girl.

Now I bet you’re wondering what they have to do with my life.

…everything.

I arrived at school early, like I did every single day. I wanted to get there, settle down in my seat, and silently absorb everything. My grades were decent enough to keep me from getting called on in class, my attention was focused enough for the teachers to lose interest me. My face was set so that no one would question it.

But those things were to be saved for until I got into the classroom. Until I got to the school, my eyes were focused on my feet, my hands were stuffed into my pocket, and a pair of disconnected earphones rested in my ears so I wouldn’t be approached by strangers.

This is why when a pair of people ran at me from behind, I didn’t notice them until it was too late and I found myself on the ground. I knew the path well enough to know I was close to the school, so with a relieved sigh, I put my hands onto the ground in order to push myself up.

Then, a hand appeared before me. I didn’t know who it was that had come to help me, since I was sure the other students that pushed me were long gone, so I had slowly looked up in order to find out.

A smile, and a dimple. Those were the first features I noticed, along with short black hair that fell on his scalp gently. An EXO member, Lay. He had already graduated, so I was surprised to find him there in front of the school even though I saw the remaining EXO members behind him.

“Are you alright?” His voice was gentle, worried. I faltered as I looked up at him for a moment, only then realizing that my earphones had fallen out when I fell.

The next thing I realized was that the dull pain on my knees and my feet disappeared as I looked at Lay. It was strange, since I was sure it was bleeding by that point.

“I’m fine.” I muttered, and I ignored his offer to help as I got to my feet, picking up my fallen earphones and brushing passed him to the school building.

My chest contracted when someone grabbed onto my wrist. For a moment, I stared down at my wrist, and as I swallowed thickly, I let my eyes trail upwards. A tall boy, with blonde hair that fell over his ears. His eyebrows were furrowed in irritation, and a scowl played his lips. Kris, one of the eldest members of EXO and the most feared.

“He offered to help you and this is how you treat him?” When I looked up at him and he caught my eyes, a flicker of light passed his eyes, but he didn’t continue his words.

I pulled my hand back and stepped away from them, bowing my head, “I am capable of taking care of myself.”

After that, I turned around and continued to the building. This time, I was not stopped or pushed, and I sighed once more in relief. I didn’t want any more attention than they had given me already.

The day passed by in a blur after that. My classes came and went, and I spent lunch on my own on the rooftop like I always did. I had seen the six EXO members that still went to my school in the hallways, yet they didn’t notice my existence and I continued on like I always did.

Like in the morning, I was one of the first to leave the school building. It was easy for me since I was already pretty invisible to everyone around me. I was average, like I mentioned earlier, so no one even spared me a glance as I left the building. At least, that was until I reached the gate.

It suddenly felt like I saw EXO more often than I wanted to. Usually, I was able to slip past them undetected, since they would be talking to the many girls around them. Today, however, the twelve of them waited by the gate and watched me.

Me? Why me? I never asked for their attention, and I never asked them to wait out there, ignoring the girls around them and instead focusing on me.

My disconnected earphones were in my ears again, and my hands were stuffed deeply in my pockets. Some of the EXO members watched me with anger in their eyes, others with longing, and then some with nonchalance. There was the occasional surprised glance, as well. Why did their expressions vary so much?

For a few moments, I wondered if I should just go inside the building and study in the library. My shift at the café didn’t start for another hour or so, and I didn’t want to be caught by the EXO members.

“Move out of the way, freak.” It was the first time I was addressed, and especially as a “freak”. The girl that shoved me way squealed a moment later and ran towards the EXO members. I know because I watched her from where I sat on the ground.

This time, I had enough grace to somehow shift and land on my . Though I was irritated that it was my second time to have fallen on the ground, I reached out for the backpack that hit the floor a few inches from me.

“It seems we keep meeting like this.” I looked up at Lay’s face once more, and like before, the pain I felt vanished. I wanted to wonder why, but instead, I narrowed my eyes at him and got back to my feet on my own.

“I wish we wouldn’t.” It might have been a little cold, but I couldn’t care less at that moment. I pulled my backpack off the ground and stalked past him, aware of his eyes following me, and aware of everyone else who followed me with their eyes.

“Kwon Myung Ji.” I was surprised they knew my name. By they I wasn’t talking about EXO, but their many fangirls.

This is why I didn’t want to associate with anyone, and especially not EXO. Seeing me disrespect Lay was definitely not going to go down in their books as an acceptable act. It seemed the EXO members themselves agreed as well, as their narrowed eyes focused on the group of girls and myself.

“Are you that cold hearted?” One of the girls shoved at my shoulder, and my eyes widened as I focused on her. My entire life, I just did my best to keep to myself, so what did I do to deserve such treatment.

One of the other girls suddenly slapped my cheek, and I brought my hand to my face. I was angry, don’t get me wrong, but far more surprised that they would treat me like such when I didn’t do anything wrong.

“You hurt Lay’s feelings you ! Apologize!”

Even though I didn’t want to apologize, and even though I wanted nothing more than to cry and hit someone, I turned to a flabbergasted Lay. He hadn’t moved from where he had tried to help me earlier, and though he had offered to help me before, he was now contented with where he was watching me.

I bowed, my hands clenched at my sides and my eyes welling with tears, “Sorry, Sunbae.”

A moment later, I had been thrown out onto the sidewalk. Thankfully, this time, I was left on my feet. It didn’t mean my pride wasn’t hurt, however. The girls had dragged me out by my hair and the stinging on my cheek had gotten worse.

The time that I had been abused by girls I didn’t even know, the EXO members had just watched silently. Some seemed upset, others amused, and there were still those who didn’t care.

I started walking off without looking back, because why would I want to watch those jerks? Maybe now those people would leave me alone and I could continue being invisible.

Suddenly, loud whines were heard, and before I noticed what was happening, someone had caught my wrist and stopped me from continuing forward.

A breathless smile met my gaze, and I quickly realized the person holding onto me now was Suho. Suho wasn’t his real name, but I had never bothered learning the other one. I hadn’t seen him around a lot when he went to our school, as he was always busy doing things as council president.

“Did they hurt you too hard?” I wondered for a moment if looking at him would make my pain disappear like it had for Lay, but I was proven wrong when he gently pressed his thumb against my cheek and I hissed at the sensation.

I stepped back immediately, pulling my wrist out of his grasp. From behind him, I noticed the other EXO members were slowly catching up to him. There were girls behind them, staring at them in longing and at me in envy.

“It looks painful.” I knew that voice well, my eyes flying to Sehun. He was taller than me, but we were in the same grade. His hair was blonde with streaks of color, but I didn’t care about that. Sehun was a bully, just like those girls, and my thoughts were confirmed when a smirk played his lips as he saw the handprint on my cheek.

“Hun, stop.” The next boy who spoke was Luhan. His voice sounded sweet and milky, but Luhan was one of the bigger jerks in the group. Back when he had attended our school, he had a new girl hanging onto his arm every day. He didn’t seem to care for me particularly, his eyes dragging from my head down to my toes in apprehension.

“Do you want us to take you to the hospital?”

“I want you to leave me alone.” I answer, and I see some of them flinch and others grow angry. I didn’t care for their emotions as I took a step back.

“We’ve been in the same school for almost twelve years. All this time you ignored me. Suddenly you choose to treat me like I exist? Please do me a favor and stop.”

With that, I turned and took a step forward, but I was cut off when someone grabbed my wrist. With a sigh, I turned in annoyance to Suho. It was not the first time he had the audacity to touch me like I was his doll.

“At least let me take you home. You’re hurt and it looks like it’s going to rain.”

I was going to snort and say that he was stupid, but then I felt the raindrops fall on my head and I looked up at the sky in disbelief. The weather report said the day was supposed to be sunny and beautiful, so what was this sudden downpour?

“See?” Suho questioned, and his eyes flickered over the other annoyed boys. They didn’t seem pleased that it was raining so suddenly and suddenly grouped together to try and keep themselves dry. Suho himself had raised his jacket so he could use it as a covering for himself and me.

“Kris, Yeol, go get the cars?”

Cars? My eyes followed the two tall boys as they sighed and walked away. Chanyeol was one of the boys who still went to our schools, a tall and cheerful male. That was only when he was with his friends, however. I had caught him giving other students the evil eyes several times.

“I don’t need you to-“

I was cut off when another boy around my age stepped forward and joined Suho and I under the elder boy’s jacket. Kai, another player. He was probably even more popular than Luhan himself, and more of a jerk than Sehun himself.

“Where are you going?”

“Work.” I didn’t find the need to explain any further, and though the boys looked at me in what seemed to be perplexity, I silently waited for the two vans that stopped beside us.

I wasn’t even given the time to refuse as I was shoved into the backseat of Kris’s van.