“Eonnie, wake up!! It’s time to go!!”

That cheerful yet somehow demanding voice sounded familiar in my head. The dark vision slowly turned bright as soon as I opened my eyes. My vision was still blurry, but I felt a warm and dazzling sunlight touched my skin while it was somehow blinding to the eye.

‘Ugh, what time is it?’ I thought as I blinked my eyes several times, trying to gather my soul since the sleepiness didn’t seem like it would leave me anytime soon. Getting up slowly, I finally managed myself to sit still while my hands moved to rub my eyes as a heavy yawn escaped my mouth. I didn’t know why but something felt off? About the bed?

Before I could even continue my thoughts, a pair of hands grabbed my hands and pulled me off of my spot, making me to stand up forcefully. “Yah, eonnie. I told you to lock your door, why didn’t you do that?”

“Oh?” I snapped, blinking my eyes clueless. “But I did-” I tried to tell the truth but paused once a different view caught my attention.

As I looked around, I found that currently, we both were not in my room. There were these three big sofas around us and a rectangular glassy table, and it turned out that we were in the living room. And to be exact, it seemed like I was just sleeping on the sofa. No wonder, the ‘bed’ didn’t feel so comfortable earlier.

I frowned slightly, thinking that I must have done it again. But then I turned my face to the smaller girl in front of me before giving her a half forced and a half embarrassed smile. She rolled her eyes at me, before shoving me off while saying,

“Ppalli!! Get ready or I’ll be late for school.” Her voice sounded a bit annoyed. But well, I knew she didn’t because she was just a good high schooler who wanted to be on time.

“Alright, alright.. I’ll get ready real quick!” I said then walked to the bathroom while she went to the kitchen.

“10 minutes!” She shouted.

Before entering the bathroom, which was actually right across the kitchen, I turned back to look at that pretty little girl who was now starting to prepare the breakfast. I smiled at her.

Shannon Williams, a little cousin of mine who had been living in here, in Korea for her whole life. Well, maybe she was living in Jeju, until she told uncle and aunty that she wanted to attend that art school, SOPA in Seoul. And that was a year ago when I got accepted into SNU. And so, our parents somehow agreed to buy us a house in Seoul, so we could stay together because.. One, Shannon was too young to live alone. And two, I had this dangerous habit which I just did again today, sleepwalking. So, for us to live together in this house was a good- no, a best idea. Besides, this house was close to both, my university and her school.

Unconsciously, a soft sigh escaped as I looked at that hard working little girl. Somehow, I felt guilty since she had to take care of me more than me taking care of her. Well, let say she was a good kid and I was the bad one. She had that mature yet still adorable personality, while me? I was a new girl in town and I didn’t really know how to take care of youngsters. Moreover with my dangerous habit, it must be a burden to her. And I can’t blame her if she gets annoyed by this bad big sister sometimes.

“Eonnie, are you done?” She shouted from the kitchen, even though her attention was locked at the toaster in front of her.

“Almost done!” Before I could realize it, I lied to her as I snapped back to the reality and quietly entered the bathroom.

 

Ten minutes or maybe more had passed and once I was done getting dressed and all, I looked at my own reflection in the mirror as I fixed my hair a little. I took a deep breath, feeling the fresh morning air as it was still about 6.30 in the morning, and the morning breeze somehow calmed me down. But I wondered why Korean schools start quite early, in the morning? I raised an eyebrow but quickly shoved off the random thoughts as I grabbed my cow-printed backpack that was lying on my bed before going back to the kitchen.

As I reached the kitchen, I saw Shannon was almost done with her toast and milk. And yeah, we never really wait for each other to eat breakfast. So, yeah..

“Ready to go?” I asked.

“Hm!” She nodded while swallowing the last bite of her toast, before taking a sip of her glass of milk. “Eonnie, eat yours too!”

“Arraseo.” I said it confidently even though it might sounded a bit awkward, but then I sat on an empty seat beside her while taking a small lunch box which was right on the table. Opened the lunch box, I then took a piece of toast before putting some strawberry jams on it.

“I will eat the rest at school, so you won’t be late, okay?” I said as I put another piece of toast on top of it and took a bite of it. It was actually to show her my gratitude for her morning efforts, but I quickly put the rest into the lunch box and put it on my backpack.

“Hm.. The best taste of Chef Shannon’s kitchen!”. I cheered with a mouth full and gave her my two thumbs up dramatically, making her chuckled at me.

“Eyy, this silly eonnie! Kajja~” Shannon sang as she stood up.

I quickly drank my water and said, “Let’s go baby!”.

We both walked out of the house and once we reached the front yard, we saw our favorite transportation that was parked nicely and was also ready to go. A black and red Vespa that was said to be older than Shannon and even me. It was grandmother’s best one, said uncle. But yeah, even though it was old, the engine was still good, or I could say, the best.

I took the two helmets that were placed nicely on the rearview mirrors and handed one to Shannon before we both put them on and jumped on the Vespa. Starting the engine, I then drove off like lightning. And like every other day, I would drive Shannon to her school first and then I went to my university.

 

♠♦♠

 

It was about 7 o’clock when I arrived at the university, and after parking the Vespa at the wide parking lot, I breathed out heavily as I took my helmet off. I looked around and it seemed like I came quite early since my class would start at 8.

I started to walk towards wherever these feet take me to and found myself headed to the park. There, at the park was still quiet and calm as the sun hadn’t risen too high and there were a lot of shady trees beside some benches or in between the green grass, where only a few students were relaxing and enjoying the morning view, there.

“So, here we are, a new semester will begin.” I mumbled softly as I stopped beside a small pond, thinking that it was already a year since I got accepted here in SNU and in Psychology class.

I never thought that I would pass even a semester though, since taking Psychology as my major course was kind of a last choice. Because one, I took a year off from studying due to a little problem with my habit, and two, maybe taking this course would help me to heal my habit. Could it?

But here I am, passing a year but still having that habit and nothing changed. Moreover it’s been a year and I still didn’t have any close friends or even best friends. Was it because I look intimidating? Some people said so, because of my ‘foreign’ look, they thought I couldn’t speak Korean. In fact, I can! Even though yeah, I still got a problem with reading Hangul. But hey, I was born in an English speaking country and using English was like a natural instinct.

“Cindy-ssi!” A loud but deep voice appeared out of the blue, making me snapped back from my thoughts and looked around to see where the source of the voice was.

It turned out that the voice came from behind and as I completely turned my body around, I saw a tall guy in a blue suit and black tie walked with a rather quick pace toward my direction. I noticed that he had some stack of papers in his hands.

“Yes sir?” I asked immediately once the older guy stopped in front of me.

He puffed his cheeks slightly, trying to catch a breath but his expression immediately changed. A wide smile curved on his lips as soon as he faced me. I blinked my eyes clueless.

“You’re in my class today, right?” The said-to-be best Psychology professor, Lee Kwangsoo asked.

“Ah, I suppose so.” I said softly while nodding. “Is there anything I can help?” trying to be kind, I asked back.

Mr. Lee’s smile grew even bigger once he heard what I just said, as his teeth were now visible while his small eyes somehow turned into a crescent shape. “Great. I know I can count on you, Cindy-ssi!”

‘Dang! Did I just make a wrong offer?’ I thought to myself while trying to force a smile, even though I knew a slight frown on my forehead would still be there.

In the other hand, Mr. Lee checked those stacked papers in his hands, flipping them and reading them at a glance, he then looked up at me again before handed those papers to me. “Here!”

“Oh?” I spontaneously accepted the papers, even though my mind was still blank.

“I couldn’t be in class today, so please tell whoever is going to take my class to give these…” Mr. Lee paused and pointed to the papers that were now in my hands, nodding, “…projects, to you and your friends. And just tell them to follow my instruction which is already written inside. Tell them that they can find it there! So yeah, I hope you don’t mind.”

“A-ah.. Ne!” I unconsciously stuttered as I nodded my head, trying to digest what he just said in one go and continued. “I don’t mind at all, sir.”

‘Yeah, not at all!!’ The voice in my head couldn’t help but giving a sarcastic remark as I kept on smiling at Mr. Lee. Even though maybe it can be counted as a fake smile, but I tried to make it look not too ‘fake’, since he’s a psychologist, he might have caught me faking it in just a second.

“Gurae. Thank you so much, Cindy-ssi!” Mr. Lee looked at me in the eyes with his calm gaze that made me feel somehow uneasy, but then his silly smile appeared. Followed by a pumping fist, “Good luck and have fun in today’s class!”. He said then patted my shoulder before leaving me and these papers.

“Pfftt..” I puffed my cheeks as soon as Mr. Lee disappeared from my sight. ‘Tsk.. What are these?’ My attention shifted to the papers in my hands.

And out of curiosity, I flipped it open to see what kind of project could it be? But thinking of project and looking at these many words on the papers, in this kind of early morning, just made my head dizzy already.

I decided to close it quickly and the thought of my breakfast suddenly hit me up. Feeling that my stomach was already calling out my name, I looked around to find an empty place to sit and eat my breakfast peacefully.

As my eyes explored the park, a figure caught my eyes. Sitting alone on a white bench beside a big and shady tree, a light bulb popped out of my head. Before I started to walk towards that direction, I put the papers into my backpack and took out my lunch box instead.

I walked quietly to that familiar figure, a person that I knew but we’re not friends, and we had a mutual benefit while we’re not close. ‘What kind of relationship was that?’ I slightly tilted my head to the right, before brushing off the random thoughts.

When I reached the spot which was right behind the bench, I quickly opened my lunch box and stretched out my hand to offer it, “Want some?”

Catching a glimpse of something beside his head, the guy turned his head to see what it was. But as he noticed me as the person behind it all, his plain gaze turned back to the front as he said, “What do you want now?”

“Pfft..” I hissed lightly as I went past him and sat on the empty spot beside him. I knew it well what he meant by that. But as I took out my toast and placed the lunch box on my lap, I easily said, “Do you think I come to you only when I need a help?!”. I offered again, “Have some!”

All of a sudden, he turned his head to me and narrowed his eyes. His usual plain gaze changed into a sharp gaze. And as his gaze shot me straight in the eyes, I froze up. It felt like he was looking at a suspected culprit on a big murder case. He slowly moved his head closer to mine.

Until his face was really close to mine, my body finally worked properly as I spontaneously moved back and blinked my eyes rapidly as I felt my heart was beating erratically. It must be because of the situation that was really, uncomfortable? I could feel the judging aura coming from his eyes.

“Y-yah! What are you doing?” I urged myself to scold him as I tried to make a space between us.

“You sure you don’t have something…?” Still in that awkward pose and sharp gaze, he asked and pointed at my head with his forefinger.

Innocently, I moved the toast that I held and showed it right in front of his face, “I have a toast, you want some?”

“Tsk, gurae..” He clucked and moved back to his original state as he relaxed his sitting position, looking away. “It’s good then, since your threat wouldn’t work this time.” He mumbled.

“What?” I asked since I felt like I couldn’t catch what he just said.

“Nevermind!” He said before standing up. “Just eat it peacefully!” he patted my shoulder then left me alone.

Looking at that tall figure slowly disappeared from my sight, I blinked my eyes clueless as I mumbled to myself, “What a weird guy.”. I then started stuffing Shannon’s delicious toast into my mouth.

 

♠♦♠

 

My eyes grew bigger than a golf ball (I guessed) after reading the paper Mr. Kim gave earlier in class. Yes, Mr. Kim Jongkook as the professor who took over Mr. Lee’s class for today and exactly did what Mr. Lee wrote on those stacked papers I brought earlier. There might be two things why Mr. Kim did exactly what was written on the papers. One, he didn’t like to deal with Mr. Lee and two, because he was actually a clinical psychology professor. I blinked my eyes several times.

This paper in my hand contained the project Mr. Lee told me earlier, and I never thought that this was going to be an individual project. And looking at my classmates’ material, it seemed like mine was the hardest.

‘How could Mr. Lee give this to me?!’ I whined on my mind, frowning at the white piece of paper in my hand.

“Cindy-ssi, you’re alright?” Park Sooyoung, or we often called her Joy, my classmate asked as if she noticed the frown on my face.

I nodded my head in response to let her know that I was physically alright, but I wasn’t really sure mentally.

“Ah, that must be hard!” Yook Sungjae, the boyfriend of Joy exclaimed after he took a look at my paper. But he quickly got a light slap on his arm by Joy, signaling him to not being a jerk.

And yeah, that statement from Sungjae exactly made my head burst into a dust when I heard that because it was true. My project must be very hard, even for the smartest guy in class like him, he could say like that.

“Gwaenchanhayo, Cindy-ssi! Don’t listen to him! I know we all can do this project! Hwaiting! Hwaiting for us!” Joy cheered and gave the three of us a spirit while pumping her fist into the air.

I smiled at her and cheered back, “Yes! Let’s work hard and play hard for this!”. I nodded and followed the happy virus, Joy to make a fist and pumped it into the air.

Sungjae chuckled at our action but also did the same, “Ne, hwaiting!! Let’s prove them haters that we can!!”

Joy and I turned to him and frowned at his sudden ‘absurd quotes’, we then shook our heads.

“I guess you need to check your head at Mr. Kim’s office, babe!” Joy put her hand on Sungjae’s forehead like she was checking on a fever patient before dragging him away, “We’ll leave first, Cindy-ssi! See you tomorrow!”

“Sure!” I answered and smiled at them until they disappeared from my sight.

 

As I looked at my wristwatch, it was still about one o’clock in the afternoon and I was sure that Shannon’s school wasn’t over yet. And it seemed like I didn’t have any more class for today so, ‘What should I do?’

I stared at the paper in my hand once again before deciding to put it into my bag. As I opened my backpack and caught a glimpse of my lunch box, a wide smile slowly curved on my lips. As if there was a bright light bulb popped out of my lunch box and floated out of my bag before going to my head and burst into colorful confetti, it gave me a brilliant idea to solve this hard project that I had.

“Should I do it again?” I murmured to myself as I let a mischievous smirk formed.

Nodding my head firmly, I quickly put the paper inside my bag and closed my backpack before looking around to find that guy earlier. The guy whose house was still in a same block as me, and he was also a senior in this university, to be exact in this Psychology department.

And should I be thankful that I had his secret? Because without this threat I had on him, I probably couldn’t have survived in this study of human mind and behavior. I might seem evil to use him for my own good, but what could I do when I really needed help from a genius person like him.

Before I could realize it, I reached the park which was now 180 degrees different from the morning. It was crowded with students hanging around and to find that tall guy with a seemingly thin body wasn’t easy at all.

I stopped for a while, looking around and puffed my cheeks before exhaling softly. “Where is he?” I scanned the park, thinking that if the park was crowded, most likely he wouldn’t be here.

So, ‘A quiet place?’. I tilted my head to the right slightly, questioning myself. ‘Yes, a quiet place where no one’s around…’ I tapped my chin softly, sorting all the possible places to find him. “Could it be?”

I quickly made my way to the back building of Art department where there was this one old small building which was now being a storage room for Art department. I didn’t know why but I had some instincts that he might be there.

 

When I arrived in front of the building, a frown was immediately made as I looked at the old building which wasn’t that big, probably only a size of one class room in elementary school but it looked totally like a haunted house. With some tin roofs that seemed like they were about to fall down anytime soon, a wooden door that was cracked here and there, also a rusty doorknob that was surrounded by spider webs.

“Err.. Seriously?” I mumbled quietly as I scratched the back of my head, looking at what was right in front of me. I never went to this place, but I never thought that it would look like this. ‘Is he really here?’ I thought, starting to doubt my own instinct.

But well, however this place looked like, I still needed to check it. Letting out a light sigh, I stepped forward, trying to reach a hole on the upper side of the door as I noticed that there was a quite wide crack which I thought could help me to peek inside. I tiptoed slightly and tried to look inside through it.

“What are you doing?”

“Uh? Just…” I simply responded and turned at a glance to the person because I was busy focusing on peeking, “…looking for-”. ‘Wait.’ I paused when I felt that my brain system started to work properly as if it slowly gave an important information to my soul, “YOU!”. I looked back at the person when I realized who it was.

There he was, standing a few steps away from me, the genius senior, Park Bogum. The guy who wasn’t too friendly but wasn’t really rude either. He blinked his eyes as he looked at me with his usual plain expression and gaze.

“Wait, I thought you were inside..?” I unconsciously blurted out softly.

He raised one of his eyebrows slightly and shifted his attention to the building, scanning the surrounding before he turned his face back to look at me. “How many days have you learned psychology?”

“W-what?” My eyes grew bigger upon hearing those words. I had no idea why did he ask that question out of the blue. “Why?”

He lifted his forefinger up to my head level then pointed to a different direction which stupidly, I followed his finger that led me to the doorknob. I blinked several times, clueless but immediately turned my head back to him.

“You see those spider webs? They still look perfectly fine without any scratches which means no one ever touch the doorknob.” He explained, making me nodded unconsciously when I looked back at the fluffy spider webs which were actually clear and fine. “And what does that mean?”

“Ahh..” I kept nodding but spontaneously answered his little quiz as I looked at him, “That means no one ever goes inside.”

“Tsk.. Why would I be there anyway?” He clucked and mumbled quietly before turning around and slowly made his way to go away.

Noticing his clever move, I snapped back to my senses and shouted. “Yah, wait! We need to talk!”.

But he didn’t even stop by my words, so I quickly ran to catch up to him. And even though his walk seemed like it was relaxed and slow, it totally wasn’t.

Once I reached a step right behind him, I slowed down a little, trying to catch my breath. “Hey, you! Help me with this project, please?”. I tried my best to ask him nicely even though I didn’t bother to have some chitchats.

But before I managed to do my plan to take my paper out,

“Nah, do it yourself!”

Upon hearing those words, I blew my bangs which barely laying on my forehead, in annoyance. I then moved ahead of him and faced him while walking backward instead of taking out my paper. “Oh, come on! I need your help!”

“No.”

“You don’t want me to tell everyone what you did last summer, right?” I said in a low voice, trying my best to not saying it out loud, even though I knew there was no one around. I gave him a mischievous smile as I wiggled my eyebrows teasingly.

“Go ahead! Do it if you want! I’ll also tell people what you did last night.” He calmly said.

“Oka- wait,” I paused when my brain finally digest his whole words, “last night? What did I do?”

My head immediately went blank while we kept walking (with me still walking backward), but there was no response from him. I looked at him for a second, but his flat expression was still the same.

‘What exactly did I do last night?’ The thought of it kept floating around my head.

My steps slowly felt very heavy until I finally stopped. Trying to remember whatever happened to myself last night, I blinked slowly. But I still couldn’t really get any idea about it. All I could hear was the blowing wind and my own heartbeat that wasn’t very calm. It seemed like I really did it again last night. My one and only worst enemy: Sleepwalking.

“Did I…” I hesitantly said a little louder, “ …do something bad?”. I continued as I turned around, facing Bogum’s back.

He stopped and stood there for a moment.

I couldn’t help it but I had some scary thoughts on my mind. He was the only one who knew about my habit in this university. And I didn’t want anyone to know about it or crazy things I might have done because of it. Gathering my souls, I took a deep breath before walking up to him.

“You…” I said as soon as I stopped right beside him, “Did I do…??” I moved my finger beside my head which indicating a ‘crazy’ sign.

He turned his head to me and gave me that sharp gaze that looked like a prosecutor in a murder case, again. Slowly his face came closer to mine while he shot me in the eyes with his gaze, “You really don’t remember, do you??”